New Blog Design and Something Exciting! Don't Miss Out!!

Happy Friday Everyone!! Wow, I feel like I haven't blogged in forever.....probably because I haven't!

First off, I have to ask: Do you like my new blog design!? I've actually been going crazy googling how to do what I wanted to do without pulling my hair out working on it for the past few weeks, and finally made it happen! I'm in love with it! I love changing and rearranging things and am really pleased with how it turned out!

I've also been working on a few things this week. I just uploaded 6 more Shape Poster sets & a back to school math center (which is currently a giveaway on Teacher Notebook until tomorrow if you want to head over for your chance to win it! Click HERE to go to TN)

I would really love to giveaway some of my Shape Poster sets....which is why the first 3 people to comment on this post and tell me where their all-time favorite vacation destination is, along with their email address AND the Poster set they'd like....will win it! (Click on the picture below to go to my store to check them out more!)
All I ask in return is that you follow both my blog and store(s) if you haven't already!

Speaking of vacations, we just went to Alaska last week! Can you say GORGEOUS!? I had no idea it was so green and beautiful. (Although it was foggy and REALLY cold a couple days) Here are a few pictures from my phone, and I'll share better ones after I get them off my camera!

I returned home from vacation to a pleasant surprise! I now have over 100 facebook followers! I can't believe it. (AND I'm super close on my blog too!) To celebrate, both my TPT and TN stores are going to be 20% off this weekend!


Check back tomorrow for something VERY EXCITING that will be happening....It might just include a LOT of FREEBIES! You won't want to miss out, trust me!

I'm SO excited!!! {with a St. Patrick's Day freebie!}

I just completed my VERY FIRST product to sell on TPT!!!!

I've been working on it off and on over the last couple weeks and I am SO EXCITED! 

I made my TPT store last night! I am so excited I can't even tell you! 

I've decided to sell it for only $1.00!! 

It includes 6 Math Center Activities including:

1- Lucky Leprechaun Patterns

2- Pokey Pin number sentences

3- Roll and Color pages

4- Lucky Game Board for any subject. Just use your own flashcards

5- Write Around the Room {tally marks}

6- Greater Than/Less Than partner game

I've decided to give it to the first three people who comment about what 3 wishes they'd ask for if they caught a leprechaun. {Make sure to leave your email address} All I ask in return is that you PLEASE follow my new TPT store here and tell your friends about it!

If you aren't one of the first three to comment, that's okay you didn't miss out completely....I'll give you a preview by giving you a free page from my new Luck 'O the Irish math center unit! (And I wouldn't mind if you also wanted to follow my new TPT store....click here if you'd like to!)

I also want to share a couple other AMAZING freebies I've ran across this past weekend!

The Classroom Creative has posted about 10 AMAZINGLY awesome freebies:

One more thing....Have you heard about the SWEET blog hop that started yesterday!?!

Don't miss out!! There are 15 amazing St. Patrick's Day freebies and the chance to win $100 in TPT gold! (It ends March 16th!) Click the picture below to get started!

I've also linked up at Freebielicious, Sharing Kindergarten & TBA. Make sure to click on each picture below to check out all of the other fun St. Patrick's Day freebies & products!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Melissa

The Tarsal bone's connected to the.....Tibia {Freebie}

We've been learning about our bodies the last few weeks! It's crazy how much some of my kids already know about their bodies. We've talked different organs like our hearts, lungs & brains. We've also talked about what we need to do to keep these healthy. 

I found some great short video clips on YouTube about different things in our bodies. They're titled "Learn about Human Body Parts for Kids" and there are a bunch of them! about the heart, lungs, skeleton, skin, tongue, brain, liver, kidney, stomach.....you name it and they probably have it. They're only about 2 minutes long (which, let's face it - is perfect for our youngsters!) and they teach great concepts. 

I grabbed this freebie from Little Miss Kindergarten:

They are adorable and my kids LOVED coloring them and deciding what was good for our bodies and what wasn't the best. There are both a girl and boy skeleton to grab. Just click on the picture to go straight to her blog and grab them.

Also, my brother recently came into town to visit us for a few days. He is currently a nurse and offered to come in and teach my kids some fun facts about their bodies. Of course, my sweet husband also came and together they did a great amazing job!!

They taught my kids that our lungs are like balloons. When we breath in, they get big and when we breath out they get small again. 

They let my Kinders listen to their resting heart beat with their stethescopes, then after exercising and jumping around for a few minutes, listen to them again and hear the difference.

They demonstrated when we have light in our eyes, our pupils get smaller:

and also when our knees are tapped with a soft hammer, they have a reflex and move!

Needless to say, they had a blast!

This week I'm planning on teaching them a song to the tune of the "Macarena" - labeling bones in their bodies. You can sing it multiple times and each time get faster and faster. It goes like this:

 Tarsal (point to foot)

Tibia (bone towards the inside, below knee)

Fibula (bone outside, below knee)

 Patella (kneecap)

Femur (bone above knee)

Pelvis (hip bone)

Ribs

and Sternum. (where ribs join in center of chest)

Carpals (wrist)

Ulna (bone on arm- same side as pinky finger)

Radius (bone on arm- same side as thumb)

Humerus (arm above elbow)

And....here's my cranium! (skull)

We're also going to attempt to make these:

 We'll see how they turn out!

