The Christmas season is always so fast and furious. We spend days/weeks {months, for those of you who don’t procrastinate} preparing and then it’s over just like that. Kind of sad. So in protest, I’m keeping my decorations up for a bit longer. Okay, so it’s more laziness than it is protest, but you get what I’m sayin’. The weeks preceding the holiday break at school are always a blur. It seems like I never have enough time to fit it all in…or share what we do…so things all get lumped into a little recap. Without further ado, here’s how the weeks prior to Christmas break played out in Room 206. We … [Read more...] about A Little Christmas Recap
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Wishing You A Merry Christmas!
Just stopping in for a quick second to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!! Hope this Christmas is filled with an abundance of God’s blessings for you and yours! I’ll be back in a few days with a recap of our last week before the holidays…a few freebies…and some new units! Can’t wait!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! … [Read more...] about Wishing You A Merry Christmas!
Christmas Spirit
I haven’t been much for blogging this month. But I swear I have a good excuse. I spent the first week of December putting the finishing touches on my presentations for the North Carolina Kindergarten Conference. I had 4 in one day and I may or may not have underestimated the amount of work it would take to prep and pack. Let’s just say that I definitely put the PRO in procrastinate. On top of that, I had to get sub plans ready for two full days. I’d SO much rather be at school than EVER have to take a personal day…there’s just way too much work involved for that! I know you feel me. I’ve never really … [Read more...] about Christmas Spirit
ELFis Is In The Building
My kids were over the moon excited today. We had a special delivery straight from the North Pole… I read the letter to the kids and they flipped. I mean, they seriously had a conniption. They could barely stifle their screams. We somehow managed to get through the letter without anyone going too crazy, but when it came time for me to open Santa’s special delivery, we just couldn’t contain ourselves anymore. It got a little wild. But it was precious because their little hearts are SO innocent and they just couldn’t hold in their excitement at all. I just LOVE the magic of Christmas!!!! As … [Read more...] about ELFis Is In The Building
Winners & A Freebie!
I SO loved reading all about your favorite Christmas movies! Sounds like we have A LOT in common! EXCEPT…I’m really not a fan of A Christmas Story AT.ALL. {don’t judge!!!!!} I tolerate it because Mr. Spouse is obsessed. He’s SO obsessed that he bought me this two years ago for Christmas. And NO…it was not a gag gift. That movie brings back memories of my sister. She would watch it for 24 hours straight every Christmas Eve and I would BEG her to turn it off!! I won’t lie…in recent years, it’s really grown on me, but it’s definitely not my favorite! SADSVILLE!!!! These are the … [Read more...] about Winners & A Freebie!
Happy December
I’m having a sad little case of the Sunday blues. After being out of school for a week, I sure can’t wait to get back and see my babies, but I’m a little sad I won’t be waking up at 9 in the morning. I’m not ready for an alarm clock!!! I spent this past Friday shopping with my momma. Yes…we braved the Black Friday crowds. But I swear it wasn’t bad AT.ALL! This is one of my most favorite traditions. Just me & mom. It’s more about spending endless hours talking and laughing…& eating our weight in everything terrible…than it is about anything else. We could care less if we buy a … [Read more...] about Happy December
Hello? Hello? Is Anybody There?
Hi friends. Maybe you remember me? I’m the girl who used to be semi good about blogging here at The First Grade Parade. Is anybody there? I’m convinced no one reads blogs anymore…or maybe just that no one reads this one. I’m sure it doesn’t help when I don’t post for a month :) Living in a small little town means that sometimes you don’t have internet access…for extended periods of time…even when you call your provider and practically beg for them to restore your service. {{Sigh}} So I enjoyed the temporary lapse in blogging. And when Internet service was restored, I kept on enjoying my break. … [Read more...] about Hello? Hello? Is Anybody There?
This is How We CVC
I do realize that CVC isn’t a verb, just incase you were curious ;) However…I thought I’d share with you a few things we do in Room 206 to reinforce and practice identifying, creating, spelling, and reading CVC words. Blending and segmenting is such a tricky concept for some kids to grasp, so I try to integrate this skill as often as I can so that my kids are constantly being slammed with practice…even when they don’t realize it. One of the first things I like to do is help the kids build a visual image of what CVC words look like so that they can distinguish an easily decodable word from a sight word. We practiced sorting … [Read more...] about This is How We CVC
Pumpkins EVERYWHERE! And Making Connections
We’re learning all about pumpkins this week and the kids couldn’t be more thrilled!! I thought I’d share some of the fun we’re having incase you’re knee deep in pumpkin seeds, too! We started the week activating & growing our pumpkin schema. We read a few fun non-fiction pumpkin books, gathered new learning, and added our little fact seeds to our pumpkin chart. Did you know that pumpkins are fruit?! That was a “are-you-for-real?!?!” moment for the kids. We followed up our new learning with a little apples vs. pumpkins venn diagram. We reinforced a few key vocabulary words {similar, contrast, … [Read more...] about Pumpkins EVERYWHERE! And Making Connections
Last Week. And My Visual Plans.
