Favorite Halloween Book Linky Party



Now that we are about to enter the month of October, it is time to think of one of my favorites Halloween! It is the one time of the year that the most conservative of people can dress up and act like a nut without anyone thinking they are crazy. You know acting like most Kindergarten & First grade teachers act on a daily basis. :)

With Halloween, just around the corner I decided to join First Grade Found Me's Favorite Halloween Book Linky Party. My classroom library contains lots of Halloween books. Here are a few of my favorite to read to my students.

 

This is a great story that reads a lot like The Little Red Hen. The little witch wants her monster friends to help her prepare a pumpkin pie. It is so cute to see the faces of the kids light up a few pages into the story when they recognize the similarity to The Little Red Hen.

 

 

Gilbert is a favorite character of my class. His life is one that kids can relate to easily.

 

 

 

Who doesn't love Junie B. Jones? She is up to her typical craziness in this Halloween book.

 

 

The creepy illustrations of this book hold the attention of students of all ages.This spooky tale reads like 'The House that Jack Built'.

 

 

I hope that all of you have a blessed weekend. Try to get some rest to prepare for next week!

 

Cristy

 

 



Harvest Count & Write the Room FREEBIE!!!

Now that we are getting into the full swing of things I can actually let my kinders be a bit more independent without our chaos taking over my classroom. Organized chaos I can handle...but just plain ol' chaos, no thank you!

Any who, this week the students did a count/write the room activity and man did they LOVE it! They thought they had made the big time walking around the room with a clipboard in their hands. So cute! Well, it was such a hit that I decided to create another count/write the room activity for next week. We are starting our Fall Harvest theme as you can tell by the pictures. I am still learning how to create all the cool activities you wondeful bloggers create. However you know in Kindergarten, we teach everybody to share! So please feel free to get the activity for yourself! Please leave a comment  on what you think. Thanks to all of you for inspiring me!

Click Here for Picture Cards

 

Directions: Print the picture cards on cardstock. Cut the picture cards apart and laminate. Tape the picture cards around the classroom. Students are given a copy of the recording sheet (with a fantastic clipboard) and then walk around the room to find the correlating pictures. Count the pictures and the student writes the correct number beside the picture on the recording sheet.

Click Here for your copy- Harvest Count & Write the Room Recording Sheet

 

Cute Children's Book Discovered

Hello to all you wonderful teachers out there! This week my Kinders will start our two week unit on colors. I was shopping at one of my most favorite places, Barnes & Noble, just strolling through the children's section taking in the wonderful smell of books when a book caught my eye!
Here is what I saw:

 

 

Press Here by Herve' Tullet is one of the cutest books I have seen in a while. It has the reader press certain spots on the page or shake the book and turn the page to find that something has happened to the spots. Oh, I wish this book was around when my boys were younger!

 Here is what the book looks like inside:

 

 

So once the page above is read and the book is given a little shake, the next page has the dots scattered all about on the page. You can see how this book will go great with our color study because the spots are the primary colors and with all the 'movement' of the book done by the reader, the spots eventually come together to form new colors!

 

I can't wait to share this with my class and come up with activities to go along with it. Am I the only one who has been living under a rock and didn't know about this book? Please share with me how you use this book in your classroom.

Have a great week everyone!

 

 

Cristy





I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends!

Goodness gracious, y'all! I don't know about all of you but the past few weeks have been a whirlwind! We had our first day of school on August 27th. I really think that Kindergarten teachers block out the memory of the first weeks of school like moms do with childbirth. :) We bring them so far by the end of the year that we forget how needy they are in the beginning.

Any way, I have 20 kiddos this year and they are just precious. Even though one little girl said to me this week, 'Miss Wagner, can you wear a prettier dress tomorrow? I really like pink dresses.' OK...now I am going to worry each morning if my attire will meet her approval. You gotta love their honesty!

Since school has just started and my classroom looks neatly organized, I thought I would give a picture tour. I am so thankful for all you wonderful teachers out there who have graciously shared your genius ideas via your blogs and Pinterest.

First, this is a picture of my class when you first enter. Notice the pennant banner? Thanks to Abby at The Inspired Apple for showing us how to make it.

Here is one of my favorite ideas that I found on Pinterest. I have gotten so many compliments on it and it was so easy to make! Just get about 4 yards of your favorite fabric, then buy ribbon to attach to the top for a finished look, and use Velcro to attach to the table. Not only is it adorable but it is practical. It is a great hiding spot for all my stuff!

Next is an idea that saved me so much money! I have used chair pockets for years and thanks to my wonderful mother's sewing ability they have been great. The thing is that I used durable fabric and that can get a bit expensive! Well, my BFF Pinterest showed that some brillant teacher used jumbo stretch book covers as chair pockets. I was lucky enough to find mine at Target a month or so ago on sale for 25 cents each!!! They even had the primary colors that I assign to each table.

