Mrs Jump's class

Zoo Unit Zebras

2012-03-07T18:51:00.002-05:00

Aren't these zebras the cutest things ever?

This is a picture of our venn diagram about giraffes and zebras.

Our zebra information chart.

Chit-chat Charts from Tuesday and Wednesday.

I've received a few questions about how I do these so let me see if I can explain it.

When the kids come to school the message skeleton is already written.

We complete the message together as a class during our morning meeting.

This is almost always a review of what has previously been taught so that they have to use their schema to help fill in the chart.

Step 1: We read the first sentence EXACTLY as it is written. So before this was filled out completely our reading sounded like this, "Giraffes the t est l m mal.

Then, the kids help try to decode the message. As we try out the words they say we ask ourselves,

Does that make sense? (based on our schema), Does that sound right? (grammar),

Does it look right? (phonics)

This is a great way to get them used to using the Cueing systems when they read!

At the beginning of the year these are much easier and we focus mainly on beginning sounds. They start getting more difficult as the year progresses to meet the needs of my little sweeties.

Hope that helped clear up any questions you had about them! If not, leave a comment below and I'll have another go at it!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog! I really appreciate y'all!

Zoo unit Day 1 Giraffes

2012-03-05T18:51:00.000-05:00

I LOVE this time of year. My little sweeties are becoming independent thinkers and learners who have blossomed into readers and writers AND all of my Favorite units are in the Spring!! Zoo animals, Dinosaurs (my fave), and Insects (my fave), What???!! I can have more than one favorite! :) I spend two weeks on each of these units. There is just something about these topics that get kids super excited about learning! Today we learned all about Giraffes. You can see the cutie patootie giraffe above that we made from my zoo unit.

So... I decided to change up my charts a little bit. We were getting a little bit bored with the Schema charts (although I still had them turn and talk about their schema with a partner before we started because I think this step is so important.).

We are working on listening to a text with purpose and understanding so before I read the nonfiction giraffe books I told them what the topics for our chart were. Type of animal, habitats, diet, and how they adapt to their environment. After we read about giraffes we talked about the information we learned and added it to our chart. We also added an interesting facts section on a piece of regular copy paper because we kept finding cool facts that didn't quite fit the categories on our chart. For example, Giraffes have a long blue tongue that can be as long as a child's arm. ewwww! :)

Nonfiction writing about giraffes.

We sang this beautiful song by Debbie Clement. My kids loved the song and the real life pictures

from her book are amazing. LOVE!!!

After we "sang" the book we did a quick directed drawing of a giraffe to add to our anchor chart display.

Whew! We learned a lot today and had so much fun doing it. As many of you know I start my morning routine with a Chit-Chat message. I named it Chit-Chat because we ALWAYS end with a question that requires us to think and then turn and talk with a partner. This type of morning message is a great way to build on oral language, phonics and reading skills. It also incorporates Science or Social Studies because it always a review of the information we learned the day before.

Here's my Chit-Chat message all ready to go for tomorrow morning.

We've been working on the chunky monkey strategy so you can see that I've left out a lot of chunks in the message below.

I don't always give the kids a copy of the message to write with me. I sometimes just have them write on white boards. But when they were leaving today some of them asked me to make them one for tomorrow. So, I'm sharing it with you. You can click on the picture below to download the message.

answer key: Giraffes are the tallest land mammal.

They are herbivores.

Wild giraffes live on the continent of Africa.

They sleep standing up with one eye open.

***I've been asked several times to make a Chit Chat resource. I have it on my very long to do list! :)

If you'd like to check out my zoo unit on TPT you can click on the picture below.

It is full of patterns to make zoo animals, nonfiction writing, fun poetry ideas and activities, math activities and more!

I'll be back tomorrow with Zebra fun!

Fun with Dr. Seuss Unit

2012-03-03T16:35:00.001-05:00

We had so much fun with Dr. Seuss books this week! Despite the fact that I seriously wonder what kind of medication he was on when he wrote some of his books I love them! Some of his stories are just plain fun and silly but a lot of them have great messages.

Thing One. His tummy is actually a book with ing words.

Our Cat in the Hat glyph and at words book.

The Cat in the Hat brought about a lot of discussion about why the kids shouldn't have let the cat in the house. It also brought about a lot of discussion about things you could do on a rainy day. My favorite part of the story was the ending questions.

Should we tell her about it?

Now, what SHOULD we do?

Well...
What would YOU do

If your mother asked YOU?

I had the kids draw and write about what they would do. Oh.my.word! Some of their responses were so funny and I just realized I didn't take any pictures! One of my little sweeties drew his mom with a speech bubble and it said, "I'm home. What did you do?" and he drew himself with a speech bubble that said, "UMMMMM.... Nothing. Not one single thing."

We also made text to self connections by writing about what we do when it is raining.

Sit down with a cup of hot cocoa and watch a movie in the living room.

I play with my mom, read, watch t.v. and exercise.

I watch t.v. with my family because we have nothing to do. That's because we watch t.v.

I play beauty shop with my sister.

We talked about why the kids shouldn't have let the cat in the house and what they should have told him.

The kids drew a picture and wrote what they would do.

This one says, I would tell the cat to get out.

We made inferences about Conrad and Sally and then found evidence to support our inferences.

I hope you had as much fun with Seuss as we did!

Up next week..... Zoo Animals.

St. Patrick's Day Blog Hunt

2012-03-01T21:54:00.003-05:00

Top of the Morning Blogging Friends! Play a fun blog hunt with us by following the shamrocks on different blogs each day until Saint Patrick's Day. You will see lots of great blogs along the way, discover some great ideas for your classroom, and pick up some free materials. May the “Luck of the Irish” be with you! We are going to start today and go until March 17th. In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday I'm giving you a Teacher version of my emergent reader to read with your little leprechauns. Just click on the book cover to grab your copy. Continue this blog hunt tomorrow by clicking on the four leaf clover to take you to the next blog... and look for these lucky four leafclovers along the way!

TPT Leap Day Sale

2012-02-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

TPT is throwing a sale! Use the promo code code below to save 10% on your total purchases.

In addition to the 10% you can save 20% off at my store. Lots of my bloggy friends are having sales too! So tomorrow is the day to "Leap" on in and save-it, save-it! Okay, so that was my corny attempt at humor! You can't blame me for "jump"in in there and trying! Okay... I'll quit!! :)

Click on the image below to take you to a file with active links.

Happy Shoppin' y'all!

Wild Thing You Make My Heart Sing!

2012-02-23T21:42:00.001-05:00

I love the book, Where the Wild Things Are and we had a lot of fun with this book last week.

We made our very own Max and wrote about what we do when we feel wild.

This is the writing chart we did before we made our Max's.

This chart makes a great shared reading piece for the rest of the week.

We have a class full of wild things. Some have spots, some have stripes, and some have stripes and spots. After we made them we sorted them and analyzed and recorded our data.

I just redid my Wild Things unit so if you've already purchased it go and download all of the new stuff.

You can click on Max to download the Text to Self connections writing sheet for free!

BTW.... this adorable Max graphic came from http://www.melonheadzillustrating.blogspot.com/

Secret Stories and Spelling Chunks

2012-02-23T07:11:00.003-05:00

I was recently contacted by someone who told me the spelling chunk cards that I had on here were very similar to a program called, Secret Stories. I checked out their website and YIKES!!. There were several of the cards that were a lot alike. So as both a Christian and professional I have removed the free downloadable chunk cards from my blog and I will no longer be sharing them. I would never want anyone to think that I would take someone else's hard work and claim it as my own. As teachers and bloggers we love to share everything and it is our responsibility to make sure that when we share we know the original source of our "inspiration or information."
The creator of Secret Stories did not ask me to post this. I'm posting here because I think it is the right thing to do. You can check out their complete program by clicking on the picture of one of their posters below. I love how the cutie patootie letters look like little people! I just ordered a copy for myself and I am awaiting their arrival in the mail.

Dr. Seuss Giveaway!

2012-02-20T21:00:00.001-05:00

Visit Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants for a Seusstastic giveaway!!!!! Click on Thing One and he will take you there.

America Unit Part One

2012-02-07T21:13:00.000-05:00

I love how cute the bald eagles turned out! This is a picture of our Chit-Chit message. These messages are how I teach and review phonics, reading and language skills. There is no better way to teach letter sounds and sound chunks than in the context of authentic reading and writing. We read a sentence just as it is written and then use our schema and other context clues to help us figure out what would make sense in the sentence. Once we think we have it figured out then we stretch the words and write the missing sounds. I always end the message with a question so that the kids can turn and CHIT-CHAT with a partner about what they learned.

Statue of Liberty's

I am amazed at how good these turn out every year. They are little artists!

This is a copy of how I organize and teach my America unit.

Sweet Giveaway!

2012-02-05T22:21:00.000-05:00

We are teaming up for a Sweet Give Away!

We have a simple and sweet giveaway where you can win all of these 7 products from some of your favorite blog authors.

Just follow each of these blogs... no hoops... no hastles!

There will be 6 SWEET winners chosen on Saturday at midnight. Hop over to Mrs. Wills Kindergarten to enter!

