2.26.2013

Visual Plans and SmartBoard Fun!

Happy Tuesday loveys! I hope your week is going well :) Another crazy day in kindertown. Today was SUPER busy! I had to rush to physical therapy straight after school again. The parking lot there only has like 10 parking spots in the front and the rest of the parking is in the back, so you have to go all the way around the building to get in. And this is a pretty huge building people. I'm thinking, what on earth is happening with that. Who made that decision?! The majority of the people visiting are injured and on crutches! Way to make us go the extra mile. I passed about 3 people on my way who had given up and were laying on the ground taking a break. One was screaming "Save yourself!!" hehe juuuuust kidding! But for reals, I was panting when I walked through the door, 5 minutes late. After I was done, I went to leave and guess what, it was raining. Sweet. So that was a fun trek back to the car. I felt like I was climbing Mount Everest with the amount of effort I was putting in trying to make my way against the elements. Ok fine, I guess I am being a bit dramatic. Needless to say, by the time I got home, I was exhausted!!!
 
Here is my day 2 back-at-school outfit:
 
 
 
Today we experimented with our brand new SmartBoard and had a blasty blast! Wowie wow wow is that thing awesome. We used it for games, centers, and just about everything in between. How did I ever make it without one?! Here's a glimpse of our fun:
 
 
This is a Kooshball sight word game! They throw the Koosh at the board and a sight word pops up. If they read the word, they get a point for their team. They had so much fun with this one!
 
 
 We used this fabby fab activity during centers today and the kids LOVED it!! I bought this fun game from Susan Falvey on TPT. Click the picture below to check it out :)
 
 
We also continued learning about community helpers! We worked on the second page in our Community Helpers Mini-Book. I had the kids come up to write the words on the SmartBoard as well, and that was exciting because I have never been able to do that before. EEK! I loooove technology!
 
 
We did a few more activities from my Community Helpers Mini-Unit, but I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped. I'll do my best tomorrow to snap as many as I can!
 
In other fun news, I have made my first set of visual lesson plans! WOO HOO! I'm pretty excited about it :) I have to thank the absolutely amazing DeeDee Wills for the inspiration. I know you have heard of her, but if you haven't, she is a MUST to check out. Talk about awesome ideas and creativity that is out of this world! I am linking up with some other totally wonderful bloggers for her "Peek at my Week Linky". I know I am a day or two late to the party, but better late than never! If you want to join in on the fun, click the picture below.
 
 
Click on either of the pictures below to view it in PDF version with clickable links to each activity!
 
 
And don't forget about my fab "The Naughty Leprechaun" giveaway!
Click the picture below to take you back to the original post to learn more about it.
 
 
 
And that's all folks! Stay warm if you are up in the ridiculous snow beast that I keep hearing about. Maybe you feel like you're climbing Mount Everest too hehehe
 
Love and Hugs to all of you, my favorite people ever!

2.25.2013

First Day Back, New Unit, and Dr. Seuss Freebie!

Hello my lovely friends :) Today was my first day back with my littles! WAHOO! I was so excited to get back to school and see my rockstars. Of course they were ridiculously bananas all day long, but that was pretty much what I expected! I'm just happy to be getting back into the swing of things. Here is a picture of my outfit on my first day of school (hehe)! It felt awesome to be wearing normal clothes again instead of yoga pants all the time!


You know what the best part of my outfit is? That leg accesory. O.M.G. it goes with everything! Not. It's hideous. But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! I bought the adorable chevron skirt from Target for only $20! Yay! I can't tell you how big of a deal it is that I am wearing flats. I seriously NEVER wear flats. I only have about 20 pairs of flat shoes so I have no idea what I am going to do for all this time on crutches. My 75+ pairs of heels are calling my name. I'm a high heel fanatic. Sigh. I stared longingly at my beautiful black pumps this morning and almost shed a tear. I swear they were glaring at me as I slipped my feet into these flat babies. Woof.

