Neglected Blog and a Giveaway!

Hi Friends! It's been sooo long since I have been on here.  Right now my hubby and I are in the midst of packing our whole house up to get ready to sell it.  We have TWO more days to get it done!!! YIKES!!! It's been crazy....we have 17 plus years of junk that we have collected.  I'll be good when it's done and over!  I feel bad for neglecting this blog...but I have been trying really hard to get to know all 22 of my kiddos and come up with plans that work for each of them so that they are successful and feel comfortable in school.  Things are going really smoothly right now.

I am going to post a few pictures of things that have happened since my last post...

 I finally bit the bullet and dumped tons of garbage schoolwork that I have been hanging onto.  We always save everything that the boys brought home from school.  Yesterday I went through closets and pulled out boxes and boxes of work.  I only saved art projects and writing samples (journals, essays, etc.)

 My son's last regular season football game.

 We have been practicing addition with dice.  The kids shake 2 dice and write an equation with the numbers on them.

 We learned how to do some of our centers.  This is always a favorite.  One child will find a word in the dictionary and tell it to their friend.  Their friend tries to spell it.  They then correct it together to see if it was right.

 My hubby and I went to a wedding. My mom tried  several times to get a picture with my phone...they were blurry and took lots of attempts.

 I got these wiggle discs for my kids.  I LOVE THEM!!!!  This was the first one I got.  I wish I had one for each kid in my class.  The kids have to focus as they balance to sit on them.  IT REALLY HELPS with their concentration.  I had a sweet mom from our class send my a gift card to get more!  I was surprised!  We now own 4 discs.  The kids love them.

 Some of my son's football games have had a lot of rain!

 Love this umbrella.  I am thinking it could double as a Halloween costume.  Add some eyes, streamers and ribbon and you've got a jellyfish!

 We made applesauce.

The kids each helped peel an apple.  They went into my roaster oven and 2 hours later we had applesauce.

 Spirit day at school...

 Love this book!

 The kids helped me label our bookshelves.  It's helped them take accountability and put books back in the correct spots.

 The kids picked out just right books for their individual book bins.

 My son wanted to learn how to make apple pies...so my mom helped him.

 We went to a scarecrow festival.  I loved all the Duck Dynasty scarecrows. This one was a fav!

 I have a lot of songs by Miss Jenny that I purchased.  The kids love singing them.  I use my Smart Board to project the words.

 My son's birthday. I was lucky that my prep fell during his lunch time so I stopped down and ate lunch with him and my hubby.

 We've had a couple birthdays.  My kids love writing the birthday child a letter.  This can be found in my Birthday Pack.

We love Tumblebooks!!!  We listen to a story during snack every day!  The kids love them.  I love that the words are on the screen so they can follow along.

We've done WAY more than the pics above....but that's a good start.  I hope after packing today...and getting things settled with our house...I'll be back to blogging soon.

The real reason I am here is because I wanted to share that Lisa is having a birthday!  Hop on over to her blog and check out her blog and her awesome giveaway!  Wish her a Happy Birthday in the comment section as well.  Her link is right below this picture!

Always An Adventure In Kindergarten

I am off to trying to get the rest of my house packed!
Have a great day!
Sara

It's Finally Friday! Five for Friday Linky

Happy Friday!  I am so happy to still be alive and standing at this point.  I am exhausted.  Physically and mentally.  I have survived my first week of teaching my first graders.  We have been learning the rules and routines of being in school.  Today I can officially say that we are making progress.  Whoo Hoo.  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday Linky Party.  You can do the same if you have 5 random pics/things you want to share about your week.

Here goes....

 1.  This week was a big week for us.  Meeting new friends, teachers, having specialists, being in school all day and learning about our new environment are pretty big things.  I ALWAYS forget about the little red dot on the floor in my room.  It's the subject of MUCH attention.  Usually when I am reading a book or trying to teach.  EVERY year...I have kids turned around...instead of listening and huddled in a group together.    They are talking and grabbing the floor.  Then I remember the RED DOT.  The interesting red dot on the floor!  Can anyone guess what this is?!?  It's from my doc camera.  If I don't turn it off...it shines a red dot on the floor and the kids are so curious about it...what it is...where it is from.  LOL!  We end up taking time out to talk about the red dot...and about how you can't catch it.  We look at it...look where it is from and then talk about how we are going to leave it alone.

