Five for Friday {February 28}

One more snow day and a 2-hour delay this week.  This winter weather is total craziness this year.  It's so hard to believe that tomorrow is March and we are WEEKS away from this snow being gone.  There are just feet and feet and piles and piles.

I'm dreaming of sun, and flip flops, and days at the beach!  

They WILL come back...someday!!!

For now, let's take a look back on this week!  We celebrated our 100th day of school and my daughter's 5th birthday.  

It was a good week!

1. Last Friday I had a planning morning with my teaching partner.  There are just two of us K teachers in my building and I am so THANKFUL that we are the perfect teaching match.  Is there anything better than awesome people to spend your days at work with???

2. Tuesday was {FINALLY!!} our 100th day of school!  My kindies were greeted with streamers and a smile!  They thought it was SO much fun to walk through these streamers all day long!!

 3. 100th day FUN!  This was my first time doing the 100th day snack this way.  This was a hit, for sure!!  

 Everyone kept saying "This is the BEST snack EVER!"  

We also made lines out of 100 things that we had brought from home.

 We compared the lines and analyzed our data.

 The class loved pushing the tables out of the way and having all this space!

Before day 100 we had only played "Race to 50".  On the 100th day I introduced "Race to 100" and they thought it was the best thing ever!

4. Tuesdays are a long special day for me, so I didn't have time to fit everything in that I wanted to.  I don't have any specials at all on Wednesday, so we saved our 100th day glyphs for Wednesday morning.  

 They turned out cute and are hanging in our classroom now.

 Bless these sweet little hearts...

The glyphs, Race to 100, and line-up activity are part of my 100th Day Pack.  CLICK HERE to check it out.

4 1/2.  I'm breaking the rules a bit!  I'm adding a 4 1/2 because I have lots of pictures from our 100th day!  

These pictures are out of order but I am too tired to fix them, so I'm leaving them here. :)  

I posted about this last year too, but I added a new twist this year and the kids ate it up!

On the 100th day of school, I always hide 100 Hersey's Kisses around the classroom for my students to find.  Last year I thought to add numbers to them and have them match them to the numbers on our hundreds chart.  I did that again this year.

 But, this year, I also hid 100 chicks around my room.  Have you heard of the book The Wolf's Chicken Stew?  I read a few weeks ago about someone using that book for the 100th day of school and thought it was just brilliant.  I love that book and never would have thought to use it on the 100th day!  

 Anyway, we searched for chicks first, and then "giant chocolate chips", to match the cookies from the story.

We ended up being four kisses short!  Not sure what happened to them, but I'm thinking they might have found their way home with a sticky-fingered, chocolate-loving boy or girl.  Just a hunch!!

5. The birthday girl!!

Rowan turned 5 on Thursday and we had a snow day!  I really don't want any more snow days this year, but I was thrilled that this snow day allowed me to be home and spend Rowan's whole day with her!

She's a whole hand now!  So fun and a little bit sad at the same time!

Happy weekend!

March Book-It Reading Log (FREEBIE)

It's hard to believe that March is right around the corner!  Annnnnd....this is the time of the school year when we feel like we can actually breathe a bit during the school day because the kidlets finally can sit and work independently for longer than 5 or 10 minutes.  Bliss.  I love teaching Kindergarten in the Spring.

Anyway!  One last Book-It reading log for the year.  After Book-It ends in March, I don't send home any more reading logs.  We use RAZ-Kids online as our at-home reading program, so those reports are generated automatically for me.

If you'd like to snag a copy of the Book-It reading log, CLICK HERE! 

I print both pages, photocopy them double-sided, and voila!

And for my friends who don't use Book-It, CLICK HERE for a NON BOOK-IT reading log.

If you do actually use these generic reading logs and want some for the rest of the school year, please let me know in the comments.  I would be happy to make some for you!  But...I have no idea if anyone actually uses these, so I'll wait for you to ask before I make them. :)

**Don't forget about the great TPT sale happening right now!!  My cart is full of clip-art and some other fun things I've had wish-listed for too long.  Add the code TPT3 for an extra 10% off!  Click here to head to my store.  Everything is 20% off through the end of the day tomorrow!**

TPT SALE! (February 27 and 28)

YAY for TPT and YAY for sales!!!

TPT is having a sale THURSDAY and FRIDAY of this week.
Head over to check it out!

My store will be 20% off!  Here are some things that might fit well into your plans as you finish off your school year.  Click on each cover photo to take you over to my store!

