Monday, January 21, 2013

Bee My Valentine Craftivity

So, I have been missing doing creative craft projects for my students. (I don't get to do them anymore.) I decided to be creative and make some for my theme files. My students always enjoyed doing these activities and it allowed them to work on their fine motor skills. Here is the front cover of the envelope of the craftivity, as well as, the back with the directions. I usually place both of these sheets on an envelope and laminate it. Then, all of my tracers go inside.
 
 
 
Here is a picture of the envelope and some of the tracers. I generally trace them onto a file folder or print them onto tag board and cut them out. This allows for durability, especially with so many little hands touching the pieces.
 
Here is the finished products. I created to versions in different colors. The first one is a Yellow and Black Bee with Red wings and accents. You can have your students choose different colors for Valentine's Day for the wings and accents.
 

 This verison is solely with Valentine's colors. I chose pink, purple, and red.
 Aren't they cute? There are so many variations that can be done with the colors. The craftivity includes front cover, directions, dimensions page, tracers, and even pictures of my examples. You can purchase the "Bee My Valentine" Craftivity from my TPT store by clicking on the picture below.
 
 
I had a little bit of an Oopsy Daisy moment when I created this Freebie. I accidently misspelled "Arctic" so I have redone it and it is ready for redownload. If you downloaded it before you can redownload it again by clicking below or if you are new and would like it just click below.
 
 
 
I hope everyone is having a great day. Enjoy!

This Past Week & Moving Again

I didn't get to post much this past week, but a lot of things have happened. First I want to start off with last weekend, we took our daughter to the circus. It was a blast! She enjoyed it a lot and I was amazed at how much it has changed since I went. Here are some pictures that I took from my phone. We had pretty good seats. Ninth row from the ring.

 
 
 
 
 
She was in complete awwww. She loved it, especially the elephants. She didn't however like the clowns. She liked them faraway, but when they came up in the stands she didn't like them so much. (I don't blame her. I'm not a fan either.) She did like one thing about them and that was the pants of one of the clowns. She asked me to make a pair for her. Ha! They seem simple to make. They were jeans with fabric polka dots with rhinestones around the edges of the fabric. I might just try to make her a pair.
 
 
So, this past week I attended a Wilson Fundations Workshop. It has been years since I used the program, so I was going for a refresher course. My school is planning on starting the program and I will be working with the students in all grade levels. If you aren't familiar with the program, click on the picture below to get more information.
 

 
I am very excited to get started with the program. My school is a Title 1 SIG school, which has many students who are well below grade level. After the workshop, I began testing many of the students who are below grade level and started figuring out some of my groups. Have any of you used this program? If so, what did you think? What results did you see?
 
 
In addition to my workshop, I found out that I will be moving classrooms. Our enrollment has gone up in Kindergarten since returning back from Winter Break. We have a couple open classrooms, however, they don't have restrooms instead the classroom and my room does. Since not having a bathroom in the classroom won't work for a Kindergarten classroom, I will be moving to an old Second Grade Classroom that had to be downsized before I started in November. This room is bigger and will allow me to have more room for the Third through Fifth Grade students that I will be working with. I also have to setup my new room as a model classroom for teachers. It will also be used for model lessons that I will be conducting for the teachers to observe. Here are pictures of my new room.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As you can see, I have A LOT to do! My mind has been going and going and going about what I can do to this room. I have been sketching out layouts of where to place things and making lists of what I need to do to this room. I also, have to STILL pack up everything in my old classroom/office. Luckily, I don't have a full time class and can take my time setting it up over the next 2 weeks. PHEW! I'm still going to keep my "Woodland" theme that I had in my classroom, before getting my promotion. Here is my list so far for my new room: Word Wall, Library, Centers, Science Board, Whole Group/Carpet Area, and Calendar Math. Can you think of anything else? My brain is starting to shut down.
 
