The CELEBRATION Continues...

It’s Thursday! The weekend is coming! The weekend is coming!  Today’s freebie in our week of celebrating is brought to you by my sweet blogging friend Hadar, A.K.A Miss Kindergarten. If you haven’t seen her blog, you totally must check it out. Hadar and I both presented in the Everything K Expo which is where we “met”. Love her! You can buy these math centers on TPT but today they are free for your downloading pleasure. I got these when she first posted them and they are great. Your kids are sure to love them too! Already out of school? No biggy. Download and get ready for next year. J Remember you only have 24 hours to download. Just click the picture. J

I am so thankful for Hadar’s friendship…another great part of my first year of blogging. J What are you thankful for during this past year? Have a great day friends and please leave a comment for Hadar and thank her for the freebie. Stop by her blog and show her some love!

Next FREEBIE in Our CELEBRATION!!

How is your week going? Tomorrow is Thursday…my last day of school. Can I be honest? It’s going to be bitter sweet. I know, you were expecting me to say the opposite, but this is the best class I have ever had. Don’t get me wrong, there were “issues” BUT this group just gets me. They understand my humor and they are so funny. I know it’s my job to make learning fun for THEM but they really made learning fun for ME. Isn’t that how it should be? I mean my class last year was…well I can’t talk about it without getting my eye twitch back. Haha! I am sure I will shed a tear. Ever since I went on birth control a few months ago (too personal? lol) I am so hormonal and well I just don’t think I can help it. So, I am planning on shedding a tear. There, I put it out there. J

So, let’s keep celebrating! Isn’t this fun? I mean, I have been married for 10 years and I never get presents for a week when it’s our anniversary. But, that’s how I roll at Kreative in Kinder. Haha! Um, I’m a girl and diamonds presents are a girl’s best friend, right?! Today, I have made these cutie patootie center signs. I am thinking I will print them on cardstock, 2 copies each, glue them together, and have them hang from the ceiling over the center. I realize that if you teach big kids this won’t be so useful for you so sorry about your bad luck..haha. J/K! I am trying to come up with classroom organizational thingys that we can use for next year because I am so in next year mode. So here ya go! Click the picture to download. They will be available for 24 hours. 

I hope you like them. Don’t forget to leave me a comment if ya do. Have a great Thursday. You have almost made it to Friday!!

CELEBRATION with another FREEBIE!

Let the celebration continue! The link below for the free download of the planner is still up until this evening so make sure you grab it. After that, it will be available to purchase on TPT and TN. J I am so glad ya’ll love it as much as me. J

For today’s fantablous freebie, my good friend Tammy from Live Laugh Love Kindergarten created these Monthly Drawer Labels (for a 3 drawer cart thingy..I think you can get them at Target) just for you! Click on the picture to grab them.

You can also head over to her blog and grab these great goodies that she just posted. 

I can’t celebrate my blogiversary without saying how blessed I am to have made new friends like my blogging bestie, Tammy!!

Have a great day and see ya tomorrow!!

It's a CELEBRATION!!

Celebrate good times, come on! Let’s celebrate. It’s a celebration!

For you who have never heard that song, how about this?

Everybody, (yeah) everybody, (yeah) let’s get into it, (yeah) get stupid (come on)Get started, (come on)get started, (yeah) get started

Lets get started in hah, lets get started in here
Lets get started in hah, lets get started in here

Haha! Love Black Eyed Peas (the band not to food)!

It’s FINALLY here. It is time to celebrate my one year Blogiversary! I can’t believe that it has been one year since I married my computer started this little ole blog. How sweet is that?! This journey has been way more than I ever expected. I have “met” the most AMAZING teachers and have been given some pretty sweet opportunities in the education world. First off, I am PRESENTING (shut the front door, right?) at Frog Street Press Splash this summer! Are you going? I hope so! Let’s meet and be best friends, lol. I think if I wasn’t teaching I would want to be a writer or graphic designer and this blog has given the opportunity to do both. I LOVE designing units and curriculum. So. Much. Fun!

So, here’s the plan Stan! Each day this week, starting TODAY, I will post a fabulous freebie that will be for the taking for 24 hours. Then, I will remove the link so don’t forget to hop on by every day this week. I will have a few things up my sleeve for this weekend too so make sure you come by because they are BIG. HUGE! You could have a chance to win my whole store..but I didn’t tell you that yet!

To start us off, here is a Teacher Planner I made today. I hope you L.O.V.E. love it. When I print mine, I will have a four sets of planning sheets behind each month to have me organized for each month. I haven’t decided if I will bind mine with that spiral thingy or if I will put it in a notebook. Grab it now. You only have 24 hours. On your mark. Get set. GO! (click the picture to grab)

I created these using Scrappin Doodles and Dreamlike Magic. I forgot to put that on the google doc. 

