New Product & a Call Out for a Giveaway

One of the items on my summer bucket list is to make some more products for Teachers pay Teachers.  Here is my first offering of the summer!  I decided to make something that will be fun to use towards the beginning of the year, so I made this cute cupcake counting & number recognition set (graphics made by little ole me!).  Check it out in my TpT store.

 Another item on my summer bucket list is to have another giveaway.  I thought it would be fun to include items from other teachers in this giveaway.  If you are interested in participating, please send me an email and/or leave a comment below.  In return for your participation I will send you a copy of all the items that I am including in the giveaway, and I will follow all of your links.  I hope to have this going by next weekend, so if you are interested, please comment and/or email me at kindergartendoodles@yahoo.com as soon as possible.  Thanks!

Five for Friday - Down the Farm

Howdy!  I thought that I'd use some pictures of our little "farm" for this week's Five for Friday linky.

1.  Five dirty horses.  They love to go outside and roll around in the corral and haven't had a bath lately.

 "Mystery" the Arabian

 "Spirit" the Quar-Ab

 

 "Bob" the Tennessee Walker (on left) & "Alice" the Paint

 "Sundance" the American Mustang (he was born shortly after his mother was rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management.  Click HERE for a link on BLM horses.

2. The old barn across the street.  Once a cow barn, this old structure just sits there.  I really like it - it makes me smile.  :-)

 3.  Apple update.  Our apples are growing like crazy!  A recent strong storm didn't knock any down!  These pink ladies are about the size of ping pong balls!

4.  Pitch forks.  No particular reason for including them is this post...

5.  Barn kitty.  Clementine, a great mouser, sits on her favorite perch - hubby's old Allis Chalmers tractor.

I hope you enjoyed a peek at our rural life!

PS  If you link back to Doodle Bugs, check out #120 - the link just above mine.  Kinder Cakes is my daughter Sarah's blog!  

 

Please Follow Me on Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5244793/?claim=8xj5y3g27wf">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I recently read on several blogs that Google Friend Connect will no longer be available on July 1  In order to keep up, I have set up a Bloglovin account - just when I reached 155 followers! I'm not sure if these lovely followers will "go away" or not, but if you would click on my Bloglovin widget, I'd really appreciate it.  (You can still follow me on Friend Connect for now - I was really hoping to reach 200 followers...)

Here's a link to a post about changing to Bloglovin on Schoolmarm Style.

 I always like to include some pictures in my postings, but didn't have any good school related photos.  School's out, and my room is a mess.  I spent today organizing my math & literacy centers materials, and well, you know how it is when you undertake a big overhaul - I made a bigger mess than what I started with!  I plan to finish everything tomorrow afternoon.  So, in absence of any better pictures, here is Alice looking out of her stall.

And, here is my fine hairdo my three year old granddaughter did for me.  She even clipped on some "hurty" earrings for good measure!  Being the good grandma I am, I wore my hair like that while we played princess.  ;-)

We Made It!

We did it - we got to the end of the year!  I do have to admit that it's a bittersweet time of year.  I will really miss my Kinders.  They worked so hard all year, and made so much progress.  I'm very proud of them.  But, I will really enjoy not getting up at 5:30 - 7:00 seems to be a much more sensible time to get up!  I'll be able to visit my mother more often (she lives in a memory care unit for people with Alzheimer & dementia) and mornings are better for her.  When I visited after school she was often tired, so I am looking forward to spending more time with her when she is alert.  (A side note:  If your parents are healthy visit them as much as possible.  Cherish the moments.  It is really difficult to see my bright, lively mom like she is today.)  I also am looking forward to spending time with my precious granddaughters, Isabella & Olivia, (and granddaughter-to-be, Amelia).  Everyone says grandchildren are the best, and believe me, they ROCK! I absolutely LOVE being Mimi!  I'll have time to get in some porch sitting (I went to the library today and got three new books). Another activity I'm looking forward to is being a "guest reader" at Hilltop House.  My little granddaughters went there when Sarah was teaching.  It is a wonderful facility that has helped my little darlings to blossom and grow!  It is a privilege to be able to give back.

