100th Day of School!

Oh my word... I have disappeared off the face of the blogging earth since December. You know how crazy it gets at the end of the semester.. we had 2 huge kinder events, then the holidays, plus I went out of town for New Year's! To make it up to you, my lovely readers, there will be a freebie in this post!

Today was our 100th Day of School... I can't believe it's already here. The first half of the school year went by SO fast. To celebrate the day, every activity we do in class is related to the 100th day. I introduced the "100 Word Challenge" to my students right at the beginning of the day. Any student that wrote 100 different words by the end of the day got a special 100th day sticker! Since they love all things write the room, they were all over it. It became their go-to fast finisher activity!

This friend decided to go with a more phonetic spelling approach on some of his words... oops!

Next we did our big "What I Think I Will Look Like When I'm 100..." craftivity. I got the idea from Deanna Jump forever ago on her original website and I absolutely love how they turn out. I wasn't able to get a picture of the ones my kids made this year (cause they were still drying in the hallway) but here's a favorite from last year:

Gotta love the hair and the pearls! After they dry, I'll cut them out, glue them to another piece of construction paper, and have the kids write their name into the phrase "_________ at 100!" They did such a good job creating them this year.

For the rest of the afternoon, we completed four different 100th day themed centers.

Froot Loop Necklace

100th Day Hat (template courtesy of Fran at Kindergarten Crayons!) The kids are given a sheet of 100 stickers to decorate the hat with.

100 Skittles Sort and Graph

Stamp to 100! They use bingo daubers to count and mark the gumballs all the way to 100.

Here's the freebie for you... if you'd like to grab this Stamp to 100 activity, click on the link HERE!

It really was an enjoyable day with my kinders. The centers ran so smoothly... I chalk that up to me having a small class for the first time ever in life (20 kids)! I think it's going to be a great second half of the year!

Show us what you bought and Giveaway WINNERS!!!

I don't know about you, but I definitely scored at the big TPT sale that happened this week. I'm so excited about the things I bought! It made it all the more sweet using the $50 TPT gift card I won from the wonderful ladies at Blog Hoppin', who I am linking up with today to show you what I bought!

I tried to plan ahead on some creations I'll be making in the next few months, so I stocked up on Winter, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day clipart from the amazing Creative Clips and Ashley Hughes! I also got 3 new activity packs -- Let's Get Crackin' Math and Literacy Centers from The Printable Princess, Winter Math and Literacy Packet from The Moffatt Girls (I have the Fall pack and used it ALL the time!), and Filling in the Gaps {The Ultimate CVC Practice Packet} from Cara Carroll! I'm so, SO excited to print everything and get it ready for my students to use. I think they'll love every bit of it! And now that I'm armed and ready with some new clipart, I'm ready to make some new stuff!

I held my first little blog giveaway a few days ago to celebrate my blog redesign, and the winners have been chosen courtesy of Rafflecopter! Here are the lucky winners -- if you see your name here, you should be expecting your prize shortly! :)

Congratulations everyone! And thanks for entering. :)

Very Merry Sentence Building Activities for December

Phew! I furiously worked late into the night last night to get my newest pack, Very Merry Sentence Building Activities for December, into my TPT shop before the big sale ended tonight!

This December themed packet is filled with activities to help your students practice and grow their skills in sentence structure, writing concepts, punctuation, sight words, and reading/tracking print! The activities included in this pack are:

Build-a-Sentence {building sentences with word cards}
-2 different sets included with 8 different sentences to build!
-recording sheets included for students to write the sentences they create

Predictable Sight Word Sentences {building sentences with sight words and predictable charts}
-2 different sets included
-multiple response sheets included to fit your students' needs
-students can build up to 10 different sentences

Read It, Write It, Build It, Draw It!
-18 different sentence building printables to work on sentence structure, spacing, punctuation, handwriting, and sight word skills.

Click on the picture below to go check it out in my store, especially while the big sale is still happening! It will be 20% off until midnight tonight.

 

Speaking of the big Cyber Monday/Tuesday TPT sale, it's still going on for a few more hours, and my entire store is 20% off. If you use the code CYBER, you'll get an extra 8% off! Click on the graphic below (made by Krista Wallden) to go to my little shop. :)

 

My big blog giveaway also ends tonight! There's still time to enter and win an Amazon gift card, TPT gift certificate, and some great units from some incredible bloggers. Click here to enter and win big!

I'm off to go empty my wishlist! Happy shopping!

December Currently, a Giveaway, and a SALE!

Happy December 1st, everyone! Is it just me, or did this Thanksgiving weekend totally fly by? I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade! for December's Currently linky.

 

 

{Listening}: I'm over at my parent's house, we just finished putting up the Christmas decorations, and to end the night we are watching the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special. It's a tradition! I'll always love watching it no matter how old I get!

 

{Loving}: My new favorite TV show is Sleepy Hollow. I love it! Ichabod Crane cracks me up, and I love the actor they got to play him. It's such a great show, even if it is creepy at times!

 

{Thinking}: I do not feel ready to get back to work tomorrow. Now that I've done all this Christmas-y stuff this weekend, it feels like I'm on Christmas break! I know it will go by fast, though, it always does!

 

{Wanting}: I've been working hard on a new Christmas product that I am so close to finishing. I really want to get it in my TPT shop for the big sale that starts tomorrow! It may not be on there till late Monday night, but I WILL get it done!!

