Someone New Sunday

Hello Everyone! Happy Sunday! It's my last day of freedom before going back to work tomorrow...ugh! But enough about me - 

Have you met Heidi yet?

Here she is -

 And here is her lovely blog:

 

Grade you teach: 

I am currently waiting to hear what grade (if any) I will be teaching. My job was cut due to my school closing, but I taught 1^st grade last year.

How long have you been teaching?

Not even a full year yet. I graduated in December of 2011 and landed a job after only a month of subbing.

What is your teaching "style"?

I would say my teaching style is unique. I like students to have a good time in my classroom. The more students have fun while learning the more they seem to remember. If you were to walk into my classroom you would find me more than likely talking in strange voices and more than likely not sitting or standing in a normal way. The kids laugh at me and I am okay with that. When my kids are happy and learning I am happy. J I like providing interactive activities for them to work on and if I see that something isn’t working or students are starting to get bored, I will use different brain break strategies to help motivate them. Showing the students that you can have fun and still learn is a vital part of my teaching style. 

What is your most memorable teaching moment?  

My most memorable moment is not from when I was doing actually classroom instruction, but one that did come from the classroom. There was this one little girl in my class who gave me such a hard time. She was the one who could not listen for anything and she would never get her work done. We had indoor recess one day and she had to sit and do the work she didn’t finish in the morning. I was sitting at my desk planning and she came up to me and said, “Here Mrs. Do-hickey. I am finished.” I lost it friends. I had tears streaming down my face because I was laughing so hard. The reason being is that my last name is Dickey. I have NO idea where Do-hickey came from, but man was it funny. I still cannot get over it and am laughing as I am typing this. 

Why did you start your blog?

I actually started blogging as a way to journal things happening in my life, but then I found Pinterest and found amazing things posted by bloggers on Pinterest and became inspired to start my own teaching blog. I was going to combine both my personal life information and my teaching blog, but then realized I would be better off keeping them separate so I now keep two different blogs. I have so many ideas spinning around in my brain and being able to share them and maybe even help someone else out makes it worthwhile to me. Not to mention all of the great bloggy friendships I have created.

Where else can we find you?

Here is a Freebie from Heidi! Make sure to go check out her store and follow her blog!

 

Have you ever not...

wanted to blog?

I know, crazy right?

I've been back in my room most of this week - however, I've been in there with 4 girls that I've been sitting for. I love these girls dearly but man was it hard to get things together. They wanted to help, but ended up playing most of the time.

Today I was able to go alone, but it was mainly to straighten up what they did for me. Then I had a lunch date so I didn't have too much time. I thought about going back, but opted to come home for a nap instead - it's my last day to get a nap in, so I figure I gotta do what I gotta do.

So I woke up from my nap and just stared at my laptop - not wanting to pick it up.
I finally broke down and opened it and pulled up google reader and was actually JEALOUS of all of you who posted today. I wish I had the motivation or the subject matter today.

But I don't.

Have you ever felt that way?

I'm going to make myself feel better by watching some Olympic Ceremonies that are coming on NOW! I'm so excited!!!

Y'all have a great night - sorry for the blah post. Hopefully something better will come along tomorrow.

Classroom Reveal will be next week!!! =)

The Mother of All Giveaway Wins!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I found out that I won a giveaway over at Eberhart's Explorers.

This giveaway was worth $500 - so I knew it was going to be huge. However, I was thinking that it was just going to be $500 worth of little treasures for my treasure box. 

Ummm...I was wrong! Check all of this out!

And that's not all of it. There were multiples of the telephones, mini radios, magic tricks and games.

 A mini cooler and warm - runs on D batteries - tons of mini radios in different styles

 CD Player, plug and play games, portable A/C, telephones, dart boards

 Here's a close up of the dart boards

Shrek alarm clock and Tweety phone and alarm clock.

Then we opened up a box with the biggest prize of all

This guy is 3 feet tall! Wow!

So, what am I going to do with all of this? Well, some of it is going to good use in my classroom. The rest, I will be donating to my school's prize cart for our Positive Behavior drawings on Fridays. I think the kiddos will go nutso over this stuff.

Thank you so much to Erin for having the giveaway and a BIG thank you to Big Event Fundraising!

What I'm Pinning Wednesday

Short and sweet with the pins today. Here are some great writing ideas for your Daily 5 routine (especially for kinders).