February Math Journal Prompts FREEBIE!

2012-02-01T21:05:00.003-05:00

Hey Friends, I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know that the February Math Journal prompts have been posted. Click on the unit cover below to download the February Math Journal Prompts on TPT for free.

I will be back on Friday to post pictures and lesson plans from my America unit.

Enjoy the rest of your week! :)

AS SOON AS I POSTED THIS I NOTICED A TYPE-O ON THE FIRST JOURNAL PROMPT! GRRRR!!! I JUST FIXED IT SO IF YOUR FIRST PAGE SAYS THAT INSTEAD OF THAN....

YOU CAN GO AND GET THE CORRECTED VERSION. SORRY ABOUT THAT!

Arctic Animals Fun!

2012-01-29T21:33:00.002-05:00

Comparing and Contrasting Polar Bears & Walruses using a venn diagram.

{All of the directions for the crafts and the venn diagram strips are included in my Arctic Animals unit).

EXCUSE the fact that it says, live in Antarctica! Mercy! I didn't even realize I had made the mistake until a sweet person told me. Ya know how your brain just kicks into auto? As a class we read these together and we read, lives in the Arctic. (didn't even notice the mistake). In fact, when we read it the kids immediately broke out in song, "The polar bear lives in the Arctic. He never gets cold in a storm...."

Sorry about that y'all! It has been fixed on TPT. :)

A close up of the Polar Bear glyphs! So stinkin' cute if I do say so myself! :)

Polar Bear schema chart! Thanks for the inspiration, Debbie Miller!

Polar Bear lesson plans. Click to download.

This week we are learning about American Symbols!

If you already have my America unit you will want to go to your My Downloads folder and get the revised version. I just added a black and white emergent reader to match the Shared Reading colored version that is in the book. :)

Making Inferences with Tooth Trouble

2012-01-26T20:17:00.000-05:00

Tooth Trouble is an adorable book that the kids LOVE!

We read the book and made inferences about Wilbur.

Next, we used our inferencing skills to answer the question,

Why do you think Wilbur changed his mind about going to the dentist?

Because his grandpa's teeth were all broken.

He does not want to look like Grandpa.

Wilbur changed his mind because he saw his grandpa's tooth.

Because his tooth hurt.

Because he did not want his tooth to fall out.

Kindergarten writing is so adorable! When I look at their writing I am so proud of how far they've come with stretching words and writing complete sentences. Just three months ago we were still just doing labeling!

Kindergarten is a year full of amazing growth. I LOVE it!

Here are my missing lesson plans for Thursday and Friday of last week.

I will post this week's Polar Bear plans this weekend.

The above lesson is included in the Arctic Animals unit.

Tomorrow is Friday y'all! Have a fabulous day with your little sweeties!

Letter for 100th Day

2012-01-25T21:17:00.000-05:00

Do you want to have your kids dress up like they are 100? Need a letter for the parents?

Click below to download one! WARNING: IF YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE YOUR KIDS DO THIS THE ADORABLE METER WILL GO OFF THE CHARTS!

{I would love to hear how it goes} My kids were so stinkin' cute.... posting a picture is almost worth the risk of getting fired. "Bock, bock" Yeah...you're right! I'm a CHICKEN!

100th Day of School Fun!

2012-01-23T19:42:00.001-05:00

Friday was the 100th day of school and we had sooo much fun! We had the kids dress like they were 100 years old. OH.MY.WORD! They were so stinkin' adorable! I would love to be able to show you pictures but {sigh} my district has strict rules about that. One picture of a kid on a blog= FIRED! {gulp} You'll just have to take my word for it.

We did a lot of fun math games and activities and the kids didn't want the day to end.

Most of the activities we did are included in my 100th Day unit on TPT.

Click the picture at the bottom of this post if you want to check it out.

These 100 year old portraits turned out adorable!

Don't ya just love the wrinkles!

We made these class books that are also in my unit.

If I had $100. I would...

buy a dog.

buy a necklace.

buy a baby and baby food.

buy a pony.

buy a shark.

100 days ago I didn't know...

how to do the smartboard.

how to play computer.

how to do the 100th day of school. {she drew herself as a 100 year old and she is saying, OU because her back hurts! :) So cute...I could die!}.

I can't believe we've already completed 101 days of school. The time is flying by!

I know many of you probably still have a way to go until you reach your 100th Day.

We go back sooo EARLY!!!

I hope you had a Marvelous Monday!!

Sale on Everything in my Store now through Saturday!

2012-01-19T06:23:00.000-05:00

I usually only have a sale when TPT is also offering a promo code but Anonymous left a comment asking if I would have a sale and I thought...why not!? My store is on sale now through Saturday.

This will probably be the only sale I do until May when TPT has their big Teacher Appreciation Week sale so if there is something you've been wanting now is the time to grab it! :)

Walruses, Literacy Centers and Guided Reading, oh, my!

2012-01-18T20:33:00.000-05:00

We made these adorable walruses from my Arctic Animals unit today. I love how they all turned out so unique. Our penguins are still fishing on our bulletin board so the herd of walruses won't be hung up until next week when we use them to decorate our polar bears and walruses venn diagram. I will post a pic next week when they are all hanging.

So, I've had some questions about how I do Literacy Centers.

This is a picture of my Literacy Center board.

The pirates on top match the groups. For example, I have 5 kids in the pirate group, 5 kids in the anchor group etc;

Each group goes to the centers below their icon each day. The first row shows their "have to" and the second row shows their fun center that they can go to when they finish.

My classroom is Teeny-Tiny so there is no room to keep centers set up. My centers are stored in the system shown below. The group captain goes and gets the center drawer and takes it to the table where the group will work. The ABC center always has activities that relate to phonics. For example, this week we are doing an ot, op, og picture sort. The kids sort the pictures into the appropriate group, glue them down and then stretch the words to write the sounds. You can download a sample of them here. {The clipart for these is from djinkers and carson dellosa}.

Word Work usually always involves an activity from my Popcorn words units.

and the other ones are usually "themed" centers (see lesson plans).

Writer's Workshop and Reader's Workshop are completely separate and aren't done during this time.

My district requires them to have their own block of time.

I am working on a mini literacy center management resource that will be a FREEBIE. It will include management ideas and icons, etc; It should be available in the next few weeks.

During this time I am pulling Guided Reading groups. I just pull them from their center to come to me and then when I am finished with them they go back to their center activity. I have a Guided Reading unit on TPT if you want to check it out. It includes my word work activities, comprehension activities, and all of my planning sheets.

These are some of my planning templates. The names have been changed to protect the innocent! LOL

This running record form is printed two to a page and it allows me to do a quick running record on a child and then circle the strategies he or she is using well. I think jot a quick note about what we still need to work on. This is also in my GR unit.

Google docs is giving me fits with uploading right now! Grrr! I will have to post my lesson plans and the writing conferring sheet I promised tomorrow.

Happy Thursday friends!

Walruses Day 2 and Answers to your Burning Questions! :)

2012-01-17T22:55:00.001-05:00

Common Core Standards Posters

and

Essential Questions

So.... many of you have asked, " How do you get your kids to write like that?"

So, here's your answer. First of all, I am totally in love with the Philosophy behind the Units of Study Writing program by Lucy Calkins. It is so wonderful for explicitly showing you how to get your kids to write a variety of genres.

Secondly, you will notice that the Common Core Standard (in the first picture) says, WE CAN PARTICIPATE IN SHARED RESEARCH AND WRITING PROJECTS. So what this says to me is, I teach Kindergarten and my kids don't have to do it all alone. I can be their guide as we learn this new genre of writing. We have been writing since the first day of school using our pictures to tell a story and labeling even if that meant that some of them only wrote the beginning sound. Then, we moved on to writing small moment stories about our lives and stretching and writing words. This was a slow process. But oh, my word! The kids have made HUGE progress. Nonfiction is a little bit tougher for them so I am glad that we can "share" the writing process and do it together. So today we talked about our schema for walruses and read the nonfiction book from my unit. We used our schema and new learning to brainstorm what we should write about. The kids decided that the tusks were very important to a walrus so we decided that we would write about them. We came up with,

Walruses use their tusks for protection.

They use them to climb up on the ice.

After we decided what we were going to write we got busy!

So to start I wrote Tusks on the top line and they just copied it.

Then I started writing our first sentence. I wrote Walruses and again they copied it.

Then, I had them stretch the word use themselves and they wrote it all on their own. I never even wrote it on the board because I wanted that to be their work not mine. You can see that I then wrote their tusks for (normally I wouldn't have written the word for since it is a popcorn word but I knew we had a HUGE word coming up so I went ahead and wrote it). Next, we had to write the word protection. WHEW! Can you believe it? To do these big words we make it FUN! We used a tambourine to clap out the syllables so that they could hear each part. (I do not stretch it for them. We clap the syllables and say pro tec tion together and then they have a go at it).

We followed the same sequence for the second sentence. The only words I wrote for that sentence was They them

Here is one of the student's writing samples.

Here's what one of their writing pieces looked like from our small moment study.

During this unit of study I don't help them write at all. Unless I'm conferencing with them.

