M.I.A. and a Cute Holiday Project (Straight From Pinterest)

M.I.A. definitely describes my blog life lately...Missing In ACTION!!! Between family activities, Christmas planning, shopping, decorating, partying, school events, my ZUMBA Fitness addiction, and ALL of the other stuff I'm obligated LOVE to do, I feel like I've been doing nothing but chasing my tail!  It has been a LONG while since I have actually had made time to blog and/or check out what my fellow bloggers are up to.  I know I've been missing a lot of great ideas!!! 

On to the "meat" of my post.  I completed my first Holiday Pinterest (yes, I'm loving the Pinterest) project on Friday with my lil' love muffins and some of our 2nd buddies!

(Click on the pic for directions.)

SOOOO cute, right?!?!

We had a GREAT time, made a HUGE mess, completed the project, and had SOOO much FUN!  I planned to take pics of the kids working w/their buddies, but only managed one...yes I said ONE photo!!! 

But, isn't she a cutie?!?!

Forty-ish kids + scissors + construction paper + glue + all the stuff I'm forgetting = CONTROLLED CHAOS and not much time for pictures. :(  I didn't even get pics of our finished products!  I'm sure you get the idea!

A BIG "Thank You" to our parents for sending in the supplies needed to complete the projects (gallon milk jugs and 20 ct. Christmas lights!

Hug a Bear Day November 7th

While preparing my November calendar for my lil love muffin's binders today (nothing like waiting til the day) I found that next Monday, November 7th was HUg a Bear Day! I plan on celebrating this day by allowing the kids to bring their favorite Teddy to school (of course, he/she must fit in a backpack)! What fun...right?!?!

My plan is to do a one day mini unit or a week long bear study. I have a few ideas and have been searching for BEARy nice activities on various websites and blogs. My question blogging buddies is...Are any of you planning to celebrate this day AND/OR do you have any bear activities your students love that you'd like to share? I'm open for ideas as iv never done a bear unit in my classroom!

Have a great week bloggers...only 3 weeks until Thanksgiving!!! Can you even believe that?!?!

Preparing for Red Ribbon Week

We are ready for Red Ribbon Week 2011!

"Hocus Pocus Drugs Aren't My Focus"

Dress-Up Days: 

Monday-Focus on Being Drug Free
"Wear Red"

Tuesday-Don't Lose Your Focus
"Dress Crazy"

Wednesday-Focus on Being a Drug Free Team
"Wear TEAM Gear"

Thursday-Focus on Being All You Can Be
"Wear Camo"

Friday-Focus on Blacking Out Drugs
"Wear Black"

Staff T-Shirts

(Please excuse the wrinkles...looks like I'm going to have to iron before I wear!)

Classroom Door Decorating Contest

Our door...We Say BOO to Drugs! 
NOT an original idea.  I looked at many different blogs/websites and came up with this compilation.  The kids had a great time painting their hands to make our "ghosts"!
Local police officers will be judging the doors.
We would LOVE to win a class pizza party!!!

Each class decorated paper grocery bags that will be used during Red Ribbon Week at our local grocery store.

We will also be have a Red Ribbon Week Assembly planned for Monday.  The students have been working on posters during Art class the last two weeks.  Poster contest winners will be announced (as well as the classroom door contest winner...fingers crossed) at the assembly.  A couple of local police officers will talk to the students and will be available at the end of the assembly for students to meet.

 **This is our first year to have a Red Ribbon Week committee.  We have lots of ideas for next year and hope to get an earlier start so we can involve the community more.  We're on the "hunt" for other ideas.  I'd love to hear your school's ideas for Red Ribbon Week. 

Pinkalicious Part Deux

So I promised, over a week ago, for Part 2 of my PINKALICIOUS post...well, it's finally here! 
I hope it was worth the wait!

Cupcake Finger Painting

Click on the cupcake for the link.  We colored the cupcake paper and cherry, then finger painted the icing PINK! 



We made a PINK book. (We make one of these each week...you know, but with different colors!)
I'm not sure where this "book cover" came from (I got it from a fellow team member...if it's your's, please speak up and I'll link to it!)

