Totally Not School Related

We are having another dreary, yucky day here in Memphis. It's Teacher Appreciation Week and I can tell right now, it may not be a great one for me.
Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I don't need "gifts" to know I'm appreciated..but come on a little happy would be nice =)

Well, I did get one happy this morning. An announcement that somebody is coming back home for his tour in November.

Yes, I have a guilty pleasure and his name is Justin Timberlake. And he is coming through Memphis on November 18 for his 20/20 Experience Tour.

I must get tickets! Maybe I'll have a parent who REALLY loves me that will get me one. A teacher can dream right?

Have fun at the TPT sale! I wish I could get a few things, but my pockets are dry. Hubby and I are doing everything we can to save and get some hospital/doctor bills paid off.

Edmodo

Do any of you use Edmodo for assignments or for communication with your parents?

I'm looking into using it next year and was wondering who had some pointers? I actually signed up for it several years ago when it first got started, but I never did anything with it.

Now that I'm looking at flipping my classroom, I think it could be a great asset.

When searching though, it looks like there aren't many other kinder teachers out there. I've found a few, but it looks like not many have tapped into this resource.

If you are there, please find me. I'm listed as Mrs. Laura Starnes and if you're using Edmodo, tell me what your favorite and not so favorite features are.

I will probably have to present to my principal the advantages of the flipped classroom and I want to use this site as part of my presentation.

And YAY! Standard testing is OVER! The last few days have been crazy, but we made it through and yes I wanted to bang my head on a table quite a few times. You see the answers and you're like really! Did you REALLY just mark that?!  Oh well...what else can I do! At least I know what to look forward to next year and can revamp some of my lessons to the way the test was worded...RIDICULOUS for these kinder babies.

Have a great weekend!

1 Day of SAT 10 Done

We finished our first day of testing yesterday and I was exhausted!
We only gave 2 parts and they were supposed to be 25 minutes each. However, in kindergarten, you have the liberty of stretching it out as needed. So what should have been 50 minutes was more like an hour and 30 minutes.

I have to say, my students did very well. Yesterday was just letters and sounds and word reading. The first part everyone did great one. The second part...not so much. There were a few sight words and a few words that could easily be sounded out, but for the rest, they were big kid words. I only have 4 fluent readers and maybe 8 more who are getting there. That means there were 7 kids just looking at those words and marking the middle answer straight down the page!

Anyway, day one is done and now we are on to day two. Sentence reading and I believe read aloud.

Worst part about today is that they are calling for rain this afternoon. So my poor babies will be inside with this test (hopefully not falling asleep like 2 were yesterday) and then they can't go out to run off the built up stress.

Oh well!

Back At It

Well, today starts my first full week back at work. And of course, I came back just in time for Standardized Testing.

Our kiddos are taking the SAT 10 for the first time. I've NEVER given a test before and am a little nervous about it. Especially since I've been out of the room since the end of January and am not really sure where my kids are skill wise. But oh well, life goes on...right?

What are your thoughts on testing in Kindergarten? Do you do it?

Right now I am reading this:

I really want to do something like this next year, but am skeptical as to how it will work in a kindergarten classroom. So my next venture is finding resources of kinder teachers who have tried this.

Have you heard about flipping your classroom? If you do it already, I'd love to hear from you. Either comment or email me!

As I finish the book, I plan on blogging about it and possibly planning out my venture here for y'all to comment on. Just to see what you think.

There's a lot of posts floating in my head right now. I'm kind of glad to be back in the classroom so that after work (or during planning like right now) I can finally find time to blog again!

But I sure do miss staying home with this cutie pie.

Just stopping by..and a couple baby pictures =)

Ok...how do you new mommies do it? 

If you've wondered where I've been the past few weeks, I've been home taking care of my new precious baby boy. He came 2 1/2 weeks early and it has been a whirlwind of a time ever since. He is 3 weeks old as of yesterday and after several trips to the doctor and some back to the hospital for both of us, I'm finally glad to report that both mommy and baby are doing well.

So seriously...how do you mommies keep up with your newborn, your blog, work, and for many of you, your other children?! 

Believe me, I'm absolutely loving EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of being a mom, but this is the first time I've been able to sit down and write anything. I'm either feeding or changing diapers or rocking him to sleep and once he's napping, I'm either napping with him or doing laundry to keep him in clothes (he has reflux and wears about 5-10 shirts a day! AND he's been having a hard time gaining weight so we didn't buy many newborn outfits but that's what he's been wearing a lot of) or trying to keep myself fed and hydrated. I don't have time to sit down at a computer.

