Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!


Congrats to the winners! 

Phonological Awareness Skills on Smart board? Yes, please!!

For those of you who are dedicated to keeping "Literacy 1st" in your classroom, I think you will enjoy this Smart board file full of phonological awareness skill practice for your students!



My favorite thing about this file is that there are no pieces, word cards, picture cards, etc.  I don’t have to find room on my walls or pocket charts to use.

These are foundation reading skills that really should be practiced daily and all you have to do is simply click a file to open it and practice any time during the day that you wish.

The fact that you can change out different recordings and questions make this file’s duration endless.  The hardest part of the file, the set-up and linking of pages, is already done for you. I hope you enjoy!


Click on pic above to get yours!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Cyber Monday Sale


I've been working long and hard on this Christmas bundle and I must say that I think you'll love it!! One of my favorite things to do is create activities that I can introduce whole group on the Smart board and then easily place in a center and the students can immediately perform the task independently because of our Smart board activity.  Well, this bundle includes 18 different activities that are paired together and include a Smart board version, along with a center version.  I have also included an additional 8 more activities, some Smart board and some center printables. 

Click on the pic above to preview the entire file!!!

Click on the pic above to get yours!


Friday, November 14, 2014

Freebie Friday!

Today's freebie are the cards that I've been using to get my students at my teacher table going while I get students settled in their centers for rotation. Print them on card stock and laminate to use with dry-erase markers. They're great practice for those who still struggle with letter formation, but also includes some higher level skills like beginning sounds and alphabetical sequence- filling in the missing letters. These are also great for fast finishers or a word work tub. Hope you can find some use for them. HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
Click on pic to get yours!


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Listening Center

So when I received MP3 players from a grant that I had written, I thought my listening center problems would all be solved- no more scratched CD's and books separated from their CD or students arguing over what song or book to listen to and having to share a book. Well, I was just a bit in fairy tale land.

Now, don't let me mislead you......having MP3 players is BY FAR the better choice for my listening center. I can load as many songs or books that I want on them and can easily change them out weekly or bi-weekly or whatever. I LOVE this aspect!!!! But when I got these players I thought it would be just wonderful if every student had their own pair of ear buds to use for the players when it was their turn. I collected over 20 ear buds and was ready to rock this new system for our listening center!!! Music and books were loaded on 6 different players, ear buds for each student and things were all in place. The first few students did great and then a few more and then I started getting THIS at the beginning of each center rotation............

"Mrs. Aguilar, I need help." "Mrs. Aguilar I can't get this undone." It went on and on each rotation. AAAHHH!!!! One tangled mess after another.  Now this may not be an issue if I had some way to hang them for each student but they just keep them in a pencil box in their cubby.  And even if this problem was solved, the size of the standard cheap ear bud is really not intended for a 5 or 6 year old.  I will say that I do have some headphones that are perfect and I LOVE THEM!! I received them in the same grant and are designed for youth and have been great!!! They are the made by KaZoo and are cute animal character designs. I have the frog ones.
 When comparing my old headphones and these new ones, it's no wonder why their ears always hurt with the old ones! The old ones were made for adults and their little ears don't even hit the soft padding part of the earphones; however, they do with the KaZoo earphones! 
I highly recommend these headphones and they are actually quite affordable. They are $12 at Kids R Us and around $16 at Amazon.


Friday, November 7, 2014

Freebie Friday!

This Friday's freebie are objective headers for your classroom. I'm sure most of you are required to post the week's objectives on your board or somewhere. I put magnets on the back of mine and displayed on my front white board. It's quick and easy to just write or draw a visual of our weekly objectives. I hope you have some use for these and have a fabulous Friday!
Click on pic to get yours!



Friday, October 24, 2014

Freebie Friday!

This freebie is going to be a little bit different. I presented a Smart board 101 training last Tuesday and I thought I'd share my hand-out (all visual steps) and my Smart board file that includes some examples of each game/activity taught. I know not everyone has a Smart board, but for those that do, I hope this helps provide the step-by-step directions one needs to begin creating your own games. (or at least enjoy the free games included as examples!) :)
Click on Pic above to get yours! Hope this helps!





Friday, October 17, 2014

Freebie Friday!

