Fill Your Heart

Want to fill your heart with freebies?  Then you are in the right place for not only some freebies, but also a giveaway!




Thanks to the last stop:



for sending friends my way!


I don't know about you, but we always have a short week around Valentine's Day.  This week we will only have school three and a half days because of Parent/Teacher conferences.  I like to fit in some fun with my curriculum for the week.  I created a few math printables for some standards I will be assessing that week.  You can download them for free by clicking the image below.



Now stop on over at my friend Nicki's blog.  She has another fabulous freebie for you.  You can visit her by clicking on the image below.



Don't forget to enter the giveaway to win one product from each participant's store!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
8

Peek at My Week

You might be wondering why it is Tuesday and I am posting my "Peek at My Week".  That is because we had a "cold day" yesterday and another one today.

My lesson plans are all kinds of wacko with that and we have to start our CogAT testing this week.  That means that I have three days with my kiddos and half the time I am going to be administering a standardized test.  :(


(I did not put my plans into a pdf because they are so short this week)

These "cold days" have also pushed our 100th day back to Monday now.  I am kinda loving that though because then I get all weekend to plan and prep for that fabulous day!

I am off now to go hunt for some new ideas for 100th day.  Do you do anything special for 100th day?  I would love to hear the comments below!


1

Show & Tell

Do you do "Show & Tell" in your classroom or some version of it?

When I first started teaching kindergarten, I had my students do Show & Tell because that is what the other kindergarten teacher did so I thought I should do it too.  She was a veteran teacher and a wonderful teacher.

That year I had my students do Show & Tell.  I had boys bring in a show and tell on Tuesdays and the girls brought in one on Wednesdays.  Each student took a turn to come up and share about what they brought.

The following year that I taught kindergarten I was teaching with a different teacher and we thought it would be a great idea to have Show & Tell on Fridays.  All the students could bring in a Show & Tell on Friday.  One student at a time would come up and share.  I have to admit it was sometimes quite painful.  (Mainly because it took so long and the students were not engaged in what was happening)

Last year I decided to add another component into Show & Tell.  Students were told to tell 3 things about their item and then they could call on two students to ask a question.  The student doing Show & Tell would then answer those two questions.

Two weeks ago, I went to a cooperative learning workshop all on cooperative projects.  The presenter was discussing how to present a project in different ways.  It was a total ah-ha moment for me!

We do a lot of cooperative learning in my classroom and I decided that is how we would do our Show & Tell time from now on.  My students are loving it!



Now my students present their information to their team (table) and then two friends from the team can ask questions.  I walk around the room and monitor what is happening, help teams get back on task if need be, and help with questions.

One group (pictured above) was so interested in this penguin stuffed animal.  They just kept asking the little girl questions about her toy.  I LOVED listening and watching my students engage in these conversations.  Oral language is so important in the early years and Show & Tell is a great way to foster that!

Five reasons I LOVE our new Show & Tell:
1.  More students are bringing in a Show & Tell item.
2.  Students are not as shy to share with only presenting to their team.
3.  Students are having meaningful discussions about the Show & Tell items.
4.  Students are asking more thoughtful questions because they are more engaged.
5.  Show and Tell takes less than HALF the time as it did before.



Friday afternoons were rough because I did not always have time to get a math lesson in with how long show & tell took.  Now I can easily fit in show & tell and my math lesson.  I call that a win-win!

Do you do Show & Tell?  How do you handle it in your classroom?  I would love to hear!
4

Peek at My Week

My three day weekend just flew by....how about yours?  Did you have today off or were you teaching today?

I waited until today to finish my lesson plans.  I plan on focusing on MLK, Jr. tomorrow and then we will learn all about penguins for the rest of the week.  Click on the images below to take a closer look at my plans.  All the units are clickable once you view it.


For my MLK, Jr. activities tomorrow, I plan on using my friend Elizabeth's "I Have a Dream Pack".  Click on the image to take a closer look at it.  



While we are learning all about MLK and penguins, I will also be finishing up my students' reading levels.  We will be busy little bees this week.

As you probably know, I participated in a Facebook freebie hop this weekend.  To thank all my followers, I will have a fan only freebie on my Facebook page starting tomorrow.  Make sure you "like" my page {here} so you don't miss out!


1

Snowball Fight {Freebies!}

Don't miss the BIGGEST Snowball Fight of the Year!!
22 of your favorite bloggers have teamed up to bring you a...

Our forts are built...
the snowballs are packed & stacked...
and we're about to BLAST you with FREEBIES!!

So lace up your boots, pull on your mittens,
and get ready to load up on 'SNOW' much good stuff!!

Hop on over to to Mrs. Pauley's facebook page to pick up my freebie!

Look for this tab on every facebook page to find the next FREEBIE.
Note: You will not be able to access the freebies from an iPad.  


Click the image below to download a copy of the clickable map to find your way to all the 'snow forts'!

