Cyber Monday & Tuesday Shopping

It is that time of year again!

 I am so excited about the huge sale that happens at TPT every year and I usually have my shopping cart filled over the top!

This is a special year for me, because I have add so many more products to my TPT and I will be participating in the huge sale! Click here to go to my store and save big on all of my products.

~Danielle

Getting Organized

Hello everyone!

Do you ever have the problem of getting organized and staying organized? I have the worst problem of staying organized. I have good intentions each school year, but with all the extra tasks that come up I find myself throwing things in the floor of my closet or on a shelf (where is doesn't belong) and leaving them there all year. I had to spend the first two day of post planning reorganizing my closet due to the problem I encounter each school year.

This coming year, I am going to push myself to get better organized and stay organized all school year and not be so lazy!

I love, love, love Caitlin Clabby's Word Work packs. You can check them out here. They are great and my little ones love to do these activities. My school is big on differentiation and these packs have so many activities, it is easy to differentiate for each student based on his or her needs. I plan to do a post on how I run my reading centers once school starts back.

Ok, I have went a little of track talking about how much I love her packs, but these packs are the first thing I wanted to organize. When I began purchasing these packs, I thought it would be perfect to store the activities in an expandable folder so everything would stay organized, but some months contain so much that I couldn't close the folder. I quickly gave up on that idea and my efforts to keep the activities stored somewhere became forgotten. This is what became of each word work pack.

Needless to say, not something I am proud to show. I knew that I needed a better method to store these activities so they would be easy to put into my word work center each month next school year. I thought and thought and thought and decided that I should put each month into a different plastic container with a label stating the month of the work pack inside. My main worry was that I could not find a plastic container that would be big enough and would make the edges of the paper fold over. I can't stand when papers are not flat. I have the tendency to be a perfectionist and everything look new. I set off to Wal-Mart and found the perfect tubs there!

These tubs are very sturdy and were around $4.00 a piece. Each tub has a lid that snaps closed with the green handles. The only problem I ran into was the first Wal-Mart I went to they only have 8 on the shelf. I quickly grabbed them and check out and did what anyone else would do, head to another Wal-Mart to get the rest that I needed. Next, I created and printed out these handy labels and taped into each tub (I did laminate them first so they would last for years).

After placing all the labels in my new tubs, I started putting in all the word word activities in its correct bin and this is my project finished.

I placed the tubs onto one of my shelves in my closet and they will be easy to access next school year. This is one of the first projects I plan to organize this summer into the beginning of the next school year. I will have these labels posted into my TPT store soon!

~Danielle

Word Families

I am not off to a good start with blogging a whole lot, but I promise that I am going to try and get better at it! When I think about sitting down to blog, I think of something else that I have to get done for school and I push blogging aside.

This week we have been doing activities that are all about snowmen. My little ones have had a blast! They came back from Christmas break ready to learn and it has not been as crazy as I thought it would to get back into the swing of things, even with getting two new students our first week back!

This is actually the first year I am spending a week to discuss each word family. Usually on Monday I write a list of words that belong in a certain word family, this week was the -og family, and I let students discuss with a friend what the words have in common and which word family they think the words belong in. I love this part, because my students are teaching each other! On Tuesday, we review the word family and they brainstorm words that belong in that family. I get so excited when my little ones come up with words I haven't thought of. On Wednesday, they create their own list and pick one word to use in a sentence. I use my lists found in my Word Family Lists pack, click here to check it out. When it rolls around to Thursday, students build the word family words in a book that The Moffatt Girls created. I love these little books and it really shows that they students are sounding out their words. You can find it here! On Friday my kids usually have a word sort to do, but that is every other Friday, after we have two new word families.

Since we had a loooooooong break, it has been a while since we talked about the one that was introduced before Christmas break. I wanted to make sure the students will still familiar with the words because their word family book had them build words in that family. To review, I wrote -ig and -og on the board and had students come up and write a word in either word family. I was so proud of them because they remember a lot of words that belonged in the word family that was introduced before Christmas. I couldn't believe it! Needless to say, my students rocked building their -ig and -og words today. Here are some pictures of their list they created!

 

 

Happy teaching, I am off to get ready for tomorrow before heading home!