I'm sure I'm not the inventor of this idea, but to make a QUICK class book, I use a 1 1/2 inch clear cover binder and clear page protectors.  These books are easy, quick to change out, and durable.  My lil' love muffins take turns sharing them with their families.  Some families even make comments.  The kids LOVE to hear what their families have to say about our books!

I was "tickled pink" a few weeks ago when I came across Mrs. Lee's blog. Where she had posted the bubble graph and art project. They are super cute! 

So to culminate our week of all things PINK we HAD to do a couple of her activities.

After our bubble blowing FUN, we created a graph (see middle of photo)...

And made our faces w/bubbles...

Or popped bubbles!

We had so much fun celebrating PINK!

 

PINKALICIOUS!

We were very lucky to have a very special visiting teacher in our classroom Friday...
It was Ms. Pinkalicious !!!  She came to help us celebrate everything PINK!

So of course, we HAD to read Pinkalicious! 

We also got to fingerpaint PINK cupcakes!

 

My lil' love muffins had a "Poppin' Good Time" getting to chew PINK bubble gum...at school.  Now you all know that is a MAJOR no-no!  So it was an EXTRA special event!  We tried to blow bubbles...Ms. Pinkalicious even gave us a bubble blowing lesson!  This was definitely the highlight of all our PINK day!

I'm trying...

"I think I can...I think I can..."

Success!!! (Miss Pinkalicious was a little late with the camera!)

Another SUCCESSFUL bubble blower!

 And of course we had to have PINK cupcakes to finsh the day!  Yummy! 

**Be looking for Part 2 of this PINKALICIOUS post.  There are a couple of activities that I didn't get pictures of and one activity that we need to complete!**

So, Let's Ketchup

Hahahahaha...sometimes I'm just too much!

  I've taken the WHOLE day off to go to the dentist.  So far this morning, I've let the boys sleep in a little (since we didn't have to catch the bus), made breakfast (nothing fancy, just cinnamon toast, by request), dropped the boys off, had a cup of coffee and caught up on facebook, the dentist, now blogging.  I LOVE days off! :)

Well it has been MUCH too long blogging buddies.  So...Let's Ketchup! (Yep, I still giggle a little.)

I believe we're in our 7th exhausting week of school.  Some say it's flying by...I'm not sure I agree with that!  Anywho, I currently have 20 lil' love muffins in my room.  I've already had one leave and then come back the next week, two move in, and one is leaving at the end of this week... CcrAzY!  We are having a great time learning to recognize and write letters and numbers, letter sounds, reading sight words (a, I, the, it, is, can) and rules and routines.  It has been a whirlwind, but we're getting in the groove.  On Thursday, our Mid-Quarter Reports went home and we are making progress! :0)

Class Pets

I broke down and purchased a classroom pet. I'm going to be honest, I looked kinda bad because the other kindergarten AND first grade teachers all have guinea pigs...YES, ALL of them. To top that off, I "heard" that one of my new lil' love muffins didn't like me (kinda harsh, she hadn't even met me yet) because I was the only teacher w/out a classroom pet. So I was kinda feeling guilty. Now, don't just assume I purchased one of those furry critters. Nope, not me. BEEN THERE, TRIED THAT, HATED IT (of course this was at home). I just couldn't get past the whole rodent-y thing. I know, I know I'm a bit of a sissy. Anywho...without further ado...CRUD, I just realized I didn't take a picture of them! Oh well. We now have 2 hermit crabs, Crystal and Tallulah, in our classroom.  There were 3 but one drowned.  It was really pretty sad.  R.I.P. Crabby

 **I also found out last week that I received a Pet Co. grant so I'm awaiting my packet.  I can't wait to "pimp" my crab habitat and pick up a few more friends!**

To honor our pets we read A House for Hermit Crab.  Then had too much fun fingerpainting "houses" for our own hermit crabs.  They turned out pretty cute!

one of the crustacean creations

Color Weeks
We've also been learning about the colors.  During this particular week, our focus was on red.  On Friday of each week we have a color celebration (well at least that is what we call it).  We wear the color, do a color craft, and eat a snack of that color.  For red weel we had a red snack...watermelon and strawberries! They were Yum-O (yes, I love Rachel Ray)!!  Nothing too special, but we always have fun!  On red day, we read a few Clifford books and make red dog ears. 
Aren't we cute???

