K/1 Giveaway with Mrs. Kelly's Klass

I have *never* done this before!! I am breaking a bloggy rule by posting twice in one day!! But I just had to share about this amazing opportunity to win some back to school goodies! Sam over at Mrs. Kelly's Klass is making the exciting move from second grade to kindergarten! In celebration of that, she is hosting a K/1 giveaway with a kindergarten prize pack and first grade prize pack. I have donated My Calendar Journal to the first grade prize pack. Click the picture below to enter her giveaway and see all the fabulous prizes you could win! You have until July 11th toe enter. Winners will be announced on Friday. Good luck!

Picture Book Linky Party #1

I am a little late to the party, but I just found DeAnne's *adorable* blog First Grade and Fabulous. She is having a weekly linky party to link up your favourite picture books, based on various topics. She is already on week three, so I am really behind! I'm going to do one a day for the next three days though, so I can catch up on the fun. If you have been following my blog for a while (or are related to me or live with me...) you know that I have an OBSESSION with picture books. My boyfriend tells me I could start my own public library. Hehe. So here we go with Picture Book Linky Party #1. The topic: Picture Books for the First Week of School. I'm going to do a Top Ten (in no particular order) so here we go!

Back-to-School Rules by Laurie Friedman

This book is new to me... I just purchased it from Really Good Stuff. It's a cute rhyming book that goes over some basic classroom rules (raising hand, not being late, etc.) A good introduction to talk about classroom/school rules.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! by Lucille Colandro

I love reading these books each month. I think the author listened to teachers, because there is now a book for each month! I usually use some of the activities from the mini units from Castles & Crayons.

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray

This is a great story for going on a walk around the school! The gingerbread man visits different locations in the school and would make a great scavenger hunt for the first day/week. Erin Eberhart has a cute pack to go with this book.

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

A classic story to ease those nerves of the first day. So many cute crafts to go with this book. Just Pinterest it! {Is that a verb now? Like Google? hehe}

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneburg

Such a cute story with a surprise ending! ;) Tells the students that *everybody* is a little bit nervous on the first day of school.

Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

I love Splat and this book is another great read aloud to talk about our nerves. 

First Grade Jitters by Robert Quackenbush

This has become a yearly staple, especially is you use The Inspired Apple's recipe and poem for Jitter Juice!! It is something they will always remember from that first day.

David Goes to School by David Shannon

Another great book to discuss classic rules. Plus students just *love* the David books. They were a very popular choice during read to self time. We used The First Grade Parade's peacemaker/peacebreaker activity.

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin

I love Pete. I think every K-2 teacher does by now. I always do the Pete books for my first author study. I am so excited about all the new books coming out! I already have Pete's Big Lunch, Pete at the Beach, Play Ball, and The Wheels on the Bus. Coming soon are Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses (Oct. 1), Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving (Oct. 1), Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day Is Cool (Nov. 26), Pete the Cat: Big Easter Adventure (Jan. 28), Pete the Cat: Old MacDonald Had a Farm (Feb. 18), and Pete the Cat: Cool for School (Feb. 25). Woo hoo! 

The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing

I think I have all of Natasha Wing's "The Night Before" books. There's one for every holiday! I love that! This is a great one to talk about what students did to get ready for school! 

Did I miss any of your back to school favourites? Go link up with First Grade and Fabulous so I can check them out!

I will leave you with a fun little activity I plan to do on the first day of school. I came across a cute Finding Nemo snippet on YouTube. I am going to show the video and talk about how Nemo felt on his first day of school and compare it to how we feel on our first day. I made this cute recording sheet for my students to draw pictures of how Nemo felt and how they feel on their first day of school. We will keep this in our portoflios (my new school does these... not quite sure how I am going to work them this year, but we will see!). Click the picture to download your copy. I made a vertical version and a horizontal version. 

Techy Updates!

Alright, I'm back from camping and feeling quite a bit more relaxed! I finally feel like summer has started. I have a blank week ahead of me... meaning no renos, no work, and nothing on the schedule! So excited! Here's how much fun the puppies had swimming and camping this weekend.... they were exhausted on the ride home! :) A tired puppy is a happy puppy!

