Favorite Pins Friday

I'm linking up with Cara from The First Grade Parade! Sometimes I wonder what teachers did before blogs and pinterest! Seriously, these have helped me become a fun and creative teacher! I am inspired by all the cute and creative ideas and love spending too much money on TPT! (Hence I've be lacking in my own creations! lol)

So here are my Teaching Favorites... {click on the links provided for the original post!}

I love this idea for introducing new letters! This idea came from Tammy at Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten!

When introducing each letter, have the kids names written on sentence strips. If they see that letter in their name, they put it above the line. If it's not in their name... they below the line. I love how she used a letter card and picture at the top, as well as the adorable border as the "dividing line!"

This next one is from Cara at The First Grade Parade...

 I love the song she came up for teaching syllables and totally have the pack from Growing Kinders that she got the pictures from! (She also has great "Labeling" lesson on this post!

And here is one I'm obsessed about!!! The pinterest link didn't go back to a blog, so if anyone knows where this derived from, PLEASE let me know!!!  I am totally going to create these for my classroom! So great!

My favorite FOODIE pins...

I want these now... 

Someone at my school makes these all the time and they are amazing!

My favorite FASHION pins...

Want it all....

with these nails! <3

 My favorite PRINTABLE pin...

Adorable quotes for the classroom by Fun in First

My favorite QUOTABLE pin...

My favorite FUNNY pins

My favorite HOME DECOR pin

I totally want to do this to my bathroom!

My favorite PRODUCT pin

I love HIMYM!!!

Big Bang Theory = My favorite!

To see what else I am pinning.. you can follow me HERE!

Now it's your turn! Go link up with Cara and show us your favorite pins!

A sale and linky party!

Hey all! I just wanted to let you know that everything in my teacherspayteachers store is 20% off! My sale will go through July 5th, since I didn't join in on the sale until now! =)

I'm also joining up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for this fun little linky party!

How it Works:  Look at the graphic below.  It is a Tic Tac Toe board filled with different categories.  You will post about three of these categories but they have to make Tic Tac Toe.  For example, you can choose to write about 3 topics that go vertical, or 3 topics that go horizontal, or three topics that go diagonal. 

I went to ________ (college) and a favorite memory...

I went to Eastern Illinois University!

 

It's hard to pick just one favorite memory b/c I have so many amazing ones there!

Like for instance... my graduation day...

 

But because 

 so much....

I have to share one more....

I attended a church on campus and had the oppurtunity to raise funds to go on a missions trip to Port de Paix, Haiti.  While we were there, we helped a local school teach children about the gospel and also spent a day at an orphanage. This was my absolute favorite part! Loving on kids who wanted to feel loved. This was us about 5 minutes after entering the orphanage....

 Snuggling with some sweet kids!

I will never forget these beautiful girls...

 

I got these two sweeties to stop crying... they were fighting on who got to sit with me so this was taken during that moment... sweet girls! I just wanted to take them home to the good ol' US of A with me!

I let them braid my hair and they loved it!

So needless to say... that is one memory I will NEVER forget!

Share about your first year of teaching...

My first year was... well.... lets just say I don't enjoy jogging down memory lane... there were SEVERAL snow days and we ended up making up for it by adding 30 minutes to the end of every day. We also a change in administration. (It's all good now though... LOVE our admins!) It was also the year of the Nashville floods. Which hit Clarksville just as bad... just didn't get as much news coverage since we aren't a big city. We were out for a week due to the floods. There was a lot more drama that year that I don't want to share but I was so glad when that year was over! Every year since has been wonderful though! =) I made some amazing friends, have a WONDERFUL class every year and just love my school! I've been teaching at the same school since I started teaching. =)

My favorite grade to teach and why...

Well that's a hard question to answer... sometimes I wonder what it would be like to teach 1st grade... but I think I'd miss kindergarten too much! I love that my kids are blank slates in August b/c I get to see so much growth that no one besides a kindergarten teacher will understand. I love that they can come in knowing NOTHING at all... no letters, numbers, or even how to identify their own name... but by the end of the year they are reading and writing paragraphs! It's such a wonderful time for kids and I love being able to give them a great start to their educational career! Maybe one day I'll venture out and try out 1st grade... but for now, I'm happy with my kindergarten babies and awesome teammates! 

