Green Day

I love green day....full of all kinds of fun!

We made our "green monsters" after reading Go Away Big Green Monster!

We sorted M&M's...

The best part....mixed blue and yellow food coloring...painted our frog with a marshmallow, then...ATE it!  

Yum!  

 They loved how it turned their mouth green!

Shape Fun!

I'm a *tad* behind on posts from last week.  We had tons of fun making new friends and learning new things!  :)  Here are some of the things we did learning shapes...FUN!

We circle painted with marshamallows....they LOVED it!  

Of course, we ate one...without paint!

We also learned the sight word I this week, so each child wrote it on their paper.

We made *circles* with a friend...

Shape Monster glyphs...saw the idea on pinterest, then Jamie Mayas and I made it into a glyph...

You can find the glyph printable here...(scroll down to see it)

They turned out too cute!!

Three for Thursday!

I'm linkin' up for Teacher Week at I'm Blog Hoppin'!  Hope you will too!




My favorite Font:


Basically like others....I HEART fonts...of all kinds, but this is one of the first fonts I ever downloaded.  It's called kinderdots.  So very cute!


My favorite Blog:


I have TONS of favs, but a new one you should check out is...
Mrs. Mayas' Kinders
We teach together...


My Favorite Online Resource
Kinder by Kim
This is a site you can definitely go to and find GREAT ideas for any month or theme.

Teacher Talk Tuesday

As I think about some things I would tell a new teacher...It is quite hard.  There are so many things I could say, but we know that there is nothing like experience when it comes to having your own classroom for the first time.  However, we should definitely offer suggestions and tips to "newbies"...and hey even after 6 years I still want tips and advice to improve my classroom.


1. Labels are my friend!  I make TONS of name labels in all sizes when I get my class list.  This is so much easier than writing a child's name 100 times X 18 on everything in your classroom!  Plus, for students who can't write their name, it's a quick fix for the first few weeks until they learn to write.


2.  I Assign rug spots in ABC order.  I never did this until I saw one of my friends do it.  It saves so much time and "heartache" for the students.  They can't argue who to sit beside or NOT to sit beside...there is no fighting over who sits close to the teacher or on the "pink butterfly" on the rug.  They have their ABC spot and it's no one else's.  


3.  Keep a correspondence page for communication between you and parents for each child.  Date it and document what you need to.  This is a wonderful tool for parent conferences and if ever a question arises about a particular situation.


4.  Be SILLY with your kids!  I promise you'll enjoy your day more....sometimes you just need to laugh!  


5.  LOVE those babies.  Tell them you love them and care about them...even those little stinkers.  You may be the only love they get each day!  

I hope you HOP on over and Link-Up!

Kim Jordano Winner!

Congratulations #11...Katie Spence!  

You won the Kim Jordano Giveaway!!  

Thanks so much to everyone for playing!!  

Meet the Teacher Monday

I'm so excited to be part of the Blog Hoppers crew!  We hope this will be a fabulous resource for all teachers!  Here goes!

My name is Julie Lee and I am addicted to all things TEACHING!  I have a wonderful husband...he's the BEST daddy to our beautiful girls.  He's so good he could be the "stay at home dad".  Really, he remembers things that only moms should...but I don't remember so, to say the least he's AWESOME!  We have 2 beautiful daughters...Our oldest just started pre-K...(tear)  My girls are my world...love every minute that I can spend with them.  


I have been teaching K for 6 years.  LOVE IT!  I couldn't imagine myself teaching anything different.  Here are my favs for my classroom:
1. Heidi Songs
2. my ELMO....don't know how I ever taught without it!
3. DJ Inkers Clipart
4. TARGET dollar Section/Dollar Tree Goodies
5. Mt. Dew


What must improve this year??  Organization to "my organized chaos"...I have my system, but it definitely could be better.  Suggestions on how you organize all those bazillion center materials and theme folders are greatly appreciated!  :)


Finally, I must say Glory to God for giving me this amazing life and profession that I truly love!  He has blessed me beyond measure...I don't see how people survive without the Lord!  


Oh, Roll Tide Y'all!

Teacher Week at I'm Blog Hoppin'!

All of us at Blog Hoppin' are so excited to bring you Teacher Week!  Check out all the details  HERE!  Hope you'll join us!

First Week

What a GREAT first week of school!  Y'all, my kids are so sweet!  I love them already!  Here is a glimpse into what happens in our room the first few days of school.  We spent a lot of time learning rules and what it means to be a peacemaker.  We read David Goes to School, No, David, and David Gets in Trouble to introduce rules and peacemaking.  If you have never read The Peaceful Classroom by Naomi Drew, you should.  We made an anchor chart about Peacemakers and Peacebreakers....We decided that we all are peacemakers!  No one wanted to be "the peacebreaker".  I thought it would be fun to make David from our stories so we did!  Check him out below.  We also read Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? just as an introduction to painting and colors before we hit it hard for the next two weeks.
You can check out my Brown Bear Unit at my Teacherspayteachers store here.

Here we are learning how to paint correctly.

Here is our mural finished!

 We practied using little dots of glue...I have a Brown Bear version in my unit at tpt

We made character cards and practiced retelling the story with a friend.

Oh my, Y'all!  Look at all of this "stuff" from DonorsChoose!  It was like Christmas!  I was so excited...Thanks to all of you for supporting me!!  :)

Kim Jordano Giveaway from KinderbyKim

My friend, Kim Jordano, from kinderbykim.com and I are teaming up to do another GIVEAWAY!  

