First post of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So I successfully enjoyed my Christmas break with my family without thinking about school! It was wonderful but now I have 2 days of break left I'm going to get myself back into the daily grind! First off, what do you think about  my new blog design? Isn't Alicia @ Dreamlikemagic wonderful? I have been dreaming for an awesome layout like this since I came up with my blog name! She hit it right on the nose! =) So thanks Alicia- you are amazing!









Secondly- ya'll need to head over to Alessia Albenese's blog and enter in the giveaway! There are some GREAT winter units that I would LOVE to have! Good luck to you if you enter! =) 

***EDIT*** I also want to add that I'm entering the Most Supportive Blogger Giveaway!

Little Miss Kindergarten is having a linky party to thank our most supportive blogger! Write up a post about your most supportive blog buddy and then join the linky party! This party is also a giveaway! See more info here:

First off... let me say that I appreciate all my follower and all the sweet comments! Ya'll are encouragement rockstars! Blogging has really helped me become a better teacher because I know that all I need to do is sign-on and ya'll save me so much time when it comes to planning! I love sharing my ideas for free because ya'll are so generous with your creations... I like to pay it forward! But there are two people who have been supporting me since the beginning and I want to say THANK YOU!!!

Katie over at Little Warriors has been such a great blogging friend! She creates such wonderful kindergarten centers and I love all her ideas! She is such a great encourager as well! If you don't follow her yet, you must! Hope to meet you one day Katie!!! I truly appreciate all the sweet comments and your adorable creations!





And Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons was so good to me when I first started my blog.... always writing me sweet comments that were so encouraging! So thank you Fran! I appreciate all you share with us and create! You're fabulous!





Now it's your turn! Head over to Little Miss Kindergarten and thank 2 of you biggest supporters! =)

Gingerbread Writing and Stations

Hey all- Do you use 6 +1 Writing Traits at your school? I had never heard of it til I moved to TN. But anyways, our school focuses on one trait a month. This month is word choice. So I have been teaching my kinders all about adjectives and being more descriptive with their writing. So this week I came up with a fun activity to do to really get the wheels turning for them!

Day 1: (Today) I baked some gingerbread cookies and brought in icing and sprinkles for the kids to decorate. I knew this would be chaotic with the whole class, so I put my kiddos in "Gingerbread Stations" this afternoon. (They were SOOOO excited when they walked in from specials. I told them it was a surprise and I gave them little hints throughout the day as to what it was! When I put on my Gingerbread apron... I think that gave most of them a good idea of what was going to happen.)

So here are the stations I used:
STATION 1: Number order puzzle

Mixed up gingerbread picture that they have to cut out and put the numbers in order to make the picture correctly. (I found this at http://kindergartenmonkeybusiness.blogspot.com as a FREE download!)

 STATION 2: Coloring

 just printed off some cute clipart I found online for the kids to color. I made the mistake of letting them use my markers... not even THINKING to remind them to put the caps back on. I am so glad I noticed before I went home today otherwise I would have had NO markers left to use for myself. (I LOVE that Gingerbread clipart!)

How cute is this gingerbread house coloring page?!

 STATION 3: Decorate a paper gingerbread man

I am a VERY crafty person (ONLY when it comes to kids) and I'm not afraid of using glitter and such with them. I showed them how to use a pinch of glitter INSTEAD of pouring it all over their paper. I still had a few who didn't listen... but whatevs! My floor gets vacuumed every night, sooo it's all good! =) They had a blast doing it too! I found the template HERE.

 STATION 4: Cookie decorating

Here is the cookie decorating station!

I made one... you know... for "an example"... haha (or just b/c I WANTED to!) 

 STATION 5: Computers

I came across this website through another teacher blog and was so excited b/c it has several different Gingerbread games for the kids to play... so no "I'm done" in the middle of decorating cookies! =) The website is: http://www.lindaslearninglinks.com/gingerbreadmansites.html

I also had other ideas that I did not use...

*Read Gingerbread books
*Use playdoh and Gingerbread cookie cutters
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So that's all I got done today for writing! OH! And I took a picture of each student with their cookie to use for Wednesday.