This student wrote

For Christmas I got a Koda Kumi wii game for Christmas.

Whew! Lots to conference on but still great for a Kindergarten cutie! We worked on leaving finger spaces between our words. I didn't have him erase all of his hard work and start over instead we practiced on a whiteboard. Then, I wrote on the post it note, Today we worked on leaving finger spaces between our words. I also keep conferring notes on each child but I don't have a picture. I will post that for you along with a template tomorrow. :)

Alrighty, that's that! I hope I helped answer some of your questions.

Tomorrow I will answer the questions some of you had about centers and guided reading.

Click on the picture below to download tomorrow's lesson plans.

Walruses Day 1

2012-01-16T21:43:00.001-05:00

Hey y'all! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. It was so nice to have an extra day off! Tomorrow we begin our Arctic animals unit and our focus is on walruses.

Click on the picture if you want to download my plans for tomorrow.

Most of the things I will be doing this week comes from this unit.

My son plays varsity basketball and we were out of town for games so I didn't get a chance to post what we did on Friday. Here are some quick pictures.

Penguin facts

Our penguin glyphs and glyph books from my Penguin unit.

We did a directed drawing and bubble map for Tacky the Penguin.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Penguins Day 4 New glyph book added

2012-01-11T20:23:00.001-05:00

These are our penguin glyphs that we made last year.

I can't wait to make these little cuties tomorrow!

I just added a new penguin glyph book to my unit!!

If you've already purchased the unit go to your My Purchases folder on TPT

and you can print out the new booklet for your little sweeties to use as they plan their glyph.

Penguin Plans Day 3 and a freebie!

2012-01-10T18:25:00.000-05:00

I have to head out for my son's basketball game so this is going to be a quickie!

Here's a picture of our Percy Penguin fair shares math activity [from my Penguin unit}.

The kids LOVE the song and they loved completing their book.

Who doesn't love math when it involves music and food right?

Penguin Tree Map we used Shared Writing to complete this and the kids did their own.

We worked on this several times throughout the day when we had a few minutes. We didn't complete this all in one sitting.

Some examples of their penguin writing for our Nonfiction book.

Here are my plans for tomorrow. You can click on the picture of my plans to download it.

This is our chit chat message for tomorrow.

They loved finding out that a group of baby chicks is called a kindergarten!

The answers for the chart are:

A group of baby chicks is called a kindergarten.

Macaroni penguins dance to find their mate.

[If the female likes the males dance she will be his mate. If not, she waddles away.]

{Rockhopper penguins: to find a mate the male will bring a rock for building a nest to the female penguin if she likes him she will take the rock if not she waddles away. AHHH....penguin love! so cute!

Think Math for our math warm up tomorrow.

Do you like to eat fish? math survey

In addition to helping my kids with collecting and recording data it will also help me find out how many worms and fish I need for our penguin glyph on Thursday.

Click on the picture to download your freebie.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Penguin Plans day 2

2012-01-09T21:15:00.001-05:00

Hey Y'all! Woo-hoo! We survived another Monday! I don't know what it is about Mondays that makes them so dang hard. I love the excitement of introducing my littles to our new unit but I sure don't like having to roll my keaster out of bed! {I tried to spell check keaster and it isn't recognized. HMMM... I'm from Texas and it is definitely a word!} Anyhow here are some of the things we did today and my lesson plans for tomorrow.

We started the day by charting our schema for penguins. The green sticky notes show our schema and the blue ones show our new learning that we added throughout the day. As we learn about penguins some of our thinking gets moved to the misconceptions box and some of it gets additional information tagged on to it. Oh, how I love Debbie Miller and her brilliance! These charts came from an idea I adapted from her book, Teaching with Intention! A MUST read!

This chart will continue to change throughout the week.

One of our standards is, I can listen with purpose and understanding.

So, after we read the book we discussed the new things we learned and did this reading response sheet that's in my penguin unit.

We have been learning about the conventions of nonfiction and this unit will teach the littles how to write their own nonfiction book and include those conventions.

Today we worked on the diagram page.

Here's my lesson plan for tomorrow. You can click on it to download it.

This is how we will start our day tomorrow. CHIT-CHAT was the name I came up with for my morning messages because it is always a review of what we've learned and it ALWAYS ends with a question for us to turn and "chit-chat" about! This is a great way to teach and review important phonics skills, conventions and reading skills in a meaningful, authentic way. {I have had a lot of requests to create a resource book for this type of activity and I'm going to be working on it soon.}

I like to have my kids actively engaged and involved while we are doing our Chit-Chat book so they each have their own version. You can click on the picture below to snag a copy for yourself!

I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday!

Penguin song download for Penguin unit

2012-01-08T21:21:00.001-05:00

My sweet friend, Linda McCardle has recorded the penguin song from my unit. Thank you Linda for sharing your musical talents with us!! You can click on the penguin to download the song.

You can visit Linda's blog at http://ateacherstouch.blogspot.com/

Penguin Plans

2012-01-07T16:18:00.002-05:00

Next week we start our penguin unit! I am so excited because this is one of my favorite units to teach.

I've had a lot of people ask me if I would be willing to share my lesson plans and schedule so I'm going to try something new. My New Year's resolution is to post more on my blog so I'm going to TRY to start posting my daily plans (READ...I will try my best but I'm not making any promises) and a few pictures each day. Feel free to holler at me if I start slacking! So to start if off here's a picture of our Penguin Fair shares math activity we will be using on Monday and a copy of my Monday lesson plans. You can click on the picture to download the plans.

Almost all of the activities we will be doing this week are from my Penguin unit.

Have a great weekend!

NOTE: My students start coming into the room at 8:00. However, the school bell doesn't ring until 8:30.

Dismissal starts at 3:25 but the students stay in their classrooms until their name or bus is called for dismissal. Some of my students don't leave until 4:00.

Arctic Animals Unit Posted

2011-12-31T23:01:00.000-05:00

It's New Year's Eve and what am I doing? Working on school stuff!

I hope you guys all have a fabulous day with your families tomorrow.

It's almost time to go back to school!

New Year's Eve Giveaway

2011-12-31T10:38:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite people is having a HUGE giveaway! Check out Erica's blog by clicking on the thumbnail to enter.

Welcome to the New Year's Blogging Bash Giveaway! The contest runs until midnight on Saturday, December 31st!

Snowman glyph and freebies

2011-12-27T16:17:00.001-05:00

Need some fun snowman ideas to chase away the winter blues?

These are the Snowman glyphs from my Snowman unit.

Here's the link to view the unit on TPT

Here are some free snowman downloads!

Snowman Poem

Homework sheet to go with snowman poem

IF YOU PURCHASED THIS UNIT PREVIOUSLY YOU WILL WANT TO GO TO TPT TO DOWNLOAD THE UPDATED UNIT. JUST GO TO YOUR MY PURCHASES FOLDER TO DOWNLOAD THE REVISED VERSION. THANKS! :)

New Years Resolutions...Mission Organization

2011-12-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

Need to get organized? Read my post on PreK K Sharing to help you get started!
http://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/

Dollar Days Sale on Adorable Fonts

2011-12-22T14:46:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas friends! Dollar Days has started at Lettering Delights. Now is the time to snatch up all of those adorable fonts, alphabets and clip art sets that you've been wanting! Please use the Pink 9 Free Fonts button on my blog to make your purchases. The money generated from the sales goes toward living expenses for my quadriplegic brother. I hope you and your family enjoy your wonderful time off together!

Reindeer and Reindeer book freebie

2011-12-18T23:26:00.000-05:00

Last week was a CUH-RAZY week for my little sweeties. In addition to all of the normal holiday craziness we were still trying to practice and get ready for our Gingerbread man play. We performed the play for the parents on Thursday night and the kids did an AMAZING job! But I do have to say that I am so glad it is over and I am so excited to be out of school for Christmas break! I know that some of you still have to work a few days this week so I won't rub it in! :)

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday together.

This is our chart for the Reindeer Glyph data. Blogger keeps turning my pictures and I can't figure out how to fix it. GRRRRRR!!

Click on the picture below to download the Reindeer emergent reader.

Nonfiction writing about reindeer.

Reindeer can eat plants.

Reindeer can swim.

Reindeer have antlers.

The reindeer activities above are from my Reindeer unit.

If you're interested you can click on the picture below to view the unit.

Merry Christmas y'all!

Happy Holidays FREE emergent reader

2011-12-13T21:16:00.000-05:00

Here's the emergent reader I promised! It goes with the big book from my Christmas unit. :)

Polar Express Updates

2011-12-10T16:27:00.001-05:00

I just updated my Polar Express unit on TPT. I added several fun math games, some sequencing cards and an Off the Tracks! sight word game. If you've already purchased the unit go to your My Purchases folder to get the new goodies. You can view the unit by clicking on the picture above.

P.S. If you haven't already visited my Facebook page you can do so by clicking on the picture below.

Polar Express Unit and Free Song Download LINK fixed for song

2011-12-07T21:08:00.001-05:00

I uploaded my Polar Express unit to TPT last night. I still have some more stuff that I want to add to it but a lot of you were emailing me that you needed it NOW! :) I will let you know when I finish updating it. It is on sale until Friday. :) You can click on the picture to view the unit.

