TPT Back to School Sale!! Get 28% off in my shop!

It's finally here! The long-awaited Back to School giant TPT sale. I've been adding things to my wishlist like crazy just waiting for the sale to come back around! I can't wait to stock up on some of the things I've been wanting to buy... and you can too! These sales don't come around too often, so you should definitely take advantage! Using the code, you will be able to get items for 28% off on August 18th and 19th. Click on the picture below to go straight to my store!

Thanks so much to Kristen for the adorable promo!

Need some items for back to school? I've got you covered! You can get my newest unit, Counting Tools for Back to School {A Counting & Cardinality Unit}, which has tons of resources, stations, and activities for teaching common core math skills for the beginning of the year!

In continuing my math theme, you can also find my best selling Shapes Galore for the Common Core unit! It's chock full of resources for teaching 2D and 3D shapes.

Need something for teaching your kiddos alphabet concepts? Click on the picture below to check out my Easy as ABC {Alphabet Activity Pack}.

Hope you'll find lots of great items during this sale! I'm hoping to grab a bunch of stuff I've had my eye on for months! Happy shopping!

Taming the Wild: Teacher Week '13

Today is Taming the Wild Thursday on Teacher Week 2013 over at Blog Hoppin'! It's all about classroom management ideas for this post.

After attending a Whole Brain Teaching seminar my first year of teaching, I decided to try some of their management ideas and strategies in my own classroom. That year I attempted the rules and the scoreboard, and both were great for classroom management. Nowadays, the only part of Whole Brain Teaching I use on a consistent basis in my classroom is the 5 rules. I absolutely love them because the students take ownership of the rules themselves and they love reciting them while doing the motions! It's also a great way to redirect a friend who may not be making a "smart choice" by having the students remind them of the rule instead of it coming from me all the time. I downloaded these ADORABLE Whole Brain Teaching rule posters for free on TPT HERE!

In my classroom, I usually like to have 3 types of management reward opportunities: whole group, small group, and individual. For my whole group reward system, I do a marble jar. I put marbles in the jar for following directions, quiet/hard work, kindness, receiving compliments from other teachers, and "good thinking" responses. When the marble jar is completely filled up, they earn a marble jar party. Usually this involves some sort of special treat or snack that they don't normally get at school: popcorn, donuts, root beer floats, etc. I've been using the marble jar every year I've been teaching and it is very effective for student behavior! They love earning them every chance they can.

For small group rewards, I use a table points system. Each table can collect points for an entire week. Whichever table has the most points by the end of the week earns a trip to the prize box! I tell you, the prize box isn't filled with anything too exciting (stickers, pencils, erasers, bracelets, etc.) but to a kindergartener, my box may as well be filled with a million dollars! They love it!

As a grade level we also use the green, yellow, red behavior system. If they do have to change their card for whatever reason, we always give them an opportunity to earn back to green. We feel like this is a much better motivator for good behavior than if they were just stuck on a red or yellow forever. This gives them a chance to change it up and improve. If not, they stay. We mark what color the student got daily in their take home folders on their responsibility sheets.

For individual behavior rewards, I used to use incentive charts, but as I mentioned in my blog post on Tuesday, I was terrible at keeping up with them! So for this year, I've nixed them, but I may figure out a different type of individual reward for students who stay on green all week... perhaps putting their name into a drawing for an extra prize/activity. I'm still hashing that out, haha! But for now, this is what I'm using. My students are all in on each management system we have, which is half the battle! So far, so good on the behavior front... (knock on wood!)

Click on the picture below to see other great classroom management posts for Teacher Week '13!

Teacher Week 2013: Now Teach! Organizing for Instruction (and a freebie!)

Today's teacher week topic is "Now Teach!". I'm gonna show you a little peek at how I organize for instruction.

This summer I made a promise to myself that I was going to get my classroom as organized as possible, so I went in a couple of weeks earlier than normal in July to get that accomplished! Needless to say, during the cleaning process things got worse before they got better (don't they always?), but now I'm more organized than ever and I am loving it! 

