ABC Back-to-School Pamphlet

Hey ya'll, as I get ready to leave for the airport I wanted to send out a little post about one of my best selling products on TPT as it may be VERY helpful to all of you getting ready for back to school. My ABC's of Kindergarten pamphlet is a parent's guide to everything back to school. It has a cute graphic for every letter of the alphabet and a school rule or helpful hint next to each letter. 

For example: A- Arrival:  Students may arrive between 7:15 and 7:55. Late arrivals go to the front office to sign in before being walked to the classroom.

B- Birthdays: Feel free to send in treats for your child’s birthday. Please check food items with me first in case of allergies.

Box tops: Our school is collecting “Box Tops for Education.” Each label is worth 10 cents… it adds up quickly!

It is saved as a Word document and can be easily changed to fit your schools rules. Any elementary grade can use this, especially any of the primary ones. So if you are looking for an easy way to keep your parents informed without overwhelming them, check it out!

Next time I post it will be from Vancouver, British Columbia!! Woohoo!! Expect to be overloaded with pictures!

Tell me more, Tell me more!

When I saw this adorable linky party on Mrs. Lemons blog (which I can now add to my list of blogs I am obsessed with) I just had to jump right on it! An excuse to share pictures of things I love? Yes, PLEASE! So without further ado, Tell me more, Tell me more!

1. I am 100% terrified of bugs. I scream and run and act completely ridiculous yet when I was little I used to be able to pick them up with my bare hands as if they were nothing. What happened to me?!? Has that happened to anyone else?? 

2. Possessionista is one of my favorite blogs to stalk. I love knowing where all the pretty clothes they wear on my favorite TV shows come from!

3. I got to go to Harry Potter World this year at Universal Studios and had an absolute blast! The Butterbeer is to die for. If you ever go, you MUST get the Butterbeer!!

4. I LOVE yoga, especially during the school year. It is the perfect way for me to keep my body healthy and keep from going insane with all the stress of school. I haven't tried hot yoga yet but just found a yoga studio close to my apartment that does it and will be starting as soon as I get back from my vacation. Which leads me to number 5...


5. I leave for ALASKA tomorrow!! Woohoo!! I have never been there and I am going on a cruise. I am so excited to see and do things I have never done before! Don't worry, many pictures will be posted!!


6. Living in Charlotte and being a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette has turned me into a little bit of an Emily Maynard stalker. For those of you who don't live in Charlotte- don't judge, I promise I am not the only one! Yet everyone else around me seems to see her out in public. Two friends saw her at the mall on two DIFFERENT days, another friend teaches at her daughter's school and saw her at carpool, my sister saw her at Target... sheesh! One day maybe I will get to see her!

7. I love the Bachelor/Bachelorette, Modern Family, Pretty Little Liars and Law and Order:SVU. Yes, they are all very different but I love them all equally!!

8. In case you haven't figured this out already, I am beyond obsessed with Pinterest. It is scary how much time I can spend on Pinterest pinning school ideas and not get bored!! My favorite categories are education (of course), home decor, food and drink, and women's apparel.

9. I love to read for fun and my most recent book obsession was the Hunger Games. If you haven't read it yet, you need to ASAP! I read all three of them in one week, during the school year while taking grad school classes at the same time. They were that good. I seriously could not wait to get home from school to read them (yes, I realize how nerdy that sounds!).


10. My sweet dog Tucker is the current love of my life, I think my boyfriend may be starting to get a little jealous!! I will miss spending all day, every day with him when I go back to school in just a few weeks.

Ok, now it's your turn! Link up with Mrs. Lemons and share your "Tell me more, Tell me more!"

P.S. I just posted a new lesson on TPT that is a cute touchy-feely student made book on the story of Creation for all my other teacher friends that teach in Christian schools. There is an adorable little surprise for what the students do on the last page. It is guaranteed to make parents smile (and don't we all love that?!?) Click on the button on the right to go see it!

What I've Been Pinning...

Since I have had more time over our summer break I have fallen back in love with my favorite time waster- PINTEREST! I can spend hours on pinterest easily and not get bored, it is dangerous! It is getting me SOOOO pumped up to go back to school!! I have seen other bloggers posting about their favorite recent pins and I thought I would share with you some of my favorite pins I have seen recently too (just in case ya'll weren't already as pumped up about going back to school as I am!)

I love this adorable idea for a new way to celebrate birthdays. Instead of giving out another pencil (our front office gives out pencils too) you can give out a crazy straw with a cute little birthday sign attached to it. They look so adorable and the kids will love just them!

This adorable center is a much better way for me to use my super cheap magnetic letters than what I had been doing. Last year I found some magnetic letters in the dollar section at Target and they were not very strong magnets. I had my students use them on the chalkboard (which is magnetic in case ya'll didn't know that, and yes.... I still have a CHALKBOARD in the back of the room!! Chalkboards still exist!) Anyway, the magnets were not very strong and kept falling off the board when my little ones were trying to spell their sight words. This way, on a cookie sheet that is laying down, we don't have to worry about them falling off!

This one I love because it will help me to make my hideous file cabinets less ugly AND functional! I am super excited about that!!

