Cyber Smile Sale

Join me (and many others) on TpT for the "Cyber Smile" sale.

This is me in first grade!

On 11/30/15-12/01/15 you can save 28% of my entire store.  Don't worry if you miss the cyber sale, I extended my sale for another day after. On 12/02/15 you will be able to save 20%.

Ta-DA!

I am so in love with this new look for my blog! In fact I am so excited that I want to give away my new Reading Wonders Vocabulary Pack to celebrate.

  Our county adopted the Reading Wonders Reading Series last year.  The first year using it, we really did not have any supplements to support the learning topics/skill in the series. I developed these vocabulary activities to go along with the ORAL vocabulary words in Units 1-6. This packet includes activities for 150 words. Picture Grids and Tally marks, Quick Draws, and Flip Books.  Here is one of the activities:

One kiddo wears a card on their head, while the other kiddos write clues to the word/picture on their head.

After this selfie was taken the kiddo in the pic said, "Um Mrs. Gingras, now I know what is on my head!" Whoooops!LOL!

Please help me celebrate by entering the Rafflecopter below. I will choose 3 Lucky winners to receive this pack via email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A NeW LoOk!

Hold on to your hats!! KBB is getting a new look and after it is installed we will have a special giveaway so keep your eyes open!!

Using your 5 Senses FREEBIE

We have been learning about how to be a scientist in my classroom for the past 2 weeks. We discussed tools they use, different types of scientists, how scientists stay safe, and what scientists do.  I created this quick mini unit on how scientists use their 5 senses to observe the world around them.  My kiddos have worked hard on how to use each of their senses individually and together to observe the world around them.

 Smelling

 Tasting (love that face!)

touching

 Seeing

 This is an example of the smell jars activity:

  My class really enjoyed these activities and I think yours will too. So I am offering it up for FREE! Just click here to download it!
Thanks for reading!

B2S Go Noodle Style

I love Go Noodle and use it everyday in my classroom.

It has tons of indoor activities to get kids moving and best of all, IT"S FREE!!!! The class can pick an avatar to represent them and then complete workout/dance/partner games in order to watch their avatar grow.  It is great for goal setting, brain breaks, indoor recess (for rainy days, too hot days, or too cold days), and for getting those never ending wiggles out!  I use Go Noodle EVERYDAY in my classroom and YOU should too!
I am giving away25 of  these Awesome headbands over at my collaborative blog called Planning In Paradise. 

Head over now to enter to win! After you enter, head over to Go Noodle and sign your class up for some indoor action!
Thanks for stopping in!

Classroom Tools Linky

I am linking up with a fabulous classroom tool that I use in my classroom. Its an AWESOME way to organize your classroom library. In order to see how the system works, I need to tell you a little bit about how my library is used first. My classroom library is made up of two different "shopping areas". The Leveled Library (Our Dinner Books) and the Themed Library (Our Dessert Books). The system in a nutshell is:
1) I give a reading assessment to each kiddo and provide them with a level on a Shopping card.
2) Each kiddo can search for 2 below level books, 2 on level books, 2 above level books, and 1-2 desert books (depending on their level-for example, I am not going to give a level B reader in August 2 desert books because I primarily want them reading the levels on or close to their level)
3) Kiddos shop for books by teams on a different day of the week. (Ex. Team 1 on Monday, Team 2 on Tuesday) This happens during Morning Announcements every morning.
4) Each week as kiddos go to the classroom library to shop, they put their "old" books into a book return bin. Then shop for their "new" books.
5) The classroom helper called the "Librarian" returns all the books to the proper book baskets at the end of each day.

So how did I reorganize to create a better system and clean house? I spread everything out and went through EACH. AND. EXERY. BOOK! (Of course older grades probably don’t have to deal with this but for us younger grades, OH.MY.WORD!!! Talk about a mess!!) Trying to find more different colored dots, stars, shapes stickers to color code books so kiddos know which bin to put them back in.....TOTAL NIGHTMARE!!! As I mentioned above, my books were getting WWWAAAAAYYYYYY out of hand.  This year I noticed that my previous system of writing the levels for the leveled library on the back cover and the themed number for the themed library on the front of each book was confusing (jeez I am even confused just writing that--what in the heck made me think the littles could do it (although they did and it worked for YEARS) but I wanted something less confusing.  Here is a pic of how I organized in the PAST........total waste of time and effort because the system was too confusing for the kiddos to grasp quickly. I ended up reteaching how to put books away and get new books much to often.

