Five for Friday

It's Friday!! Today is Day 5 of my official back to school year. My kiddos come on Tuesday. 

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday link up! This is a link up where we get to share five random things from our week. Ready for my randomness?

My doctor's note said I could come back to work on Monday, so I was finally able to get into my classroom. I hadn't been inside since the accident in January. When it was time to pack rooms up at the end of the year, I was still unable to walk. Luckily my long-term sub was given a whole day to pack up my room for me. I'm so grateful for all her hard work...but I don't know where anything is!! 

Here's what my room looked like when I got in on Monday. My storage closet was cleaned during the summer, so everything from my closet came out and onto the tables. 

I am SO INCREDIBLY LUCKY to have had the help of an amazing lady, the para educator for a student in grade 2. She was so wonderful and pretty much did all of the hard work in my room! Since I still can't climb or lift, she did all of the hard work! She got all of that stuff back into the closet and moved all of the furniture AND covered the bulletin boards!!! How amazing is that??? She is one incredible lady, and I am so lucky to call her friend!! 

On Tuesday we had a county-wide professional development day. Monday night I cleaned out my 'teacher bag', since I'd need it for the PD session. I was a bit surprised at what I found.

In the large outer pocket of my bag I found some glass shards from the windows of my car. I'm glad I looked inside before I just stuck my hand in the pocket!

On Wednesday we had some school-wide meetings and got to meet with our team for some planning. My team and I spent time getting ready for our kindergarten entry conferences. We got all of the various papers copied and sorted, ready to sit down with parents/guardians and explain various county, school, and classroom policies. 

Here's the table where I meet with the parents. I have everything sorted and ready to go! 

While I talk to my kiddos' parents, they will be working on an activity where they're tearing up bits of construction paper to fill up an outline of their name. I got this idea AND editable name tag templates from the incredibly creative Jackie at Pocket of Preschool!! This comes from her incredible FREEBIE in her TPT store, Editable Name Cards!

Our school has a Social Committee, which is responsible for for planning different teacher get-togethers as well as plenty of other amazing things for the teachers and staff of the school. One of the things they do every year is host a Secret Pal Exchange.

We fill out a simple form and then after everyone has signed up we pull names. That person becomes our Secret Pal for the year, and we use the information sheet to plan out different little surprises and gifts throughout the year. Little things to remind each other how awesome we are and that we're doing a great job. I love this, and can't wait to participate again this year!!

I managed to get a bit more accomplished with my Feedback Freebie Challenge!!

I am so close to getting down to zero!! I was honestly hoping to get done to zero before school started, because I knew things were going to get crazy hectic and I wouldn't have as much time! However, I will get it down to zero in the next few weeks!!

How has your week been? Have you headed back to school yet or are you enjoying summer still? I'd love to hear what you are up to in the comments!

You can check out who else has linked up for Five for Friday, and you can link up too!

AARRGGHH You Ready For Back to School? Blog Hop and Giveaway!!

AARRGGHH You Ready for Back to School?? I know that many of you have already walked the plank and headed back into the classroom! I am headed back to my first official day back on Monday, and my kiddos return on the 25th. So I am in full Back to School mode and in order to celebrate the start of another school year, I have teamed up with some really amazing ladies to bring you all a fun Early Childhood Education blog hop giveaway!!

Each one of us is offering up a prize or two from our TPT stores. These prizes are going to be a HUGE help to all you Early Childhood Peeps out there! And don't worry if you've already started school, these activities will be a huge help for the first few months of school!

Check out some of the amazing products you can win during this blog hop giveaway!! So many incredible resources you can win to help you make it through those first few months of school!

Guess what you can win from my store??

This packet is over 200 pages long!!! It is jam packed full of various math and literacy centers that will allow you to build those incredibly important foundational skills in phonics and number sense. These activities center around the different concepts and skills that we focus on during the first few months of the year, including letter identification, beginning sounds, rhyming words, CVC words, number sense, creating sets, counting sets, and so much more!! You can get a sneak peek into this packet here!

This packet is centered completely around different alphabet activities. Your students will be naming the letters of the alphabet as well as practicing their sounds. Each activity included centers around different animals that start with each letter. Read more about the activities in this packet here!

The last product you can win from my store is the activity I created to introduce my kinders to the rules and procedures of the Write the Room center. We use Write the Room activities A LOT in my room, and during the beginning of the year many of my Dragons can't write yet. This activity has them practicing how to complete Write the Room activities without actually writing anything, but instead coloring pictures in. Click here for a more detailed description of this packet!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!! If you win my Rafflecopter giveaway, you will get the three products mentioned above PLUS another $10 to spend in my store on whatever you want!!!! All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AARRGGHH you ready to start the blog hop?? There are 15 different Early Childhood Educators that are participating in this blog hop giveaway. Each stop on this blog hop will have a different Rafflecopter giveaway for you to enter. If you follow the hop through to the end (you'll end up back here) you will have entered 15 different giveaways. If you should win a giveaway, you will win whatever products or prizes that person had featured. The seller will get in contact with you via email to reward you with your prizes!