Besides making my list of what I need to do to my new room this weekend, I did my usual weekend activities. Saturday mornings consist of breakfast and then dance class for my daughter. Here is a picture taken this weekend of her and her classmates. Can you guess which one is my daughter?
 

 
Yes, she is the one making the face. She is such a HAM! Haha! After dance, we ran our usual errands and waited for my husband to get home from teaching FCAT Bootcamp. My husband is also a teacher. The rest of the weekend was just your typical weekend. Nothing special, nothing different. How about you? Did you do anything special?

Friday, January 18, 2013

Just Another Freebie Friday & Themes, Themes, Themes

It's Friday morning and as you can tell in the title I have the song "Manic Monday" stuck in my head. Haha! Today is Employee Planning at our school which will entail a Marzano Workshop followed by us going to our sister school for our Regional Teacher Of the Year announcement. Fingers crossed that my school's Teacher Of The Year wins for our Region! It has been a hectic week and I have lots to share, but just wanted to stop by and post my Freebie this morning. It's a cute Arctic Animals Emergent Reader. Check it out below. Also don't forget to click below to check out other freebies.

Also, I'm in the process of planning out units for my teams. What units are you doing over the next few months? Share your ideas with us by leaving a comment.

Freebie Fridays


Click on the first picture!


 
 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Freebie Friday

How was everyone's week? Mine seemed to go by pretty quickly. I don't know if it was me trying to get back into the swing of things or things just happening so fast. Well, it's that time again for me to link up with "Teaching Blog Addict" for Freebie Friday. Click on the first picture below to snag it. Also, make sure to check out the link below for many other great freebies.

Freebie Fridays


 
Happy Friday Everyone!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Freebie Friday (Well Almost)- "Snowman"y Numbers

Well, I can't believe that break is almost over. I know some of you had to return this week. How did it go? I went in today to help interview some candidates to 2 classroom positions, as well as, a STEM position. Well there, I was able to look at my office/classroom and man do I have some work to do. Our custodian wasn't suppose to wax my room, but he decided to anyways. Usually when they do this, we have to move some things. I didn't do this before break, so I was shocked when I came back and many things were moved. Oh well, I'll be spending time on Monday rearranging my things, but I'm super excited to have such a sparkly, clean room. (Big Thumbs Up!)

Anywho, as I normally do on Fridays, I will be offering a FREEBIE by linking up to "Teaching Blog Addict". I LOVE sharing things with all of you! I mine who doesn't like something FREE! I certainly do. Check out the blog for other freebies by clicking below. (I had technical difficulties and couldn't get it on the site yesterday, but still go there and check out the other freebies.)

Freebie Fridays

Today, I am sharing with you my "Snowman"y Numbers Math Center Activity. Click on the picture below to link to my TPT store to snag the FREEBIE!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year & Freebielicious

Happy New Year! 2012 brought some changes for me, as I began a new adventure as an Instructional Coach at a new school. This position has been very exciting, but it has made me miss the classroom. I do get to work with students, but I don't get to have my "own" students that you get to know very well and watch them grow throughout the year. Instead, I get to watch about 180 kindergarten, first, and second graders grow through the year. I am also getting the opportunity to write units for them to use in their classrooms along with center activities. I can't wait to see what 2013 brings for me, as we are hoping to buy a house and expand our family. (My husband and I are both only children and want our daughter to have siblings.) What are you hoping to see in 2013?

Well, it's that time again for Freebielicious' Fabulicious Freebies On the First. This month I am offering a freebie from my Winter Math Activities for Kindergarten Pack.


Catchy Numbers is a worksheet that the students practice counting objects and identifying numbers. The Common Core Standard is listed on the top of the worksheet. Enjoy!


 
 Here is my Winter Math Activities Pack for Kindergarten. It includes 5 math center activities, recording sheets, and 3 math worksheets. All activities are Common Core Aligned. Check the acitivity out at my TPT store.

 
I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!