Brush Your Teeth!

I can't believe February is already over! We got so busy that I had to squeeze my dental health activities in today & tomorrow before we can move on to Dr. Seuss! Here is a quick freebie to print for next year if you are already finished with dental health month. Brush Your Teeth!




Leaping into March!



Teachers pay Teachers is having a sale to celebrate Leap Year with a Leap into March sale! Just click here to visit my store and stock up while it is all on sale! If you haven't grabbed all things Dr. Seuss and/or March yet, now is the time!

March Maddness!

Thank you to all of you who joined my blog and/or TPT store this weekend! I hope you each got your freebies and are ready to Leap into March! If you didn't get a freebie this time, just hang around and I'll be having another giveaway real soon! It was a lot of fun!

While my husband and son was gone to a fishing rod building show this weekend, I spent every waking minute working on my many little projects that I couldn't seem to get done! After many requests, I was finally able to turn the March Calendar for Promethean board into printable learning centers! I thought I learned my lesson when I did that back in January & February but NOPE, 2 days and many hours later it is finally done!






AND I am also going to blame Lauren at First Grade Diaries for getting me sidetracked on my Phonics Fun flipchart! She was able to finish some custom clip art that I requested. I needed more clipart to use for beginning and ending sounds and of course they were too precious to just sit in a folder on my computer so I just had to get them into a flipchart for my Promethean board!  Here is a preview...  I really wish there was a way you could listen to the sounds for correct/incorrect responses! My 10 year old son (he is ALL boy) helped me pick them and couldn't stop giggling so that might give you a clue as to the types of sounds that are included for negative responses...


   


Now with those project done I am going to have to push to get my homework done tongiht before they get home! Have I ever mentioned that I am a procrastinator and/or ADD?!?!

AND one more thing....

This year year our school system is doing something a little different. We have always held kindergarten registration in May and PreScreen the students and assign them a classroom before the end of the school year. Of course, we have a lot of additions and withdrawals before the new school year actually starts but overall has worked fine for us.  This year our new elementary supervisior has asked us to do an early registration/Open House tomorrow night (in February!!!) in addition to our regular registration day in May. The idea behind it is that we are losing many students to the local private schools that do early registrations.  It is a good idea in theory but I'm curious how much this will help us to attract and retain new kinders. So my question is how & when do you handle kindergarten registration? Just curious! And now that reminds me that I need to run by school to see if everything is ready for it!

Enjoy the few remaining hours of your weekend!

Join my Blog!


Spring is just around the corner and it seems like I have been couped up inside all winter long in front of a computer screen! Spring to me, means being outdoors and I can't wait to move back out to my front porch swing in the evenings with my hunky hubby instead of in front of a TV with my laptop!

I am so excited (& slightly disturbed) to see that I am at 40 followers on my blog and have 84 followers on Teachers Pay Teachers!!! I would like to boost my followers on my blog so I am going to give away a copy of my Cat With a Hat printable learning center games and/or my Read & Rhyme with a Cat With a Hat for Promethean Board to the next 10 people to become new followers on either my blog or my TPT store! Just "follow" me and then comment below with your email address or if you don't want to publicly post your email just send me an email to kellyyoungteacher@yahoo.com . Don't forget to let me know if you prefer the printable version or Promethean board flipchart version & I will email them out to you later this evening!

Those of you that are "old" followers need to stop crying now! I haven't forgotten you faithful friends! If you are already a follower...just get a friend to follow me and then tell me their name once they follow & then you and the friend will get a free copy! 


Cat With a Hat Printable Learning Center Games
or Cat With a Hat for Promethean Board FREE to the next 10 followers!


Hurry this offer won't last long!!!!

More Cat and Hats?!?!

It seems like this has been the longest week ever! We have only had school 2 days and a field trip tomorrow but I am already exhausted! Its hard to believe March is already upon us! I feel like these last days of school are slipping through my fingers like sand...there is still so much left to teach & learn. From here on out it feels like a race to get this little darlings ready for first grade.

So all things Cats and Hats are selling like crazy!!! I have had even more requests for more things so I whipped up this Addition and Subtraction stories with the Cat/Hat theme since the Puppy Love Addition and Subtraction stories have been very popular. Head over to my TPT store to check them out!





Have an awesome weekend! I have lots of homework to catch up on for my master's classes this weekend so I hope to get that done quickly so I can work on some more flipcharts & learning center games before my head explodes with all of the ideas packed in there!

Be Blessed!
I certainly am!

News Flash With Kermit the Frog


Love this short video clip of Kermit the Frog interviewing George Washington's father concerning his chopping down the cherry tree! The kids loved it & it went perfectly with our President's Day lesson described in my post "Honestly?".

It's Time to Celebrate the long weekend!

I am having a sale Saturday through Monday in honor of Presidents' Day & to celebrate the long weekend & all of those crazy teachers that are working on school stuff on their long weekend! Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here!




Honestly?!?!

Am I the only one ready for the looong weekend?!? I have only worked half of this week with my uncooperative knees and I am still exhausted! Teachers pay dearly for those long weekends...it seems the kids are extra "excited" before the weekend gets here and then extra "grumpy" after a long & busy weekend off of their normal sleep schedule. Nevertheless, it is st ill worth every minute of the trouble!

I had really good intentions of getting a lot of projects accomplished while off work this week but my knees went from bad to even worse. Turns out that I had an adverse reaction to my miracle knee injections that  have worked wonders for me the other 3 times that I had them. Looks like I have bought all of the extra time I can get & will have to give in and get a partial replacement  in my right knee this summer & the left knee will follow soon after...ugh! I'm too young for this and my doctor (bless his heart) has tried for several years to get me to the magical age of 40 before doing anything drastic...he makes it sound like turning 40 is a good thing...he tells me "congratulations Kelly, in May you will offically be old enough to get some new knees!"

Well back to kindergarten! Today I did a lesson for President's Day and we were talking about how George Washington chopped down his father's cherry tree. I asked the kids if they would tell the truth if they had done something naughty, even if it meant they would get punished. ALL but 1 said they would lie so they wouldn't get in trouble!!! So does this mean that they are honest about being dishonest?!?! You should have heard of the punishments they thought George Washington would get for cutting down that cherry tree...I particularly liked that he might get grounded from his XBOX & I am also left to wonder if I need to investigate possible child abuse/torture!!! So while they were thinking about an appropriate punishment I showed them the cutest  little video clip that I downloaded off of YouTube of Kermit the Frog interviewing George Washington's father (a puppet "George" is in the background cutting more cherry trees). He tells of how George told the truth & his father was so proud of him. You have to watch this video clip...it was the cutest thing ever! I added into my President's Day Promethean flipchart but need to figure out how to add it to my blog to share with nonPromethean board users.

I finished up my Dr. Seuss/Cat With a Hat flipchart for Promethean board tonight FINALLY! Check it out here.!
 

And here are a couple of pages from my Presidents' Day flipchart...can't wait to get to Abraham Lincoln tomorrow!

 

Woo Hoo! got the Liebster Award!!! Now, I'm passing it on!!!

Woo Hoo! I was given the Liebster Blog Award for new bloggers!




Thank you, Tessa at http://talesfromoutsidetheclassroom.blogspot.com/ & Ellen at http://greatfirstgradeexpectations.blogspot.com/  for giving me this award!

Now, it is my turn to award other new bloggers with this award!

Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Thank the giver and link back to them.

3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

I get to name 5 others new to blogging! WOW!
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers!!

And, don't forget, go and visit Tessa at http://talesfromoutsidetheclassroom.blogspot.com/ & Ellen at http://greatfirstgradeexpectations.blogspot.com/


March Madness in February?!?!

After spending the entire day at the emergency room yesterday with a very swollen & fluid filled knee, I was actually relieved to be sent home and confined to the bed/sofa for the remainder of the weekend! I feel like I am so far behind because many of you are already planning for March and I have yet to get my Valentine cards finished!!! They are next on my list of things to do...along with getting ready for my evaluation from my principal this week, finish graduate class homework, help son finish 4H demonstation speech/project, get back up sub plans together for knee-fluid draining day(s), cut coupons from all 6 of today's newspaper (yes, I am a big couponer!!!), upload class pictures on my blog, celebrate husband's birthday...bless his soul...I haven't been able to walk, much less shop for him, clean house before I lose someone in this mess, shower?!?! I think I hear a pain pill calling my name!!! And with that long list of things to do, what do I choose to do? Jump ahead and work on March projects that have been swimming around in my head! Check them out at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
 
These cute St. Patrick's Day themed owls can be used to help with Alphabet upper/lowercase letters and alphabetical order and the set below can be used for sequencing numbers 1-20 and/or matching numbers to number words 1-20.


My kids will get a kick out of creating silly sentences with these Cat in the Hat themed sentence part cards. They will love illustrating the crazy sentences even more! Can't wait to use them!

Kindergarten Post Office

Every February I turn my Home Living center into a class post office to encourage my students to write and read more. Each morning the kids come in & write a letter or postcard to a classmate. (They have to pick a name from a bucket for the first letter of the day to ensure every student gets mail & can then write to anyone they choose when that one is done). When they are finished writing they bring their letter/postcard to me and I have them read it back to me before giving them a "stamp" (flag stickers). This helps emphasis legible writing and making complete sentences. During center time, my postal workers sort the mail by boy/girl and then deliver the mail to individual students' mailboxes.  At the end of the day, we check our mailboxes & read our mail. Again, this encourages children to read their own mail rather than have me read it for them. I also make sure to send them a small piece of mail each day too which they love!

For FREE printables click here! here.

Little Miss Hypothesis - Lessons from the Science Lab: Blog For A Free Science Unit!

Little Miss Hypothesis - Lessons from the Science Lab: Blog For A Free Science Unit!

Have I mentioned that I love kindergarten science?!?! When we do experiments, my little ones think it is magic & I suddenly become (and I quote) "the most, bestest teacher in the whole wide universe!" My coworkers and I were just talking about doing a better job of incorporating science into our already busy curriculum and then very next day I find Little Miss Hypothesis! Hoping her blog makes our science centers easier to implement! Check her site out! 

Snap! Subtraction Game

I'm so impressed with my little ones today! I have been a bit concerned that our kindergarteners have to add & subtract within 5 fluently under the new Common Core Curriculum standards. That is a big jump from the TN standard in which they just have to understand the CONCEPT of adding & subtracting. I saw this idea at the TN Kindergarten conference back in November so I decided to give it a try. Students were partnered up and given 5 snap/unifix cubes. Player 1 held the cube train behind their back & Player 2 says "Snap!" Player 1 breaks the cube train (behing their back) and shows 1 part of the broken cube train to Player 2. Player 2 then has to figure out how many cubes are still behind Player 1's back. They were doing so good that I then had them write the subtraction sentences that they were making. (5-1=4). Even the little struggling learner that I was playing with was quickly memorizing the number facts. I'm thinking that if we continue playing this game my little ones will be subtracting fluently before too much longer! Go ahead, you know you want to try it!

Common Core Curriculum Standards

I'm sure you have heard by now that TN kindergarten is in the process of moving to Common Core Curriculum Standards this year and grades 1 & 2 will begin the transition next school year and then the other grades will follow. Want to know what your child will be expected to learn at their grade level? Check out this website and you can see the Standards/Objectives for each grade level & for each subject area...right now we are working on Math & Reading/Language Arts (science & Social Studies will follow later).