Labeling

In writers workshop my students were having trouble with labeling their pictures after drawing it. I gave them all post - it notes to label things around the classroom and stick it to the item. They thought they were big stuff labeling the room.

Chair covers

I am back! I have been making so many new things for my classroom this year I have not had time for my blog. I have been working on a lot to share and I am excited to come back to the blog world. Plus you guys just have so many good things that I have been so busy checking every other blog, who wants to update their own? The winner of the chair covers is Kelly from http://busyinkindergarten.blogspot.com/. Congrats Kelly! Thank you for being so patient. Thank you for allcanlearn at http://www.etsy.com/people/allcanlearn?ref=ls_profile for providing the chair covers.

Check out the giveaway below. I am going to change the date of when it ends till next Wednesday August 31. Everyone seems to be just getting back to school or setting up a classroom. I want to make it fair for everyone.

Summer / Giveaway

I took the summer off from the blog world. I know most teachers worked on their blog most in the summer, but in the summer I like to be outside 24 /7 and often away from the internet.

I spent my summer on the lake soaking up this wonderful HOT summer with family and friends, working a summer job as director of a summer camp program, and some arts and crafts projects.

Plus I was so lucky to go see the "sisters" from Daily 5. I went to see the Daily 5 just for kindergarten. They are great, real teachers who just make you want to be a better teacher. What are some great daily 5 resources you have used?

Summer vacation is almost over. It's a bitter sweet feeling, I am sad summer is almost over because I live on a lake and totally love all things water but I am excited to start a school year knowing where I will be. Back to blog world I have a great giveaway that I am so excited to announce. This summer I found this great etsy page filled with teacher products made by a public educator. Check out her etsy page at http://www.etsy.com/people/allcanlearn?ref=ls_profile. She is giving away chair covers and the best part you get to pick from

basic chair covers,

star student chair cover and my favorite,

the birthday chair cover. I am so excited to team up with her. You have 5 ways to win this giveaway. You can do all 5 or just one. The Giveaway ends on August 23rd at 9pm.
1. Friend my blog and leave me a comment
2. If you have etsy add Allcanlearn and leave me a comment
3. Follow me on tpt and leave me a comment
4. Post a blog about the give away on your blog and leave a comment
5. Or leave me a comment if you are already my friend

Memory Books / End of the year gifts

Finally back to the blog world. It feels good to be back. I am officially on summer break but plan on going into school a couple days because I am moving classrooms and want some things done now and not waiting until the fall. Praise and all the Glory to God for providing me a job this year, that I am not laid off, and I know where I will be for the following year. Does anyone else feel like they are becoming a better teacher because of all these blogs? I feel like everyone sharing all these great and fabulous ideas have improved my teaching and made me look at things in a new way. Speaking of great blogs Little Warriors at http://littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com/ is having a give away. She is giving away Portfolio/Memory book pages. Let me tell you they look super cute. They will be great for next year for my memory things that I give the children. Here is a picture of the memory packets that I give each student. I found this cute poem online that I give the students, and I also take a picture with each student and just me. They loved it! Come back this week to check out the other items that I give my students at the end of the year.

I know most of you lucky teachers are already done for the summer but I thought I would share this idea. This is my summer writing journal that I make for students. The best part is it is free! I have the parents send in empty fun cereal boxes. Make sure to write in the notes to the parents about them being fun and having cartoons on it. Then I just cut them so that you just have the front of the box and the back of the box for the front cover and back cover. I bind them together or you can staple them. The best boxes to ask for are the family size or extra cereal. If you get the smaller boxes I just put it on card stock or construction paper. If you give parents enough time you will get the ones you want and enough! Inside I attached their blends chart, things to write about sheet, word families, and abc chart. Also, I put a list of things that they can write about in the summer.

Flowers

Thank you to everyone who is following me and left me a comment. The world of blogging is just fantastic! I put everyone that is a follower, left me a comment, posted about my give away and added me on tpt because a lot of people added me but didn’t leave me a comment so I just want to be fair to everyone. We have two lucky winners who get to pick two flowers from the colors. The two winners are Ali with http://lasts-a-lifetime.blogspot.com/ and Donna http://kinderglynn.blogspot.com/. Congrats, I hope you love them as much I do! You both can pick two colors from the picture. I will be emailing you both.


