What I've Been Up To (Flash Giveaway!)

This week flew by! Partially because we had a 1/2 day on Wednesday. Our district chose to do a 1/2 day each quarter to allow for more professional development. We'll be using those 1/2 days for Common Core training, as well as looking at the Teacher Leader Effectiveness (TLE) evaluation tool that our district chose to use.

My first observation is on Wednesday! My principal will be coming in for at least 1/2 hour during our math block. Today I will be working on the lesson plans for that - something with place value is what I'm thinking of. I think I will be doing this fabulous lesson from Kindergarten Crayons with them! I love that it is hands on, plus its simple enough that even my "sweet n lows" will be able to comprehend.

My other task for today is to put together my Data Notebook and figure out how to do my Data Wall. I am also going to put together an academic vocabulary display. We have a ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow night (my kiddos are performing!) and the school board members are going to be touring my room since its in the new addition - need to have all of my ducks in a row for that!

I also headed to Staples yesterday to cash in my recycled ink cartridges checks! Look at my bounty:

 
I am using those tabs today to straighten up my filing system. I have let that slide so far, but I'm hoping a solid hour of filing will get me caught up! And yes, I bought my own stapler. I had to because the one the school gave me, which I have used for 3 years now, jams more often than it staples. I literally get 1 paper stapled for every 3 staples. Drives me up the wall and takes so much time! Not to mention this new one is "antimicrobial"! I'm pretty sure my old one is crawling with microbials after 3 years of use :P

Now, to show you what I've been up to on the creative side lately:

Aren't they adorable? If you said yes, head over here to grab them at my TPT store! The pack contains 0-20 and are full page sized so you can display them as posters (I have 0-10 on my wall right now!) or print them 4-6 per page and use for number ordering, greater than less than or addition supports!

Also, I just posted an Elements of a Story poster pack, here's a preview:

I also updated my Cool Cat Roll & Cover game:

I also made an apple themed I Have Who Has CVC Word Game that I'm sharing as a freebie:

Also, here's a flash giveaway opportunity! Pin your favorite of the three products (Wild About Ten Frames, Cool Cat or Story Elements) I posted today on Pinterest and leave me a comment with the pin url. I'll do the random number thingy tomorrow night after I return from our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and choose three people to get their favorite file for free!


Alright, off to write lesson plans and glue beans, have a great Sunday night!

Summer Agenda and a Pete Freebie!

Lately my house is all things Pete. Pete the Cat of course. My 5 year old loves Pete. Which is rather astonishing since he's in that stage where almost everything is disdained (like that commercial with the girl that keeps saying "That's for babies!"). Luckily, though, Pete continues to be a favorite and I often hear Joshua singing the story as he plays. Which is really cute because he has some speech difficulties so "My buttons, my buttons" sounds more like "My buh ins, my buh ins" which for some reason is extra endearing. I tried to get a video of him singing/reading the book but he got camera shy :(
Anyways, we talk about Pete's message a lot. About being gracious even when things don't go your way, about picking the things that you get upset about. One of our family's sayings is "Fussing gets you nothing." meaning "No matter how hard you cry, it won't fix anything." That one has been a hard lesson for my youngest to learn. Of course he's allowed to cry when he's sad or injured, but crying because he doesn't get a toy or candy doesn't get him any where and he's slowly coming to realize that lol!
The other day I was over visiting Kinderglynn's TPT store and saw her very cute Pete the Cat posters for "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit". They are adorable! But, I don't use that phrase very much. However, I was inspired to create a sign that would suit my needs better, so I made two that I'd like to share with anyone else who doesn't use the "throw a fit" phrase! Just click the image to download for free on Google Drive.

Moving on, I've decided that I need a plan for my summer, otherwise I'll let it slip away, fluttering from one  project to another without ever getting anything finished completely! So! Here's what I aim to take on this summer:

The rest of May until June 14th:
Organizing, organizing, organizing! I am going to spend a small fortune on boxes and containers since I never do and then regret not being able to put things away properly because I don't have a container for it. I figure to tackle at least one box a day, thus whittling down the pile in the garage, making my husband happy :) I am going to go for the hyper-organized look and hope that I can sustain it through out the year. Not sure yet if I'll carry my "Where the Wild Things Are" theme over into that - probably not because then I'd have to change all my labels if I change themes!