The Snowball Fight begins at 10 am CST on Saturday, January 18th.  
But don't delay because the snowballs melt at 10 pm CST on Monday, January 20th!!

We hope you have fun on the hop and find lots of fun freebies that you and your kiddos will love!
Make sure to follow our blogs too so you'll never miss a FREEBIE!  
Thanks for joining our Snowball Fight!!


0

Five for Friday!

I haven't linked up for Five for Friday in a long time.  In fact, I had to go look and check.  Last time was November.  {Insert my sad face here}  I don't know why it has been so long, but I hope I never stray away this long again.


First off, I have to say that this week has been crazy with a capital C.  I know you don't want all the details, but here is an overall gist:  super sick daughter, LOTS of meetings, started TWO grad classes, and a workshop.  I was really looking forward to Friday and this long weekend to be here.  


This week we have been studying arctic animals.  In particular, we have been studying polar bears and walruses.

We made Deanna Jump's polar bear craft, but then I added my own polar bear fact writing prompt to it.  I love how they turned out.




We had to have a fun polar bear snack.  I wanted to make something that required very little prep on my part because I just didn't have a lot of time this week.  This is what we made:


All you need is one Oreo cookie, two mini-marshmallows, and three chocolate chips to make this super simple snack.  The best part was we already had mini-marshmallows at home because my kiddos love to eat them.  We also had chocolate chips because I always have some in the freezer.  (Shhh....don't tell anyone though.)


The students just opened their Oreo and placed the marshmallows and chocolate chips on their cookie.  All that was left was to eat it.  They loved it!  So yummy and so easy!


The very unit I ever purchased from TpT was Deanna Jump's Arctic Animal unit.  I purchased it and a whole new world of blogging and TpT opened up to me.  I am so thankful I happened to stumble upon that unit!  

Anyways, this is the third year I am using that unit because I love it so much.  One of my favorite activities is reading "Tooth Trouble" and making text to self connections.  Here is one of my little sweeties' connections to the text.


For some reason it is a little hard to read, but this is what it says:  "I was worried when I was going down a slide.  Water got in my eyes."  I thought this one was so funny.  Loved it!



Today I went to another Kagan Cooperative Learning Workshop.  I have been to so many I have lost count.  Why do I go to so many workshops on the same thing?  Because they are just that good.  I learn something new each time.  Cooperative Learning is one of the best ideas I have ever implemented into my classroom.


This is probably my most favorite thing that happened this week so I saved it for last.  :)

I have this little boy in my class......let's call him Woody.  (He LOVES Woody from Toy Story)  Anyways, Woody can be a little challenging some days, but this kid just cracks me right up.  My students had earned a popsicle party from filling up our sweet behavior board.  Yesterday was the day for the party.  I bought freezer pops.  Before I handed them out I gave the speech.  You know the one.  You get what you get speech.  I also told them that if they complained about the color of popsicle they received then they did not get a popsicle.  Woody was the last one to get a popsicle.  I grabbed an orange one out of the bag without looking.  I had hear him previously say he wanted another color to his friend.  He saw the color was orange and instead of getting upset which I totally thought he would.  He said to me, "Mrs. Pauley, I am so happy I got orange.  Guess what?  Now it's my favorite color.  I LOVE orange!"  I was so proud of him for being so thankful for what he got.  It just warmed my heart and his comment made me crack up!


How was your week?  Link up with Doodle Bugs and tell us all about it!

And don't forget that this weekend (Saturday through Monday night) I will be participating in a Facebook freebie hop.  Make sure you like my Facebook page {here} so you can get all the info and your freebie.  :)
1

Reading during Literacy Centers

It seemed like over winter break my students "forgot" how to read to someone and read to self.  I decided that before we headed full force into literacy centers again we would take some time to practice these centers.  We spent the last two weeks "practicing" during literacy center time so that way Monday we can go back to our regularly scheduled literacy centers.

I did not mind taking this time to "practice" again because it will be so beneficial in the long run.  We started with read to self and I had the students read for as long as they could.  The first day back we only were able to read for about 7 minutes.  Then we tried read to someone and were able to read for even less time.  Every day we looked at our stamina and tried to beat it.  I am happy to say that today we were able to read to self for 15 minutes.  I was so excited!!  We finally worked our way back up to where we were before break.

Before we started Read to Someone, we started going over questions the partners could ask each other about the story.  For now, I am keeping it simple with two questions:
~Did you like story?  Why or why not?
~What was your favorite part of the story?

As we dive into story elements more, we will discuss other questions to ask, but for now I am keeping it simple.  :)

Building Read to Someone stamina has been a bit more challenging only because my students are having a hard time whispering to their partner.  As I was walking around the room today, I noticed that the students were having a hard time with this because they were EXCITED about what they were reading.  I was just in awe.  They were on task, reading the stories, and asking questions!  It was great.  Look at these pictures.



You can just see their excitement.  It is definitely a proud mama moment.  I know they weren't being as quiet as they should be, but how can you be upset when it is because they are so interested in the book and are excited to talk about it with their partner?

