It's been a crazy time in K! Report card testing, math testing, testing, testing, testing! OH MY! I have so many things to post, yet, I forgot again to take my camera to school, so I took pictures with my phone today, only for some reason things are not uploading on the computer correctly, so I will have to take the camera tomorrow! I have to share our chart about our new writing unit on all about books, our How to on making snowmen, our lions and lambs, our George Washington's and our abe's! (please don't mind my lower case a, my a key is broken! so sorry!) So have a wonderful night and I promise I will post more tomorrow!
Hugs,
Katy

Catching Up

It is has been a really busy week off! I don't know how I find the time to work? No, seriously, I enjoyed this week off, it was so needed but I found so much to do at home and I feel like I barely got started on things and the week was over! Oh well! Till the next vacation!
We have been busy in class studying about snow, snowmen & all things SNOW! We do so LOVE the snow, even though the weather has not cooperated with us not one bit! I am shocked, this is the first February vacation that I can remember in such a long time that we did not have snow before, during or right after! Snow, I miss you, please come visit!!!

I've enclosed some pictures of our snowmen we made, I forgot to take a picture of our "BIG" snowman that we made, step by step helping us with our how to unit in writing! I will take that when I get to work this week. I had promised and so wanted to go into work over this vacation. I had SO many things I needed to do in the classroom. Sadly, that just never happened! I sure could use some time in the room, just me & my book baskets. I think I will have to bring them home, one basket at a time and work on them since it didn't happen over the vacation!

I worked on some units over this vacation, please go see them at my store! I finally finished my Valentine unit, better late than never! I also put up a mini-unit about Lions & Lambs for March 1^st. I am also working on a St. Patty's unit! That one will include lots of fun things about Leprechauns & parades! Be sure to watch out for it!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lions-Lambs-Oh-My

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cupid-Hearts-and-arrows


Sadly, I must go, I need to work on report cards and lesson plans! Yes, I did, I left them to be finished up on Sunday night of vacation! Just crazy!!!

Have a wonderful week!

Hugs,
Our Snowpeople

100th Day Centers

This year for Valentine’s Day my class was involved in collecting & delivering Lolligrams. Oh my word did we have TONS of lolligrams in my ROOM! They were EVERYWHERE!!!!
Lolligrams were a fundraiser for a young boy in our school who has cancer. Lolligrams were a huge success. We collected & delivered over 1,200 Lolligrams. Lolligrams are Valentine’s cards that have a lollipop attached that were hand-delivered by student’s from my class & our third grade reading buddies as well as our included friends from the K-1 class. This was such a fun project & the student’s had such a great time making the deliveries. They were so happy to be delivering these Valentine’s, but most importantly, they were so excited to be delivering something that was benefitting a fellow friend in school. The fundraiser was a success. We raised almost $700.00 for our friend. It is such a great feeling to help out & to know that such a small thing we did could go such a long way. I am going to post the forms that we used for the fundraiser up on my TPT site for free, in case anyone would like to do such a thing at their school. I would post them here, but can’t get my stuff to post on google docs for some reason. I’ve included some pictures of how the room looked before we delivered the 1,200 lolligrams & some pictures of the student’s making the deliveries. 
            
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lolligram-for-Valentines-Day   
Click above for all the free information in regard to the lolligrams. I sure do hope you find it useful!                                                                                          

                                                                                                         

Tag Your It

Ms. Carroll over at the First Grade Parade posted that she had been tagged..what did this mean? Well, it meant that someone had tagged her at her blog, sent her the rules & some questions. It was all so exciting. I loved reading her post. I got to know her more, read the questions as well as her answers! It was fun, so I decided to jump in & try it myself! So here it goes, won't you join me? Read the rules, post 12 things about yourself, 12 things from the person who tagged you, then create 12 new questions for the people you tag! See rules below!

The Rules
1) Post the rules.
2) Post 12 things about yourself
3) Answer the 12 questions sent from the person that tagged you. Then create 12 new questions for the people you tag.
4) Tag 12 people and link them to your post.
5) Let them know you tagged them.

1. I've been teaching for 23 years now, almost all of them, except for 3, have been in the same school district!

2.)   Twenty months ago my son was critically injured in an accident & suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for 9 long, agonizing days! Twenty months later we are still struggling with his road back to recovery. It has been a life altering experience. I am forever grateful for the EMS workers, fireman, trauma surgeons, doctors, ICU nurses etc who saved him & for the doctors now who are keeping him on the road to recovery!

3.)   I LOVE to run! YUP you read that right, I run in races, I've run 5k's & 10ks! I have been running on & off since high school & just got back into running seriously a little over 3 years ago. I have trained 3 times for ½ marathons & never got to actually run one due to health issues! I am back now in training & I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all will stay on the right track & I will get to run the race this time. My ultimate goal is to get to run the Disney Princess ½ Marathon next winter!

4.)   I have two adopted brother's from Korea….they were adopted when I was in 2^nd & 3^rd grade! They were one of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave me! When my parents approached my sister & I about adopting my brothers, I was truly not excited about getting a brother, after all, I only knew & understood having a sister. I thought a puppy would be a much better idea. My parents laughed & said that I would be getting a brother & handed me two pictures, we could choose one of the two boys in the photo. I chose the boy who was wearing a flower on his shirt. I thought, if I was going to get a brother, the least I could do was pick one who liked girly things! Lol..The day he arrived is permanently etched in my mind! I will NEVER forget that darling five year olds face wearing our towns hat! He had the rosiest little cheeks & the saddest little eyes & I instantly fell in love! Each year we celebrate their arrival in our lives & happily remember how they blessed our lives!

5.)  I began my teaching career in the same school where I went to school, alongside my mom, who was also a teacher! I loved teaching with her!

