Discussion groups and more!

I am sorry I have been absent for awhile but I have not been feeling to well these past few months.  With that being said, I am officially BACK!  And I have some exciting news...My husband and I are expecting our first child due late August!  The first few months was an awful blessing for me.  I had no energy and could barley keep anything down.  Now I am into my second trimester and I am feeling 90% better.  I hope to keep feeling well enough to continue blogging:).

Now onto the sharing ideas...I recently came across this link during my kindergarten collaboration/discussion group.  It was shared by an awesome colleague of mine.  If you haven't seen this video yet, you have to check it out.

DISCUSSION TOWERS VIDEO

I love the idea of using discussion towers in my classroom.  I have adapted it by giving my students only two-three cubes to help with discussion groups.  My kindergarten students love using cubes to help guide their discussions.  I have to be honest, I was a little skeptical with the new common core objective of participating in collaborative conversations about kindergarten texts with peers.  I thought to myself "No way am I going to be able to keep all of my students on task and observe them confirming and understanding  a particular text."  Well, with the help of my colleagues and a little faith in myself...I am so glad to prove myself wrong.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE working in collaborative student lead conversations about a text and my students do too!

With young learners I know collaborative learning groups can be difficult at times and often students seem to veer off task.   I hope this video is helpful.  With that being said I want to continue  to learn how to help my students better work in groups.  If you have any suggestion or learning experiences of your own while working with our young students in a collaborative group I would love to learn from all of you.

Now, a little late but better late than never.  I completed a Math addition and subtraction assessment that relates to the Kindergarten common core standards.  I use this in my classroom to help assess my students learning.  I have many different worksheets that correlate to each addition and subtraction standard.  You can click on the image below to go directly to my TpT store to download this packet.  But the first TEN bloggers to comment below about student collaborative learning groups will get this packet for FREE!

Until next time friends, see ya soon!

My 2013 Plans Linky Party

And so the holiday season is officially over.  I have to say I enjoyed my vacation with my family up north but I am so glad to be back in sunny Florida where the weather is much warmer.  I can't believe I used to live in that cold for most of my life.  I guess I can say I am officially a Floridian!  I also can include that my sister is officially a Floridian too, she left the cold weather to come and stay with me while she finishes her college career.  Hopefully all will be well and I can get used to living with family members again:).

2012 was a year of many ups and downs for me.  One of the downs was finding out I had a thyroid problem.  I can now say that 2013 is starting off to be a great year.  My health is much better and my thyroid levels seem to be normal and have been for the past 5 months or so.  Although I will continue to be monitored I am happy that I am in the clear for now.

I had plenty of time to reflect on my 2012 (while driving home from Jersey during a 15 hour car ride) and I have many plans for 2013.  I don't really like New Years resolutions because let's face it I am like most people and quit my resolution after the first month.  However, knowing that I am no good at resolutions but I am good at planning, I decided to make my 2013 plans.  My plans for school is to create more items for my students and TpT store.  ( I am working on creating another math assessment to share on TpT.)  I love creating things on the computer.  It is fun and relaxing at the same time.  I can really get lost in my work sometimes.  My husband enjoys looking over my shoulder at times and helping me come up with some creative ideas.  It's really funny when he gets involved:)

As for my personal plans I want to continue to eat healthy, take my dog for more frequent walks, enjoy my time with my sister, and most importantly continue to be a good wife to my wonderful husband.  I also have some remodeling ideas for the house.  I am very excited to start some new projects here at home.

Now onto the linkies to continue talking more about some things that I have planned for 2013...The first linky I am joining is with Michelle at Making It As A Middle School Teacher and the second linky is with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade.  Enjoy and don't forget to link up they are so much fun! 

Here is January's Currently...

Until next time friends, hopefully with my new 2013 plans it will be sooner than later!

Silence For Sandy Hook Elementary

Currently, giveaways and a FREEBIE!

This weekend has been great.  I completed two 5K's and my legs are a little sore, but overall I feel awesome!.  It's time to keep my running shoes on and not give up.  Saturday's 5K was for the Girls on the Run program which is a great program we have at our schools that help train 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade girls for a 5K.  I got to run with one of my former Kindergarten students who is now in 4th grade, Ahhh!  I am starting to feel a little old.   

