Pin 3 and MORE

Hi again. I tell you when it comes to me and blogging it's either hot or cold, feast or famine, flood or draught. At the moment it's a hot feast flood– I think this is my third post in a row with more coming in the not too distant future. Today I have several things to share that are MOSTLY about my top favorite Pins for May. However, there are a couple other things ya gotta know about.

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to Zayda from Magically in First for winning my giveaway of Secrets of the Vegetable Garden. She loves teaching science and is going to use this neat shine-through book to introduce her plants unit. Her firsties are gonna love it. Way to go Zayda. Read about the book here.

Second, I am participating in another big ol' giveaway with some fellow bloggers. You can win one of two fifty dollar TPT gift certificates. Wouldn't you have a great little shopping spree with that!

Just sign up here. You can have twenty three chances!

Teacher Appreciation Week
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Here's who's in the giveaway with me. Check out their blogs by clicking below.





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Kovescence of the Mind

123 teach - Brittany Kiser

Michele Luck's Social Studies

Momma with a Teaching Mission

Mrs. Beattie's Classroom

Stephanie Rye - Forever in Fifth Grade

Embellished Education

Classroom Action with Ms.Jackson

The Education Diva

Patty Rutenbar at 2nd in Line

Miss Johnston's Journey

Believe to Achieve by Anne Rozell

Cait's Cool School

Smart Teaching

KidpeopleClassroom.com

Adventures in the Mitten

Inspired Owl's Corner

Teaching Superkids

Pawsitively Teaching

Second Grade Estrellas

​And NOW check out these three pins!

Okay, so I couldn't make up my mind which KooKoo I liked the most, so I'm posting three of Koo Koo Kangaroo's movement videos as my first pin. These are our newest discovered vids– they have many– and our current favorites. Do you know KooKoo? If you don't, you should.

I mean come on... grown men who sing about their fanny packs! Hilarious. The kids like them, too. Their facial expressions are great and the music is very well done with a variety of styles. These goofballs really know kids.

I don't do Go Noodle, but I do collect movement videos on my Brain Break Pinterest Board. When we need to move, I just open this board and we choose the dance of the day. Love. We don't use this collection as much as we did in the mean winter months, but sometimes you only have five minutes to move and my Pinterest board is super handy for this. Click to see these guys and more faves. You might consider following just so you can get the variety of choices immediately.

My next Pin comes from Two Writing Teachers. I guess my mind is drifting toward next year. THIS year I had a good handful of kiddos for whom writing was very difficult. Both the physical aspect of putting pen to paper, and the recording of stories. I am doing early research for next year, looking for ways to scaffold better for my challenged kids. I LOVE teaching writing and I strive to be the best I can be. Check out this article, and while there, you'll see other posts in similar veins pop up. All kindergarten teachers have low kids and these ideas are valuable in helping us reach all our kiddos.

Consider following Two Writing Teachers, too. This group of blogger authors, considerably more than two now, share cutting edge thoughts on the teaching of writing, and they are pretty good writers themselves. I always find the posts worth my while.

Hmmm.... and three should be.... 

I've been using this super simple idea for my lowest reading group. Before they come over I write the sight words we're working on on slates with Expo marker. I hand them the slate and a Q-tip to "Trace-Erase" the words as a warm up. The novelty makes it fun to practice writing their words. Just one more teaching strategy in my ever growing collection. Next year I'll do some letter writing practice with Q-tips, too, as it's needed.

And because I JUST found this and want to do it THIS week for Mother's Day, I share it here.

I think this is the cutest dang Mother's Day card I've ever seen. Tips to make the photo come out right are included on Bren's blog.

Can you believe I have today off! It is voting day and our schools are polling places. So in an effort to stay away from potential gun toting voters, our district decided a month ago to close and label today as a "snow day." I am THRILLED with the day off, even as I am not thrilled with the reason.

