Liebster Award

Thank you to Kathy from Kindergarten Couture for the Libester Award Nomination.  This nomination is for bloggers with less than 200 followers to get to know and connect with other new bloggers.  To do this you must answer 11 questions that help everyone get to know you better. Then, find 11 other new bloggers to nominate.  
  Now to answer the 11 questions....

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
Well, I first started a blog back in 2013 but was in just a smidge over my head. When I took a Kindergarten teaching position in a new district this year, I felt like I had so many new perspectives I could share and definitely wanted to connect with other Kindergarten teachers for ideas.  With the encouragement from Amanda at Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten, I decided to start a brand new blog for my brand new teaching adventure!

2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
Teaching!  Although I think that's pretty obvious, ha!  I wanted to start the blog up again to connect with other teachers, share ideas, and learn from the highs and lows of Kindergarten.  I definitely won't have perfect posts nor will I be able to post every day, but I think that's real life as a teacher and I'm ok with that.

3. Is there something you learned late in your blog journey you wished you knew before?   Oh goodness, I'm still learning!  I think what I've realized this second time around is that I need to be true to myself.  Some teachers can post a new product and post every day, but that's just not realistic for me.  I love that I pull the best ideas from so many teacher blogs, and I'm thankful for all different types of teachers! 

4. What is your favorite past time other than blogging?
Spending time with my hubby!  We have the best time together, whether it's chatting over coffee on Saturday  mornings, running errands, or date nights out.  He is definitely the calm to my often crazy life! 

6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?  
I love blog posts from primary teachers, especially Kindergarten and first.  I love when teachers can post pictures of their activities and share freebies!

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from? 
My classroom, other blogs, and life in general!  Like I mentioned above, I'm learning that to truly enjoy blogging you have to be true to yourself and write about what you love.  If I think it's something worth sharing, I'll share it! 

8. Which post that you've written are you most proud of?  
This post is pretty exciting!  I hope to connect to many other teachers and find exciting new blogs and hopefully gain some followers! 

9. Is there any post you have been planning to do, but have postponing it for a while now?   
Oh all the time!  I've learned that blogging is hard work and takes time.  All too often I have a great idea or pictures to share and then the day slips by me before it's posted.  I love to create items for TPT, so I'm hoping to get a little better with this so I can share my creative babies!   

10. What is your favorite aspect of blogging? 
I've always loved to write, so blogging is therapeutic in a sense.  I love being able to share ideas but also recall my day and reflect on the highs and lows.

11. Which recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you be most likely to try yourself? 
I would love to capture the enthusiasm and amazing learning efforts that Kindergarten Couture shows with each blog post!  She is totally putting forth her best effort in learning the ways of the blogging world and it's so contagious! 


Love and Teach On
Laugh, Love, Teach, Learn
Glitter is Everywhere
Teacher Will Run for Books
The Take Home Teacher
Days Like This
Primary on the Prowl
A Kindergarten Life
Mrs. Bohaty's Kindergarten Kingdom
Tiffany the Teacherista
Berry Sweet Teaching Treats

To those who have been nominated, here are the "official" rules for accepting:
1. In your post, link back to the blogger who nominated you as a thank you and "shout out."
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you (the ones I answered above).
3. Nominate 11 blogs of your choice that each have less than 200 followers. Provide them with 11 questions to answer or have them answer the questions above.
4. Let your nominees know that they've been nominated and provide them with a link to your post so that they can accept.
5. Send your nominator a link to your post so that s/he can learn more about you as well!     (You can just put your post link in the comments below!)

I know this award had been floating around on the blogging world for awhile, but I truly feel honored someone found my blog and wanted to nominate it!  I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little bit better, too!

-Liz

Christmas Literacy FUN!

OH. MY.

I am SO excited for my latest creation!  I searched and searched for the perfect Christmas themed literacy centers for my Kindergarten kiddos and couldn't find anything that I thought truly fit with their needs and how we do literacy centers in my room.  So with the help of some cute fonts and clip art, I created a whole new resource!  

All centers are Common Core Aligned and come with worksheets to reinforce the skill.  Click the picture above or here to take you to the store!  On sale for a limited time because I'm just so darn excited to share these with you!

-Liz

Five for Friday!

Does anyone else remember the little theme song that went with ABCs TGIF back in the 90s?  "Gonna have some fun, show you how it's done - TGIF!"  Is it bad that I still often sing that to myself on Fridays?  Because I definitely do.  It's peppy!

But seriously.  I'm so thankful the weekend is here.  I love my little ones, but wow-oh-wow were they full of extra energy this week!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to celebrate the fact that I survived with five of my favorite things from this past week.