I got this organizational system from Lakeshore a few years back and it was one of the best purchases I ever made! I use it to organize my lesson plans and resources for the week. It's so handy because I keep it up front where I do most of my teaching, so everything is right there for me to grab and go throughout the day. As you can see from the picture... 2 days to go till the weekend!!!

On the same shelving unit is where my student's table buckets are stored. I like to keep them off of the kids' tables to provide for more space and... less distractions! I keep the basic essentials in here: glue bottles, scissors, and glue sticks. It's at their level, so it's easy for the kids to take care of their supplies on their own.

I keep most of my math manipulatives stored in this cubby shelf. I didn't make labels for these drawers like you'll see on some of my other tubs because I wanted the kids to be able to see what was inside without having to pull out the drawer. On top of the shelves are where my pencil cans are kept: one for sharp, one for dull. And can I just say that I absolutely love using the fat pencils at the beginning of the year simply because I don't have to sharpen them so often?!

See the cubby hole in the bottom right corner? That's the only part of this block of cubbies that doesn't hold some form of teaching curriculum. Why, you ask? This is where the kids keep their interactive notebooks. They can easily access it themselves and it keeps all the journals in one place so that one doesn't accidentally walk away to their house!

This shelf in the front of my classroom is where I store word wall resources, circle time games and activities, and miscellaneous calendar items -- anything used near the front of the room that I'll need easy access to. This is also where I store literacy station baskets for the week - those are the items on the bottom of the shelf. Later on in the year when we are no longer learning how to "do centers", this will be filled with a lot more baskets!

Last year, my class was very high academically and seemed to finish their work more quickly than classes I had had in the past. You know how students get when they are left to their own devices, so I decided to create this "fast finishers" crate. Each student has their own file filled with sight word readers, ABC books, roll and cover games, etc. Anytime they finished their work early, they could go to their folder on their own and choose which activity they wanted to do. They absolutely LOVED it, and I did too! It made things run so much more smoothly. It's not exactly a novel concept, but after I implemented it I wondered why I never had before!

Okay, back to my original statement at the beginning of this post -- remember how I mentioned that I had come in extra early over the summer in order to get myself organized? Well this is a big result of that organization! I cleaned out a couple of shelves in my office that had served no great purpose before and turned 2 of them into a math shelf and a reading shelf. The first picture shows you my reading resources shelf, where I keep items such as my sight word hands, magnetic letters, word work activities, and more!

This second shelf holds some of my math resources such as number stamps, spinner game whiteboards, dice, and games! It's so wonderful having everything all in one area.. no stopping to search for items because I forgot where they were!

I also organized a few of my bigger themes such as Fall, Christmas, and Valentine's Day into tubs. I bought these from Ikea last year for super cheap.

Interested in having the labels that you see in these pictures? They are available as a FREEBIE in my TPT store! Click on the picture below to download them... I am willing to update the product within reason with any other labels you need, so take a look!

I've struggled with finding a good system to store my math and literacy centers. I had been creating these manila folders with a cover page for each game, but as I've collected more, I don't like how big and clunky they are.

I was fortunate enough to receive a Wal-Mart gift card from our wonderful school PTO and bought this hanging file folder box as a new way to store my games... and pieces from Deedee Wills' super awesome Poetry Station Bundle! As you can see, I haven't put it to good use yet, but I am very excited to put it all together!

We got a new reading series this year, HM Journeys, and I love how they came in these convenient skinny tubs! It did all the organization for me! Much nicer than the two huge clunky cardboard boxes the old series came in.

Here's another fruit of my summer organization labor. For my entire first four years of teaching, I had all of my extra school supplies in one giant tub. Uh, not exactly the most handy way to keep supplies, as I had to dig through everything to actually find what I wanted. I found this awesome HUGE 5-drawer tub at Wal-Mart and finally got all my supplies in order! It's so wonderful... and easy for me to send the kids over to get an item without me having to stop instruction.

The last photo is where I need your help... I bought this great organizer from Ikea over the summer, but now that I've hung it up, I can't decide what to actually keep in it! Do you have any ideas for me? 

Link up over at Blog Hoppin' to join in on the last 2 days of Teacher Week 2013!

