Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

Happy Birthday to Us! Giveaway!

2013-05-16T01:00:00.000-05:00

Who knew I had a bloggie twin... okay... I am a gazillion years older than her, but I sincerely love her like I would a sister!

My eyes look a little cRaZy in this photo... not really sure what I am looking at...photo fail... but my two friends look foxy!

So today, May 16th, is our birthday.

We thought we'd give you a little present in honor of our twin birthday.

So we have two really awesome birthday bundles for you.

Here is a picture of my birthday gift to you. I figured you might want to get a pedicure, a few good beach books, and perhaps some resources for next year!

You can go HERE to see Michelle's birthday bundle.

If you would like to enter to win our ginormous birthday gift giveaway, then just enter below.

You can also go to Michelle's blog to enter for her prize pack.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

2013-05-13T20:54:00.001-05:00

Congratulations!!!

Janet, Paula, and Deedee

Ashley was our winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Five for Friday

2013-05-10T19:32:00.001-05:00

I will admit that I have been a huge fan of the Five for Friday... but I have been inconsistent.

But here goes some random~ness!

1. Our t-shirts came in and we were super excited!

Cara Carroll Fonts + Ashley Hughes graphics = AWESOME!

Click on the image to grab this design. I made it editable so you can add your own school name. NOTE: You will have to download it to your computer before the edits can take place.

2. We LOVE our summer stations! Like BIG TIME!

3. This little project turned out cute, but at 3:00pm, when I was running out of time, I was barking orders like a drill sergeant! Again, Cara Carroll (stalk much?)

The upper left hand corner mom looks like she belongs on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Now the next two items are non-school related.. duh... Did I really need to say that?

4. I seriously love this conditioner. I have "mature hair" which means my hair genie meets with me every 4 weeks. I also have naturally curly (dare I say frizzy) hair. If you have curly "mature" hair, you KNOW you need extra help. I have tried EVERY product. I have paid big dollars for tiny tubes and they are still sitting under my sink because I was not impressed.

About 2 weeks ago I tried this ($6 bucks...why not). Oh! My! Love! It!

Shine, volume without poof, little frizz, control.

I am pretty sure that since I love it, it will be taken off the market... but give it a try. And L'Oreal you can just send me my commission to my Pay Pal account!

5. This is the Mister's favorite fruit bar. I literally searched grocery stores high and low for the Peach variety... nothing, nada. Then yesterday, while I was at MY WalMart, I saw them! I quickly snapped a picture to text to my husband. I looked up to see my assistant principal watching me. Goodness... caught being a loon. True story!

Enjoy your weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all of you (teachers and moms alike).

End of School Year Giveaway!

2013-05-09T20:48:00.002-05:00

Where did the year go? Seriously! I have an amazing group of little people this year, so I am not certain I am going to be able to say good-bye! Beyond their sweet little selves, these kiddos came well prepared! They were in Mrs. Harrell's Pre K class.

Mrs. Harrell teaches a few doors down from me. Her son and my son have been friends for a long time. I am pretty certain this was taken one summer when they were "helping to put together the PreK dollhouse" We think they were actually just playing.

Everyday I would see these incredible happenings going on in her room and I told her, "Girl, you need to start a blog." Thank goodness she has!

Would you like to win this big-mamma-jamba?

It is a $68 value... and pretty much has all of your shared readings for the year. My kiddos have cherished their poetry notebooks and grumble when we put that week's poem away... only to proclaim the next day, "This week's poem is AWESOME!" 6 year olds are great for the ego!
{They also say I am pretty and not fat... so take the previous comment with a grain of salt}

Hop over to Paula's sweet blog to enter!!!!

Good luck!

2013-05-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

By now you have heard about THE sale of the year!

If you are impatient (like me) you can get a 20% discount on EVERYTHING in my store starting today!

Click on the bird to visit my store.

TpT's sale officially starts on Tuesday.

click on the image to visit my store

Now, I like a plan of attack. Here are my plans as the sale approaches:

1. Look at my past purchases. Have I left feedback on these? I love those points! Sometimes the TpT system slows down on big sale days, so I want to get those feedbacks in! I want to rack-up those beautiful points and turn them into purchasing power! I am freely admitting that I don't NEED anymore clip art... but I always WANT more clip art!

This is also a great time to go back to those sellers and see what other treasures they have in their store.