Here's my Five for Friday:

1. Kinder Diva Dream Team!  I had the great pleasure to work with some of the most caring, professional, beautiful women this past year.  We are not only teammates - we are very good friends!  We supported, helped, affirmed, and loved & comforted each other.  Our closeness makes it very difficult to say goodbye.  Kiki is retiring this year.  She leaves behind some very big shoes, um stylish kitten heels to fill.  But, I'm sure that given our great ability to work together as a team, our new Kinder Diva will fit right in!

From left to right: Diva Teacher Patty, Diva Teacher Kiki, Diva Teaching Assistant Deb, and Diva me

 2.  Are you a Kinder Diva?  If you work hard, value friendship, and love what you do then you are a Kinder Diva!  This is our anthem which we all have posted above our desks.  It serves to remind us that we are a united team working together to provide the best education for our little Kinders.  (Plus, it's a reminder of how much fun we have together!)  Click HERE for your copy of the Kinder Diva anthem.

 

3.  My new lanyard.  A recent trip to the outlet mall (one of my favorite haunts) netted this cute lanyard.  I figure if I am required to wear my school ID, I may as well do it in style!

 

4. I spotted this on Facebook.  I think it is an important reminder for parents and teachers alike.  (And, also the administrators who evaluate teachers on how engaged their students are...)

                                                                                                                                



5.  OK One more Heifer International post.  Click HERE to see the news segment from channel 2 in Chicago. 

Almost Done!

The end is near!  Only three days left!  This past week has been a crazy whirlwind of activities!  Trying to get everything finished, cleaned up, and sorted out makes for a super busy time.  Add a classroom full of excited Kinders, and you have... well, you have a very long week!

Today actually began with a lovely concert performed by the high school choir.  We trooped up the hall and over to the high school cafeteria where the two dozen or so lovely teen girls sang a variety of songs for the elementary students.  There are real advantages to having a K - 12 building!

Despite the hecticness of our week, I was able to snap some pictures with my phone for this week's Five for Friday link up.

1.  Finger Paint!  This is something that can only be done once a year!  Don't get me wrong - we do lots of messy crafts - but I can only muster up the will to bring out finger paints once a year!  The Kinders had so much fun, I almost felt guilty for only doing this one time.  (But, if you had seen the tables - and their hands & arms - when they were finished, you'd understand!  lol)

 2. Laptops.  Our computer lab closed last week so our computer teacher/TIS can clean computers, etc. We have a set of laptops in the library that can be checked out for use in the classroom.  Yesterday was the first time we ever used them.  It was fun, but boy-oh-boy!  Many kids knew how to use a laptop, but logging in with their username & password was tricky!

3. Heifer International Read to Feed.  We had a wonderful celebration on Wednesday.  The high school cheerleaders and band welcomed the elementary students into the cafeteria, creating a party atmosphere.  Two TV stations (one from Chicago) were on hand to record the festivities.  A representative from the Indiana DOE, several state politicians, school board members, and a representative from Heifer International were present.  A slide show of the year's events was shown and a passing of the gifts ceremony was performed before presenting a check to Heifer International.  Our little school raised $13,337!!!  That's a lot of animals donated to needy families all over the world!  My Kinders really got into it, reading at home and at school (they earned $1.00 per book read).  My class earned $1,335!  We bought 2 trios of rabbits, 1 flock of chicks, 2 flocks of geese, 1 goat, 1 pig, 1 water buffalo, 1 cow, 1 hive of bees, and 1 llama!  It was an overwhelmingly wonderful program.  Not only did we get the opportunity to help people around the world, my students were motivated to practice their reading skills!  Thank you to the wonderful PTO moms who made this possible.

4.  Apples!  We have eighteen apple trees that are absolutely loaded with tiny apples!  Last year an early warm spring followed by a killing frost left us with a few skimpy apples.  This year it looks as if we will have a bumper crop!  But, given the fact that our trees are still pretty small, we will have to wait and see just how many apples we will get.

5.  Hubby on his 1948 Allis Chalmers tractor.  His father rebuilt this oldie and had it shipped out here from New York.  His dad has since passed away, but his gift is used daily to help keep our little "farm" running.  Here, he is towing a mower, but the tractor is mostly used to tow the manure spreader.  Given my germ-a-phobic, girly-girly-ish-ness, many of my friends are surprised to learn that I know how to drive a tractor (pulling a manure spreader)!  

