Common Core Letter and Sounds Mega Pack!

Hey ya'll!!! I wanted to share something I just put up on my TPT store that you may be interested in! It's a letter and sounds MEGA pack! 

I wanted to create new flashcards for myself this year because the ones I have been using had the uppercase AND lowercase letters with pictures all in one. I also love this pack because I can make it into a memory game for small groups and centers!

It also has sorting mats and recording sheets with a page for each letter that contains 20 different styles/fonts of each! Be sure to check it out! Check out my TPT store for more information on this great resource!!!

Be sure to leave me a comment on this post on how you can use this in your classroom (with your email) and I'll randomly choose 2 people this evening to win it for free!!! You have until 6:00pm (central time)! =)

Great Resources to share!

Hey ya'll!!! I've been keeping busy spending as much time with my family and friends before school starts as possible--- and when I'm not able to do that, I'm getting things ready! And I have recently been spending WAY TOO MUCH money on TPT. But you know what... I have a feeling it's going to pay off in the long run! Can I just brag about some of our fellow blogging buddies? Seriously ya'll! They have made my life so much easier this year! I'm going to share with you some stations that other bloggers have made--- BY CHOICE. They didn't ask me to, NOR am I getting paid/rewarded for this. I am so excited about these centers- that I HAVE to share them with you!!!

 So here we go--- The first are a few made by the wonderful Deedee at:

She has created monthly writing centers for the ENTIRE YEAR!!! Yup, that's right folks. I don't have to worry about planning what my kids are going to do b/c she has done all the hard work for me! All I have to do is make a few copies and DONE! (I bought all her stations when she had them on sale earlier this summer- so I'm ready to go!) 

She has ALSO created an overhead station for the 1st quarter. (I believe I read somewhere that she said she will be creating more for the rest of the year also!)

Deedee also has some wonderful math journal prompts for each month as well that I plan on using this year!!!

Then there is this awesome dramatic play center from Kathleen at

And best part is... she says she'll be making more for each month! So exciting and what a great way to keep the kids exciting about center time! I can't wait to see what else she'll come up with!!!

 

And the greatness doesn't stop there!!! Alessia Albanese over at

has greated a year's worth of pocket chart stations!  I plan using the pictures from her packet and then writing my sentences on sentence strips and cutting them apart to save ink/paper! But she has included great graphics and recording sheets to go with each week's station! She did a wonderful job!!!! {so sorry the picture is cropped weird! I have no idea why!}

So those were some wonderful centers that can last you all year if you purchase the whole set!!!

Now I have a few others I've bought recently that are GREAT for the beginning of the year and I can't wait to use them!

Lori Rosenburg from

created a wonderful Alphabet resource to use daily with my kindergartners!

 The great part is... it goes along with Jack Hartman's Learning Letter Sounds song! (I had honestly never heard of it before, so I searched for it on youtube and found his music video- and I loved it!) I will definitely be using this during our morning meeting every day... and posting the small ABC chart in their writing center and in the homework section of their daily binders! She also has an cute little letter sounds book you could put in a center and have them write (OR STAMP) the beginning sound in! Then they can color each page and have a book to read at home! Seriously- genius! 
If you haven't bought Deanna Jump's Common Core posters/essential question posters yet, you have got to check them out!!! {She JUST posted about them, so go to her blog to learn more!}
She also has a WONDERFUL beginning of the year resource for kindergarten teachers! Her Literacy and Math Fun with Names is going to be my saving grace at the beginning of the school year! She has songs, class books, writing, and math activities to help teach the kids their names, as well as practice identifying letters! They are FABULOUS ideas! 
Hope you enjoy checking these fabulous bloggers out~ I am so grateful that I did!!!
Thanks ladies!!!!
One more day until I get into my classroom! YIPPEEE! =) Pictures to come!