Linda McCardle put the song I wrote for this unit to music. You can get the song by clicking on the link below. Thank you so much Linda!

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzW5317QcZ6_ZDhkOWU0ZGItMWQ3Zi00OTQ3LWJkNTUtNGMwNTQ5MWRiZDA2&hl=en_US

You can visit Linda's blog at ateacherstouch.blogspot.com

Visit and Like my Facebook page by clicking on the button below.

The Grinch Unit and Free Music Download

2011-12-05T22:38:00.001-05:00

If you don't have my Grinch mini unit you can check it out by clicking on the link above.

I wrote a little song for this unit and Linda McCardle set the song lyrics to music! I LOVE what she did with the song. It has a fun Charlie Brown feel to it. :) She has graciously allowed me to post the link to the song so that you could download it. Thank you so much Linda!

The song link is below.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzW5317QcZ6_NGJkNWVlNDQtOGYzNS00YzE3LTljZjEtMThhYzY4YTkxYjlk&hl=en_US

P.S. I am still working on the Polar Express unit. No sleep for me until it is done! By Wednesday. I PROMISE.

Gingerbread Fun and Freebies

2011-12-04T13:45:00.000-05:00

These are our Gingerbread glyphs. Aren't they cute? I love activities that incorporate reading, math AND fun! The kids cut all of their own pieces so they all turn out unique.

This is the book that goes along with the glyph.

If you've already purchased my Gingerbread Unit then you want to head back over and grab the extra pages that I'm adding. I added the glyph book and all of the directions to the packet. (If you're reading this shortly after I posted then you'll need to give me about 30 minutes to get this finished and added to the packet).

THINK MATH! Oh, my word I can't even tell you how much we love doing Think Math.

I love it because it gives every single little friend a chance to contribute at their own level of thinking.

You can see the variety of answers on the chart. One other thing that I have built into this activity is Give me a number. If I call on a little friend they know that they don't have to worry. If they are stuck they can ask me to give them a number and I will give them a number to get them started. For example, if I have a little one who I know doesn't have a clue I would give him the number 4. That way he only has to know that you add one more to get 5. His little face lights up as he shouts out , "4+1=5". Success!

My original intent for this Bubble Map was for it to be about the cookie we just ate. So the chart was originally titled Gingerbread Bubble Map. As we were brainstorming adjectives to describe the cookie one of my little smarties said, "trusting." When I asked her to explain her answer she said, "Well he was way too trusting. He shouldn't have trusted the fox because he has sharp teeth and crazy eyes." Oh. my word y'all! Isn't that smart? I just love when the unexpected happens. So this of course was the perfect time to teach them about using a carrot when you need to insert information. Thus, the rather messy looking chart below where I had to use a carrot to add the word Man to the chart. After that discussion another child said, "Yeah, he was so foolish!" I die. :)

We read a lot of versions of the Gingerbread Man and keep a journal of the different endings.

Here are a few examples from The Gingerbread Man and The Gingerbread Girl.

One of our math journal prompts.

Which part did you bite first? Pie graph.

Class story chart to compare and contrast the stories we read.

If you are interested in my complete Gingerbread Man unit you can click on the really blurry picture below!

FREEBIES and FUN Click below.

We are working on our Gingerbread Man play. We do this play every year and I can't even tell you how much fun it is. The music and play was written by Heidi Butkus from Heidi songs. Working on this play keeps my kids actively engaged and it keeps me from losing my sanity during this crazy time of year. Parents from three years ago still mention how special this play was to them! Do it! You'll love it!

Here are some pictures of our props and costumes. The oven and bridge were made by my local high school drama department. They only charged me $85 for the cost of the supplies. The oven is large enough for a child to fit inside. They left the back open so that the child wouldn't be scared. LOVE it!

SNEAK PEEK! I am working, working, working on the Polar Express Unit.

Here's a few pictures of activities that will be included in the unit. I hope to have the unit finished by LATE tonight.

Pajama Glyph

Adorable Elf activity.

P.S. Mrs. Jump's class now has a Facebook page! Please Like it on Facebook.

Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/MrsJumpsClass

Have a GREAT week friends!

Holiday Sale save now through Monday!

2011-11-24T20:32:00.001-05:00

Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

2011-11-15T21:21:00.000-05:00

I just love how these adorable Pilgrims turned out! Each one is unique just like the child who created it. :)

They are big... but I'm from Texas y'all!

For the writing they wrote about what they would take with them if they sailed on the Mayflower. I just love Kindergarten writing. Don't you? The last one is my favorite!

My cat Zoe because she is sweet.

My American girl doll because I love her.

My Ellie because I love her so "mush".

And my favorite..... cock your head to the left.... I don't know why Blogger does this! GRRR....

My granny's billy goat because she loves the billy goat. But first I would have to find it.

Isn't that sweet? She is thinking about her Granny instead of herself. Children have the sweetest little hearts!

You can check out my Thanksgiving unit by clicking on the picture below.

P.S. If you are still waiting on the owl glyph to be added to my Owl unit I am so sorry! My scanner quit working and they didn't have the one I wanted at Office Depot. I ordered one and it will be here Friday!

Gingerbread Unit Updates

2011-11-11T16:31:00.000-05:00

I just added some new updates to my Gingerbread Man unit including a super fun Science experiment and Recording sheet. Click on the cover above to view the unit. If you have already purchased the unit go to Teachers Pay Teachers and download the new pages by logging into your account and clicking on your My Purchases folder. I hope you like the new updates!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Gingerbread-Man-Math-and-Literacy-Fun

Owls and Veteran's Day

2011-11-07T21:02:00.001-05:00

We made soldiers in honor of Veteran's Day and created a Bubble Map. These are some of the books we read. There aren't very many books out there for children about this important holiday. If you have found one that you like please let me know!

Blogger isn't cooperating with me tonight y'all! If you turn your head to the right you can view the pictures that are sideways. :)

We had a great time learning about owls this week! I LOVE seeing how excited the kids get about this amazing raptor. They learn so many new vocabulary words and their parents are always so impressed with what they learn during this unit.

Owl Tree Maps

Our owl informational books.

One of our Math journal prompts.

Y'all know I totally love these schema charts. If you still haven't read Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller I highly recommend it!

We illustrated the meaning of a night owl. One of my sweeties said, "I'm a total night owl! I stay up sooooo late! My mom doesn't make me go to bed until 9:00!" Kinders are so stinkin' cute!

These are our owl glyphs. One of the questions was, Are you a night owl?

Can you spot the owls that belong to the four kids who aren't night owls? Look closely and you will see their owls SNOOZING in the tree! I am adding this glyph along with the key and recording sheets to my Owl Packet. If you've already purchased the unit you can get the revised unit by going to your Purchases folder and downloading the new unit. Give me until Thursday to get the new stuff added. :)

Speaking of revising units.... I just finished some new spider stuff and I added it to my Spider unit on TPT.

If you've already purchased the unit go and grab the new stuff! :)

Polar Express Unit

2011-11-04T07:16:00.001-04:00

I've received numerous requests asking me to create a unit for this awesome book. I'm working on it and will have it ready by Thanksgiving. If you have a particular skill that you'd like to see represented in this packet you can send me an email at kindergartenteacher@cox.net

Happy Friday Y'all!

It's a Gobble, Gobble, Giveaway Y'all!

2011-11-02T21:28:00.002-04:00

It’s a Gobble, Gobble GIVEAWAY ya’ll! My favorite part of blogging is being able to interact and learn from such wonderful teachers around the world and I have teamed up with a few of them for this fantastic giveaway. To embrace the season of Thankfulness, we are going BIG for this giveaway because we are SO THANKFUL for each and every one of you! All you have to do to win all of the units shown below is follow each blog! That’s SEVEN chances to win. Here’s even better news…

TWO winners will be chosen!!

Write a comment for each blog you follow and get a BONUS entry if you blog about this giveaway on your blog or facebook page!

Giveaway ends Sunday, November 6^th, 2011 at midnight central standard time. The winners will be announced on Monday!!

Click on each picture to take you to each blog! WHEN YOU GET TO THE LAST STOP...LEAVE ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS. THE KREATIVE IN KINDER BLOG IS WHERE THE WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN FROM. :)

Giveaway Terms

This giveaway is free to enter. All giveaways are opened to U.S. residents ages 18 and up unless otherwise stated. Giveaways are one entry per person per blog following. I do not and never will collect or sell your information. Nothing from this blog can be copied, edited, or sold for personal use. Thanks for playing by the rules. (Leave it to a teacher to follow giveaway rules, lol!)

GOOD LUCK! Gobble Gobble!!

Spider Fun!

2011-10-30T21:21:00.002-04:00

OOPS! Excuse the apostrophes above. Geesh! I wish I had noticed my mistake before I took the screenshot. :)

My spider unit is available on TPT for only $5.00 I will be adding some things to it within the next few days. If you have already purchased it check back next weekend to get the new goodies!

The Spider experiments and many more are available in my best selling, Simple Science Volume 1 unit.