 2.  I am in LOVE with these privacy boards that I got from Really Good Stuff.  I have some friends in my class who love to talk.  I love that they feel so comfortable with one another already, but it is distracting with getting work done.  I bought these this summer.  I gave my kiddos the options of using them when they are doing quiet work...like journals, writing, etc.  They LOVE them.  They are so quiet when working too.   Best.purchase.ever!!!

 3.  This week we talked about feelings.  We talked about how words can hurt us and that even though we say we are sorry...they will never be forgotten.  I made a heart out of white paper (only because it was a spur of the moment...I need to do this RIGHT NOW moment).  I didn't have red on hand.  I told them that every time they say something mean to someone it hurts their heart and leaves a mark.  I came up with examples of hurtful things people might say and put a wrinkle in the heart every time.  Then I talked about how we might say we are sorry.  I unwrinkled the heart.   We noticed that the wrinkles are still there and even though you say you are sorry...unkind words may never be forgotten.  They each signed the heart saying that they promised to say nice things to their friends.

 4.  My husband took our annual first day of school picture together.  My son on the left is 9 in 4th grade.  My son on the right is 11 in 6th grade.  I can't believe he is in middle school.

 

You can hear this book and others here...Animated Books.

 5.  I got some new books this week that I read to my kids.  I have been using the Responsive Classroom approach to learning.  I MODEL everything that I expect them to do.  The kids MODEL everything we do.  We practice using our supplies, listening and following directions.   We are making progress. :)


Finally, if you'd really like to win some great things...hop on over to Learning With Mrs. Leeby's blog.  She is having an 800 follower giveaway. It ends on Monday...so you'll want to check it out this weekend.

You can enter here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you have a great week!
Sara

Open House Night

It's hard to believe that summer vacation is over for me!  I have spent the last several weeks getting ready for school and have been at school every night this week until about 11 p.m.  making sure things were ready.

I went back on Monday.  We had workshops all day. We have a new system called Infinite Campus that I was trained on this summer.  2 other girls and I had to train our co-workers how to use it during our workshop day.  I HATE speaking in front of people.  Thank goodness one of my co-workers did all the speaking.  She did great.   I got home and was getting my son ready for football practice.  I looked at my youngest son.  His eye was swollen!  I seriously thought it had to be a joke.  Goop was dripping from them.  They were watery.  I ended up calling the doctor.  I had to bring him in.  He had pink eye!!!  "Seriously?!?" was all I could think.  He wasn't sick ALL summer long and the first day I am back he gets sick!  I couldn't stay home because I had way too much to do.  Luckily my mom watched the boys on Tuesday.

Tonight was our Open House.  I found out about an hour before it that I had a new name on my list.  Thank goodness I checked my email or I would have been caught off guard with her. I was able to get everything ready for her.  I absolutely LOVE my class.  They seem like the sweetest group of kiddos ever!!!  If today was any indication of our year...it is going to be fantastic!  Every single one of these kids were so sweet.  I can't wait to spend the rest of the year with them.

I got everything in my room ready about an hour before our Open House started.  I was sweating as I was running around trying to finish everything!  I did it!  I work best this way too...right up until the end.  I got more done in the last hour than I did all day!   I am going to share some pictures that I took.  I still have to work on my desk area....but...I am happy with the way my room turned out.  I have NEVER had a theme or color them.  This year because of all you and your cute blogs and great ideas, I decided I'd try one.

 These are my new name tags!  They are from Really Good Stuff and they are AMAZING!  They are thick and they have an adhesive back. I didn't have to use contact paper and I didn't have to laminate them.  It took 5 minutes to slap them on my desks.  Never will I go back to anything else!

 

 This is my calendar area with my schedule posted.

 A view looking at the back of my room...

 Looking at the reading/meeting corner...

 Looking at the back of the room...

 My writing center...I still had boxes to put away...

 Looking at our lockers...

 Looking at the front of the room...

 My word wall, book bins ad sink area...

 Book bins with binders for morning work and poetry....

 Work wall....

 Birthday posters...

 Bins to put folders and library books in...

 Lockers...

 One blank locker waiting for move in students...

 Guided Reading corner...

 Crate stools...

 Meeting area....reading corner...I didn't finish labeling bins yet...

 My chair from Ikea...

The calendar...


I am happy with the way it looks right now!  It feels homey!

After our Open House I got to see the last half of my son's first football game. It was fun watching him play against another city.   It was hotter than blazed...close to 100 heat index.   Many of the school in Minneapolis are closed tomorrow and Friday due to the heat.  We are breaking records here and many of their schools are not air conditioned.  Yuck!

I hope you are all enjoying your first weeks with your kiddos.  :)
Sara