Over the River and Through... An ice storm?

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday! Ours took a little bit longer than we had hoped to get started, but everything ended up working out! Michael, his mom and I set out for Iowa the day we got out from school in 2 cars (he is a nurse and had to both work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so they were going to come back early). We got about an hour and a half into our trip and my dad called and said that the ice storm had hit earlier than they thought and to turn around. I was an emotional wreck for the entire drive home. The weather finally cleared out and I headed to Iowa without them for the holiday, but they joined us in Iowa after Christmas. Michael and his mom had never seen that much snow and it was so adorable to watch them play in it as grown ups! One of my New Years Resolutions is to be so much better about my little blog as well as my TpT store! I have put up 5 new sets, and have the bundle of these sets discounted as well! They are for short vowel sounds, something that we are going to hit HARD when we come back from break -- those AIMSweb scores KILLED US! To help get some more blogs to follow and ideas for my classroom, I have linked up with Simply Kinder to join a link party! This one is just to find some more blogs to follow and get some great ideas!

Along with a lot of other TpT sellers, I have placed my store on sale 20% off through New Years Day! Its a great time to get all of your wish listed items before we got back to school next week :)

New Design!

I am so excited that I decided to get a new blog design!  Becca from Jumpin Jax Design completed my design and I am so in love with it :)

I decided that this would be a great time to hold my first big giveaway to celebrate my new look!  I am giving away my Sight Word Pack: Preprimer, Color & Number Word set from TpT -- a $10 value!   I use this set in my classroom to help reinforce the sight words that we are working on for the week.  It has been so helpful for my students and it has really boosted their writing because they have become more familiar with the sight words.  You can find the giveaway details below :)

 Only 3.5 days until Christmas break, we can do it -- even if it includes a million calls and texts to Santa :) a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unexcused Absence & Show Us What You Bought Linky Party

To say that I have been absent from my recently started blog would be well.. and understatement!  But I have been very busy working on items for my TpT store, wedding planning, and hanging out with some really sweet 5 year olds :)

We just finished our addition unit and it went so well!  All of my students have mastered the skill and I could not have been more proud of my lowest babies that worked so hard to make their math goal for the month :)

Today we received a special package from Santa!  I had one of our assistant principals deliver the package to our classroom...

We then wrote letters to Santa asking him for an Elf and why we would want an Elf.  I heard everything from "I want an Elf so we can learn more" to "I want an Elf so I can be good!"  Our Elf is patiently awaiting receiving his name tomorrow morning before we go to breakfast :) I can't wait to see their faces when they see the Elf in the morning.  They were so amazed when our cold packaged arrived from the North Pole.

SHOW US WHAT YOU BOUGHT :) There is a link party going on through Friday for the things that you purchased on TpT this week!  More info is below:

Incase you haven't seen yet, there is a HUGE TpT sale going on now.  My store, along with TONS of other stores are on sale for 20% off, and TpT is throwing in another 10% so you can receive 28% off. Tonight I cleared out my Wish List and bought some Clip Art from Scrappin Doodles that I'd had my eye on for awhile.  I am also very excited about this pack from Miss Kindergarten Love.  I'm so excited about all the time and stress that this bundle pack is going to be able to bring me for years to come!

I promise to be better at blogging, until then, 14 more days until Christmas Break :)

Hey y'all happy football Saturday!  My fiance is working all day so I have been just relaxing on the couch, working on some new products and watching TONS of college football :)  This is seriously my favorite time of the year!  

I stumbled upon this WONDERFUL give away that is over at dotsoffun for celebrating her 700th follower!  The giveaway is going on for 2 more days, but be sure to get your 12 chances!  The link is below!

Dots of Fun

I promise to be back soon with new updates and products!  

Rhyming Puzzles and Pure Joy

First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love teaching K and mainly for the pure comedy that a 5 year old can provide.  One of the students in my class can turn a bad day upside down so quickly and it is definitely a great way to keep going throughout the day!

Today with my strugglers I was able to differentiate the rhyming word puzzles that I made this weekend and are available here -- http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rhyme-Time-882786

I only pulled out enough cards for each student to complete 2 puzzles and we went through them all together and then I gave each student 4 cards, 2 matches, and they were able to tell me the rhyming words!

They were so proud of themselves for their hard work and were excited to tell my assistant and anyone they could that they had figured out some rhyming words!  This was a HUGE gain for them, because before this they would tell me any old word rhymed, and this FINALLY broke through with them!  Tomorrow we are going to review the same material and then they are going to use the circling words sheet that is in the packet!

I was also able to differentiate the puzzles whole group by playing a whole group game.  Each student received a puzzle piece and they had to find the match that another student had -- I also made sure to give each of my strugglers a word that they already knew so that they could continue to feel successful. To find the match the students had to go around and match the pieces, if they found their match they went to sit on the carpet to whole group time and if it wasn't a match they said "see ya later" and found another friend to see if they had a match.... I was a bit worried there would be chaos, but the students did so well and loved it, we traded cards and did it again!  

I am going to keep modeling how to use this activity whole group and make it a center next week!  

Hey y'all!  My name is Lydia and I am a third year kindergarten teacher in Mississippi.  I grew up in Iowa, went to school outside Chicago and have been living in Mississippi for just over 2 years.  I live with my wonderful boyfriend fiancé, Michael -- we just recently got engaged!  

I changed schools and districts this year and am so happy thrilled with the PreK/K team that I am working with!  I also can't complain about the smaller class sizes :) 

We have been working on rhyming words and greater than less than the past few weeks and am excited to move onto more new and exciting things over the next few weeks!  You can check out my store on TpT at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Owl-Be-In-Kindergarten.  I have been researching, buying and making things like crazy over the past week and will be uploading some more things soon :)  What are you working on in your classrooms?