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Showing posts from January, 2013

The Moon Rocks: A Cautionary Tale

Once upon a time there was a kind young teacher.  She was always thinking of ways to make learning fun for her students.  This was usually a good thing, except that it meant she oftentimes changed her plans: And she never seemed to get enough sleep! One day this young teacher decided it would be fun to spray paint silver moon rockets for the science center.  On Saturday she said, "I'm too tired today, I will go tomorrow."  On Sunday she did venture forth and bought the magical silver spray paint, but then she said, "It's too cold outside.  I will wait till tomorrow."  On Monday night she said, "It's too dark outside.  I will spray paint moon rocks in the morning."  Tuesday morning dawned bright and white.  The teacher looked out the window to find the ground covered in snow!  The poor kind teacher was left shivering in the cold, digging for rocks in the snow and spray painting them in her pajamas while her neighbors shoveled snow

Giveaway News!

Hello everyone, I just wanted to give you a heads-up on some exciting giveaways coming your way! First of all, my friend Khrys at Keepin' it Kool in KinderLand  is ALMOST at 100 Followers!  If you could help her reach this goal, that'd be great!  :)  To celebrate she is going to have a great giveaway with contributions from Caitlin Clabby, Amanda Pauley, and yours truly!  Here's what I'll be contributing... Also my friend Erica is having a giveaway for her first clipart set!  They are the cutest Valentine's cupcakes ever.  Hop on over to her blog at Blooming in First Grade to check it out! Lastly, don't forget to check my friend Sharon's blog at The Convenient Teacher and her great giveaway to celebrate 500 TPT Followers!  You don't want to miss it!   That's all peeps!  Hope everyone is having a good weekend!  I seriously need to get off Pinterest and start planning, so away I go!  :)

Transportation Take Three: Into the Air & Friday Freebies

Happy Friday!  I hope everyone had a great week.  I don't have as many pictures this time because I spent a lot of this week doing middle of the year assessments, but I'm really glad I did because I have a good picture of what skills we need to focus on in the coming months and I am SO proud of my kiddos' progress.  It really is amazing.  I look back at the beginning of the year, and kiddos who knew maybe 10 letters of the alphabet now can recognize the entire thing (upper and lowercase)!  Yay!  (So I'm completely vindicated for not following the curriculum, right?)  :) Here's a look out our week all about air transportation: Art: Blow Paint Sky Scene These were also lots of fun!  When they dried, the kiddos drew airplanes into the scene and also glued on stretched-apart cotton balls for clouds. Paper Plate Hot Air Balloons I LOVE these cute hot air balloons!  They are now gracing our ceiling.  :) Fingerprint Airplanes Literacy: If I

Around the Year in Basic Skills: Manic Monday Assessment Freebie!

Happy Monday!  If you're like me, then you're busy trying to update your assessments.  If you're also like me, it drives you crazy that your assessment resources are all in different places (if you even have any!)  I've been working on putting together a PreK basic skills assessment for the beginning, middle and end of the year and it is finished!  (For the most part.  Going to go back and add a beginning sound assessment!) I am so excited and can't wait to start using it this week!  This assessment resource includes both recording sheets and visual charts to use.  Click on the picture for your freebie, or you can download at my Teachers Pay Teacher store by clicking  here . *Note: There was a typo in the lowercase alphabet charts that has been fixed as of 01/22.*

Giveaway Winner!

Good morning everyone!  And the winner is... Comment #2!  Check your inbox Heather!  Congratulations!  (Note: I used the number 10 because even though there were 11 comments, one of them was removed). Thanks everyone for entering!  If you would still like this unit, I'm having a 20% off sale now through Wednesday.   Come check it out! ~Jessica

Saturday: Sweet Deals at the Dollar Spot

I'm baaaaack!  (I've always wanted to say that!)  Told you I wouldn't be long.  :)  Here's some of the great things I found at the Target Dollar Spot.  They really should just rename that place to be the Teacher Spot! Stacking Boats & Fisherman Pails Stacking boats for our transportation water table!  Fisherman pails for our fishing for letters game!  They've also got the pails in a TON of other colors, including cute Valentine's Day ones and primary colors.  I use the primary colored ones to hold supplies for our color-coded table groups. Double-Sided Dry Erase Boards Glad I found some more of these, I needed to restock a bit!  :)  And of course they have the dry erase markers, and the mini magnetic dry erasers which are absolutely amazing. Pretend Play Money & Coins I have been looking FOREVER for pretend play money and coins that's not ridiculously expensive, and here it is!  Yay! Valentine's Scrapbook Paper I love usin

What Did They Say Linky Party!

No, it's not Wednesday, but I have to share some of the hilarious stuff my kiddos said this week!  Don't forget to hop over to Jessica's blog at A Turn to Learn to check it out!  :) These made my day... While eating at lunch:  "My grandpa doesn't eat food.  He only drinks coffee." While getting ready for naptime:  "When you get married you get to sleep together.  I know because I see my mommy and daddy sleeping when I sneak in their bed at night." While watching me work on making dramatic play props for the next two weeks:  "Ms.Jessica, I love this rocket.  I love it so much.  I love it times a hundred.  Ms. Jessica, I love it SO much I don't even know what to do!" That's all folks!  :)  Hope you're having a good Saturday!  See you soon (going to finish updating my transportation unit and be back with my Target Dollar Spot finds).

Transportation Take Two: Wild about Water, Friday Freebie and a Giveaway!

Happy Friday!  :)  I am so exhausted/achy/drowning in mucus... okay sorry, that was gross!  (But true.  I hate colds!)  Luckily I have the best class in the world!  They are so sweet.  They were very considerate of my voice (or lack thereof) all week, and we still had bunches of fun.  I am so blessed!  And I am starting to feel better with the warmer weather.  55 today and loving it!  :) This week was all about water transportation!  The kiddos and I are just loving this transportation thing.  Read on and take a look! Art: Sea Scene Sponge Painting Who doesn't love painting with sponges?  The kiddos used two different colors of blue and sponges to make the water.  I loved how ripply the sponges made the water look!  After those dried, they drew a way to travel on water.  I could really tell how much they had learned about different kinds of water transportation from what I saw.  :)  I bet you can guess which one is my favorite... Submarine Aircraft Carrier Spe