I will be working on Volume 3 just as soon as I figure out how to add more hours in the day. :)

Click Below for the Freebies :)

Where is the Spider? emergent reader freebie

Spider Pie Graph Freebie

Thank you so much to those of you who have sent emails asking about my brother, J.R.

He is doing much better. We were able to take him to the movies yesterday to see Puss in Boots.

His accident left him unable to speak but he was SOOO excited about going to the movies that he was making car noises the entire time we were loading him into the van. He didn't stop smiling the entire time.

Friends, I can not thank you enough for all of your support in making these outings possible!

I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow with all of your little sweeties!

Don't eat too much candy!!!

Thanksgiving Updates

2011-10-29T01:22:00.000-04:00

The updates to my Thanksgiving unit are finished. The unit nearly doubled in size. If you've already purchased the unit (even if it was last year) you can go to TPT and click on your Downloads folder. Scroll down to the Thanksgiving unit and click on it to download the new unit. You can click on the pilgrim girl to check out the unit on TPT.

Here is some of what's included:

Originalfull color book for shared reading. The book goes to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.

Kids will love the fun ending to this story!
Turkey pie graph math activity with full color pictures, directions, and patterns.
Original turkey poem with adorable craft activity.
Turkey glyph with data analysis sheets and Turkey Glyph book.
Boy and girl pilgrim art activity and writing templates.
Black and white emergent reader and pocket chart pictures.

Turkey syllables center activity
Writing activities, rhyming activies and More!

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from our week. Spiders anyone? :)

Where's My Mummy? activities and freebies

2011-10-24T13:57:00.001-04:00

We did a character analysis of Bubby Mummy. We discussed how he looks, how he feels, and what he does. I typed up some statements that were true and some that weren't true. If the student's said that the statement was true for Baby Mummy then they had to give evidence to support why it should go on the chart. This activity really helped my little ones think about the characters in the stories we read. Click here to download the tree map statements.

Click on the book cover above to dowload this free resource for teaching your little scientists about the Scientific Method.

Click on the cover to view my, Where's My Mummy? unit

I'm working on updating a few of my units. There will be additions to my Owl unit and Thanksgiving unit.

Already purchased one of these units? No worries! When you purchase a unit on TPT you get all revisions and additions at no additional charge. Even if the price goes up!

Coming Soon ....

Frankie Friend Glyph and Free Downloads

2011-10-11T22:12:00.002-04:00

The Frankie Friend glyph and activities are part of my Halloween unit that is available on TPT.

It includes lots of fun activiites including, The What Will You Be? shared reading text. Click on the book cover below to see the unit.

Planning ahead? Click on the Thanksgiving picture below to view my unit on TPT.

FREEBIES!!!!

Click on the following two images to download the "BINGO" songs and the Frankie Friend book.

FEEDBACK is important! Hey friends, If you've purchased either of the units above and you haven't left feedback on TPT please consider doing so. Even if you purchased the units a year ago your feedback is still important to me. :) You can go your downloads folder and find the unit. Underneath it will be a flashing link to leave feedback. Thanks a bunch! Have a great week! I will post more freebies soon. :)

UPDATE: 10/12 After I posted this I looked at my Thanksgiving unit on TPT and decided that I would rather revise the unit that I already have instead of creating a new one. So...if you purchase it now you will get all of the new stuff too! I hope to have all of the additions completed and added to the unit by the end of next week. Thanks. :)

Scarecrow Fun!

2011-10-10T00:08:00.001-04:00

For the Roll a Word you will need to write the words on a wooden cube.

Have your students play with a buddy or literacy center group to see who can color in their scarecrow first.

Click on the pictures above to download the freebies.

The Scarecrow picture above will take you to my Scarecrow unit on TPT if you want to check it out.

Happy Fall Giveaway Fun!

2011-10-03T21:21:00.000-04:00

You can win these 10 items to help kick your Fall off with a bang!

My Scarecrows Math and Literacy Fun

Kim Adsit's Apples and Pumpkins Literacy and Math Activities

Kathleen Pedersen's It's Fall Y'all Seasonal Math and Literacy Activities and Where's Mr. Crow (link will be added later)

Cara Carroll's My Calendar Companion

Katie Mense's Bear Math and Literacy Centers and Nocturnal Animals Math and Literacy Centers (link will be added later)

DeeDee Wills Hibernate! A CVC Game, Fall Math Workstations, and Fall ABC Matching Fun

So wanna know what you have to do? Just follow our blogs... told you... EASY!

Leave a comment on Mrs. Wills blog...for each blog you follow~6 chances to win!Contest will end Saturday, October 8th at 10:00pm. Mrs. Wills will select a winner with a Random Number Generator! On your mark... get set... GO!

Sneak Peek

2011-09-28T20:52:00.001-04:00

Farm and Apple Fun!

2011-09-20T20:55:00.000-04:00

My husband would say that he's glad there's only one of me. But, I can't tell you how great it would be if I could clone myself during the first 9 weeks of school. I am sure you guys feel the same way! Once the first 9 weeks are over and the kids know all of the routines it is smooth sailing. I can't wait for the day that I don't hear little voices calling out, "Mrs. Jump" 100 times. I told my little sweeties that I was going to change my name and one of them said in a worried voice, "But then we won't know who you are!" Aren't kindergartners adorable??? I am in love with all 23 of them. Even the little stinkers! :)

Here are some pictures of some of the types of things we do during our farm unit.

Our PIG tree map initial sounds sort... sorry it is so wrinkled! I kept forgetting to take my camera to school so I folded it up and brought it home when we were finished with it.

Our interactive apple chart....yep....wrinkled for the same reason. :)

student art project for the apple poem.

Which Apple is Your Favorite? Picture graph and data analysis

Making Predictions based on the story clues. I love the book, Who's in the Shed? by Brenda Parkes.

It is hard to find but it is a great one!

We read, The Flea's Sneeze and Baa-Choo and compared the stories.

Our Mud bubble map

We used the adjectives from our bubble map to write a Mud Poem. (the poem idea was originally from Victoria at Kinderkorner).

We made mud (chocolate pudding) and wrote the steps in our piggy books.

My Halloween unit was one of the first ones I created for TPT. I've added a few new things to it including the Frankie Friend glyph below. If you've already purchased the unit you can get the revised one by going to your Downloads folder and redownloading it (no charge). The price of this unit is still only $5. To check it out you can click on the picture below.

Also, the Fall centers packet that I created with Julie Lee is almost finished. She is patiently waiting on me to finish my part. It will be finished by tomorrow!

I'm also working on:

Putting all of the spelling chunk cards in one file (per popular request) they will be posted here for free as soon as I finish.

October Math journal prompts will be finished and posted to TPT by next week.

Scarecrow and Pumpkins Mini unit (adorable scarecrow... I can't wait to show you!)

Someone asked me which font I use the most in my units and I can't find the email. If you're reading this the font I use the most is Doodle Basic. You can get it by clicking on the pink button at the top left of my blog.

Thanks so much for all of the prayers for my brother J.R. He is getting better and we hope to have him home soon! Have a GREAT week!

Classroom Rules and Misc. Freebies

2011-09-11T20:42:00.000-04:00

Hey Y'all! I have had a crazy few weeks and I just haven't had the time to take pictures and blog like I want to.
I have the sweetest class but shoo wee... you know how exhausting Kindergarten sweeties are at the beginning of the year!
My sweet brother, J.R. is in the hospital so please pray for him. He has an infection and he just needed a little bit of extra care.
Anyway, I wanted to drop in and post a few freebies and let y'all know what I'm working on. We start our 2nd week of Farm tomorrow so I will be posting lots of pictures and ideas this week. I hope to have my Fall Farm unit finished by Wednesday. I'm also working on adorable new book unit for the book, Where's My Mummy? Look for it by the end of the week!

Okay, so on to the freebies. Click on the picture to download the classroom rules posters.

This is a fun color song we do during our colors unit. I'm not sure where the song came from originally but we love it. It is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You can click on the cover to download the book.

Random....

This is an anchor chart that we created for Writer's Workshop. We brainstormed a list of things we could write about.

One of our CHIT CHAT messages.

Okay friends, so sorry about the quick low quality post but I didn't want you to think I'd forgotten about you! I will post better pictures and freebies this week. I promise! :)

D My Name is...

2011-09-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

You can click on the picture above to check out the unit on TPT.

You can click on the picture above to download the book for FREE on TPT.

Pete the Cat Updates Finished

2011-08-25T22:24:00.000-04:00

Pete the Cat has been updated. If you've already purchased it there is NO need to repurchase the unit. Just go to your Manage/See My Downloads folder and you can get the updated version. Click on the Picture to go to TPT. :)

Teacher Talk Tuesday

2011-08-23T21:44:00.004-04:00

The theme for today on Blog Hoppin' is Teacher advice.

The best piece of advice I can give is NEVER stop learning. Two of my favorite books are by Debbie Miller. When you read her books it feels like you are chatting with a friend. A very knowledgeable friend. I love these books so much! My copies are dog-eared, hi-lighted and tattered.

