Alliteration linky

Do you like alliteration?  How do you teach it to your students?  I often try to incorporate it in my morning message somehow.  It is a skill that helps with beginning sounds especially for early literacy.  

Well, it is time to link up again.  We are enjoying learning a little more about all of you.  This one is simple and fun.

This time we want to know.....
1. How do you get your students to LISTEN?  2.  Do you have a secret LOVE?  (make this one fun)  3.  What do you want to LEARN more about?  If you were able to attend any professional development with no money limit, what would it be?  What do you want to LEARN?

Okay, so I am up first...
1.  LISTEN-  The best strategy that I use to get my students to listen came from Kim Adsit's Reader's Workshop, Unit 1.  She included an anchor chart titled "We Are Ready to Learn".  The phrase it "eyes, ears, quiet, pretzel".  I say, "Are you ready to learn?"  Students reply, "Eyes, Ears, Quiet, Pretzel."

2.  LOVE- Do you have a secret LOVE?  I know I do.  Now, don't laugh...  but, I love Andy Griffith!!  I am super old-fashioned.  I love watching the old television shows.  I love his voice.  I love when he sings.  And, I have always been super jealous of Helen Crump.  :)  I mean, she was a teacher on the program.

3.  LEARN- I want to LEARN more about math rotations.  I am purchasing Debbie Diller's Math Work Station Books.  I have tried them in my classroom and ran them similar to literacy stations, but I need more.  I want more manipulatives, more hands-on, more small group work, and more accountability in small groups.  I have heard and read a lot about Debbie Diller and have read her literacy work station book.  I am hoping I LEARN a lot more about math work stations.

So, tell us more about you.  How do you get your students to LISTEN?  What or who is your secret LOVE?  What do you want to LEARN more about?  If you link up below, comment with your email address and I will send you my WHAM Math packet.

And I am linking up with the fabulous Dee Dee Wills for a "Peek at my Week".  Here are my visual plans for this week.

  

Endless Possibilities,

Stephanie

Linky and Doors Galore

We are linking up a little late, but we have sooo much to share with you.  Feel free to "pin" any of the pictures of the doors below.

1.  Seuss Doors Galore!!

I decided to change my door.  I put a lot of thought to it and with the help of Pinterest, I now have a Lorax door.  I thought that this will last all through March and April with Earth Day approaching.  Here is the "pin" I am referring to.  (https://pinterest.com/pin/110338259590541503/)  I made my door a little different than the pin though.

A second grade teacher down the hallway had a curtain up n her door.  I suggested changing to a Seuss door inspired from this site (http://bulletinboardideas.org/3503/celebrate-the-world-of-dr-seuss/).  I think it turned out FABULOUS!!  What do you think?

Another kindergarten teacher didn't want to change her "tiki hut" door too much, so this is what her door looks like!!  I think it is very creative!!

My friend who teaches kindergarten has this fabulous door and idea!!  She is going to put a box in the fox hand and students are going to write what is in the fox box!!  Creative writing is so fun to teach!!

2. We had Monday off for President's Day!!  I stayed home and got caught up on laundry and house work.  

3.  Stephany and I wrote lyrics to the song "Call Me, Maybe" for our ISTEP (state testing) students.  We are not able to post the recorded song yet, but here is a picture of it being recorded.  I can't believe someone would want to record our song!!  It is so exciting!!

 4. Thursday we dismissed early due to the incoming ice storm and sleet.  We also had a 2 hour delay Friday because of slick roads and fog.

5. I found this AMAZING freebie on TpT.  I think the finished projects turned out GREAT!!  Click here to link to the freebie!!

   

Endless Possibilities,

Stephanie 

Hall Pass Linky

We are SUPER excited to link up with Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.

To begin, 
P is for Products!

Stephany's favorite product right now is her CVC Real Word and Nonsense Mega Pack!  It is over 100 pages and has been a life saver for kiddos that are still struggling with the CVC vowels and with DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency!

 

Next, A is for Area!

The library and the listening center are the favorite places in Stephany's room.  There are comfy rugs, plants, chair, stuffed animals... the kids love these areas of the room!

