Easter CUTENESS discovered = MAJOR FREEBIE!

 

While on the hunt for great, different, digital art for my April Word Banks and Journal, I stumbled upon the wonderfully talented Colleen Bouchard of Lollipops and Unicorns on Etsy! 

I mean…even her banner makes me smile each and every time I visit now!

 

Thanks to her great Easter Art work I got COMPLETLEY and UTTERLY sidetracked from my monthly word bank project and created a Mini Unit that I am now sharing with you for FREE!

YUP…I got a LITTLE involved!  Just for you I have created a mixed addition activity page, an ABC order activity page, scrambled sentence cards and a recording sheet, four ordinal number sets and a recording sheet with added greater than less than, and lastly, correction sentence cards and recording sheet! 

If you grab it, please leave me a comment and let me know what you love and hate about it…it’s my first set and I would love your feedback!

Chat Soon – Kim!

Scramble the Rainbow!

Another wee lil leprechaun activity from me to you!

Chat Soon – Kim!

Caught Ya Peeking at my Pot O’ Gold!

It’s the age old debate in my First Grade group…Do they only need to IDENTIFY the coins, or COMBINE coins?  MONEY.

Munny, Munny, MUUUUNNNNNEYYY!  MONEY!

I struggle with this every year, and depending on the group, sometime my approach is this:

“If they can tell me what the coins are, AND how much they are worth, my job is done!”

And sometimes, in years such as this, when I have been blessed with “student’s that need a challenge”, AND a plethora of parent helpers my approach is this:

“Make em add everything in sight, it’s the most used real life skill they will ever use!”

Either way you look at it, I created these two little Pot ‘O Gold Money pages.  Even on great years, the simple lil identification page will fit great into independent centers, while the combining page will lend to those extra parent helper moments…WA. LA!

Coin Identification…

Coin Combining…

Thanks to Kirsten at KPMDoodles for the great Clip Art!

Chat Soon! - Kim

March Madness

Today I came to this conclusion…55 days of school left.  Oh My Word, how crazy is that, for us it comes down to 6 weeks until spring break, and then 6 weeks until summer break…YIPPPEEE!!!  My mind is in planning overload for the 2012-2013 school year.  My discovery of all the teaching blogs, and Teachers Paying Teachers has inspired me beyond inspiration, and tomorrow will give me the opportunity to start my “summer project pile”!  Yep people that’s right, have you heard of the TPT sale happening tomorrow?  So many great bloggers/creators are offering a 20% off sale, and TPT will be giving a 10% sale, giving us a sale of 28% off all their goods!!!  Check out the great sales, and don’t forget that promo code at the bottom!

So I too have been busy in preparation for the upcoming month…the kiddos loved their February word banks, and I was SO impressed with some of the sentences that they made up all on their own in the lil journals, that I decided to create a new set for March, and here it is for you:

And, after great inspiration from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade, I created a set of ABC order words.  We LOVE ABC ordering in my class, we do it weekly with our rainbow trace spelling cards, and having a smaller set to work with really makes my little’s feel completely successful on their own!

I hope to create some more little March fun for the kiddos, but I love to have all my ducks in a row pre-month entrance, and thought maybe some of you would too!

Chat Soon – Kim

How many SWEETHEARTS do you have?

SO… hubs says that I use the word “SO” too frequently, so I will be altering my openings.  Maybe, we’ll see.  So anyway…

February, such a sweet month.  Literally, sweets EVERYWHERE!  Really we may never get winter and I am doing everything I can to avoid those sweets that look me in the eye at every glance in preparation for my summer wardrobe, ugh! 

I personally can easily pass on those chalky lil conversations hearts, but how can you truly celebrate Valentine’s Day without have them?!  There is no doubt, that the kids, all kids, LOVE THEM!  What teacher wouldn't take advantage of their students love of cuteness and sweets and turn it into a love of statistics and graphing?  Logical connection right? Well to a teacher, OF COURSE!  So, yes I know everyone probably has one of these lil graphs laying around somewhere, but I always like to “cute it up”, much more applicable than Oakdale’s “cowboy up” for the teaching profession!  Happy Hearts and Cupids and all that cuteness!

Chat Soon - Kim

As Promised…

Here is February’s Lil Journal that I will be having the kiddos write sentences in from the February Word Bank Card.  Print these and cut in half, to make your own journal!  Stuff as many writing pages as you want into it!

Chat Soon - Kim

Can it be??? Is that 100 I see???

100 days brings such anticipation.  Hallelujah, only 75 days left until the glory of summer?  But my oh my so much to accomplish in those 100 days!  Why there is still telling time and 2 digits with and without regrouping…I mean all these things have been touched upon, and dealt with whole class, but to get them doing it all on their own?  Oh my, I have my work cut out for me!  I mean look at all these projects that will be joining my room next month, once I get through the scissor time!

That awesomeness you are looking at is part Doodle Bugs Teaching, and part Mwah!  I got inspired from Teacher Bits and Bobs to do a little monthly writing book.  The word bank you see in the above picture is right here for the taking, You.  Are.  Welcome!

Oh the cuteness of the clips art is enough to brighten this mini storm!  Thanks to kmpdoodles and dazzle clip art!  I forgot the journal cover and pages that I made for the kiddos to do their writing in, so visit again on Monday, and I’ll have it up for you!

As I mentioned in the beginning, things are CR-A-ZEE, but I must still do some kind of celebrating in the classroom for 100 days!  If not else than to reiterate the word “celebrate” from The Sleeping Pig!

These Cool Kids are here show the kids that finishing off the 11-12 School Year will be a skate!

Chat Soon - Kim