Meet the Teacher Monday...er Sunday!!

Tell us a little something about you...

Hello! My name is Crystal and I am the author of this little spot on the internet!! It isn't much, but I hope to add more this year! My team has recently added a new-ish teacher (she's been teaching for 14 years, but this is her first in Kindergarten) and she has ignited my passion for teaching!! This summer I also got married! It was a great day, and I look forward to being a wife this year and for years to come! 

How long have you been teaching?

This is my 4th year teaching Kindergarten! Before that I spent a semester teaching computers! It was so much fun! However, Kindergarten is my life long love!! I taught for two years in Kansas, and this will be my second year teaching here in South Dakota! 

You might not know...

 Hmm...something you don't know about me?!? Beside blog hoping and stalking...I love to make hair bows!! I don't have any children (yet) so I think of this as my time to practice!!

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

Like I said, my teaching fuel has been reignited. So I am really looking forward to this year! I am going to attempt the daily 5, math workstations, math journals, and a few other new things!

What do you need to improve?

I really need to work on being more consistent. I need to make sure that we have every subject every day! I love teaching writing, but sometimes it gets forgotten. I need to work on getting more organized! I was blessed with an amazingly large Kindergarten room, so I am hoping that through the year I can get myself better organized! 

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

I *heart* my SMARTBoard

My FUEL!!!

Sharpies in EVERY color!!!

I put these EVERYWHERE!!

I'm sure I'm missing about 1000 things that help me get through my day...but this is all I can think of for now!!

Thanks for reading! Become a follower and stay tuned for awesome things coming your way this school year!!

Letter-O

I am so excited!! I got an e-mail from our principal telling us about the orders we placed before school was over. We got to make a "wish" list of things we would like to have in our classroom. These awesome dice were on my list!

I am so excited to get to use them! I figured since I got them....I better think of something I can do with them right away when school starts (I don't want her to think I wasted the money!). So I made....Letter-O!! Lucky for you....you can have this game for free!! This comes with two game boards on one sheet of paper. Then you cut them on the dark outline that goes all the way around. Put some cute scrapbook paper behind it...laminate and TA-DA!!! You play this game just like bingo (just in case you didn't figure that out yet!) I also decided, if the kids land on wild, they can pick a letter. The first one to get 5 in a row....WINS!! You can have the students cross them out with dry erase markers (if you laminate them) or have them use chips, cubes, whatever else you can think of!

Do you have any ideas on other ways to use these dice? Remember to show some comment love, you may also want to think about following me! I have some more ideas coming your way!!

ABC Letter Sort

This is a great activity I have my kids do at the beginning of the year. I take all kinds of different fonts and cut them out. Then I take the mats and have them sort them by the letter. They really like this game. I usually have my kids do it in partners at a center. At the beginning of the year when we only have a few centers I have this game in two and have different fonts in each one. You can have this fun activity...for FREE!!! Please leave some comment love and let me know what you think!

Best Target Buy

Did anyone else see this sing at Target? Did anyone else really have to resist buying it to hang in your room? I seriously had it in my basket for my whole Target trip! Then I realized....it might not be such a good idea to put this up! Soooo reluctantly I put it back! It does make me smile to look at it though! The past few days have been rough for me. I found out the only teacher on my team I actually get a long with...is leaving. I am beyond happy for her, I knew how miserable she was at school (this was the subject of most of our discussions because we had the same feelings)! I am happy she will be able to stay at home with here precious little babies and finally enjoy what she is doing! However...I hope out of this comes something great. I hope we get a younger teacher, who will conveniently be teaching next to me. One who will actually want to collaborate, and try new ideas! So enough of that and I will stay true to the sign.....NO WHINING!!! I will put on my big girl panties and deal with whatever is about to come my way!

On a side note....so far I only have 10 students. Granted one of them is going to be a DOOZIE!!! I know that 10 will not be my number for long...but a girl can dream!!

HAPPY TUESDAY FRIENDS....and thank you for listening to me whine vent!

Back To School Bonanza!

Who couldn't use a little back to school motivation?!?! Well head over to Erica Bohrer's First Grade and learn about this amazing giveaway sponsored by not 1, not 2...but 12 AMAZING teacher bloggers!! GOOD LUCK!

SHOES!!

I mean...what girl doesn't love her a pair of FAB shoes?!?! Head over to Just Another Day in First Grade. She is GIVING you an awesome mini-unit...about shoes!! How nice is she? I know I will use this for Daily 5 when we talk about good fit books!!!