Well if you've read all my blabbering, thanks so much for sticking around! I can't wait to get in my classroom in 3 weeks and start setting things up! I'm enjoying summer break until then so I'm sorry for my lack of posting! I hope ya'll are enjoying summer and taking it easy! 

Ms.G

One more week!

Hey friends!!! I just wanted to remind you that Google Reader will be closing down on July 1st! That means you have ONE week from today to transfer your google reader data to a new feed so you can read all your favorite blogs in one place! I'm using bloglovin. If you are too, you can follow me quick and easy by clicking the photo below! (I also have this on my sidebar for future reference!)

 

If you haven't created an account yet and want to learn how... it's so easy! Check out my good friend Katie's "how-to" by clicking her blog button below....

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Classroom Set-Up {then & now}

When I saw that Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten was throwing a linky party on how our rooms have changed with teaching experience, I got so excited I wrote this post immediately! (Hence, why I'm up past 1 am!) I'm going on my 5th year of teaching kindergarten and have been in the same classroom all 5 years! After my first year of teaching, we had a change of administration and with that came a goal for school improvement! To start off, that summer of 2010, all teachers were ordered to "de-clutter our rooms" (aka: THROW AWAY THE JUNK!) So that's just what I did. Then we were allowed to paint our classrooms, so I did that too! My principal hated the rickety, wooden tables in my room, so she got me beautiful, green tables that were sturdy and easy to clean! I also got a new easel and through the years, have really gotten better at staying organized, keeping clutter to a minimum and creating (and finding) awesome classroom decor for my room! Well enough of my jibber-jabbing... take a look for yourselves! 

My first year of teaching (2009-2010) to My 4th year (2012-2013)

BEFORE

Note the boring walls, old rickety tables and boring table signs... (all before pinterest and this blog!)

 AFTER

EXACT same view of my room during my 4th year of teaching... pretty color on the walls, new tables, chair pockets made by  my mom, pretty table signs I made and matching table tubs for supplies! =)

BEFORE

This was where my writing center was my first year of teaching....

 AFTER

Here is the exact same view but this area is now my calendar area! (I LOOOOVE my new rug thanks to donorschoose!)

 BEFORE

These next two photos were my calendar area my first year of teaching...

Here is that same wall now! It's my word wall/small group area on the large whiteboard and the smaell board is my writing board and listening center.

 AFTER

Close up of my writing board....

This wall is also part of our writing board...

 BEFORE

This is how I used to post my standards...

 AFTER

Here is how I post them now!

 BEFORE

My letter of the week board (before we were told to stop letter of the week)

 AFTER 

Here is the same wall this past school year!

 BEFORE

My tiny little word wall....

Old computer station....

 AFTER

Here is that same corner NOW. =)

Here is what my computer center looks like now!

 BEFORE

Old library station...

 AFTER

My new library station! (That little book shelf didn't stay there... I eventually moved it  b/c it was too cluttered for my liking here.

 BEFORE

Look back to the right side at my flat file and how messy that area is (my first year)!

 AFTER

Now look at this beauty! So organized and loving it!!!

I get so excited looking back at these b/c I can't wait to start decorating my classroom (I know... I'm a big nerd!)

So click on the link at the beginning of this post to go see other classroom transformations!

Sincerely,

#TeacherTalkTuesdays

Our "QU" wedding....

Playing duck duck goose, while waiting for the buses on our field trip!

I taught the kids how to play simon says when we were learning how to act out the meaning of simple verbs... they loved it so much they played it out on the playgrounds!

One of my little guys brought this in for me on teachers appreciation day and I about cried.... it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I have received!

This went with my crayola crayon picture =)

Another sweetie brought me these flowers <3

"Smarties" were in the jar (LOVE the creativity!!!)