Behavior Logs DONE :)

O.K - the rest of the Behavior Logs are all done for the rest of the year!  I hope you can use them!! :)  

Click on the picture below to download.  

Can't live without them...

Have you ever had something one year and then didn't for a little bit the next year and thought "I can't live without that!!!!" ? That is exactly how I feel about my Carpet Bags!!! I LOVE THEM and wonder how I did without them for so long????? Kim Adsit introduced me to these gems in a blog post she did last year. You can find that post here:
http://kindergals.blogspot.com/2011/08/carpet-bags.html?m=1
I'm posting from my phone so I hope that link works - copy and paste if it won't let you click. ;)

I hemmed and hawed about them for a few months but finally decided to jump on board and haven't looked back since. Last year I found my bags in the Target Dollar Spot and they were great!!! But by the end of the year they were falling apart and I knew they were not going to last another year - so I let the kids take them home and decided I would find new ones this summer. Well, summer started and then it ended and I never got around to finding new ones so when school started I did not have them and it has been horrible!!!!!!! ;( We are now about to start our 3rd week of school and I am happy to say that I have finally found what might be the perfect bag. ;)





My friend and coworker Anne actually found them at my favorite store - Hobby Lobby!!!! They are the right size and they are made of canvas so hopefully they will last more then one year. They were 30% off also which made them even better!!!! My bags last year were made of vinyl/ plastic so I could cut numbers out of my self adhesive vinyl and slap them on and we were good to go. Since my new bags are canvas, numbering these suckers posed a problem. I didn't want to wait or pay for them to be embroidered and my vinyl numbers were not going to stick so I did what I do best..... I snooped around Hobby Lobby while I was there and found some ADORABLE iron on numbers!! Problem solved!!!!



So this afternoon when I got home from church I put my iron to work!!!! ;)
How cute are these?????????



I hope they hold up as long as I think they will!!!!!!

Thanks Kim!!!!!!

Is there something you have found that you can't live without???

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Behavior Log August - December

So, I got half of the year finished before the crazy back to school season started.  I will finish the rest of the year once things die down a little over here.  Thank you for the wonderful feedback! I hope you can use them and I'm sorry it took so long!! :)

Click below.  :)

Classroom Rules....Again

I have had some requests for a more diverse version of my rules.  You know what they say...You ask and you shall receive.  :)

Click HERE!!

I am halfway through my behavior calendars!  I will post them as soon as they are finished. 

Monthly Behavior Log

Sigh....One more precious week till I HAVE to be back in the little red school house.  Of course I will be spending some time there during this week but somehow it is different when I go on my own accord then when I am required to be there.  I hope to have everything set up by the end of the week and I will take some pics to share when I am all done.  

In these last few weeks of freedom I have been thinking about changing my monthly behavior calendar.  I wanted to share my rough draft and take any suggestions so that it will be as useful for me and you before I make the rest of them!  

My intention is to write the weeks in that first column before making copies for the kids.  Then each day mark the color they ended and any behavior codes if needed.

What do we think?  How could I make it better??

Friend of the Week

I had a great question the other day about how I organize my classroom jobs.  My answer: I don't!! :)

I really have a hard time keeping up with all that goes into classroom jobs.  I start off really good but then it just goes down hill and it always falls by the wayside.  Sigh.... so this is how I remedied the situation!  FRIEND OF THE WEEK!!  It's very simple and it works for me.  I actually borrowed it from a dear dear mentor teacher/friend.   I have 1 person - ONE - person each week who is my everything during that week.  My line leader, my calendar helper, my note deliver, my office assistant, my paper holder and my notebook passer outer!  Simple and uncomplicated!!  Basically anything that I need, my friend of the week is there to help me.  I give my kids numbers at the beginning of the year and I just go in numerical order and repeat! :) See - simple!  :)

How do you organize your classroom jobs??

