Five for Friday

Happy Saturday Morning, Friends!

In non school related news, our new kitty and Annabelle are starting to get along really well! They like to play the game of "who can be closer to Mom's face" when we are sitting on the couch. I snapped this picture the other day after school--they are quite the pair!

I got my new listening station up and running this week and I LOVE the way it turned out. I took the cassettes and CDs that I had and converted them all to mp3 files and put them on my iPod. I found this great little headphone splitter on Amazon {HERE} and after teaching new listening station expectations, the kids are doing great! They are really taking care of the iPod, headphones, and splitter and even ask me to listen to stories during free centers! A win-win for sure!

I don't know about other Kindergarten teachers, but I love the magic that seems to happen over the winter break. The kids come back what seems like years older, and sometimes things just seem to "click" while they are away for two weeks. I love seeing their progress this time of year and just had to share a little piece of writing that came out of the writing station. This little friend was writing about her family's dog, Lola. We are from the south ya know, this is how we sound out "tail." Hee hee! #precious

"Dogs have paws and a tail."

Last week, my principal came to us with an idea for a bulletin board to celebrate MLK Jr. She asked us to bring a picture of ourselves as primary age kiddos and to tell her what we wanted to be when we grew up. She asked me to help come up with a way to display the pictures and dreams and I was excited to help! I put it all together yesterday after school and am so happy at how it turned out. I think the kids are going to just love seeing all of their teachers as little girls!

A huge thanks to Mel from Graphics from the Pond and Cara Carroll from First Grade Parade for the cute bubble graphics and fonts!

Look at that little Kinder cutie! ;)

Do you have Monday off? I do, and am looking forward to a long 3 day weekend! Hubs and I are planning a few outings today, then my sweet in-laws are coming to visit tomorrow, and we also have dinner planned with some friends tomorrow night. I guess I should also finally take down my Christmas tree sometime this weekend. #yikes

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Five for Friday-Classroom Flip!

Hey, y'all!

This was our first week back from the holiday break and it was a blast! We had PD on Monday and the kids came back on Tuesday. They were so excited to be back and full of stories. I heard all about lost teeth, new tablets, and trips to Chuck-E-Cheese.

Before we went back to work, Hubs and I adopted a kitten! It has been a lot of fun having her in the house and Annabelle is starting to figure out that she's pretty fun to play with. Blog World, meet Abigail! AKA, Abi!

I posted a new freebie in my TpT store! You should jump over and download it if you are working on CH words. I'd love to see pictures of your finished products! 

Here's one of my kiddos working on it before the break--don't you love the antlers? ;)

I rearranged my classroom a bit over the break. I don't have a ton of space in my classroom so I have to maximize space when possible. I recently purchased a set of Sit Spots to use instead of my rug. I used them for the first time this week and they were AH-MA-ZING! If you haven't heard of Sit Spots, you should check out their website. They are the nicest people!

I have mentioned before that my team uses the Guiding Readers units from Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills for our ELA block. This week we did a study of Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. Along with their study of the book we celebrated by having a Teddy Bear day on Friday. After seeing so many "Classroom Flips" from Hope King, Kim Bearden, and Chris Pombonyo, I have been racking my brain on how I could take that concept and put it into to a Kindergarten classroom. I thought I would start small and work my way up! Hubs and I created a "Bear Lair" from brown paper drop clothes I found at Home Depot. The entire thing cost my $8! Such a bargain! We did all our lessons and work in the Lair on Friday and the kids LOVED it. Loved it would even be an understatement. I didn't have any behavior issues and they were engaged all day long. We worked on our addition and subtraction with dominoes and bear counters, we wrote about our favorite part of the story, and we read some nonfiction books about bears and hibernation. We ended the day with popcorn and juice. It was an overall fantastic day and I can't wait to come up with our next "Classroom Flip!"

"Mrs. Allison, since we are in the Bear's Lair, this is my Lair Art!"

"I like the part when all the friends put the pepper in the pot because the bear said AAAACHOOOO."

#love

#presh

I have been a fan of the Ron Clark Academy for a few years now. I follow Ron Clark, some of his staff, and the school on all forms of social media. When I saw his video of him dancing with his students, I didn't think much of it--he is always up to something fun! I think it is awesome that his video has gone "viral" and that the school is getting such great publicity. It is so nice to see a school and teachers in the news getting positive attention. I can't wait to visit RCA hopefully sometime in the near future!

Have a great week, friends!