Table signs- FOR FREEEEE =)

Today I'm going to be sharing with you an idea I got from my co-worker, Lisa! I was lucky enough to get new tables in my classroom my 2nd year of teaching! I started naming my tables by coins because my students had such a hard time with identifying coins. But since that is not a kindergarten standard anymore, I wanted to make some new signs that I can change out through the year to help reinforce some big standards that my kiddos NEED to have mastered before 1st grade!

The table signs are a great tool to help teach kindergarten skills in every day situations! These will be great in calling by tables to come to the carpet, to line up, to earn points for following directions or to call attention when need be! These can be switched out easily if you hang them from some fishing wire and a paper clip! I will slip mine into a sheet protector and hang from the paperclip... like pictured here:

They can easily be switched out through the year! The barrel of monkeys you see pictures above were used to reward tables who were following directions as a whole! When they earned 5 monkeys, they got a prize from the treasure box. But when you download my freebie, be sure to check out the last few pages because I created some small pictures that match the table signs. You can tape them on your whiteboard, and mark the tables with tally marks as they are modeling good behavior! =)

Some rewards you could use could be:

5-10 minutes of free play at the end of the day
First dibs on computers
Read with a friend
Prize from treasure box
Stickers
New, fun pencil and more!!!

I am sharing my table signs FOR FREE with you and in return I hope you follow my blog! I post freebies all the time! 

TABLE SIGNS CAN BE FOUND ON MY TPT STORE. =)

Now, if you have any other ideas of how my signs can be used, please be sure to share by commenting! And if you have any other suggestions on skills that can taught towards the end of the year, be sure to let me know! I always welcome suggestions!

Shop-a-holic

I am so sorry for my lack of posting lately friends! My summer has been busier than expected! The past week I have had way too much fun buying things for school! (I can start working my classroom on the 24th and I'm super excited about it!)

Here's the first slew of stuff I found in my first trip to Target!

I bought these 4 packs of play-doh to use at the beginning of the year! I thought it would be great to put out with my alphabet and number mats!

An ABC and 1-10 puzzle! Can't have enough puzzles in kindergarten!

Some frog erasers and stars/heart erasers- I thought these would be great for a math station- they can make patterns, sort, count, etc!

I got 3 packs of these letter stickers. I thought these would be great to mix together and have the kids sort in the ABC station!

Some cute buckets for sorting activities in centers!

A fun microphone for when the kids are speaking to the class and a little, squishy, earth ball I thought would be good for the beginning of the year. I thought this would be great to teach them "If you don't have the microphone or ball, you are not to speak, unless the teacher calls on you."

nametags- think I got enough? lol

This is so cool! It's a slip cover for their chairs! They had it in 3 different colors. But I bought it for handwriting at the beginning of the year! 

Each day we pick one student. I model how to write that student's name neatly and the kids follow what I do. Then I  teach them how to draw that person. We do this every day until we've done every child in the class! (At the end of the day, I bind all their drawings together, put a cover on ti and a note explaining the activity so the kids have a special book to take home and treasure forever!

 So I thought this slipcover would be a fun way for the kids to know who the star student is that day!

I saw these file folders and had to have them! They were NOT $1. lol But so cute! {from Target}

I also needed a new planner for the year. I really wanted an Erin Condren one... but can't get myself to spend that much on a planner. (I would if I could afford it... but I'm trying to get out of debt!)

Target had a pack of these pens for $2.00. And it actually had 2 of every color- but I gave the other half to my sister b/c we got planners together and she was so excited that I gave her some colorful pens to use in hers too! I love making my sisters smile!

I've already got my school dates in there! =) Am I the only nerd that gets excited to write in a new calendar/planner???

This planner is great b/c is has a section of graph paper- which I plan on using for reminders/notes for the month! 

Then it has the weekly pages!

And I just got my 100s chart that I won in a giveaway from Mrs Bremer's Kindergarten!!!

 I am so excited b/c I was wanting one for next year b/c I love how you can switch the sides when teaching number patterns! I plan on using this 100s chart daily! So thank you again Mrs. Bremer!!!

