March Currently and New Products

Hello March! Hello Spring! Good-bye Winter! Good-bye Snow!... Oh wait, we're suppose to get 10-25cm of snow tonight. Grrrrr! No more snow please! Unless we get a snow day. Then it'll be worth it. I'm linking up with Farley for her Currently of the month. Here we go...

Way back in September, I saw this great idea floating around to make "new student" bags full of everything you would need for a new student--classroom handbook, desk name plate, hook tag, etc. So when I was getting everything together for my new class, I created five bags for new students. I thought I was being overly cautious, but figured if I didn't use them next year, I'd probably just use them again the following year.

Well turns out someone installed a revolving door on my classroom this year and I have had a total of 7 students move out and 6 new students move in. So I ran out of new student bags and have to make all new stuff for my 6th new student starting on Tuesday! Errrggh! Right before report cards too... So stressful!!

Anywho, my three A's. I like animals, especially my adorable puppies (see left side bar if you have not seen their adorable-ness before!) and I love awesome friends who are always there for me to rant and rave to. I hate annoying people... who complain about things that don't matter and who treat people like they don't matter. Boo to them!

Seeing as it's report card month I have been really procrastinating (of course) so I have put together a few new products for TpT. First up, I finally finished my St. Patrick's Day Word Work Centres. Click the picture below to check them out at TpT.

Included in this pack are a stamping centre, mixed up sight words, long i word family sort, scrambled sentences, and ABC order.

I needed to make some sight word cards to practice with my lowest reading group, so I put together some bright and colourful rainbow sight word cards. I made two different packs--Dolch word list and Fry words. Click the pictures to check them out.

I have also been working on my Year-End Memory Book. This is a pack of pages to create a keepsake for your students to take home at the end of the year. They get to reflect back on their favourite activities throughout the year. There are 57 different pages--some for each month, season, and holiday. There are also pages for each school subject and activity.

And of course I had to leave you with a freebie. This is a little how-to writing activity I put together. We start out graphing how we like to eat our Oreo--by splitting, dipping in milk, or biting. Then we put together a little circle book with directions on how to eat an Oreo. Of course we have to do some Oreo tasting to go with out writing! Yum! ;) Click the picture to get your free Oreo writing activity.

Five for Friday!

Time for another "Five for Friday" linky with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Go visit Renee {here} to get your own Snowman Name recording sheet. Thanks, Renee!

Hall Pass!

This has been the shortest. week. EVER! Monday--holiday, no school. Tuesday--snow day, no school!! Wednesday & Thursday--regular classes. Friday-P.D. Day, no kids! Pretty sweet. I will take it!

So I am linking up with Reagan's fun linky party Hall Pass!

I'm loving my new word work centres that I've been putting out each month, but I think for my favourite product I am going to choose my guided reading cards. I use these on a daily basis for our Daily 5 time. I've switched things up a few times since the start of the year, due to different pull outs and , but the cards have been helpful. Instead of writing my students names on the group cards included in my pack, I put each student's name on a coloured sticky. This makes it easy to move centre groups around and still know which kids are in which reading group. Works great for me!

My favourite area in my classroom is the cozy little library. I moved some furniture around last week, so our library got a bit cozier. It's a little nook now. This layout helps keep the shelves in the same spot though. Before they would get rolled around and pushed back and I was always straightening them at the end of the day! This layout  works a lot better!

I use the "Class? Yes!" signal to get my students attention this year. It works great because my kids are so yappy that they love repeat what I'm saying, especially if I use a silly or high-pitch voice. During working time, if things are getting too loud I ring this little bell on my desk and whisper "Quiet Bell". If I have to ring the bell three times in a certain period of time, we have five SILENT minutes. I've only had to do this a couple of times. After the first bell we usually get pretty quiet. (<-- quiet bell was an awesome tip from Teacher Tipster)

Some cuddles with my puppies, a phone call with my mom or my aunty or both, a diet Dr. Pepper, and maybe some chocolate...  You gotta have someone to vent to! My teaching partner is awesome because our classes are both super weak so we understand each other's frustrations. But I also have my mom who teaches a grade 3/4 class and my aunty (who is my best friend) who teaches juniour high French and music. They totally "get it". :)


Well, that was fun! Thanks for sticking around! I forgot to blog about a new freebie I posted on TpT, so here it is. Just a quick and easy math centre: Hundred Chart Fill Ins! There are 10 different charts. You can laminate them or stick them in a plastic page protector so students can use dry erase markers to fill in the missing numbers. There are different patterns, like counting by 3s and 5s, even and odd, or random numbers. Good for differentiation as well! Click the picture below to check them out!

100 Day!

Why is it that Groundhog Day, 100 Day, Valentine's Day, and I Love to Read month **ALL** have to be in the same month?? Seriously. Couldn't we spread them our a bit more? January is pretty empty. Put one there. Same with May. Not much going there! :) I totally skipped Groundhog Day this year. It was on a Saturday anyways, so oh well. Maybe next year!