My To-Do List:
Get tire fixed
Work on animation project I'm doing with the kiddos
Get ready for an all day field trip on Wednesday
Write lesson plans for three days I'm out next week
Meet some new students I'll have next year
Help my daughter who's home on semester break with a painting project
Have my mom up for dinner
And...
And...

Okay, so I have a week's worth to work into one day... I can do it... I'm a superhero-teacher-type...

Thanks so much for stopping by. Go check out some more Pin love by clicking below on the blog buttons. Heaps of thanks to Lisa and Marissa for their monthly Pick 3 Pin Linky. I love to party... linky party, that is!

If you'd like to post into this linky sponsored by Pawsitively Teaching, Just Reed, and Inspired Owl's Corner, you can! Just click on their buttons below for the guidelines and buttons.

See you next time!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hats, Hats, Tree Pins and a WINNER!

Everyone looking forward to April? I am. We start the month with a break, and then Spring comes breezing in with all it's blooming splendor. Yippee! Here are three pins I'm going to use this month and thanks to the pin pals Marissa at the Inspired Owl's Corner and Lisa at Pawsitively Teaching for the linky party– one of my favs!

Aren't these hats adorable? I love making hats with the kids and we do it quite a few times during the year. This one comes from a recycled paper bag and the directions are in the video. Doing it!

Such a cute learning idea. I'm saving this one for the week of Earth Day when we read The Lorax. The kiddos will get good cutting practice creating the tree tops and it ties right into our word family practice.  

Yes, another hat. I told you I like them. And you know, testing season is right around the corner... what do hats have to do with testing? After we do a testing session we run back to the run to counterbalance the badness by doing something really fun and creative, and oftentimes that is hat making. (No, I don't tell the kids the "computer activities" are bad. They just like doing fun stuff anytime.) What could be sillier than this monster hat where you just add google eyes and anything goes?? I love little monsters and we have fun with all sorts of monster stuff in the classroom. And if you want to give it a spring theme, just make those 3D bouncing doodads on top flowers! Check out my monster board while you're there though, cause there are lots of neat ideas!

And now...

dum dada dum!  (That's some big drum bangs....) the winner of the blog giveaway of the book Hammer and Nails is Michelle M.  Michelle should look for her copy of the book, courtesy of Flashlight Press, in her mailbox soon.

Adn don't forget, more giveaways coming up in the next few weeks- a Hue camera/animation kit and a great "see thru" book from Usborne. Follow so you're in the know!

Click away to find more great Pins. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for stopping by and see you next time!

Pick 3 Pins and Freebies

Happy New Year! It's not only a new year, but a new month and that means it's time for the Pick 3 Pins linky. YAY! Thanks to Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner.

With FREEBIES this time- whoot

To be very honest, I really have a love-hate relationship with this linky. I LOVE posting to it because I love Pinterest and use it all the time, and I LOVE going to this linky as a teacher and finding new great stuff. HOWEVER, I HATE only being able to share THREE! Three?? I mean, com'on, I could share three hundred! sigh.

So, in the end I share two snow themed pins, because my class is all about snow in January, and one little diddy that I just have to share. AND I give you a freebie I made to go with the song. Actually, one of the snow pins leads to a freebie, too, so click away.

Do you know the short Lily and the Snowman video? I haven't seen it come across any pin boards yet, but it is so lovely. I can hardly wait to share it with my kiddos... it has similar themes to Puff the Magic Dragon, which we love and sing all the time, and it will lead to good discussion about growing up, like Puff did. But spoiler alert– it might make some of you cry! My own daughters just tease me and tease me... one day they'll know!

Okay, so there isn't too much new about sparkly playdough or making clay snowmen... but would you look at how it is set up!  SO cute. SO inviting with wonderful choices. And see that little snowman factory sign?? Well, its a FREEBIE when you click through to the blog. I think after we've spent a day with playdough, I'm going to break out the air dry dough and let them create permanent snow friends. Love.