Do you ever feel like the short weeks are always the longest?! Why is that?! Maybe because we were blessed with a full moon. It’s a thought :) We were off for Columbus Day last Monday and then we turned right around on Wednesday and left campus for our first field trip of the school year. We went to see a live performance of “The Cat in the Hat” at the theater and then headed to the city park for lunch and a little playtime. I was so excited to be both mom AND teacher for this field trip. My little nugget’s class was there, too! SO exciting :) Since we only had 3 full days in the classroom, … [Read more...] about Last Week. And My Visual Plans.
Spider Week!
What is it about spiders that kids love SO much?! When I busted out our graph to start our unit of study on arachnids, the kids went CRAZY. In Abby’s words, 12 kinds of crazy. They were SO excited! I’m always floored by how much kids LOVE non-fiction. It seriously surprises me every.single.year. I see this with my own two boys. The gravitate towards non-fiction books ALL.THE.TIME. I love that. We started our week with the question, “Are you afraid of spiders?!” Me…notsomuch…unless they’re BIG and FURRY. Gross. They’re more creepy than scary and I say … [Read more...] about Spider Week!
It’s Tuesday. That’s All.
It’s Tuesday, y’all. Is it too early in the week to say I’m beat? Because I’m {kinda} not lying. I am. But this iced tea is sorta makin’ life better. Especially since I’m drinking it from a mason jar. It’s OCTOBER {AMEN!!!!} and that means we’re starting the month with one of my favorite themes….SPIDERS!!!!!!!!! It’s spider week in Kindergarten and my kids are LOVING what they’re learning about our little arachnid friends. We’re especially loving our spider themed math tubs this week!! You can find these activities in my Cute or Creepy math tub packet. I was out of town this past weekend … [Read more...] about It’s Tuesday. That’s All.
I Fell Asleep.
Remember last night when I was all, “I’ll announce 3 winners at random before bedtime!”. And then nothing. Crickets. My attempts at a giveaway = FAIL. But gosh darn if that couch of mine didn’t envelope me as soon as I sat down. And Jax kept my eyes focused and locked on his precious face. And then it happened. Sleep. A deep, deep, DEEP sleep. The kind that makes your husband go “uh….I married you?!” because the drooling and snoring just lose their appeal after 10+ years. But it was good, my friends. A GLORIOUS goodness. Full of rainbows, butterflies, and dreams that I was in a biker gang … [Read more...] about I Fell Asleep.
An Oldie, But Goodie
One of my favorite {& most stressful} things about teaching Kindergarten is welcoming a ton of different ability levels at the beginning of each year. I LOVE how much progress ALL the kids make in such a short amount of time and it’s AMAZING to see the growth they make in a year!!! Each year I totally change the way I teach. I don’t teach to the same kids/dynamics/personalities/abilities/interests/attention spans every year, so things HAVE to change. What worked one year might not be so fitting for the group I’m blessed with the next. I don’t really look back at old plans, copy & paste, and call it a … [Read more...] about An Oldie, But Goodie
A Peek at My Week! Visual Plans
It’s already Sunday. *Sigh*. Another RAINY Sunday. I’m not complaining about that though. Snuggling up on the couch with a cup of coffe {it’s National Coffee Day, did’ya know?!} and Lifetime…while it’s raining…sounds like the perfect way to spend a Sunday :) I’m pretty sure Mr. Spouse doesn’t feel the same. I’m sure we’ll be off the couch and out the door in no time :) Before I get to my plans, I just wanted to let you know that my October Write the Room packet is posted. I had a few sweet friends email and ask when those would be ready and they’re finally posted. You can check it out by … [Read more...] about A Peek at My Week! Visual Plans
Apples Aplenty & A Meaningful Christmas
Did y’all hear me say Christmas? I’m sure you’re thinking, “Is she for real? CHRISTMAS? It’s not even OCTOBER yet!!” But bear with me. Y’all might remember reading THIS POST last year. I’m telling y’all all about this now so that y’all can get a move on it and start planning. My precious friend Brittney introduced me to our favorite Christmas tradition back when my boys were really itty and now I want to share it with YOU! A Meaningful Christmas is a simple, child centered devotional for families to use as they countdown to Christmas. Honestly…it’s our FAVORITE tradition. It all starts with a … [Read more...] about Apples Aplenty & A Meaningful Christmas
The Week in Rewind, A Peek At My Week, and Fall is Here!