1.  Thanksgiving is EVERYWHERE!  I love holidays in Kindergarten because we do so many craftivities and decorate our classroom and hallways.  Here are some of our favorite masterpieces:

These sweet Native Americans were inspired by A Cupcake for the Teacher and oh how I love doing these with my students each year!  I tweaked the writing prompt this year for my Kindergarteners because while darling, the craft does require quite a bit of listening to create.  I knew if they had to write much more I might lose them, so I compromised a bit!  Next year I may omit the small picture of the pilgrims and Native Americans in the writing paper because it looks like by the time we got to that we forgot all about or Three Star Coloring....

I'm kicking myself because I didn't take any pictures of the pilgrims that go along with this craftivity, but I can assure you they are just as cute!  I loved reading what my little ones were thankful for!  Of course I had to display the student's work that said she was thankful for her teacher (melt my heart!) but I loved that one of my little guys wrote that he is thankful for numbers!  

 

Our next Thanksgiving craftivity was inspired by Just a Primary Girl and this year was the first time I tried this one out.  I adjusted the writing prompt again and had so much fun helping my students brainstorm some of the best parts of Thanksgiving!   A few of my kiddos cracked me up when they said their favorite part of Thanksgiving was taking naps!

2.  Our Christmas cards arrived!  

Ah, love being married...and merry!  I figure we only really have one Christmas to share our wedding photos AND send holiday greetings, so we made sure to find a cute play on words for our card this year.

3.  Jerry. Seinfeld.  

This SO happened Thursday night!  My husband, parents, and brother all headed out for a fun night to see our favorite comedian perform live.  No kidding, my cheeks hurt for hours afterwards from laughing so hard the entire time!  Laughing really is my favorite and I figured I burned enough calories giggling to compensate for the glass of wine I enjoyed on our night out.

4.  I'm finally getting over the horrible cold I've had for the past week!  Despite how we scrub and disinfect our classroom, germs still seem to creep in every now and then.  I won't post pictures of my recovery process, but I will promise that lots of Emergen-C and Clearquil did the trick for me!

5.   We are SO close!

I have a feeling a lot of teachers will be posting about this and it's so true - just make it to Thanksgiving break!  We go Monday and Tuesday next week, so I'm working on my plans to do lots of mini-Thanksgiving projects, a Fingerfood Feast, and, of course, GoNoodle breaks. :)

Happy Friday, everyone! 

Want to join in on the fun?  Link up here!  Don't forget to visit other blogs in the party!

Good Reads

My husband likes to tease me because he says I'm "obsessed with Facebook".  False.  Ok, partly false.  Truthfully, I do find myself scrolling through my newsfeed a bit more than I'd like to admit, but it's not always just to "like" photos of my friends sweet little babies or to take a funny Buzzfeed quiz (although, let's be honest, both of those are highly entertaining to me).  More often than not I have stumbled upon an article a friend posted, which leads to another article and then another.  

This past weekend it seemed like many teachers were using Facebook like I do because several of my teacher friends were sharing some truly amazing articles.  I wanted to share them here because I think they are not only encouraging, but empowering for teachers to read.

This article, published here, stopped my in my tracks.  I read it twice, just to absorb it all a little better.  The article is an open letter to classroom parents about THAT student: the kid who is angry, overly-active, loud, needy, aggressive.  The student I personally have had many times in my class, who can bring me to tears at the end of a particularly rough day.  The child that leaves me feeling exhausted over a battle that never should have been a battle in the first place.  The student who I swear will be personally to blame for my first gray hair.  The kiddo who warms my heart like no one else could when a little smile pops up on a usually clouded face because he learned how to write his numbers to fifty.

I started reading this article on my teacher pedestal, identifying with the author because I have all too often felt frustrated that I couldn't be brutally honest with all parents and guests who enter my classroom to explain about THAT student.  But as I continued to read, I was reminded of all the many reasons THAT student is THAT way.   Not that these reasons make THAT student suddenly easy to teach and reason with, but I was reminded to take a step back and look beyond the outbursts and tantrums.  To remember that his little heart needs just as much love, if not more, than even the most well-behaved student in class.  To think about responding to her defiant attitude with grace rather than anger.   I needed this article as a check-point as we complete another semester to remember my favorite part of teaching: the love and nurturing I have the opportunity to provide each day.

This article, found here, is all about Teacher Power (you know, like "girl power" but for teachers).  In response to an article published in Time Magazine about Rotten Apples (bad teachers) an assistant principal fought back against the scrutiny we hear all too often about how teachers are failing.  She is so sharp in her response, making me feel not only empowered by her stance to protect all educators, but to think that I share a profession with some seriously amazing people who will stop at nothing to help their students succeed.  Highly encouraging!

As we near Thanksgiving, I'm reminded once again how thankful I am to be a teacher.  I'm thankful I get to spend my days with little minds and hearts that will one day grow up and change the world around them.  I'm thankful I work with so many men and women who share my passion to make these little learners feel loved and cared for while also teaching them math and how to read.   I'm thankful that I can share my passion through technology to connect with other teachers who can help build me up, whether that's through blogs or articles on Facebook.

And ok, I'm thankful for Facebook too :)

-Liz

Super Thankful!

