Counting Workstation

How is this for a Math Workstation...

I bought these cardboard letters at the teacher store. There were 3 of each number. On one set I put stickers to help those who are not identifying numbers yet. The other sets I left blank. The kids will match clothespins to the corresponding number. Again, I love this station because it builds in a fine motor component which is so important early in the year.

Stephanie

Paperclip Workstation

Here is another Pinterest inspired lit/math station. 

I wrote the number and number word on a large index card. I plan on laminating these. The kids just match the paperclips to the card. I love this because it builds in some fine motor as well.

 Here the kids match the colored paperclip to the color word. To add it some difficultly, I also did the color words written in black.

Follow me on Pinterest. Here's my LINK.

Stephanie

Super Easy Literacy/Math Station

What can you do with a bottle of hair gel, food coloring, glitter and 7 ziplock bags? Easy...make a lit/math station for the beginning of the year!

Write Letters

Write Numbers

 Draw Shapes

Happy Station Making!

Stephanie

Back to School- My Pinterest Inspiration

Awhile back I posted about Pinterest. This has been my new summer addiction and has given me many ideas for my classroom! Yesterday I was busy creating some Pinterest inspired supplies. For just a few bucks I created all of these fun things for my kindergarten kiddos! Check them out!

Fine motor/color words- 

Kids string beads on pipe cleaners with tape flags

Fine motor/Counting-

Kids string beads on pipe cleaners with numbers

Fine motor-

I bought this colander at Target (dollar spot). Kids string pipe cleaners though the holes.

Letter Finders-

I used paint chips (free from Lowes) and wrote letters on them. I envision the kids looking through books and using these to find letters. I plan on hooking them all together with a flashcard ring.

Number Finders-

Same thing as above but with numbers. Won't this make a great math station?

Word Families-

Again, I used paint chips from Lowes. The kids can make words with the word family card and the initial letter card.

Happy Creating!

-Stephanie

Donors Choose Giveaway!!!

Hooray! A giveaway! This time there's a catch!

I have a Donors Choose Project that is running out of time. I only need $129. For every $5 you give, I will enter your name into a drawing for a $15 gift card to the store of your choice. If my project gets fully funded I will bump the gift card up to $25.

Here's what you do...

-Go to my Donors Choose Project and give (any amount is appreciated!)

-Leave me a comment or email me at stephaniekelly03@gmail.com to let me know that you contributed. Please include your email address.

-For each $5 contribution you will get one entry for the gift card. So $10=2 entries, $15=3 entries, etc.

Additional Entries

-Donate to my Donors Choose and then blog about my giveaway. Leave a comment telling me you blogged about my giveaway.

Thanks so much for reading! Good luck on my giveaway!!!

Stephanie

Donors Choose

For those of you who don't know about Donors Choose, you should definitely check it out. Basically you can request classroom grants for any amount for materials that you select. Lakeshore is a company that you can use for these grants. I currently have a project on Donors Choose that only has 17 days left. The crazy thing is, Lakeshore Learning is matching funds right now so I only have $129 left to raise. 

So, with that information in mind, what do you do to get your Donors Choose grants supported? I have not had a great deal of luck.

I was thinking about a giveaway...for every $5 you donate, your name will be entered to win a $20 gift card to the store of your choice. What do you think? This is not officially a giveaway yet...I just want some feedback. Maybe I will make it official in a day or 2...

Thanks so much!

Stephanie

The Goods- My Shopping Trip

Yesterday I went out and about and found lots of goodies. Pretty much any store is dangerous for this teacher...

DOLLAR TREE- These are some trays I bought...6 of them...all blue...any ideas what I can do with these?

LOWES- Nuts and bolts- going to be used for my fine motor station and this...

LOWES-PVC pipes phones for reading

TARGET- I am thinking fine motor station or possibly as math manipulatives for sorting :)

TARGET- Huge markers for posters that I found on another blog. I tried them out and I'm in LOVE :)

Stephanie

100 Followers Giveaway Winner!!!

Hooray! I have selected a winner for my 100 Followers Giveaway with Mrs. Patton! I used a random number generator. Are you ready?

THE WINNER IS #70...

Allison @ Room Mom 101 said...

I just discovered your blog and became a follower. I will be adding you to my sidebar too!

Allison

www.room-mom101.blogspot.com

JUNE 17, 2011 9:24 PM 

Congratulations Allison! You are the Winner!

Please email me within 48 hours to claim your prize from Mrs. Patton!

Thank you all for entering! I would like to send out a special thank you to Mrs. Patton's from Mrs. Patton's Patch for hosting a this giveaway with me! 

P.S.- I have over 200 followers now! I am totally feeling the love!

Thanks! 

~Stephanie

Giveaway Ends Tonight!

This is just a reminder that my giveaway with Mrs. Patton's Patch ends tonight at 8 p.m. 

Click below for a chance to win!!

100 Followers Giveaway

Thanks for entering!

Stephanie

Giveaway Ends Tomorrow!

This is just a reminder that my giveaway with Mrs. Patton ends tomorrow at 8 p.m. 

Click below for a chance to win!!

100 Followers Giveaway

Thanks for entering!

Stephanie

Giveaway!!!

This is just a reminder that my giveaway ends on Wednesday, June 22nd at 8 p.m.

Click below for a chance to win!!

100 Followers Giveaway

Thanks for entering!

Stephanie

Pinterest

I have found another new obsession! It is called Pinterest. As a blogger this is a wonderful tool! I have been looking for a way to catalog all of the great ideas that I find on blogs and found it with Pinterest!