*********There are some participants in this blog hop who do not have a blog, so their posts and raffles will be hosted on my blog. There will be pictures of the prizes the seller is giving away as well as a brief description. So even though you may hop back to my blog several times, each Rafflecopter you enter will be for a different set of prizes. Don't stress when you end up back on my blog for several posts. Just check the title of the post to see which TPT Seller is being hosted!!*****************

I wish you the best of luck with our giveaway! I hope you are able to find several different resources that will make heading back to school for you all a little bit easier!!

Now you're off to your first stop, my sweet friend Jill from Chevron and Centers. Click on her button below to head over to her blog and enter her giveaway. Then make sure to hop on to the next blog to enter another giveaway!! When you make it back to my blog, you're all done!! Good luck and happy hopping!!

Spotlight Saturday: Sweet Sweet Primary

It's time for Spotlight Saturday!!

This is a weekly link up where you can showcase your favorite products, activities, resources, lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, and whatever else makes your school year easier or more awesome!

This week I am shining the Spotlight on an incredibly sweet friend, Rachael from Sweet Sweet Primary!!

I'm sure many of you already know how awesome she is!! I'm sharing a few of her incredible creations that are really going to help me this year! 

First up is this awesome freebie I found in her store that will be perfect for the beginning of the year!

These little beauties are going to be perfect for our sensory table during the first few weeks of school! My kiddos will use play-dough to make small balls to represent each numeral in the ten-frame. They are going to love getting a chance to play with the play-dough, plus they'll be increasing their number sense as well as strengthening those fine-motor muscles!!

I got this activity for a STEAL in her TPT store. Only $1.00!!! These cards are so adorable! They fit perfectly with the 'Chicka-Chicka ABC' story, and they are SPARKLY!!! We all know how much I love all things that glitter and sparkle!!

Rachael has created three different ways to use these cards. They are perfect for playing memory to match up the letter buddies, as well as a really fun game to ID the name and sound each letter makes. If they get the coconut card they have to put all their cards back! 

This activity is perfect to use in small groups during the beginning of the year as well as an awesome activity to leave for a substitute!! 

If you want a copy of her FREEBIE, click the image below!

For her amazing Alphabet Activity, that is just $1.00, click the image below!

Here's how you can find Sweet Sweet Primary through social media. Trust me, you need to make sure you Like and Follow this lady, she's amazing!!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT HER BLOG:

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT HER TPT STORE:

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT HER FACEBOOK PAGE:

I would LOVE for you to link up for Spotlight Saturday too! I really enjoy learning about all the awesome educators out there, and I think this is a great way to do that! I welcome you to use either the Spotlight Saturday graphic from the top of the page or the one below. If you are Spotlighting someone with a Facebook page, make sure to leave them a comment on their page that you Spotlighted them!! Make sure to read the rules before linking up!

Rules:

1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.

2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.

2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.

3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.

4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!

5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!

6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!

7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

Tell All Tuesday: A Goal, A Wish, and A Dream

Happy Tuesday!!! I know many of you have headed back to school and I hope you are having an amazing time so far!! I'll be headed back in a few weeks, and I can't stop thinking of all the things that need to get done!!

One way for me to take my mind off of BTS is to link up with my incredibly sweet friends from My Day in K and Teach Talk Inspire! They have hosted this incredibly fun linky all summer, but just like the summer, all good things must come to an end!! Today is the very last installment of Tell All Tuesday!

This week the link up is focused on heading back to school. Many teachers in the Western part of the country have already headed back to school and many more are headed back this week. Along with my fellow East Coasters, we have a few more weeks of summer left. Most places on the East Coast don't go back until after Labor Day! Our state is trying to pass a law that will restrict school from starting until after Labor Day. We shall see if that comes to pass!!
Today's topic is for your classroom or school year, and is titled 'A Goal, A Wish, and A Dream'. There is so very much I want for my kinders and my classroom this year, it's hard to narrow it down!!

I know as teachers we always want the very best for our kiddos. We all have our own hopes and dreams for the classroom, and surprisingly many of our wishes and dreams are very similar!! Great minds think alike!! Here are mine.

A Goal - Organization!! I feel like this is my goal every year, and each year I get a little closer to the level of organization I want. I'm not disorganized by any means, but there is so very much more organization that I want to get done in my room!! I can't wait until I can finally say I am totally and completely organized the way I want to be!!!

A Wish - I want each and every one of my kinders to reach and surpass every goal, educational and otherwise, that they set for themselves. If they want to be able to tie their shoes by the end of the year or if they want to be able to write a short story, I want them to feel successful and accomplished. All I want is for them to make as much growth as they possibly can and be super ready for first grade next year!

