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!

Reflections of 2015

Happy Holidays, Friends! I hope this post finds you semi-rested and enjoying your winter break. As promised, I have spent my break so far drinking hot coffee, going to the bathroom when I please, and wearing yoga pants and leggings at all times. After finishing my Christmas shopping, I've been binge watching reruns of CSI and wrapping gifts with Annabelle's help. Hubs and I just got home from spending the holidays with our families, we had such a wonderful time hanging out with everyone!

Kristin from A Teeny Tiny Teacher has invited us all to write a post reflecting on our past year. I thought it would be fun to look back at all of the wonderful happenings of 2015. Make sure to check out the link up in the picture below to read everyone else's reflections.

Favorite memories:
1. We started the year in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl that our Baylor Bears were playing in. While attending the pep-rally the day before, Hubs and I ran into our university president. He is a well liked man on campus, sort of a celebrity you could say. Anyway, we asked for a picture and he was so kind to take a selfie with us. Our whole trip was worth it for that picture!

2. On Spring Break, Hubs and I enjoyed a week long cruise to the Caribbean. 7 solid days of relaxation--it was amazing! 

While we were there we got to visit a baby sea turtle farm, it was definitely a highlight of the trip! 

3. In April, my Kinder class hatched baby chickens! I highly recommend this project to anyone who is able to make it happen. Seriously, getting to watch my class see a baby chick hatch was something I will remember forever. 

4. Over the summer, I moved schools, to one much closer to home. I love my new place and all the people that go with it. 

5. In November, our best friends had their first baby! I am a proud Aunt Fairy to a sweet baby boy. We recently got to meet him for the first time. My oh my, he is something precious!

Favorite TV series

This one is a three way tie--hubs and I love all three of the "Chicago" shows!

Favorite restaurant

Hubs and I found a super neat place in downtown Austin called Max's Wine Dive that serves the most amazing Gluten Free Fried Chicken. We have enjoyed going several times this year. 

Favorite picture

Before dinner one night on our Spring Break cruise. 

Goal for 2016

My goal for 2016 is to be more organized at home and at school. I always start out the school year strong in the organization department, but as the year goes on I just smash things into my cabinet and put paper into those dreaded piles. I tell myself, "I'll deal with it over the summer!" I am going to try not to do that to myself and have promised that I will try to put things back where they go each Friday afternoon. As far as our house goes, we are going to do a lot of culling and clearing of things, we don't need so much stuff! 2016 will be clean and organized!

Well, that was fun! It has been a fun year for sure. Be sure to check our the other bloggers who have linked up with their 2015 reflections! Happy New Year!

Hello!

Hello from the other side! Of the screen that is! It's been over a month since I blogged and that makes me SO sad! We all know how insane the months of November and December are in the classroom world are. Today is the first full day of my Christmas break. We got out at noon yesterday but I spent the rest of the afternoon Christmas shopping. I have a long list of to-do today as well, but I thought I would sit down and catch you us on what's been happening in our classroom!

The week we got back from Thanksgiving, we got a delivery from the North Pole! It was precious, our counselor brought a "frozen" box down to our room and told the kids someone had just delivered a package for us! I use my elf in a little bit of a different way than some. She just comes and simply just watches the kids and reports back to Santa. She doesn't make messes or any of that--(I DO NOT have time for that!) The kids love it and it doubles and as a good behavior management tool!

My campus principal is so great. She came up with the idea to have a "theme" for each day of December that the kids and staff could participate in. We had jingle bell day, ugly sweater day, cowboy Santa, reindeer day, snowman day, elf day, Grinch day and several others! It was a lot of fun to see what the kids came up with and it definitely kept the spirits high! Here are a few pictures from our fun days!

My teamie and I came to school accidentally twinning! We did not plan this AT ALL! 

It was hilarious!

Ugly sweater day was a blast. Y'all--my sweater lit up. It was so awful  awesome!

 Grinch Day! Those super cute hats are from Amy Lemons at Step Into Second Grade. You can find them {HERE}.

We have been learning all about graphs in math in December. This is one of my favorite units to teach because it is so hands on! I saw this cute idea from First Grader at Last and just knew I had to do it! I asked the kids to tell me if they had white or colorful lights on their tree at home. We made a tally chart of it, then decorated lights to make a visual. Then we hung them in the hall and it was PRECIOUS! I am doing this every year from here on. 

Too cute to handle. 

So a few weeks ago, Hubs and I were discussing what I wanted for Christmas. I kinda, sorta, not really jokingly told him I wanted a kitten. He was totally down for it--because he's great like that. So after Christmas, he is taking me to the shelter to pick out a new family member. I am super excited! Annabelle loves cats so I am sure she will be happy to have a playmate in the house. I will post pictures as soon as we adopt the sweet little thing!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for weeks now! Our best friends had their baby about 3 weeks ago and I have been dying to see him in person! My friend Kelley has been sending my teaser pictures weekly since he was born and I can't wait to finally hold him! We also have a wedding of a good friend to go to tomorrow, which is always fun. Pictures to come next week!

Have a great weekend, friends! I hope most of you are on Christmas break by now! Here's to two weeks of going to the bathroom when you want, not wearing real pants, and drinking coffee while it's still hot! Enjoy your break!