Some BIG News on This Fine Sunday Morning...

Ladies and gents, I have some pretty big news to share. I thought this news might best be announced alongside one of my favorite linkies... The Sunday Scoop!

Take a look at my scoop today... Do you see the big announcement??

That's right, people! I'm moving to a new grade level next year! It has been announced that I will be moving to **drum roll please** 

I am very excited. I adore Kindergarten, but I am the type of person who embraces and sometimes even craves change, so I am excited for this new challenge. I normally teach the second grade age group at the community theater I work for and I already know I LOVE that age range. They are still cute and cuddly but are much more independent. I am excited.

If you teach second and have a blog, Pinterest board, or TpT store I need to know about or follow, sound off in the comments! I'd love to start getting my head together for next year!

AND, don't forget that there's a giveaway going on in my previous post! Don't you love Jungle Learners' product swaps?? Click the button below to go to my post to enter AND make sure you scroll all the way down and click through the other giveaways! There's a LOT this time!!!

Time for a Product Swap!

It is one of my FAVORITE things to do on this little bloggy of mine.... a product swap! I love trying out new things, discovering other blogs and resources created by fellow teachers, and trying new things! Thanks to Melissa from Jungle Learners, these product swaps are perfect for that and super fun to share! Click the image below to check out the other swaps going on!

This time, I swapped with Joya at Live, Love, Serve, Teach. Her store is so sweet and colorful and it was hard to choose a product to try out! She chose my Dice Games for Math Centers pack, so make sure you head over to her blog to check that out, because she'll be GIVING ONE AWAY! :)

I chose her Spring Butterflies Uppercase and Lowercase Letters Matching set!

This is certainly not a new skill for my kinders this late into the school year, however, I had a very specific student in mind for this pack. I have a student who is struggling big time. Her behavior is very disruptive, she is difficult to motivate, and her academics are extremely low. I am always thinking about her and thinking about ways I can get this student excited to learn. Behavior issues put aside, she is not a typical girly girl usually. For the majority of the school year she has had an obsession with dinosaurs. I have noticed though lately, that she has been starting to wear dresses to school and she has been drawn to more typical "girly" stuff. So I thought, maybe she wants a change.

I picked this product from Joya's store specifically for her... and I'm glad I did! It is timely right now for the season we are in and my little nugget loved it.

I have to give you a little story here about what happened this week. My classroom is a teeny tiny portable in HOT central Florida. Well, the A/C broke in the classroom and there was no way we were having class with a thermostat that read 93 degrees... So I was moved to a completely empty classroom. I brought clipboards, center materials, and everything we needed short of tables and chairs. So excuse the pictures of this product in use!

The set included two uppercase letter cards of each letter and two lowercase letter cards. I had them separated for two students to work on with guidance, but the kiddos decided they wanted to work together, so the cards got combined. With this specific student, if she wants to do something a little differently, I am TOTALLY okay with it. The fact that she actually wanted to do this was enough for me!

I love how it turned into a color sort as well! Later (which I didn't get a picture, sorry!!!), they sorted them in ABC order. The little boy did most of the work there as that is a skill baby girl over there struggles with, but they worked together and he helped her so much!

So cute.

So proud! Even though they are both lowercase, she wanted me to take a picture. I let her call the shots that time. ;)

I also used Joya's product as a clean up game. Little princess didn't want to clean up. She wanted to go bother some other students working on a Dr. Seuss writing activity instead... So I devised a plan. I told Little Mister to tell Little Miss a letter, she would find those cards and hand them to him. He would stack them in the little bag I had for them. It lengthened the time of clean-up, but it was worth it. She was learning and practicing and I wasn't the one who had to pick up all those cards!!!

And now to give one away! It's perfect for this time of year and a great resource. I have thought of ways I can use this with other groups of students: using them as help with putting words in ABC order, hiding them around the room like a scavenger hunt, draw a card and tell me a word that starts/ends with that sound, there are tons of possibilities! Be sure to enter below for your chance to win a copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Check out the links below for more giveaways and be sure to go to Joya's blog for a chance to win my Dice Games for Math Centers pack!

Product Swap with Hanging Around in Primary!

Hey ya'll! I have to share with you the most recent product swap I did! Just like last time, Melissa over at Jungle Learners hosted a fabulous opportunity for us bloggers to swap products and share with the world just how awesome they are! It was so fun last time, that I just had to jump on board again. And just like last time, I will be giving away a copy of the product I tried out and my partner in crime will be giving away a copy of MY product that she chose over at her blog!

To check out my last product swap with Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten, click HERE.

This time around, I was matched up with Christina over at Hanging Around in Primary!

Out of the products in my store, she chose to try out my 2D and 3D Shape Activities pack for grades K-2! Check out her blog post by clicking the image above or below. She will be giving one of my shape packs away on her blog so you don't want to miss the chance! In celebration of another awesome product swap I will also be putting the 2D and 3D Shape Activities pack on sale 20% off through the weekend! Yay!

Christina has a variety of Read and Write the Room products which are always a big hit with my class of kinders, so I was dying to try one of hers. I chose the Read and Write the Room Numbers to 30 pack. My kinders are working on numbers up to 20, but because of the 100th day the other day, we have been counting way beyond 20. I felt like going up to 30 would be a great way to practice those 2-digit numbers!

I printed out each 1/3 page card, cut, and laminated them. You don't necessarily have to laminate them, but you'll see why I did in a moment... After you print the cards, attach them to the wall around the room or in one area for students to locate and figure out which number should go in place of that tricky yellow question mark.

Also included is the recording sheet for students to find the matching cards and write in the missing number! I printed these in black and white to save on printing costs but they are provided in color. The pencil banner matches the cards on the wall so if you have more than one Write the Room activity going on there is no confusion on which cards students are to look for. Students look at the red letter at the top of the cards on the wall and write their answer in the corresponding box on the recording sheet. I really like how Christina made the labels with letters rather than numbers. It was much less confusing than labeling them with another number! And for some of my lower babies it was extra practice for letter matching. ;)

My classroom is a teeny tiny portable, but the bright side is I can staple to the wall! I don't have to worry about tape or sticky tack falling off the wall. Now you see why I laminated them... I put them near the water fountain. I decided that would be the best place because that is also where I have my 100s chart posted, so for those trickier high numbers that my students are still learning, they have the chart to refer to to help them! The image above does not show all the cards included. There are more to the right and the left scattered and mixed up. I have done Write the Room in the past where the cards are truly scattered around the entire room, but because of the location of the helpful 100s chart, I decided to have them a little closer together this time. 

I placed the recording sheet on a clipboard and the kids knew what to do right away! We do Write the Room activities quite a bit in my class so the activity was predictable, which is always a good thing when it comes to an independent center.

I really like this picture of these two kiddos sharing and helping each other. I usually do centers in pairs, but depending on your students and your classroom, you could do this with much larger groups. The feedback I always get from my students on Write the Room activities is that they LOVE to look around for the cards they need next.

Christina has a ton of other Read and Write the Room activities that look great as well and if your kiddos like this one, having these activities ready for them with varying skills will be great!

And now for the moment we have all been waiting for!! Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a copy of Hanging Around in Primary's Read and Write the Room Numbers to 30 pack! She also has the pack on sale in her store through the weekend! And be sure to check out Hanging Around in Primary for a post on my 2D and 3D Shape Activities pack and enter that giveaway, too! And don't forget to check out the other bloggers who are swapping products this weekend. There are a TON of other giveaways going on on their blogs, too! I know I'll be entering them! Their links are below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click through the blog names below to check out more swaps and enter more giveaways!