One Lovely Surprise!

A lovely surprise indeed! Thank you to Karla over at KinderKarla for nominating us! Please be sure to check out her blog. She has a lot of great ideas and a two very cute units she has been working very hard on: Colors and Nursery Rhymes.
We are over the moon to be recognized by another blogger. We are new to the blogging world and we are learning a lot, meeting new friends, getting new ideas, and we are loving every minute of it!
Once you receive the award, you must follow 3 rules:
1. Follow the person that gave you the award.
2. Link back to the person that gave you the award.
3. Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers.

We are passing this award onto these Lovely Blogs. Click on the links to visit their page! (Sorry, but I couldn't figure out how to just click on the button, so I put the link under the button. :) )

The Polka Dot Patch

Under the Alphabet Tree

Teaching in FlipFlops

Kindergarten Korner

Peace, Love, Kindergarten 

Erica Bohrer's First Grade

Funky First Grade Fun

Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives

Kindergarten Crayons

Little Literacy Learners

Tattling to the Teacher

Little Minds at Work

 Kindergarten at Heart

1st Grade ABC's

Mrs. Berry's Kinder Garden

Yay! This is so much fun! :)

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

I LOVE this! I don't know why I was thinking about this today, but I was. Even though kindergarten has changed over the years from when we were there, we are still teaching these basic principals. We may not take a nap everyday, but we are learning how to share, play fair, clean up your own mess, and learning how to read. We should all remember to learn some, think some, draw, sing, dance, and paint some everyday. Oh to be a child! I love their innocence and excitement about the littlest things. If only we all got excited over getting a sticker! We really have the best job in the world and I just love being a kindergarten teacher! Even on those tough days, and we all have them, we are making a difference!!! I love my job!! :)

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK . Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

by Robert Fulghum

Build a Bear

My newest Build a Bear!! I am so excited. I am a big Build a Bear supporter and I just happen to LOVE sea turtles. Her name is Talia Turtle. I have about 13 animals from Build a Bear, two of which travel with the children to their homes on the weekend. I have a small notebook that I but in the bag with the animal that introduces the animal to the family and also includes how to take care of them for the weekend. I ask the parents to send me pictures of the animal doing something with them and I add it to the animals scrapbook which goes home as well. It is so much fun and the children love having their turn to take them home. I wonder what trouble Talia will get into this summer before she finds her permanent home in my classroom.

Pen Pals

I am so very excited to start a pen pal program with my students this summer. I told them I would love to be pen pals with them, all they have to do is write letters to me and I will write them back. I am hoping to keep them writing this summer and learn how to send letters in the mail in this digital world. :0) I am excited to say that I received my first two letters!! I love that they are writing to me and I hope that I get more. I miss my "babies". :)

Adorable Monster Freebie!

We just added another cube freebie to our store! This one was requested by Greg over at Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten! Check him out here: http://kindergartensmorgasboard.blogspot.com/                              We are so glad that he requested this because now we have a new adorable monster cube game too! How cute are these adorable monsters from Scrappin Doodles? You just can't look at them without smiling!! We hope you enjoy this cube game. Let us know if you are interested in any other cube games for other themes. We love creating what you want. :)

Comprehension Cube for Rockin' Readers

I am so excited that we finally have this Comprehension Cube completed and in our Teachers Pay Teachers store! However, I am most excited about being able to use it next year. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but you know how that is, twenty other things get in the way first. In my mind, this is going to be so much fun and motivating for the children. We used the soft pocket cubes that you can get from most teaching stores and made our own cards that we can change out to meet the skills we want to review for the story we are reading. The children will roll the cube and then answer the question on the side shown. Some of the questions are: What is the title? Who is the main character? What is the setting? We have also included three different pre-made cubes with the questions for those that may not have the soft cubes. Please visit our store and check out the cubes by clicking on the picture above. Let us know your thoughts. Would you include any other questions?

FREE Patriotic Cube Game!

With summertime officially upon us, it is now time to start thinking about friends, fun, food, sun, and love for the good 'ol USA! When you think of America what is the first thing that comes to your mind? I personally love going to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July! We are offering a free Patriotic cube game in our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Included with the game is a Roll and Record chart for children to keep track of how many times they rolled each patriotic object. Then they can transfer their data onto a Patriotic Graph. There are also questions at the bottom to go with their graph. We hope you enjoy this fun cube game! Let us know what you think. If you would like a cube game for a different theme, feel free to email us and let us know!

Summer Ideas

So, the cleaning of the classroom is almost done, the walls are bare, there are no names on the cubbies, no pictures hanging on the walls. It can all be a little sad. It really is my least favorite time of the year. I love that it is summer and the weather is gorgeous and I have more time for family and friends, but I really do miss those sweet little faces every morning in my classroom!
With the start of summer Kelly and I are ready to get busy on some new and exciting activities for our Teachers Pay Teachers store. We are currently working on some ice cream themed activities and are thinking of looking into some Patriotic things as well. Does anyone out there teach summer school? Anyone looking for anything specific to use while teaching? We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Happy Summer to all!