2. I move my items from my "Wishlist" over to my "Cart." Seriously, I have this mental image of a puma ready to pounce on its prey.

3. Think ahead... As I think about my classroom instruction, what things will I want to implement for next year. This is a great time to be reflective!

It is easier to "Keep Calm and Shop On" when you have a plan!

Nursery Rhyme Poetry Stations 25% discount today only

2013-05-05T15:46:00.001-05:00

Happy Sunday! I was asked if I would create a poetry unit for nursery rhymes.

I think these would be great for those PreK to K students during summer school. They would also make a nice beginning of the year shared reading. Janet and I will still be creating an August/September Poetry Unit...That will be coming in June!

The Nursery Rhymes will be discounted by 25% until 10:00pm (CST) this evening!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Peek at my Week-Summer?? Linky

2013-05-05T10:17:00.003-05:00

So the rumor going around right now is that summer is near. However, it has been down-right CHILLY here. I will keep the faith that I will soon be complaining about how hot it is! Ha!

Yesterday The Perfect Son went to the prom...

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Summer is Almost Here!

2013-05-03T22:26:00.001-05:00

I had a touch of the stomach bug today... NOOO!!!! I don't have time to be sick! This is the time of year when teacher stress level seems pretty high... Can you relate?

We are certainly on the school count-down. However, one of the last things I want to do is drop our routines. When routines go... chaos is sure to follow. Tonight I seemed to bounce back a bit from that stomach bug, so I finished this (one of a half-dozen semi-finished projects...YIKES).

On Sale through Sunday!

Hang it there peeps! Even though it was 36 DEGREES today...summer is coming!!!

This will be discounted for the next 48 hours!

Poetry Stations.-The Complete Set

2013-04-30T20:58:00.000-05:00

You asked... and so here it is!

Have a great evening!

Teacher Talk Tuesday on Instagram

2013-04-30T19:02:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of my Instagram images!

I may be a little addicted!!!

This was our morning work.

Oceans Read Trace Glue and Draw

Here is our bowling for equations. This was a huge hit! We tossed the bean bag and then made subtraction equation. I got the cards {here}.

and today we made these guys!

These are from The Teacher Wife!

We love this packet. Today one of my kids said, "I wish 'M' was a vowel because then I could be Super M!" Ha!

And link up with these awesome gals... click the image to find more Instagram fun!

Peek at my Week-Oceans Linky

2013-04-28T11:04:00.003-05:00

This week I have been playing around with Instragram!

I need to label the images... but here is what these are and their source:

Upper Left: Poetry Stations and Shared Reading for May

Upper Right: Pirate Punctuation

Lower Left: Under the Sea Sight Word Game

Lower Right: Silly Sentences

Middle: Overhead Station for 4th Quarter

These are some of the projects we finished last week.

Top: Kinder Craze

Bottom (left and right): All About Plants

I created these collages with {this} app.

You can follow me on Instagram by clicking this little icon below!

You can also check out other Instagram-ers and link your own Instagram accounts here and here!

Did you see this freebie I posted this week? It will be up for a limited time... so grab it quick!

You can see all of my CVC and CVCe games... I have a ton! {here}

Moving on! Here are my lesson plans for the week!

Have a great week!!!

Is Bigger Better?

2013-04-23T19:38:00.001-05:00

I thought about calling this post, "Does size really matter?" But then I reconsidered!

So... I have been thinking about getting a new laminator. I have had the same one for a few years after my blog angels told me about the Scotch Laminator. I love being able to laminate on the weekends, but I wondered if I paid a little bit more, would I be able to laminate more pages per minute.

Flash forward to this weekend when I saw this laminator at Sam's Club.

Click on the image to see it on Sam's Club's web site.

It certainly was bigger and would allow me to laminate larger pages. It weighs a ton! I felt confident it would do the job.

Whomp! Whomp!... not so much. It *may* have been slower than my Scotch brand AND almost all of my laminating peeled! Boo!!!

I am going to stick with this baby for now.

Click on the picture to see this on Amazon's web site.

This machine is over two years old and it still does a better job than the big daddy!

Here is my question for you...

Do you have a home laminator? Have you found one you are in love with?

May Poetry Unit is Done and ON SALE!

2013-04-21T21:43:00.001-05:00

We have finished and posted May's Poetry Unit. We will create one more (for August/September), then the year will be complete.

This is will remain discounted until tomorrow evening (around 8pm CST).

