Happy 4th of July!

I hope you're enjoying your Independence Day!  I am having a small-ish 'sale'bration in my store this weekend to celebrate America's birthday. 

Everything is marked 20% off and will be on sale through Sunday night.  I also just finished some of my letter units.  You can grab them while they're on sale by clicking below.

Have a happy holiday!

More fun with QR codes!

I was so excited and blessed to get an innovative teaching grant from my district's education foundation before the school year ended!  They came for a surprise visit and awarded the grant to me.  My class will get 4 iPod Touches in the fall.

  

I wrote this grant to get more tools to use for scanning QR codes.  I LOVE using QR codes and so do the littles in my classroom.  I have made a few goodies about QR codes that are available in my store.  Click below to see them.

I also have a whole page on my website about QR codes if you want to visit it to learn more.

And here is a video of my class using QR codes for a sight words hunt:

Here is a video about my surprise grant award.  My interview begins around 1:22.

Thank you Pflugerville Education Foundation!

"Alpaca" my bags for Peru!

I have not been the best blogger lately.... sigh....  I have been teaching summer school for English Language Learners and preparing to go to Lima, Peru to work at an orphange with my church.  The craftivites are making their way to our luggage and I am so excited!

 

 

I have also posted three new Donors Choose projects for my Kinder class in the fall!  There are four days left to get donations matched by using the code INSPIRE at check out.  Click below to see what's up.

 

S'more fun on the last day of school!

Last Thursday was the last day of school for my sweet pre-k kids and we had tons of fun!

We started the day in my bare classroom (since I am moving grades, it's been emptied out slowly).  I showed them my box from Mr. Sun and they were immediately excited to open it up.  Well, right as we were about to head outside to open it, our school's AR parade started, so Mr. Sun enjoyed the parade with us.

After the parade we headed outside to open our box and saw what was inside.

 We used some inferencing skills to decide what to do with the supplies inside and one little finally said, "We could make s'mores!"  So then we got into a discussion over how to make them and we decided that since Mrs. Siegel, our principal, would never allow us to build a fire at school.  After sharing our thoughts, we decided that the sun could cook them for us!  Sprinkles to Pre-K!!!!

We built them, let Mr. Sun do his work, and then enjoyed them.  Yum!

We also created some cutie, tear-jerking, flowers with poems.  Sniff...

...and sent them on their way to have a "kool" summer.  

I loved every moment of this year and look forward to having some of them again in kindergarten.

I am already in summer school.  Day 1 was today.  Let's hope the next three weeks go quickly so I can enjoy reading, blogging, and creating!

Top Ten Things To Do this Summer

I am linking up with Mrs. Jump to share my top 10 things I would like to do this summer.

1.  I am teaching summer school from June 9 through June 27.  This isn't the most exciting part of my summer, but I am excited to work with other teachers in my district and to help some littles be more prepared for the start of school.

2.  I am going to Peru from July 12 - 20 to work at an orphanage with my church.  My church goes on this trip every summer and I have always wanted to go and have prayed about it.  This summer was the perfect summer to go and God provided.  I feel so blessed.

3.  I am going to update my website and transition it back to a kinder site.

 

4.  I would LOVE to read the whole Wicked series by Gregory McGuire.

 

5.  I MUST organize my files - both my paper files and my digital files.  I do this every summer.  It makes planning easier for my throughout the year.

6.  I LOVE to go running and hope to go at least 4 times a week. 

7.  I am beginning a study by Beth Moore with some ladies from church and I am so excited.  It's about Paul's ministry.

 

8.  I plan on making lots of goodies for my TPT shop.  I have 11 items I hope to complete.  I hope I can do it!

9.  I am also moving my classroom from the PreK hallway to the Kinder hallway.... weee!!!!

10.  Last, but not least...  I MUST relax and enjoy the sun with my friends and family!  This is the only one that is necessary for me to continue functioning as a human being next school year.

Summer is almost here and I can't wait!

We performed The Wide Mouth Frog and a secret...

We had a blast, too!

It was so so so much fun making the set pieces, costumes, and practicing.  These kiddos are so amazing and I am so blessed to have been their teacher this year.

And for my secret...  I am moving back to Kindergarten!  I loved my year in PreK, but I love kindergarten oodles!

Have a happy weekend!

Plants, plants, plants!

We have been all about plants for the last two weeks.  My cuties are experts at all things plants!

For our centers, we added a flower shop to the dramatic play area

In our writing center, we created a paper garden with labels.

Blocks center was transformed into a garden bed building area.

 

Our science center allowed us to experiment the job of the roots.  Students buried the roots and turned on a fan to see that roots hold the plant in the ground.

We also recorded our plants' growth everyday in our plant journals.

We practiced what plants need to grow with a song and motions from my plant unit.  (My cuties were little seeds for the song and grew as I added what they needed to them.)

We created this mural to show what plants need to grow.

We labeled the parts of the plant with this craftivity.

You can get these ideas and so much more in my 67 page plant unit!