So when the kids showed up today they were literally jumping off the walls (I mean it when I say literally - one did a wall slide over to me,  while another drop kicked his bookbag). I love their faces though :) All smiley and sweet! One of my girlies who is basically attached at my hip cried in my face. She was squeeling and saying, "My dreams came true! My dreams really did come true! How could this be? You're really here! I hope I'm not asleep". I was just hugging that little thing, cause she was so darn cute. After they all settled in, we were right back into our old groove. It's amazing how quickly you snap into teacher mode, isn't it? And it's amazing how quickly they slip into "Let's make completely absurd choices, just for fun" mode, isn't it? Gotta love those kinders. One of my favorite parts was when two of my kids cut their own hair and ate it during centers. I looked over to see them shoving pieces of hair into their mouths as fast as possible. I called them over immediately and made them spit it out, however, while the first was spitting her hair out, the second was swallowing as fast as she could before she got to the trash can. Not sure what was going on there. It's not like they were hungry, we just got finished with snacks. ANYWAY, long story short, it was a wonderful, long, exciting kindergarten day and I'm thrilled to be back :)

Here are a few snapshots I took with the kids today. One of my sweeties saw my phone on my desk and asked if we could take a "funny picture" together, so I said yes and we took one. I look up .3 seconds later and there are 5 more kids who wanted one now. So we had a little impromptu photography session, but it was fun to just be silly with them for a few!


Today we started our lessons on community helpers! I had about 4,000 things planned, but in true teacher fashion, I only got to about half of them. It literally took me my entire lunch period to walk all the way to my chart paper and make an anchor chart for the afternoon. And it turned out ugly on top of it all. I printed out the cutest labels that I included in my new "Community Helpers Mini-Unit", but of course I ran out of ink so the colors came out ridiculous. I had to go old skool and just use markers. Ooooh, how old fashioned! HA!




The kids completed a student version of the "are can help" chart as we filled out the big one together. We did a few other activities, including starting our community helper mini-books and we read a book, but I didn't take nearly as many pictures as usual. It's tough to make it around the room and snap them! I'll be sure to do better tomorrow :) I will share more of our community helper fun as the week goes on. You can check out my mini unit by clicking the picture below!



And now for a freebie! I created a Rhyme Time activity for Dr. Seuss Day. I plan on using it for centers on Friday. Feel free to grab yourself a copy by clicking the picture below!
 
Don't forget about the FABBY FAB "The Naughty Leprechaun" giveaway I am having! This book is awesome people and is worth over $30! You will definitly want to enter if you haven't already :)
 
 
Love and Hugs You Gorgeous People! :)
 

2.24.2013

SUPER AWESOME GIVEAWAY - So Fun! And A Freebie!

Oh my goodness. I am beyond excited about this. I recently received my copy of the AMAZING "The Naughty Leprechaun" story by Stephanie Hicks. Have you ever heard of this?! It is fabulous. Let me tell you a bit about it! This is an adorable tradition to do with your littles each year. The Naughty Leprechaun tells the story of 2 leprechauns named Liam and Leyland. One of the brothers is a naughty fellow, while his twin brother is always making the right choices! Your kids will get to decide which of the twins they would like to visit them for the 3 nights leading up to St. Patrick's Day! If they get a visit from Liam, they will find treats the next day. If they get a visit from Leyland, there will be mischief waiting for them :) They need to make good choices to have a visit from one of the brothers, or else it will be left up to chance! The whole story and the pictures are seriously adorable. With whimsical illustrations and a creative story, this activity totally reminds me of the elf fun we have around Christmas, and it comes at a time when our kids are getting a bit cray-cray and we could use it! I cannot wait to do this with my littles this year! EEK! Take a look at the awesomeness I opened!


Liam Leyland Coin

So now for the super exciting GIVEAWAY news! Stephanie has been so kind to offer me a copy of "The Naughty Leprechaun" to give to one of my lucky followers! Enter below for your chance to win!


GOOD LUCK (hehe) EVERYONE! I HOPE YOU WIN!

Oh I almost forgot! This week we will be learning about Community Helpers in our room! I can't wait to share the fun with you. Click the picture below to snag a little freebie from my upcoming Community Helpers mini-unit!


Love and hugs friends!