Our 100 Day celebration today was a success though! We started the day doing our calendar journals, seeing where 100 steps would take us, seeing how many times we could do things in 100 seconds, listening to some Mr. Harry's Kindergarten videos, and reading some 100 Day books!

Then we made our hats! Oh boy. I had a parent volunteer staple ten coloured strips to a white sentence strip last week. Then today students put ten different things on each strip to make 100 things. They were some pretty crazy hats! We put bingo dabbers, stamps, dot stickers, marker designs, and square stickers. That was the last time I used dollar store stickers!! Stickers kept falling off all day long. They didn't stick to the hats, but they sure stuck to the floor! I had to borrow the custodian's scraper to get them off. It was ridiculus! But the kids loved the hats, so I guess it was worth it. :)

 These are the labels we glued on the front. Super cute! Click the picture to download a copy for yourself.

The kids loved our pinterest inspired door sign! I had to duck to get in the classroom each time, but I guess it's the price we pay.

In the afternoon, the first and second grade teachers each put together a hundred day activity and the classes each rotated to the other classrooms. In my classroom we made gumball machines and used q-tips to paint 100 gumballs. In the other classes students made fruit loop neclaces, crowns, 100 chart mystery pictures, and towers out of 100 dixie cups. They had a blast! I, on the other hand, was exhausted. 130 gumball machines later... I was ready for nap! Which I did have this evening. It was wonderful.

Hope your 100 Day was a success, too! Rest up. In two days, it's Valentine's Day! Woo woo!

A Year of Write the Room

The kiddos in my class really enjoy the "Write the Room" centre for word work. I think they feel important walking around the room with a clipboard and pencil. I finally put together a pack of "Write the Room" sheets for every seasonal. This pack has 40 sheets to keep your kiddos busy all year long! Click the picture to check it out at TpT!

Students roam the classroom looking for words that begin with the letters that are on the page.

I also still have my freebie winter "Write the Room" up for you to try it out. It contains five different winter sheets. Check them out by clicking the picture below!

Valentine Word Work Centres

So glad I got these finished for next week! My students love when I add new centres and I know they will love these ones. Click the picture to check them out at TpT!

There are five word work centres included in this pack:

1. Valentine Stamping - Always a big hit! Students stamp Valentine words, using an optional word bank. (Just add alphabet stamps!)

2.  Word Building - Students make words using 10 different short vowel word families.

3. Roll, Read, Keep - A sight word game using Dolch Pre-Primer and Primer words. (A blank page of cards is included to add your own words.)

4. Mystery Words - Find the 20 hidden Dolch sight words in the Valentine Town picture. 

5. Long and Short E Sort - Students sort the picture cards into the correct categories. Cut and paste recording sheet to go with it.

These are up just in time for the sale tomorrow and Monday! Check out all the goodies at TpT.

Currently and Five for Friday!

It's Friday! And February 1st! Time for Farley's Currently! Also time for another Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

So my pet peeve... I can't stand when kids touch things they shouldn't be! Things on my desk... the daily schedule cards... stuff in someone else's desk... Just don't do it!! I'm not a big stickler about things in the room, but there are certain things you just don't need to be touching!! Anywho, enough about that! Here we go with my weekly randoms...

1. Here's one of my sweeties working on her calendar book. Each day we do calendar, we just do the work in pencil. Then on the last day of the month we colour the days of the month in our monthly pattern and answer the questions about how many days, how many school days, and the most/fewest types of weather.

2. My sweet EA brought me a coffee this week. I love the word "funtastic". Hehe. She's so cute.

3. We started learning our doubles this week. Have you heard Mr. Harry Kindergarten's doubles song yet? Listen {here} and {here}. My kids love it! Warning: it *will* get stuck in your head. This is just a quick and easy doubles cover up game. Students flip over a card (A-10) or roll a ten sided die, double the number, and cover up the sum. First one to cover all their numbers wins! You can download a copy {here}.

4. We're getting ready for 100 Day! Ours will be on February 12th. I made these cute counting mats (inspired by Erica's). I laminated them so I can use them again next year. We can use them for our 100 collections and fruit loop necklaces!

5. We're studying our five senses. Yesterday we talked about our sense of touch and did the mystery bag experiment. I had twelve bags with a variety of items (lego, spoon, mitten, book, etc.) and students had to figure out what was in the bag just by using their sense of touch. I blogged about this last year and had the sheets available to download. They always have fun with this activity!

That's it for now! Just a reminder that Sunday is the big Super Bowl sale! Everything in my store will be 20% off. Use the promo code SUPER to get an additional 10% off. Check out my store {here}.

Thanks for the cute logo Ashley!