Chapter 3 of Teaching with Intention starts with this insight from Debbie Miller,

"I believe that classroom environments are the most effective when they are literate and purposeful, organized and accessible, and, most of all, authentic."

That is so TRUE!!! Don't rush out and spend money on premade bulletin boards and charts for your classroom. Your walls should be covered with student work and charts that were made with them to anchor the learning.

Another piece of advice is this.... If you need help ask for it and if you see someone who needs help give it!We have the wonderful opportunity to help not only our students but each other.

Smile even if you don't feel like it.

Look for the positive in every situation.

One of my friends recently posted on facebook that she was having a terrible day.

She posted that it was only 9 a.m. and she had already spilled coffee on her shirt, been late to work

and ran over a squirrel! My comment back? Just be thankful that you weren't the squirrel!

Can I get an Amen? :)

Meet the Teacher Monday

2011-08-22T00:12:00.003-04:00

Now it's your turn! Hope on over to Blog Hoppin' to link up and tell us about you!

More Back to School Fun!

2011-08-21T21:48:00.000-04:00

You can download the survey sheet for free by clicking here.

You can download my Free book, What Do Scientists Do? by clicking here.
Okay, Friends... I know y'all are losing your patience with me. When are the updates to Pete the Cat going to be ready? I promise I am working on them. If they aren't ready by Wednesday I will ground myself from Sonic coke (which I must have every day) for a solid week! If that isn't motivation I don't know what is!
Have a GREAT week!

Teacher Week at I'm Blog Hoppin'

2011-08-20T16:04:00.001-04:00

Hi Friends,
I am so excited about Teacher Week and I hope you guys will "hop" on in and participate! You can check out the details here.

The First Week of School Part One..... Pirate sheet added per request!

2011-08-14T21:26:00.005-04:00

Shoo-Wee! I always forget how exhausting (but fun) the first week of Kindergarten is!

Here are some of the things we did the first week.

Mercy! Please excuse the spelling error above (listening)... Hello?! There's a big red line to call my attention to the error but I didn't see it until I had already saved the slide. So my error will just have to live on forever! :)

Free Downloads

To School Emergent Reader

Handprint Puzzle Poem

The Rainbow Names and Wheels on the Bus activity can be found in this unit:

Literacy and Math Fun with Names

I will post more by Wednesday night!

A lot of you have asked about Pete the Cat... I am almost finished with the updates.

I am also working on essential questions to go along with the Common Core Standards.

So sorry y'all! One thing that slowed me down on the Pete updates were all of the requests for different subject headings on the standards posters (52 requests= lots of work!) It is so funny how we all teach the same subject areas but we use different wording. Reading - Reader's Workshop-

Reading Workshop- Shared Reading.

Here's the pirate sheet a lot of you requested! I made two different versions. :) They are both included in the same download. Click on the picture below.

Sale Extended Through Friday!

2011-08-02T22:52:00.001-04:00

Click Here to go to my store

and remember to use the code B1T1S

Kim Adsit's store

Kathleen Pedersen's store

Back to School Sale 30 % off my store and Calendar Freebie

2011-07-31T22:42:00.004-04:00

Click Here to go to my store

and remember to use the code B1T1S

Kim Adsit's store

Kathleen Pedersen's store

I made this monthly calendar with inspirational quotes as a companion to the weekly planning calendar that I gave away during Teacher's Appreciation Week.

Click on the picture to download the calendar. The graphics are from Thistlegirl and Digiweb studio.

Today is the first day of school for me. I have 22 sweet little Kindergarten kids. I look forward to posting some of the fun things we are doing this week. Stay tuned for lots of pictures and some free downloads!

Have a great week!

First Grade Common Core Standards are Posted!

2011-07-28T23:23:00.000-04:00

Many of you have been asking... and they are finally done! Click on the picture to check them out.

Frog Street Splash and Common Core Standards

2011-07-17T13:55:00.002-04:00

I am getting ready to leave for Frog Street Splash so I haven't had time to post. I leave tomorrow because I am going to visit my Grandmother in West Texas before going on to Dallas. My grandmother has NO internet. Can you imagine??? Holy Cow! That is going to be a long three days for me! :) Thankfully I am able to get emails and surf the web on my phone. Otherwise, I don't think I would survive!!!

I just wanted to fill you guys in and let you know of my plan. I come back from Splash on the 24th and I have to report back to work on the 25th. Crazy, eh? I will be busy getting my room ready for Meet the Teacher and the first week of school. So be watching for lots of pictures and FREE downloads!

Coming Soon.... the forms I use for student information, adorable pirate themed name tags, first day of school stuff! :)

In the meantime I have uploaded a Common Core Standards pack. In our district we are required to have our standards posted and refer to them when we are teaching. So I made these posters and the standards attach with velcro so that they can be changed out easily. You can click on the picture below to check them out. Many of you have left comments on my Teachers Pay Teachers Q&A asking me if I would make these for first grade. The answer is YES! I've started working on them and I will have them finished by August 1st.

P.S. I know that some of you requested more labels. I haven't forgotten about you. I will try to get them done soon. Enjoy the rest of your Summer!

Pirates, Free Literacy Center Downloads and Pete the Cat

2011-07-08T13:12:00.001-04:00

This is how I manage my literacy centers. The pirate ship was made using styrofoam sheets and paint.

You can buy the sheets at most craft stores. You draw your shape onto the sheet and then cut it out with a hot wand. Super easy!

The little pirates are birthday party invitations that I bought at Target. Each child is placed in a group...pirates, anchors, pirate ships, jolly rogers or maps. So you can see that today the pirate ships will complete the activities at the abc center and then they will read in the loft. Each day I move the group icons to the right and the last one comes to the front.

Below you will see the group charts. Each child's picture is attached with velcro so that I can move them to another group if I need to. (Excuse the starfish..my district is very strict about showing pictures of the kids).

This is my word wall. I LOVE how bright and colorful it turned out. It is made out of fleece and felt. The letters are hot glued on and the words are attached with velcro.

It is so hard to find classroom themed items for pirates so I had to make my own color charts. I found clipart that I liked and used a paint program to change the colors. I cut out the letters on my cricut machine. I have no idea why I capitalized the first letter. Grrr! Don't ya just get so mad at yourself when you get something finished and then realize you made a mistake! :( Click on the picture to download the pirate bears.

Below are a few freebies for you. My ABC center stays pretty much the same from week to week. At the beginning we do font sorts and playdough letters and such. After we've done quite a bit of letter work we start doing letter sorts. Each week we focus on two or three letters during this time. The kids cut out the pictures and sort them based on their initial sound. The kids who are working at a higher level stretch their words and write the sounds they hear. You will notice that there are also some colored ones as well. These go in the abc center so that they kids can sort them in the pocket chart. Click on the picture to download them.

Another center that stays the same from week to week is the Listening center. In this center they listen to a story and then do a story response. In the beginning these are very simple. I've attached the ones that I use during the first months of school below. Click on the picture to download them.

Here are the icons for the pirate ship and the group charts. Click on the links or pictures to download the items.

Pirate Group icons click here

Learning center Icons

Large group charts to attach the kids pictures to.

Mercy! This is such a busy month for me. I'm busy working on my presentation for Frog Street Splash in Dallas, Texas on the 22nd and then as soon as I get back from Dallas we go back to school. Teachers report to work on July 25th and the kids start August 1st. Wow! That is quick!

I'm working on updating my Pete the Cat unit. I created it awhile ago when I first started creating units and it needed a face lift! It will have lots of new pages added as well as activities to go with the new book. If you purchase it now you can get it for the $4.00 price and you will be able to get the updated version at no additional charge. I don't know what the new version will cost if you wait. It just depends on how creative I get! Right now the new unit is 50 pages and I still have a lot more to add. :) You can click on the Pete the Cat picture to take you to the unit. I love this class art project. All of their cats seem to have their own personalities!

Math and Literacy Centers Posted

2011-07-04T23:45:00.000-04:00

I teamed with Julie Lee from Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten to create a resource of over 20 Math and Literacy Centers for the beginning of school. You can check out our collaboration by clicking on any of the pictures below.

Pirate Themed Classroom

2011-07-03T23:25:00.001-04:00

Ahoy There Me Hearties! Many of you have told me that you plan to have a pirate themed classroom this year. This is such a fun theme! This week I will be posting some of my ideas and printables to help you get started with this theme.

I use P.I.R.A.T.E. binders in my classroom to help keep us organized. Each child gets a 1" notebook.

This is the cover. I laminate it with my Scotch laminator (so that I can reuse them for several years) and slide it in the front pocket of the binder. I print out labels with each child's name and put them on the spine of the binder. Click on the cover to download it.

Inside the binder I put the agendas that our school requires us to use, a zippered pouch for when they need to bring money and several copies of the following notes. I run the absence notes on turquoise copy paper and I run the change in transportation notes on a different colored paper. When a parent fills out one of the notes they take it out of the three ring section and place it in the front pocket which is labeled Notes from School and Home. You can click on the notes to download them.

Sorry y'all I know this isn't much! Consider it a teaser. This is a busy holiday weekend so this is all I have time to post tonight. AAAAARRRRRGH! :)

Vote for your Favorite Blog!