I enjoyed running so much yesterday that I decided to wake up early today to do it all over again with a great teacher buddy of mine.  After today's run, I will be resting the remainder of the day.  And maybe creating more freebies for the future.  

Well, now onto ...December Currently!  I am linking up with Farley over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for this month's edition.  I know I am a little late to the party but better late than never!  I completed my December currently yesterday afternoon, so no I am not eating popcorn for breakfast.

A good friend of mine is having a 12 days of Christmas giveaway!  You have to stop on over to Learning is Something to Treasure to enter your chances of winning.  Lisa has some great items she is giving away.  There is still plenty of time, enjoy!

And now what you all have been waiting for...A Holiday Write the Room FREEBIE!  I created this for my class.  My students love writing the room this year.  It is one of their favorite activities   I decided to make it a little bit more fun and theme it around the upcoming holidays.  Santa's Elves are being mischievous again, they took all the holiday presents and are hiding around the classroom.  Santa doesn't know where to find them... Students will enjoy searching around the room for Santa's little helpers.  This is a perfect literacy center activity for building sight word recognition and writing skills.  Simply cut out the twelve sight word elves and stick them up in various places around the classroom.  (I created two different sets.) Students use the master page on  clipboards as they walk around the room to search for the elves and their presents.  As they find each numbered elf, they write the sight word on their paper.  Students have fun learning their words and searching for them! 

Click the image to go directly to my TpT store to download this file for free! 

Enjoy!

Until next time Friends!

Cyber Monday Sales!

I am so excited for the upcoming Holiday season.  I am in the shopping for great sales kind of mood.  I am a frequent Black Friday shopper and I have to say, I love the rush of it all.  I got to experience this Black Friday with some of my great friends   We started at 6:30 Thanksgiving evening and continued till 6:30 in the am.  It was exhausting, fun, and exciting.  The best part of it all is, I have most of my holiday shopping done.  I just have a few items in my amazon wish list to purchase on Cyber Monday.   Speaking of the great Cyber Monday, I am throwing a sale on my TpT store.  I have some great common core activities posted.  If you like anything you see please follow me,  I hope to continue adding to my store.  I am working on completing more common core math assessments to utilize in the Kindergarten classroom.  You can click on the image below to go right to the sale!

Until next time friends!

Thanksgiving Unit finally finished! FREE to the first 5 bloggers!

It's been awhile, I guess you can guess life had been pretty busy for me.  I just celebrated my 31st birthday with some great friends.  Even though I am another year older it was one of the best birthdays ever!  I have my wonderful husband and friends to thank for that.  

This weekend I finally finished my Thanksgiving literacy and math unit.  I have to say, for my first themed unit I am pretty proud of this one.  I would love to hear your feedback on this unit, therefore I am offering this unit to the first 5 bloggers who post about what they are thankful for.  (It can be school related or personal).  Don't forget to leave an email address in your comment so I can quickly send you the file.  

Here is picture of some of the activities you will find in this unit.  If you are not one of the first 5 bloggers to comment you can click on the image below and it will take you to my TpT page where you can download this file for only $3.50.  

Now onto a fun linky.  Since some of you will be sharing somethings you are thankful for, I thought it only be fair for me to do the same.  I am linking up with Storie from Stories and writing about my top 10 things I am thankful for.  

Don't forget to join in on the fun.  This is a linky with a prize.  Storie is giving away a $10 TpT gift card   All you have to do is join the linky party and you are automatically entered to win.  

So here it goes...

Now, think about the top 10 things you are most thankful for and hop on over to Stories page to link up.  The linky will be open all through November! 

Giveaway Shout Out!

 No time to blog today because I am working on something special to share with you all soon.  I have been busy all day creating a fun common core aligned thanksgiving unit.  Keeping my fingers crossed I can actually finish this in time to share with everyone so that you can use it in your classroom.
Just dropping by to give ya'll a quick giveaway notification!  Corinna Over at O"Fish"ally a first grader is having a huge 100 follower giveaway.   Click on the image below to go check it out!  

Blog on friends!