2.23.2013

Teacher Wishlist Linky and Flash Giveaway Winners

Happy Saturday sweet friends! HOoOoOly Crow! There is only 1 more day until I go back to school! EEK! Get ready, because next week I am going to be posting pictures and ideas galore! I'm going to start by telling you the winners of my flash giveaway. I have to say thank you so much for all the sweet and funny comments you all left me on my last post!! You helped make me feel like I was not the only clumsy nut job in this world (and I mean that in the most endearing way possible!) I know that I said I was picking 3 winners, but I couldn't stop myself, so I picked 4. Here they are:
Congrats to the following beautiful people! Be sure to check your email!
#2: Stacy Renee - You won my 3D Shapes Mini Book!
#5: Amber - You won my Color Mini Book
#15: Jessica - 2D and 3D Shapes Mini Books
#18: Becky - 2D and 3D Shapes Mini Books
I hope you are able to use these with your littles! Thanks for all of your support!
And now I am going to be linking up with the super-de-duper awesome Melissa over at First Grade Smiles for her Teacher Wishlist linky! If you haven't already joined in the fun, be sure to click the picture below to link up! And be sure to follow Melissa's blog, she is a rockstar.
This is the very best becasue I LOVE buying things. Seriously. TOO much. Here are a few things that I have my eye on!


As just about everybody in the entire world knows, these markers are the BEST. I use (and smell) them at least 5 times each day. They are a total must for morning message and for creating anchor charts!

The picture above on the right is a box of Hot Dots. If you haven't tried these before, they are pretty cool! The box contains little cards with different skills on them. Students use a special pen to choose an answer to a question. If they get it correct, it dings, and if they choose the wrong answer, it buzzes. I have had these on my wishlist foooorever. One of these days I'm just going to buy them :)


Sam's Snack was one of my absolute favorite books as a kid. I literally cannot find this book anywhere for a reasonable price! I would love to have a copy. The second book is The Leprechaun Trap. I'm going to need to grab this one soon because I have a lot of fun ideas coming up for March :)


I do morning yoga with my littles each day and this set is a must! I have a poster that contains all of the different poses, but I do not have the book. I need to get a copy!

And of course I had to add a few things from my TPT wishlist as well!


 I hope you will link up! I would love to see what is on your wishlist!

Love and hugs to you all and enjoy your weekend!

2.21.2013

I'M BAAAACK! Life, Hall Pass, and FLASH Giveaway!

Hello beautiful ones!! It has officially been 10 days since my last post. 10 days!! Can you believe it?! I definitly needed a little break, but I am so excited to be back. I am seriously missing all my friends in the blogging world! Like for reals you guys. Totally missed you! Here's a little breakdown of what I've been up to:

1*Going back and forth to the doctor! This leg of mine is going to drive me insane. I'm still not back in my classroom unfortunately, but next week is 100% the week I'll be back! I already have my signed note to return back to work.Woo hoo! I have to go to physical therapy 3 times per week. Yikes. In the words of my good friend Sweet Brown, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" It's not so bad really. It actually feels quite nice to move my leg after being stationary for so long. Yesterday I even drove myself there! One small step in the right direction folks. And yes, I totally went to target and bought 3 pairs of yoga pants and 2 work out shirts for the occasion. I'm not abouts to show up there in my ratty old sweats. No girl, I crutched myself in there like an Olympian. Too bad my hopes of being a track star were shot down when he asked me to do a straight leg lift, and I couldn't. Way to make a girl feel weak buddy. I did feel better with the sideways leg lifts, which I was actually capable of doing. He told me that was my "Maxim" shot! Ha!

2*House hunting. We will be moving out of our townhome in June (which I'm quite sad about) and are on the hunt for a new house! We have looked at about 3 million houses. Let me tell you, it is not that fun of a process. There's way more business involved than I ever thought possible and its more stress than excitement. You may find me in a cardboard box here in a few months. And holy crow, when did houses get so expensive? My TPT better start picking up, and by "picking up", I mean that I need to be the next self made millionaire to afford buying a house on a teachers salary.

3*Creating things for my TPT and TN stores! I could literally just do that as a job and be happy :) I have probably canceled out all the money I have made through purchasing clipart. It is a sickness. Somebody needs to stop me!! I know there are some of you out there who feel the same way. Welcome to CAA (Clipart Addicts Anonymous). The meetings start on Tuesday, we'll be offering coffee and bagels, no  laptops allowed :)
 
Here are a few of my newest creations:
 
 
 
 
FLASH GIVEAWAY! WOO HOO!
I am going to give away your choice of 1 of these newest creations. I will choose 3 winners on Saturday morning to pick one of the items listed above and email them their choice for free!
 
