Black Friday Linky

Hey friends! I can hardly believe it's almost Thanksgiving and Black Friday! I'm so thankful for my family and friends this year.  I'm also thankful for all the people I've met through blogging, especially my friends at The Primary Pack! We are celebrating Black Friday again this year with all of you in a fun way (and a little early). We are sharing a few of our most wish-listed items in our personal wishlist, our carts and our own stores. We are also hosting a HUGE Black Friday giveaway, check it out below, you don't want to miss it!

 I'm usually a pretty big black Friday shopper but my kids don't need much this year and neither do I, so I'm going to go for these things:

A bike: My youngest child's Santa gift.

Dual DVD players - because one of ours died and we like these in the car!

Tieks - because my feet are important and I'd love to have a pair!

Old Navy gift card because I've lost a lot of weight and can use some new clothes!

Bath and Body Works Gift Card because I love their candles, soaps, wallfowers, sprays, and lotions!

There are lots of things on my wishlist, but here are a few:

Jennifer Drake's Sight Word Reader's - These books are awesome and help the students learn sight words and build fluency.

Jennifer Drake's Rhyming Puzzles - My students need practice with rhyming words and this is a fun way!

Brenda Tejeda's Writing Bundle - These writing activities are awesome and this bundle is a great deal! 

Brenda Tejeda's Sight Word Bundle  - Brenda has the best sight word activities, this is a great way to make sure I don't miss any! 

Here are a few things you can check out from my store:

Gingerbread Count the Room - A fun way to practice counting and let your students get up and move around the room.  This is one of my student's favorite centers!

Gingerbread Counting Mats - An easy ready to print center, but so cute! 

Christmas Centers - 2 Weeks worth of centers and other activities ready to print and go!

Christmas Around the World - Activities, crafts, and information on several countries that I use in my classroom!

Maps Skills and Landforms Unit - My best selling unit!

Drumroll please.... Check out this HUGE giveaway package you can win by entering below! There is a resource from almost everyone in The Primary Pack, perfect for all primary grades!! Good luck, friends and happy shopping!

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Now It's Your Turn To Join The Fun! 

Just a few rules to follow and you're on your way:

1. Download the images above!
2. Add your personal holiday wishlist to the image titled "My Personal Black Friday Wishlist"
3. Add your favorite sellers products from your TPT wishlist to the "My Classroom Black Friday Wishlist"
4. Add your own products to the "For Your Black Friday Wishlist"
5. Link up below to share your Black Friday Wishlists!
6. Don't forget to enter our fabulous giveaway above AND visit others linked up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

The 12 Days of Christmas - A Behavior Incentive

Hey y'all!  Here are some ideas for a Christmas behavior incentive! 

This was my view as I worked after school before Thanksgiving break.  Don't get overwhelmed if you aren't in the Christmas spirit before Thanksgiving, but that's when it's time to start planning! 

December in Kindergarten is one of my favorite months! It's full of crafts, learning, excitement, and fun!  My kinders always get a little rambunctious during this time, so years ago we came up with a behavior incentive called the 12 Days of Christmas!

I send a note home asking parents if they are able to donate a class set of presents.  Parents respond and I send them a confirmation letting them know what present to send in.  We're talking cheap presents here...yo-yos, bubbles, pencils, play-doh, erasers, silly straws, bouncy balls...the list goes on!   The parents shop and then they send in their presents ALREADY WRAPPED!  This shouldn't cause you any extra stress, because let's face it - who has time to wrap 12 class sets of presents?  Then, you place them under your tree.  Usually I have more than 12 parents respond and I say yes to everyone!  If we have more than 12 presents..sometimes we have double present days!

Each day we choose a present to work for.  Remember - they are prewrapped and just alike, so we are all working for the Santa presents today or the Snowman presents today etc.  I have a clip chart in my room..students must end the day on green or better in order to get a present in their bag. You can adjust this to fit any behavior management system, though!

I get the bags from Michael's.  They are $6.99 or $7.99 for 13.  I usually use a coupon on one set and my teacher discount on the other.  Last year they only had plain ones, so I added a die cut Christmas tree with scrapbook paper.

Check out the cutie bags they have this year!

These bags are the sturdiest and will hold their presents and not tear on the day they take them home.

When the 12 days is over, it's time for our party and we sit in a huge circle and open our presents.  It's basically insanity.  The kids get so excited over their presents!  This is also a great reflection time for students.  If they had a day they missed a present, they will see that they are missing something and reflect about that.  Rarely do students miss a present because all it takes is a simple reminder that they are working for something.