Don’t forget to leave me a comment and let me know what you think of it? Have a great day!

Saturday PEEK of the WEEK!!!

Hi everyone!  Teri here, from A Cupcake for the Teacher :)  Crystal was kind enough to ask me to join in on some classroom photo fun, and of course I couldn't say no!  Stick around for a little tour of my current classroom!

Let's start with my desk area!
My desk is in a little alcove, and behind it I have lots of storage:

I have four, three-drawer carts filled with goodies!  On top of those, I have a six bin book rack where I keep my favorite read alouds {that the kiddies can't touch!!} as well as teacher resource books.  Here is a close-up:

Three drawers of craft supplies!! And that's not even half of it ;)
Against the front of my desk, I have a bookshelf which stores our most used math manipulatives:

My desk {and this shelf} are right by the chalkboard...  Here's a look at our classroom rules, morning routine, and star student display area {I put my own poster back up for this pic!}:

And on the other side of the board, you'll find our cubbies, themed book display, and some posters:

The last picture I have to share today is of our calendar/job bulletin board:

Unfortunately, I don 't have any more pics of my room handy, so that concludes our tour... I told you it was little!  Hehe :)  If you want to check out some of my ideas, please visit my blog!

Thank you, Crystal, for inviting me to share with your followers!!

Friday PEEK of the WEEK!

Hidy ya'll!

(Yes another Texan here....you'll excuse me won't you? :0)

My name is Jeannie Partin and I am the author of Kindergarten Lifestyle. This is my 2nd time guest blogging for Crystal and I am still just as excited as the first time.... Crystal you are awesome and I adore your beautiful blog!! Thank you for the opportunity to post here!

Last time I was here I gave you a peek at my word wall and some fun ideas to keep your kiddos lovin' word wall time.... I hope you enjoyed that! If you missed it, CLICK HERE to see that post too!

Today I'm going to show you my kindergarten classroom. Now, I need to give a disclosure right now. It's the end of the year and my room.....well.... umm.... you know....... -- it's been in better shape :p And I'll be the first to admit, it's not near as cute as Katie's. But, it is a productive, engaging learning environment for my students.....so MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

This is a shoe organizer where I keep all my office supply things. I do not have a desk (and haven't since my first year of teaching). You name it, I have it here (sentence strips, stickers, post-its, scissors, paper clips, staples, glue sticks, etc.)

You can also see the corner of my wonderful behavior management clip chart. I got this idea from ClutterFree Classrooms and I will never go back to the old "3 chances your out" system. I love how motivating this clip chart is. Kids start out on green and work to "climb the colors". They love it and so do I!

This area shows my pocketchart center. It actually doubles as a listening center as well. I love combining these 2 centers. They tend to be 2 of the most high maintenance centers because kids get bored. But, by combining them, I have found that my students stay engaged because of the choice factor. You can read more about how I combine the 2 centers HERE. 

Here is my Math Tubs shelf. I follow Debbie Diller's system for math tubs (actually used it before I read her book, but it is a great read :0) I have only 2 children per math tub  which really helps cut down on playing, fighting, etc. and they stay more focused on the work. 

The top 10 tubs are my "active" tubs in use and the ones below are the stored manipulatives that we are not currently using. I like to have everything right at my fingertips. That makes it easy to switch math tub materials.

Here is the infamous "Home" center. 'Nuff said! :0)

Here is my "Center Chart". You can see I have 2 children for each center. The center cards just get rotated down one each time we switch centers.  We normally go to 3 centers a day....so we just rotate down. I usually switch partners once a week.  I also have math tubs on the same chart (the big number cards - they correlate to a math tub) and are rotated just like centers. 

This is my word study table. Early in the year it is a sandtable. However, after the first month it becomes a word study center.

Here is the runway! Hahaha!! Not really.... this is their backpack hooks. This class is WONDERFUL about not leaving their stuff laying on the ground.....Boy I will miss them! :0)

Blocks center - I add lots of stuff here (blocks, legos, balance, construction books, traffic signs, and even some retelling pieces). Notice the hot pink zebra stripes boundaries I have. The kids know their place in centers and they do NOT leave those boundaries.....works like a charm!

Here is my Family Board. You can read more about it HERE! It's a fantastic way to develop a sense of community in your classroom. 

Here is my writing center. I took the legs off the table and the kids can kneel at it. They love the novelty of this. It's so important to have an organizational system going for writing center so it doesn't become a mess.

Of course, my writing center is right at my word all........OF COURSE!!!

 This is home-base. You can see my little blue rocker I picked up at the flea market for $10 - best darn $10 I've ever spent because it is SUPER comfy!

his is an ariel view. Please be nice as it is the end of the year! I know - very busy looking! :0)

Well, I really hope you enjoy the tour of my kinder classroom! If you liked what you saw, please visit me at my blog Kindergarten Lifestyle! Bye,  ya'll!