Here's what you have to do:
*Follow my blog!
*Follow my TPT store HERE
*Leave a comment on this post stating which item you would want to win and be sure to leave your email address!
 
And that's it! I hope you win!!
 
4*Reading!! My favorite thing to do in the entire world. I am currently in the middle of 3 books. I need to just choose one and finish it all the way through. I'm on the last book in the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" series. So awesome, but definitely requires some thinking. I'm also reading "The Hunger Games" book number 2, also incredible. And finally, I just started the book "Beautiful Creatures", not much of an opinion about it yet, I'm only in the first few pages, but will let you know how that goes. I also just bought about 10 more kindle books. Seriously, I need to chill and stop buying more books. Sigh. There's nothing like the feeling of buying a new book though!

5*Catching up on my very favorite shows! I've watched half of the first season of The Secret Circle. Not nearly as good as Vampire Diaries, but it'll do. I'm also a weekly Bachelor, New Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Shameless, and American Idol fan. There is plenty to keep me occupied!

And that about sums up my life the past week and a half. I've always wondered, what would I do if I wasn't a teacher, and this is it, I guess. Lets just say I'm not accomplishing many life changing things these days. What I would give just to walk again! Here's the crutch report: 8 weeks down, 5 more weeks to go. Count them - 1,2,3,4,5. Yes. 5 more weeks on crutches!!! Argh! I never realized how lucky I was to be able to walk. It literally takes me 5 minutes just to get up to get the remote across the room. It is unreal how many small things are much more complicated now. And now I have a small story to share with you, which is a perfect example of how complicated it is for me to complete a normal task.
It is titled "My First Kitchen Adventure".  It all started while I was sitting on the couch watching tv. Heard a little tummy growl and no one was home, so I decided, hmm, maybe I'll try to make something for myself! I think I was feeling overly confident from being able to drive again. It was that sneaky false confidence my friends, it'll get ya. So after a 5 minute crutch to the kitchen, I open the freezer and find my favorite Gardeins (it's the best vegetarian meat substitutes out there. They have tons of awesome flavors. This one happened to be my favorite, Terriyaki Chik'n). So I try to put a little oil in the pan when it like completely pours out of the spout and half my plan is full. I was not happy. But whatevs, I was cooking and what was a little extra oil going to hurt? Count that as mistake number one. So I turned the heat on high (yes, that was mistake number two if you're keeping count). Meanwhile, Chunky Lola is scratching on my leg. So I decided to take her out while I was waiting for the oil to heat up. Mistake number three. Sneaky Liam creeps up behind me, leashless I might add, and slips through the door before I can stop him. This dog is bananas I tell ya. I worry about him often, as he seems to hit his head on things a lot. So he's running like he has just escaped from prison. Cue the nasty old neighbors screaming that my dog is not on a leash. And I am screaming back, "I'm sorry, I can't really chase him right now but he will come back soon. He just snuck out", and she screams "WHAT?" And I repeat my whole sentence, and she screams "WHAT?" And I scream "NOTHING. OK?! NOTHING". Not my proudest moment. Then she screams, "He's running into the front yard!!" and I said, "Don't worry, he will come back in a moment."  And she said, "WHAT?" And I said nothing and just shook my head because I had just about had it at that point. So now I'm yelling at Liam, saying that I have treats and cake and cookies and anything else I could think of just to get him back in the house. Finally I pulled out the Grandma card. I said grandma was here to visit. Boy did that dog run into the house faster than lightening. I felt terrible later when he sat in front of the door for 3 hours. For being so dumb, he sure has a good memory. After he runs into the house, the neighbor gives me the death stare and screams, " He needs a leash." To which I responded, "He has a leash, I'm on crutches and he snuck past me before I could grab him, I'm sorry, it won't happen again." To which she replied (you guessed it) "WHAT?" And I screamed "NOOOOOOTHING!" and crutched myself back through the door. So by the time I got back to the kitchen, it had been about 15 minutes. The oil was definitely hot because it was smoking. I turned the heat down and let it sit. I figured it had cooled after a few minutes of waiting, and that was mistake number four.  I opened the bag of Chick'n and noticed that it was a bit freezer burned. I was determined to make it and didn't care if it had mold on it at that point because after all that had happened, I just wanted to eat the d**n Chick'n. If you are someone that cooks often, you probably know what is coming next. I clearly am not one of those someones. So I just shook all the ice covered Chick'n out of the bag into the oil and O.H. M.Y. S.T.A.R.S. it was like the fourth of fricken July in my kitchen. It was popping so loudly all over the place. Apparently the freezer burn ice was melting in the oil and if you have ever added water to hot oil, you know what this was like. I'm being splattered to death with this burning oil all over my arms and I'm trying to back up as quickly as possible, which is seriously tough to do on crutches, and that's when the worst thing of all happens. The oil had splattered all over the tile floor. And guess what happens when you use crutches on oil covered tile? Yup. You slip. And that's what I did. Went flyin backward. Thank the heavens I lifted my leg in the air as not to cause further damage. So picture this: I am laying on the kitchen floor, covered in oil, my dogs are barking obnoxiously and trying to attack the stove when: beep, beep, beep. The fire alarm goes off. You cannot make this stuff up. I had lost all hope. Eventually I dragged myself up by gripping the counter and turned off the stove. The smoke died down and the alarms finally stopped. I used a wet wipe to clean the tile. And then I just went back and sat on the couch, without my food, which was burned to a crisp.  Needless to say, I will not be attempting to make myself dinner anytime soon. I'm sticking to my pizza lunchables and applesauce.

