Stay Organized Summer!

Ok, as I was typing that I heard it in my head in my best Ron Burgandy voice. Who loves Anchorman?! It's one of those awful movies that gets funnier every. dang. time. you watch it! I'm a sucker for slapstick comedy... just ask my husband. I laugh at the silliest things. I can blame my Mom for that! ha! She is exactly the same way!

"Stay classy, San Diego"

I say... "Stay organized, Nicole!"

I've been brainstorming all these wonderful ideas for my classroom, my house, this blog, Ella's birthday party, and just everything that I needed a way to keep myself all organized this summer. My desk calendar.. is, well, at school and does me no good at home (and I think it ends with June?!). The calendar on the fridge is for appointments, etc which left me no room for my personal things!

I made a little packet {for FREE, of course!} that will help you out, here!

I haven't put mine all together yet, but I'm going to slide this first page into a binder and then hole punch the calendars (June, July, August) and put them inside the binder.

 I made 3 different versions of the to-do list... because, well, not everyone blogs!

I hope you hop on over and grab them here!  Let me know if you grab them - I love to hear from you!

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Made it!

What I love about summers?!?! Other than not having to wake up at 5:30?

It's 12:30 and I've already made breakfast with my babes, taken them to chapel at their school, took them to the library (we didn't make it to story time - Luke had to nap!), and planted flowers in the pots in front. Sound like a successful day to me! Eventually I'll lost my steam, but for now I'm refreshed! :)

Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics began a "Made it Monday" series this week. We're all trying to convince her to make it a linky - I know that I will participate and this will keep me motivate to finish up all those (school and non-school) projects I have waiting on my summer list! 

Here's the supply box I completed yesterday (I think I pinned this way back in November or something!)

{see the pin here}

My classroom is all bright color polka dots and stripes - so I decorated the labels to match!

If you want to make your own and use my labels, HERE they are! I just copied them onto 4 different colors of cardstock. I bought the toolbox from Home Depot. It's with the toolboxes/organizational stuff. They didn't have black like I wanted, but the grey works, too! It was only $16 - SO worth it! The rest of the decoration supplies I pretty much had on hand. I bought some new ribbon (I couldn't help myself!) to make it more matchy with my classroom.

I think it turned out pretty stinkin' cute and how practical is it?! I will never have to stuff these materials in my desk again! 

Here is a little detail picture :)

On another note, I found this AWESOME fabric at Joann's on Sunday to go around the random desk that the computer for the Smart board sits on - it's so ugly and I definitely need to disguise it in some way! It matches really well with the striped fabric I already have in my room!

Ok, ya'll - one of my super awesome team mates is leaving Kinder for 4th grade *waaaaaa* but she's also leaving ME with a lot of wonderful goodies she won't need anymore *woot woot*

She gave me her chair pockets - I'm so excited because I have not ever had any... I just found other ways to store my kid's stuff. They've been used for several years and lack a little in aesthetics:

So what are you thinking would be the best way to cutesy them up a little? I haven't looked at stencils yet (they honestly frighten me a little bit). I could paint stripes or polka dots on them, or use ribbon like here with a little steam a seam:

I need your ideas, friends! Let me know what you think!

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Ready to Learn! Beginning of the Year Craftivity

Happy Memorial Day friends!

Any fun plans?! We swam over at a friends yesterday - My friend on the left is 35 weeks pregnant, the one in the middle has the twins and that's my little stinker on the right! Aren't the boys all so cute in their swimming gear?!

I know that all of you that are out of school are thinking about next year already -  I certainly am! I made this little craftivity to reinforce rules when we begin the new year - they're going to be so cute up on the wall! There are various options for this craft in my little packet - you can cut and paste/ write your rules, use white paper, or go crazy decorating! Each kid can personalize their own!

You can purchase this backpack craft HERE.

I hope you can use this in your own classroom!
Let me know what you think!

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New classroom!!

It's my first official day of summer! woot woot!

I sat down last night while my hubby was out with some friends and reorganized all of my pin boards!! When I started Pinterest last summer I only dedicated one to school - my pins were getting out of control and I couldn't find anything when I went looking for it!!

Ya'll.... it seriously took me 2 hours to repin everything onto a new board! It was SO worth it, though! Now next year when I'm looking for ideas they're easy to find! :)

I've been going through all of my organization/decoration ideas like crazy and trying to prioritize what I can get done over the summer! I moved into a new class yesterday (yes... goodbye room 300 - it's kind of a joke at our school; it's that room that no one wants lol). Take a look at some of my pins - I'll for sure be posting some new projects soon - can't wait!