Interested in trying this incentive with your class?  I have an editable freebie for you!  Get busy editing and sending home so your parents can get busy shopping and you can get started!   You only need a few presents to start, so if it seems overwhelming to get started now, think of a few dependable parents and see if they can get you a few presents quick to get started.  Pencils, candy canes, and erasers are super easy to get started with.  The kids will have no idea what they are working for anyway!  That will give other parents time to shop and turn things in.

Good luck!  If you have any questions, feel free to ask! :)  I hope this brings some extra good behavior to your classroom during these crazy busy months! 

Spider Hats

  Anyone else have students that LOVE to wear a hat?  My kids adore them and so do I! Nothing makes me happier than seeing those sweet little faces with a sentence strip or poster board strip hat.  A few years ago we needed an extra activity for Bats/Spiders week, so we started making these super cute hats.

Here's what you need: 

• Black Poster Board Strips (2-3 inches wide) There's really not rhyme or reason with those guys because the paper cutter isn't long enough to measure a whole piece of poster board, so I just start chopping! 
• Black Construction Paper Strips - (1 inch wide) I stacked 8 pieces of 9x12 construction paper on top of each other and used my paper cutter to cut 1 inch strips that were 9 inches long.
• White Rectangle of Construction Paper - I cut 8 pieces per 9x12 piece of construction paper.
• Glue Sticks
• Scissors
• Crayons

How to make the hats:

Give students poster board strips, and paper clipped stack of construction paper strips.  Have students fold the strips accordion style.  I taught my kids to leave them all in one stack and fold them all at once, but whatever works for you.

Next, have students glue the strips to the poster board. (4 on each side on the side of the poster board that has their name on it.)

Next, turn the strip over and flip the strips over and pinch them to that side so they'll stay.

Then, give students the white paper and fold it in half. Show students how to cut out a circle so they have 2 identical circles.  Have students glue those on.  Then, have students choose a color and color in the middle of the eyes.

Finally, measure the poster board strip around the student's head and staple.

See how cute and happy they are? LOVE!

These are perfect for a Halloween Treat or Party or just for fun.  We wore them to lunch that day.

If you need these directions in one place and a bonus spider printable, grab your copy below! 

I hope your students enjoy these hats as much as mine did! 

Back to School Bash with The Primary Pack

Our hop is a 3…2…1… BACK TO SCHOOL BASH because each member of The Primary Pack will be giving you 3 teacher tips, 2 giveaways (one on each of our blogs and one BIG one on the Primary Pack), and 1 freebie!

To enter our BIG giveaway, you need to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK first! As you "hop" through each of our blogs, you will collect a letter from each of us… 28 total. Those letters spell out a secret code that you need to enter our BIG giveaway! You will use the secret code to enter the rafflecopter on The Primary Pack at the end of the hop.

You need to collect the letters from us IN ORDER, so please make sure that you start from the beginning of our hop. Click on the button below to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK and start our BACK TO SCHOOL BASH!!

Take LOTS of pictures!  I'm like the paparazzi in my room.  Kindergarten is such an important year and a year of growth.  I'm always amazed looking at my students from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and seeing how much they have changed.  Parents miss so much and they will appreciate the pictures you take and if you have a way to share them throughout the year or at the end of the year via a slideshow, dvd, youtube link etc.

Be patient.  Especially if you teach Kindergarten. We often remember the way our kids were at the end of the year and forget that we have to teach them EVERYTHING...and they take things literally.  It takes time, they will get there.  Be firm, but loving.  Repeat yourself and be explicit with your instructions. 

Get your work done even if you have to work a little late, but don't forget to take time for yourself and your family.  Don't overwork yourself!  You are not going to be an effective teacher if you are tired and moody.  Get rest and be happy! :) 

The Primary Pack is giving away a Cameo y'all!! Have you seen one? #lifechanging I have used mine this year to make my bulletin boards cuter and added vinyl to all kinds of things! Here are some ideas of how I use my Cameo in my room:

There are tons of back to school packs in my TpT store you could use and what better way to get them than with a $10 store credit? Head over and make your wishlist so if you win, you'll know what to choose! :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here's a freebie you definitely need to start the year with: 

I use this to help my littles learn to cut strips, wavy/curvy lines, and shapes.  Before I give them this, I show them how to make "salad" by giving them pieces of bulletin board paper.

I give them green paper to tear.  This is the lettuce of their "salad." Then I give them a strip of yellow paper to snip, this is their cheese.  Last I give them a piece of blue to teach them to fringe cut, we call this a fancy napkin.  This really teaches them how to use their hands together and show some control with cutting.  It's a great lesson! (It will take you several days to teach!) 

      

You've made it to the end of my post, so here's my letter!

Find your next letter here:

Happy hopping!!

