Rafflecopter Giveaway!!!!

Hello everyone!! Great news!!! I am lucky enough to be a part of Princess Netherly's one year celebration!!! Congrats to such an awesome TPT author for the amazing accomplishment!  To celebrate all of her successes, we are hosting a giveaway!! In this giveaway you will find your choice of many TPT author items and gift cards!  Fill out the Rafflecopter below!  Best of luck!!!

Click the link to enter for your chance to win!!!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/Y2M1NWExMjEzNWEwMDhhNTNjZmVhMmEzMGFlM2JhOjQ=/?

Where's My Mummy?

My school in Pittsburgh, PA has teachers work one after-school program per week (more if you chose to do so).  So, of course, I chose to create a reading program for Kindergarten students.  Teaching reading is one of my favorite things to teach.  During this program, we read a story that aligns with seasons/holidays/etc., work on some comprehension skills and usually do some type of craftivity to make it really fun for the kiddos.  This week we read Where's My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi.  This is the perfect book for Halloween next week!  The kids loved it!!!

Here are some thing the extension pack includes!

Making Predictions before reading the story

Little Baby Mummy Character Descriptions

Draw the Spooky Setting

Making Connections: What Spooks Little Baby Mummy vs. What Spooks You?

A character Retelling Craftivity:  My students made these mummies and together we used them to retell the story.  They loved it!  And I think they turned out pretty cute :)

 Happy Halloween!!!

Markdown Monday posted on a Tuesday!

Hello!!  I apologize that my Markdown Monday post is on a Tuesday!  I joined this linky party too late last night to accomplish writing a post before bed.  I struggle staying awake as soon as my body hits the couch! Ha!  Thanks to Kelly and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations for the Linky Party!!!  Click the link to see all the amazing products on sale for the week!

I chose to mark down my Fry's Sight Word and Intervention Pack for this Markdown Monday!  I love this intervention pack and I use in constantly during Guided Reading centers in my classroom.  I have two students that leave my classroom during Guided Reading to receive Title Support.  However, I have two students that are still in the Tier 2 part of RTII that I meet with every day.  I use this sight word pack as an intervention strategy to reinforce learned sight word with those students.  I'll tell you this.... I believe that it's working!  Slowly but surely my two girls in this group are remembering sight words more frequently. There are two different pages for every word through the document.

Page One Looks Like This:

We work through this small group following this routine:

1. We figure out the sight word together.  They use different strategies to help them figure out the word.  Sometimes we use the Kid Crown helper if the sight word has it (Kidwriting by Eileen Fledgus), sometimes we use the sounds to read the sight word and sometimes, honestly, I just need to tell them.
2. We count how many letters are in the word.
3. They trace and write the word on their own.
4. We then follow along the sentences using our finger to practice concepts of print.  Together we find sight words that we know.  Again, we use the same strategies to figure out unknown words (Kid Crown helpers, letter sounds and potentially teacher help).  We then circle all of the words from that paper in the sentences.  In this case we circle every word "in" that we find.  The group also practices fluency by reading the sight words together after the ones we know are highlighted.
5. We then spell the word while underlining the letters.
6. We find either the picture that rhymes with the given word or write the sight word in an pattern as directed on that page.
7. Finally, they rainbow write and silly write the sight word.

Page Number Two:

This can be a fun way for practicing sight words for those targeted students.

Here is a photo the completed pages during guided reading time.  I'm so proud of how well they are doing!

Of course, this Fry's First 100 Intervention and Practice Pack does not only need to be used for intervention.  This can also be great reinforcer activities to use during centers, morning work and extra time!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Classroom Book a Week... October Style!

This year I have tried something new with my Kindergarten class that my students and I absolutely love!  During one writing block each week, we complete a classroom book (yes, a classroom book a week!!).  It may seem excessive, but you'd be surprised how much the students find it fun, while still working on becoming great writers!  As soon as I'm finished conferencing with each student, I quickly put it together and we read it right away.  They clap through every single page as they compliment their friends on how well they did!  Here's a peak at October's themed books.

Each book has a writing page with a sentence starter that correlates with the book's theme.  You can find October's themed books here.  My store has books for every month and a full year bundled pack at a discounted price!  The writing pages become more challenging as the year progresses and I will expect my students to write more each time.