{click on the pic to take you to this board}

OH and check out my new link buttons to the right - thanks Jessica for the tutorial!!

And to leave you with a teeensy look at what a BIG MESS I left to clean and organize...

 To my defense... it was pretty full when I moved IN to it... I just stacked all my stuff on top :)

I forgot to take a picture of my empty classroom - I will get one the next time I go up to school!

 This just made me smile! :)

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Alphabet Songs!

Hi ya'll!

Tomorrow is the LAST day of school for me! I'm super excited... but also I'm really sad! Just thinking about my littles moving on up and leaving me makes me sad! OH and the fact that next year it's off to a blank slate again! Just after I got 'em all perfectly trained! ha!

One thing that I LOVE to use (especially at the beginning of the year when we are introducing letters) is Have Fun Teaching's Alphabet songs! At the end of every day I spend about 5-10 minutes singing these songs with my kids! They are seriously a lifesaver and they really are FUN to sing! (Check out the counting backwards from 10 and counting by 5's songs too - those are my kid's FAVE-orite songs!)

I love the language that the songs use - teaching consonants and vowels, each letter sound and tracing the letter in the air. They are so interactive and my kids love breakin' it down to these songs!

Oh, and my blogging friends - go check out Have Fun Teaching's giveaway! If you write a review about their (wonderful!) songs, you can get a free download of all the alphabet songs! I know this will be a lifesaver when the bandwidth is being s-l-o-w!!

P.S. Did you notice my new header?! What do you think? Better than the last one?! 

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Swimming into School!

I've been racking my brain the past few weeks about how I want to decorate my classroom next year!

I'm moving into a new room on Friday (complete with closet and cupboards and a sink!!) so I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do! This past year I had owls all over (I LOVE the cuties!) and think I might go with them again, but I'm going to use these little cuties to decorate my door for the beginning of the year.

 I made a header that says "Swimming into Kindergarten!"

I'm venturing into making glyphs for my TpT store and would love some feedback! Go check it out HERE.

 I'm guest posting over at Pocket Full of Kinders this evening! Come see me over there, too!

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Winner! Winner!

Hi friends!

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes yesterday! You all are so sweet! I had a great day!

Now on to business... I've got some winners!

Mrs. Richling and Ami-Beth, check your inbox for an email from me!!

1 more whole day and 2 half days until summer! Woot!

Have a fabulous night!

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It's my BIRTHDAY!!

Hi blogging friends!

Today is my birthday and really quick before I head off to the LAST Monday of  school...

 {click on the picture to take you to my store!}

I'm also linking up for Classroom Freebies Manic Monday!

If you didn't catch it last week, grab my super cute worm packet here - it promises GOBS of fun {21 pages!} with your kids! Visit my previous posts here and here to see the fun! Let me know if you grab it - I love to hear feedback!

Worm Packet

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Super Summer Stations!

Happy LAST week before summer begins! (At least for me!)

I began working on a Summer Stations packet a while back for the last week of stations for my kiddos but then... I got distracted by those darn worms! ha! This little packet got pushed to the back burner because I was just having so much fun creating worm stuff!

Well, today I knew if I didn't just sit down and finish it out I probably wouldn't finish it until after school - and I really want to use it this week! Guess what our aide will be doing tomorrow?! Cutting and laminating all these fun stations I will use to finish out the week!

 I don't know about ya'll, but the closest ocean to me is 11 hours away - most of my kids have never seen it, so camping/fishing is much more of a "summer" activity for them - this packet is about half and half beach and camping fun!

You can check it out {here} on my TpT store!

Don't forget TODAY is the last day to enter my "Thank you followers" giveaway! Click HERE to see all the goodies and enter! 

Also... tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY! So don't forget to check back tomorrow to see what I have in store for my day!

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Ya'll.... I have a problem!

I've become worm obsessed!!

For some reason I've just reaaallly gotten into this little mini unit we've been working on this week! ha!

I made up a little glyph packet this afternoon after we read "Diary of A Worm" and watched the little Scholastic video that goes along with it - it is just such a darn cute book! That little cutie inspired me to make a craftivity/glyph for my kids!