And this one may be my favorite just because of how adorable it is! What a cute way to make your pocket chart center fun! It is so simple, but adds so much! 

Now my only problem with pinterest is that there are too many cute classroom decorating ideas. Just when I think I have found the perfect theme for next year, another even cuter one comes along! My current love is the rainbow theme from below:

I love the double border around the cloud background paper and the beautiful tissue paper pom poms! I am just loving the tissue paper pom poms I am seeing all over pinterest lately. I saw tissue paper pom poms in this classroom below too and loved them:

Now with all of these super cute ideas I've found the only problem is going to be finding the time to make all of it!! I am leaving for a cruise to Alaska on Thursday and will be gone for two weeks (woohoo!) but when I come back it is right back to school! I may have to put my mom and sisters to work with helping me :)

Have a great day ya'll!

Giveaway Winners!!

Good morning!! I have entered the names of those who joined the giveaway into a raffle generator and have found the winners!! The winners of the $10 gift certificate giveaway are: 


Storie


KraftyKathy


Carolina On My Mind


Congratulations ladies! Send me your email addresses and I will e-mail you the gift certificates! 

TPT Gift Certificate Giveaway!

I seriously can't thank ya'll whose blogs I stalk look at and who comment on mine enough for your support and suggestions with lessons over the past six months. My life as a teacher would be COMPLETELY different without my blog friends. As a way to thank you and to celebrate getting to 30 followers, I have purchased $30 in TPT gift certificates to use as a GIVEAWAY!! Woohoo!!! I will have three $10 gift certificates that I will be giving away and the raffle ends at midnight NEXT Friday night (July 20th)! You have one week! It is my thank you gift to you as well as an early Back-to-School gift!! 

"So how do I enter?" you may be asking yourselves. Well, let me tell you! In order to qualify for the giveaway you MUST be a follower. There is no point in me thanking my followers if someone who isn't a follower wins!! So if you aren't already a follower, click to follow (and what took you so long to follow?!?! Just kidding!!) Then, leave a comment below telling me your favorite unit that you study with your students. 


I will enter all of the followers who comment into a raffle generator and pick the three winners. Good luck ya'll and thanks again so much!!

Hope Ya'll Had a Happy 4th of July!!

Hope ya'll had a happy 4th of July! I spent my 4th of July evening watching the fireworks with Tucker from my apartment 

Here's the little cutie watching the fireworks! It is kind of hard to see but they are right out my window!

Also, I made a pit stop at Target a few days ago and they have a TON of really good back to school stuff! I got some dinosaur fact cards and an activity book for our dinosaur unit, a math BINGO game and an ABC BINGO game. The math bingo game has addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division cards so it is good for older grades too! The questions are a little tough for my kinders and I will probably have to wait until the 3rd quarter to start using the math BINGO but the ABC one is great for the beginning of the year!

Here is a pic of some of the stuff they have. Thank you Lisa for helping me rotate it!!! :)

Have a good week!

Science and Social Studies Units

Good morning ya'll! One of the many things I am trying to accomplish this summer before school and grad school start back up is to tweak all of my science and social studies units. I teach science and social studies through a lot of integration and they are our main focus for a few weeks at a time. I am just curious what ya'll teach as your units?!


My favorite that I teach in social studies is without a doubt my unit on mail/post office. It is SO much fun and we are very lucky to have a post office right around the corner to visit for a field trip! We write several letters to our parents and the students LOVE when their parents write back to them at school!! 


My favorite science unit is hands down zoo animals because I just adore everything about animals. I get very excited about this unit and my enthusiasm definitely transfers to my kiddos. 


So I am just curious, what are your favorite science or social studies units that you teach?? I would LOVE to stop by your blogs and check out some pictures of them! 


Also, if you haven't already seen these adorable science journals from Mrs. Bell at A Place Called Kindergarten, you have to check them out. She is fabulous! 


I love so much that all of your blogs keep me excited to go back to school in the fall!! 

Blog Award- Woohoo!!!

This weekend I was very surprised to check my blog and realize that Storie at Stories by Storie had given me the One Lovely Blog award- my first award! I am very surprised, I feel like I am still so new to this and I feel like my blog is NOTHING compared to so many other blogs out there, but I am VERY grateful to Storie. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Storie!!

So now I get to follow the "rules" that apply to earning the award...
1. Follow the person who gave you the award (I can check that one off the list!)
2. Link back to the person who gave you the award (Check.. again!)
3. Pass the award onto 15 new bloggers (Now this one may take awhile...)


This is hard, I wish I could do more! But here goes...


Learning Is Something to Treasure


A Place Called Kindergarten

Climbing the Monkey Bars

Smiles, Crayons, and Endless Stories


The Adventures of Miss Elisabeth


Teaching with Skill, Patience, and Laughter

Heather's Heart


Buzzing Along in First Grade


First Grade Blue Skies

It's Always a Picnic in 4th Grade


Teaching in Flip Flops


Mrs. Will's Kindergarten


Can Do Kinders


Herding Kats in Kindergarten


Keeping Up With the Kindergartners

Whew! Now you all get to pass it on to 15 more!! Have a great day :)


Teaching with Skill, Patience, and Laughter