1. Sign in each morning to help with writing their name correctly. The pin link will take you to Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers.

Source: learningandteachingwithpreschoolers.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

2. Here is a great anchor chart for beginning writers.

Source: teacherspayteachers.com via Laura on Pinterest

3. From A Cupcake for the Teacher - writing center/office. I made individual ones one year but this one is pretty awesome.

Source: acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

4.There's not much of a description, but this writing center looks awesome too.

Source: bellagraceandgraysonjames.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

5. Great books for the 6 traits of writing from Inside the Classroom.

Source: mrsmayhew.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

Link up with what you've been pinning this week!

Monday Move In...Kind Of

I started moving in to my classroom today. Hubby had the day off, so he went with me and basically we just got furniture arranged and settled. I had a dr. appt at 10:30 and by the time I was done, I didn't really want to go back to school - so I didn't.

I felt good with getting furniture in place so when I go back tomorrow I can start filling in the pieces. And yes, we moved out my teacher desk and two of my long tables. My kids will have places to sit, but they will have choices. And ooh! I thought of a great way for them to choose. That will be coming soon..you'll LOVE it! I promise =)

Okay...so since I've kind of been out of it today..it's almost 5p.m. and I'm just jumping on here to share a few things with you and saw that I am OVER 1,000 followers!!!!  Holy Cannole! Yesterday, I was just at 900 and 60 something...I am just AMAZED!

So welcome new followers. I'm sorry this came up so quickly and I don't have a big giveaway planned. So maybe I'll do something out of the blue here someday...you just never know what will happen here.

Okay...so LAST Thursday (7/19) my bloggy friend Ms. Eberhart from Eberhart's Explorers came to Nashville. I don't live in Nashville, but it was better to travel 3 hours to see her than the almost 8 hours it takes to get to the other side of the state. Just check out this map and see how far we are:

Okay...so closeness wasn't the ONLY reason why I jumped at the opportunity. We had a great night and we were able to get a few other Tennessee bloggers to join us.

I had a traveling buddy. This is my friend Elizabeth. She's a blog follower, but I think after the fun night we had, we might've convinced her to start a blog! She teaches 4th grade.

Tangelia from Buggy in Kindergarten came up to see us. She lives about an hour(ish) away. Then there's me with my eyes closed..lovely! And Erin. We went to Chuy's at the Opry Mills Mall - YUM!

We were also joined by Greg from Mr. Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten. It was his first meeting and hopefully he will meet with us more often.

As much as you try to stay away from "teacher talk" you just can't! We were sharing stories and having the best time! We probably could've stayed longer but the weather was getting nasty and we didn't want to get caught in it.

I just love how many friends I have made through this amazing community. Teachers from across my state and nation. It is just amazing and such a blessing to network with such amazing people! (Have I said amazing enough...because that's about all I can say!)

Enjoy your week! Hopefully tomorrows post will be educational??? We'll see. =)

Someone New Sunday

I cannot believe that 1 week from today will be my last day of summer vacation! That makes me kind of sad =(
Luckily, I have a great post with a great teacher to keep me happy today.

Please meet Stephanie Stewart. 

She is the blog author of:

Grade You Teach:

1st Grade - my one and only so far! When I first got hired to teach first, I never thought I would come to love it the way that I do. I was nervous to work with the little guys but now I couldn't imagine NOT working with these little guys!!

How Long Have You Been Teaching?

This will be my 4th year

What Is You Teaching Style?

I try to keep things as hands on as possible. Anyone who's ever tried to engage a group of 1st graders for more than five minutes will tell you, you won't get very far unless you're actively involving them. I don't like to spend too much time in one place either and I try to keep us physically moving around as much as possible. Songs are a must in my classroom -- transition songs, math fact songs, parts of  a sentence songs. You name it and I likely have or will invent a song for it.  Lucky for me my kids don't care that I'm usually off key. I also LOVE to use read-alouds as often as possible to teach anything and everything! Even my most reluctant readers love listening to a good story. It's visual and auditory and I find that a good book often sparks some of the best discussions about whatever it is we are learning about. So I am all about the read aloud and will structure a lesson around one whenever possible.

What Is You Most Memorable Teaching Moment?

