Friday Freebies??

Hi everyone!
Well... I kinda sorta have freebies... I have some new products up on TPT today and I want to give some away! So... FREEBIES!!! Freebies for those who would like to comment today =)
Here it is...
We just finished our Body unit and we talk all about the different things going on in our bodies and the things to do to keep us healthy and strong. I put together this little workbook to make it more fun & meaningful for our kiddos. I also made it so that those who are reading and writing already can use it too! Something for everyone (I hope). If you would like a copy comment below and say "My Amazing Body Rocks!" hehe.

 Here are a few shots of the students actually using it...

Next, I have one of my favorites to teach numbers 1-20... A TREASURE HUNT! We give students a paper towel tube and use it as their "telescope" then we post the ships all around the classroom and the kids have to use their telescope, count the ships on each page and mark it on their maps. It is so much fun! The kids LOVE it! If you'd like a copy leave a comment below and say: "TREASURE HUNT HERE I COME"

 I'm giving away 3 of each, you can get 1... which do you want?? Come on, they are free! lol.

That's all I got for you today... I've been in such a funk today that all I want to do is sleep and give away free stuff!

Get yours while you can!

HAPPY FRIDAY

How I Became a Genius

Hi friends!
I've missed being here! My husband's birthday and my brother-in-law's is today so we've had a week long celebration for those guys. Lucky ducks, right?? I've also had a whirlwind week at work. I don't know about all of you guys but I'm pooped! We don't get a fall break like you other lucky ducks out there so by this point, my colleagues and I are hauling through... just barely making it past the boogers, fevers, coughs and sneezes. =) Kindergarten teachers understand that one, right?
Well, let me tell you HOW I BECAME A GENIUS!

Last year, my school started using a site called SIGNUPGENIUS.COM to schedule our parent conferences. We could use it for other things as well but we were required to use it for our parent teacher conferences. All of us teachers moaned and groaned upon hearing this BUT it was the BEST decision ever! We use SignUpGenius.com for everything now! Our technology committee uses the site to check out equipment, classrooms use it to schedule volunteers, potlucks, and other things. You know all those parties and celebrations that are coming up... Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah...well... all of those can be set up quickly by you and you don't have to worry about it again! The free site has a quick and easy process to getting your signups up and running and my favorite part? It automatically sends reminders to all those who have signed up!!! Seriously, that is genius. I can't tell you how many times I've had parents forget things on me (I'm sure you understand!). My second favorite part? You can see, of everyone you have sent the sign up to, who has viewed the sign up, how many times and on what day. Now you can't have any of those parents say, "Oh, I didn't get that email, did you send it to the right one?" ("YES! I send all my emails to the same one!" is the response I say in my head)  Well, those parents can't say that anymore because I can tell! Am I the only one with those parents?? lol. As long as you sign up, you can use it for anything really, not just school stuff!
So I put together a little tutorial about my favorite parts and how simple it really is... I tried my best and I hope you can use the site too! Here it is...

Look at all of those responsible families of mine looking at the sign up list. Many of them multiple times (though I still don't have everyone). Now I can keep my desk clear of unnecessary papers, etc, it's online, ready to go AND sends the reminders for me. All I have to do is keep track of who hasn't responded. On the day of my conferences, I print out the sheets and I am ready to go!
I plan on setting another one up soon for our Halloween centers celebration & parade and then our Thanksgiving Feast and then our Cultural Celebration (around the winter holidays). This site has done a great job of eliminating wasting time, energy and paper! It sets up the time frame for me, emails the parents for me, reminds them for me, reminds me for me, keep me organized and clutter free!
Has anyone else used this site?? I'd love to hear from you. I suggest everyone use it, let me know if you do!
SignUpGenius.com thanked me with a gift card for reviewing their site. The gift card was not dependent on a postive or negative review of the site, but was a compensation for spreading the word. All opinions expressed are my own and I say: GO TO THIS SITE BECAUSE IT IS AMAZING!

Have a great night everybody...

BOO!

Hi everybody!
I've had an VERY eventful weekend and now I'm back to the grind ANNND I've been BOO-ed by Amy at Adventures in Teaching! I love linky parties! Actually, I love all kinds of parties but linky parties let me meet more virtual friends ;) 

So, here are the rules...