The other brillant idea was to use felt on the bottom of the chair legs to quiet the noise the chairs cause on the floor. They work great and are much cuter than the tennis balls. I used the same color felt as the table color. Thankfully Walmart had primary color rubberbands for 88 cents a bag! I am all about some color coordination!!! Can you say Type A personality???

 

 

Boy oh boy I am on a roll! Here was an idea that I saw on a teacher's blog (I apologize for not remembering who you are.). Thanks to a teacher's best friend, Target's Dollar Spot, the mini pocket charts make a great way to display our class' word wall. Sorry for the bad angle.

 

 

 

I started implementing Daily 5 after Christmas last year and my kids LOVED the Read to Self and their own Book Boxes. I have so many children's books that I had shelved and would pull out certain books when we were studying a certain theme. What I found was that there were many wonderful books that didn't get read. So thanks to Erica at Sprinkles to Kindergarten blog I decided to have my books displayed and grouped by theme, character, or author with each book having a matching sticker that matches the label on the book tub. I am excited that all my books are going to get some snuggle time with my kinders. PS- Do you see my cute crayon wreath a mom made for me and on the far end of the white board is 'Smary Pants' another idea from Abby at The Inspired Apple.

Abby is also who I can thank for bringing out the craft diva in me. Thanks to her cute signs she made I made a sign for each of my Kinder teachers to hang outside their classroom door. Each one matched their classroom theme. Honestly, I didn't know I had it in me! Thanks, Abby!



 





 

 

Final two things, I found these great signs for Whole Brain Teaching (amazing!) FREE at 3rd Grade Thoughts.      The cute rules are a FREEBIE at The Polka Dot Patch. 

 

 

Sorry for the long post but I did want to recognize how wonderful I think Pinterest and you wonderful teacher bloggers are out there!

 

May God bless each of you as you begin this school year and know that each and every day you are making a difference!

 



Link up & Share Your Quirks!

Mrs. Lemons is hosting a getting to know you linky party. She is asking that we share some of our quirks or interesting facts that make us who we are. Since I have been in hiding for I while, I thought I'd join in the fun. Lord knows I have some quirks! LOL...

1. In high school I worked in an Hallmark store. During the Easter season, I had the priviledge of wearing a full bunny costume. The Moms would bring their cuties in for pictures and some were not excited to see the Easter Bunny!

2. If I was not a teacher, my dream job would be to be an entertainment reporter.

3. Another dream of mine is to play the part of Sandy from Grease. I know every song by heart!

4. When I wash my hands in a public restroom, I always get 3 towels to dry my hands. Not sure why but it has to be 3.

4. As a little girl, I was obsessed with Princess Diana. I had to have every magazine she was ever featured in. My cousin and I always played 'Princess Di' and would take turns playing the princess.

5. My southern accent can be pretty obvious. My first year teaching a little boy that was originally from up north went home and told his mom that his teacher was from a different country because I 'talked funny'. His mom laughed when she met me and realized I was just a southern gal!





6.  I was in a Jello eating contest during my senior year in high school! The use of hands was not allowed! (I came in 2nd place.)



7. The made for TV movie about the life of Ryan White was partially filmed at my high school. They used students as extras and I was in the movie. Well, you could see me walking in the background! :)

We spent the school day filming.

8. For any NASCAR fans, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and I were in the same 4th grade class. He is the next to the last boy sitting on the ground (in the Dale Earnhardt tshirt) and I am in the white shirt standing beside the teacher. The 1980s...you got to love the fashion! :)





I'm Back!!!

Boy oh boy, it has been so long since I posted. Hopefully I am back on track. Thank the good Lord above that I completed my masters degree program in May.

I must confess that I have still been stalking the other blogs out there. I am currently working on a few topics for future posts.

There is something I wanted to know. The second half of this past school year I implemented some of the Whole Brain Teaching classroom management techniques. It is amazing! My question is how have other K or 1st grade teachers begin their school year with WBT? I would love to hear any tips or tricks that have worked in your classroom.

If you are not familiar with Whole Brain Teaching, I highly recommend checking out their website
www.wholebrainteaching.com
It is full of information and FREE resources! You know that teachers are all about free. ;)

Check it out and let me hear from you!

Elf Glyph

'Tis the season....my students enjoyed making these adorable elves last week. I thought I would share the activity and the link to the patterns. I hope your kids love it as much as mine did!!!

Click here for elf patterns

Click here for elf glyph legend

Picture of Glyph Legend



 Santa's Helpers

Close up of elves