2011-07-01T12:51:00.000-04:00

Font Sale and How to Use Them

2011-06-30T11:42:00.005-04:00

I love cute fonts and alphabets and I'm so excited because they are having a HUGE sale! Many of their alphabets are only 50 cents each (they are regulary $4). If you've been thinking about getting some cute fonts or alphabets to start your year off now is the time. Just click on the pink button to the left that says 9 free fonts to start shopping. For those of you who are new to these fonts the colorful ones are called alphabets. They work like clipart and there is a free program that you can download called Creative Delights. It is a super easy program to use. :)

Question: How do I get my alphabets into the program?

Once you download the program you will need to close the program.
Then, go to lettering delights and log in to your account.
Click on Order History
Then click on View order From here you will need to install all of your alphabets and cliparts into the creative delights program. To do this click on the hotlink under install file and then click RUN
Then, follow the steps. Once you have done this for all of your alphabets open up Creative Delights and you will see it populating your list of alphabets. This makes it super easy to use them.

Question: What is the easiest way to use them?

The alphabets work a lot like clipart. Once you type it in you can't seperate it. For example, If I want to type the words Hello There and I want it to appear as one line then I would:
1. Type it in
2. Click on the copy icon at the top and then hit the okay button that pops up
3. Open my word document and hit the paste icon.
4. From here it works like clipart so you can make it larger or smaller just like a clipart image.

If you want the words to be on seperate lines of text then you would type the word Hello and then follow steps 2-4 and then you would go back and type the word There and repeat the steps. There is NO need to save images as a file or do any of that I just simply copy and paste. It is a SUPER EASY program to use once you get the hang of it. I hope this helps you! :)

Remember: If you are making things to sell on TPT you have to buy a commercial license for EACH alphabet that you want to use. They charge $15.00 for each alphabet that you buy to use commercially.

If you are planning to purchase alphabets now or in the future please consider using the button on my blog. I get a small percentage from sales that are generated from my blog and the money is used for outings for my brother, J.R. Thanks so much! If you still have questions about how to use the alphabets leave a comment and I will do my best to answer them. :)

AFTER you have used my pink button to make your purchases you can CLICK HERE to download the free Creative Delights Companion program.

More Labels

2011-06-27T11:26:00.001-04:00

Here are the labels that some of you requested. (click on the picture to download them) These include the leveled reader labels A-L, the tinker toys, action figures, puzzles, etc: and the large labels for recycling, library books and phonics phones. These are all in one file.
I am working on the large labels for my Math tubs and I will get them posted soon.
Also, many of you have requested the pirate themed items that are in my room. I will work on compiling them into one document and adding it as a free download to my blog sometime soon. :)

If you've purchased the alphabets and you are trying to figure them out here are a few helpful hints.
1. They are png files so they work like clipart rather than fonts.
2. There is a special program that you can get from them for free when you purchase your alphabets. It is called Creative Delights. This program is SUPER easy to use!

UPDATE on 6/27 @ 4:40 p.m. GOOGLE DOCS is having problems. If you are unable to download or print the labels, please try again later. :)

Have a Great Week!

My Name is Deanna... and I have a problem

2011-06-20T20:47:00.001-04:00

Oh, my word y'all I need a 12 step program! I have a huge problem with collecting things.

I started cleaning out my closet and trying to organize and throw things away. THROW THINGS AWAY??!!!! That is soooo hard!!! I started by taking all of my math stuff out of my closet. I had stuff ALL over the room. This is just a little section of the mess.

Notice the Sonic coke. That helps right? :)

Here's how my Math Manipulatives ended up looking. I got them all organized, labeled and in containers.

Here's a close up of the closet. My closet is deep so there are also containers behind the ones in the front.

To make sure I know what's in the back I hot glued labels to the side of the cabinet. Notice the labels on the left. That is letting me know that there is a container of bears and another container of pattern blocks in the back.

Okay... so what is the problem you ask? The problem is that I can't throw things away. Remember the picture at the top? That is a tee-tiny bit of my eraser collection. I love themed erasers. LOVE!!! I think having access to different manipulatives keeps the kids excited and engaged. They can be doing the exact same game that they did last week but if the manipulatives are different they think it is a brand new game. So.... I'm sorry Debbie Diller. I just couldn't do it. Not even a little. But I did get them organized.

Here they are. You're probably saying to yourself, "that's not so bad. You only have 12 containers." Well remember when I said the cabinet is deep? Yep. There are two more rows of containers behind these. So that's 36 containers of erasers. And the bad thing is there is another shelf below this one with more containers of erasers. My name is Deanna and I have a problem. But at least it looks neat!

Thanks Debbie. :)

That took care of all of the manipulatives. Next I had to decide how to store all of the big stuff and the games and such. I can't tell you how many times I've found a game or activity way too late that I forgot I even had. So I needed a way to organize it so that I would remember to use all of the good stuff that I have. I got five large containers and I'm going to make cute labels for them. One will be labeled Patterns and Shapes, Measurement and Money, Addition and Subtraction, Data Collection and Probability, and one will be labeled Number Sense. This is what the bins look like.

Here's a peak inside the one for Addition and Subtraction. You will see both homemade and store bought games, and my container of dice in dice. (these dice didn't go in the container labeled Dice because I only use these when I'm teaching addition and subtraction) I really think this type of organization is going to work for me. Yay! for organization.

Once I make my cute bin labels I will upload them here to share. I plan to work on my language arts stuff next. I have no idea how to even begin there! Whew! :)

Organization Station!

2011-06-19T22:36:00.001-04:00

I've had a lot of requests for my bin labels so here they are. You can click on the pictures to download them. The ones pictured above are for my smaller math storage bins and containers there are about three pages of them. I cut them out and laminate them on my Scotch Laminator (another one of my favorite things that I forgot to mention in my post). Wal-mart sells them for about $25 and then I buy the thick laminating sheets from Sams really cheap. Sams is about half the price of Wal-Mart. Their brand is called Royal Sovereign and it is a pack of 200 pouches. The item # is SCR-003 if you need it! :)

To get the labels that I use on my small drawer organizers, shoebox organizers and the Large bins that you see above you can click on the picture to download them. I created these as I needed them so they aren't in a great format! In fact you can tell from the picture above that as I changed things around I had to make new labels. I should have done that before I took the picture. :)

These are the extra large labels that I use on Milk crates. I have a bunch of individual headsets that play cassettes so there is one for those and one that says rewind. There is also one for my laundry hamper that holds my big books. To print out the ones you want click on the picture above.

These are all labels from my classroom so they ARE NOT in the best format. Sorry about that! If I have left some off that you need I will try to add them. Just leave a comment and I will do my best to get them added. I am going to Minnesota for a Kindergarten conference this week so I will not get to it until next week.
Make sure you tell me what size. ex; the ones like I made for my drawer organizers, large bins, shoebox size, extra large labels for milk crates, etc: I won't be able to customize the sizes that would take me forever. :)

I will add my Math tub bins tomorrow. They are on my school computer.

The font I used is an alphabet called, Scribble Kids. If you want it you can purchase it by clicking on the pink button at the top left of my blog. I think it is about $4 for the set of alpha letters, numbers and symbols.
The black and white gingham border with ribbons is from djinkers. I think it is on their Kiddlywinks cd.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Back to School Unit

2011-06-18T23:56:00.001-04:00

WHEW! I Finally finished it. Click on the picture if you want to take a look.

I will be back tomorrow with some freebies and answers to more of your questions. I have been so busy trying to finish this unit that I haven't had a chance to post anything. Sorry!

Team Work

2011-06-14T10:42:00.000-04:00

Hip, Hip, Hooray! I'm excited to announce that Julie Lee and I are teaming together to create Literacy and Math center packets to get you through an entire year of school. Our first packet for August/September will be released sometime in July. We are going to try to keep most of the centers in black and white so that you can copy and laminate on colored paper rather than using so much colored ink. Thoughts???

P.S. The Back to School unit will be finished by tomorrow! I will also work on answering more questions this week. Freebies coming up....my bin labels, Kindergarten Assessment sheets, Parent communication sheets, and more! Stay Tuned!

Palm Tree Directions

2011-06-10T21:08:00.001-04:00

I'm working on answering the questions that I've been asked. Several of you have asked how I make the palm trees that are in my room. If you click on the picture you can download the directions. I have to say that they are SUPER easy to make and I Love how they look in my room. In this tree you will notice our friend Stretchy the snake. He watches the kids during Reader's and Writer's Workshop to make sure they are sssssssstretching their words! :)

You can take a tour of my classroom by clicking HERE.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2011-06-04T13:17:00.003-04:00

Do you have certain items that you use in your classroom that you absolutely LOVE? I would love to hear about them! These are a few of my favorite things.

Heidi Songs- Oh, my word! I can't say enough about these songs. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! I started using them about 5 years ago and I immediately noticed a HUGE increase in my student's ability to read and spell the sight words.

I LOVE my Zune! It makes it so easy to organize and play all of my music that we use in the classroom.

Flair pens! Oh, my goodness! I love these things!