Letter Exchange
We've also been getting mail!  This, "M" is the first letter we received from a letter exchange (our letter is F) we are participating in.  By the end of September we should have all of the letters of the alphabet.  We have received two other letters, but of course, I don't have pictures of them.


Grandparent's Day
And we celebrated Grandparent's Day!  We put on a short performance that included our rendition of Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes (we are LOVING Pete) as well as a few songs "This is How We Rock," "Months of the Year Macarana", and "Five Little Monkeys."  Of course, our grandparents LOVED it!  We also colored, read books, visitied the book fair, got to show off our classroom, AND had cookies and milk with them (thank you Neriman).  A good time was had by ALL!  Here is one of my lil' muffins enjoying cookies and milk with his grandparents.

I still feel like there is so much to share!  But this is what's been going on "in a nutshell".  I have every intention of returning to my lil' blog within the week to give some specifics on these activities and others we have been doing.  But for now...Happy Blogging Buddies!!!

Versatile Blogger...Me...Really?!?!

Well...thank you ladies! Tara and Nicole also have GREAT and very VERSATILE blogs.  If you've never checked them out, you need to do so ASA(blogging)P!!!! 

It feels very nice to be given the Versatile Blogger Award, being as I have soooo neglected my poor, little blog since school started. I always have intentions of sharing the great (well, I think they're great) going on in my classroom things (I even take pictures) but blogging (don't get me wrong I'm still stalking y'all) gets swept under the rug at the end of the day. :( Again, thank you Tara and Nicole!

Anywho, on to seven things about me...hmmmm...let's see...

1. I was introduced to blogging late last school year and fell in LOVE with blogging this summer. I have a couple blogs that I MUST stalk visit daily!
2. I LOVE Zumba and LOVE to share it with others!!!  If you haven't tried it...you should!
3. I enjoy spending time on the river with my men (big and little) and SHORT camping trips (3 night max.)!
4. I LOVE using elipses...when I write...type...blog...and even text!
5. I'm pretty opinionated, animated, and at times emotional...which I'm not sure are very good qualities in combination.
6. I love DIY (most of the time). In addition to painting and decorating the boys' rooms, I'm currently making the cutsie clipboards and working on cleaning up two old barn windows to turn into picture frames.
7. I'm a horrible driver...not bragging...just a fact!

Well, since I'm a little late (better late than never) to this party, finding 15 "Versatile" Blogs that haven't already received this award is taking a while...so I'm handing out 3 awards to the following bloggers:

1. Mrs. Johnson's First Grade
2. Here We Go Loopty Loo
3. Kreative in Kinder

If you haven't checked them out, you really should.  I enjoy stalking them when I can!

Happy Blogging Y'all!

Just "JING" It

Have you ever heard of JING?

 

If not, you're really missing out and ought to check it out!  It is a FREE download and does tons of stuff.  I use it mainly to

but it can do SOOOO much more!  

IF you haven't tried, I suggest you head on over and give it a try!  There is even a learning center with tutorial videos (and of course you can find plenty of Jing tutorials on YouTube).

Well...that's all I've got for you all (I mean I have a TON of classroom stuff to share, but at this point I have no clue where to begin and am still having trouble getting my pics to load onto my computer, yada yada yada).  I hope you all at least give Jing a try!  I LOVE it! 

**And if you're wondering, all of my clips were "Jing'ed"!**

  I hope to get this school year under control so I can give my blog some much needed LOVE!

Happy Thursday Blogging Buddies!

I've been a bad blogger...

So, it's 5:38 a.m. (I'm sure it will be a few minutes later when I finish this post, but you get the idea...it's early). Anywho, I feel like as of late I've abandoned my poor blog...even blogging all together. The first 8 days of school have had me exhausted! I've so enjoyed meeting my lil love muffins, but they seem to "suck the life" outta me the first few (or more) days. I'm sure this week is going to be so much easier b/c we're all starting to "catch on" even if it's just a little bit!

I do have some things I'd like to share with you all, but as I was trying to create a blog post on Satuday morning, my digital camera was not wanting to cooperate with my computer! Ugh!!! AND it's too early today to mess with them both. I hope the next time I try they are both in better "moods"!

I hope you all have a fantabulous week! Hopefully you will hear from me soon!