Teacher Week '13: Classroom Digs

Good evening! I'm back with my second post of the day to participate in Teacher Week 2013 with Tuesday's Classroom Digs: Classroom Tour. I've been in school for a week now, which means my classroom has become slightly more disheveled, but that's the way it goes! Excuse the camera phone shots as well...

I'm fortunate to have a pretty big classroom, and a glorious shared office space to boot! Here's the shot of my main area of the classroom.

This tree is a new-ish part of my classroom this year. I say new-ish because I had the tree on my wall last year, but I used it to hold incentive charts. Maybe it's just me, but I always seem to fizzle out and following up with incentive charts throughout the whole year. The days get busy, and it's the last thing I think about, or I tell the student they've earned a sticker for their chart and then I forget to put it on! So this year, I decided... no more individual incentive charts! I just am awful at keeping up with them! So I made some clothespin leaves for a cuteness factor and made it into a student work showcase tree. I love how it turned out! I could never find a great place to display student work and this was the perfect solution. And no, I don't only have 12 students... these are just the ones that did the self-portrait at Meet the Teacher Night!

 Here's a close-up of one of the leaves! The clipart I used is from the fabulous Little Red Schoolhouse. :)

Zooming back out a bit further, here's what my book center looks like. There's no rhyme or reason to it (I need to increase my book collection!), but I just wanted to make it a little cozy corner.. the kids love sitting in there to look at books.

Right next to my book center, there's a little cove of cubbies that I use to hold some of my curriculum materials. Next to that is this open shelf, which I covered with a this D-backs banner that I won at a game a few years back. Amazingly it was the perfect width for this shelving unit! It wasn't very pretty without a curtain, and this way I got to represent my favorite baseball team.

And a sneak peek behind the curtain....

Continuing my tour around the room... here's my word wall! I love my paisley border, it's adorable. Right in front of that is my writing center. The kids haven't used it yet, but when it's in full swing, we'll add vocabulary posters to the area that go with our new reading series. The plastic drawers hold different kinds of paper and alphabet resources for the kids to use. In the little shelf next door, my Ikea baskets hold resources for circle time, the word wall, and calendar time. The bottom houses literacy station baskets!

Next up is my calendar area. My magnetic pockets hold all the calendar cards and extra pieces. I created the velcro ten frame last year and it was SO helpful with teaching my kids base 10 concepts.

This shelf houses my students' table buckets of supplies, extra activities, and my lesson plan tubs for the week.

Along this wall is where I store most of my math manipulatives. The empty pocket chart will house sight word cards as we learn new words each week. We started a predictable chart this week, that's what else is hanging on the board next to my "I can..." statements.

Next to the door are these cubbies, which I've turned into a bookshelf/storage.

I organized my books a few years back, nothing fancy, but since we got a new reading series (HM Journeys), I'm going to have to revamp my book organization! The ones you're looking at in this picture are sorted by theme from the old series. This shelf holds the books the kids don't get to touch for fear of destruction... anyone else have this problem, or is it just with kinder kids...? Ha.

This is the area right behind my horseshoe table. I'm not sure what I'll be using the bulletin board for yet, but the border has more of my Eric Carle theme like I had with my book center. The magazine file holders in the shelf are empty at the moment, but that's what I use to organize my small group activities and resources. And of course I have to represent the Phoenix Coyotes... is it hockey season yet?

Last but not least, here's a glimpse into the office I share with my best buddy who teaches next door! We LOVE having this extra space... see all the shelves lining the wall on the right? I didn't take too close of a picture for fear of you running away screaming at the sight of my cluttered desk...

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the John Travolta masterpiece in the background...

Three years ago, one of our other kinder teammates discovered this incredible 70s style poster of the one and only Travolta in a discarded pile of old teaching posters, so one night after we had gone home, she snuck into our rooms and hung it up. The mustache was added by a mysterious party a year later... and we are never taking it down!!! Needless to say, we get a lot of strange looks from people who come into our office for the first time. HA!

Phew! That was a mouthful. My classroom isn't necessarily all cutesie-fied or matchy like most of the other incredible classrooms I'm sure you'll see around the blogs, but it's home. As long as it's colorful, fun, and intentional, I'm happy!