I just love Halloween time! Our class does our spider and bat unit and our focus shifts a bit more toward nonfiction. I thought it would be fun to put together a spider unit of games for centers, but also have a Smart Board component to introduce the games. This is one of the largest freebies that I've ever given away. You are all great customers and I thought you deserve a nice one this week ;) I hope you enjoy! Happy Friday!!!  Please follow me for future freebies!



Friday, October 3, 2014

Freebie Friday!

Just a couple quick, but fun things for your freebie Friday. Print these pattern block pages as poster size and let them sort your pattern blocks on them.
Click on pic for yours!

The other freebie is what I've been using in my writing center. I assign them one writing page that they MUST complete and then some options that they MAY do afterwards.
Click on pic for yours!

Happy Friday everyone!


Friday, September 26, 2014

Freebie Friday!

Today's freebie is all about APPLES! 3 different Play-doh activies: Measure and make worms; Roll the correct number of apples for the tree; Make the number mats.  A literacy center where students pick a sight word apple and record.  Lastly, a letter Aa sort.

I do have one request from you though!! :)  If you download this freebie, will you help me out by clicking on this link and voting for my project for my classroom? Thanks!! https://www.limeadesforlearning.com/projects/1282650

Click on the pic above to get your freebie!


Friday, September 5, 2014

Freebie Friday

My advice to new Kinder teachers - allow your students time to grow and mature before trying to present a 20-30 minute lesson where they do nothing but sit on the rug.  They simply can not do it and IF they actually stay sitting the whole time, I promise you lost their focus at least half way through it.  :)  Something that I've heard year after year, but helps remind me - a child can only keep true attention for about 1 minute for each year of age. Therefore, my 5 year-olds can handle just around 5 minutes before needing to get up, move, sing, dance, etc.

My freebie for you today is a Smart board file that provides links to many great Brain Break videos and also some good classroom management videos. The links can easily be changed to YOUR favorites by right-clicking on the record or note and unlocking it. Then, right-click again and go down to "link". Remove the current link that I've attached and paste in your own link. Just delete the picture of the old video and take a pic of your new one.  I hope these come in handy for you. Have a great Friday!
 Click on pic above to get yours!



Friday, August 22, 2014

"Wild About Learning" and a FREEBIE

First week of school is just about complete! I LOVE my Kinders, but WOW, I always forget how simple you must begin. My two favorite examples from the week....."What does clean up mean?" and, after showing students how to choose the "shapes" tool on the Smart board, I had some students trying it out. Well, he forgot to click on the shapes icon first and I said, pointing to the icon "Remember, we have to tell it we want to make a shape first." He leaned in close to the board and said "I want to make a shape." LOL (CONCRETE THINKERS)

It's also been so fun having a school-wide theme. Our theme is "Wild About Learning". I thought it would be fun to go around the school, snapping pics of all the fun decor.

Now on to the FREEBIE!

I have loved using this template for my math tub planning and word work planning. I'll let you download my first few weeks that I've completed. Just delete out my pages if you want. There are blank templates at the end.  Hopefully, some of you can find it useful! Enjoy!


Click HERE for Math Tub Planning Sheets.

Click HERE for Word Work Planning Sheets.


Friday, August 15, 2014

Freebie Friday!

Today's Freebie will enhance your listening center! I've created a playlist of some of my students' favorite songs from Jack Hartmann, Dr. Jean, Greg & Steve, and Steven Fite.  It provides your students will a page to follow along while they're singing the song. I obviously cannot provide you with the tunes, but most of you have the music any way! Just print and spiral bind your pages together. I also made a Smart board version of the book to model tracking print with the music as a whole group. Enjoy and have a wonderful school year!
Click on pic to get file :)
Click on pic above to get the Smart board version.





Saturday, August 9, 2014

CLASSROOM REVEAL!

So my decor is what I call hodge podge haven. It's a little chevron, some polka dot, some "wild" print because of our school-wide theme and a lot of my favorite color - BLUE! I know, it's way too many patterns, but I think it works just fine for me.

I'll give the tour in a complete 360 around the room, starting at my computer area. Sit back for a moment, there's A LOT of pictures with descriptions! I hope you like....



















Hope you enjoyed!