June 16th - July 1st:
Creating new units for the new year! This will be my time to work on integrating Common Core, and creating new activities to fully implement it in my classroom.


July 3rd - August 6th:
Lamination, cutting and creating! These will be the best days because I can do this at night while I watch TV with the kids, which leaves my days open completely! I know I'll have a ton of stuff to cut out and laminate, plus I'll be making tissue paper decorations for my classroom like this:

August 6th - August 13th:
Readying my room! We get to come in early this year since our School is not hosting the Summer Lunch Program or Summer school. If I have my old room I'll be repainting the bulletin boards and magnet board, then setting up my "Where the Wild Things Are" decor. If I have the new room I'll be in 7th heaven!

Alright, so that's my plan - will you help to hold me accountable please?

This and That (Pete the Cat freebie)

I just had to share a few things with you all this morning. Mrs. Patton shared about using Voki technology in the classroom and I had to try it. Here's my little chipmunk for my class, I think they'll love it!


Also, my friend tried out a "Two Headed Monster Clean Up" idea and I had to take pictures a) because it was so funny and b) because my baby is in her class! The premise is to take some huge xxxl shirts and stick 2 kinder students in each one. They then have to work cooperatively to get the cleaning done. There was a lot of falling down (that's my boy in the orange shirt on the floor in most of the pictures) but my friend is convinced that with practice this can be done - it sure was fun for the kids!

Finally, just a few notes from the first day of school:

One of my students from last year threw a fit in the morning, refused to get off the bus, punched the principal in the stomach, took off his shoes and socks and threw them etc. The counselor came down to my room and asked if I could go up the hall to see him and she'd watch the rest of my firsties. Well I walk up to see him on the bench, the principal poised to keep him from bolting or flailing and the bus driver trying to talk to him. He was obviously having none of it. I knelt down, and said "Hey remember me? It's Mrs. Knopf, you're coming back to my class again. Let's go!" and picked him up in my arms. The prinicipal asked if she should come down to my class, but I told her it'd be fine and IT WAS!

Once I got him to my room it took about 40 minutes for him to stop crying and actually put his shoes back on, but at after that he READ A BOOK and TALKED to me! Now, with you not knowing this child you have no idea how huge this is, but trust me, I was amazed. He called me by name and he gave eye contact! At lunch time he even volunteered to eat and got his own tray! He wouldn't sit at a table or do any work, but when we made our Jitter Juice he asked to try it! He even did some dancing with us! I am still going to have him tested because he has lots of issues, but I was so pleased to see that he is going to be much easier to work with this year!

Another first day treat was having my youngest across the hallway from me! His teacher has taught him to give me a thumbs up and mouth "Thumbs up Mama!" when he sees me in the hallway, it is too cute! I caught him one time looking in my room from the hallway and showing me off to one of his friends "That's my mom!" lol.

The funniest part happened in the afternoon. His teacher sent him to my room to ask me for something. He has a speech impediment, so to me it sounded like he was asking for a "back soapy". I tried getting him to repeat himself but it wasn't any clearer. I asked if she was washing something and he said "No, a back soapy for writing!" Ohhh! A black sharpie! Maybe he wasn't the best choice of children to come ask for something lol!

A little while later he marched back in the room, came up to me and gave me a hug and a kiss and I asked him what his teacher needed. "Nothing." he said, and walked back out of the room. After school I asked if that had been a sanctioned visit and his teacher admitted that it was not. The first she knew of it was when he was walking back in the room lol. I had to give him a little talk about not leaving his class without the teacher's permission!

Finally, a quick freebie. I have been printing off all the Pete the Cat materials I can from everyone's blogs and decided to make a quick roll the dice math activity to go with. Click here to grab it!