Sunday, May 27, 2012

200 Followers Freebie, Blog Issues & Basement Make-Over

Yesterday, every time I tried to get on my blog, I got an error saying my blog was infected with malware....what the bleep?  I don't even know what that is!!  After hours of research and some nice friendly advice from Top Teachers I think I have it fixed.  This morning I got on and everything seemed fine....and nice surprise I reached 200 followers!  : )


To celebrate I am giving away my new TPT product,  A to Z intro pages, for today only!  Before I go to bed tonight it will go back to $2.00 so grab it now if you're interested and thank you for following my humble little blog!  Click here to go to my TPT store and get your feebie!


On another note, and totally unrelated to teaching, is my basement makeover!  Here is a picture of it before we even owned the house:



This winter my husband I and painted up a storm and now it looks like this:

It is, of course, a man cave!  You can see all  my hubbies hobbies in one room (he is in basement heaven).  


We have the Harley wall (the pink guitar is my daughter's!):

The car wall:

The Wet Bar:


And my favorite part of the room make over was the license plate wall:


We pulled the license plate theme to the other side of the basement as well:


It feels really really good to have that checked off our list.  Well, there is one more part.  There is a small entrance room to the basement with a movie theme.

We are waiting for our movie posters to arrive.  On the way, thanks to Amazon and on-line shopping, are posters from the movies ET, Star Wars, Blue Brothers, Indiana Jones, Goonies and Back to the Future.  Yes, we are a product of the 80's. . . and ok with admitting it!

Thanks for checking out my very NON- teaching related post!  Don't forget to get your freebie....it will be available for 10 more hours!


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Done and finally feeling normal!



This is my whole school.  Isn't it neat?  Every year my principal thinks of a creative way to take an all school picture and one of our very talented parents sets it up and takes it for us.  Love it!!  Can you find me . . .I'm the one in black.  Haha!  




I've actually been done for a week now but it usually takes me that long to decompress.  Sigh.  Feels good.  I've been reading, lunching with friends and running my kids to their activities.  It's WONDERFUL! 


I've even had time to add a product to TPT.  It's a collection of A to Z intro pages we are going to use this coming year and also some beginning sounds picture cards and upper & lowercase letters.  We are going to use them for a pocket chart center. 



Click the picture of the cover if you'd like to check it out!  Only $2.00!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Summer Calendar Freebie


3 more days!!!  Hip Hip Hooray!  I'm just a little excited!  I have about a million things to check off my list in the next few days but right now I'm just blog hopping and relaxing- the end of the year chaos will start tomorrow.


I don't know about you but over the course of a school year there are a lot few worksheets I had copied and ready to go but did not actually get around to using.  (I hope copier lady is not reading this Shh.....)


Anyhoo. . .at the end of the year I take the majority of those pages and put them into a "summer work" folder for my students to take home.  I also include a summer activity calendar.  For a copy of the calendar click the picture. (clipart from DJ Inkers)  


I know all my kids will work in the folder over the summer and be SOOOO ready for First Grade and next year those First Grade teachers will say "WOW" and everything will be perfect.  Right? Well. . . a teacher can dream!  : )





Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Have you heard this song?



A few years ago I was desperately searching for a "fun" upbeat song to use in my end of the year DVD for my class and a friend of mine told me about this song.  It's called Kindergarten Wall by John McCutcheon and it's adorable!!  Click the arrow above to listen.

This year I'm using I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack.  Do you do an EOY video for your class?  What song do you use?


Sunday, May 6, 2012

CVC & CVCe sort (freebie)



My kiddos are doing pretty well with spotting magic e in a word and sounding out the word.  We've done lots of sorting, sounding out & drawing both CVC and CVCe words.  Click the picture above to receive a free copy of this sorting activity.


Here's the "bummer" part of the CVCe story....when I went to DIBEL my students this week some of them sounded out the nonsense words and put LONG vowels in the middle!  GRRRRR!!!!  Note to self:  do not introduce magic e until AFTER end of year testing!

8 more days....cha cha cha!!!


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Teacher Appreciation Sale



Dear Teachers Everywhere:

When God created teachers, 

He gave us special friends 
To help us understand His world 
And truly comprehend 
The beauty and the wonder 
Of everything we see, 
And become a better person 
With each discovery. 

When God created teachers, 
He gave us special guides 
To show us ways in which to grow 
So we can all decide 
How to live and how to do 
What's right instead of wrong, 
To lead us so that we can lead 
And learn how to be strong. 

Why God created teachers, 
In His wisdom and His grace, 
Was to help us learn to make our world 
A better, wiser place.


YOU are appreciated for all you do!
Visit my TPT store May 6-8 enter the promo code above you'll receive 28% any of my products.  

God bless teachers!