Basically you see a picture you like on a blog and you "pin" it. From there you have to select where it goes. For example, I find a really cute literacy work station...I will put it in the lit station file. Then, when I am planning for lit stations I just open up that pin board and voila...tons of great ideas. What is really great about Pinterest is that it saves the site you found the picture.

Here's the thing with Pinterest...it is by invite only. If you would like an invite let me know with a comment that includes your email address! I will be happy to invite you to check it out! I can also pin with my Ipad which is super cool! Happy Pinning!

Oh, and don't forget about my 100 followers giveaway with Mrs. Patton! Check it out HERE!

Stephanie

Google Chrome

I'll start my saying that I hate change! HATE IT! Awhile ago my hubby mentioned that I should switch from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome. I said no. He said yes and put on my computer anyway. That same day he patiently showed me all of the great things I can do with it and I LOVE IT!

If you use blogger, gmail, or Google reader, you should totally check it out. Even if you don't use any of those things, you should probably check it out! Click on the link below! It is a free download and well worth the effort! I put it on my school computer too (even though we are not supposed to do that).

Google Chrome

OH! And don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY with Patton's Patch!

Stephanie

Lakeshore Success!

I was in teacher heaven for a little while today. I went to Lakeshore Learning Store for the first time today. It was a-maz-ing!!! Lucky for me I had a purchase order for school and some more cash from school to spend. I was there for about 2 hours! Here are some of my finds...I even got some clearance deals!!!

Dog was not a part of the deal ;) 

Dry erase handwriting booklets

Word family magnet set

Build a sentence set

Making 3 letter word magnet kit

Blend sorting

More blend sorting- a clearance find!

Handwriting white boards with letters on them

My other clearance finds :)

I can't wait to use this new stuff! 

Don't forget about my giveaway! I've teamed up with Mrs. Patton from Patton's Patch. Check out my POST to find out more!

Stephanie

100 Followers Giveaway!!!

I have finally reached 100 followers! To celebrate, I have teamed up with Mrs. Patton from Mrs. Patton’s Patch. Mrs. Patton has graciously agreed to give away not just one item but EVERY item from her TPT store.

Here’s what you need to do to enter:

- Follow my blog- Mrs. Kelly’s Kindergarten

- Follow Mrs. Patton’s blog- Mrs. Patton’s patch

For additional entries:

-Follow Mrs. Patton’s TPT store

-Blog about the giveaway and post your link here on my blog

Leave a separate comment on this blog for each entry.

You have until Wednesday night at 8 p.m. to enter! Good Luck!

Summer School

It has been far too long since I have blogged and now I have a dilemma! 

I just got a call from one of the schools in my district asking me to teach summer school...starting next week! They are desperate! So, I will be teaching first graders who are going into second grade for 8 days. Only 8 days! 2.5 hours a day! I am a kindergarten teacher so this will be a little out of my comfort zone.

I'm thinking about doing a beach/ocean theme since its summer and I love the beach but I need help. What should my day look like? How can I do minimal planning that will get maximum results?!? How I get these kiddos into a semi routine in 8 days? By the way...I do not know any of these kids reading levels yet. I am a planner so this is out of my realm! I need help blogger buddies! 

Please leave me comments with some great ideas!

On another note, I am at 99 followers! One more follower and there will be a super sweet giveaway!!

Stephanie

End of the Year Fun

What's the Buzz in First is hosting an end of the year linky party.

The end of the year is a whirlwind of activities and special projects. Here are a few things that I do...

Bye-Bye Books Party- I send home all of the class books, posters, and anchor charts that we have made together. I draw names and then the students have to hurry to pick something to take home. All of the items are laid out on the tables and the other students count backwards from 10 while the selected student picks an item.

Picture CD- I take pictures all year long. At the end of the year I burn a picture CD for the parents of all of the pictures that I have taken. At conferences I ask for CD's so that I do not have to provide 28!

Popsicles- To promote good behavior in the last few days of school I buy a big box of freezer pops (a box of 100!) At the end of a hot day we will go outside and enjoy popsicles under the shade trees on the playground.

Stephanie

Poetry Celebration

We had a celebration with another class who was also writing poetry. We shared our treasuries of poems. The kids had a blast! Here are some pictures!

(I love this one!)

Stephanie

Poetry Treasury

To wrap up our poetry unit my students created their own "Treasury of Poems." I brought in scrapbook paper and the students all got to pick and personalize their book. Here are some pictures of our treasuries. 

Stephanie

Poet-Tree

We have spent the past few weeks reading and writing a lot of poetry. I found this idea on another blog and I totally loved it. Here are some pictures of our Poet-Tree. Each of my students wrote 2 poems for our tree.

Stephanie

Pinkalicious!

Check this out...

I found 5 of my kids pouring over this book together! This is what I love about teaching!

-Stephanie

Amazing Eggs- Math Centers and More!

Check out our fun and egg-citing activities!

Roll, Count, and Color

Egg Counting Book

Bird Fair Share

Weigh Eggs

Egg Subtraction

Matching Uppercase to Lowercase Eggs

Egg Word Families

Egg Words- Figure out what word is in the egg

Exploration-

Each child got a hard boiled egg and weighed it, read to it, measured it, and observed how much water it displaced.

Egg Number Word Book

Measure Items with a Jellybean Ruler

Worm Subtraction

Graph Jellybeans

Lily pad Roll, Add, and Cover

Stephanie