Dr. Seuss Week: day 1

This past week was Dr. Seuss week at school. I made sure to take my fancy-dancy camera so I would get some good pictures. I sure did! The kids had so much fun every day of the week. And I had a blast doing all the "fun" activities (and sneaking some good learning in with it!)

Monday's theme was "Cat in the Hat". I had all my kids wear a red shirt because I wanted to do this:

It was so cute! It's a little hard to see but they each have a "Thing __" sign numbered from 1-17. So precious! As you can tell, I was the Cat in the Hat. We had so much fun and the kids LOVED it! I think they also liked getting all the attention from the other students in the school :)

That afternoon we had an all-school assembly and luckily the weather was beautiful:

A local group called "Ride for Reading" showed up on bikes to deliver books for all the students!

So many books! My kids got to each pick a book which was very special for them.

Stay tuned for day 2: Green Eggs and Ham!

TpT store updates

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been MIA from the blogging world. I have been crazy busy with school and wedding planning. Luckily, things are falling into place. Now we just have to wait for the next 6 weeks to pass and then we can celebrate on our honeymoon!

I've also been busy adding a few things to my Teacher pay Teachers website. I added 2 super fun 100th day of school activities and created my first emergent reader book! It's a short (5 page) fill-in-the-blank book about penguins. It was a huge hit with my class! So much so that the other K classes all did it as well.

In honor of Valentine's Day next week, I've created a fun emergent reader using a bunch of sight words and color words. I'm sure my babies will have a lot of fun coloring each page! Here's a sneak peek:

Be sure to check out my TpT store and see what else I have. I'll be adding things as I come up with them! 

Penguin post!

In 2 weeks we have a celebrity visiting our classroom...SNOWBIRD! For those of you who don't know, Snowbird is the character on one local news station who announces school closings. Naturally, he's very popular among students and teachers. He will come to all the K classes and read a few books about penguins.

To prepare my students, we will be doing a mini-unit on penguins. I created this short fill-in-the-blank book for my students to complete as we learn more about penguins. I can't wait to see their illustrations for each page!

To download, check out my TpT website! This book is listed for just $2.50 and has 5 fill-in-the-blank pages- perfect for a week long study of penguins! 

Where's Elfie?

Here are a few photos I've snapped of our class Elf. The kids love coming in the room in the morning and looking for him! Several really think he's real, although a couple are suspicious. Either way, it's been a fun addition to our class and a great "good behavior incentive".

Elf on the Shelf!

Meet "Elfie"- our newest classroom addition!

He's the cheaper, plush version of Elf on a Shelf, but I don't care. And the kids didn't even notice! He was sitting on my desk this morning and they were all so curious. I of course played it up and acted like I didn't know where he came from.

First thing we did was name our Elf. The 3 choices were: Santa, Elfie and Johnson. Don't ask me where Johnson came from! Elfie won by a landslide so Elfie it is. 

To play up the whole "he's watching to see if you're good" notion, I made up a batch of Elf tickets. If Elfie sees a kid being good, they get a ticket. They write their name on the ticket and put it in the basket (pictured aboved). Each morning I'll pull a name from the basket and that child gets to have the Elf for the day. I told my kiddos that if we have so many tickets, I'll pull one name in the morning and one at lunch. That way lots of people get time with the Elf! 

Do you do Elf on a Shelf? What do you do? I'd love to hear your ideas! 

My TpT store!

Hi everyone! I jumped on the Teachers Pay Teachers bandwagon and opened a store! I only have a few things listed right now, but I'd love for you to check it out. Make sure to grab my freebie- an M letter search. And if you visit my site, please leave some feedback! Who knows, maybe I'll make $1,000,000 like Deanna Jump?? (probably not, but it's fun to think about!)

Ms. H and the awesome, wonderful, all-good, very great day

Today's blog post is the opposite of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. Just one of those days where everything "clicked" and everyone got along. What was so great? Let me break it down for you:

1. A student who has been struggling came up to fill in a letter in our Morning Message and didn't know what to do. He turned to the class and said "can someone help me?" in his sweet little voice and 17 hands flew into the air. Melt my heart.

2. My kids got a great report from the Music and Guidance teachers- they sometimes struggle, so good behavior in those classes was great news!

3. They were all SUPER quiet during Language Centers- this meant I actually could pull my small groups instead of redirecting and shushing kids.

4. We got our 5th "green" in the cafeteria that the kids have been working hard for. This meant that they ALL had great behavior and it was recognized. Their reward was watching a video during snack time, so they were really excited.

5. It was a gorgeous day and everyone got to play at recess :) no kids sitting in time-out

6. my whole class, EVERYONE, ended the day on "blue" which is HUGE! It hasn't happened yet this year, so we really celebrated! Did a cheer and everyone got a piece of candy from the pumpkin on the way out the door :)

The best part? My kids KNEW they did great today. I'm hoping it will continue over to tomorrow, because ending the week on high note is always a great start to the weekend. So proud of my kids today! Days like this make me love my job!!