Spring Cleaning

Sorry for my mini hiatus! I have been swamped with grad school work! Also, I started going back to the gym almost every day and well, I just can't seem to juggle it all.  I have a few things to post about and I promise to post about them SOON!  But for now...

Anyone else need to clean out their Teachers Pay Teachers Wish List?  We have 9 weeks left of school and its crunch time.  It's time to think about what materials I truly need to buy and use to get my kiddos where they need to be at the end of the year. What will benefit my kids the most?  What can wait til next year?  So, here is a step by step to help me (and maybe you too!) with TPT Spring Cleaning:

1-Comment on all of my purchases I have made in TPT.  Sometimes I am so excited to have the new purchase that I forget to go back and comment and rate the seller.  YOU KNOW YOU GET TPT CREDITS FOR DOING THIS???  You can use those credits for future purchases! I won't divulge how many of those credits I have used, but it makes your purchases CHEAPER! (Holler if you love a deal!)

2-Open my wish list and add the items to my cart that are must haves!  Now y'all, I am all about making my life simple because let's face it, when I leave the school house I don't have a lot of time for school work with everything else going on.  So, I am going to make sure that the products I have in my cart easy to prepare, cover my objectives, are visually appealing, and are in my budget! 

3-I'm going to purchase these items after, and only after, I have all my credits towards future purchases.  I want to get the best deal of course and I love a sale!

4-I'm going to shop at this wonderful Spring Cleaning Sale my favorite shops have going on this weekend.  

Wanna check out my blogger friend's stores?  Check out their links below!  Happy Shopping and Spring Cleaning! 

An InLinkz Link-up

The World Around Us

Is anyone else ready for Spring?! This Winter has been one for the books! We have had COUNTLESS snow days, which we almost never have! This my friends, has me ready for Spring.  When I think about Spring, I start to panic a little thinking about all the planning and preparation, how about you?  If it gets you in a tizzy too, rest your heart - I have a solution for you!

Have you heard of Educents? Educents is like Groupon, but for teachers.  Anyone else love a deal? ME!

Learning about the world around us is so important and loaded with tons of literacy and math!  Kids are highly engaged just by the topic itself not to mention all the learning that happens!  So some friends and I have teamed up with Educents for an amazing bundle of instant downloads to teach about the world outside!

I have two packs included and they will surely be loved by your students!  

Do your students need practice with map skills? Do they need engaging activities to help them learn key vocabulary and directions? If so, this unit is perfect for them!

What's Included?

Map Skills Practice:

Zoo - Using a Map Key to Place Objects on a Map

In the Neighborhood - Answering Questions about the Map

Placing Objects using North, South, East, West

Treasure! - Finding objects that are North, South, East, West

Classroom Map - Answering Questions about a Classroom Map

Our Classroom - Make your Own Map!

Compass - Place N, S, E, W on a Compass

Color Compass - Laminate & Use Velcro for Practice (N, S, E, W)

Me on the Map Fill in the Blank Book 

Each State is Included (States are in alphabetical order for your convenience!) 

Pocket Chart Vocabulary Matching Game

Posters - Featuring Vocabulary Word, Picture, Explanation (9)

Vocabulary WS (Matching Picture/Word)

Globe Land & Water WS

Puzzles - 2 pieces - Match Word and Picture (11)

Landforms Posters (15)

Landforms Matching WS (Picture/Word)

Puzzles - 2 pieces - Match Word and Picture (15)

Map Vocabulary Cards & WS

Globe Land/Water WS

Landform Posters & Vocabulary WS

Are your students learning about different types of animals?  This 65 page pack is full of activities to get your students excited about the zoo!

It includes:

Centers:

Pocket Chart - Picture & Vocabulary Match + Accountability Sheet

Write the Room Center - Unit Words + Accountability Sheet

Writing Center - with, they, saw, get - Magnetic Letter Cards + 2 Accountability Sheets

ABC Center - Medial Vowel Sounds Short a, Short i + Accountability Sheet

Math Center -Count by 5s, 10s cards + Fill in the Blank 100 Board

Supplementary Activities

Fact Posters & Sheets for Lion, Hippo, Alligator, Snake

Writing Activities

Zoo Animal Facts

Labeling Zoo Animals

Labeling Hippo, Alligator, Snake, Lion, Monkey, 

Emergent Reader

Fill in the Blank & Completed Versions both in BW & Color

For a limited time it is $10.99 from Educents which is about 70% off!  It also includes these other great products so there is sure to things you love!  

And if you have never purchased from Educents before.. they always have a great deal for your first purchase.  Click here if you are a first time purchaser to take advantage of a  special offer just for you!   

You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below! Have fun teaching everyone!

 

We are "Ray"dy for Spring!

Raise your hand if you are ready for Spring! I know this flip flop wearin' teacher is!  I'm used to being able to have my toes out and this cold weather is seriously cramping my style!   We were ready to take down the  penguins from our bulletin board and put out something a little brighter.  So I went to Pinterest for something new and what did I find?

This little cutie.  I'm not certain what anything on the blog says, but I knew this little cutie would be perfect for our board.

Ms. Moore (my amazing assistant) agreed and got right to work on an example:

We wanted ours to be in the order of the rainbow since we had been talking about weather and rainbows that week.

My friend Jennifer over at Crayons & Cuties in Kindergarten is the QUEEN of catchy titles, so I went straight to her for a title for our bulletin board...so what did she come up with?

Love it...and I am so "Ray"dy! :) 

Are you?

Bubbles!

Last week we learned about weather.  Usually the first week of March is the perfect time for us to talk about it.  We always have our tornado drill that first week, so I like to talk about the different types of weather. Weather is one of my favorite units because you can do a lot of fun experiments!  My interns are doing most of the teaching right now, so Miss Currie got to do one of my favorites.

You make a bubble solution with the students and then they use the solution to determine which way the wind is blowing.  This turned out to be a big hit!  The weather was a little rough outside, but here are some pictures:

Who doesn't love bubbles?  When you can tie it in with something else, it's perfect! Maybe you can fit it in with your curriculum!

Read Across America

I love a Dr. Seuss book! My favorite? I'm not sure I can pick, but I love trying to read Fox in Socks!  It's a tough one to read, but one of my favorites to try every year.  I posted around Christmas about how I scored the Dr. Seuss books and animals at Kohl's for $5 each.  Did you get them too?



I already had some friends from previous years, so we had lots of Dr. Seuss buddies here with us last week.  I don't know what's up with mother nature, but we had ANOTHER snow day last week, so that ruffled our plans and we didn't have a whole lot of time for the 'ol Doc, but Ms. Moore did make hats with our sweet Kinders.

We just trace a pattern onto poster board, color it, and staple it to a sentence strip and voila...instant Cat in the Hats.  Adorable, right? You can see some of my other buddies hanging around the room.  We had them all over the place :) 

I usually like to do a lot for Dr. Seuss and Read across America, but this year we just did lots of fun reading.  

What do you do for Read Across America?