I know it will get better, but until then, I'll be in and out. So welcome to my new followers...somehow I've got MORE of you and my Pinterest account has been going crazy when I rarely have time to pin anything..what's up with that?  Whatever is going on, I'm thankful for it =)

I'm hoping to get some kind of schedule going, but until then..you can just enjoy pictures of my Little Man. Who is now crying for a diaper change, so I'm back to mommy duty =)

Here is our little family with baby Mason. He's pretty perfect right? =)

Scooting Again

Hi All!

I meant to have this ready to post yesterday, but V-Day became a CRAZY day for me. To keep some of you up to date, I've been MIA because I'm pregnant and the blog went on the back burner. I've been on bed rest for the past 2 weeks and have been trying to start creating again while doing limited work around the house.

My due date is March 11. However, after my check-up yesterday, my doctor has decided that it would be better beneficial for me and baby Mason if we delivered early. I'm on bed rest because of high blood pressure and high protein levels. Eventually that can lead to preeclampsia. Something I definitely do not want to go through nor put the baby through. So as of yesterday, my due date was moved up 2 1/2 weeks!!!  I'm being induced NEXT Wednesday...say WHAT??!!

So we are trying our best to get things finished up around the house and then we get a call that my dad voluntarily went to the ER for recent chest pains and possible stroke like symptoms. Well, they ended up keeping him over night and this morning they keep saying that his tests are coming back with good readings yet he's still being held and will probably stay another night.

He's fine and is talking and just restless sitting up there, but at the same time we are wondering why he's not been released yet when they say he's ok and can't find anything wrong..ugh! Frustrating.

Anyway, I finished another Scoot game today. This one is with CVC words.  I want to thank my 3 winners who commented Wednesday. They had some great ideas and I will definitely look in to them. Hopefully I'll still have time to get some work done in these next few days before baby comes.

Here are the ideas they had:
Kari said she hides her cards around the room and kiddos do it as a literacy center.
Brandy does hers as a whole group activity, they start at their desk and she highlights the number they start on to cut down on confusion, then she sets a timer and gives them 20 seconds a card! If they don't get it, they just move on to the next one. When she rings her bell at the 20 second mark, they all shout out "Scoot!"
Christine wants one with 3d shapes. I'll get on that one soon!!

Are you ready?! I'm doing the same thing again. First 3 followers to comment will get their copy for FREE! However, if you won one on Wednesday, you are not eligible for this round. Please leave your email address and a comment on your favorite way to play Scoot OR another way you review CVC words in your classroom.

Click on the picture below to to link to my TPT store to get your copy today!

Do you Scoot?

I have taught kindergarten for over 10 years and had never heard of the Scoot Game until my BBFF (Blogging Best Friend Forever) Kerri (from Mrs. Kerri and her Krazy Klass) let me preview one of her products a long time ago. You can visit her TPT store here.

My kiddos LOVE playing Scoot. Once you teach them the game the first time, they pretty much know how it goes every other time you play it. So here's how it goes...

1. Get the cards from your Scoot Game and do one of two things. Either place one card at each students desk/table or place the cards in a circle.
2. Each student gets a recording sheet and either take their seat at their table or wherever the teacher sets them on the floor.
3. The students look at the card in front of them and then answer the question on their recording sheet. Their answer must be written by the number that is on their card, or the answers will be wrong!
4. Then they scoot to the next card and do the same thing.
5. This continues until ALL of the cards have been answered and the answers are recorded on all of the blanks on the recording sheet.

It's pretty simple. It's a great way to review skills and units. So, I've created my first Scoot Game.
It's with beginning sounds, so it's will be easy for your kiddos to learn the game. I'm working on others and hopefully will have one ready to post for the rest of this week.

Today's scoot game not only has beginning sounds, but it's 8 games in one packet. There is one for 8 months (September-April). So you can pull them out for each holiday. I have Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter.

You can get your copy at my TPT store HERE. 

However, if you are one of the first 3 followers to comment, you can get yours for Free!
Just leave a comment with a Scoot game idea or something else you might like to see created and leave your email address. The first 3 followers to leave the comment will have the Scoot Game emailed to them for free.