Click on the picture below to link up at Blog Hoppin'!

Teacher Week '13: Let's Talk About Me Monday (belated!)

I'm so excited to be participating in the Teacher Week 2013 linky this year... it's so fun and I love seeing everyone's posts! As yesterday was ridiculously busy (was gone from home from 7:30am-11:30pm), my "Let's Talk About Me Monday" post is a day late, but you'll still love me anyways, right?....Right?!

Without further ado, here's 10 things you should know about me:

1. I have been teaching kindergarten for 5 years. That nice, round number is so crazy to me because I still feel like I have barely started on this journey. I've learned SO much about teaching and have changed a lot since my first year (don't we all)? I got so blessed with my job, which is amazing to me because I wasn't able to get a teaching job for an entire year after I graduated from college. There weren't any jobs available in Arizona at that time, so I had to spend an entire year subbing. I didn't even get this job until a week before school started, where I landed in a great city with an AMAZING, amazing team. I'm telling you, my kinder team has absolute magic and I feel like God just worked things out exactly the way they way they were supposed to in His timing, even though it was tough not having a "real job" for that long period of time. And here's the thing that surprised me the most: I LOVE teaching kindergarten! I never want to leave it.

2. I absolutely have a huge passion for sports. I am a die-hard fan of the Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Arizona Cardinals. I love love hockey and baseball. I used to play basketball in high school/college. I love going to games in person and just so enjoy experiencing great moments with my teams.

At a Phoenix Coyotes scrimmage in 2012

Hanging with some D-backs players at Fanfest in 2012

3. I love music! I sing in the band at my church and love going to live shows. Some of my favorite bands are Switchfoot, Mumford and Sons, The Civil Wars, Phil Wickham, and House of Heroes.

Me with my favorite band, Switchfoot!

4. I really love old movies from the '30s, '40s, '50s. My favorite actor isn't even around in this lifetime -- Jimmy Stewart! I remember coming out to the living room one night and my parents were watching a movie called You Can't Take It With You. And I saw Jimmy Stewart acting in it and I was hooked. He was so amazing, and that movie is a classic. My favorite movie of all time is It's a Wonderful Life!

5. My family has always love all things Disney, and we were fortunate enough to take cross country road trips to Disneyworld 4 years in row! It is one of my favorite places in the entire US. There's just something so magical about that place, and since it's more secluded than most theme park areas, it feels like you really have left the real world! I need to go back and watch some Philharmagic in Fantasyland! I haven't been there since 2007 and am having serious withdrawals!

6. I've recently gotten more into cooking and baking, which I am happy to say has actually been successful! My newest inspiration? The Pioneer Woman. I love her. She's hilarious and makes incredible food that is so easy to cook. Her blog is the best, and I totally fell in love with her book Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, her true story of how she met and married her husband. 

7. Speaking of books, I love to read! My absolute favorite book series of all time is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Seriously... if you have not read this series, GO. Now. I've read the first book 3 times (there are 7 in all, at the moment, and she is writing an 8th as we speak! I love me some Jamie Fraser; and the books are so incredible. I'm currently re-reading the entire series again because the 8th book comes out in the spring! Oh oh oh and I can't even contain my excitement because they are turning my favorite book into a TV show!! So excited to see these characters and story come to life.

8. I play a little known sport called Pickleball. Ever heard of it? It's a cross between tennis, badminton, and ping pong. It's so fun! It's gaining popularity around the U.S. I've played in tournaments and won medals, and met some great people in the process!

9. I'm very close to my family and think they are the best in the world! We have so much fun together, laugh all the time, and have so many inside jokes. I love spending time with my mom, dad, and brother and feel blessed that we have such a great relationship.

10. There are some awesome TV shows on right now. I totally am loving Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and Nashville. My favorite TV shows that are gone but not forgotten are The Office (what am I going to do without it this year?), LOST, and 24. Let me tell you about 24. Because......... JACK IS BACK! They are doing another season of 24 next year and I pretty much want to die with excitement. I can't believe it's actually happening!!

So that's my belated 10 things about me. Wanna see what other bloggers are all about? Click on the picture below to take you to the Blog Hoppin' link-up page!