A Dream - I know how important kindergarten is. I know that we, as kindergarten teachers, build the foundation of each child's learning and that we have an impact on their feelings towards and about school. I want to instill such a love of learning in each and every single one of my kinders that they will become intrinsically motivated to continue their educations. I want them to keep learning and growing all the way through college, and that each of my Littles will make the very most of their situations. I want the very best for them, and that means they need to most education possible!!


So there's my goals, wishes, and dreams for this year. Swing back over to My Day in K or Teach.Talk.Inspire to see who else has linked up, and you can link up too!

You can still link up for Spotlight Saturday!! It's a Teacher's Show and Tell where you can share your favorite products, activities, resources, tips, ideas, tricks, and everything else that makes classroom life easier or more awesome!!

Five for Friday

It's Friday!! My favorite day of the work week, and just another day in the summer time!! :-) Friday also means it's time for one of my favorite link ups, Five For Friday hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching!

This is a link up where we can share 5 random things from our week. I must admit, being stuck on the couch unable to walk makes for a boring week, but I'll try to find 5 things to share with you all!!

My niece is helping to extinguish the myth that pit bulls are vicious and dangerous animals!

Kobe is an incredibly strong pit bull that COMPLETELY worships and adores my niece!! Lilly can pull his ears and tail, smack him around, stick her fingers up his nose, take his toys from him....she can literally do whatever she wants to this dog and he has never once even raised his voice to her. He takes all her 'loving abuse' and comes back for more! They are truly best friends, and she could not have a more playful and protective companion! I just love how much Kobe loves her!!

My girl here has been carrying around that dog biscuit for over a month now. I can't believe she hasn't demolished it yet!!! Toys and treats don't last long with her, but this one has definitely become the exception!!

I have been doing a lot of 'TPT Stalking' lately, looking for great freebies and new clipart sets that I simply must add to my collection. Did you know that Edulips offers each of her new sets for 50% OFF the day she releases them??? I have gotten so many incredible sets by stalking her store!!! :-) Each time I log on to TPT I search the Our Teach Authors board for anyone I might now. If I find a friend, I snag a screen shot and pop it on to Instagram so my friend can see! Imagine my complete surprise and delight when I logged on to find this!!

Check me out!!!! Bottom right corner is all mine, and I am SO EXCITED to have FINALLY found myself!!! I may or may not have smiled all day, and if I could jump up and down with a broken ankle I totally would have!!!

Have you noticed how social media is exploding with teachers and teacher bloggers?? So many platforms to get our names and 'brands' out there, and I can't believe how far the social media has come since I started blogging almost three years ago! Periscope is the newest fad, and it's so neat to put a face to so many of the bloggers I have become friends with since starting this journey! With so many different forms of social media out there, it can get hard to keep track of them all! Luckily for us, the incredibly talented @thetwentysoomethingteacher created a really awesome template to help keep us all on track!

Here's all of my info! If you want to fill one of these out for yourself, log onto Instagram and follow @thetwentysomethingteacher. She has a blank template in her Photos section!!! It's a great way to network!!

I have been really hard at work on some activities to help get my school year started off right!! I am so proud of my work that I am raffling it off using Rafflecopter! All you have to do is click on one of the images to head over to that blog post where you can enter to win a copy for yourself!

I wish you the best of luck in the giveaway!!!

For those of you who have been following along with my blog for a while, you know that about a month ago I set a challenge for myself.

I, like many of you, truly enjoy finding awesome freebies on TPT that I can use in my classroom again and again. I am constantly downloading activities and clipart freebies created by some pretty amazing people. 

As a TPT creator, I know and understand the amount of time, energy, and hard work that goes into the creation of each and every product, whether it be free or not! I also know that you can have a freebie be downloaded thousands of times, yet only a handful of people took time to rate and leave feedback. I realize how frustrating that can be, and soon found myself guilty of not leaving freebie feedback. I have tried all sorts of things to keep myself on track and held accountable for giving freebie feedback. Nothing was working. 

Enter the Freebie Feedback Challenge!!

This is a little challenge that I created for myself. I needed something to help me keep track of the freebies I have left feedback on, as well as something to hold me accountable for actually LEAVING the feedback!! 

This graphic really helps me to tick off the freebies as I leave feedback on them. Also, posting it each week definitely helps to hold me accountable for my challenge! As you can see, I have left feedback on over 200 freebies since I started this challenge!! Some of those freebies were downloaded last year, and that makes me sad that it's taken this long to give them feedback! I'm so grateful to have made this challenge, and taking ten-twenty minutes out of my day to let other creators know how awesome their creations are is a great use of my time!!

Well, that's all I have from this week! Swing on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to see who else has linked up and what is going on in their week! You can link up too!

Hey, don't forget that you can link up for Spotlight Saturday! It's a link up I created to act like a Teacher's Show and Tell, where we can get together and share our favorite products, activities, ideas, resources, tips, tricks, and anything else that makes our classrooms and teaching lessons more awesome!!