Sing Sing Sing - Something a little different on TPT

I love, Love, LOVE to sing with my little kinders!  It is such a wonderful tool to help them transition, learn new concepts and just get some wiggles out.  Years ago I created a CD with several songs on it that I have written.  It didn't sell very well (I am not a good business woman) so I stuck all the CDs in my basement and gave them out as Christmas gifts every year.  Until now ... I just figured out that TPT accepts mp3 songs so I opened a store!  Yes me!  I did it!  I think ... I hope ... technology is a friend and an enemy.

Anyway, check out my store and get a FREE song ... just for you ... FREE!  It's a song that I use a lot to transition to snack time or lunch time.  If you like it there are a few more.  I will be adding more in the weeks to come, so check back often.  Follow me ... rate me (be nice, I'm sensitive) ... enjoy the songs!!!!  Just click on the picture below to get to my store.

Random pictures from the beginning of the year

I have started a new blog that is just for the families in my class and I haven't been back here since so ... here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

Here is a picture of our class mascot, Freddy, having snack with us.













Freddy loves Froggy!

 Look at what I found at the St. Louis Teacher's Recycling Center.  Some sort of medical supply.  I call them Wacky Stackers and we use them for counting, sorting and measuring.

 Collage Books!  Every week for homework I send home a letter page. The children return it covered with items, pictures and words that begin with that letter.  Then I put them all in a book.

 Here it is!  My classroom circa 2012.  I completely lost the month of September.  I have a great class this year.  Hopefully I will find time to post more about what we are doing.

OK Totally haven't posted in ages. I think of fun things then never do it. I have TONS of pictures that are still on my camera from last year. I mean to post them with something clever then I never do it. Hit a bit of a brick wall last year and still trying to recover. Have a great story. It reminded me why I LOVE kindergarten. I have a wonderful new crop of kinders this year. We are only in our first week and they are doing very well with the new routine. Yesterday we we reviewing the schedule for the day. (They all want to know when we are going to have snack, recess, lunch, etc. - constantly) I told them about the specials in the afternoon and how after specials we would have math time. Before I could go on a little guy raises his hand "Mrs. Long Mrs. Long, do I have to take a bath or can I take a shower?" I stifled a giggle and said, "No honey, I said Math" "What's math?" Then we had a nice long conversation about what math is. I got a candle, some bath salts and some smelly salts from my secret pal today ... I think I would like bath time better than math too.

Stepping away from K for a moment

My son was a huge hit at a St. Louis Blues game not too long ago. I am on spring break now and I was able to figure out youtube. Check out the video. He is hysterical. This has absolutely nothing to do with kindergarten or education - just me being proud of my kid!



Let's Go Blue!!!!!!!

Easter (and Spring break) are Almost Here!

I had another great lunch with the St. Louis Blogging Ladies. Pictures to come soon.  In the mean time I have realized I don't really have an original idea.  All of my teaching ideas have come from other sources.  What follows are some great resources for Christian classrooms to use.

Here are some great books to read with your class ...












I love the sight word book "Where Was Jesus" from Hubbards Cupboard.  There are some great craft ideas on this page as well.  Check out these Sun Catchers!



There are also some great songs at the bottom of the page.


Christian Preschool Printables has some great resources as well.  The picture quality that I have here isn't that great so click on the link to take a look.


Make your own Resurrection eggs ...



Easter memory match ... I just make one copy, cut them apart and use them in my writing center with Deedee Wills Writing Workstations for April.





Ok ... time for me to decide what I'm doing tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon.  If not, I know I'll have some time over spring break (3 MORE DAYS!!!!)

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!  Philippians 4:13

Dr. Jean!

I got to see Dr. Jean last week and I left with my brain crammed full of ideas.  She has a great website full of wonderful ideas.  If you would like, check it out here.  She also has a blog with almost daily ideas.  My favorite were the cheers.  They are a great way regain control in a crazy classroom and it REALLY WORKS.  Here is a link for her cheer cards - CHEERS!