Classroom Rules

Hey y'all!!!!!  Happy summer!!!  I can't believe almost half of my summer is gone... where has the time gone??? Well, I am reposting the Whole Brain Teaching classroom rules I made because I'm not sure what happened to my other link but I added the title to this document so it's all ready for ya!!  :)  Click on the first picture to download. 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It is the most wonderful time of the year!!!!  LOL  Now your gonna be be singing that song aren't you??  I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help myself!!! :)  I have a love hate relationship with this time of year.  Excited and loving the fact that summer is soooooo close, but hate to say good bye to those sweet little faces and HATE all the stuff that has to get done before we can walk away for a couple months!! My to do list always seems sooo long and there never seems to be time to get all of it done.  I have done pretty good this year at not procrastinating so I am pretty proud of myself.  One of the things on that mile long list was to make certificates for the awards ceremony we have scheduled next week.  I usually use the certificates that Lakeshore offers, but I didn't feel like using so much color ink this year so I decided to make my own and run them on different color paper.  Here are the first 2 that I have made, an AR Participation Award and a Sight Word Super Star Award.  If I make anymore I will be sure to post them for you.  Click the images below if you would like to use them yourself.  :)

Happy Mothers Day to all the mommies out there!! :) 

Ocean Time

I am so excited about our Ocean Unit we started this week!!! Thanks to Deanna and Kim I have tons of cute activities to fill up these last few weeks of school!! ;) These Subs just made me smile today so I just had to share!!!












Are they not the cutest subs you have ever seen?? The best was watching them make their animal... I heard a lot of "I can't do this!!" but once they realized that I was not going to let them not do it, it was amazing to watch their little creative brains start working!!! ;)

Clipboard Container Success!!

Just thought I would share that my new container works perfectly!!! Soo excited!!! ;)



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The Perfect Clipboard Holder

Hey y'all!!!! We are right smack in the middle of our state standardized testing and us lucky lower grade teachers get the opportunity to administer the test to our 3rd 4th and 5th grade students. I haven't been in a testing environment for a while ( 7 years) and A LOT has changed since then!! ;) Retail therapy is always a great way to deal with a little stress right???? Of course!!!
Most of you have seen my pink clipboard holder


I was in Target today and I found THE PERFECT clipboard holder!!


Its square!!!!!!!!!! They had a couple different colors - I think a green and maybe a red.... I can't remember!! I was excited to see the black!! I cant decide if i want polka dots on it - oh who am I kidding??? You know they will end up on there don't you???!! I have not tried this out yet so who knows how many clipboards it will actually fit, but IT'S SQUARE!!! It's gotta be better then round right??? Lol I'll let you know when I try it out.

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I just wanted to let you guys know that we have had a death in the family and that is why I have not done the drawing for my giveaway. My mother in law lost her 4 year battle with cancer yesterday. It has been a very emotional journey but we are at peace knowing she is no longer suffering but celebrating in a much better place. Thank you for your understanding and I promise to do the drawing at the beginning of the week!


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Carrillo's Kinder "garden"

Yay! Yay! Yay!!  

She did it!

  My dear friend Jayme finally has her blog up and running!!  She creates some of the cutest activities for our little sweeties over here at Lake City and now she can share them with you herself!!  Click on her button below and start following another great teaching blog!!

  If you decide to follow her, come back and leave me a comment and you will be entered into a drawing for my Birds of a Feather Rhyme Together game.

Make sure you enter by Thursday, March 22nd. I will do the drawing Friday afternoon!! :)  Good Luck!!

Roll, Slide or Both???

The Leprechaun comes tomorrow!  The Leprechaun comes tomorrow!!!  I can hardly wait to see their little faces when they come in and see all their traps destroyed and glitter and gold coins everywhere!  It will be a fun and exciting day for sure!! 