This past week seemed so fast and furious. The weekend went by even faster. It’s 6:00 on Sunday night and in a few hours I’ll be starting another week with my littles. Why does it take so long to get to Friday, but Monday gets here so darn quick?! I spent my weekend decorating for Halloween. Yes. It’s early. But I LOVE Halloween and decorating isn’t hurting anybody so that’s just what I did. If you wanna see it all, you can take a little Halloween house tour on my other blog HERE. I have another full week planned…parent/teacher conferences included…and I’m excited to take you back through our week … [Read more...] about The Week in Rewind, A Peek At My Week, and Fall is Here!
Marshmallow Spaces & Winners Announced
I was blessed with a day to pull my kids one-on-one last week and assess each one individually. We administer our literacy assessments at the beginning of the year and that includes sentence dictation, sight word recognition, oral word vocabulary {how many words can you write in 10 minutes?!}, letter/sound recognition, concepts about print, and DRA. As I was administering the concepts about print portion of the assessment, I realized that a lot of my kids were struggling with differentiating between letters and words. I understand that this is a skill that will develop over the next month{ish}…maybe longer…but I wanted to … [Read more...] about Marshmallow Spaces & Winners Announced
Math Stations, A Great Idea, & Something New
I think y’all probably know by now that I LOVE math. I love teaching math. Love my math block. Love my math tubs. I just love it all!!! I’m not gonna throw rainbows and sunshine at y’all and tell you that everything has gone perfectly smooth since I implemented them this year. If you’ve taught Kindergarten for 2.5 seconds, you know very well that that’s not the case :) All that to be said, I am so happy with the way things are going now. My kids are really getting into the math groove. When I told my kids it was time for math tubs today, they CHEERED. I kid you not. That’s a first … [Read more...] about Math Stations, A Great Idea, & Something New
Peek at My Week. My Visual Plans!
It was a BUSY weekend! Sorry these are a little late {for those of you asking about them}. TOO much fun with the family!! Here are my visual plans for the week! As usual, I’m linking up with the fabulous Deedee Wills. Head on over to check out her plans as well as many others…and add yours, too! Click HERE to download the PDF version. {All of the pictures are clickable & will take you right to the featured resource. You have to download the PDF to access the clickable links…they won’t open in Google Drive!} Have a great week, friends!!!!! … [Read more...] about Peek at My Week. My Visual Plans!
The Week I Had No Internet
Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love my little town. There is a certain charm that comes with living in a small, tight knit community. It’s been a HUGE adjustment getting used to being so far away from so many things…mainly the mall and Starbuck’s. The downside to living out this far is that we have intermittent internet connectivity. We just got our internet restored after being without it for a week. My house has never been this clean :) ANYWAY, my blogging schedule was a bit interrupted and there was so much I planned on sharing this past week. I’ll save it all for next week and give y’all … [Read more...] about The Week I Had No Internet
A Peek at My Week! Visual Plans Week 3
Just checking in today to post my visual plans for week 3. As you can see, I have A LOT planned! I guess I really tend to OVER plan…which is why you’ll see several activities/lessons I planned last week in this week’s plans. I’m all about being flexible…it’s sort of a must in this profession. There were several things that we just didn’t get to because of time restrictions, unexpected events, or just taking time out to reteach behavior expectations :) FLEXIBLE…say it with me ;) You’ll also notice that several of my dessert tub activities for math & literacy are now their “dinner” {must do} tubs this … [Read more...] about A Peek at My Week! Visual Plans Week 3
I Survived Week 2 How About You?!
Well…I did it. I survived the 2nd week! HA! In all honesty, I have a pretty sweet little class. I feel like they’ve picked up so much in just a short 2 weeks! I’m so excited and anxious to see how much they progress this year. This is one of the reasons I love Kindergarten so much. They all come in with such different abilities and it’s amazing to see their growth…even after just a few short weeks! This past week we hit the ground running and started focusing on name recognition. Not just our own, but the names of our friends, too! I usually wait ‘til the 3rd week to start our name … [Read more...] about I Survived Week 2 How About You?!
Managing Station Time
Truth be told, I’m a bit of a *control freak*. I’m sure there’s a little bit of that in all of us. Mine tends to reign when it comes to managing my classroom. And it gets EXTREMELY stressed out when I’m flying, but that’s beside the point. Yes…I like to be in control in the classroom. It would be scary if there were no control….we all know that. I’ve worked with lots of teachers who were masters at letting go of control…in certain aspects, of course. I’ve dabbled in it here and there, but I’ve always been a little nervous to find out what it would be like if I let my kids choose instead of me. … [Read more...] about Managing Station Time