We're down to 5 days left in school...and I've got to keep those hands busy next week so they can keep them off of each other! {anyone with me, here?!} Here's what I came up with:

Aren't they Caaaute?! And simple, too!

 I made up a little packet on TpT - my first little glyph packet! I make glyphs/craftivities all the time for my own class but haven't thought to put them in a packet - it's a lot of scanning and zooming and such!

Check it out {here} on TpT! It's only $1.50 for some cute goodness, 2 writing prompts and 2 different analyzing sheets.

The first 3 people who comment on this post will get this straight to your inbox for free! Thanks for following me! Don't forget to leave your email!

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Crazy Juice!

Ya'll.... have your kids been drinking the same crazy juice MY kids have been drinking?!

Even my {own} kids have been drinkin' the stuff! We ate some ice cream after dinner so naturally it ended up on their faces. Somehow my oldest {Ella} decided that it would be a good idea to color {um..yes, with crayons} on her brother's and her own face! Luke {the baby} of course thought this was hilarious and joined in on the fun. {This is just a SMALL indicator of how my day has been lol}

I guess I got some pretty darn cute pictures of the stinkers but what. a. mess!

{yes..they are in the bath!}

 Now on to the CRAZINESS of Room 300!

Today we had awards ceremonies so no specials (waaaa! no breaks!) and we were all wound up about the fun from yesterday...

Yep... I bought a little tub of them from Wal-Mart and busted them out yesterday! They had SO much fun investigating! Every single one of my kids were champs (um..ME included!) about the worms. They loved them wiggling and squirming and sliding all over their hands and tables! 

Because we are still reading "How to Eat Fried Worms" we did some writing about what WE would put on a worm to make it taste better if we absolutely had to! I just love how much my kids have blossomed into fabulous little writers this year!

This one is my FAVE! "I would put pickles (on it). My dad made me do it." bahahahaha!

  "I would put frosting on my worm"

"If I eat a worm I would put ketchup and honey"

If you'd like to grab this and many more cute activities to do with worms.. check out my little {FREE} Worm Packet!

I'll leave you with this:

{thanks for the fabulous idea Jennifer!}

Here's to hoping they're not having a crazy juice hangover tomorrow!

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Wondrous Worms! and a FREEBIE!

Ya'll - I have been having SO MUCH FUN teaching about worms this week (who knew?!?)

I was inspired by Jennifer over at First Grade Blue Skies and her wonderful little worm packet (go download it - seriously! But finish reading my post first :)

If any of you know me - I am a GIRL with a capital G. I don't like bugs. I don't like dirt (or germs! Seriously, I'm constantly sanitizing - I can't help it!) But when it gets down to it - I don't mind getting a little messy. Especially when it involves inspiring little minds! (and fun, hellooo!)

For our end of the year party we are making "dirt pies" (pudding, crumbled oreos, gummy worms) so that is what encouraged me to take the plunge and do a little mini-unit about worms. Our Treasures readers are 1 week short of the school year so there is one whole week where I get to teach what I want(!) Woot woot!

Monday - I introduced worms - We began reading "How to Eat Fried Worms" (I know...you're thinking "seriously, in Kindergarten?!") But it is SO funny and really engaging - it is great just a few chapters at a time when we first come in and then at the end of the day. They have been begging me to read more! We have been practicing visualizing (see my packet) and have done some fun writing with it!

Tuesday - On Monday I had told my kids that sometime this week I would be bringing real live worms for them to investigate. But I TRICKED them! muahahahaha. {don't worry...yes, later on this week they'll get to see the real worms!}
I cooked up some spaghetti noodles and put them in a bowl...hidden in a bag. (I added some extra water to the bowl so they were super slimy) They each took a turn feeling inside the bag without looking.

 After they each had a turn we made a list of words that described what they felt inside the bag. I told them "they might or might not be worms." They all went to their desks and drew with labels (using our list of adjectives) what they thought was in the bag (not ONE kid thought it was something other than worms!)

 After they were finished with the first box I brought them back to the carpet and revealed to them what was in the bag!! They couldn't believe it! "Mrs. Alderson, you tricked us!!" And of course... they had to go back and draw with labels what really was inside the bag.

I'm going to be posting more fun things about our week later on, but I wanted to share this with you guys now! I just couldn't wait! I'd love it if you grab it - it's free in my TpT store!

{Click on the picture to grab!}

Don't forget! You can still enter my giveaway here. There are some AWESOME goodies to be won!

Happy almost-Wednesday, friends!

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