Back to School Giveaway

Aarrggh you ready for back to school? I know this week I have been hiding on denial island and living it up as much as possible!! I have spent the week getting morning workouts in and hanging out with my bestie and our kids at the pool! I am sad to head back to work next week, but I know that routine is great for my family and so getting back to school will be great and let's face it...I love my kinders so meeting a new group is EXCITING!! 

What do I love about new fresh faces? What do I not love about it? They hang on my every word! Yes its going to be difficult and I forget that I have to teach them everything, but that's exactly what I love about Kindergarten.  I already can't wait to see the tremendous amount of growth!! 

So my question for you is:

All of these Early Childhood Bloggers are ready to help you get ready if you aren't.  How are we going to do that? With giveways on our blogs of course!  I know there has got to be something in my TpT store you could use.  Enter below for a $10 store credit and choose anything you like :) The winner will be emailed and must respond within 2 days or another winner will be chosen.  The products will be emailed to you :) 

Then you can get busy and get prepared for school!  When do you start back?! We have Teacher Workdays starting August 17th and our first day is August 24th! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Your next stop on the hop is My Day in K! Head on over and enter to win another giveaway! :) 

Teacher Appreciation Giveaway

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I'm so excited to be teaming up with the girls from The Primary Pack to bring you this fabulous Giveaway! We really want you to know how much we appreciate you and how amazing we think you are. Teachers are the most dedicated, hard-working people around, and we want to celebrate you! So we are each giving away a gift card to one of our favorite places to shop. But we didn't stop there! We are also giving away one big GRAND PRIZE on The Primary Pack blog!

Here on my blog, I am giving away one 25.00 store credit to my TpT store! I have packs in my store that will get you from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? Start making your wishlist now!!

Enter below in the Rafflecopter to win! The giveaway will run through Sunday, May 10th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the giveaways from all of my friends at the Primary Pack for more chances to win!

An InLinkz Link-up

December in a Blog Post

We've finally made it through a good part of the year and into my favorite month, December! December is a magical month in Kindergarten!  It's full of crafts and fun! The good thing is, we get to integrate the crafts into learning about the different countries around the world! I didn't get a lot of pictures of the crafts because it was such a busy time and I was struggling through my last bit of school and had so much on my mind, but I still got tons of pics of everything else!

We started off December with a visit from the North Pole! The students were super excited that our elf came in a freezing package straight from Santa! They named her Twinkles! Twinkles was a great motivator and was always up to something :)

One of the crafts I remembered to capture was the St. Lucia head wreaths and star boy hats! 

Is it just me or do you feel like your always trying to figure out the perfect parent present for Christmas? When I was getting my ornaments out this year, I realized how much I truly enjoy looking at the ones my children have made for me.  Mrs. Bradley saw a pin for a reindeer picture frame, but the frames were really pricey.  We collaborated on what materials to use and I was able to get the foam and ribbon for a very reasonable price at Michaels.  I had our awesome EC teacher tie the ribbons for me because I'm not a very good bow tier!  I hot glued those on and the ribbon on the back.  The kids glued on the eyes and nose with white glue.  They also glued their hand prints on which Mrs. Bradley had previously gotten.  We took their picture next to the tree wrapped up in lights and put it in their frames.  They were too cute!  

Have you read about how I do the 12 days of Christmas? I blogged about it over at The Primary Pack.  This was the day we opened our presents! We sit in a circle and open them...its controlled chaos and oh so much fun!

Mrs. Bradley and I got the students a coloring book and crayons.  I always like to get that for my students because it's something fun they can do over the break too! 

For our party, we made Gingerbread houses!  Thank goodness for wonderful families, they supplied all the materials needed.  We started with ice cream cones and green icing and let them use M&Ms to decorate those and then let them eat those.  This kind of gets them out of the mode of wanting to eat everything...then they can decorate the houses!  We had a great parent volunteer turn out and all of the houses looked amazing!  Such a fun party!

For Christmas Rotations, the students played Bingo, Musical Chairs, made bookmarks, fingerprint snowmen, and reindeer food.  They had a blast as always!

We ended December with the Polar Express! I missed this day due to graduation, but I couldn't miss seeing my sweet Kinders in their jammies, so I popped in to take their picture and see them in their jammies and Mrs. Bradley captured some pictures of them drinking hot chocolate and having popcorn.  I'm sad I missed it, but it looks like they had a blast!

Better late than never, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! I am so thankful to all the wonderful families in my classroom and all of you that take the time to follow my blog!

We had an amazing first half of the year! I can't wait to see what 2015 holds for us!  Thanks for catching up with me!  I promise to post more regularly for the rest of the year! :)