This is the CUTEST song. Found on YouTube, complete with sign language, you and your kids will have fun learning the song. My kids and I usually sing a goodbye song at the end of the day, so I typed up the words to put up in my classroom for the kiddos to read along. YOU can download my little poster by clicking on the pic below.

Well, that is all for today. I do encourage you to check out my Pinterest boards and the snow themed one in particular because there are so many great ideas on there and I am adding to it all the time.

Click to go to my Pinterest page!

I've been using my own student break count down on my fridge and it was a sad mark I made this morning. If you'd like to share it with students next year, you can download it by clicking on the picture. Now make sure you're ready for tomorrow's return to school because ready or not, here they come charging into 2016!

To find more great pins just continue down the page and you'll find tons. It is your lucky day! Thanks for stopping by.

An InLinkz Link-up

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April's Pick Three Pin Party

Well, can I post twice in one day?? Sure I can. It's been a crazy week with the arrival of a new ELL student who doesn't have any English yet, presenting district PD for K/1 teachers, and being flexible as our building is without guest teachers TOO often- the substitute teacher shortage is really peaking right now and we are all hanging on for the ride as we scramble to cover and lose our planning time. Yikes!

BUT the good news is today starts our spring break!. Bring. It. On!  One of my favorite things to do is write and post and that's how I'm gonna spend today– I even have a third post started but I promise to wait until at least tomorrow to put it up ;)

I'm linking up this post with Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner's Pick 3 Top Pinterest Picks. I've already tried two of my three Pinterest finds this week at school, so you can gain from my experience.

This one is a Freebie from Kindergarten Smorgasbord.

Greg explains how he uses plastic eggs to make a match-up word game. I didn't use plastic eggs with my version. I colored two sheets of these eggs by hand– imagine! On one sheet I colored just the egg outline, and on the other one I underlined the words. My two sets of eggs give me two center activities– just a little variation and it's a whole new thing for the kidpeople. Then I laminated both pages and cut out all the eggs. I buried a set in a bin of shredded paper and had the kids go digging for egg words. When they found one they used a marker of the matching color to write it on my word list paper. They were to star the words that they could not read by themselves, then figure out what it said with the help of a tablemate. When their list was complete with ten different words, they were to read the whole list to three different tablemates. Each table partner put their initial in a "read three times box" found at the bottom of the list. 

My list paper is available for FREE in my TPT store. I have several versions of list papers in the set. The boxes for starring words and the prompts for reading the list three times are right on the paper itself. I use it all the time for all sorts of activities. At FREE, you really can't go wrong and there are lots of freebies at my TPT store.

Click on the photo below to go to the list paper, and click on the egg paper image above to go to Greg's original post to learn about his activity and grab his freebie while you're there. Thanks Greg!

This one comes from Liz's Early Learning Spot. She calls it Battling for Sight Word Treasures. You'll go to the post by clicking on the Pin photo below.

I saw this and instantly wanted to try it with my kiddos because I fondly remember the old Battleship game from when I was a kid. This version has dropped the war theme and added a reading component. Liz explains how to play on her blog post. I simplified it a bit for my kinders. To assemble the game I ran each copy on different colored paper and laminated with my home laminator to make it sturdier and completely encased in plastic. I hook two game boards together, back to back with paperclips– I found this cut down on cheating because it is a little less likely anyone gets a sneak peek while the boards are being moved around separately. We don't use the coins, but simply add up the number of words found.  I write the word wall words on the bottom grid with a Vis-a-Vis pen before I give the boards to them, changing it up as I see fit. And I give my kiddos an Expo marker to mark their guesses on the upper grid– an X for an empty square, and the correct letter when they guess it right. This means they can erase the board in between rounds while the vis-a-vis words stay put. 