Well, that's my five random things for the week.  Be sure to hop on over to Doodle Bugs for the linky party!

Using Music as a Tool

In my Kinder classroom we can often be found singing.  Kinders love music, and are very forgiving of my less than American Idolish voice.  (I'd be in the blooper reel...)  Our classroom is filled with tools for my students use in their quest for knowledge, and I often see *hear* them using songs to help them to figure things out.  We recently got our six boxes of Jolly Phonics and have been having fun with the cute songs and motions.  I can't wait to use Jolly Phonics next year beginning on day one!  I can see already that it will prove to be a smart purchase!

In addition to the kindergarten standards, we sings songs to learn how to spell words, remember classroom rules, and understand math skills.  When we were working with ten frames to make numbers to twenty, I came up with this little ditty:  (Sung to She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain)  When a ten frame is filled up, you have ten, when a ten frame is filled up, you have ten, when a ten frame is filled up, when a ten frame is filled up, when a ten frame is filled up, you have ten!  Very catchy!  I think we sang it about twenty times one day.  (The following day several kiddos said that they had it 'stuck' in their heads - YAY!)  Another song-tool that came to me one day was to sing the "Story of Five" to the tune of Are You Sleeping? 

I wanted to create a visual to go along with my "Story of..." songs, so I made this Growing Number Sense bulletin board set.  (Available for only $2.00 on TpT)  I am pretty excited about it because I made most of the clip art in it!  (Title page artwork is from www.mycutegraphics.com)  I still need to figure out how to make the background transparent, but I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. 

For a really great article on using songs as a teaching tool, go to Heidi Songs.  Her blog gives readers tons of information and ideas for using songs to help students learn to spell.  Be sure to check it out!

Linky Party Saturday

I love the potential of a good linky party!  Not only will my little blog get some visitors that may not have found their way to my little piece of the blogosphere, I get a chance to visit some very interesting blogs!  There are some very amazing teachers out there, and I am so happy that I can get a chance to go on some virtual visits their classrooms!  In this post I am linking up with  Doodles Bugs and Flying into First Grade for these two Linky Parties. 

Linky #1

 

OK,  here's my first linky entry:

1.Number Flowers from Miss Kindergarten.  We had fun working with numbers to create these cute flowers.  

 

 2.  We read a lot of animal books this week, two of which were Is your Mama a Llama? and Are You my Mother?  After some lively didiscussions about our mothers, the Kinders wrote about them in their journals.  They LOVE to read their writing on the white board! 

 3.  Name your sorting rule!  We spent lots of time sorting all sorts of things - ourselves, manipulatives, etc.  In this activity students sorted animal pictures and stated their sorting rule.

 Here's the link to get this activity.

4.  More sorting.  The kids had fun sorting their shoes!  What made this activity really fun was the fact that they got to TAKE OFF THEIR SHOES!  I love Kinders - the simplest things make them happy.  This was a tricky activity because they had to agree on their sorting rules.  (Not always easy for 4 - 5 kids to do...)

 We had fun with a room full of sorting bins.  I took out a variety of sortable objects, set them around the room, and gave partners three minutes to sort.  They were given free reign on how to sort, but were required to tell me their sorting rules. When the timer went off, they picked up and moved to the next bin.  Here are some of the sorting rules they came up with.  What smarties I have!  <3

5.  The view from my back porch Thursday evening.  (Looking over my neighbor's hay field - the clouds look like water...)  Full moon + the day before a 3 day weekend + almost the end of the school year... enough said  :-)

 

Linky  #2

Flying into First Grade is hosting another fun linky where we get to introduce our bloggy friends.  I actually only know three bloggers - my beautiful daughters!  Sarah has a kindergarten blog, Emily has an author blog, and Gabrielle has a fashion/lifestyle blog.  I would love to get to know some other bloggers.  If anyone is interested in contacting me, I would love to hear from you!

Here are links to my girls' blogs.

Kinder Cakes

   http://kindergartencakes.blogspot.com/

 Emily Goodwin's Author page

 

 the twenties girl