Veteran's Day Wish

I hope that all Veterans today have someone that will shake their hand, hug them, give them their love for all the sacrifices they have made for our country.

My son, my father, my mother's grandfather, my sister's husband, my sister-in-law .... these people are near and dear to my heart and they have served our country with pride. I know there are so many others that have served our country and I thank each and every one of them.

Sending special love and thanks to all our service men and women!

How Do You Display Student Work?

We have to have student work displayed in our hall and classroom. I love to do this anyway, but it is a requirement at our school. I wrote about how I display my students work on a previous post.

I thought maybe someone might be interested in  how I display my students' work in the hall. In a previous county we had a pretty strict Fire Marshall and things could not be hanging all over the place (I think it was only 60% of a wall could be covered??)

This is what I came up with a few years ago. I like the way each student has their place on the wall!

I usually only change it once a month, but in the past I have changed it weekly.

I didn't notice till now that one of the little spider webs is crooked!

How do you hang up your student work? Leave a comment below with a link to a pic! I would love to see how others display their students' work!

I have my  Student Work Topper on TPT. I printed my original Toppers pictured above in black and white and then took Sharpies to color in the WOW's (I do this a lot!) No color at the time and I had to finish this! The TPT packet has color and black and white Toppers, plus 10 different describing words! And instructions! Check it out if you are interested in displays! (Click on the picture below for a look!)

Thanks for the visit! 

October Flew By!

I don't know about the rest of you, but October just flew by for me! I love October and all the fun activities that we can do with our students, but I couldn't get it all in.

We did have so many fun times and I know every one of my students look at spiders in a different way. We never got around to actually carving a pumpkin, but we did make the cutest little pumpkins as our 'curtain.' I love to hang things from my window.

This is a picture of my class window last year. These are the dodecahedron's we did in 4th and 5th grade AIG. Mr. J. Hughes, one of my favorite TPTer's made this item up! He is amazing. You have to visit his store, (here's the link.)

This is my window this year. I haven't decided how I am going to do my 'curtain.' I think I want a little more color than I had before. (More on this later.)

We have 27 students in our K classrooms. Next Tuesday I will have 21! I am so thankful we have a new teacher. She is right beside me (we connect with a hall with a B and G bathroom!) She loves Science and I am so excited. I will miss my students but they will be next door and I can pop in anytime.

I can't wait to have just 21 folders, notebooks, activities to make, students to meet with.... and the list goes on and on!

I do have a little Turkey Center Activity in my TPT store if you want to take a look. It is Gobblin' Fun! I am going to introduce it today in whole group and then let my students have a go at it! We are working on Beginning Sounds and this is just another way for them to have fun while practicing!

I'll take pics later!

Thanks for visiting.

A New Post.... So Soon?

I really can't believe I am posting again since I usually wait a few weeks (or months!) to post.

Our school has started walks, where admin and other people walk through your classroom and make sure you are doing all that you are supposed to be doing??? Well using the Common Core Standards and I Can statements is huge. I am well trained on using CC standards and I Can statements since my last county required it from the beginning. Teaching 27 Kinders makes things a little tougher than having the usual 20 or so per class. I know many teachers are frustrated with large class sizes this year and we all know that being organized helps!

This little CCSS flip book made it easier for me.

You probably have a set already that you can make like this. Here is how I set mine up and what I do with it.

Since this picture I have 'straightened' up a tad and moved my rocking chair so I can utilize the board behind the chair. I keep my CCStandards that I printed out on a hook on my rocking chair. I made a nice bright cover for them so it can't be missed! I like to sit in my chair while I am having morning meeting. Before making this set,  I was having to get up and go to the board at the other end of the carpet, read and point to the I Can Statement and read the standard. Now I can sit in my chair and explain and read from my flipbook. I still show my Kinders where the I Can statement is, but that is while I am up at that board. I feel that they are understanding the connection now.

This is how page one prints out. There is a page number so I can make sure its always in order. The I Can statements are all there and also some academic vocabulary that I might want to talk to my students about before I start my lesson. There's so much to remember while also keeping my students engaged that this helps so much!

I used divider labels that you buy 8 to a pack to make sure I wouldn't waste time trying to find the standard I wanted. You could always type this, but I just used a Sharpie© to write mine. This is a good reminder for me since I still haven't memorized all the Reading headings yet. When I see them though I know what they are.

I used a large book ring from Staples and you can see in this picture how I used the page dividers. I also put some book tape on the back to make sure the dividers didn't come off even though they stick on. The large ring makes it easy for me to flip to the standard I want.