S is for SIGNAL.  I use attention grabbers for nearly everything.  Here are a few pictures of my students using hand signals for the attention grabbers that I use in my kindergarten classroom.

 

This signal means to "stop".  We use it when we say, "Tootsie roll, lollipop, we've been talking now let's stop."

This signal means to "focus".  I say, "Hocus pocus".  Students reply, "Everybody focus".

I love this signal.  I call it "hug your fingers".

  

I am also including a sample of my Attention Grabbers packet available on TpT.

 

S is for SANITY.

In our small community, we have a place called Zip and Sip.  It has over a hundred combinations of drinks, teas, and colas.  Nearly every teacher stops there in the morning to get their flavored drink.  I get 1/2 and 1/2 tea.  It is 1/2 sweet and 1/2 unsweetened iced tea.  And the ice....  the small little round ice is the best!!  She even knows our drink when we come through early in the morning!


Thanks for check out our "Hall Pass"  click at the link at the top to go check out the other hall passes!

Spelling Practice Freebie!

I have several kiddos who need a little motivation to practice their spelling words this time of the year and I felt like those kiddos who do practice needed a bit of a reward for all of their hard work!  I created this "Spelling Star" papers.  Basically, the students pick one of the activities from each column each night (Monday-Thursday).  Once they complete the activity, they color in the square and put the paper in their folder.  On Friday morning they turn all their papers in with their form and get a little prize (pencil, eraser, piece of candy {GASP! CANDY!}.  Since I started doing this, their scores have went up!  Plus, if you keep track of who has turned it in it's some backup on why a kiddo may not being doing so well in that area on the report card!  Click on the picture below to grab it!

All the fonts used are from my "Super Cute" commercial use fonts packet!  You can find it here... Here's a shot of what's in it.  Over 30 fonts priced at just $3.00 right now!

Head on over to Classroom Freebies Manic Monday to get some more great freebies!
Happy Presidents Day!

Stephany

Linky Party

There are so many linky parties going on.  We seem to join so many linkys, but rarely host our own.  So...  here we go.

Tell us about:

1. a random fact about your SCHOOL.

2. a SPORT or hobby you enjoy watching, playing, or that involve your children.

3. something that makes you SMILE.

There are no "rules" just link up below once you post.  The icon is above if you want to screenshot it and use for your post.

1.  Our school is over 100 years old.  It is located in one of the oldest cities in Indiana.  We have several historical sites in our city.  Vincennes is the home of the George Rogers Clark Memorial and Vincennes University.

2. This past Friday my husband and I took our boys to watch a hockey game about an hour from where we live.  We went to see the Evansville IceMen.  It was a blast!!  Hockey takes a lot of athleticism and strength.  I don't know how they do it.  The boys enjoyed it.

3. My boys make me SMILE.  They like to take pictures using my phone.

I am actually thinking I might get a picture frame to create a collage.  It was so much fun.  If you want to link up to this linky, just post about 1. random fact about your SCHOOL, 2. a SPORT, and 3. something that makes you SMILE.

Endless Possibilities,

Stephanie

(The frames above by http://the3amteacher.blogspot.com/.)

(The fonts above are by http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Super-Cute-Fonts-with-commercial-license.) 

Five for Friday!

1.  Valentine's Day is so much fun but I say that us teachers get together and petition for it to be on a FRIDAY in February.  I seriously think some of my kids ate ALL of their Valentine's Day candy right before school Friday morning!  Check out the cutest Valentine... this embroidered mustache that was on a lollipop!  Super cute!  It was made by one of the moms in Stephanie's class who does TONS of SUPER CUTE (yes caps locks necessary) stuff.  You can find her facebook page here (she also has some of her own SUPER cute kids, we wish we would have gotten a picture of Levi in his mustache embroidered shirt)!

2.  This recipe.... I don't cook but I actually made this.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I had first text Kathi and then call her to help me find the ingredients in the store and then call to ask my mom how to cook chicken breast.... but it was awesome and I highly recommend this blog.  If I can even cook these recipes then you are good to go!

