Things I Love...December Edition

My December favorites...some already purchased, some just coveted!

London Times has become my latest obsession for dresses. They are so comfortable, machine washable and gorgeous! It is a bit early to be thinking of sleeveless dresses in NH, but I am loving the navy/gold combo!

Visual Hundreds Chart

Before I became a Kindergarten teacher, I spent 7 years working as a Certified Instructor in grades K-5. Over those years, one thing really stood out to me - how little understanding many students had of the hundreds chart. 

Editable Calendars

Finding the right behavior plan for a class can be tricky. I tend to change mine with each new school year. When I taught 5th grade I used ClassDojo. Then when I moved back to Kindergarten, I used a card system: green for good, yellow for warning, pink for note home and blue for a role model.

Things I Love...July Edition


I had a crazy busy year switching from 5th grade to Kindergarten. My poor blog has been quite neglected because of this! Of course, this has not stopped me from shopping -- I mean really, can anything stop that? ;)

Here are the things I love for this month - coveted of course, not actually purchased, but hey, a girl can dream!

Click the pictures for links!

ideel


I love ideel - I mean I am seriously addicted to that site. They have gorgeous clothes and amazing prices. I am obsessed with how you can shop by designer too now! I love that zebra dress more than words can express.

White House Black Market 




My sister and I visited this store recently for the first time. I have to say it was more than I ever expected! I had been eyeing their clothes online for awhile, but I wanted to wait to see them in person. I love their prints - even on the pants! And I am not usually a printed pants kind of person. ;)



DSW is always my go to for shoes, I love how many options they have. I would buy all four of these in a heartbeat...however I must stick to my no shopping promise!

I have been moving away from big purses lately...I just feel like I don't need to carry that much stuff and it is so much easier to change over little ones more often! I LOVE this glitter clutch - I may end up breaking my vow for this one!


As I was cleaning my nail polishes out the other day, I noticed that the majority of my polishes come from Zoya. I adore their color selection and I really feel they last longer on my nails then any other polish. My favorite thing is how easy they are to remove! These are the two colors I am currently coveting!

What is on your (dream?) shopping list for this month?

End of the Year Memory Books for K-1


As every teacher knows, the last few weeks of school are a hectic time. They are packed with field trips, field day, assemblies, graduation activities and a whole lot of active children!

Being back in Kindergarten for the first time in ten years, I was a bit unsure of how I could go about keeping them occupied; while still writing, reading and of course, having fun!

I thought that a memory book would be our best bet. I wanted it to be a writing activity we could all do together - but I didn't want anyone to feel stressed or overwhelmed at the thought of making a book.

I decided to use a combination of graphic organizers and open responses. This would allow my students who loved to write the option of expressing themselves freely. The graphic organizer would give enough structure and motivation to even my most reluctant writer! (Or anyone who had a severe case of "summer brain" those days!)

I let my students choose which version they preferred:


They really enjoyed being able to choose the pages they wanted to complete and the style in which they could do it.

We did the graphs together and the class names made a wonderful morning work activity those last few mornings!
One of the parts that my class loved the most was the borders and black and white clipart. They liked coloring it in and I loved how uniquely different each book turned out.

This activity definitely made the last few days a lot more fun for everyone!

If you would like to see more, click here or on any of the pictures above!

I hope you have a wonderful last few weeks of school!

Money Games for K-1

Money Games for K-1, with the names and values of coins. Includes game boards, bingo and puzzles.




Updated for 2022 with a new, clean look!

Money Games Preview for Kindergarten and first grade


The time my Kindergartners have been eagerly awaiting has arrived...our money unit! They are consumed by all things involving money right now!

So, I created some fun games to fit into our centers that will help to reinforce the names, coins and their value.

This set includes:
 Money Puzzles

• 4 way puzzles matching coin front, back, name and value
• 2 way puzzles matching coin with its name
• 2 way puzzles matching coin with its value



Game boards

• What’s the Value? (name the coin and value you land on)
• Name that Coin! (read the value and name the coin)
• How Much Am I Worth? (read the coin name and state its value)



Bingo

• 6 boards (5x5) featuring front and back coin clip art
• call out cards featuring coin name or value for easy differentiating!

These games are excellent resources for math centers, summer skill packets or take home resources!  Click the pictures above for more information!

Happy Sunday!

Daily Weather Station

One (of the many) parts of our Kindergarten morning meeting routine involves the discussing weather and the temperature. To simplify this process I created a weather station:

One helper comes up and chooses the weather card for the day. I laminated each card and added a Velcro dot to the back of the cards and to the front of the poster it attaches too.
Once they have displayed the correct weather card, they write the weather word on the line below.

After we return from February break, we are going to begin using the wordless weather cards. This will allow my students to challenge themselves to sound out, and spell, each weather word correctly using the strategies they have been learning this year.
Since we like to graph whenever we can in Kindergarten, I included weekly and monthly graphs for tracking the weather. We have been using the whole group larger graphs throughout the year.

However, I think they are ready for the challenge of their own weekly graph now!

Including the temperature has been the most interesting component of all. We use the internet to get the most up-to-date temperature. I have noticed that it has made them more congnizant of the weather and changing seasons.

Being in New England, we cannot go outside for recess if it is below 20 degrees. This activity has helped to give them a heads up as to when we will be staying in for recess - that is a lot more pleasant than me having to tell them! ;) It is definitely helping them to be aware of the world around them!

Click the pictures above for more information - or you can head over to my TpT shop to learn more!

How do you incorporate weather into your classroom? Let me know in the comments below!

100th Day of School

100th Day Activity Set for Kindergarten and 1st Grade


Updated for 2022 with a new, clean look!

K-1 100th Day activities


We are rapidly approaching the 100th day in our class, well we were until we were stalled by two snow days. Nonetheless it is lurking around the corner!

I decided to spend my snow days (the first of the season!) creating activities that would be fun, yet still stick with the objectives we are focusing on in Kindergarten.

For Math, I wanted to focus on counting, graphing and patterns. There are 3 games:

Roll to 100, with one dice and two dice options. The two dice version allows students to add for an extra challenge. They also get to predict how many rolls it will take to reach complete a hundreds chart!

Graph It, where they will graph the number of times that they rolled each number on. This includes a one dice and two dice graph template.

Daub a Pattern to 100 - this has 3 options, AB, ABC, or ABCD. This allows your students to self differentiate based on ability and the challenge they seek.

Daub a pattern has the students explain the pattern they created, as well as write a number sentence to go with their pattern.

Each activity comes with samples!

For ELA, there are 3 writing topics: If I had $100, I would buy..., 100 Things I would like to do this summer and 100 School Moments.

Each writing activity comes with graphic organizers to help beginning writers gather their thoughts and generate ideas.

These graphic organizers can be used as a final piece. Students can also choose to write a few sentences about their favorite school moments, or what they hope to do the most this summer, on the writing template paper.

Now I just need 100th day to arrive so we can celebrate!

For additional information, click here, or on any of the pictures above!

How will you be celebrating 100th day? Let me know in the comments below!