Input Needed.....BIG decision to make! :)

Okay Ladies (and gentlemen, I guess)! I have a BIG decison to make and I would like to hear y'all's input. :) I am getting ready to go back to school for my Master's Degree....the only problem is I am not exactly sure what I should get it in. I have my Bachelor's in Elementary Education. Should I get my Master's in the same thing or would it be more beneficial to me (now that I am teaching kindergarten and plan to stay with the lower grades) to get my Master's in Early Childhood? I am leaning more towards Early Childhood, but I'm not sure which would help me more. What are your thoughts? I would love to hear 'em! Thanks in advance for your help. :)

New Grade, New Look, Ready for a New Year! Kindergarten, here I come!

It is official! I am now a kindergarten teacher. :) I am so excited and a little nervous. I started working in my new classroom this week. Here is a "before" picture of my classroom:

Pretty much a blank slate, which is what I like! I will share an "after" picture once I get everything settled. Notice though that I have a........da ta da da...SMARTBoard! Yay! Now I just have to learn how to use it. LOL

In case you didn't notice, I also pimped my blog a little. I LOVE my new design and I hope you do too. Design Muse did an excellent job. Go check out her etsy shop when you have a chance. You can access it from here.

I hope to be posting pictures of some the things that I am doing in my classroom and some of the station activities. :) Be looking for some FREEBIES in the coming weeks. :)

Lastly,

ATTENTION KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS!

Since I am new to the kindergarten world (moving from 4th grade), I am a little overwhelmed. If any of you have any words of wisdom or tricks of the trade that you would be willing to share, I would GREATLY appreciate it! Thanks in advance. :)

Everyone have a wonderful "hump day" tomorrow!

Shout Out! and New Blogger Alert :)

I just wanted to give a quick shout out and thank you to my teacher/blogger friend Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies. She is AWESOME! This afternoon when I checked my email, I had one from her saying "stuff". She was cleaning out her classroom for end of the year cleaning (by the way I work with her!) and she was giving away a bunch of stuff and wanted to be sure that I had first pick! I am moving from 4th grade to kindergaten next year (ALMOST positive that it will happen) and am trying to stock pile some materials to use. She knew that and really helped me out. So...

Thanks Jennifer! You are the BEST! :)

I also wanted to give a shout out to another fellow teacher friend who is starting up her blog. She teaching 6th grade at my school and is another AWESOME teacher! Check her out when you get a chance:

Mrs. Franks at Enchanted Tales of Elementary School

Five more days with kids, Six school days until summer.....Can I get an amen?

Out of the mouths of STUDENTS...

Don't you just love to hear or read things that your students say? Especially the things that they say about you? Today, I got that opportunity. We worked on our end of the year books (I got mine from Stacy Johnson from Mrs. Johnson's First Grade) and some of the things that my little darlings said about me brought tears to my eyes. Here are a few of their testimonials:

What I like most about my teacher is...

~She is fun!

~She made learning fun.

~She is nice and caring.

~She is very artistic.

(I don't think that I am, but it is nice to know that somebody appreciates my drawing attempts.)

~She is special. :)

~She lets us play games to study for tests.

~She will help you no matter what she is doing.

(One of my favorite comments!)

~She has funny, creative ways to teach and help us learn.

~She takes pride in teaching us.

(Glad to know they notice!)

~If we make a bad grade, she tells us that it will be okay.

(This comment came from a student that has really bad test anxiety and had a tough time during our BIG test. This one brought a few tears.)

Here are some of their pages:

This is the one that made me tear up.

I love how she referred to the feeling that she gets. :)

This class was really big on drawing. I had several that commented that they liked me because I let them draw.

Such sweet kids!

I hope that you all are fortunate enough to have your kids say such sweet things about you. This has been a pretty good year. I can't wait to see what next year holds. :)

Have a GREAT end of the year! 7 days left :)

 



It's Been a While...., Currently, Volcanoes, and Some Pack! Giveaway

It's been a while teacher friends and I promise it won't happen again! I have been SUPER BUSY this past month buying a camper and a house! Yes, you read that right a camper and a house! At first it was just the camper and not even one day after we wrote a check for the camper but a house in the perfect location came on the market and we jumped on it! I am still super busy because we are hoping to close on the house June 1st and I am trying to pack up our house we live in now and declutter it so that we can sell it. I've been packing one or two boxes a day and then taking them to my mother's and my mother-in-law's. So much fun, let me just tell you. :)

On to "teacher stuff"......

I have linked up again with Farley at Oh'Boy 4th Grade for this month's Currently. Here is my Currently:

I love the idea of the pageant title. I thought that mine was fitting for both teachers and moms, because let's face it ladies- when it comes to taking care of things we are expected to do it all AND look good while doing it. I know that all of you can handle it though. :)

Every year the 4th graders at my school make a volcano for science and get to bring it to school to erupt it. This year I had lots of great volcanoes that were made of some really unique items. One little girl's dad lays tile for a living, so her volcano was made out of concrete and tile grout. She looked so pitiful carrying that thing down the hallway! Another one made their volcano out of cake! It looked really neat. Here are some pictures of the volcanoes (I couldn't post pictures of all of them erupting because the kids were in them, although I did get a close up of one.)