 

 

~Danielle

 

 

Happy New Year and SALE

Well 2013 is almost over and the beginning of 2014 is right around the corner! A lot of wonderful things happened last year and I am excited to see what 2014 has in store!!

To kick off the New Year I am having a sale at TPT and my entire store is 15% off. The sale ends tomorrow! Check out my store here! I have finally uploaded my new product Snowman Fun! It has 10 different activities, 5 ELA and 5 Math. Click on the picture below to check it out. It really is my favorite creation as of now and one of my biggest.

 

 

I am going to print out the packet and hopefully blog about it before returning to school. My kiddos will learn about snowmen the second week back.

 

 

Have a wonderful New Year!!

 

~Danielle

Things Always Turn Out Differently!

When breaks arrive for school, I always think that I can use the time to catch up and get some things done that I have pushed off! Usually I continue to push those things off and like to enjoy my break by being lazy! Does this happen to anyone else? This break is a little different and didn't really plan on doing too much school work since I am trying to plan my wedding! I spent most of yesterday collecting addresses to send out our invitations. I want to mail them all before going to back school on the 6th. Most of my planning is finished, I have my first dress fitting on Monday, which I am super excited to see my dress since I did major changes to it.

I have been working on a new product! Here is a sneak peak!

 

I am super excited about this packet, because it is the biggest one I have created so far and the graphics are super cute! I purchased them from Graphics on the Pond. Check out their store here! I am just beginning to create products to use in my classroom and love seeing things I created completed by my little ones! I am hoping to have this packet done in the next few days, follow my TPT store here to be the first person to check it out! Have a wonderful break and I am going to try and get out of my rut and get some things done!

 

 

~Danielle

Our Elf Adventures

Our elf is back! Each year we get a special visit from one of Santa's elf. Normally we come to school and he is sitting on our class Christmas tree, but this year I wanted to do things a little different.

I wanted to begin my adventures of blogging because I would read all of the fabulous teacher blogs and wanted to share my experience in the classroom. As I was reading some of my favorite blogs about their elf experiences, many teachers had him delivered straight from the North Pole and knew I wanted to do that this year!

To start things off I wrapped placed the elf gift box in another box and wrapped it up using Santa wrapping paper. I had one of the assistants deliver him to my class when I knew all of my students would be there (I have two separate groups that leave during the day for EIP). When he was delivered, my students were so excited to see what was delivered from Santa we quickly opened it up and read the book that came along with him. I placed our elf and box onto the shelf in the classroom so everyone was able to see him. After reading, we knew we had to quickly name our elf so he would get his magical powers. The students voted to name him Jaylan.

Right after naming him, it was time for us to go to lunch. When we returned, we had a HUGE surprise. Jaylan came out of our box and moved to our Christmas tree! The students were so surprised and I loved all of their excitement. I let the students draw a picture of him on the tree so they would be able to take it home and share our special visitor with their families.

Jaylan has been busy in our classroom so far! Here are a couple of pictures that I was able to take of him.

 

After returning from a field trip we found Jaylan playing with the blocks
(Sorry it is sideways, I can't figure out how to rotate the picture)

The very next day we found Jaylan like this. It was perfect because I let the students complete a journal to say why they thought he was sleeping. I got some great ideas from the students!

Today, we found Jaylan swinging from the ceiling on a candy cane he borrowed from our Christmas tree. The students were amazing how he got up there. One student said he jumped from the door knob to the ceiling to make his swing!

 

Yesterday we began our Elf Adventure's Journal. You can find it here. Many students have been telling their parents all about our elf Jaylan and I thought this would be a great was to document all that he is doing in the classroom. The students will get to take it home the last day before Christmas break so they can share it with their parents. Check back for more updates from our class elf, Jaylan!

 

 

~Danielle

Welcome to A Colorful Kindergarten!

 

Welcome to my blog, A Colorful Kindergarten! I have spent the last two years "blog stocking" and decided that I would try it out for myself! I am currently in my fifth year of teaching, my second year in kindergarten. I have taught pre-k and first, but I am in love with teaching kindergarten! Kindergarten is tons of fun and the kids keep me laughing with the crazy stuff they do and say. I have the sweetest bunch this school year and they are so eager to learn!

 

Continue to check back as I finish the school year with my little ones! I can't wait to share my ideas like so many other teachers have done!

 

 

~Danielle