1. If you've been boo-ed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.

2. Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!

3. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (maybe yours or someone else's) or freebies(s) that you love!

4. Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers-make sure you check this link so that you don't repeat the "Boo"

http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html

5. Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas! While you are there check out the other great blogs!

Here are my fave October activities...
1. It just so happens that we teach counting and graphing during this time so I love activities like this freebie from Lisa at The Lower Elementary Cottage...

Isn't it cute!!??
2. I also like this one...

Is it messy? yup! Is it adorable? yup! After they ripped and glued and ripped and glued, we cut them out and will hang them in the classroom (pics to come soon!) Anything candy corn is cute!
3. Lastly, since October means everything PUMPKIN, we always do a pumpkin tasting & graph!

I have the kids taste each one of these and then fill out the graph to decide the class favorite! It is the best! And it's free on TPT! Click on the picture to take you to the download. I wish I had pictures of this in action but I don't, I know, I'm a slacker.

Here are the friends I'm going to BOO!

See ya!

What a Wednesday

Hi friends!
So today was quite a day! I had 5 students out today. 5!! And my student teacher was out too!! Flu shot, here I come!
Can you imagine what it was like in my classroom today?? It was so calm and quiet. We do centers each day for an hour and I usually have parent volunteers but my parent volunteer was sick today, too! So it was just me and my students today. It was so nice. After our calm centers, we started our Language Arts block. Do you remember D? Well this is the worst part of the day for him. Language Arts time is the time he dreads the most so he decided he wouldn't come back to the classroom. I gotta figure something out for that kiddo. Anyway, during our language arts block, it happened... dun, dun, dun! The fire alarm!!!! This was my train of thought: What's that noise? Is that the bell? What time is it? Are those more bells? Crap! (I go outside to make sure that those were bells because my classroom is far from the bells) Crap! What's today? Did I miss the drill? Crap! Then, "Ok boys and girls we are going to STOP what you are are doing, stand up and get in line." Yeah, I scared them a little with my serious-get-in-line-now voice. So D was already outside of our classroom, he saw everyone else and jumped in line (with a little prompting). We head over to the field to line up and D starts running. Running laps around the field. Just running. Having the time of his life. The entire school is outside at this point and D is running laps. What could I do? I giggled a little. There was nothing else. We figured out quickly that he just needed to let out some energy. When he was tired, he returned to class. After the drill- oh wait, it was a drill because a 4th grader accidentally pulled the alarm- we returned to class, finished out language arts lesson and moved right into Social studies where we continued to talk about the Statue of Liberty. No pictures of that today. Bummer. We watched a great youtube clip of a tour of the Statue. It was awesome, the kids were really excited about it. So during this lesson, I got a little surprise...I's parents showed up! With cupcakes, and juice, and goody bags for I's birthday. Surprise! Ugh. I hate when that happens. I really do. An entire hour before lunch. Double Ugh. We were still in the middle of the lesson. So I made them be volunteers for a few before I said we could actually eat those cupcakes and have those juices. Then I look over and mom is cutting I's statue for her. REALLY? Come on, mom, let your kid do her work. Can you tell I was annoyed?? So finally, I said it was ok to have some cupcakes BUT I had to inspect the ingredients first because I have students severely allergic to nuts including things that are made on shared equipment of nuts. Luckily, these were safe. Next, I had to inspect the ingredients again for gluten because I have a student severely allergic to gluten. Not safe. This student now has to eat fruit snacks while everyone else gets cupcakes. See why I hate these surprises? Then it was lunch time. Finally. But I have lunch duty today so I have exactly 15 minutes to heat up my food, get homework ready to be copied, help R find his lost lunchbox, scarf down my food, and report for duty. Ugh. After lunch, the birthday girl went home so now I have 6 students out and Art class. Pure bliss.
Here are some shots of my students at centers today. They were math centers 2 focusing on graphing, 1 reviewing patterns and 1 fun, creative one.

hmmm... one of these pages doesn't look right... We graphed the candy corn in our bags

We graphed the dinosaurs on the table

This one is from yesterday but I put it here because I love to see them on task and working together.

 Ok friends, be back soon!