Fourth of a PEEK of the WEEK!

Hi! I'm Kathleen from Growing Kinders! 

Welcome to my classroom! These pictures (and this post) are from the beginning of the year so it has evolved some but here you go. 

This is a view from the door to my classroom looking towards the front.  Immediately to the left is our coat area. I dislike having the coat area in my room because I loose so much valuable space!  *See my rainbow board ala Julie Lee?  It is working WONDERFULLY!  The kiddos LOVE it!*

From the front door looking at the back of the classroom.  To the immediate right of the picture is the tile floor area – counter space, sink, and bathroom are there.

Manipulatives/toys are housed in the little book shelf (blocks, legos, bristle blocks, round stackers – I’ll change these out periodically).  The play kitchen is also back there.

Here is our little reading area and writing center.  The writing center is not finished yet! ahhhh!  The flowers are for our name word wall – yep, you guessed it – not done yet

The little table to the left of this picture is my little work table – I can also use this table for assessments or working with 1 or 2 children.  You can see our art easel, mailboxes and bathroom in this pic.  The open door to the left leads to another K classroom (which used to be first grade).

Here’s one of my little messy areas!  Daily supplies…(ahem…including the diet coke…see it?!)

And another catch-all messy place.  This is right across from the picture above (behind the mailboxes).  I decided to take over this counter space for me – drawers to organize papers, supplies – and to just stash stuff until I know what to do with it.  I also have a bookshelf with my favorite books (above behind the red and white curtain).

Ahhh….so there you go! Please ignore the mess! I know we all have it – especially at the beginning of the year when we are all trying to keep our heads on straight! Stop by my blog and say hi. I just posted some fun beach themed activities. It's almost summer, right? 

Third PEEK of the WEEK!

Hey friends! It's Kelli from Castles and Crayons. 









Thank you so much for having me, Crystal! :) I am so excited to be here! 

Come on in to our room!!! This tour is from August 2011:

 

The door to our classroom and my name sign, class list, and schedule next to my door!

Left - Bulletin board outside of our classroom. Swinging into First Grade and their names are on the bananas!

Right - Work display! Got this idea from the sweetest coworker EVER, Juleigh! I got 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and glued it onto 11 x 18 construction paper. I hot glued a clothespin to the top and put their name on the bottom!

View as soon as you walk in the door.

        

More views from the door!

     

 

The front of our room! The Calendar wall is on the left, and math game storage is underneath! LOVE Cubeicals!!! Our Promethean board is in the middle (MY HEART!) and math manipulative storage underneath (pink lid shoe boxes from Wally World last summer!) My teacher tech station to the right with Reading Comprehension characters posted on the bulletin board above! Birthday bags are above the entire display!

 

Behavior Management! Students move their coconuts to yellow, orange, or red. **Sorry! I deleted this pic because it was sooo grainy! I will repost tomorrow! My display easel with phonics cards, and read alouds for the week!

My teacher chair next to our meeting place (zebra rug!)

     

Word Work, Listen to Reading, and Work on Writing storage!

 

Mailboxes for papers going home! Baskets on top for papers and projects! My AWESOME numbers from Made for First Grade! LOVE!

                                              

Mountain Math board, Math Menu choices under the board! SAFARI book storage!

 

Small group table, and my teacher area! My fridge and microwave are behind the table! My Guided Reading materials!

  

Leveled library and my FAVE table!! It is an old train table I adopted from a former first grade teacher! I gave it a fresh new coat of white paint, covered the top with zebra fabric and plastic covering from Hobby Lobby. It is dry erase so my kiddos can write words and wipe it off! LOTS of game storage underneath!

 

 

Computers, Word Wall, Reading Hut (thank you to the hubs!!!) and monthly storage for decorations, crafts, etc with book bag hooks underneath!

  

Sink and storage cabinets! Daily Five anchor charts (coming soon as we make them together as a class!) and reading tricks from Oceans of First Grade Fun! HEART!

 

Student work tables! Buckets from Garden Ridge and caddies from Really Good Stuff. I scored the cups at the Dollar Spot at Target this summer! Starfall journals are stored underneath the caddies for Wake Up Work! The middle zebra table was added because I needed a bit more student seating. I am going to let the Jungle Guide (helper for the day) choose a friend to sit there with them. I am going to add some special materials, like Glitter crayons, Twistable crayons, colored highlighters, monkey scissors, etc.

Back of the door going out into the hallway. Ok…thanks for coming into our classroom…and thanks for sticking around for this ridiculously LONG, never ending post! Stop by my blog and say hi. Have a great summer!
~Kelli