So I have developed a better system to keep the library looking great and help books get to the correctspot. I can show you how to Organize a system like this if you choose to do it.

The organization went like this:
1) I kept my two separate leveled (Dinner) and themed (Dessert) libraries but instead of putting them in two separate spots in the classroom, it is all in one area. With the leveled books going across the top shelf.
2) I developed classroom basket labels for the categories (that I have seen my kiddos go to year after year the most) that has words and pictures describing the books that belong in that basket. I also created matching stickers to place on each book within that basket. So NO MORE searching for matching stickers, just print, cut, stick and go!

3) I went through each and every book and separated them into their appropriate category and placed a small sticker in the upper right hand corner.  On this sticker is a word and a picture of the corresponding book basket that the book should go inside.  There are stickers for the leveled library and the themed/genre library
4) I made sure that each book basket had the corresponding word/picture sticker placed on the front/center of the basket.

Now it looks like this:

SO MUCH BETTER (and cute too!)

I am not going to lie, this process was time consuming but WELL worth it. If you are interested in this system, you can get these Classroom Library Labels for $8.50 in my store.

If you would like to get this product for free, just enter the rafflecopter below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I hope your school year gets off to a great start! You know because as of right now, I actually only finished 1 thing from my summer to do list!
Happy organizing!

An InLinkz Link-up

What August Brings.....

August brings school supply shopping, excited kiddos and teachers, nervous parents, and BEST OF ALL the site wide TpT sale!  August 3-4 everything in my store is up to 28% off using the code BTS15 at check out.  But if you happen to miss those days, my store will still be on sale for 20% off of everything on August 5th!  I am so excited to snag some of my wish list items!! How about you??

JuLy is fLy! (As in flying to VEGAS)

I love the month of July for several reasons!! First of all it is my birthday month (yes, I said month b/c I celebrate all month long!) and second, it is the time of year that the annual TPT Conference happens!!! I am so excited to be headed to VEGAS in just a few days.  I can't wait to see some far away blogger buddies and to meet some new ones!
I have noticed some blogs are offering tips for those of us going to Vegas.  They all mention things like: air port travel/safety, what to pack, what to wear, what shows to see, how to print off your notes for the sessions, and which blogger meet ups to attend (which I am totally BUMMED out about a few b/c they were sold out before I could get tickets).  I have one tip that I hadn't seen written or stated that I would like to add to this ongoing list of preparations.

Obtain and Save ALL your receipts!!!!

This is a great opportunity to learn about our craft as teacher entrepreneurs.  You are taking this trip to educate yourself on your business endeavors and meet wonderful people who are interested in the same thing........TEACHING and MOLDING the little minds of our world. Obtain and save those receipts so that you can claim it on your taxes.  After all, we are teachers and we ALL know how little we make. In fact, for many of you it is probably because of TpT that you are even able to take this trip and have this learning opportunity!

In honor of our FABULOUS opportunity to learn and grow, AND because it is my Birthday, I wanted to share this little FREEBIE with you! 

It is a simple back to school activity that will help reinforce your classroom procedures! Just click All About My Class to get it from my store.

If you are joining the conference this year,  I hope my tip helps you out and that you have a WONDERFUL time in VEGAS!!!

Inside Outside Circles

Have you ever heard of this? It is a quick, engaging, and SUPER fun game that your kiddos can play with really topic. It's called Inside/Outside Circles.  For this particular lesson we were learning all about  greater than/ less than math problems using the popular alligator mouth. The first thing you do is split your class in half. Then create one circle (the inside circle) where everyone is facing out and another circle (the outside circle) around the outside of that circle where the kiddos are facing one of the "inside circle" members. The inside circle person comes up with a math problem and writes it on their wipe boards. Then when I say show them, they turn their boards to show the outside circle person the problem.  The outside person then solves the problem. The inside person should then check it, and compliment/coach the outside persons work.  Then when I say rotate the inside circle stays still while the outside circle moves to the right to a NEW inside person.  Then we repeat the process. After awhile, I will switch the roles of the inside/outside people so that everyone gets a chance to make up the problems. This is a great way to develop those higher thinking skills because they are making up the problems themselves. The kiddos always have a blast with this game! Here are some pictures of my kiddos playing:

The BEST thing about this game is that its FREE, HIGHLY ENGAGING, and can go with ANY topic you are studying!  I hope you can use this activity to keep your kiddos interest peeked as you close out your year!
P/S It is important to model this game VERY slowly to begin with as the moving can be confusing at first!

