My Favorite Picture Books Linky Party!!

I LOVE books. I especially LOVE picture books.  Lindsey at The Teacher Wife has a linky party related just to your MUST have picture books and since I love books sooo much I just had to add my two cents.

 Most of my favorites are right in the shelfari widget right next to my blog but I like a bunch more that I have not had the time to put up there right now.


Number 1: The Dot - I love the uplifting message this book gives about believing in your own power to create and have something worth looking at. I think this book allows children to see themselves as powerful. All just because of a little dot.

Number 2: It's a Book - With all the iPads and Nooks and Kindles and PS3s children have the uncanny ability to escape reading actual books and I love how this pokes fun at that fact while also creating the idea that books are interesting and more exciting than any handheld electronic device (though I am also guilty of loving some of these devices abotu as much as the kids ;).

Number 3: You're Finally Here! - This book is such a great beginning to the day or the school year and makes kids as excited to be there as you are. Fell in love with it when I first read it.

 

Number 4: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus - I have read this book so many times that I have it memorized but no matter how many times I read it I still love it. My kiddos this year loved it so much that for some it was the only book they learned to read that year. It's also great for persuasive writing or teaching arguments.

Number 5: Elemenopee - This maybe the most appropriate book on this list for kindergarten since it focuses on the alphabet. It is my favorite alphabet book and it is a pop-up book! It teaches my little ones the importance of not rushing through the alphabet and skipping over L, M, N, O and P. Love the illustrations and of course the pop-ups!!

I could continue to add books but then I would never get started with any of my projects for the day. I <3 Books!

Beachy Weekend and Found a Great Giveaway

Hello Blogland! Spent most of yesterday around Miami Beach and then poolside so have not had much time to write or do much of anything except chit chat and relax.

But today I began my foray into shopping for the beginning of the school year and working on lovely !! I bought doutangs for my handwriting booklets, my poly vinyl home-learning folders, cute nametags for the first day and materials to create something I am super excited about...my ziploc quilt (will post about the creation of that later, did not buy enough red duck tape, again will post about this later ;).

Also worked on a cool Bag Ladies project that I want to make for my kiddos to keep their sight words and writing word banks. I went to one of their workshops and bought a bunch of books filled with ideas for cool science and social studies themed projects, though most would be done by students in 1-5 grades (which can do more on their own or by following simple directions), but if I begin construction of some projects my younger kiddos should be able to finish them with directions and minimal assistance.

Back of portfolio pocket.

Front cover sight words with a design of their choice.

As I read one of my bloggy buddies I stumbled upon an awesome giveaway by The Hands-On Teacher. I love giveaways and though I never seem to win anything, it never hurts to enter and try.  Feel free to join and if you win SHARE!!! ;)

Classroom theme....Sigh....

I know so many people who think of classroom themes. The funny thing is though I have tried I have never been a big theme person (which I think is really weird because I looooovvee everyone else's themes in my school and wish I would have thought of them). I have loosely jungle themed my class a number of times. I love filling the spaces with animals and monkeys are my favorites. I even went completely overboard two years ago and expanded my jungle theme including elements of Horton Hears a Who. One of my more artistic parents made me huge versions of my own laboriously sketched Dr. Seuss characters to put up. I sketched out a scene from the movie and made it close to life size to cover these huge windows in my classroom. I also made jungle vines out of green felt and brown pipe cleaners. It was amazing!! (I kept it up for about a week and then took most of it down). The kids were so upset I had to think of something else for them to put up almsot immediately. Below are some pictures of my classroom from that Horton Hears a Who theme week.

My little monkeys chasing Horton and the speck. (Sorry but all these pics came from my Blackberry and are very fuzzy, I had left my camera at home that day :( I was so sad about that.)

The story characters and the beginning of the mural byt he windows.

Our favorite line from the story and my own version of Seuss's trees as illustrated in the book.

My jungle vines and our sign for the Jungle of Nool over my teacher led center table.

My kiddos writing on lesson from Horton they learned and their pieces of Whoville put together.

One of my kiddos modeling her Horton gear before heading home.

Sigh. Last year I barely had time to set up a classroom let alone think of a theme so I went for primary colors and added my monkeys and some vines. I didn't even take pictures when the room was finished because I ended up losing my camera at the beginning of the year.

I am thinking to go for a primary color scheme and then adding my monkeys but I am not quite sure it's what I want and the more I think about it the less I am sure that I want to do it. I would miss my monkeys if I didn't put them up (and one of the other teachers at my school might ask me to borrow them and I would forget and never get them back).

Any one have any suggestions? I could really use some guidance from any of you experts in classroom themes. :)

What I'm Pinning Wednesday

So I have been in love with Pinterest and it is how I got into blogs actually. (It's a almost like shopping except no money is being spent, well until you actually start working on the projects!) I always wanted to know who came up with the cool project or idea, so I started reading the blogs and loved every minute of it. It helped me to renew my interest in teaching and expanding my knowledge. So when I came upon Kinder Kraziness's linky though Apples and ABCs, I had to add my pins!

