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

Five for Friday and School's Out! (and, of course, a freebie to celebrate!)

Whoo- hoo!  Summer break, here I am!!  First of all, I have to give a true round of applause to all of you teacher folks who faithfully blogged during your last few weeks of school.  I feel like I have been going a zillion m.p.h. for the past two weeks trying to collect all of my final grades, final projects, celebrating with a few school assemblies, field trips and end-of-the-year fun things in the classroom.  By the time I would get home, I was zapped!  So if you're one of those dedicated bloggers during EOY activities, know you are admired!

That being said, we ended our school year in such fun ways and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to show my Top Five from this final week of school.  This group was pretty challenging, but I will definitely miss their distinct little personalities and all the major growth my babies made this year.  The last days of school this week I made sure to plan fun activities so we could enjoy our time together and end with great memories.  Here are some of the best from my highlight reel:

*Chalk pictures outside and bubbles outside:  The more outdoor activities, the better!  I picked up bubbles from the Dollar Tree and gave each of my students their own bottle.  After watching their reaction, I feel like I should inform their parents to forget the fancy iPods and Wii games...all you need is bubbles :)

*Last Day Flowers delivered from My Man.  Isn't he the sweetest? :)

(and would you look at that nearly-packed up room in the background?? I impressed myself yesterday with how quickly and efficiently I packed and cleaned!)

*Money Movie Party: The first grade team sets up a theater room and a concession room. We give all students an allowance of manipulative money that they get to put in their carefully decorated paper wallets.  Each student must purchase a movie ticket to see the movie, and then can purchase treats at the concession stand, such as popcorn, juice boxes, small cake treats, etc.  This is such a fun way to practice saving and spending money and the kiddos feel so grown up as they make their responsible choices!


*Construction Paper Sorting:  Ok, so you know how construction paper companies STILL don't understand how teachers want/need paper sorted by colors, not in a pretty rainbow pattern?  It's so frustrating trying to quickly go through packs of paper to pull out 23 sheets of red for a holiday craft, only to turn around and do it again for green.  So one of my teammates came up with a fun way to have the students help sort.  We place one sheet of paper on desks around the room, the more space between the desks, the better.  For each color represented, we have a student sit behind that paper to become the "Paper Manager".  The rest of the students are handed a random stack of assorted colors of construction paper and are released to sort each color at the correct desk.  The Paper Manager sits behind her color and carefully organizes the paper into a neat stack so that when we are all done, it's easy to store on my shelves.  In the end, I can collect a large stack of red, orange, yellow, etc., so that next year my paper is sorted and easy to grab!  It's so helpful to me and the students love having a job that truly requires little supervision and instruction from me.

*Classroom Awards:  At my school, we have an awards assembly near the end of the year.  It's special and fun, but it really only recognizes the older students in my building.  Because of that, I created my own classroom awards so that each one of my special students gets a unique award that we can celebrate in our classroom.  I had so much fun creating these!  There are 36 awards total, with one blank award included.  These are available for both First Grade and Second Grade!  Here are a few samples:

I have the First Grade Awards posted here and my Second Grade Awards posted here.  Both are free for you to have some fun in your classroom and celebrate a successful year with your little ones!

What are some of your favorite ways to celebrate the end of the school year?  I'd love to hear your ideas!  

-Liz

May Currently

Oh goodness me!  I went and took a week off from blogging without even realizing it!  I tell ya, time is a funny thing at this time of the school year.  On one hand, it goes by waaay too quickly and we have so much to do!  On the other hand, we still aren't to summer...yet.  Anyways, I'm welcoming myself back with the May Currently from Oh Boy 4th Grade.

Listening: I love feel-good movies and The Blind Side is definitely in that category.  I'm a total repeater when it comes to watching my favorite movies, so this is perfect to keep me company with the lovely stack of papers in front of me that need grading tonight.

Loving:  I seriously am such a happy girl!  The school year is almost over, I have some amazing summer travel plans laid out, and I had a fun day shopping with my mom today.  Other good news?  I can breathe again!  This past week I was hit hard with a nasty sinus infection and I think I can finally say I am on the mend.  

Thinking: Whoa, baby, is this a busy time in the school year or what?  I often tell my non-teacher friends that this is our "tax season" (I also say this at the beginning of the school year too. Hmm, maybe our whole career is a "tax season"...).  I have a gazillion things I need to do, both for school and my personal life, but they are all such fun and promising tasks that I can't help but feel happy as I move at the speed of light to try to get everything done. :)

Wanting: I've got some serious procrastination issues going on tonight.  I've done a wonderful job of cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry and now blogging...but not so much with the papers I need to grade. I have set a goal that as soon as I'm done with this post I'll grade for half an hour and then have a Pinterest and teacher blog break.  Must. Use. Self. Control. To. Stay. Focused.

Needing:  I need chocolate!  But then again, when don't I?

Summer Bucket List:  Ooooh goodness I have some FUN summer plans!  First of all, I started my TPT store just this past March and have had a blast creating products.  It's seriously a joy for me to create things that I know will be perfect for my classroom and see other teachers feel the same way.  I like to take my time and make 'em great though, and unfortunately time has not been on my side lately.  This summer will be a chance for me to get these ideas in my head onto my computer and into my store.

I also have amazing travel plans!  My Man and I are heading to the Dominican Republic at the end of this month for a wedding and I could not be happier!  Toes in the sand after a successful end to a school year?  I'll take it!  We also have a few other quick trips planned this summer and I'm excited for those as well.

Lastly, this summer I cannot wait to catch up on my reading!  I love books, but once again have had some time issues to get much reading done.  Do you have any great book suggestions?  I'm open to almost anything, so please share!  

Wanna join this linky and share about your May?  Join here and don't forget to comment and/or follow the last two bloggers to link up before you!

-Liz

Five for Friday

TGIF!!!  Wowza, this week was a doozie!  Here were some of the more positive highlights :)

1.  This week definitely needed a caffeine boost.  What better way than a piping hot Starbucks on a rainy day?

2.  A student brought me the most beautiful tulip!  It opened up throughout the day and brought a smile to my face every time I passed by! 

3.  Date Night with my guy!  We had a delicious sushi dinner out and then saw the movie 42, which obviously had to include Junior Mints. (Great movie, by the way!)

4.  High School students came to visit our class to teach our kiddos sign language.  Not only were my little babies excited to show me all the signs they learned (Ms. Fowler, this means giraffe! Watch this!  I can sign "popcorn"!), but it was also an excellent teaching opportunity about accepting differences in others.  We strayed from my lesson plans to talk about differences in communication, sight, learning and body types and why we need to always look at what is on the inside of a person.  My little ones were so earnest to share their hearts!  I'm one proud teacher :)

5.  One of my little ones who has come soooooo far this year and exceeded my expectations from when he first arrived at our school wrote me this note:

I love my Fowler I got Kookabirds

Apparently I am right up there with his beloved Angry Birds game.  I'll gladly accept :)

How was your week?  Link up here and share!  Don't forget to comment or follow the two bloggers before you!

-Liz