TeAcHeR ApPreCiaTioN Week!

Happy teacher appreciation week!  In honor of YOU I am joining TpT's site wide sale from May 5-May 6. You can get 20% off EVERYTHING in my Kindergarten Boom Boom Store by entering the coupon code: ThankYou

Thanks for being such a valuable person in at least 20 little people's lives!

Don't Forget Memorial Day!

Each year it seems that the end of the year comes fast.  Between EOY assessments, profile cards, student portfolios, cume folders, teacher observations, PDPs, IEPs, EOY celebrations/graduations, field days, and so much more, I felt that Memorial Day somehow would get lost in the shuffle. I certainly want to celebrate all that my kiddos have achieved so far in their learning careers but I also want them to have gratitude for those men and women who help make it possible.  I started thinking what can we do to honor those soldiers who have laid their lives on the line so that we could be free to help our littles learn.  So each year we read, study, craft, and give for our soldiers. 
We start with reading. I have found several books to read about Memorial Day that are easy for my kiddos to understand. Below are some of my favorites.

Next we study. We spend alot of time researching on line. There are several links on You Tube that are age appropriate on this topic (but be sure to preview them first).  Here is one that is great because it describes the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day (if the link didn't work, here is the actual code:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWD4Oy6fKlo). You tube also has several of the stories that I mentioned above being read aloud by famous people.  The kiddos always love hearing and seeing stories on the big screen!

Then we craft and write! I always want to get the kiddos perspective on how they would behave if they ran into a solider out in public (or maybe they have one at home). It amazes me that some of them do know how to show respect to a soldier! That's where we talk about the salute and discuss ways to show respect with kindness, words, and actions. Then we begin our crafting fun. Here our some pics of the AWESOME job they did!

The kiddos really learn a lot about Soldiers, Veterans, and Respect in this unit.  If you are interested, you kind find it in my TpT store for only $1.50! Just click Memorial Day!

Spring Break Give Away

The CONTEST IS OVER! Congrats to Emily!!

Hey all! Congrats for making it this far in the school year without having a heart attack (or at least I hope you haven't had one.....that would be bad and insensitive of me)!! Here's a fun giveaway just for you.  You can win any 2 products from my TpT store as well as from Kitty Kitty Kidergarten and Class Of Kinders! All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!!! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is such a fun time of year.  In my classroom the leprechauns visit every year and reek havoc EVERYWHERE! There's green toilet water, to glittery foot prints, to upturned chairs and flipped name tags.  We stay super busy with holiday themed lessons. We complete searches for sight words, ABC order activities, puppets, read Leprechaun stories, graph Lucky Charms, and so much more!  One of my favorite stories to read this time of the year is the Leprechaun's Gold by Pamela Duncan.

It has great characters for character study and the story of events is easy for the minis to follow and retell.  PLUS this book has a hidden mystery.  Inside it has about 18 four leaf clovers hidden in the illustrations! Talk about FUN! The kiddos go nuts trying to find them searching through all the detailed drawings.  Then of course when it is writing time they ALL try to hide details in their illustrations and stories for me to find!
I wanted to add a bit of fluency practice for the kiddos so I created a fun Readers Theater with this holiday theme in mind. The kids have a blast acting this one out! It is all about a boy who catches a Leprechaun and tries to get his gold.  If you would like to take a peek at it you can find it here: The Leprechaun's Gold. {Note: It is nothing like the above story, just share's the same name}

It comes in color and in black and white!

Plus it has a storyboard and characters for a retelling activity.