Back to Civilization...Back to School

We had a great time camping and fishing this weekend. 

Here's me and the little man with our first day stringers...



And today it was back at school (at least it was my first "official" day).  Funny how I'm supposed to have everything ready to go in the ONE full paid day we get.  We had our district meeting this morning, lunch, and time to work in our rooms this afternoon.  Tomorrow, we will have a building meeting, lunch on our own, and time to work in our rooms.  Wednesday, my new little love muffins we be all mine!  I've got a lot to do (LESSON PLANS) before they walk in my door!

I wanted to share (probably a little late for most of you) the pamphlet I typed up for my students' parents.  I got the pamplet idea from Mrs. Cole at "Cole's Little Pups".  It explains a little bit about me, tells about our classroom, and provides them with a daily schedule.  I didn't have this done (actually I did, but when I went to print it at school, I realized I didn't have the font loaded on my newly "imaged" school computer and didn't have the time to change everything around) to give out orientation night, so I mailed it with a letter I typed up for my muffins.

Well...I wish you all a fantabulous school year.  The boys start school tomorrow (me on Wednesday). Tanner is going into Kindergarten and Kohl into 4th grade.  They were both so excited tonite, especially Tanner.  He was "reading" books to us.  He's finally got his teacher's name down, and he's soooo proud of that.  We were reviewing where he would go after school, picking out his first day outfit, and planning for his snacks and lunch.  I told Ray that's why I love Kindergarten...they are just so darn excited about school! 

I so wish they (me, too) could hang onto that first day enthusiasm!!!  

We've got a WINNER!

Thank you all for entering my 101+ Follower Giveaway! But, as you all know, there can only be ONE winner so...

Congratulations Cindy!  You will be receiving a SUPER cute clipboard as soon as I get your mailing address!!!

Again, a special thanks to

for helping me out with this giveaway.

She does have a coupon for 15% off that is good for the rest of the month!

Coupon Code: BTS15

**Make sure you mention my blog with your order!**

 

Kindergarten Orientation AND Homework?!?

Last night, I met my new little group of "love muffins"!  They're so cute with their new backpacks and sportin' new kicks (aka tennis shoes).  They're smiling, eager, and don't understand why the don't get to stay...I L.O.V.E. it!  AND as much as I loved meeting them, and seeing them so excited to be at school, and with all of their new "stuff" I still sent them home with a homework assignment!!! 

Now before you get too excited, and think that I'm this SUPER tough teacher, finish reading the post.

I received a homework assignment (for my new kindergarteners) from a teacher across the hall, and fellow blogger, Jackie, from "Here We Go Loopty Loo".  She had gotten the idea (and possibly the original letter) from presenter, Donna Whyte, at the Missouri Conference for Kindergarten Teachers (I attended the conference also, but must have missed this session).  Anywho, I tweaked the letter (just a bit) to add some of my "voice" to it (I feel so 6 Trait-y when I talk like that).  So, this idea and letter is by no means my own, original work...and I'm hoping this is not considered plagiarism.  If it is, I'll remove this post immediately...please let me know!

1. I do not mean it to be.

2. I'm giving credit to those that the original idea/letter came from and linking to the sources.

 (That's kind of like documenting, right?)

3. I've actually stated that "this is by no means my own, original work".

4. I think this idea is just SOOOO good that I want to share it with all of my blogging buddies!!!

(Gosh, after all of this, I hope you all like it too!)

So without further ado...

I'm so excited about this!  I really think it is going to help with that first day of "Read to Self"(for all of those Daily 5'ers out there).  The kids seemed SUPER excited about having homework (we all know that won't last too long).  I'm also posting a picture of my "book bag".  This will be the first year I've used the envelopes, so I'll let you know how it goes.  In the past, I've used gallon sized zipper seal bags and just exchanged them out as needed.

**Disclaimer: My pics are not of the best quality (taken with my phone) and they're sideways.**

The envelopes are plastic and have a clear plastic pocket on the front. On the back side there is a pocket that has a "button and loop" closure (well, that's how I'm describing it).

I hope you all have a SUPER weekend (yes, I realize it's only Wednesday)!  I'm going to enjoy a 4-day weekend with my guys...we're going camping!  I'll be back at it on Monday and Wednesday is our First Day of School!  Happy Blogging!!!