And the winner is...

I was so excited to see such a great response to my first giveaway (that closed at noon EST today).  I hoped to get up to 100 followers but was pleasantly surprised when I looked and had...drumroll, please...142 followers.  It almost made me want to do a cartwheel, but I thought that might not be the best idea as it could end with a trip to the ER (since I haven't done a cartwheel since cheering in Jr. High - "GO PANTHERS")...and I wouldn't want that to spoil my celebration.  :/  

ABC Writing Journal available on TPT

I promised to give away 3 journals, and Rafflecopter generated the following winners...

* Entry #195 - Heather J. Bryant
* Entry #293 - Pamela Guerra
* Entry #162 - Sarah Wenzinger

Because I was SO excited about getting to 142 followers, I had Rafflecopter choose a 4th winner.  :)

* Entry #107 - Lyza Jo

Please reply with your e-mail addresses, and I will get your ABC Writing Journal to you in a jiffy.

I loved all the suggestions of ways that y'all would use this ABC Writing Journal in your classroom.  Some were exactly what I had in my mind for my own classroom, and others were great ideas I hadn't thought to do.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Jennifer L has an area of her Writing Station called "Letter Expert".  Since I am gonna have to steal implement that in my own classroom, I am going to give Jennifer the ABC Writing Journal for FREE as well.  :)

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners. 

Thanks again for the great response.  I will be posting lots of FREEBIES and new TPT Creations throughout the summer.  My district uses the Macmillan McGraw-Hill Treasures Reading Series so lots of my units and freebies will correlate with the Treasures Kindergarten Series.  Please leave me a note and tell me what Reading Series you use in your classroom.

Be a blessing to those you teach,

ABC Writing Journal Giveaway

I am very excited to say that I have finally finished my first creation for TPT - an ABC Writing Journal.  This is something that I wanted to make for my own classroom, but I thought some of you all might like it, too.

Here are some samples from the packet that show types of pages for EACH letter.  All pages are available in D'Nealian and Zaner Bloser options.

 


I am using Rafflecopter to give away my ABC Writing Journal to three lucky winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please leave a comment and let me know how you would use this in your classroom.  Thanks!

Oceans of Fun

We are going to be fully immersed in OCEAN fun this week.  I'm excited about this week because the kids LOVE making sharks and whales and all those other fun crafts we squeeze into the week.  (I'm also excited that I am almost to 100 followers.)  :)  Our district uses the Treasures Reading Series so most of the following activities work with Unit 9 - Week 2 of that series.  Even if you don't use this series, you can probably work these into your ocean unit in some way or another.


I always send home a newsletter on the first day of the week.  My parents love this because it keeps them organized.  Click the picture below to see this week's Newsletter.

Ocean Week Newsletter  :)

My kids LOVE doing any activity that requires using a magnifying glass.  I made these sheets last year to review color words and HFWs.  I usually cut apart into squares and have them pull them out of a mini fish bowl.  This year I decided to just laminate the whole sheet and give each child his/her own sheet to investigate.  This works MUCH better with this group.  This activity ca be differentiated by having groups write WORD OLY or a SENTENCE USING THE WORD  Click below on each image to get your free copy!

Recording sheet for writing words only

Recording sheet to write a sentence using the word found

Find the COLOR WORD

Find the HFW

Ocean Story Writing Page

Oceans of Fun WORD WALL

Write a Sentence using the HFWs-of-the-Week

Letter Writing Practice - D'Nealian

Letter Writing Practice - Zaner Bloser

Oceans of Fun Math Review for Patterns, Missing Number, and Subtraction

I know this was a long post.  Hope you found something that you can use in your classroom or home!  As always - please leave a comment and let me know which things you love OR a fun ocean activity that you do in your classroom.  Have a great week!

*All clip art and most fonts are from the DJ Inkers collection.  LOVE all her things!

Newsletter - Week of March 4th

How many of you all send home a Weekly Newsletter?  This is something I started many years ago, and it has been one of the best things I have ever done in my classroom.  This one little piece of paper keeps my parents informed, and it holds me accountable.  I am going to start making these available on my blog in case my parents want to look online at them.

We are celebrating Dr. Seuss this week by reading one of his books and doing a special activity each day.

I am currently working on a whole packet of unique Newsletter templates.  :)  This is going to be my first item for sale on TpT when it is finished.  If you use this type of communication, please leave a note to let me know what you include on yours.  Have a great week everyone.

FREEBIE

    

Well, do any of you all feel like you just get something figured out and then "POOF", it changes to something else?  Our school required us to use the terminology from the Depth of Knowledge Chart for years.  We had to include all those words in everything we did with the kids.  Now that we are slowly implementing Common Core, we are switching back to the old-school Bloom's Taxonomy...but, wait...it isn't the original Bloom's Taxonomy, it's a newer version of Bloom's Taxonomy.  REALLY?????  So...being the good little soldier that I am, I have whipped up some new posters for me and my Kindergarten teammates so that we can make sure we are all using the correct terms.  If you would like a copy of these new posters - CLICK HERE.  As always, if you pick up this freebie, please leave a comment.

   


     

President's Day Freebie

I LOVE President's Day.  There are so many great activities out there for this special day.  Normally, I am off on President's Day, but we are making up a snow day this year.  Because I have 26 little darlings in my classroom this year and no high school helper on Mondays, I know that it would be crazy to try a craft like I usually do for this day.  So...I made this page to use as a header on each side of a large piece of construction paper.  Then, we will cut out the facts and figure out which president each fact belongs under.  Feel free to grab a copy of the George and Abe page by clicking HERE.  Grab a copy of the Facts by clicking HERE.  HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY. 

George and Abe Coloring Page or Use as Headers when Comparing the two Presidents

Facts about Abraham Lincoln

Facts about George Washington

My Little Love Bugs

It has been quite some time since I have made a blog post.  I decided to freshen up my blog by letting Honey Bunch Blog Design redesign my site.  Do you love it as much as I do?  "WOW!" was all I could say when I saw the finished product.  It was exactly what I wanted.

I love February for many reasons.  First, it means we have finished January which is always the hardest month of school for me (and usually the students as well).  It is so hard to come back after Christmas Break, not have outside recess, complete winter benchmarking tests, and take our achievement tests. All those things together make for one crazy, busy month!

My kiddos have been super busy learning and LOVING all the great activities shown below.  What are some of your favorite February activities?

 This is a great activity made by Marsha at A Differentiated Kindergarten.  You can see it HERE.  

These are always a hit in my classroom.  Kids absolutely love magnifying glasses.

 Here is a group working on a Roll to 100 game.  This is so simple, but they always love it.

Students at this table were rolling the big cube and writing the HFW one letter at a time in the 100 chart.  The first person to complete the chart wins!  This is such good spelling and handwriting practice.  After the grid is filled, students use a one minute sand timer and read as many of the words as they can in that time.

 

Here is an activity that we do each week that focuses on our letter-of-the-week.  

It is a CVC word puzzle where kids cut out letters and spell CVC word to match picture.  

You can download a free copy by clicking SET 1 and SET 2.  

This set follows the Treasures Reading Series.

   This is one of my little sweeties dressed like a 100-year-old on the 100th day of school.

Just had to share b/c I LOVE IT!  :)

Hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Valentine's Day!
Be sure to let me know what you think about my new blog design.  XOXO