When I am on pinterest lately, I have been especially looking for writing ideas and center ideas for my upcoming school year. So here are some great ideas I have found:

This chart would be great a little later in the year to help remind my kiddos with adding details to pictures and (hopefully) their writing. I have been reading more and more about using illustrations as a way to motivate or expand writing and I think this would help.

I definitely would like to start doing writing conferences with my students and this blog has tons of great ideas relating to the Lucy Calkins' writing workshop format, which I am thinking about using and if you have any advice on this please COMMENT! I need the advice.

This is a super cute idea for the first day of school and would make for a great display to put up the very first day of school.

These are some cute ideas for word wall reading and practicing sight words and word families each day pick a card and then show the kids different funny ways to say the words, have them pay attention to sounds and how they change.

Well I will stop now before I start putting all of my pins on here. If you want to see more Follow me on Pinterest. 

Finding Some Focus...

I am finally getting down to the business of planning for next school year. I was going to start on some of the more creative things, but I need more of the practical stuff first. (Darn!)

My biggest worries when it comes to planning for the school year is the knowledge that though I may plan out a year for kinder that may not be where I end up ( I have not heard from the powers that be). I have decided to think positively and plan my year for kinder so that I can finally feel prepared before I start the school year. Each year I tend to plan on a weekly basis which is not the best way to do it. I lost so many opportunities due to lack of planning that I wanted to make sure that it doesn't happen again this year.

The hardest subject to plan for right now is reading. All of my HM Reading materials are at work so I am going to be working off of my lesson plans from this past year and adding and subtracting things that worked or didn't work this year (which will be difficult without the actual books :/ ). I don't really like this series. It doesn't cover the material they really want us to cover but that is what the pacing guide (and my district) tell me to use. Sigh......


Math isn't favorite subject right now either just because the math book we use (GO Math!) doesn't really cover everything that should be taught either (which is why I have been spending so much time online looking for different add-ons to cover necessary material).



Now I am entering this awesome giveaway by Lacey Yates over at Wild about Teaching! She has reached 500 followers and wants to celebrate. Click below or on the link highlighted of you want to enter.

Freebies Linky Party

Since I am new to blogging I am definitely looking around and finding all sorts of ways to join what I am going to call Blogland (not to be confused with Vickyland which is my own fun little place), I am adding this post as a response to Kreative in Kinder's Follow the Road to Freebies.


 I am also new to selling anything online but I have started posting things on Teachers Pay Teachers. Below is a link to my TpT site to a freebie that I spent some time on.

I really wanted something more hands on to do with my students with regards to where capitals go and where punctuation goes in a sentence. I created these using an idea I found in a book but altered it so it uses the First Hundred Fry words (which my kinders had to learn by the end of the year) to create short sentences. There are some mixed up words the kids can cut out and manipulate (if they can read it's also comprehension practice ;) The top has empty spaces where the kids can paste the words in order, then a space to re-write the sentence neatly, and another box to illustrate the sentence. My kinders loved it, but it can also be used for firsties. Well enjoy and if you like please comment (especially if you find any mistakes). 

My Trip to IKEA

Oh how I love visits to IKEA! I do not make them very often because the nearest IKEA is all the way up in Sunrise about 45 minutes from where I live, but the drive is always worth it. I have been racking my brains for ideas on how to organize myself for the upcoming school year.

 --I always feel like I walk around like a chicken with her head cut off especially when I am not sure of what room or even what grade I am teaching! Grrrr!!!---

Well, getting back to my point, I went to IKEA to look for some less expensive versions of things I drool over in places like The Container Store and boxes to store centers that I plan to start working on this upcoming week for next year.

I have been scouring blogs and Teachers Pay Teachers for ideas and materials and trying to come up with some of my own which would again be much easier if I knew what grade I was teaching next year!!!!

Again I digress. I found a bunch of different things that I have put in my to buy list (which will again be on hold until I know what and where I am teaching, humphhhh).

These blue bins are sturdy plastic and see through and would be great to put in my mentor texts and accompanying activities. (Once I get those up and running).

These black bins would be great to organize my math manipulatives so that I would not have them all out at once on the shelves and only shelve the manipulatives we are currectly using.

These big clear bins would be a great place for my students bookbags during the year and then at the end of the year as great storage for my classroom library books.

Well I didn't buy any of these....YET, I will wait on the powers that be to decide my fate and then plan another trip to the IKEA. Sigh....

Though to make myself feel better I did buy these:

 These lovely magazine organizers will be what I use to store some of the center games that I will start working on this week and I think I may even start putting in pics on this blog to keep me motivated and honest.

I will also decorate them and unleash my inner crafty girl. ;)