Meet Up!!!

Spring is finally here in Minnesota (I think!). It snowed last week, which I think has to be some sort of disgusting record.

This spring weekend, I was so lucky to meet up with Kimberly Ann and Irene, two fellow MN bloggers for some pizza, beer, and teacher talk!  It was a mini-meetup and going into it I was a teeny bit nervous but I am SO glad I went and met them! They were awesome and we hope to do another, larger MN/WI blogger meetup this summer!

Springtime also brings teacher appreciation week.  At our school, that means a PTO sponsored lunch in the lounge and a cute teacher gift.  What does your school do to celebrate?  Of course, TpT celebrates with a huge teacher appreciation sale and I am participating! Check out my TpT store here.  You can link your store up with Mrs. Leeby's link-up like I did!  I am keeping an eye out for some end-of-the-year packs to fill up that final week and of course some clip art so I can get to work on creating lots of new products for TpT this summer! Leave a comment and let me know what you're planning on getting from the big sale!

Leveling a Classroom Library

It's the weekend!! And what am I doing?  Going through a ton of books from my classroom library and leveling them....parrr-tayy!  Anyone local and want to come over to help? Only joking...I know it's a hot mess and only I can make sense of it! Notice my giant fountain pop--this is serious business!

Pictured above is just a tiny fraction of my classroom book collection.  If  I tell you something sad, please don't call Hoarders on me (I think my husband already did anyway).  Despite this mess all over my dining room table and living room, I went to 2 used book sales this morning!! Told you I have a sickness! 

Actually, I was just motivated and inspired by an instructional coach recently visiting my classroom from a neighboring district.  I had a chance to also observe her teaching a K-1 split Daily 5 literacy block and she was amazing.  It really made me want to jump into the Daily 5 more.  This year, I have been calling our literacy block "Daily 5" but I made it much more structured than the sisters suggest in their books, thinking that kindergartners really need the structure and more phonics work than they allow for.  After working with this coach, I have been trying to do whole group read to self and parnter reading twice a week. I think my class is definitely ready for it.  They have managed to independently read for 25-30 minutes at a time! It's been really fun to conference with individual kiddos (I usually do guided reading groups), and to hear them share about books and recommend them to friends when they're done reading!

Now I'm just trying to provide my students with more leveled books.  I previously had a leveled library but they were leveled in ranges (A-C, D-F, G-I, etc).  I have gone back through to properly level them and add more of my trade books to the library to beef it up a bit.  I'm also trying to match up books I have multiple copies of so my kiddos can partner read more often...what an ordeal!  I would love to hear from my fellow teacher bloggers about some time saving tips when it comes to the leveling process. I feel like I have been on Scholastic Book Wizard and Googling "guided reading level of...." for the past 42 years!!! 

PS-I have emailed the giveaway winners from my last post! Congrats Irene Leeby, Cherie Mae, and  Mel Chase!

Kindergarten Weather Unit Giveaway plus Currently

Hey Everyone!
I am so happy to be starting my April Showers Weather Unit with my class this week (photos will follow later this week once we get going on some fun projects).  This year, I'm going to stretch the unit over two weeks.  I just love doing all of the fun springtime units, so I'm going to give my weather unit away to not one or two but three lucky winners!

Enter the giveaway to win this weather unit!

 Here are a few of the projects included in this weather pack: storm clouds with a sequencing activity and finger print rainbows. So much hands-on fun!

I'll keep the rules pretty simple since this is just kind of a flash giveaway so I'm not going to even do  a Rafflecopter.  To enter, you can do any or all of the following:

1) Follow by blog.
2) Follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers.
3) Follow me on Facebook.
4) Follow me on Pinterest.

Leave a comment on this post for EACH thing that you do (yes, I'll check, so please really do them :).  Your comment needs to have:
1. What you followed (Pinterest, Facebook, blog, or TpT).
2. What your username is for that site.
3. Your email address so I can easily contact you if you win! The winner will be announced on Thursday afternoon. The giveaway will close at 5 PM Thursday, April 4, 2013. Good luck!!


OH...annnnd here is my April Currently. It's finally April! Whoo hoo!!

Linky Fun!

This week, I've linked up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky.  This week the theme is "favorites".

 Here it goes...

Favorite Place to Shop
Target and Old Navy! Old Navy has some cute and cheap teacher clothes. Cheap is good because Lord knows I manage to get glue, marker, etc. on myself everyday at work!