I use a post it note so that I can make sure I flip to the standard I am using for that day. Of course in reading, I always use more than one standard it seems so I have two post it notes here.

This is the cover I made for my set. I use this same yellow cardstock and type for all my headings in my class. This way it really shows up and it doesn't look so cluttered.

I know many people may not need all of this. With 27 little Kinders, as darling as they may be, things can get disorganized quickly if I do not have everything I need! This has really helped as admin has come into my room and they can see me going over the standards that we will be using in a quiet and meaningful way. Also, having the academic vocabulary right there helps me REMEMBER what I need to teach.

Hope this helps in some way. If you need an ELA Standards set for Kindergarten, mine is $3.00 in my TPT store. Please email me if you need a copy of cover I use. You can use whatever color cardstock, I just think this is easier for me to find.

Where Oh Where Does The Time Go?

This was my post last year about this time.... not much has changed except I have 20 sweet Kinders this year!!!
Well my time this school year has definitely been spent having a great time getting to know my Kinders! I love Kindergarten! I started out teaching K and now I am hoping to stay with this grade until *****Retirement Time.*****

The best thing about Kindergarten is having 27 little darlings who absolutely LOVE their teacher. They hug me and tell me they love me constantly... even when I am asking them to move their color. The second best thing about Kindergarten is seeing students LEARN! You can actually see the progress day by day. How rewarding is that! Some people get their rewards making money, teachers get their rewards by knowing they are helping little people!

One thing we are doing every minute is Letter Recognition. This is Common Core Standard:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1d Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Having fun with Letter Recognition is what my students love to do best. We play games, we use flash cards, we do all kinds of things. One of the best ways I have found to help students with letter recognition AND know their color names are my "Letter Recognition Practice - 8 Mystery Pictures To Color!"

My students love doing these. At the beginning of the year I gave these out, but I had to color in each 'crayon' for them. Now that 2 months have gone by, (well almost 2) I printed these out again and they have to look at the color words to figure out the colors.

There are 8 different pictures in this set and by this time most students had completed about 6 of them at various times during the month. They are great when someone finishes up their work or as morning work. I kept all of the completed pictures in their folders and had them pick their best work to put up!

Thanks for reading my Blog! I am still not too sure if I am doing this right, but it is fun showing my students their work online!

If you have any questions about anything posted, please just let me know. My email is pamjmmes@gmail.com.

The Mystery Pictures are in my TPT store. Right now the letter recognition set is only $3.00 for the download. I have two sets, one is the Letter Recognition pictured here and the other is Sight Word Practice ($4.00.) Both are fun for students and they really do LEARN while having fun!

Thanks for reading!

Enjoying Summer Break!

It has been a month since I've posted on my blog! A lot has happened, but mostly this:

Ocean Isle Beach, NC

My hubby and I walk on the beach almost every morning or night. Then we sit and just watch the waves. Very therapeutic!  I can plan a whole week's lesson while sitting and watching the sea. Or I just think about nothing and just relax.

I've also been doing a tad of knitting. This is a little vest for a friend of mine who just had a baby boy, Charlie! I love his name. The pattern is Cabled Vest and is really so easy.

My deck is probably my favorite place to sit. It's shaded by a big ole Oak Tree. I love it. I can sit there, under the tree, any time of the day and there is always a cool breeze!

I've also been thinking about my sweet students. This is a gift one of them brought to me a few days after school let out. My last year's fourth graders do not know that I will not be their teacher next year. I just found out myself a few days ago. I will miss them so much, but this is a change I asked for. I'm going from 4th and 5th grade AIG to KINDERGARTEN! Some people wonder about my sanity, but I know I will enjoy teaching K again. I loved AIG, but I taught Reading, Math, and Social Studies to 2 grade levels, plus I had a home room with all those responsibilities. No time for a break or even to regroup before the next group came in. I started out teaching Kindergarten and I look forward to this coming year.

So, I have been planning and thinking and reading about Common Core and early learners. Wow, things have changed since I taught K. Looking forward to visiting some K blogs to see what everyone is doing. I did put a few new items for K on TPT. Also a really nice freebie that I think everyone will like.  Here's the link: Sight Word Dictionary !

Here's some little Thumbnails of the Dictionary! Very tiny, but you can download the Dictionary for Free at my TPT store! 

Have a wonderful summer, and as always, thanks for visiting my blog!

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School's out but I have a Pacing Guide Team workshop today and next week! I am working on the 3rd Grade Science and I am actually excited! I love science and 3rd grade! More later!