Day 2: (Tomorrow) We are going to review the 5 senses and talk about how the cookies looked/tasted/smelled/and felt. I will record their responses on a web (sorry- forgot to take a picture tonight! I'll try to remember tomorrow.)

Day 3: The kids are going to receive their own graphic web to choose 3-4 adjectives to write about their own cookie. (I'll let them use our web created as a class AND to look at their pictures so they remember what their cookie looked like. UPDATE 6/ 9/13-- I will post this on my teacherspayteacherstore BEFORE December of 2013. I am currently going through my old blog posts and deleting some really old/embarrasing posts since I've gotten better as creating and my old classroom pics are embarrasing!---- stay tuned!)

Day 4: The kids will put their web into writing... My gingerbread cookie is ______. My gingerbread cookie has ______. etc.

Day 5: Edit/revise as needed.

Update on my niece!

Hey all! So quick update on my niece! I just got off the phone with my sister who had to come home last night after 3 nights in the hospital. She couldn't take her sweet girl home just yet b/c they still have her on a respirator and a lot of other cords. So sis just called to check in on her this morning and found out that baby Sonorah is completely off the nitric oxide now and they are going ot take her off the oxygen completely today. If all goes well after that, she will be put in an incubator until she shows that she is able to breath completely on her own for a few days with no surprises. I'm so relieved--- our whole family has shared tears these past few days b/c we just want to hold her so bad. But we can't even touch her b/c she's not to be stimulated. (If we wake her up... she could try to rip off all the cords/feeding tube/etc.) So it's been really hard. We haven't seen her smile/cry/etc. yet. We're so anxious to get to know her, hold her ... all that stuff you can take for granted. This baby is very loved and has so many people praying for her. I appreciate the prayers! They are working! Now I'm praying she can get through today.... and continue to show improvements so my sis can take her home soon. That's all I know for now. Here is a sweet video of Sonorah and her daddy... I cried my eyes out (I was in the room when this happened... it was so beautiful.)

Just call me "AUNT JESS!!!"

Hello my fabulous followers! =) (This is non-school related post tonight!) So my sister went into labor yesterday morning and had sweet lil Sonorah yesterday evening! That sad news is that she had some trouble breathing on her own, so they have a tube down her mouth and she is on oxygen. Last night she was on 100% oxygen and it was very scary b/c we were not told what was going on. My sister finally got to see her sweet girl after 9:30pm... (4 hours after Sonorah was born!) and started to feel a little better. Good news: She is down to 65% oxygen! They are "weening" her off everything right now.... and we aren't allowed to touch her since she has all those cords and tubes on her. (They don't want to risk stimulating her b/c she might try to tear off all the cords and such) So she has been pretty sedated. I went twice today to see her and I was so excited! The 2nd time I went with her daddy and he was talking to her and she started to open her eyes to look at him. I started to cry like a baby it was so sweet! (He got it on video too!) So I have been at the hospital the past 2 days supporting my sister and keeping her company. (She has not slept for more than a hour, crazy girl! But I understand... I can't sleep knowing that Sonorah is hooked up to all those machines.) I do trust that she is God's hands and will come out of this just fine. We just want to hold her soooo bad! She is so beautiful!

Welcome baby Sonorah to the world!!!! <3

We love you soooo much!!! XOXO

Aunt Jess

Math Stations this week

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My kids LOVE math stations! They are so busy working that I have no problem working in small groups! We have some great stations from Lakeshore that have some wonderful manipulatives included! Here are the stations we did last week:

 I forgot to take a picture of it, but we have this station where the kids copy and extend the patterns. You could take it a step further and have them label the pattern.

One of their FAVORITES! They used the colored beads to create patterns onto pipe cleaners. It was also great for those fine motor skills =)

A Lakeshore station- they could sort the trains by: the size of the animals inside, colors of the train and the animals that were in the train. (Not pictured: They is also another set of cards for patterning!)

Lakeshore instant learning center: The kids used the foam shapes to finish the patterns. (They could also copy the pattern below.)

We just began our Numbers unit... so I just had them use the foam-dough to form the letters and quantity on the mats.

A puzzle where the kids can finish the pattern.

Next week we will have more centers to work on numbers 0-5! =)