This past week we started talking about how things move.  I began this unit by having the children predict in their science journals about how they think various objects could or would move.  The next day we actually explored how each of the objects actually moved.  This led to one of those out of the blue teaching moments...out come the red and blue foldable circles and into a Venn Diagram they go!! LOL

We began to sort object based on whether they rolled or slid or did both.  Then I called on volunteers to find other objects in the classroom and had them to place them in the correct spot.  They seemed to really enjoy doing this and were very sad when I had to stop them.  Here is a picture of our Venn Diagram.  :)

  The next day I had them recreate the diagram with a partner.  I hope you may be able to use this in your class.  :)  

ROLL/SLIDE

Assessment Anyone??

Can I just say I have one of the most creative colleagues ever!!  You guys remember Jayme right?  She made the cute farm games at the beginning of the school year!! Well, she has done it again and I couldn't wait to share these great Beginning, Middle and End of Year Comprehensive Assessments she has created for us.  We are using these as our "common assessment" piece we are required by our county to have.  They are adorable and I hope you can use them!! :)  Jayme is working on her blog NOW so soon she will have a place to call home and you will have another great place to find adorable resources!!  I will be sure to let you all know when it is up and running!! :)

BOY Reading    MOY Reading    EOY Reading

BOY Math   MOY Math   EOY Math

Can't wait to hear what you think!! :)

THANK YOU JAYME!!

Leap Day Sale

Leap in to Leap year with a Leap Day SALE!!  Use promo code L2P9Y on Teachers Pay Teachers along with the 20% sale I am having to save a ton on your favorite products!! :)  You can get to my store by clicking on the link on the right side of my blog!!  :)  Happy Shopping!!!

Daytime Sky

Here is a project we have recently completed about the Daytime Sky!  The kids had a blast creating a picture/collage about what can be seen in the daytime sky.  Here are a few snapshots and the rubric we used.  :)

I "lic" your kite too!! :) 

Love this student commentary!! :)

Click above for your copy. :)

Look!!

"LOOK Mrs. Nichols!!! Look!!! Look!!!!" 

This is all I hear from my kids today as we are lining up after recess!!! I always get a little scared when they all start screaming something!! LOL Well I look to where they were pointing too and I just got the biggest smile on my face when I see this....

And then I hear "It's an X Mrs. Nichols!  An X!!!" YEAH!!!!! It's these moments where you stop and remember why you jump through all the hoops and stay up late laminating, cutting and planning!! The sugar on top was the fact that they also started making the X sound!!  Woohoo!! Score one for the teacher!!!  I also had another woo hoo moment this week!!! A little busy body met with our EIP teacher today and when she came back to group she was so excited to share something with me!! She had a Scott Foresman tear- out reader in her hand and was just chomping at the bit to read to me!  It's these moments too, that you have to stop and make time for, because these precious moments don't come around every day - I knew it was gonna delay our next group, but some things are just more important!! As she read to me, all I could remember was the little girl who came to me knowing  little to none of her letter sounds and could hardly speak English!!! Hearing her read was just one of those glimmers that you don't get to hear or see everyday and makes it aaaaaaaaaLLLLLL  worth it!!!!! 

Have a great weekend!! 

I'm still here

Hey my friends!!  I just wanted to let you guys know that I am still here...  things have been super crazy busy at school -  I am imagining all of you nodding your heads in agreement... :) and hubby has transitioned out of education and into the business world/medical field (YEAH!!) so there is a lot of change going on in the Nichols' house these days!  Change can be a good thing and I keep repeating that to myself when I begin to get frustrated!! We met at our school and got married the next year and have been there ever since...TOGETHER...so I really don't know what it's like not to teach with him, but this opportunity is something that we believe is a gift from God so we are stepping out...well he is stepping out and taking this risk hoping it will be beneficial for our family....holding breathe...Sadly blogging is the last thing I think about when I finally sit down for the evening.  We have been doing so much great stuff that I want to share too!!  I will try and do better in the coming weeks...just stick with me... I'll be back soooooooon!!!