I truly do love how this time of the year reminds me to reflect on all that I am thankful for.  I'm thankful for so many things and feel truly blessed!  When I saw this linky from Primary Powers, I knew I needed to link up!  Not only is it super cute, but it's made me feel super thankful!

Click the Super Thankful Linky above to join in on the fun!

-Liz

Gobbling up some letter recognition!

Transitioning from first grade to Kindergarten has been quite the learning experience for me.  On one hand, it's an absolute blast:  I know exactly where my students need to be at the end of the year and I've found it's easier for me to differentiate because of this.  On the other hand, I find myself spending hours thumbing through other teacher blogs and TPT for new activities, lesson ideas, and small group learning games since most of my current stock is geared for first grade (seriously, what did teachers do before blogs and TPT?!).  

Recently, as I was trying to find a Thanksgiving-themed activity for small groups, I decided to tweak one of my favorite products I created a few years.  The original game practiced sight word recognition, but I changed it to focus on letter and sound recognition for my younger little ones.  I'm loving Kindergarten and all the new and exciting things I get to teach, but I still want to share some of my favorite past activities with my new students.  My kiddos have loved this game so much that even my reluctant readers are eager to come to small group!  For some groups I only use one set and focus on letter recognition, but in other groups I have the students identify the letter and the letter sound.

 I wish I had a better picture of my cards (I guess I was just too into the game!) but I've found a great way to jazz up the appeal of turned-over cards and to prevent curious eyes from trying to see through the back is to use Do-A-Dot Markers on the backs before I cut and laminate.  Easy and quick and sure beats a boring white card!  (I also bent the rules a bit and scatter the cards instead of keeping them in a stack.  Little arms can't always reach to the stack easily!)

I am so thankful for my new grade level and new blog that I want to share this activity with you!  Get your free set here! 

Shameless plea:  If you download this, could you please consider following my blog and/or store?  I'm seriously bursting with excitement in Kindergarten and would love to connect with more teachers like me!

If you're interested in working with sight words, the original Gobble, Gobble game is still in my store as well!

-Liz

BOO! Halloween Writing Freebie for YOU!

What?  Halloween is in two days?  I had no idea!

...said no teacher, ever.  For real, my kiddos are SO excited for Halloween this year!  I definitely don't want to steal their joy, but it's not like I can just stop teaching and talk about their Halloween costumes all day!

But wait!  Out of desperation, I created a quick writing prompt to get their pencils moving about what they are the most excited about this week.  I thought I'd share this with you as a freebie in case you are feeling you feel like you're starting to look an awful lot like a spooky witch - without a costume! Even my little ones who usually give a few whines about story writing have loved activity! In this download, your kiddos will have the options to write about their costumes and their thoughts on Halloween.  I've also included a few blank pages that you could choose your own writing prompt or encourage stronger writers to create their own sentences.

You can grab your copy at my TPT store here!  

-Liz

I'm baaack!

Have you ever had a pair of shoes that looked totally adorable but just never quite fit right?  You may have thought about wearing them, but every time you put them on you knew they just didn't work. So you'd sadly put them back up on your closet shelf, not wanting to get rid of them just in case?

That's how I felt about the first blog I started a couple years ago.  I was swept up in the idea of connecting with other teachers and sharing lessons and craftivities and wanted to jump right in to my own claim to fame.  I knew I had some fun things to offer to the teaching blogging world, so with a few clicks and a somewhat cliche blog title, I was off and typing!

The thing is, blogging can be hard.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a writer at heart.  That was the easy part.  What I had no idea about was how to blog.  I'd spend hours pouring over the tiniest details, simply because I had no clue what I was doing and didn't know how to ask for help.  I would read my favorite blogs and admire the authors, only to feel inadequate that I didn't have five new products in my TPT store or an amazing hands-on lesson every single day of the week (which don't get me wrong, I appreciate those teachers who can do that! I just tend to go through phases of creating and phases of buying other teachers' genius TPT products).  I'd get frustrated when I'd pour my heart into a post and no one commented.  It began to feel like a chore more than a creative outlet.  So I stopped.

Fast-forward to now.  As the school year started, I started thinking more and more about blogging again.  I changed school districts and moved from first grade to Kindergarten, which has been wonderful and overwhelming at the same time.  I realized I had a neat perspective to share with other teachers:  what it's like to not be a brand-new teacher, but still kind of feel like a brand-new teacher.  I've been humbled to start over, but love having my previous four years of teaching to draw experience from daily.  I also love Kindergarten!  I want to share with others the adventures I have each day, for no other reason than teaching and Kindergarten bring me such joy.

With the encouragement from a sweet blogging friend I met in my former blogging life, I've decided to try again.  This time, I'm not going to try to be someone else in this blog; just me.  I read about other teachers and have grown to adore and admire their personalities - their unique personalities. I want to share my story, but not in anything that doesn't feel right to me. This time, I want the shoe to be a perfect fit.

Liz