I thought I would include some pictures of other good ideas I have used in the classroom.  I have very few original ideas and I can't remember what idea is mine and what belongs to someone else, sooooo ... if you see your idea, let me know so I can give you credit.  I will probably have to put this disclaimer on every blog post.

Here is our Invisible I picture.   The children drew on white paper with white crayon and then painted over it with water color.  They thought it was absolute magic!

This was mixing a little blue and a little yellow (love this book).  I know a lot of people do this, but I just thought this picture was beautiful!

Dr. Seuss Week!

We are working on measuring with non standard units of measurement. Here is a little homework page I made.  Click here to get a copy.

Valentine Card and Groundhog freebie (a little late)

Valentine's Day is coming, so mabe this year I will be organized.  As I have said before, I teach at a Christian school and Valentine's day is a great time to focus on the love of Jesus.

Here are some cards that I made for my class.

Click here to get a copy.  I use it with heart shaped playdough.  I have a great recipe for playdough.  You can find it here.


We had a lot of fun for ground hog day.  I know this is too late for you to use, but you could pin it for next year.  I took the kinders outside to look at their shadows (it was 60 degrees in the St. Louis area!).  They got with a partner and traced each others shadow with chalk.  Then we went inside and wrote about the groundhog's shadow and about our shadow.  Here is the paper I used.

Get a copy here.

On the top lines the children wrote "The groundhog saw his shadow."  On the bottom line they wrote "I did too!"  In the middle, the children drew a picture of themselves seeing their shadow.  We had so much fun with this activity another teacher commented that she would like to be a student in my classroom.  What a wonderful compliment.  It made my day!

Ok, this is me playing with google docs.  I had no success before, but maybe this will work.  I use this cover for our snowflake books.  I have cut out foam snowflakes from a craft store on the frame next to my door and I have numbered them 1-20.  I have the children estimate how many snowflakes tall they think they are, then I measure them, they record how many snowflakes tall they actually are and then I take a picture.  Here is a link to the googledoc if it works  Snowflake book cover

I can do it!

Now this doesn't look like a rowdy bunch of ladies does it?  No ... I didn't think so.  Ok we used our inside voices most of the time. (See my previous post for links to all their blogs)  From the back there's me, Chrissy, Meredith, (table) Katie and Deedee.

 I am still on a big learning curve with this blogging thing.  My computer is a dinosaur and so I am currently using my son's computer to create this post. (No it is not fair that his computer is better than mine, but he knows more about it than I do - he's 12 - help me ...)

At the lunch I learned how to use Power Point to make fun slides.  I did this one really quick, but I see more in my future (thanks for the pic Chrissy).

I learned a lot more from these ladies as well and I have been on a real high.
 Today reality smacked me in the face ... a little - assessments, assemblies, "grown ups" (acting like children - I will stick with the real thing, thank you very much).  But I'm not going to let it get me down.

Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher posted a scripture yesterday that I read this morning:

"Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you."  Philippians 2:14.

It helped ... a little... I work at a Christian school ... I may post this on the wall.



Winter Fun - Part 1

Ok I don't know if there will be a part 2, but just in case.  I am putting up some pictures from our winter activitities.  Some are my own ideas and some are from other blogs ... unfortunately I am terrible at keeping track of where I got things  so ... if any of these activities are your idea or you know where it came from please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.  Thank you and here's the stuff ...

Stories about snow to practice new sight words.

Our bulletin board ... Thank you pinterest!

This is for all my blogger friends that teach at a Christian School.  I got the poem at Danielle's Place.

Fun poem for ordinal numbers.
That's all for now.  More later ....

Thank You!

I had the BEST afternoon.  I barely blog, but somehow I got an invite to have lunch with some of the most amazing women in the teaching blog world.  It was such an inspiration to sit around and talk and laugh with these ladies.  I guess I better get off my butt and rejoin the fun.  I'll try to post more ideas so I give back just a little of what has been given to me.  Thank you so much Katie (Little Warriors ), Deedee (Mrs. Wills Kindergarten), Meredith (Keen On Kindergarten), and Chrissy (Read Write Sing )! 

OK I promise I will never get all mushy again.  Probabaly.  More than likely.  Ok I just cried at a commercial, but it was really touching...