Have a great week!

Peek at my Week-Earth Day

2013-04-21T11:20:00.003-05:00

I get by with a little help from my friends... well... this week I am getting a lot of help from my friends!

Do you feel like you are treading water sometimes? Thank goodness for talented teachers! Look what I found to help me teach and celebrate Earth Day!

Cheryl's Unit will work perfectly for my kiddos!

Anna's math activities will work great for my whole group math lessons.

Love Cara's unit too!

There are a few FREEBIEs in the math stations... so check those out!

Fiction writing

2013-04-16T21:00:00.001-05:00

We have just started our fiction unit... and let's just say we are LOVIN' it!

I had to share this because it made me smile!

We looked at Jonathan London's biography which told us that he often takes his writing ideas from events he has experienced. We looked at his Froggy books and realized we can take our own life experiences and add a fictional character... Just like Jonathan London does!

That Barbie has such style!

Wishy Washy Giveaway!

2013-04-15T19:15:00.003-05:00

I LOVE Mrs. Wishy-Washy... Like BIG TIME! When I student taught my master teacher had a huge collection and I was jealous.

I was super excited to see that Mrs. W is back!

I received two complementary books for me to review (but I have not been compensated for my opinions).

The first book (the one pictured above) is adorable. I love the illustrations!

This is a story about how her animals tried on the clothes that she had hung out to dry. It has a repetitive text that lends itself to a great shared reading. I think my kids would love to act it out! Since we are really working on retelling a story in a sequential order, this will work to a T (or is it tea?).

The company has these cute... CUTE puppets, but you could also retell and act the story out with other props such as clip art or stuffed animals.

Right now Hameray Publishing is having a HUGE classroom giveaway...

you can learn more about that by clicking below!

You can also use this code for a 20% discount: ZJCC13 valid through 6/30/13

Hameray Publishing has also offered a Mrs. Wishy Washy big book to one of my follower!

Yay!

Simply follow my blog!
Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Need for Speed 1st and 2nd Grade Done! On Sale Now!

2013-04-14T18:50:00.001-05:00

Whew! This guy is a monster, but I finally got it done!

This will be 20% off for the next 48 hours!

Hope you are all having a great Sunday evening!

Peek at My Week Linky and Bugs!!! (and a FREEBIE)

2013-04-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

This week we are getting buggy!

Here is our poem! The cute graphics are from Ashley Hughes!

Click on the image to see the whole unit with station activities and emergent reader,

We love our poems... seriously! I have one student who proclaims each new poems as, "THE BEST POEM EVERRRR!" He is good for my soul! We practice these poems, add them to our poetry notebook, make emergent readers, practice sorting activities, and look or various elements within the poems. This is great for fluency!

I will be pulling these out of the tub to use in my small group work.

Here is a FREEBIE that I created last year. It will be free in my store until next Sunday (April 21st) so grab it quick!

Here are my plans for the week!

Have a great week!

Thinking About Math Fluency!

2013-04-13T15:21:00.001-05:00

We had a big week!

I am not sure about you all... but there are days (and weeks) where I just feel a little over my head. When that happens, it helps for me to organize a little.

We jumped into our Need for Speed this week with full force. My students needed a place to keep their Progress Card. So I created a pocket in the front of their Math Journal.

The VERY last thing I need is another stack on my desk. I updated the packet to include these graphics. I organized all of the timed sheets into this box. Then I can just carry the box from table to table and quickly see which paper to hand out.

We made equation rings to use for practice at home and at school.

They really love these time tests. If a student does not pass the timed section, I tell them, "Meet me at my table when we do math centers." Then I have 3-4 students who come to me and we work on these equations. I have been keeping a close eye... and everyone seems to really love this. I have watched those who struggle a little to see if they seem bothered. It might help that I have mini-marshmallows at my small group table. So far... so good!

During stations they have more time to practice. I had one kid say, "In two days I will be at Need for Speed." I tell you, timers are so motivating!

Click here for the 1st and 2nd grade version.

This is one of the fun games we played at my table this week. It will go into stations next week!

They loved it!

Hubby and I are off to the movies tonight. It seems like a million years ago that we had a night out. Has anyone seen 42? I am pretty excited to see it!

Wow!

2013-04-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

I had someone contact me this week to share a video he made with his classroom. I was mesmerized!

Check this out!

Once I finished watching, I wanted to know more about this teacher.

Meet Mr. Avina!