6.)  Both of my children were very large at birth! My son was 9lbs 8oz, 24 hrs of labor after being induced! He is now 20 yrs old & almost 6 ft 4 & has a size 14 shoe! My daughter was almost 6 weeks early & she was 9lbs 15 oz…YIKES! She was c-section baby, thank good-ness (after having spent from Oct-Dec) in the hospital with pre-term labor they took her early! Needless to say, I did not have anymore children after that, who knows what the third baby would have been! My darling daughter is now 17 & she is not tall nor does she have big feet like her brother for which she is MOST grateful for!

7.) I am SO VERY, VERY scared of thunder & lightening storms! When I was in college my family was away on vacation, I was home alone & during a horrible storm our home was hit by a lightening strike that split the outer wall of the living room, set the wall on fire & burned out all appliances. I became deathly afraid even since! Then, years later, while camping on the ocean with my husband & my kids, we got caught in a tropical storm. We hunkered down in our trailer, the storm picked up & twirled all items outside like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz! I was so terribly frightened! I could not wait to get out there & my husband & son thought it was fun!! MEN!
8.)   I LOVE the Dave Matthews Band! I have seen them many, many times in concert! I have traveled from state to state to see them in concert! I guess that you could say that I'm a concert junkie! I love all kinds of music & many varied kinds of artists!

9.)   The one place I LOVE to be the most is camping at the ocean with my family! It is a little piece of heaven on earth, the waves are crashing on the sand, the sun is setting over the bay & ocean.

10.)  I really do NOT like to cook! I know, very sad! I LOVE to bake & I am very good at baking!!! But cooking, not so much! My husband is an amazing cook, so when we got married, he did all the cooking. Now, he gets home after me & I have to cook & I still have not mastered the whole everyday cooking a whole meal thing! He doesn't love what I cook nor do my kids! UGH!

11.)  In High School I was in the Marching Band (YUP, band geek) where we just happened to be fortunate enough to be invited each year to play for Opening Day for the Jets & the Mets at Shea stadium. It was the most amazing feeling standing/marching out on the field & looking up at the thousands of fans in the stands! I was so lucky! I am still to this day a HUGE Jets & Mets fan as a result of this incredible experience!

12.) I met my husband on a blind date set up by my brother in law. My husband was my brother-in-law's boss! He thought we would be perfect together, he was so right! I did not want to go out on the date. I even made plans with my friends to meet up after thinking it would be a quick date! It ended up being a wonderful night! Never met up with my friends! Eight weeks later we were engaged, one year, 2 months later we were married! I guess my brother-in-law was right, we were perfect together, we just celebrated our 21^st anniversary!
Hugs,

Exciting News!

I have been working on putting together my first unit! I am so excited about doing this! I have been doing things "like" this for so many years, sharing with my super co-workers, but never have I actually put a thought of putting the whole packet together all at once, in such a neat, pretty little package! I have been teaching in-service courses for years, putting packets together, never once thinking about it! So, this is a new & not so new adventure for me! I should have it ready by tomorrow, or Saturday by the latest! It is just in time for Valentine's Day, lot's of great fun to share with your class, including a cupid on the shelf! Yes, that's right, we have a cupid on the shelf, last month we had a snowman on the shelf! It has been working so wonderful in helping my student's to keep their behavior in check!
Hugs,

Giveaway & Snowmen

One of the blogs I enjoy catching up with & reading is having a giveaway for an adorable tumbler personalized with your name. She has teamed up with K & K designs. So run, don't walk on over to their FB pages & their blogs. Like their FB page
http://bainbridgeclass.blogspot.com/2012/01/youre-gonna-love-this-giveaway.html
& leave a comment on their blogs to be entered to win. It is really an easy way to win a great prize! 
I hope you are all having a wonderful Saturday. I'm laying on the coach catching up on all of my favorite blogs as I came home early yesterday from school with pneumonia, it is a lousy way to get to lay on the coach all weekend! Lots of my little kiddies have been sick so I guess they shared with their teacher, it is one of the hazards of teaching! Lol…In the spirit of giving, I am sharing one of the activities we did this week. We made some cute snowmen after we built our very own snowman outside in the snow that was left over from the snowfall last weekend. Our snow did not last very long as it warmed up two days later, it then rained & good-bye snowman & snow! My class was so excited to make our first snowman & they were quite sad when he was all gone the next day. So, we read the book, Snow Dance & we are hoping that our wishing & our very own dancing will bring back some snow before the snow season is over! We also wrote our own How To books on making a snowman. It was a snow filled week! So since I'm new, I am uploading some pictures of our snowman, our snowpeople & the template to the How-To Make a Snowman book!
Go here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Do-You-Know-How-To-Make-a-Snowman

to get your snowman how to page. I was not able to upload it here, but it is free when you click on this link. Hope you like it! It is my  first post to my Teachers Pay Teachers site!

Hugs,

Finally……

I've been blogging for awhile now, I had two different blogs, one blog for my grad class I teach & the other one was for when I was a Literacy Coach. This is now a new adventure for me. I stumbled upon all of these amazing blogs when I was looking for ideas for my Kindergarten class. I quickly became a blog stalker, I could not get enough of the blogs out there, one thing led to another, I then found Teachers Pay Teachers which then led me to Pinterest. OH MY WORD, new addiction! I quickly found myself on my computer pinning EVERYTHING I could find related to things related to school, projects, etc. So I decided since I was learning so many wonderful things from all of you, it was time to jump in and share. I have been teaching at the college level
as an adjunct for 8 years now, been providing in-service for 15 years & I thought if I can give back even half of what I have learned, then that would be great. So here it goes, my first post on my new blog! So I hope you are all off today on this Monday. Tomorrow it is back to the crazy, busy times of the classroom!

Happy Monday to you all,