So many memories come to mind here from little people who have left foot prints on my heart and parents who have made me cry with their thankful letters and kind words. But I think I will share instead what is perhaps my funniest memorable moment of this past year. I was walking around the room as my kiddos were working on Read to Self when I see two of my kiddos (a boy and girl who had an obvious crush on each other for some time) eyes squeezed tight, with their lips locked in a never ending kiss-a-roo in the middle of the room! They were making no attempt to hid it and I was dumbstruck for a moment before quickly breaking it up and sending them back to their seats while I tried to figure out exactly what the best thing to say next would be. I was hoping my principal would take this one for me since I knew it would involve a phone call home to both parents, but of course, she was at a district meeting. This left it up to me and I made up some long winded speech about how kissing isn't a bad thing, but it's a private thing and not something we do in school and that while it's okay to hug friends if they're hurt, sad or happy, 1st grade is definitely too young to be kissing anyone on the lips. The next day the little girl walked in and said to me, "Mrs. Stewart, I got grounded for 2 whole weeks for that one!"

What Is Your  Go-To Book For Teaching?

I have two that I really value for general teaching and management skills. The first is The Cornerstone by Angela Powell. It's full of excellent organizational ideas, management and lesson planning suggestions. The second is Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov. This book is full of best practices to improve all areas of your teaching. It's very skill specific but there is no order to follow so you can make it very individual to your own needs, based on your strengths and weaknesses.

Why Did You Start Your Blog?

I started a blog because I felt really inspired by this blogging community. Everyone is so positive and supportive of one another which was really encouraging. Everyday I would visit my favorite blogs and couldn't get over how many amazing ideas I was finding. I finally decided that starting my own blog would be a great outlet to connect with other teachers who are positive about teaching and who may be able to benefit from some of my ideas too. I know I am a better teacher because of the bloggers I interact with daily - our conversations, the ideas we share, and the stories of highs and lows of the profession that we can relate to. It's the best form of professional development I've ever found!

Where Else Can We Find You?

Click HERE for a freebie from Stephanie and then click the button below to enter her giveaway! If you follow me and follow her, then you already meet the criteria for 2 entries!

New Stuff Going On

***disclaimer - there is no educational value to this post whatsoever - that is all***

If you've been keeping up with me, you know that I finally caved and started a TPT store. Well, along with that, I also finally caved and started a Facebook page.  I know! Crazy right?!

I figured that since I have, as of right now, 965 followers - which is completely amazing to me - that I would try to get a few more things going to make it easier to see me and what's going on here at KK.

I got with the lovely Pamela from The Posh Box who designed my blog and she very quickly designed my four social media buttons that you can see on the left side. Aren't they adorable! Make sure to click on them and follow me in all the various places.

She also did a redo of my blog button to match my layout! So, if you are a grabber of buttons and had my other one, please change it out! You can grab the code on the left!

I moved things around and removed a few unnecessary things to clean it up a little. I'm not a fan of cluttered blogs! Sorry, but that's a pet peeve. I don't like to be overwhelmed and I know mine looked that way for a little while and I'm sorry!

I also moved my blog awards over to their own page, so they aren't cluttering up space either.
By the way, I want to quickly thank Brigid from Brigid's Daily Lesson Log and Vicky at The Madness that is Kindergarten for passing on the Versatile Blogger award to me. I know there are a couple others who commented and left it to me and I want to thank you too (I just can't find your comments right now...SO SORRY!). I will try my best to pass it along soon! And if you haven't heard of these two blogs, you need to check them out. I've got Brigid on my Someone New Sunday list and need to get with Vicky. They've got some great blogging going on.

Okay..one more thing from this all over the place post and I'll say good bye until tomorrow =)
I am participating in a great giveaway at:

Rachelle is having a Back to School Giveaway and it's amazing! I'm a little sad that I can't enter it myself. Rachelle's blog won Most Fascinating Kinder Blog this year!! I'm so excited for her! (p.s. I made the Top 10 - so thanks for the votes..I was really excited about that) So, click on the button below and enter for all of the great B2S prizes, including an All-In-One organizer from me to keep it all together!

Okay..that's all I have to say..well I have one more thing but I'll wait until Monday, so I guess you'll have to come back then!

Daily 5 Book Review: Chapter 6 Word Work

Chapter 6 looks into Work on Writing and Word Work. One of these is easy peasy - the other...ummm not so much, but I'll get it! Today's post will focus on the easy first - here's my answers to Crystal's Word Work questions.