Photo from www.Plainchicken.com

3.  Stephanie made this awesome freebie to go along with Kim Adsit's unit.  If you download it make sure to leave her some feedback!  I am lucky to have her right down the hallway so I can go "borrow" all of her awesome products!  Between her and Kathi I am pretty set with awesome products!  And, check out Kim Adsit's unit if you already haven't because it is a must have!

4.  I have been watching the latest season of an AMC show tonight (who knew that one day AMC would have two of my favorite shows on it!) that a friend burned for me on DVD and making fonts.  I know... super crazy Friday night here.  Here is one of the fonts that you can download for FREE!!  It is included in my pack which has 30 fonts (and growing)!  You can check it out here.

5.  I am going to try and make this wreath below (with different colors) for my front door.  I think it might end up as a candidate for the Pinterest "Nailed It" candidate.  We shall see!

Take a guess at one of the two AMC shows I am addicted to!  The first two to comment and guess at least one will get my whole font pack (up to the current fonts) FREE!  I will let you know who got them by the end of my long weekend! Head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to check out (or link up ) to Five for Friday!

Edited... SuzyQ and Angelia are getting my font packs because they each guessed one of the two shows!!  Hope you enjoy the fonts!

Happy Weekend!!
Stephany

Guest Blogger Joey!

Today, we are hosting Joey from "Create Teach and Share" who is super creative and has great ideas!  Go check out her blog and see some of the other ideas that she has (like her super cool globe light)!

After racking my brains trying to teach my students how to use a ruler, I decided that enough was enough!  For me, the number one problem was the size of the rulers themselves...and needless to say...the itty bitty lines on them, that they are expected to read!  My poor kiddo with glasses as thick as my shower doors...I think this will help!  Anyhow, the solution to this problem that would be simple for not only myself to create, but all of you as well...is an 8' 8" printable ruler!  I made it so that teachers could put it anywhere in their classrooms that they would like, as well as make it as long or as short as they like!  I also made some colorful arrows that can be moved around each day for a great "Daily 5" or morning work activity!  

 

Hopefully this will help our students "measure up" on this year's state exams!  I hope you like what I've made. Stop by my blog to check out what else I have to offer: www.createteachandshare.blogspot.com

Have a wonderful week!

Go check out Joey's blog by clicking on the button below!

Monday Freebie!

This has been a pretty busy day but  just wanted to stop by and share my Valentine's day freebie with you so that you could use it this week!  It is a sentence unscramble activity that is great for rotations and stations!  I hope everyone is having a great Valentines Week!

Click on the pictures below to head over to TpT to download!

Head on over to Classroom Freebies to check out some other great freebies!

Stephany

New Ideas and Inventions!

We learned about Ben Franklin and inventors this week!  I love history and it always cracks me up when you talk to first graders about anything that happened in the past.  To them anything before their 6/7 years is history.  Did you know Ben Franklin invented the first one of those "grabber" things to get stuff off the stop shelf that you can't reach?  Forget the house saving lightning rod, bifocals, or experiments with electricity... he invented something that is in Infomercials today!  If he only knew.

We read "Now and Ben" which I inherited a few years ago and I love it.   We completed a Venn Diagram to go along with it.  We also used Cara Carroll's idea from her blog (below) and came up with our own inventions.  One of the kiddo's invention idea is a machine that makes you pancakes and bacon whenever you want them.  He said it makes life easier because "EVERYONE LOVES BACON!"   Another student wants to  invent a flying car because our town is known for the MANY trains that go through daily!  You could just fly right over the trains.. genius! 

I was also really lucky to receive this handwriting booklet from Joey over at Create, Teach, & Share.

As we are getting into February, I am really cracking down on those few kids who are great readers and write excellent stories but whose handwriting leaves my eyes straining during editing!  I love this because it is so easy to read, gets right (write? hehe) to the point and is just what these kids need. I plan on adding it to their homework sheets.  You can find it HERE... also go check out her blog and show her some blog love for Valentine's Day!

Hope you are having a great weekend!!
Stephany