Parent-teacher conferences are tomorrow at my school and I am so excited to put these books out for parents to read!  I plan on putting them in the hallway for parents to look at while they are waiting outside the classroom.  Hope you enjoy!!!

Revamped Blog!

My blog is finally b-e-a-utiful thanks to Blogs Fit For a Queen!! (find them here.)  It was affordable and quick for the amount of blogs they work on at once!  I find it amazing that people know how to design these blogs, because when I tried to teach myself through tutorials and YouTube the past few months it was an epic fail.  HUGE Thank you to those girls!

I wanted to start my blog by sharing something that I created this summer and is now newly implemented in my classroom and the kids LOVE it!  My Superhero Writing Kit motivates students about the different parts of writing for young writers.  Each component has it's own superhero.  Students can earn the Superhero's super power they prove to the teacher they can use it in writing independently. (What kid doesn't want to earn a super power?!)

Queen Capitol

Susie Spacing 

Punctuation Pete

Sight Word Vision Girl

Super Stretch Man

Vibrant Voice Vince

Each kid has a Superhero writing hat.  Here is my class below on the day Superhero Writing was introduced.  They absolutely love their hats, and we wear them every time we write (after discussing rules of the hats of course).

Within the Superhero Writing Kit there are many other things included!

• An individualized Superhero Card for students to recognize which Superhero they still need to earn.  This also includes examples of how each one would be used correctly.
• A progress monitoring sheet for teachers to track if they use each skill within their writing.
• A brainstorming "What Do I Write About?" sheet
• Journal cover and journal pages.

It's amazing to see how many kiddos are already so much more intrigued about writing, even spacing, than the last two years I taught Kindergarten.  I hope that by the end of the year, each Superhero writing hat looks like the one below!! Every Writing Superhero MASTERED!  Thanks for reading!  Have a great weekend!!!

#PittsburghTribe Panera Meet Up

Please let me begin by apologizing for my LAME looking blog.  I am on a waiting list to have my blog redesigned, and it should be updated within the next two weeks.  YAY!

Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity of meeting three fellow TPT authors (Laura from Create Digital Clip Art and Designs, Holly from City Limit Seconds and Amy from 180 Days of Reading) at a local Panera Bread in Pittsburgh.  I started dedicating time to creating materials for Teachers Pay Teachers at the end of May, so being fairly new to the TPT community, I was so excited to collaborate with women who have been on their journey for months longer than I have.  They were so kind and helpful for my many questions and I left feeling motivated and inspired by their work!    

 

We sat at a table discussing goals, techniques, successes, etc. for two hours and i genuinely believe we could have sat there and chatted all day long!  I loved building a Pittsburgh tribe of fellow educators to collaborate and learn with.  

One of the most exciting part of our meet-up was the phenomenal SWAG BAG that Laura put together for us!  We left with goodies from many educational companies including ClassDojo, SitSpots, Eureka School, The Pampered Teacher, etc. These wonderful companies gave us  markers, stickers, scrabble board pieces, fun photo booth sets, etc.  The best part is, we have even more swag bags to give away, a $25 gift card and a fancy pencil sharpener!  Check it out on the rafflecopter below for your chance to win!

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NThhYTZkOTg5MTIyYmY2MGQ1NmMyMGZlZmFkMjM2OjI=/?

If you are from the Pittsburgh area, please make sure to meet with us at the next Pittsburgh Meetup!  

 

MAKE YOUR MASTERPIECE!

For the past two weeks or so, I have been trying to create a product that will help students be motivated to be successful writers.  As a Kindergarten teacher, the vital skills you want students to learn are capitalization, punctuation, finger spacing, spelling sight words correctly, stretching out unknown words and putting a voice in their writing.

Students can earn the given Superpower for each skill: Queen Capitol, Susie Spacing, Punctuation Pete, Sight Word Vision Girl, Super Stretch Man and Vibrant Voice Vince.  As student's earn the super power of each Superhero, they can display the Superheros power on a printed hat they can wear during writing!   Also included are journal pages, brainstorming tools and even progress monitoring for teachers!  Enjoy making your students successful writers by MOTIVATING them with Superheroes!!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Superhero-Writing-Kit-1941088