Daisy and Amanda's Sunday Scoop!

I have only done this linky once, but I love it! I had to come back and do it again after missing last week. I'm a big to-do list person, so this has been a fun way to get my Sundays on track. Check out The Teaching Trio for more Sunday Scoop posts and maybe even do your own! Leave me your links in the comments and I'll be sure to check your's out as well!

Happy "last day of the weekend" and have a great week!

Tap Tunes

If you do not know already, I teach at the local community theater in my town. I was basically raised there when my mom worked as the music director for 13 years. 13 years, 4 main-stage musicals and usually 2 children's shows per year... that makes 78 (give or take depending on the year) musicals that my mom directed the music for... which means I saw all of them MANY MANY times.

You'd think I'd be sick of it! But, no really, it's like home. I have taught the after-school classes and summer camps there for years now, and this year isn't different in that regard...

It IS different this year though! This has been the first year that we've offered an adult tap dance class! We offered an adult tap workshop earlier this year in March that was very successful and a SUPER SUCCESSFUL summer tap class (no joke... 40 people...)! I was thrilled to have that much response and the feedback has been nothing but positive, so the theater is now asking me back to teach a beginner level adult tap class for the fall.

Last Monday was my first class with this new group of students and there are 10 in the class. For this type of class, that is a great number of students! Not too many, not too few. I didn't have a lot planned because I needed to meet the students and figure out their levels (sound familiar? Yep! Same goes for tap dancing!). Now that I know that everyone except for 2 students have never had tap shoes on in their lives, I can choreograph a dance!

Truly, the hardest part of this is picking a song...

I'm between the following:

Fever by Patti Drew
Did You Get My Message? by Jason Mraz
Is This How You Feel? by The Preatures
My Type by Saint Motel

Take a listen to those and vote! I'd love to hear which one is your favorite!

Simone's HUGE Giveaway!!

Wow! What a milestone! Simone over at Simone's Math Resources is celebrating 5 YEARS with Teachers Pay Teachers! Congratulations, Simone!

To celebrate, she asked some of us to donate for a HUGE 3-DAY Giveaway! Today starts Giveaway #1, so you MUST head over and enter!

The giveaway I donated to is Giveaway #2 and it will post tomorrow! And you can even enter the giveaway here at MY blog! Awesome, right? How awesome would it be to win $10 shopping sprees to multiple stores on a MONDAY? Hehe. Best of luck and congratulations to Simone again!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

Okay, well maybe the moment I've been waiting for...

It's DONE.

The extensively talked about Kindergarten Skills Bundle... is... done. Kinda. It's up and ready for download but more will be added later!

This will be an expanding bundle. Any time I add new products under the Kindergarten Skills umbrella, they will be added to the bundle. You can, of course, buy them separately as well, but it is much cheaper to go with the bundle. And if you buy it before a new product is added, there is no price increase for you. Right now, the bundle is $9. As more products are added, that will go up! So snag your low price now and keep getting goodies added over time!

Wooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Included in the bundle are:

(click the images to get more details and a preview!)

Sunday Scoop!

I just stumbled upon a new linky party! And you know how much I LOVE linky parties!! The Teaching Trio started a new one called "The Sunday Scoop" and it is all about what we need/hope to do before school the next day. I enjoyed seeing everyone else's so much, that I decided to make one of my own. I am a big list-maker and this little linky helps make my lists a little more fun!

PS- Did you know that it is scientifically proven that to-do lists make us more productive? Seriously. I read about it HERE.

I have a feeling I won't feel very energized tomorrow with this sinus infection. This infection comes complete with nausea-inducing antibiotics for the next ten days, too. Should be an interesting day tomorrow... Enjoy the rest of your weekend, readers! 

Five for Friday: A Week ALREADY?!

Has it seriously been another week?? How?! Where did the time go?

This week was certainly an interesting one. We had our PBS assembly which was super confusing for my kinders but they loved it. It was the week after a 3 day weekend which meant that Tuesday was like the first day of school again... AND I got sick today. I will be fighting a cold for a little while, but thank goodness I only had to make it through one day and now I have the weekend to recuperate!

I'm starting off my post with a personal item: I miss my little brother!

My brother and I are very close. He is only 10 months younger than I am and we have never been more than an hour's drive away from each other our entire lives! Well, my brother made a huge life-changing decision a few months ago and it finally came to fruition. My older brother lives in Nevada and my younger brother Joey decided he needed a change and would move to Nevada as well.... Have I mentioned that I live in Florida? It was a very emotional (but exciting!) day. Selfishly, though, I miss him...

My older brother Stephen (right) flew in to help Joey (left) with his drive. My mom and I are the shorties...

Here they are! Ready to go! And apparently Kerby the beagle is a very good traveler and is also ready for a new adventure!

Flashback time!

And here's us being silly at my wedding reception!

I miss him terribly but I am SO PROUD of him for making such a big decision. He needs a change and I hope he finds what he's looking for in a new place. Plus, now my vacations can be to Las Vegas!

Alright, back to school stuff. Teaching kindergarten, I use tables in my room and not desks, which does pose a problem with storing and organizing the kids' supplies. I am also in a portable where storage is always an issue. I was given these chair pockets by a retiring teacher and I LOVE them. What do you use if you don't use desks?

We have their school folder with their workbook pages in it and the clothespin has their name and lunch number written on it for when we go to the cafeteria. We call it their lunch clip. This child is obviously very particular as to how he likes his chair pocket set up. I didn't even tell him to put his lunch clip like that. What a smartie.

We whipped out the watercolors the other day! It was so fun!! A class set of watercolor paints was donated to my classroom this year (some used, some new) and I couldn't wait to use them.

We read "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes" and talked about color words. Then I found a free printable (I can't remember where! UGH! I feel so bad!). Instead of plain old coloring, we painted his shoes!

It also really helped that his shoes turn white again but they are wet at the end of the story. The kids just "painted" on some water on the last set! We wrote our color words in later but I snagged this picture beforehand.

We are learning about the five senses in science right now and we've really been enjoying it! We even had a popcorn party! Food for all of your senses! The fun part (and I wish I had pictures) was when I used an air popper to pop it. To prevent all the kids from getting up out of their seats to see, I put the whole thing up on the document camera real big on the screen. It was certainly interesting. One popped out and scared me when it hit my hand and I let out a little shriek, which was then followed by the whole class screaming. It was hilarious... and delicious... and the kids had a blast.

I made these little "awards" for each kiddo with some popcorn die cuts I got at a teacher supply store. They thought it was so cool.

I have a couple of new products up in my store that haven't had their moment in the spotlight here on my blog, so I'll use my number 5 section to show them off! I am excited about both of them as they were both products requested that I make by colleagues. They are happy and so am I! Click the images to go to the links.

These are really cool. Each side of the cube has a reflection question geared towards math, such as "Are there any other ways you can solve this problem?" or "Did someone else solve this problem differently? How?" It makes reflection a little more fun and interactive. There are 4 different cubes with a total of 24 questions AND a blank cube with editable text for you to make your own!

A co-worker of mine liked my teacher toolbox but couldn't quite find something that she liked for her own to match her color scheme. I decided to make one for her and love the result. I actually kind of like it more than my own......

Thanks for reading, ya'll! Have a great and well deserved relaxing weekend!