I am going to start selling these flowers since I am making them so much for people. You can purchase the flower as a hair clips, or I can make them as a flower pin that can pin on items. Please send me a email at petersonsprimarypeeps@hotmail.com if you would like to buy them. They are great for all ages. I wear them all the time, plus my niece looks darling in them. They make any bad hair day look good. They are 5.00 dollars which includes sending them out.

caterpillar

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. I know I spent lots of time outside. I just posted the banana split game on tpt check it out the students are loving it, all while learning about subtraction.

Today is the last day for the contest for the flowers. You can clip them on your hair, bags, dogs (That’s what I would do if I had a girl dog). I make them for everything. I am only posting pink and yellow but you will get to pick from a couple colors. Check out below on how to enter.

Next we have some lovely butterflies in our classroom. We have been learning about the stages in the classroom as it happens to them. I posted these caterpillars / larva project that have facts on them to learn about the stages.

I did the facts one by one and didn’t show them what it would turn out like until we were done. They were so excited to see that the facts all make a caterpillar. I posted it free on tpt for you all to enjoy! It is put so that you can copy all the facts on different colors or it has one sheet that has all the facts together on it. Plus it makes great decorations for hanging up in the room.

Give away

Busy week! Also, I have been having trouble with my blog and logging in. Tons to share today before the long weekend. Check out this new subtraction game I made for my students. I will be posting it on tpt. Since I teach Kindergarten and 1st I like them to play the same game but just different levels. It’s called banana split subtraction. There is a beginner level that has pictures to match the subtraction problem. Except anything subtracted by 0 to start to have them get the idea. Next it has subtraction problems with answers from 0 – 11. The kids had so much fun making their banana splits with a cherry on top!

The item I am most excited about is a give away. I will be giving away two flower clips that I make to two lucky people. They can be used in all different ways! I personally love them and made them for myself and others in all different colors. See the ways below how you can enter. June 1st is the last day for the contest.

1. Follow me

2.Add me as a friend on teachers pay teachers

3.Post a link on your blog to mine

Once you have done one of those please write me comment to let me know!

I hope that you all have a wonderful long weekend!

Math and reading websites

I had a couple questions about what I used to put their faces through the flower. Here are some of the flowers that I have used. My newest flower I found at the teacher store and I just cut it out. In previous years I just made my own pedals and glued them together. Then I put a craft stick at the end of it. Hope this helps!

I am putting together a list of websites that have reading games and math games for k – 2nd graders. I am making this to give out to my students' parents for the summer. I am looking for your help! Please leave a comment on some of your favorite reading and math websites. I will post it on tpt or on my blog (I am just learning how to post documents on my blog so we will see) and it’s free. I will as well write your name on the final product that teachers download. Thanks for your help let’s keep these kids from falling behind in the summer.

Blooming children

DRUM roll please……..the winner of the first four to win the dig for words/letters are myteachersmarket.com, Jena with 1stgradewithmisssnowden.blogspot, Mrs. Johnson with wildaboutkindergarten.blogspot.com and Beth
http://primaryconnections-beth.blogspot.com/ feel free to check it out at my tpt http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dig-for-words


Happy weekend everyone, here’s to hoping it’s a warm week with sun to let the flowers bloom! Here is a little project that I do every year. The parents go crazy over their blooming children! I have my students put their face in a flower and then I take a picture. They color any flower template they want. Trace their hands and cut it out. It's an easy project, but always gets a lot of attention.

Dig for words / Letters

This is my spring spelling / work with words station right now. The kids are enjoying it so much. I teach k and 1st grades, so when the students get to the working with words station they know to look under K or 1st for their sight words. In the station they have to dig for the letters on the shells to make their words. I bought the bucket at the dollar store, it came with the bucket, shelf, and shell toy all for 1 dollar. The first four people that add me on "blogs that I follow" on their own personal blog will get this for free. Please leave a comment on my blog so I know that you added me. Happy digging!