And there you have it kids! A week in the life of a temporarily crippled, out of work teacher. You never know what could happen next! Tune in next week when I attempt to tackle the microwave! What could go wrong? One might think nothing, but never underestimate me.
 
And now for a totally awesome linky! The fabulous Reagan over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits is hosting a Hall Pass linky party! If you haven't done so already, click the picture below to join the fun!
 
 
Here is how it works:
 
 
 
This one is super fun! Who doesn't love the chance to brag about their own creations?! I think my favorite product that I have in my store right now is my complete set of KB Fonts. I loooove making them and have had such amazing feedback. I've had about 5 or 6 people email me about logo use and it feels amazing that people are using what I have made :)
 
 
There are 49 fonts total and I am still making more each day! I started with 20 fonts and have added the other 29 in the past month!! Here are just a few of them:
 
 
 
Well they just put in my SmartBoard about a week ago and since I haven't been there to check it out yet, I cannot claim it as my favorite. However, I KNOW it will be my fave very soon :) The area of my classroom that I love the most would have to be our morning meeting/calendar area. We do so many fabulous things together there each day. I also love love love my morning check-in area. It is one of the best things I could have added to my room. It definitly gives the kids a sense of independece and responsibility, which is super important.
 
 

 
My favorite signal to use in my classrom is the music box! Mine looks a little like the one below, but it is cuter and it plays one of my favorite songs, "Clare de Lune"! I use the music box as a quiet signal. I wind it up at the beginning of each day. Every time they are getting too loud, I just open the lid and let the music play. I keep the box open until they are quiet again, then I close it. If they have music left in the box by the end of the day, we get to have recess! If they run out of music because it was opened too many times, there is no recess. Let me tell you, this seriously works. They are SILENT when I open that box!!
 
 
 
There are 3 main things in my life that keep me sane: chocolate, wine, and my fuzzy babies. Ooooh and books. You could sit me on the couch with a box of chocolates, sipping some Moscato, curled up with my puppies, reading a book and I would never move again. Without these things, I think I would be toast. (probably burnt toast, knowing me).
 
Thanks to Reagan for hosting such a SUPER fun linky :)
 
I promise I will have more important things to talk about soon, maybe even something school related!  Ooh la la! Wouldn't that be a nice change around here! I totally love you guys. Thanks for sticking with me through these crazy rough times. I'm sending you all my love and hugs from the unbearably hot and sunny Florida! Hope your day is filled with rainbow and sunshine (and no grumpy neighbors!) XO