I have also been working on a Writing and Literacy Pack to go along with E.B. White's classic Charlotte's Web. I had planned on having it ready in April for the 60th anniversary of the book, but as you can see that didn't happen. Then, I planned on having it ready for the big TPT sale, but yet again, I have fallen behind. So, as a way to make up for my tardiness, I am going to give away a pack to the first 3 people to comment on this post, AND I am going to have the pack for 20% off on my TPT store for tomorrow and Friday ONLY. I am really proud of this pack. It is crammed full of writing prompts and graphic organizers that can be used with the book. Go check it out on my TPT store and get your copy while it is on sale!

The clip art in this pack came from MelonHeadz, and can I say that it is amazing? The borders are from JW Illustrations, and I just love them! Her stuff is so cute. :)

I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Currently, Tag! You're it!, Photo Dump

Well it is that time again! Join me in linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

 

I just love to watch "Friends".  I have seen them all hundreds of times and most of the time I can say the lines right along with the gang. Lame, huh? But I LOVE it! My husband is an also bluegrass guitar player and I love hearing him play. :) Everyone say a prayer for our testing next week. I know my kiddos will do fine, but we would love the extra support. Thanks in advance! As for my "super power", if I had a button that I could press to instantly clean and straighten up my house, classroom, vehicle, and anything else that may need to be put in order, my life would be SOOO much easier. But then, wouldn't everyone's? :)

I have been tagged by Becky at Teaching, Learning, and Loving.

Here Are The rules:

* Post these rules

* Answer the 10 questions that the tagger posted for you

* Create 10 questions of your own to ask the people that you're about to tag

* Tag 10 people and link them with your post (and let them know they've been tagged!)

Here are Becky’s Questions:

1. What grade do you teach?

Fourth Grade….this is my third year

2. What is your favorite unit/theme to teach?

Food Chains/Animal Habitats

3. Who is your favorite tpt seller?

First Grade Blue Skies

4. Do you have any freebies on your blog?

Yes! And more to come, so come check them out J

5. What are your top 3 favorite blogs to visit?

Mrs. Plant’s Press

The Daily Alphabet

The Resource(ful) Room

6. Do you have any kids?

Yes, a 14 month old daughter named Rylee Claire

7. Where is your favorite place to travel or vaca?

The Great Smoky Mountains

8. What is your favorite place eat? And what do you get there?

Logans; usually the tilapia

9. What is something easy you do for dinner when you are in a hurry?

Hot wings and fries

10. Do you have a teacher tip for us?

Listen to your kids and try to understand them so that you will know how to reach them. Don’t take for granted that your way is the best way….sometimes their ideas will surprise and inspire you!

My questions for you:

1. What is your proudest teacher moment and why?

2. What is a moment that you are not so proud of and why?

3. How did you know that teaching was “it” for you?

4. How do you find the time to work on “teacher/blogging” without taking time away from your family?

5. What do people say is your greatest strength as a teacher?

6. What do you think is your greatest strength?

7. What do you think is your biggest weakness as a teacher?

8. What is the highest degree you have earned and do you plan on trying for something higher?

9. What grade do you teach and how long have you been in that position?

10. Do you have a teacher tip for us?

Tag you’re it!

Mrs. Plant’s Press

The Daily Alphabet

The Resource(ful) Room

Teaching in Paradise

Pocket Full of Kinders

Peace Love Learn

Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations

Swamp Frog First Graders

Primary Perspective

The Alphabet Garden

I have been a little slack in my posts this week. I have been super busy and my daughter hasn't napped at the right times. I know, I know excuses, but we all have them! Here are some pictures of some of the things we have been doing this week:

Anchor Charts for Figurative Language

Student Examples of Figurative Language

Anchor Chart for Multiplying with Two-Digit Numbers

Hope you enjoy! Next, week we begin our ARMT+ testing. Ugghhh! The bright side is that we will be able to do fun stuff in the afternoons! Hopefully, lots of fun pictures will be coming. ;)



Spring Break is Over :( & Customary and Metric Units of Length Foldable

Well, my Spring Break officially ended today. (Insert sad face) Getting up, heading out the door, and leaving my sweet baby girl was super hard. Although I had missed my school kiddos, I really enjoyed being home and playing with my best girl. Oh, well 36 school days left.....I guess we can make it. =)

Today during math we made foldables to organize the different units for length (both customary and metric). Here are some examples of our work and a short how-to on making the foldables:

 I just had to show off my precious baby girl!

Step 1: Get your paper. We used copy paper for ours, but construction paper will work.

Step 2: Fold paper hamburger style.

Step 3: Fold the top flap back toward the fold.

Step 4: Flip the entire foldable over and fold the (new) top flap back toward the fold.

Step 5: Turn horizontal with the folds at the bottom. Write the topic along the fold. Write the subtopics along the flap (#'s 1-4). Cut between each subtopic.

Step 6: Write the details or information for each subtopic beneath each flap.

These can be used for any subject area, and I hope you can use them in your classroom. If you have any questions, please let me know! I hope I was clear in my instructions. =)

Have a great Tuesday everyone!