 

{Needing}: My kinder team does Elf on the Shelf in our classrooms for the entire month of December, and tomorrow will be the day our elf makes its grand appearance! I still need to wrap up the box and make it all fancy to appear in my classroom tomorrow. I'm so excited for the kids to find out all about it! Best behavior plan ever...

 

{Favorite Tradition}: Every year since I was very young, my family has the tradition of putting up the Christmas tree/decorations starting the day after Thanksgiving. Even though I live on my own now, I still come over to their house and we keep the tradition alive! We light the Christmas tree scented candle, listen to Christmas music, and decorate the tree to our heart's content.

 

If you'd like to join in the fun, click here to link up and share what you're currently into!

 

Have you heard the news about my big blog redesign giveaway? It's going on right now, and you still have 2 days to enter and win an Amazon gift card, TPT gift card, or a bunch of December products from some really amazing bloggers! Click on the picture below to read all about it and enter to win!

 

Finally, have you heard about the huge TPT Cyber Monday sale that starts TOMORROW? My entire shop will be on sale for 20% off; and if you use the promo code CYBER, your purchases will be 28% off the regular price! I've been putting tons of stuff on my wishlist in preparation for the sale, and I can't wait to purchase some of those items I've had my eye on for awhile. Krista Wallden (from Creative Clips) made this great promo picture to use for the sale. Click on it to go straight to my store just in time for the sale to begin in just a few short hours! Happy shopping!



GIVEAWAY TIME! Blog Redesign Celebration!!

I am very excited to announce my very first giveaway to celebrate my blog redesign! I've been waiting for a momentous occasion to have a big giveaway and this was the perfect thing to have it for. I absolutely love how everything turned out and it fits my style (and theme) wonderfully! And wouldn't you know, this is my 100th blog post, too! Now... on to the good stuff! What can you win?!

 

I've teamed up with 5 other amazing teachers who have all so generously donated a great product from their TPT stores for this giveaway: Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade, Angeline from The First Grade Scoop, Edana from Color Me Kinder, Meghan from Lovely Little Designs, Jamie from Laugh Love Learn, and myself! You also have a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card and a $10 TPT gift certificate! I've included my all-time best selling product, Shapes Galore for the Common Core, and my Christmas pack, Deck the Halls {12 Math and Literacy Centers}. All of the other incredible products donated by my fellow teachers are things you'll definitely want to have just in time for the holidays! Scroll down through all the pictures below to see all the great prizes you can win!

 

 

Enter the rafflecopter below to earn up to 27 entries in the contest! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas in November Giveaway from Easy Teaching Tools!

Good morning! I hope you've had a great start to your Thanksgiving week... I have the day off today and I am loving it! Just peeking in for a quick post about a giveaway I'm participating in over at the Easy Teaching Tools blog! You can win one of 26 great products just in time for December, including my Deck the Halls! {12 Christmas Math & Literacy Centers} pack! Click on the picture below to go straight to Kristen's blog and enter! Good luck!

Five for Friday November 22nd Edition!

It's Friday!!! Better yet, the last Friday before Thanksgiving break! We only go to school for two days next week and then I am off. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this week's Five for Friday.

1. First, I have a new, much needed blog design! I love how it turned out! A huge thank you to the fantastic Jennifer from Raspberry Road Design on Etsy for the adorable personalized, custom design. She was quick to complete my design and even fixed a few things within minutes of me requesting some minor changes. It was exactly what I was looking for! You can see some of her great work by clicking on the banner below:

2. I am determined to lose 5-10 pounds by the end of the year, despite all the holiday chowing-down I will inevitably be doing between now and then. I started watching what I was eating, logging my food diary into the My Fitness Pal app, and getting up and the ungodly hour shown in the photo below to work out three times a week using the Nike+ Kinect Training game on XBOX. It's a great workout program... hopefully I can keep sticking with it! (You know how it goes).

3. We have a new little candy/novelty shop that just opened up in the huge plaza next to the Phoenix Coyotes arena called "It's Sugar". It has a ton of fun stuff in there, but my most exciting find was a 4-pack of these finger lasers for a mere $3.50! I snatched up a pack and thought they'd be perfect to use during my small groups in reading. They couldn't get over them, and neither could the kids who were supposed to be at their literacy stations... they kept not-so-subtly walking past my table to get a sneak peek! So fun.

4. I had about 3 bags of candy corn left over from our kindergarten fall festival back in October, and since I absolutely loathe the taste of candy corn, I wondered what I was going to do with it all. I whipped up this Candy Corn Count response sheet to go with the pumpkin math mat from Kindergarten Crayons and candy corn cards from somewhere in blogland (tell me if it's you so I can give you credit!) and the kids used the leftover candy as math counters. I put a huge pile of number cards in the middle of their table and they picked a card at random, counted out the matching number of candy corn pieces, and recorded it on their paper. They loved it!

5. We had our annual school Thanksgiving feast this past Thursday. It's a huge family event where everyone comes to lunch at school and the band plays, the choir plays, and the entire cafeteria is decorated courtesy of the K-2 classes. To add to the festivities, my students made these "I'm Thankful" hats to show one thing they were thankful for. I love how this kiddo's turned out. Most kids wrote about their families, me (awww), or friends... but one said they were thankful for money. Haha!

It's been a great week, but I'm looking forward to having a break next week! And keep an eye out for a big giveaway in the next week or two to celebrate my blog redesign! You'll be able to win some gift cards and some fabulous products from TPT sellers. Can't wait!!!