Two Hoots and A Holler: Fall and Freebies are finally here!

Hoot #1

 According to the calendar, fall began several weeks ago...but here in Mississippi, it hasn't felt like fall at all! Well the fall weather is finally here!  I love everything about fall...the weather, the smell, the fall holidays, the colors outside, the leaves falling, teaching about fall, and the list goes on and on!  Fall is my (Jodi)  personal favorite time of the year.  I love Halloween, I would still dress up and go trick or treating if I wasn't too old!  I love going to the Haunted Houses and getting scared...one day, I will have to drag Jamie with me kicking and screaming.  In addition to learning about fall, we have been learning about spiders and bats in class, and it has been a lot of fun!  I had one student cry and scream because he didn't like spiders because they are scary!  He got so interested in spiders before the day was over, he was writing about it and making a book!  Now he says he loves spiders!  Haha  Every student made a book with a spider fact on each page.  We made a front cover, and published them in the hallway for others to stop and read!  

We talked about how spiders use venom to eat their pray, and Jamie's students even got to pretend they were a spider eating its prey.  They had a blast doing this experiment!  

Hoot #2 

We have been working hard to make sure that we have our letter units done each week to share with our team.  If we don't have it ready for them ahead of time, they come knocking on our door asking for it!  They motivate us to stay ahead and keep pushing!  So finally, we have posted 6, that is right...SIX, letter units to our TPT store.  Two of those are FREE!  We thought that in order for everyone to see what exactly the letter units have in them, we should have at least one free.  We got together and picked which letters have been some of our favorites so far...Jamie picked the letter Ii to be a freebie, and I chose the letter Nn.  Click on the pictures below to hop on over to our TPT store to grab these FREE resources!   

 

 Don't forget to like our Facebook page and check out our other units on TPT while you are there!  

 

This Week's Holler. . .

This weeks holler goes out to Amanda Wilp at The Primary Gal! Wow! That is the only word I can use to describe her blog.  If you teach 3-5, then she has anything that and everything that you would ever need. We personally have never taught these grades, but we have a Kinder teacher that just went to 3rd grade.  As soon as I stalked this blog, I ran down the hall to find my friend to tell her all about it. We are really interested in learning more about her "flipped classroom." We see a weekend project in our near future!

It's finally done!!  Whew!  I never really thought creating units would be easy, but I really thought that it would not be this hard!  It has gotten easier, and I am hoping it gets easier the more units we create.  I just feel like we are missing something!  Is there a secret out there that we don't know about?  How does everyone else seem to complete their units so quickly?  Please share any and all information you may have!!  We are just starting out, and I know it is all a learning experience.  So with all of that being said, go check out our spring unit on our TPT store!  Thanks for all of the continued support, patience, and help from everyone! 

It is Snowing Winter Activities!

Whew!  Sorry we haven't been posting blogs lately!  Since we have gotten back from Christmas Break, we feel like we have been running non-stop!  We have been working hard on getting this unit together for everyone!  I hope you will check it out on our TPT store!

 

Click Here to go to our TPT store! 

 In class, we have been working on winter activities and New Year's activities.  We have implemented a new way to do our centers, and we began our writing workshop.  Last year,  I experimented with starting it later in the year, and I learned that my student's writing was better if I waited to begin writing workshop.  Now that I think about it, it only makes sense!  If they cannot recognize letters or write letters, what in the world made me think writing was a good idea?  Yes, they could draw and dictate to me, but I felt like the focus needed to be put elsewhere.  I put a lot of focus on handwriting, phonics, and phonemic awareness the first semester; this really helps students prepare to become great writers.  Also, by waiting until 2nd semester to begin writing workshop, students are more mature and eager to write.  There is not any crying and whining, and I don't hear "I cant do it!"  Students want to try to write and actually ask for it!  Of course I am not saying that I didn't do writing at all the first semester.  We did shared writing activities, and I did a lot of modeling.  I do not expect them to be independent writers until after Christmas. Here are my students enjoying WOW time (Work On Writing). . .

Students LOVE working on the floor!  I even took out some of my tables and chairs! (Thanks to Greg Smedley of The Kindergarten Smorgasboard for sharing that idea and letting us visit his class in action!) 

They LOVE using their "Writer's Toolbox" to help them write!  You can hear a pin drop in my class during writing time.  IT IS SO QUIET!! 

Just one sample of MANY awesome stories!  I still write the correct word/spelling on the student's work.  Some say that is a BIG NO NO, but I want to be able to remember what they told me when I am looking back at it.  I have never seen any harm in doing that, as long as you are not changing their thoughts or words. 

OH!  Let's not forget all the testing that has to be done this time of year!!  Sometimes all the testing gets overwhelming!  Thanks so much to other bloggers sharing ESGI!  This assessment site has saved me a lot of time and stress!  I will NEVER teach another year without it!! It is awesome and worth every single penny!!

These students are hard at work during our center time.  I am loving our new center rotations!  Many thanks to Greg Smedley (AGAIN) for sharing and allowing us to visit!  Just one visit in his classroom, and my whole outlook on teaching kindergarten has changed, for the better! 

Needless to say, there is A LOT going on this time of year in kindergarten!  I am loving all the changes in my classroom that the new year has brought.  Don 't hesitate to ask any questions, I will be glad to share what works for me.  Hope ya'll are having a wonderful week....It is almost FRIDAY!! :)

Our Second Leap. . .

Happy Sunday Everyone!   I have to say that we are truly blessed to have such wonderful people around us that are so supportive and understanding.  Even though I took that leap of faith by starting this blog, I still am nervous about taking an even bigger leap and putting ideas on Teachers Pay Teachers.  So after a lot of procrastination, I decided to just do it!

Today I  have been busy getting things together for our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I have spent most of the day looking through hundreds of documents we have made over the years on my hard drive.  Whew!  That was a job in itself!  I think I have saved EVERYTHING!!  Anyway, I picked a few things that I wanted to share with everyone.  I hope that it is helpful.  Go to our TPT store to check them out by clicking the link below.

In the meantime, ya'll keep those encouraging words and that great advice coming!!  

It is very much appreciated!  

  Kinder Glitter Girls TPT Store

It's All About the New Year

Christmas Break is flying by!  We have been busy with our families and enjoying the mornings we get to sleep in a little.  We both decided that we needed to work in our rooms or something.  I mean what kind of break would it be if we didn't involve school!  We love our jobs!  After much procrastination, we did it!  We took our second leap of faith and posted our first product on Teacher's Pay Teachers!  EEEKKKKKK!  We are very excited at how it all turned out, and we hope all the teachers who use it are excited too!  Please check it out and let us know if you have any questions!  Thanks for everyone's support, help, and encouraging words.  Enjoy the rest of your Christmas Break.  It won't be long until we are back into the swing of things!

Click on the picture above to go to our TPT store.