So I've been playing around with some of new bloggy technology that has been floating around. First up, Blog Lovin'! When I first heard that Google Reader was going down, I signed up for Blog Lovin' and immediately became a fan! I don't know how you like to read your favourite blogs, but I love the Blog Lovin' toolbar. I just open up Blog Lovin'... see how many unread posts I have, then open them up in the toolbar. This way I get to see the full layout of each blog. I love seeing all the different blog templates out there... (I'm thinking I might be in need of a makeover one day!)

I find it's so simple to use. Just click the <newer or older> button to see all of your unread posts from all the blogs you follow! You can also "like" posts to remember them for later. Do you follow your favourite blogs with Blog Lovin' like I do? Would you like to follow me? It's easy. Just click the picture below and click the blue follow button! 

Next, I've been playing around with my Facebook page. I've uploaded some new pictures of my new classroom! All I have done so far is move in tons and tons of boxes, so there's not much to see. But it gives you a before picture when I show you my absolutely finished classroom! We aren't allowed back into the school until August 19th... and then I only have 4 days to unpack, organize, and decorate my classroom before I am off to Vegas for a week! Woot woot! I'm not complaining though. It's going to be a very busy, exciting summer!

Click here to see pictures of my new classroom!

Here is a new freebie for you--a math game that practices addition to 20, using manipulatives. It is called "Add Them Bones". Students take turns spinning the two number spinners, putting doggy bones on the dog houses, and writing an addition sentence to go with it! A fun math station that can be played alone, in partners, or in small groups. (Note: The game board comes in full colour like picture, without the background colour, or in black & white.) Click the picture below to get your own copy!

And the last bit of techy adventure... I finally joined the Instragram craze. I'm not sure who is interested in following me, but I do take lots of iPhone pictures! Sometimes those pictures don't make it to my blog, so Instagram will be a fun way to share those extra pics! Just click the picture below and click the blue follow button!

Well, that's it for now! Have a relaxing Sunday!

July Currently

I am officially on summer break now, but it does not feel like it yet! I had kids right up until Wed., June 26th. Then I had two admin. days Thurs. and Fri. Thursday I had to stuff my report cards, do my cum files, fill in the Grade 2 teachers on the students they will be getting next year, and empty out my classroom! It was a busy day, but I left a nice, empty classroom for the teacher returning! Friday I got to spend at my new school, where we had a staff meeting all morning and in the afternoon I unpacked my vehicle (load #1... I still have another load at my house to move this week!) into my brand, new classroom!

So not only was I busy with the regular end of year stuff and moving schools, we decided that we wanted to buy a new place out in the country (5 acres of land for the silly puppies to enjoy) and sell our existing house. We have been up to our eyeballs in painting, cleaning, fixing, and renovating the house for the last two weeks!! It was nuts!! But it's pretty much all done and the listing for the house is up, so now we just have to wait for some buyers! :D

I will always have time to link up with Farley, so here I am for the July Currently!

I will leave you with a fun summer-y picture of our puppies. Just enjoying their swimming pool. Haha. They are so excited to move out to the country! :)

Five for Friday {Father's Day and Freebies} ... whoa, alliteration!

I really had planned to link up on the actual Friday, but it was a lazy night. Watched a bit of TV with the animals and was in bed by 10. That's pretty early for me, especially on a weekend! So here I am, linking up for Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday on Saturday!

Random #1

There are only 8 days of school left!! Woo hoo!! I didn't go all fancy on our countdown. Just a little corner on the whiteboard.

Random #2

We made our Father's Day presents. I like the food idea, because what Dad doesn't like to eat?? So I came up with Dad's Nuts & Bolts! I used a no-bake recipe that my mom always makes around Christmas time. So yummy! I put out pretzels, goldfish crackers, Shreddies, Cheerios, and peanuts. Students put a scoop of each into a medium-size freezer Zip-loc bag. Then I put a tablespoon of "sauce" into the bag. The student then shook up their nuts & bolts and we stapled the cute bag topper onto the top. Easy peasy! We made 26 bags in only an hour. It went pretty smoothly. {Next time though I would put each item into a bowl though--way easier for littles to scoop out of!}

I think the bag topper turned out so cute! You can get the recipe and bag topper for free from TpT. Click {here}. For cards, we just used some scrap book paper cut in half and folded in half. Then I shrunk some cute Dad colouring pages (just search Google for some). Colour, cut, and glue. Done and done.

