Back to School…Back to School

Tomorrow, it's back to school for the teachers in our district.  We have been working endlessly in our rooms to prepare for the new year.

One of our most favorite things about going back to school, really has nothing to do with us…or even our school…it's the Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School sale.  We look forward to it every year and always pre-shop days before…filling up our carts and making sure we've earned all of our free credits.

Monday and Tuesday (August 3rd and 4th), we are joining in and offering 20% off of everything in our store.  Over the summer, we've created a few new products that you may want to take a look at before you empty that shopping cart.

We are doing things a little different this year in our rooms, and are going back to some of the old classics, to teach literary themes.  We created four individual mini-units for four of the classic tales, and we bundled them, at a discounted price, if you are interested in all four.  It's a buy three, get one free deal! YAY!

Here are the four classic tales we designed mini-units to coincide with:

Each of these mini-units has five literacy and five math activities to accompany the classic tale.  Click on each of the pictures to view them in our TPT store.

In addition to the Classic Tales, we started a mini-series of "I Can Write" Booklets, which give students opportunities to practice the basic skills we teach in kindergarten (or review in first grade).

These pictures will take you right to these new booklets, as well.  Notice the freebie!  We are already working on booklets for digraphs, consonant blends, and long vowels.  Have any other ideas?  Leave any ideas/wishes in the comments, and we will happily add them to our list.

Thank you so much for your continued support.  We are very excited about this upcoming school year and look forward to collaborating with and learning from you all!

We wish you much success as you return to school.  And, for those of you who still have weeks of summer to enjoy…soak up every minute!

Top Ten List: Tell All Tuesday

Good afternoon!  We are back for another "Tell All Tuesday" post! 

Diana and Jayme had us share our "Top Ten Things Teaching Has Taught Us."  We had so much fun coming up with our very own list.  We took a lighthearted approach and had fun sharing you some of the most honest lessons we have learned…among many others.  

Without further ado…and, in our very best David Letterman voice….

FLEXIBILITY is your friend…even if you end up twisted like a pretzel!

The "magic" in the Magic Eraser is beyond Science!

Many five year olds know as many curse words as a seasoned sailor.

It IS possible to consume an entire lunch in under a minute…just ask a kindergarten teacher during the first week of school!

Even if you didn't wash your hair that morning, your kinders will still think you have beautiful hair…and, when one kiddo compliments you- at least thirteen others will, too!

Never store your EXPO markers within 30 feet of your permanent markers…just trust us on this one!

Herding 100 cats is definitely easier than getting 18 kinders to walk in a straight line during the month of August!

One student getting up to grab a tissue is a contagious virus that at least eight other students catch immediately.

You always have at least one student who has the amazing gift of conversing with even a pencil…he's fluent in "Pencil-ese!"

In all honesty, the greatest lesson we've learned is that there really is no better profession- teaching changes you…everyday!!!

Thank you to Diana and Jayme, again, for another fun topic!  

If you would like to link up, click on their button to find out how.

Spotlight Saturday

This week we are so very excited to be able to join Erin at Kindergarten Dragons for her linky party, "Spotlight Saturday!"

   

This Saturday, we would like to "spotlight"

the author of  the "Mrs. B's First Grade" blog, Sarah Barnett, who is from Highland Park, Illinois.  Sarah has been teaching for ten years: five in kindergarten and five in first grade.  She is the only first grade teacher at her school!  (Bless her heart!)  In 2011, Sarah began blogging about her classroom experiences.  

During the first "Two Truths and A Lie: Tell All Tuesday" we were fortunate to have guessed Sarah's lie correctly and won her, "My Reading Toolbelt" pack!

 

 Included in this pack is:

1. One full-page, student resource with the eight strategies listed

2. Two bookmark-sized, student resource with the eight strategies listed

3. One two-page explanation of each of the eight strategies

Sarah has used some of the cutest ideas for teaching students reading strategies.  We just LOVE the idea of having students "reach into their toolbelts" for strategies to help them figure out tricky words.  

The strategies Sarah gives to students to put in their "toolbelts" are:

1. Look at the Picture

2. Look for Words Within Words 

3. Stretch and Reread

4. Cross-Check

5. Chunk Letters or Sounds

6. Flip the Sound

7. Look for Word Families

8. Skip the Word and Go Back/Back Up and Reread

We have been super eager to begin using these in our classrooms.  We have planned out how we are going to use these resources this year.  Below are our ideas for teaching and using them.

A) Small Group Resource Bins and Classroom Poster - Whole Page Strategy Resource

B) Table Resource Bins and Reading Briefcases - Bookmark-sized Resource

C) Parent Resource - Explanation of Strategies

As we teach our students to read, it is critical that they have many resources to pull from.  Knowing where to look to find answers, helps build the confidence of beginning readers.  We give our students many resources and often will respond to questions with, "Please look at your resources!"  It is a MUST for our students to know how to search for answers on their own.  By knowing where to look, our distractions are minimized, their confidence is built up, and students can more quickly "get" an answer; rather than having to wait for us to stop our instruction and give the answer.  Sarah's packet is a fabulous addition to our long list of class resources!