 Last, but definitely not least....I made a "Number Surgery" math center that I'd like to share with all of you! My kids had SO much fun pretending to be a Doctor! I highly recommend letting them dress the part.

I got tweezers, gloves & masks for them to wear while performing "surgery" and of course had to take a couple million pictures of them!

The bones are "broken" and they have to put them back together by finding the right answer.

There are:

adding and subtracting doubles

adding and subtracting 1

adding and subtracting 0

Afterwards they get to record their results on their clipboard (because that's what Doctors do, right?)

I am so excited to share this center with you all. 
Please leave me feedback and follow my blog and I'll make sure to keep giving you freebies. 
Click the picture below to grab your copy!

I hope you're all having a great week!

 Melissa


I've linked up with:

 

Roll Say & Keep FREEBIE!!!

Happy Saturday! I hope you all had a great week. I finally got over the cold I've had for over a week and I'm contemplating about getting a flu shot this year {I never have!} What about you, do you get a flu shot each year?

 I have two more weeks with my kids before Christmas break....and they are getting very antsy and excited! I hope they can give me one more week of academics, then the last week we'll be having a review week, doing "Christmas around the world" & our class parties. I'm really excited! 

Do you get to have class parties this year? I work at a Christian private school, so we get to talk about the true meaning of Christmas each day. It's so fun to watch their excitement of celebrating Christ's birth. In fact, yesterday we just made Doodle Bugs "Baby Jesus craft" and my kids loved it! I forgot to take pictures, but I will next week and add them on. If you're interested in this free craft, click the picture and it will take you to the download on tpt.

What are you planning for the last couple weeks before the break? This next week we will be focusing on Gingerbread Men and will be doing a science experiment on what would have happened if the he did fall in the water. I have a fun gingerbread add and color math center and I also made a "Roll, Say & Keep" game for them and want to share it with you! 

 

Just click on the picture above for this FREEBIE and please feel free to pin it, and tell your friends about it too! I included a blank card sheet in case you'd like to write in the concept you need for your class....so this could be used for anything, not just math!

I am also planning on using the cards for a "Write the Room" activity- my kids loved the last one I made for them! Here is a recording sheet if you're interested in doing that as well. You'll just have to add the numbers on each card, and then hang them up around your room! 

I hope you are able to use these! I would really appreciate some feedback if you download them! Make sure to check out my other freebies while you're here!

Thank you!

Melissa

Reindeer Write the Room FREEBIE

I've decided to transition this blog into more of a "teacher" blog instead of a "class" blog. I've used it to keep parents informed as to what we've been learning about at school....but I've decided to jump into teacher blog-land, and I'm SO excited to post my FIRST official FREEBIE!! 

I'm so happy Freebielicious has started doing link up parties on the first of each month! Make sure to check out all the other freebie's that linked up by clicking the button below!




This is also my first time linking up with Freebie Friday...you should go check out the other fun freebies there if you haven't already by clicking the button!



I've seen a lot of Write Around the Room activities all through blog-land, but I have yet to try it out with my kinders!

The other day one of my boys came and asked me for a piece of paper, then went around the room asking everyone to write their names on it....including me! Of course other kids wanted to join in, so they asked for paper as well. Some kids wrote all their classmates names by looking at each nametag, while others wanted "autographs". 

I decided right then that I'm sure my kids would LOVE to start doing WATR activities! 

We've been learning about "adding one" and this week I'm going to introduce "Counting on addition". I  made this Reindeer WATR activity for them and decided to share it with you! (I teach at a private school, and we teach first grade math.)

I hope you enjoy it and are able to use it with your kiddos! 

 

You can get this FREEBIE by clicking the picture above! It will open in Google Docs. (I recently updated the freebie and changed some of the math facts. You can now find it in my TPT store....still a freebie!)

I'm very new at this, so let me know if you like it by leaving a comment and I'll make more freebies!

Thanks for stopping by!

 Melissa  

I also just linked up with "The hands-on teacher in first." Make sure to check out those freebies too!

Merry Christmas!!

Monster Math

I found this on Pinterest and thought it looked like so much fun, I had to make it for my Kinders! We are learning doubles addition right now, so that's what I used it for, but the possibilities are definitely endless!!! 

Click on the picture below to go to "No Time For Flash Cards" to learn more about how she did it!

 Here are a few pictures of what my kids did at school They had so much fun with it!

(I purchased the small cookie sheets, google eyes & fun small containers [in the baby section] at Dollar Tree)

 

 You could use this idea with so many things....Turkeys with feathers for Thanksgiving, Cotton balls with Santa for Christmas....Hearts, 4-leaf clovers, Easter eggs! Such a great idea! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa