Old Valentine Activity - Newly Updated!!!

Hey!  I have a lot of people request access to one of my Valentine activities and I'm not sure why Google Drive is not letting people download it, sooooooooooo..... I updated it and uploaded it to TpT!  Hopefully this will make it easier to get access to it!  Enjoy!

Click HERE to get your copy!

Pumpkin Tree Map

Hey!!  It has been a week all about pumpkins in the Polka Dot Patch!  Tomorrow we are completing a pumpkin tree map to help us with our All About Pumpkin Book we will write!  Enjoy this tree map freebie I made tonight!  Happy Halloween!!

100th Day Requests

I have had an overwhelming number of requests for my 100th Day printables that I posted a loooooong time ago! I'm not sure why there is a problem downloading but I refreshed the links and let's see if they work now!  You can find the links here from my old post.  Please leave me a comment if they are still not working!

Here is the link for DOTs to 100.

Quick and Easy Assessments! :)

Another year has started and everything in The Polka Dot Patch is coming along very nicely!  I am very proud of my new little friends this year but I forget every year about this time of how faaaaaaar we have to go by the time May rolls around.

I have started assessing my babies and am pleased with the results so far.  I am using a new assessment I created for this year and so far it has done it's job - quick and easy!  I needed something that was short and sweet and gave me a good snap shot of what my students knew and what they didn't.

I like that I can assess in one color now, and then the next time I assess I can use another color and note it right on the assessment itself.  

This is what the students look at while I mark on the assessment.  The numbers are on the other side.  :)  I just put them back to back in a sheet protector!  Easy!

You can check out this assessment HERE! :)

I hope your start to the new year has been good! 

Classroom Pictures

Hey all!  When Mobile Me switched to iCloud I forgot that that is where all of my classroom pictures are!!  EEEK!  And now I can't figure out how to change the  link.... sooooo... for now here is a link to a page that I created for my classroom pictures and if anyone can help me redirect that link at the top I would be very thankful!!

Classroom Pictures

Heeellllllooooooo!!

It has been waaaaaaay to long since I have posted. Life got in the way and that's pretty much it. This school year has overwhelming to say the least... With the introduction of common core AND a new new teacher evaluation tool. Woohoo! Big fun!!! ;)

So, I wanted to share a peek into our Readers Workshop time! I am using Kim Adsit and Michelle Scannell's Units and they are fantastic!!!!!! The lessons are laid out perfectly and the activities are fantastic!! I love their style and it fits me to a T!!! Here are some pictures of the fun!!

Anchor Charts!!

Flip book to help teach about patterns!

Fun interactive activities!  These helped us to retell a story using a growing pattern!

:)

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