Do you practice your literacy centers again after break or do you just dive right in?  I would love to hear what you do!
0

Field Trips

Some teachers LOVE field trips and some teachers dread them.  I wrote a blog post over at Field Trip Factory all about finding the right field trip.  Click {here} to check out the post!
0

Snowy Day Activities

How many of you had some snow days this week?  We had a "cold" day on Tuesday which meant my carefully crafted lesson plans were all screwed up, but we are teachers and we are flexible.  :)

This week is all about snow and winter.  I am trying to get as much as possible into these three days together.

We started with some class building and team building activities.  Everyone wanted to share what they did over break so we took some time in the morning to just share.  Once we did that, we were ready to get to work.

We discussed winter and talked about what we like to do in the snow.  (We had lots of snow over break so we were able to tell things we actually did in the snow!)

Then we read "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.  It is a wonderful book.



Then we used Jessica Williamson's list writing activity to write down "Things To Do in the Snow".  I took it a step further and had my students also illustrate their writing.  I folded a piece of paper into four sections and they drew one idea in each section.



We used this activity to stress the importance of how authors and illustrators need to work together.  Their pictures had to match the list they made.

I let the students take home their illustrations, but we hung our list writing on our "Fab Work" bulletin board.

This was a great way to ease back into writing and our writer's workshop time after such a long break.
1

Want to Peek at my Week?

I promised I would have a school related post this weekend.  It's Sunday night so I made it just in time.  :)

I go back to work tomorrow.  I LOVE my job, but I have enjoyed my time with my family so much!  I have missed all my other 21 kids though and I am excited to see them all on Tuesday.  (Tomorrow is a teacher inservice day)

I need to get back in the swing of things and I thought the best way would be to join Peek at My Week from the fabulous Mrs. Wills.


Here are my lesson plans for the week, but before you look at them I want to add a disclaimer:  These will be very flexible as I am assuming that I will be spending a lot of time reviewing classroom procedures and rules.  (I am total ok with going off the lesson plans in order to bring peace and order to the classroom)


We will be using my newly updated winter math centers as well as my brand new winter literacy centers.

Here are some pictures of my new centers.  My daughter was eager to try them out and I snapped some pictures of the little monkey doing them.  :)


 






You can grab these activities by clicking the images below.  Since my winter literacy centers is brand new, it will be discounted for today only.  When I get up in the morning, it will be back to regular price.  You can also grab these together in a bundle.




3

January Currently

Happy New Year!  How did you celebrate last night or today?  We didn't do too much here.  Hubby had to work so the kids and I spent the day playing board games.  We played a 3 hour game of Monopoly!  I couldn't believe they lasted that long with the game!!

It is time to link up with Farley for the monthly currently.


Listening:  My kiddos are playing in my daughter's room.  I got out my box of old dance costumes so she is having a ball with those.  My son is playing with her in his Iron Man costume.  It is so fun listening to them play together NICELY!  {It's been rare for them to play without arguing lately so I am enjoying this while it lasts}

Loving:  My hubby called me today and said he was taking me on a date tomorrow night.  He made reservations at a nice restaurant and already booked a sitter.   He is so sweet.  I am thankful every day that he is in my life!



Thinking:  I made this really long to-do list for break.  I had this idea that I would completely clean and organize each room in my house by doing one room a day.  Have I even started this?  Well.....sort of.  Santa got my daughter a HUGE dollhouse and her room needed to be rearranged to find the best spot for it.  That's all I have done though.  I am not feeling too guilty though because I have chosen to spend time with my family instead.  We have played board games, played dress-up, watched movies, etc.

Wanting:  Who doesn't want another week of break?  Am I right or am I right?!?!

Needing:  My house is "picked up", but I really need to deep clean (as was on my to-do list).  Thinking it will all happen on Sunday right before I go back to work....haha.  I am a grade A procrastinator.  ;)

Memory:  This year was the last Christmas we will celebrate at my grandparent's house.  They have lived in their house for 50 years.  50 YEARS!  That is a LONG time.  Last month they decided that it was time to find something better suited for them.  They bought a condo and will be selling their house soon.  So many memories have been made in that house and I know it will be sad when they move, but I am so very excited for them that they will have a place that is better suited for them.  Plus, now they don't have to shovel snow, mow grass, etc.  Can I move in?!?!?!  ;)

Here are a couple pictures from Christmas day at their house:

(90% of pictures hubby's eyes look closed)


Their tree with all the presents in front of their front windows.

My grandparents or Great-pa & G.G. as my kiddos call them.

Grandma & Grandpa with all their grandkids (and spouses) and great grandkids.

We had such a wonderfully blessed Christmas.  It was amazing making memories with all of these people.  I am looking forward to celebrating next Christmas as my grandparent's FIRST Christmas in their new house.  

Have you linked up with Farley yet?  You totally should!  Click {here} to head on over to her blog!

4