Our anchor letter this week is the letter ‘A’. We don’t teach a letter a week, but we do have a phonics program we follow that focuses on one letter each week. We spend our small group time and shared reading/writing instruction to focus on and teach the alphabet. {I personally like to introduce the letters in McCracken order during small group because that’s how I was taught to do it my very first year teaching! Some habits die hard! But hey…the letters are being covered on all ends possible!!! HA!} Anyway since A is our anchor letter this week, I introduced the vowels…after all, that’s a pretty important ... Read More
Keeping it Organized
Before I go any further, I must say…I.AM.WORN.OUT!!!!! Getting back into a routine sure is hard, isn’t it?! Anyway, I was pulling out a few things to get ready for next week and thought I’d share a quick way I **try** and stay somewhat organized as far as filing materials/activities goes. I shared this little idea in Chicago and maybe you can use it, too :) When I create a new activity or make one that I purchase, I always write them down in my little monthly activity binder. I jot down the name of the activity, the author, and where I put it {because I ALWAYS forget!!!!}. This makes prepping for planning SO ... Read More
Visual Plans…A Peek at My Week!
Happy Labor Day! Did y’all have a relaxing weekend?! I sure did! Mr. Spouse had to put in a few hours for football, but I got to spend lots of QT with the boys. We said goodbye to my firstborn’s first bed and brought in a brand new bunk bed for the boys to share. They.are.IN.LOVE. I spent the day with my family today…mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, seester, and nephew…plus my three boys. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend! And now I’m rested and ready to start another week with my Kinder babies. We’re hitting the ground running this week with LOTS of name recognition activities and I’m ... Read More
Uh Oh…Gues What Day It Is?!
You guessed it…. Woo hoo! Half way to a 3-day weekend after a long first week back! Woo hoo! Let’s recap the week thus far, shall we?! Monday was a GREAT first day! I LOVED spending the whole day with all 18 of my little sweeties. Yes…only 18. A blessing indeed. Speaking of blessings, I’m blessed to have my own two start school and LOVE it. Shockingly, the tears on my end were minimal. I only cried when I woke them up to get dressed. They didn’t cry a bit! We started the year with LOTS of rules and procedures. Not so much “you can’t do this…don’t do that…”, BUT we spent lots of ... Read More
Here We Go {Again}!!!
Tomorrow’s the day. The first day of school. The first day of Kindergarten for my 18 little babies. I’m bound and determined to make it a memorable one…and you can guarantee it’ll be full of FUN! I’m putting my boys to bed tonight and waking them up tomorrow as a preschooler and a kindergartener. Sniff, sniff. I’m pretty sure there will be A LOT of tears in the morning…and they’ll ALL be from me!!!! I CAN’T WAIT!!!! In the meantime, I’m linking up with Deedee and sharing my first day visual plans with y’all. I’d share them all, but I’m experiencing a little technical difficulty on my end ... Read More
A Whole ‘Lotta Back to School Randomness
And so it has begun. Another new school year. As cheesy as it sounds…I’m SO excited! Another year to grow…to try new things…to do things better…and to love on {and teach, of course!!} a new bunch of sweet babies!! This year is extra special to me because BOTH my boys will be with me…the littlest love will be starting Pre-K and my first born is starting Kindergarten! STOP.TIME.NOW!!!! I really tried to savor every last bit of summer that I could. That meant that I stayed out of my classroom until a few days before teachers started back….which was this past Monday. I work way better under pressure ... Read More
Teacher Week! Meet the Teacher
So…if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve already seen a couple of “Meet the Teacher” posts {here & here}. You probably have NO desire to read another! But it’s TEACHER WEEK over at Blog Hoppin’ and I’m not one to miss out on a party, so here we go. But before I get started, I just have to give a HUGE shout out to Tenille over at The Cutest Blog on the Block. She’s the creative genius behind my new blog design! I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the makeover!!! She worked wonders with this little ol’ blog and I couldn’t be happier!!! I couldn’t have designed it better if I ... Read More
Well…Color Me Happy! And a FREEBIE!
One of my most favorite “themes” to teach at the beginning of the year is COLORS! Not necessarily color identification…although yes, that’s VERY important…but I love teaching color WORDS. I think it’s SO important for our kids to know these words early because they’re used SO much throughout the year and we see them in print ALL.THE.TIME. When I say “theme”, I’m more or less talking about the books I read and the hands on activities I include in my station work. Here are some of my most favorite color themed books to read during our unit on color words… Throughout our study on color words, I like to keep adding to ... Read More
Throwback Thursday
It's Thursday! And you know what that means. It's time for another edition of... Many of you have already headed back to the classroom to start another school year. Seriously...where did the summer go?! I'm ALL about building relationships in my classroom and while I definitely think that's the most effective way to manage behavior, I also love fun little ways to reward my kids. Sure...kids should be intrinsically motivated...and I know that's our goal. But it's still fun to "earn" little things here and there for good behavior. Here's a little post I wrote last year about a fun little ... Read More
Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!
I know y'all are DYING to know the winners...but first let me say THANK YOU to every single person that participated in this giveaway. We never dreamed that it would turn out to be such a HUGE event. On our final giveaway, we had just shy of 70,000 entries! THAT is CRAZY...and yet another reason that I love teachers! Also one more thank you to our sponsors for donating such fabulous prizes and for being such big cheerleaders for teachers. Make sure you show them lots of love and follow them on Facebook. If you missed those links, you can check them out again right {HERE}. We can't wait for our Back to School Bash ... Read More
