It's Product Swap Time!

I know that I have been absent from my blog, and I'm sorry.  I was all excited last night to write a new post {the one I was going to write on Tuesday}, but my blog was looking a tad bit funky.  I decided to hold off on that, again, and wait for today's fun Product Swap.

I was so excited when Jessica teamed me up with Kourtney Payton from Mrs. Payton's Precious Kindergarteners!  She has a super cute blog that you should definitely check out!

My class was about to begin a weather unit.  When I saw Kourtney had a weather centers packet in her TpT store, I knew that was the perfect product to check out.  Kourtney's unit, Weather Centers & Supplementary Activities for Kindergarten, is jam packed {and I mean jam packed} with a ton of great stuff.  I'm going to share with you just a few of the great activities that we used from this packet.

The first one I want to share with you is her abc activity.  For this activity, Kourtney has six weather cards and a recording sheet.  This activity is a center activity, but we completed this as a whole class.  It was a great introduction to abc order!  The first thing that I did was to put the cards under my elmo in random order.  We talked about what kind of weather was on each card.  {Please excuse all of the random things on computer table.  I really need to clean it off.  lol}

We then identified the first letter in each word, and I underlined it.

Next, we used our alphabet in the classroom to put the cards in abc order.

After we used the cards, we completed the skills sheet that came with the activity.  Each student underlined the first letter in the word and circled the letter in the alphabet line at the top.  We then wrote the words in abc order.

The next activity I want to share with you is Kourtney's write the room center.  She included 8 word cards and a recording sheet.  She has two cards to a page, but I printed them off so that I had four cards on a page.  {This size works the best for my classroom.}

I cut out the cards and placed them around my classroom.

During centers, my students walked around the room and completed the top portion of the recording sheet.  They then completed the bottom portion at the table.

Another activity we completed from this great packet was a double bubble map about suns and rainbows.

The last activity that I am going to share with you is a math activity that Kourtney included in her weather packet.  It is a review of 3d and 2d shapes.  This activity included picture cards and a skills sheet.  For some reason, I don't have a picture of the picture cards - sorry.  I do have some pictures of the skills sheet though.  It was a great assessment to see if my students remembered the difference.

This is just a very small sampling of what is in this unit.  Some of the other activities in this unit include a pocket chart center for matching picture cards and word cards, two abc centers {one for initial sounds and one for final sounds}, a cute rainbow craft, a cloud flipbook activity, and a weather journal.

A big thank you goes out to Kourtney for sharing her Weather Centers & Supplementary Activities unit with me!  I love it! Please check out Kourtney's blog and TpT store.  You won't be disappointed!

Sad Day

I have been in a funk lately with my blog.  I sit down to write, but nothing comes out. However, before school I decided that tonight I was going to come out of the funk. I had a blog post in mind and was excited to get back in the groove of things.  I'm sad to say this isn't that post. :(

My principal called a meeting this morning before school.  We thought this was a little unusual since we didn't know about it ahead of time.  At the meeting, our principal informed us that our night custodian, Mr. Bob, was killed last night by a drunk driver on his way home from work.  Today was a very sad day at school. :(

Mr. Bob was a wonderful man.  He always had a kind word.  He would talk to me about my son and Disneyland.  He was always willing to help with anything that was needed.  He will be greatly missed. 

Please keep Mr. Bob and his family in your thoughts tonight.  Thank you.

Five for Friday

So, technically it's not Friday.  However, I am still up so I am going to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday Linky Party.

1.  My students have been working on their sight words with a fun twist this week.  We are beginning to study weather and when I saw this pin about a month ago, I knew I wanted to do it with my class.  Here is my version of writing rainbow sight words.

2.  My students earned a popcorn party and were thrilled when this showed up in our classroom.  We finished our day with a video and some popcorn.

*I don't have pics for the next two things, but I still want to share.  :)

3.  Today was our day to take cap and gown pictures of the Kindergarten and fifth grade students.  My Kinders looked so cute in their little caps and gowns.  I can't wait to see all of the pictures when they come back in a few weeks!

4.  I have been working with a small group of students from my class and my bestie's class.  We have been working on getting letter sounds down pat.  When I tested them today, each student improved their scores (and by a lot).  I am so proud of each of them!

5.  My final part of my Five for Friday has nothing to do with school.  It has to do with this picture that my husband sent me.  I saw it when I got my phone out of my purse at lunch time.

See the pile of rubber on the top of the engine.  Yep - that's my husband's drive belt - destroyed.  And joy of all joys, it broke another part when it broke.  And when I say part, I mean an expensive part.  And you guessed it - recently out of warranty.  :(  It looks like my husband is going to looking for a new car.  I feel so bad for him because he loves his sporty car (most of the time), but it's not worth it (to him) to fix it up.  The worst thing about the whole situation is that we found out the drive belt broke because the mechanics at the dealership didn't put a bolt in correctly.  The bolt ended up on the pan and it caused the belt to break.  I'm not looking forward to car shopping.  We are ones who usually research for weeks/months before we buy a car.  Wish us luck.  lol

The Magic Paper Cutting Trick

Do you hate all of the little pieces of paper that appear whenever your students cut anything out?  Yep - I did too.  That is until I learned the magic paper cutting trick.  Ok, not so much a trick as a sanity saver for someone who hates having little pieces of paper all over her classroom floor.