Random #3:

We did a fun search and find activity for the vowel sounds of "Y". First we listened to the song "Y Can Be A Vowel" from Starfall. Then I had hidden 16 cards around the room--8 of the cards had words that ended in a Y that sounded like an E (like bunny) and 8 of the cards had a Y that sounded like I (like fly). You can download this fun activity for free from {here}.

Random #4:

We have started working on our Year End Memory Books. They turned out super cute! I printed the covers on neon cardstock. On the back cover I included some photos of each child that I had taken throughout the year. I included a photo from the first day of school and a group silly photo. Then I added some randoms of that specific child. We are writing about things we have learned (favourite literacy centre, favourite math activity, favourite thing to do at recess, etc.) On the last day of school we will pass our memory books around and sign each other's book beside our school photos. These will make such a great keepsake!

Random #5:

I love shopping. Here's a few fun things I picked up this weekend!

This is a fun math game I found at Chapters! It's a number puzzle, but it will perfect for practicing subitizing! It works on numbers from 1-10 and practices dice patterns and finger patterns. Students can play by themselves as a puzzle or take turns rolling the dice with a partner. This will be a fun "Math with Someone" game.

Cute new book about a crocodile who LOVES watermelon... until he eats a seed! Uh oh! Adorable. I'm going to read this and do a watermelon activity afternoon sometime this week. Fun, fun! I plan to use this fun freebie from Jessica at Wild About Firsties!

I love my Toms shoes. I have a pair of grey classics and black classics and I wear them all the time! They are so freaking comfortable! Plus, I can feel good about buying shoes, because they donate a pair of shoes for every pair you buy! It's basically like donating to charity, right?? Well when I saw these new ballet flats, I had to get a pair! They are adorable and super comfy too! :)

Well, that's it for now! I have a house to clean and report cards to finish and some procrastinating to do. Happy Saturday!

New Books! and Zoo Freebies!

I have no problem admitting it. I have a problem. I buy books. A lot of books. My classroom library is ridiculously full. I love it! My bf doesn't even comment anymore when there's a box from Amazon or Chapters in the mail. I'm just thankful my Scholastic books go right to school. He doesn't need to see those boxes too. lol. I thought I would show you what just arrived in my latest Amazon order. I got some cute new ones!!

When I heard of The Three Little Gators, I knew I had to get it to add to my Three Little Pigs collection. It'll go perfect with my little mini-unit! The book is hilarious. "Then I'll wiggle my rump with a bump, bump, bump and smash your house!" Super cute. Did I ever show you my students' fractured fairy tales? They turned out really cute. I used the story map and writing pages from my mini-unit to create their own versions of The Three Little Pigs. Some titles were The Three Little Horses and the Big Bad Bull, The Three Little Lukes and the Big Bad Darth Vader (yes, he is obsessed with Star Wars), The Three Little Mice and the Big Bad Rat, The Three Little Cats and the Big Bad Dog, and The Three Little Kids and the Big Bad Dad. Too funny!

I have all the Scaredy Squirrel and Tacky the Penguin books, so when each of them came out with a new book I had to add them to my cart right away! I can't wait to read Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping on our camping day! Should be fun! Happy Birdday, Tacky will wait until next year when I do my penguin unit!

I bought two new school bus safety books that we will read in September when I do my bus safety unit! Safety Dave and Daisy Ride the Bus is a cute book about a boy bring his dog to school for show and tell!

And last up, I bought two new zoo books to go with our zoo unit! These came just in time. Our field trip is on Thursday! We are getting so excited. It's supposed to be a beautiful day! Along with our zoo animal cards, we learn about the types of animals (mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, insects, and fish) and things related to the zoo. I use some ideas from Hope King's unit On Safari: An Animal Science Unit and Melissa Hodson's Off to the Zoo! Unit. I also put together a few pages about living things, zookeepers, animals vs. people, etc. Click any picture below to download a copy for yourself!

If you are visiting the zoo, don't forget my zoo trip reflection freebie I posted last year too. Check that post here. Alright, I'm off to snooze. Enjoy your week!