Favorite TV Show
This winter I got completely obsessed with Downton Abbey. Wasn't the Season 3 finale HEARTBREAKING!?!  Of course, I also have some guilty pleasures (Teen Mom and The Kardashians).


Favorite Sweet Treat
Okay, narrowing this one down is super hard for me because I have the biggest sweet tooth ever!  Does fountain Coke or Mt. Dew count?  Haha! If not, I love, love, love these mini turtle cheesecake treats from a local grocery store's bakery. YUM! I can't believe I found a pic of them on Google Images!



Favorite Food
Another hard one!  I have to say any breakfast/brunch foods! I love omelettes, pancakes, eggs Benedict  bacon, ETC!

Favorite Restaurant
One delicious local restaurant I love its Pizza Luce. It is only a few blocks from my home. They have something heavenly called a baked potato pizza. Yummy, yum, yum! Can you tell I really love food!?! And am supposed to be on a diet for a wedding I'm in this spring!?! ha!

That's it! This was a fun linky, so you'll have to check out Latoya's blog and join in. I will be back tomorrow with a little giveaway so stay tuned:).

Back with a Freebie and a sale!

Sooo, I know I took a little (cough, almost two-month) blogging hiatus but I am back and I have a little freebie for you!

I had an awesome student teacher this quarter and next week is her last week with our class.  It's always nice to show a student teacher how appreciative you and your class are of his/her hard work.  We are planning a little party with some treats and of course I will gift her with some teacher goodies for her future classroom. The kiddos will be sending her off with a sweet class book that we are going to make this Monday.  The version I will be using with my class will have her name typed into it, but I've provided you with a blank copy so you can make your student teacher a keepsake from your own class:).

Click here to grab the freebie from my TpT store. If you are able to use the freebie, please consider leaving me some feedback!  I'd love to hear about your creative gift ideas for student teachers! :)

Thanks to Krista for the graphic. Check out her adorable Creative Clips!

I also want to mention that everything in my TpT store is on sale for at least 20% off for the weekend!  I am planning on doing a little spring cleaning of my TpT wish list! Holy cow, it's getting miles too long!
Please stop by and check out some of my products for the spring. I've included my springtime favorites below:

Goodbye Kindergarten, I'll Never Forget You summer bridging back...only $1.60 on sale for over 50 pages!

Reflecting on Kindergarten: End of the Year Writing Prompts

My favorite!!! April Showers: A Springtime Weather Unit for Primary Learners

Show us what you bought!

I had fun buying AND selling some deals yesterday with the big Super Sunday Sale on TpT!  I managed to sell more than I made, thank goodness!

I've linked up with Blog Hoppin's linky to show you what I bought!

I love the Writer's Workshop units by Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills.  I am on their fourth unit with my class so I picked up the fifth one while it was on sale.



I picked up this fun Consonant Blends & Digraphs pack from Read Like a Rock Star! It should be great for our Word Work station!


My boys will be super duper excited about this awesome Star Wars memory game from Deedee Wills. We will begin working with CVCe words in about three weeks.


Here's another fun game from Mrs. Wills--this one focuses on blends, which our class just happens to be working on right now!!


The Sweetheart Snatcher by Babbling Abby will sure add some excitement to our Valentine's Day celebration!!

I will have to break out my geoboards because I purchased GeoBoard It! by Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies. My kinders will have a blast making all of the different shapes during our "table time" in the morning while we're waiting for everyone to unpack!


I always teach my farm unit in the springtime, so I had to pick up Deanna Jump's Down on the Farm Math and Literacy Activities to enhance the students' learning.


Whewww...and lastly, I purchased this cute little My Human Body Book by Lynda Morgart to go along with our human anatomy unit that we will be starting shortly!


So I went a little overboard! But I think I got some great stuff that I know will engage my kiddos in learning! SO...what about you? What did you pick up from the sale? Link up and share! :)

Two Sweet Winners and a Sweet Sale!

The sweet winners of my Sweet Little Valentine's Day Centers are:

Sara from Polka Dot Kinders and Irene from Learning with Mrs. Leeby. Congrats Ladies!

If you didn't win, you can still check out the product at my TpT or TN shop.  I am participating in the Superbowl Sale at both sites today, so my TpT store will be 28% off and my TN shop will be 25% off.  I am so excited to shop away today! I will be back later with some of the goodies I picked up.