Thanks for reading to the end! One more quick thought, to celebrate the holiday I am throwing a sale for 3 days! My store will be 20% off!

Do you have any crazy St. Patrick's tricks that you pull on you kiddos? I would LOVE to hear them if you do!

Do you wanna build a snowman? {How To Writing FREEBIE}

How do you teach "How-To" Writing? I use tons of my own ideas, different ideas found all over Pinterest, and ideas from blogs.  This year I began the unit like I usually do each year, by writing a whole class story about How To Brush Your Teeth.  This is super interesting because the kiddos forget all the little details involved in actually brushing your teeth. Of course I brought my own toothbrush and tooth paste in and proceeded to brush my teeth following their steps. They thought this idea was hilarious.  It's like they thought I NEVER brush my teeth.  As the lesson goes on I do exactly what they say to do in order to model how to slow down and THINK ABOUT every little detail involved.  They were laughing historically throughout the whole process but, when they got to the part where you spit it out, they forgot to mention to spit it IN the sink.  Can you just imagine what happened next? YEP, I SPIT ON THE FLOOR!!!! They were insanely excited at this point of the lesson, telling me how wrong I was.  Of course I had to point out that I only did what they told me.  It was amazing to watch all the little light bulbs come on ALL around the room with comments like, "oooohhh" and "we forgot"! Their faces were PRICELESS!!! (Of course after this we went on to learn about steps, materials, more details, comparing How To stories to other stories and publishing. This was so much fun that I thought I would bring in a sweet treat for our next lesson on "How-To" writing.  I began by stating, “ How would you like to build a snowman?” and after several excited SCREAMS and “NO WAY'S" (because we live in FL and have NO snow) I pulled out several materials: (We completed one whole class before they received their own.)

1 long rope twizzler, 3 large marshmallows, 2 toothpicks, ten mini chocolate chips, 1 small orange tic tac, 2 pretezel sticks

After several more excited screams, we worked together to build this little guy. Then we listed the materials and the steps we took to build the classroom snowman on chart paper. (Of course there was lots of turning and talking to discuss those tricky missing steps.)

Day 2:

I gave them all their own materials and off they went to build and write. Of course at the end of today’s lesson they got to eat their yummy snowmen!

Days 3-7:

We wrote some more, talked some more, and learned to transfer from the planning sheet to the “Fancy” sheet.

You can get this writing FREEBIE by clicking Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

Teachers Are Heroes SALE!!

Teachers are the BEST kinds of HEROS and I am celebrating ALL teachers by joining in on the TpT Teachers Are Hero's SALE. Everything in my store will be 20% off On February 25. Just use the Promo Code: HEROES at check out!

Math Dice Games

We LOVE playing in order to learn.  One of the best ways to play includes working together using math strategies that we have learned to solve problems.  This activity provides TONS of practice with three addend math problems.  All the kiddos need are dice, and their Math Journals! SUPER FUN to play, SUPER EASY to set up, SUPER INDEPENDENT practice for all!

First, we spread out around the room in groups of three.

Then, each partner takes a turn rolling the dice and everyone sites the number that each partner rolls in their Math Journals.  They have to work together to decide what order they want to write the new addition sentence.

Then they work together to decide which math strategy to use to solve the problem. (For example, they use their knowledge of counting on, doubles, doubles +/-1, etc. to make the best decision on HOW to solve the problem.) Then they write why they solved the problem using that particular strategy (or strategies if they used more than one to solve).

In the end, their Math Journals are full of three addend number sentences that they have worked together to create, solve, and discuss!

After playing once or twice with the whole class involved in the outcome, the kiddos LOVE to grab their tools and play alone.  This becomes a HUGE favorite in my classroom. (Parents, it is AWESOME/EASY for practice at home.)

For more fun dice games, I have this Giant Dice Games For Math Centers packet in my store:

It has 42 pages with 15 different whole class and center activities. It includes identifying numbers 1-20, addition facts for numbers 1-20, 1 more/less than numbers 1-20, and 10 more than numbers 1-10.  It has color and black and white available within the packet in case you want to create one or two as Math Tubs/Centers and save the ink for whole class activities! The best part, it is only $2.00 in my TpT store.  (Click the link above if you are interested!)

Thanks for reading!