My Birthday

Happy Birthday to me Well I know it’s not about teaching but some of the things I got are great ideas for teaching, and just because I had a great birthday I want to share. First, my birthday fell on a Sunday so my husband had a day planned out for me on the Saturday before. We went to Arts and Scraps in Detroit. I love arts and crafts all the way so I was so excited to go see what this place was all about. It’s a great deal for teachers and if you are into crafts. You fill a brown grocery bag with whatever you want for 7 dollars, or 6 for teachers. The place is full of recycled materials, donated goods, and anything else you could imagine to make different projects. My favorite area was the fabric heaven which is a room filled with all different fabrics. Also, they had some cool letters that you can put on shirts. Check them out at www.facebook.com/pages/Arts-Scraps/70181887802. Then, from there my husband took me to get some more bling to add on to my engagement and wedding band that was a total surprise for me. No pictures of that because it’s custom made so it’s not done. Then had a nice dinner out. On Sunday I had a party with my family. My mother planned a pink purse party theme (can you tell she is a teacher as well). She still makes my birthdays special after all these years. I had made my dog Pepper this pink tie for the party, so he fit right into my mom’s theme.

A great birthday gift I received was a Silhouette electronic cutting tool. I am so pumped to get the creative thoughts flowing. It will be great for projects in the classroom as well.
Keep checking back for my first give away, coming soon. Friend me now on my blog or tpt at www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dig-for-words and you will be put in double for the drawing. Hint about my give away; I do like arts and crafts.

Mr. Golden sun has been showing his face around us some. Let me tell you it has been GREATTTT! My kindergarten and 1st grade students made these darling suns that I found by googling for art projects. Then I had them write about a sunny day. It really had the kids excited (ok really me) about some fun times coming our way. You can find the writing paper at my tpt for free.http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sunny-Day

Pinkalicious

my Pinkalicious

Do you love the books Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann? I think these books are pinktastic because they not only are about a girl who loves pink but they also are filled with creative interesting words. This year we had to do a door decorating contest for books at the book fair to get the kids excited about the upcoming book fair. I knew right away what book I would be using. In the book Pinkalicious the girl eats to much pink food and turns pink. I had the students write what turned them pink. Then I took their picture and just printed it off on the school copy with no color. Then I had the students color themselves pink with highlighters and crayons. They loved doing this as well it’s a great because you don’t need color ink. Hopefully everything opens and works for everyone, I am just learning about this blog stuff. Check out the free writing paper on my tpt http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pinkalicious

I have finally joined the world of teacher blogs. For the past year I have searched and looked at all your wonderful blogs for,  I have to admit, hours on end. A little about myself; I come from a family of teachers, my mother is a teacher, my father is a retired teacher, my Grammie was a pre-school teacher and my brother, he said he wanted to have nothing to do with teaching, so he decided to be a pastor. Which I hate to tell him is a teacher, just not at a school. I have been teaching for six years now. Let’s just say the past six years of teaching have been interesting to say the least. My first year  of teaching I taught special education which I am not certified but it was a short term position so they were able to do that. After, I had to find another job because I was not certified in special education which took me to an inner city school outside of Detroit. I worked for this district for 4 years.  I could write books about my experience there. Let’s just say I grew up very sheltered and those little kids taught me a lot about life. It was very challenging to say the least but I loved every little bit of how much those kids love on you and soak up any attention you give them.  I taught kindergarten, 1^st and even a K/1^st split class while I was there.  Every year I was laid off  which meant packing everything. It was a lot, because everything that was in the room was mine except the tables and chairs. Then I would have to wait all summer until a week or two before school to find out if I would have a job and what my placement would be. It was not a great time waiting for the phone call or letter to come in the mail. Then once I got it I would have to rush to take everything back to school and set up a classroom and sometimes learn a whole new grade. One year I was so lucky to get do it twice with in one year. I just didn’t see how I could do that every year. Let me tell you I knew people that had that experience well over four years in that district. Going on my sixth year of teaching, again waiting to see where I would be placed, I received a phone call from my former school district that I attended when I was younger to come interview for a k first split. I knew that it was God telling me it was time to leave (I didn’t even apply for the job) my previous district.  It was sad to say good by to my former students and my teacher friends but I knew that I couldn’t handle that many more years the way that it was set up. My goal is not to forget about those kids in the inner city where my heart is at, but just to reach out in other ways to them. Well I got the job for the K/1^st split and am enjoying some stability in my life.