Thanks ~ giveaway

One of my favorites from wayback, Colleen at Teaching Heart, is having a really generous giveaway this week. Teaching Heart has been around since way before Teachers Pay Teachers, way before Pinterest, and way before blogging became a word in the English language. I remember discovering her in the early 2000's and totally eating up everything she had on her website. It's one of those that you could literally spend days on and you would never reach the bottom. At that time in my life, I had two school age children and two babies but I would devour her website daily and dream of the day that I would have my own little space :). She was the original inspiration for my desire to have a Center-Driven Classroom. I would print off her methods and go over them trying to imagine and plan every last detail. Four years ago, when I had gone back to teaching for the first time "after-kids", her pictures and descriptions regarding Graphing were especially helpful to me. You can see some of them here.

And now, you can also find her on Teachers Pay Teachers! So, because I highly recommend everything she creates you should take this chance to win one of her cute products. Hurry, there's only 4 more days!

You'll love Colleen ~ she's truly a teacher with HEART!!

Juggling Macaroni

You know how good teachers are at using food to create a lesson! LOOK what My Mommy Reads found at the grocery store!!

What an easy, peasy lemon-squeezy way to create a fun, cute, hands-on, engaging Math lesson! You could sort, you could tally, you could make addition problems, you could graph. Endless possibilities! And then, you could take it home and make dinner ~ I heard you gasp! Boiling it would get rid of all the germs right? LOL ~ Gotcha! Way to go My Mommy Reads!! You can check out her other very fun lesson plans on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Teachers for Teresa

If you are a living breathing teacher then you've probably heard of Teachers Pay Teachers, better known as TPT. Not only is it a great site for teachers to share their wonderful teaching ideas, it is also a place of true heartfelt kinship with other teachers and many of the teachers form virtual bonds with each other in friendship. This is one of those times. A fellow blogger friend is in CCU in Atlanta with critical medical issues. Prayers have been sent up for Teresa from all over the world. I am a believer in prayer and that it can bring about miracles and Teresa is certainly in need of our prayers. These very wonderful and special teachers then began asking, "What can we do to help?" Out of their love and concern came

Teresa has pulmonary hypertension and is experiencing complications. She loves teaching and has a wonderful sense of humor that keeps everyone smiling. The most important thing we can all do for her, is to offer prayers on her behalf. Financially, you can help by purchasing one of the packages below through TPT. All of these items have been donated by her fellow TPT colleagues who wish to help across the world.

We know how medical bills can quickly become astronomical, especially when in the Critical Care Unit. And so, some of our favorite bloggers are offering you some wonderful deals in exchange for your donations.

There is a HUGE pack of goodies in return for your donation of $25. It has a value of $115. Hop on over to Mrs. Jump's Class and access the link to make your donation and then the files will be emailed to you. In addition, several teachers have joined in other collaborative efforts to form a piggy unit, a piggy graphic set, and a set of free piggies just for helping to spread the word. All of these proceeds will also be given to Teresa to help with her financial needs. All of this can be accessed through Deanna Jump's blog . Thank you so much for your donations and for helping to spread the word by blogging with a link to her post, pinning, facebooking, etc. Let's show Teresa our support! Keep those prayers going! I'm gonna go make my donation now!

Juggling Literacy and Math Centers

This is my second year back in the jungle classroom and I was feeling like my centers needed a sharper edge. I have the ELL cluster and am ELL endorsed which eliminates the justification of being provided any help throughout my day. That's fine, just requires more creativity on my part, but I was really struggling to hold SIX guided reading groups and maintain my sanity. I had wandered into the land of "too many worksheets" and I wasn't feeling good about the enrichment factor. I'm literally all over the internet and when I need an idea I will search relentlessly until I find it. I have my go-to-gals who I adore, such as Deanna Jump and Mrs. Wills, but nothing I was seeing was feeling like just the right fit for my kiddos. Until I found the Virtual Teaching Expo Everything's Kindergarten. Included in the event is a presentation by Krissy Miner from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business called Lovin' Literacy Centers. 49 minutes later I had found my answer. After 3 weeks of playing Center Sheriff, I have engaged Kinders who are cheering every time I say "It's time for Centers!!" I have 6 groups of 4 and so they each start with a rotation of Basket Work. This is "have-to" work and it must be completed before they can go on to make choices. I'll post more about the Basket Work later, but here's a peek at some of the 26 choices available:

IPods ~ I'm looking for suggestions on some new apps to add

Playdough with a purpose ...

Puppets for dramatic play and socialization skills ...

Beading Letters

Write a Book ~ always a choice

Magnet Letters

Pocket Chart

White Boards ...

Read a Book ~ always a choice

Leap Pad Letters ~ found it for a steal on Ebay :)

BIG Books

Stencil Stories

Puzzles & Games In the beginning, while I was being the Center Sheriff ;) I gave my kiddos 2 choices each. Now, 4 weeks later, we are up to 4 choices per table with the additional choices of Write a Book and Read a Book. I'll give you even more details later but did I mention that they CHEER when I say "It's time for Centers!!" Thank you Krissy Miner!!

OK I'm just gonna do it ...

OK ya'll I'm just gonna do it ... everywhere I go people say "where do you find your ideas?". Well, I guess this is the place where I can start to share them with you. Just remember, mostly I'm a copycat, no original wheel inventing most of the time! This will be my platform to share my crazy, juggling life and all of my interests with you. Hang on! I have a lot of them: teaching Kindergarten, event styling/party planning, decorating, gardening, fashion, DIY projects ... Should I keep going? Here we go!!