A lot of you have asked about the lettering on my charts. One of the secrets is these Project Popperz! Abby introduced me to these a few months ago and I am in love. :) They are super hard to find right now though. I originally bought mine at Walmart and they have HOT colors like hot pink, lime and turquoise in addition to the traditional colors.

And my Cricut machine. Oh, my word! The possibilities are endless when you have some pretty scrapbook paper and this machine. :) If you are thinking about getting one DO NOT buy it at a store! They are way too expensive at stores. I got my brand new one for about half the price on ebay.

Children's Books...just like shoes! It doesn't matter how many you have you always want more!

And Sonic Coke! There are some days when I just can't make it without one! :)

And now that it is Summer my absolute favorite thing to do is Float in the pool with my two adorable grandbabies, Madison (4) and MacKenzie (2).

Happy Summer Y'all!

Getting Ready for a New Year and a note to ANONYMOUS who leaves mean comments

2011-06-02T16:16:00.003-04:00

At the end of each year as I say goodbye to the little sweeties who have been mine for an entire school year I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.." It is hard not to cry when we have to say goodbye. Goodbye to my friend Bobby who gets my humor and constantly makes me laugh because talking to him is like talking to a 25 year old. Goodbye to my little friend Josh who still needs me to button his pants and who reminds me of Bill Cosby everytime he speaks. Goodbye to my friends Molly and Elizabeth who greeted me at the start of each day with hugs and ended each day the exact same way. Goodbye to my sweet friend Emma Kate who would tell me over and over that I was her favorite teacher ever. Never mind that I've been her only teacher thus far. :) Goodbye to all of my little friends that I've had the pleasure of teaching this year. I hope that I taught you well and that these lessons will stay with you for a lifetime. We learned so many cool things this year, like when we dissected owl pellets and found not only a bird skeleton but part of a bird's nest as well. We learned all about dinosaurs and about what the planet earth looked like back then. I loved it when my friend, Buddy (yes that's his name) returned to school after we learned about how during the time of the dinosaurs the earth was one big continent called pangea. He proudly exclaimed that he told his mom all about pangea and she had to "google" it. Like all of your students, each of my little kindergarten sweeties left this year knowing a lot more than when we started. They can tell you all about a spider and how it catches and eats its prey. They can name the seven continents and many of them can point them out on a map. They can read, write and solve math problems. But above all of these things that they learned I hope that they know that they are wonderful little people who taught me so much this year. Kindergarten is just the beginning of their journey and I hope that each step along the way inspires them to always be the best that they can be!

To all of my teacher friends out there, enjoy your summer and make sure you take time to relax. I
I will be adding new downloads each week as I begin getting ready for the next school year.

If you are looking for great ideas to start your school year you might want to check out my Literacy and Math Fun with Names unit. It includes some of my favorite ideas to start the year and best of all it is on sale until next week! Click on the picture to find it on TPT!

I am working on my Back to School unit and I hope to have it finished by next week. It will be packed full of ideas to help your first month of school be the best it can be. It also has a lot of math activities that were inspired by the philosophy of Debbie Diller's, Math Work Stations book.

Dear Anonymous,
I'm not sure why you feel the need to leave mean comments on my blog posts. In your past comments (which I do delete) you have said that I'm not a good teacher, have no original ideas to share and so on... so I'm just curious...Why do you visit my blog? Do you download my freebies? Do ANY of my pictures inspire you to try new things in your classroom? Am I hurting you in some way? I'm not sure why you feel the need to be so mean. I wish I could say that your comments don't hurt my feelings, but that would be a lie. I can get 20 positive comments to your one comment and do you know which one rings in my ears over and over? Yep...you guessed it your mean one. I really hope that you don't make your students feel the way you have made me feel. I will say a prayer for you that whatever is making you unhappy will be lifted.
Enjoy your Summer.

Oceans of Fun!

2011-05-23T21:54:00.002-04:00

We have been learning a lot about ocean animals. We learned all about different types of sharks and we decided that we thought the Great white Shark was the most interesting.

We labeled the parts of a shark.

This is our schema chart based on an idea from Debbie Miller.

We made sharks and orca whales and then sorted the information we learned by using a venn diagram.

A close up of some of our shark and whale writing.

Our crabs and crab writing.

If y'all are looking for an adorable story to read, Pout Pout Fish is it! We fell in love with this story. The kids wanted me to read it over and over. If you read it you might want to try using the voice of Eeyore for the Pout Pout fish character. :) After reading the story a GAZILLION times we did a directed drawing of the main character and then wrote about our text to self connections.

To end our unit we had a Pirate Party! One of my favorite activities was brought on by a comment to my Pirate post by Emily (I'd love to know your last name so I can give you credit). Emily told me about a field trip she took with her kids. They learned why pirates wore an eye patch. I did a little research and was even able to find a myth busters episode on Discovery Education that covered this topic. We started out by making our hypothesis and then I gave each child a patch to wear and we turned out the lights and made the room completely dark. We then quickly moved the patch over to the other eye and gues what???? We could see immediately! Oh, my word!!! How cool is that!??!!

These are our pirate shirts we painted for our special day.

We ate octopi. :)

Yummy pirate cupcakes! ARGH!

We only have two more days of school left. YEE-HAW!!!

If you're like me you are already starting to plan for next year (Do we ever take a break?) :)

This unit has some of my favorite back to school activities.

Many of you have asked for my book bin labels so I'm including them here as a free download.

Click on the picture if you want to download them.

I'm working on my Back to School unit. Hopefully I will have it finished in a few weeks.

Enjoy your sweeties! Summer is almost here! :)

Ocean Unit Posted

2011-05-15T22:53:00.000-04:00

I finally finished my Ocean Unit! If you are interested you can view the unit by clicking on the picture below.

Ahoy Mateys! Pirate Fun!

2011-05-14T13:18:00.001-04:00

Oh, my word y'all we get out of school in two weeks and the kids are CRAZY ready! I am trying my best to keep them engaged in learning and not pull my hair out. :) We started our pirate unit last week and I was amazed at the change in behavior. They LOVED this unit and their behavior was AWESOME!
This has by far been my favorite unit! The kids have been so excited about reading and writing stories about Pirate adventures. There are so many great children's books to read with this theme. I think their favorite story was the one I wrote for this unit. It is pretty darn adorable, if I do say so myself! ;) We read it each day for Shared Reading and by the end of the week they were doing their own Reader's Theater plays on the playground. Almost all of them knew the entire story by heart. LOVE it! :) Here are a few random pages from the story I wrote. ( I really love having a smartboard because we can write right on top of the words.)

We did a Fair Share math lesson using pirates and gold coins. First we shared our gold among two pirate friends...

Then, we added a third friend to see how we could share the gold.

After we worked on this several times together I gave them all workmats, a recording sheet and gold

(Corn Pops cereal). This activity isn't included in my unit but if you click on the picture below you can download the workmat and recording sheet.

This is another fun math activity we did this week. They worked in teams to see who could build their pirate ship first. (this one is included in my unit)

And my favorite activity of all was our Pirate Glyphs. I love how each one seems to have its own personality. We made the glyph based on their answers to a few questions then we analyzed the data and created a graph.

If you want to check out the unit you can click on the picture below.

P.S. Many of you have emailed me asking about my Ocean unit.... I promise I'm working on it! :) This is a large unit because we use it for Open House so I am trying to pack it full of all of the cool things we do. I hope to have it finished by tomorrow. So Sorry!

Ahoy Me Hearties! Sale Extended One More Day for 20% off

2011-05-03T01:21:00.002-04:00

UPDATE- I know a lot of you had problems making purchases this evening due to so much traffic on the site. Just wanted to let you know that Kim and I have extended our 20% off sale for one more day. So sorry I know that it can be frustrating! Can you imagine hundreds of people trying to go through the checkout line at Target all once??? Whew!
It be a day for showing all of ye landlubbers how much we appreciate you! My friend Kim Adsit and I have both put our entire stores on sale for 20% off to match the sale that is already happening at Teachers Pay Teachers. So when you use the code TAD11 you will get 40% off!!! AARGH! Ye can't beat a deal like that! The sale will last until midnight on Tuesday. You can find our stores by clicking on the links below.
And if you want to get my new Pirate unit you can click on the pirate captain above.
As an added bonus we've also added some free treasures below. Have a GREAT DAY Mateys!
Deanna Jump's store
Kim Adsit's store

We Aargh Readers literacy center
Teacher Planning Calendar
Kim's Watch Out Fish! Sight Word game
Kim's Hiss ABC game

Teacher Appreciation Goodies Coming Your Way!

2011-05-01T18:58:00.001-04:00

Some days we walk into our classrooms and feel like a princess (or prince). Our royal subjects are ready to listen and follow directions and they are eager to learn! And then reality sets in.... and some days we feel like a frog! Well Tuesday is your day to feel like royalty! It's Teacher Appreciation Day and I hope that you guys know how much I appreciate you! On Tuesday be sure to check in for lots of free downloads to help you get ready for next school year as well as a sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

P.S. I couldn't resist slipping in a picture of my little princess. My daughter Taylor had Senior Prom last night. sniff, sniff