Note where I put paperclips
at the bottom sides and at the top

All my kids love playing the game– so much so that one of my parents asked for the link to the game because her little guy talked about it nonstop. My better readers do a better job of playing, but even my lower readers enjoy guessing letters, though they find fewer words. I was most surprised when after just a few lessons with an adult they all got the hang of the grids and how they worked. When I got it out yesterday it was to a chorus of "Yaaay!" I recommend you give it a try. Oh, and did I mention it's free? Yep. Whoot! Click on the first image above. Thanks Liz!

My number three is one I'll do when I get back the week after next. In April I focus on taking care of the earth, which always includes the water cycle. I thought this evaporation activity would tie in nicely.

This little science observation comes from E is for Explore. You outline a puddle on the sidewalk with chalk. Then you come back later to see if the puddle has changed any. Where did the water go? Simple, yet powerful, I think. And unlike the experiments where you watch a glass of water over several days or weeks, you get pretty fast results if you make a puddle on the sidewalk on a sunny day. You can read the original post by clicking on the Pin photo above.

Well, that wraps it up for me. If you'd like to see what other goodies are on my Pinterest Boards you can click right on this Pinterest Profile button. You'll find lots of goodies and might even consider following. I like to follow teachers who follow me.

Now scroll on down to see lots more favorite teacher pins in the link-up below. And link your post, too. Hope you enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

February Pick Three Pins Linky

Happy February! Time for Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner Pick 3 Linky!  Here are my top three pins that I'll use in the classroom this month.

I guess number one needs to be this video of snowflake making. It is particularly good for early elementary. It shows many snowflake photographs, explains how snowflakes are made and shows them being formed in the lab, and introduces Dr. Libbrecht, a physicist at Caltech and leading expert on snowflakes. It's a must for any discussion or unit on snow. It is one of my most repinned pins, too.

Be sure to check out my Science Video Pin Board. There are all sorts of goodies on there for every kind of science unit. Click on pic to go.

This simple idea lets kids use bingo markers to their heart's content. The pin shows a snowman that is highlighted, but the dot covered paper could be used as a background for art projects or writing pieces. Think how pretty a poem would look mounted on this handmade paper. Keeping this one in my tip bag.

You'll find lots of general art and craft ideas on my Pin Board. I think it is so important to bring arts into our daily life in kindergarten, as well as all the grades. And I can and do find ways to tie it to curriculum and appease the time use monsters, too. Find it by clicking on it.

And last but certainly not least, I found a great use for this editing page. The latest wave in education is the idea of keeping students informed of their learning goals– which ones they mastered and what their next ones are. This sheet will work beautifully for that.

I am going to give each student the page and go through their writing pieces using the checklist to help us focus. When we see evidence that they've met an objective, they will get to draw a smiley face in that checkbox. I know all of my students will get at least one smiley at this point in the year and most will get several more. Then we'll decide together what writing skill they'll focus on next. To remember the chosen target they'll color in that checkbox with a yellow highlighter. They will keep their goal sheets in their notebooks and when we see that they have reached their next target, I'll let them put a smiley face in the highlighted box. Then we'll choose the next one they'll work toward.

For my purposes I am going to white out "Editing" and put "Goal" at the top of the page. It will be important when I first give out the sheet that the kids realize the list is for kindergarten AND first grade, so it is okay if they don't reach all the goals this year. I think it is going to be a very handy list. And did I tell you that it's FREE! Yep. There are lots of other useful pages in the editing pack, too. It comes from Nancy at First Grade W.O.W. Absolutely check it out.

I go to my Writing Pin Board on a regular basis. It is loaded with good ideas to do things in new ways and spice things up. Click on it to go there.

THANKS to Lisa and Marissa for the Pick 3 Pins Linky... they could have made this a Pick 12 Pins Linky, and I'd still be making hard choices. TeeHee Hopefully you clicked on my pin boards, too, to see the other stuff I've come across lately.

That's all for now. I'm off to check out everybody else's top three Pin Picks. Yippee. You can click below to do the same.

An InLinkz Link-up