My bestie taught me this several years ago, and I have been using it ever since.  I teach this to my students at the very beginning of the year in a very dramatic way.  I tell them to watch very closely because I am going to show them a magic trick.  {They get very excited by this.}  I then pick up a piece of paper and a pair of scissors and take my time to cut very carefully around whatever it is I'm cutting.  Once it it all cut out I yell "Ta-Da!!!"  The students then kind of look at me like I'm crazy.  {I'm ok with that.  lol}  I then tell them that my trick is that I cut out my paper with only one piece of scrap.  I then challenge them to show me that they can do a "one scrap cut" too.  Every year, my students are so excited to show me their one piece of paper that they have left after cutting out their project!  It's fun to see them get so excited about something so simple.

I took some pictures yesterday to show you what this looks like in my classroom.  {We were making whirly birds to go along with our weather unit.  I wish I could show you how much fun the students had playing with their whirly birds outside.}

This is what my wonderful recycling box looks like.  Not a tiny piece of paper in the box {or my floor}.  Love it!

Do you do any "magic" tricks in your classroom?

World Autism Awareness Day

If you haven't heard yet, today is World Autism Awareness Day.

I want to tell you about how Autism plays a role in my family.  My son, Colton, has Autism.  He was officially diagnosed at the age of two.  He started school three days after turning three.  School has not always been easy for Colton.  Until about a year ago, he didn't speak at all.  He now is able to speak some words, but still relies heavily on sign language and his Galaxy Player with Sonoflex (a computerized PECS like program).  He does not like when they play a movie in school (scared of the unknown).  However, he reads on grade level, has a rockin' vocabulary, can spell like a champ, and can add/subtract and tell time with the best of them.  He also has a great sense of humor.

Colton at age 3.

Colton today.

Having a child with Autism definitely changes how you look at life.  I've learned to not take anything for granted.  Colton has taught me to slow down and enjoy life.  I am so proud of Colton and all he has accomplished!

I leave you with a little story and a video.  Right before Colton turned three, my husband and I went to Germany on a trip.  We were in a restaurant trying to read the signs and communicate with the person who worked there.  We pointed and tried everything to get the worker to understand what we wanted.  We finally put our order in, and my husband turns to me and said "Now I know how Colton feels."  That really hit home with me and my husband.  Colton always knew what he wanted, we just had to learn how to "listen."

This video is of Scott James.  He is singing a song called "Through My Eyes."  It talks about how a person with Autism might feel.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Five for Friday - Spring Break Edition!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday.  {Spring break edition of course.  :)}

1.  I changed my Pinterest account to the new look, and I'm loving it!  It feels so much easier to navigate, and I love the larger pictures!

2.  I also changed up my reader for my blogs.  As you may or may not know, Google Reader is going away on July 1st.  I really, really, really do not like change.  {Ask my husband.  lol}  So changing two big things in one week is a little much for me, but I survived.  :)  I decided to go with Feedly as my new reader.  I like the way it shows a picture from each blog, and how each "page" only shows a total of six blogs.  I am sad that my precious Google Reader is going by the wayside, but Feedly is a good alternative.  Here is a screenshot of what it looks like on my phone.

3.  My bestie and I did a little scrapbooking this week.  I have a Cricut and quite a few cartridges.  I love sitting down and putting a page together.  We had so much fun and even got a few pages done. ;)

4. My son and I went to the new Discovery Children's Museum here in Las Vegas on Thursday.  It was so much fun!  There was a pirate ship to play on for my obsessed pirate ship boy, a water play area, an art area, and so much more!  They currently have an exhibit on George Washington and had a set of his dentures on display.  I know, kind of gross, but kind of neat too.   I read George Washington's Teeth to my students during our President's Day activities.  I can't wait to show them these pictures I took!

Here's a picture of my son that I took just for fun.  

5.  Easter is coming and many children enjoy waking up to see what kind of candy the Easter Bunny left in their baskets.  Not my son.  He doesn't like candy.  Trust me, I've tried.  lol  However, he does enjoy marshmallows, so I am making him a bag of bunny tails.  I plan on putting marshmallows in a baggie and adding the tag below.  He will love it!  If you would like a copy of the tags to make your own bag of bunny tails, you can get the pdf here.

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

Thanks for joining me for my Spring Break edition of Five for Friday!  

New Look at Pinterest

Yesterday, I heard a little rumor that Pinterest was changing their look.  I figured it would be awhile before it rolled out, and I would jump on it when the time came.  Little did I know that that time would be sooner than later.  I logged in, and I was asked if I wanted to change it to the new look.  Um...yes please!

I thought I would take some screenshots to show you how it looks now if you haven't had the chance to switch your account over yet.  This is what the new feed looks like.  The pictures are much larger {which I love!}.  You can find all of the categories on the left hand side by using a drop down menu.  The drop down menu on the right allows you to look at your boards, pins, settings, etc.

This next picture shows what it looks like when you click on a picture to pin something.  I love how it shows more of the board that it's pinned from, as well as the original source.  Instead of just a few pictures, it has a scroll bar where you can look through and see if there is anything else that interests you.  You can also start following a board from this screen.  

The next picture shows what's under whatever it is you're pinning.  I love how it shows you so many great pins that you might be missing out on.  This pic only shows the top of the list.  It goes on and on.  Trust me - great stuff!

If you get asked if you want to switch to the new look, I highly recommend it.  I love it!  I would love it also if you checked out my boards and became a follower.  {My boards are currently in their infant stages. I decided to have an account for just my school "stuff", so I'm in the process of repinning some great pins as well as finding new ones!}  I would love to follow your boards too!

Happy pinning!