Fun math and literacy activities perfect for March Reading Month.

Do your kids like Write the Room activities?  My kids LOVE them!  I have all kinds of them in my store.  Each one comes with an ABC order page as well.  They are only $2.00 each with the sale!

Brain Boosts are "print and go" pages filled with a little of this and a little of that!  They pack a big punch into a short amount of time!  Set #2 is great for this time of the year Kindergarten or early 1st grade.

Head on over to TPT on Thursday or Friday!  There are SO many talented sellers and great products out there!

AND...enter the code TPT3 at check-out for an extra 10% off!

Happy shopping!!

March Mystery Readers

I am gearing up for March in my classroom.  I LOVE March at school because I think the excitement that is built around reading in March is so much fun!!  One of my absolute favorite things to do in March is bring in mystery readers.  My students always looooove this so much!  I look forward to it every year!  

Here is the letter I sent home last week.  If you'd like to do something similar in your classroom, this might give you an idea of how to create your own letter.

I always give parents a few days to send the form back to school and then I put together a schedule for the month (mine is going home to all of the readers tomorrow!).  I also always ask my principal to be a mystery reader for us, and sometimes other teachers too.  

It's so fun to see who signs up to come in.  There are always lots of parents, but I've also had aunts and uncles, family friends, babysitters, and once I even had a pastor!  Every year I get some grandparents too.  And, really, what is cuter than a grandparent reading to the class???  Last year, a sweet grandpa got teary-eyed when he saw his grandson's reaction to him being there.  LOVE!

This is the note that I post on the outside of my classroom door.  I always make sure that my secretary knows that readers will be coming in, and I always have the door closed around the time the readers will be coming.  I learned that the hard way when a parent walked in the room one time several years ago before we were ready!  Totally ruined the surprise!

CLICK HERE TO SNAG IT TO USE FOR YOURSELF!

Before the reader comes, I give clues to the class but I never tell them who will be coming.  That way, the reactions from my students are completely priceless!

When the reader is finished, I take a picture of them with their child and the book(s) they read.  Then, I print a copy for them and write a note on the back to thank them for coming.

I'm pretty sure that I will never get tired of this tradition in my classroom.  It's something I love because it creates such great memories.  If it's not something you've done with your class before, maybe this is your year to start!  Let me know if you have questions about what I do or if you do something with your class in March that is your absolute favorite!  I'd love to get some new ideas!

Hooray for Mystery Readers!

Five for Friday {February 14}

Happy weekend!

YAY for love and hearts and all things valentiney!!  I had so much fun celebrating Valentine's Day with my class yesterday....until about 3:20.  Then the sugar highs and all the lovey-doveyness was all just too much and I was done.  D-O-N-E.  Thankfully, we were this close to the end of the day, so I put on a smile, found a happy place in my mind, and bid them all a very loving farewell as they headed home.

Yay for Valentine's Day!

1. We finished our science unit this week all about MOTION.  We had been working through it for a few weeks now.  We learned words like "force" and "gravity".  The kids love science because it's all so hands on.  And this unit had them doing investigations with balls and bean bags and feathers.  It was all so much fun!  

2. My own kidlets worked hard early this week on their valentines.  Trey wanted Cars and Rowan wanted princesses.  Easy peasy!!

3. Trey's classroom has an owl theme, so I couldn't resist this cute bucket when I saw it at Target a few weeks ago.  I just filled it with some fresh new supplies for his teacher, and of course some chocolate.

4. Our Valentine's Day at school was relaxed and wonderful!  We decorated valentine bags the old-fashioned way in the morning.  They used crayons, markers, and construction paper to add whatever they wanted to their bags!  This kept them busy forever and they all turned out so unique and cute.

 Of course this one completely melted my heart because I encouraged them to add things that they love to their bags, and this sweetie drew a picture of me.  Love.

 These were my valentines for my students this year.

 And my FAVORITE part of the day!  Spreading out, making piles of our valentines, and reading through them all with BIG smiles on our faces!!

5. Quite possibly the biggest news of the week was the addition of this beauty to my life!

Our old text and talk only phones were due for an upgrade.  Those old phones fit what I needed for so long, but it was time to step into the current decade and switch to a smart phone.  And OH MY do I LOVE it!  I have so much to learn.  I just discovered Instagram! Ha!

My Valentine's Day evening at home consisted of leftovers for dinner and going to bed early. :)

Enjoy your weekend!!