 

 

1. Experimenting with words for learning and practicing a spelling pattern (brainstorm a list of ways you can do this)

In Kindergarten, the kiddos need to know their letters first. What are the first letters that these kiddos look at - the letters that are in their names! I do a lot of activities with their names the first few weeks of school, like the following:
- sort letters in your name/not in your name
- graph names of classmates by first name
- chicka chicka boom boom, look who's in our room
- use letter tiles to spell classmates names (I have a picture of the student with their name in laminated by the picture, students must cover the letters with matching tiles)

We then move into actual letter recognition:
- letter sorts
- upper/lowercase sorts
- stamping
- playdoh
- matching upper/lower
- matching letter to picture that starts with the letter

You get the idea - starting with the alphabet leads to sound recognition that leads to spelling, reading and writing

2. Memorize high frequency words (How often do you introduce new words? Do your students have their own lists of words that they can work on? How will you keep track of words that they already know?

With our curriculum we focus on 3 or 4 words every two weeks. Depending on the ease of the words, sometimes we add a few more. To learn these words, we sing songs, do word finds to recognize the word, rainbow write the word, and sometimes I even write an easy little paragraph with the sight word written several times and they get to highlight it which is their favorite thing do to! My kiddos also love to spell their word with their bodies - we do that sometimes during morning meeting to get our bodies moving! 
Our students do have a list that they work on and it is sent home for practice as well. 
My tracking of sight words has been pretty poor, I have to admit I usually just check it when it comes to report card testing. This year will be different! I've been seeing some great organizers and have started to develop one of my own for my sight words. It's something personal that I understand, so maybe it will keep me motivated to be a better tracker!

3. Generalize spelling patterns (brainstorm a list of ways you can do this).

I'll say it again - when it comes to understanding spelling words and patterns and reading words, I always fall back on my Secret Stories! They help with letter recognition, sound recognition, phonemes, blending and lead to fluency and accuracy.
I think a lot of the spelling patterns won't occur though until the 2nd quarter. 

4. Adding to our knowledge and curiosity of unique and interesting words. (What is the best way to do this?)

I love what Crystal said about BIG vocabulary! I love going through a picture book before reading it and finding those "big words" and breaking it down for the kiddos. They love it too - because, "WOW! All I can say is WOW! Look at you! Spelling and reading that BIG grown up word!" They eat it up when they are reading those big words.

I also think that kindergarten can be a fun age to teach synonyms. "We just read the word BIG, what is another word that means the same thing as BIG?" ooooh my head is spinning with activities for this!! I love it when I think about something when mid post..now I need to write them down so I remember them later. 

 

 

Other things to think about:

What materials do I already have?

I have a lot of games made from literacy stations in the past. However, I have a lot of them in small group sets and I don't think I need that much clutter in my Word Work area, so that is something I need to work on going through and de-cluttering.

 

What materials would I like to get?

I know I want colored sand to put in a little box for writing words. I think that will be fun. We kinder teachers have so many crafty materials that it's hard to think of anything else I might need!

How will I store them?

I have this shelf below and am already working on labels for organizing my word work. Sorry I don't have it ready to share. Y'all have no idea how far I've fallen behind these past couple of weeks...I'll get them though.

 

Where will students work?

They can work wherever they like as long as they aren't disturbing the others around them. This will be the same for all D5 parts. It's all about the model model model!

Like I said, Word Work will be easy peasy - it takes my literacy stations that I've used for years and simplifies them. I'm loving it! Come link up over at Kreative in Kinder and see what other teachers are saying about Word Work!

What I'm Pinning Wednesday

I'm running from the educational pins today - look out!
I'm going to show you a few of my favorite things through my pins - kind of a little getting to know me deal - so here we go.

1. My favorite place to go: Disney World

Source: hourlydoseof-disney.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest

2. My favorite Disney Character:

Source: thedisneyprincess.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest

3. My favorite flower:

Source: via Laura on Pinterest

4. My favorite t.v. show:

Source: google.it via Laura on Pinterest

5. What I wanted to do before I became a teacher:

Source: perfectbucketlist.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest

So there are a few things about me. Please link up and show what you are pinning today. And make sure to visit the others who have linked up with us!