Now on my 2nd day of school shopping, I happened to find this ADORABLE ABC chart at Fred's for $1.00!!! Yup... that's right. Just ONE!!! And it's adorable... I was going to buy one at the teacher store... that was priced around $25, but when I saw this... I thought it was perfect! The clipart is so precious and they have the handwriting arrows on each letter! It's the normal size of the ABC strips you put near your carpet area too! So this was my favorite find so far!

I probably won't use the vowel strip b/c I use the glue bottles from the wonderful Teacher Wife!

While at Fred's... I also got a white tub (not pictured) to use for my Intervention basket! It was inspired by a fellow teacher blogger in my district-

Check out her blog b/c it's adorable and she has wonderful ideas to share!!!



I also made a trip to the teacher store because I needed some new border for my bulletin boards! I was originally going to do all green and white polka dots... but they were out!!! But I decided to go with these 3 colors against a back background! I can't wait to see what it will look like!

I am also going to be using a new calendar- more pictures to come of this when I get into my classroom!!!

Trends was having a special... Buy 2, get 1 free... so I ended up getting the positions poster for FREE! The owl one I will use to keep track of my student's books read for AR!

And my most recent trip to Target {which was today} I found the trays that I plan on using to store different types of writing paper. I was so excited about the plastic sleeves so I don't have to make so many copies for centers now!!! I got a few more nametags (enough for the 1st week of school) and then thse cat file folder is for my cat's vet files! It was $1.00 so I had to get them! haha

So that is what I've been up to lately!

But stay tuned because I have some freebies coming your way!!!

Literacy Stations

Hey there friends! I have been working on a lot this summer and can't wait to share it all with you! In the meantime- my kdg team and I have come up with a plan for our lit stations next year! We tried out Daily 5 last year, but we didn't think it works with what our school system wants. So we are going to pull out what we really like and can use along with the following! =)

These are pictures of a mock rotation chart I'll make once I get into my classroom in two weeks!!! =) Needless to say, I'm a bit crazy and a lil excited! So we talked about how we like the idea of rotations b/c with our old system- the kids were getting bored and finishing their work too quickly. So Lisa, our team's kdg guru told us about how she used to do this rotation schedule and our "head honchos of the school district" came in and told the current principal that "this is what he wants to see in EVERY classroom" b/c all our students were working on meaningful work and doing so quietly!

So we are going to do it this year and see how it works! We are all really excited about it... so here it goes!

The first chart shows the rotation by groups and it will NEVER change. I'll probably just post this on a poster board near a pocket chart. The next picture shows what will be in my pocket chart b/c it WILL change daily! =) (SIDE NOTE: The group names will change to something fun... I will NOT post the learning levels on there of course!)

So if you look above, the "Stations" in orange is where the next chart will come into play. There will be 4-5 children in every group, so the kids who are assigned "stations" will go to the next chart, find their picture and see which station they will go to for that 15 minute time block. So all 5 children will be at a different station. (Which means less talking/playing around!) So this is where the daily 5 activities will come into play!
The seat work station will be name activities and the monthly writing stations I bought from Mrs. Wills blog! =) We planned it so the kids will do a certain activity each day of the week so we aren't running around frantically finding "busy work"! I'm all about hands-on... and this will be great b/c we can differentiate easier with this too!

I was really confused at first... but once I made these visuals, it made much more sense to me! Please don't hesitate to ask questions to clarify! If I can't answer it, I'll ask Lisa! =) I'm trying to convince my teammates to create blogs b/c they are always telling me they thought about it!

****The discover center is going to be something where the kids practice whatever skill we may be working on that week! Activities like:

• Read a book and make a puppet to go with the story. 
• Draw and color a character in the book. 
• Design a book cover for the book I just read. 
• Draw the setting of the book I just read.  
• Read a how-to-draw book and make a drawing.

So we'll see how this goes! I'll try and answer your questions as they come! =)

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!!