We are just so excited about implementing these strategies and resources into our classrooms this year.  Sarah, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your hard work and for constructing such a high-quality packet.  

If you would like to take a look at Sarah's "My Reading Toolbelt", please visit her TPT store here:

This packet is only $2.00, and is worth every cent!  

Also, Sarah has several other fabulous creations for sale in her TPT store.  Please stop by and take a look at what she offers.  There are some really awesome things!  She has created some AWESOME QR code Read Aloud activities…along with many other great packs!

Take a minute to stop by and visit Sarah's blog: Mrs. B's First Grade.  Follow her on Instagram by finding @MrsSarahBarnett.  If you are on twitter, follow her class account by following @Mrs.B'sFirstGrade.  On Facebook, "like" her page, Mrs. B's First Grade.  

Thank you to Erin, at Kindergarten Dragons, for hosting such a fun linky party!  If you, too, would like to spotlight one of your favorites; please visit Erin's blog to find out how. 

THANKFUL THURSDAY Linky

This may be one of our most favorite link-ups!  What a fabulous idea…to stop and reflect on our many blessings.  We are seriously so very blessed!  There are so many things that we could start with.      

These are a few of the things we are incredibly thankful for…

But, the two things we are MOST thankful for this summer are our two little "buns in the oven!"

Ashley and Nick's Little One:

Brooklynn and Chad's Baby Girl:

She may or may not be flipping off the tech who kept pushing down on her! ;0)

(She gets that from her Daddy! HA!)

We hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and a fun and safe 4th!  If you are interested in linking up with us, please click the button below to visit Becky's blog to find out how!

WINNER WEDNESDAY: It's a Zoo Around Here

Winner, Winner- Chicken Dinner!

We are linking back up with A Dab of Glue Will Do for another Winner Wednesday!!!!!

This month, we are giving away our Zoo unit: It's a Zoo Around Here.

This is not really a "beginning of the year" pack.  But, it is a great resource to keep in your back pocket until second semester when your Kinders have a good grasp on all letters and sounds.

This unit is packed with activities to reinforce blending CVC words, reading using blends and digraphs, place value, addition, subtraction, and LOTS of sight words! 

Our kiddos love to "Roll and Read."  This is such great practice for fluently blending CVC words.

 There are a variety of different activities to practice High Frequency Words. With these cards, the opportunities for center ideas are endless!  We love the dollar store trays, and our kids do, too!  So building sight words seemed like a no brainer to us!

 Kids never seem to tire of magnifying glasses! This is a year long favorite for our classes.  Here, students pull an animal card and magnify the sight word!

I'm not Lion... our kids LOVED this center!  There is something about a missing letter that makes the challenge fun.  They feel so successful at "spelling" CVC words.

Place value is something we never thought our Kinders would be able to master.  Boy, were we wrong!  They ate it up!  They amazed us with how quickly they began to understand the concept of composing and decomposing double digit numbers.



Enter below to win It's a Zoo Around Here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This contest runs for TODAY only! Winner will be announced tomorrow!

Congrats, Becka Lisa!  We've emailed you the unit!  Thank you to everyone who entered!

Summer Flashback: Tell All Tuesday

We are very blessed to have been raised, where family time was a top priority.  Our families took lots of trips and experienced several exciting vacations throughout our childhoods.  Thinking about all of the "flashbacks" from our childhood summers was such fun!  

Ashley's family grew up going to her grandparents' house on the lake each weekend.  They enjoyed yearly family vacations to Gulf Shores, AL.  Brooklynn's family grew up going to her Nana's pool most summer days, and to the beach for a week each summer.  Her family grew up going to Destin, FL…and they still prefer it over any other beach.  Here is a funny picture of Brooklynn and some of her friends in the pool, waaaaaaaaay back in 1996!

Now that we are adults, we have been blessed with some of the best friends ever.  We never imagined the amazing friendships becoming mentor teachers would bring.  We now, enjoy spending our summers hanging out with our "teacher friends" and acting like "real humans" during the summer days.  Thank you, Lord, for your gift of girlfriends.  Cookouts, planning meetings, dinner dates…are just some of the fun things we enjoy doing together.

It was very late and we were sitting around a fire pit, so please excuse the blurriness and red eyes. HA!  These girlies are some of our most favorite peeps!  We love you, Linds, Mer, and Mo!    

Thank you to Jayme and Diana for hosting such a fun summer-long linky party!  We really love Tuesdays because of your "Tell All Tuesday" party!  

If you would like to link up with us, please do so by clicking on their names above to visit one of their blogs.