Q: How long have you been teaching?
A: I have been teaching for 10 years, 9 years in kindergarten and one in 6th grade.

Q: How long did this project take?
A: The project took about 2 months. At the beginning of January, I began searching through my iTunes songs to find music that I loved and would best fit the story. Once I decided on the songs, I edited them with GarageBand to make them kinder-friendly. When I returned from break, I threw the Good Morning song out the window and replaced it with Madonna & Garbage. At the end of January, we began filming. By the end of February, the kids had learned the songs well enough to have their vocals recorded on my iPhone. The last scenes were shot at the beginning of March.

I was so CERTAIN that he spends his weekends with the film industry in California so...

Q: You appear to have some film experience... Can you tell us more about that?
A: I do not have film experience. I LOVE drama and the performing arts and I have been directing plays for 10 years, but this was my first venture into film. It was very much a trial-and-error process (fun and frustrating), and I ran it by friends for constant feedback as I was editing.

Q: How did you go about filming this? Equipment? Editing software?
A: Some scenes were filmed with the whole group. Other scenes I filmed while the kids worked at their desks or were at their centers. The majority of the film was shot during recess and lunch. I pulled out small groups of kids and filmed it little by little (which is why it took so long to make). I used a Sony digital camera and a tripod.

I used GarageBand for the music and iMovie to edit the film.

Q: If a teacher wanted to attempt a similar project, where would you suggest they start?
A: If a teacher wanted to do this, I would suggest reading the story for about a week and having different students act out different parts so that the teacher can have an idea about casting. Have a script ready, but be prepared to change it as the story evolves. Kids are creative, they will read beyond the text, and they will come up with their own lines and scenarios. Going with the flow is key.

Goodness! I loved EVERYTHING about his video. He has set the bar high for integrating technology, the arts, as well as other language arts.

Please leave some love for Mr. Avina and his class!

Amazing! Way to go the students in Mr. Avina's class!

Peek at My Week Linky

2013-04-07T10:58:00.001-05:00

This has been a busy week! The Mr. had knee surgery (again) on Monday.

Then yesterday I took The Perfect Son to sign up for college next year! Sniff! Sniff!

You can tell by the posting of these plans that I am 6 steps behind! OY!

Do you want to know how to create your own visual plans? Click here for a video tutorial.

Link up your own lesson plans!

How to-Visual Lesson Plans

2013-04-05T21:13:00.002-05:00

Thank you friends for being patient with me. I have receive so many emails on how I make visual lesson plans. I decided to give the video tutorial a try... brace yourself!

Each video has a 5 minute limit... so this will be done in sections.

If you have recovered from the agony of hearing my voice... continue below!

I mentioned Ashley Hughes Blog.. Yes, I am pretty much a huge stalker of hers... She has these AMAZING tutorials that she calls Technology Tuesdays. If you are learning the ropes (or even if you have been at it a while) I HIGHLY recommend stopping by. I seem to always learn a thing or two from this smart lady...EVERY! TIME!

Back to lesson plans... The first one you make is the most labor intensive. However, after the first one it gets SO much easier.

Good luck! Be brave!

I want to see your lesson plans...so link up on Sunday!

Did I leave anything out?

Peek at my week-Oviparous stuff! (Linky)

2013-03-30T16:03:00.000-05:00

Guess what is happening in my room next week?

The eggs will be there waiting for me on Tuesday... YAY!

So sets of the frenzy of studying animals that come from eggs. Thank goodness I am surrounded by clever folks!

I found some great resources that you will find in my lesson plans... links and all!

This poem is from March's Poem unit...I know it is April!

You can click on the image to find the poem with the resources and sorts that go with it.

This is a reader I made last year... you can grab it for free!

This little video makes me laugh!

Here are my lesson plans!

Now for the linky part!

Egg-Cellent Deals!

2013-03-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

Have a lovely Easter weekend!!!

Common Core Writing and Kindergarten

2013-03-28T09:47:00.001-05:00

I have been working on the this common core writing correlations document for a school district that is purchasing our writing curriculum.

I thought some of you might be interested in it.

You can see these units in Deanna Jump's store by clicking {here}

Now... my plans for the day include...adding the large "teacher cards" to my

Need for Speed Addition and Subtraction Fluency Pack.

You can get those later today at no additional charge by going to "My Purchases".

AND... I will start on the 1st grade edition...Yippee!