I am so very excited about her new Rock and Roll Word Family packet.  

Listen to this!

This packet includes 18 darling fill in the blank pages to practice word families.  Students just roll cubes to build words!  The pages are adorable!

All you need are the cubes and a sharpie and your students will be ready to "Rock and Roll"!

Word Families included are: at, an, 

ar, ay, ail, ake, ed, eg, en, et, in, it, ig, 

oo, ot, og, op, ug,

Here is what you must do to enter:

1. Follow my blog

2. Follow Kim's tpt store

3. Follow my tpt store

Each of these will be an entry...giving you 3...BUT you MUST comment separately to have 3 entries.

BONUS:  If you make a short blog posting with a link to this giveaway...you can have a 4th entry to win this fabulous prize!  Make sure you comment separately if you "blog" about this giveaway.

Don't forget to leave your e-mail address so we can contact you if you WIN!

Good Luck!

Giveaway ends Saturday night 8/20 at 11:59 p.m.

My Sister's Second Grade Classroom Pics!

My twin teaches second grade and I just HAD to show off her adorable classroom!  If you are like me...you LOVE seeing pictures of every classroom you can to get ideas!  

Here is her version of the "Fancy Nancy" word wall...So. Cute.

Her Reading Focus Wall

 She mod-podged stripes on her filing cabinets...hmmhmm...okay, so I mod-podged them for her, 

but you know...still very cute!

Her Rock Star AR Board...she will add stars above their names when they earn AR points...

Her rug area and HUGE classroom library...

 The back view of her classroom...her math focus wall is on the left...

Cute owl door....I copied her!

Where she displays student work...LOVE the color scheme

 Ummm....notice the glitter?  She glittered ALL of her kid's clothespins

Love the way she is displaying her Brain Break sticks, Journal Jar, and warm fuzzies!  She got some of these ideas from pinterest...

This is the side view of her classroom...So bright and colorful!

Super Star work board and calendar...

Her VERY cute classroom view from the door!  

Don't cha just love it?

Last chance for the giveaway at Mrs. Mayas' kinders...ENDS TONIGHT!

Freebies!

Tomorrow is my first day back...with my new kiddos!  I'm excited, but I always get a tad bit nervous just not know them.  I've met them for a few short minutes and they were total sweeties.  I've got some fun things planned this week.  I wanted to share a couple of FREEBIES!  Also don't forget about the giveaway at Mrs. Mayas' Kinders for my new Brown Bear Unit!  It ends Tuesday...so hurry!  Oh, feel free to leave a comment if you snag the freebies.  Smiles!


Rug Rules


Pumpkin Investigation

Giveaway!!!

Girls,

One of my "work BFF's" has just started a brand new K blog!  

To celebrate her grand opening she is hosting a giveaway of my very new Brown Bear Unit!

Hop on over to enter at her blog at:

Mrs. Mayas Kinders

You will definitely want to check it out...she will be posting some great things!

Hurry!

The giveaway ends Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. 

Brown Bear Unit Posted to TpT!!

Yay!  It's done!  My Brown Bear unit is posted to TpT.  You can visit my store and unit here!  This unit is 98 pages long...it includes lots of different activities that could be used in pre-k to 1st grade.  I designed it with the beginning of school in mind so...I hope you will check it out and maybe follow my store while you are there!

4 more days...then....SCHOOL WITH KIDS!  :)

New Classroom Pics!

I have been working so hard getting my classroom ready for my new Kinders!  I know you all have been hard at it too.  I've changed a few things, but kept it mostly the same as last year.  Don't fix what's not broken...right?  

My super star board and center chart...plus my new "steps for completing an assignment" chart that I saw on Pinterest.

 front view of classroom

 close-up of my clock numbers that came from an idea off of pinterest...my sister made these for me...

also, the little numbers will be for "read my code" activities I will be incorporating this year.  Great idea from Kim Jordano from KinderbyKim

center baskets...I made new labels with a sign above where each will be placed after use...because I have 3 sets of baskets, my students were putting the wrong baskets in the wrong place last year so I labeled them to make it easier for them

the writing center...plus a cute little "writing banner"

I saw this idea a while back from Pre-K Pages...I love how the stamps fit right into the ice cube trays.  

rug area

I mod-podged my filing cabinet...it's cute now!

this is my small group area...notice the vinyl shapes on the table...my students will sit at the same place every day instead of arguing over where to sit...PLUS this will help them learn colors and shapes faster I hope...the little black stools came from Fred's...so cute...I plan to "cutesy" them up a bit with some vinyl

My sweet hubby and brother made this brand new shelf for me....I needed something to house my reading materials so "here she is".

these clip charts are all over the web, but I first saw this idea from Mrs. Bainbridge's class...actually my sister showed it to me...I chose not to do the top half of the chart, but use the bottom half as my discipline plan...I build rainbows for positive reinforcement

My NEW reading loft...well new to me...I love that I have double as much room...reading on top and listening underneath

I made cute little banners for center headers....they turned out lovely!

the word wall and birthday bears

my classroom door...

I found these baskets at Dollar Tree....these will hold our red take home folders

ribbon not included... :)

finally...what our room looks like when you walk in the door...

What cha' think?