Hurry....this special deal ends soon!!

Clothespin behavior chart

So I have been thinking about having a clothespin behavior chart. I have seen lots of ideas on the web, and a lot of teachers say they really like it. Soooo I think this year is the year for me to try it! Now....this is so not as cool as Abby's over at the Inspired Apple, but I just wanted something small and simple. At our school we are the Cleveland RockStars! Every quarter we have an assembly for the rockstars in every class. So I made up this little sign, which I will upload to Vistaprint!! Then there is a behavior sheet for the kids to color each day. This I will send it home at the end of the week. I think it will also help me keep track of really good behavior through out the quarter. Then when it comes time to choose our one rockstar for K06 it will be easier for me to remember! You can grab either sign by clicking on it!

What do you think?

HELP!!

Has anyone else had trouble with leaving comments on blogs? I got to leave a comment and it doesn't show its me! I try to post with my google account, and it doesn't work. Then it says anonymous.

GRRR!!!!

Anyone else having this problem? Does anyone know how to fix it? Any help would be appreciated!!

THANKS!!!

Second Try...

Ok, I lied....I kept tweeking my blog button! I really like this one! I didn't do much, just added some flowers!

TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Let me know what you think!!!

Holy Moly!!!

Soooo I finally did it! I found some awesome tutorials and made......a blog button!!! You can see it over on the side or here is a closer picture!!! Do you love it?!?! I am not totally over the moon about it...but this is 3 hours of blood, sweat, and tears!! MERCY!!!!

I might still tweek it, but I do really like it! Now it is time for this old lady to go to bed!!!

I have a problem!!

Hi, my name is Crystal....and I am addicted to Target Dollar Spot!  I also think that we need to start some sort of dollar spot ring! There are a lot of cute things that people have at their Target, that mine doesn't have! Not only am I a blog stalker...now I need to be a Target Dollar Spot stalker!!Ok now that I got that off my chest....check out my SCORE!!!

Here is a picture of all of it! Please excuse the poor photo quality!

How cute are these community helper cards?!? I was digging in a bin and found them! So lucky! I bought two so I thought I could have the kids play memory. Then I actually looked at the cards and there are pictures on both sides....so now I'm not sure what to do!

....... 

I got these small markers to put into the spin a sightword game I bought from Kathleen at Growing Kinders my kids really loved playing this game and I thought the smaller markers would be better!

P.S. I am so proud of myself for figuring out how to do this screen shot and put it together like that!!

I bought these notepads to put in my writing center. I like that they show different lists to make. It will also save me from making copies. I would really like to find a stamp that looks like a shopping cart to put at the top of the papers!

I bought these for our Dr. Seuss unit...hopefully I will be able to find them in March!

I love that these number cards have the dots on them.

These are just some random balls I bought. We use responsive classroom at my school. With that comes a lot of games and activities. For some of them you need multiple balls and lets face it....if you use a koosh ball everything is WAY more fun!!

And Finally.........................

I broke down and bought the laminater!! I am BEYOND EXCITED!!!! I have held out for many years...but with all the math freebies and other finds this summer, I figured it would end up paying for itself!!

Now go link up with Ladybug's Teaching Files to see other Target Anonymous teacher finds!!

I'm Baaaaaack!!

Hello bloggy friends! The wedding and honeymoon are OVER!! WOO HOO!!! Here are some highlights...

This is probably one of my most favorites!! This is me and my sister and my maid of honor!

Do you love the hot pink tennis shoes?!?! LOVED THEM!!

Seal our love with a kiss!

This is the only picture I have gotten so far from our photographer! I can't wait to see the rest!!

Soooo....I have lots of posting and catching up to do! My only problem is that my blogspot says misspaxson, and I am no longer that! I don't really want to start all over....any suggestions?!?

Have a great day!!!

Me on the Map

I LOVE THESE BOOKS....


I know everyone knows of J Meacham...if you don't then you need too! You can find her AMAZING website HERE. You might have to scroll down a little. I mostly used A LOT of her ideas! I switched up some of the books...because I couldn't either find them, or had ones that worked better for my littles. If you look over at our Shelfari..you can see a few of the books we used.

Then we made a book of maps!

This was about as much as we could handle! We also made a map of our bodies. It was a great project! I suggest you check out Jessica Meachams website for her full unit plans!!!