Pizza, Pizza!

Child-led schooling is very easy when you only have one child to worry about! :) As a parent, I can start the inquiry and learning, but then I really enjoy letting Alex help decide where it will lead! I also love having the flexibility to do that in Kindergarten. I feel like my job this year is really to foster a love of learning. 

A couple of other moms and I have decided to have an inquiry/unit day each month where we get together and do some fun learning activities. While at home, we carry out the unit in a variety of ways. So we celebrated the end of August with a pizza party! This unit really leant itself well to a math focus, so in my process of planning I created a math pack with lots of fun and engaging math activities that we can continue to use throughout the year. I tried to make it really versatile, but even in the process of using it, Alex and I have come up with some new ideas for the games included!

Alex wasn't really interested in drawing the card and counting pizza toppings, so we added in a die and the first person to get ten toppings won. We also used the 2 sets of toppings to figure out the different ways to make 5. We also used these to help us answer some of the story problem cards! 

We first used this set of counting cards to count the number of toppings. We were ordering them from least to greatest and then Alex thought it would be fun to play memory with them...

So that's just what we did! 

We played with some sequencing cards too. It was interesting to listen to Alex's thought process on the order he chose. It's a good reminder, that instead of just saying something is wrong, to have kids explain their thinking. His thought process was a little bit different then mine, but it still made sense!

Here are some great book choices to add. Lots of fun books that are engaging and so funny!Dig In, Secret Pizza Party, Pete's a Pizza, Pizza at Sally's, Grandpa and Me, The Pizza That We Made, and Pizza Counting (affiliate links) are all great!

It was very fun to gather together with our friends to have a pizza themed day! We read books, played chefs (the packet comes complete with menus, order forms and receipts), made some bar graphs, and ate lots of yummy pizza!

Have a pizza party day! Your kids will thank you! Just don't forget to have dessert pizzas too! ;)

If you want to check out some of the math activities we have been doing click on the picture!

And now I am starting to put some books around the house for our new unit. Can you guess what it might be? Stay tuned!

A Sale and A Giveaway! {now closed}

We have finished our first week of school! It was pretty crazy trying to get all the kiddos out of the house, but I loved being able to peek in on each one throughout the day!

This year I added on some afternoon classes at our homeschool academy, so we have two full days there and we are adding in more structure to our days at home because Alex is in kindergarten. Its sometimes hard to wrap my head around all the different things I need to cover, so I am so thankful to have Teachers pay Teachers around to look for resources for kindergarten AND third grade literature, writing and history! TpT is such a great resource for the classroom, homeschool, enrichment, almost anything you can think of. I love looking through the freebie options, but there are lots of great paid resources as well!

I was so excited to find out TpT was having a BONUS, one day sale, so I could purchase all of those resources I didn't realize I needed before! :) Even more exciting is that TpT gave me a $10 gift card to give away!! 

Pretty AMAZING right! It is easy to enter and there are lots of ways to get bonus entries! A winner will be chosen tonight and a e-gift card sent to you so you can have fun shopping at the sale tomorrow. Be sure to enter before 10:00pm eastern time tonight! You can use the gift card in any store, and it never expires so use it during the sale or save it for another time! Also if you fill in the last entry and tell me your favorite resource in my store, I will send it to you if you are the winner! 

*Giveaway is now closed!*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on the picture to head over to TpT to see all the great resources!

Earning TpT credits!

Are you all ready for the big Teacher Pay Teacher's sale coming??

I mean saving 28% is FABULOUS, but I hope that you are also saving some extra dollars by taking advantage of TPT credits! I was talking to someone the other day who didn't know what that was, so we quickly went to teacherspayteachers.com and I walked her through it.

Every time you leave feedback on a purchased product, you earn credits that then translate into dollars off your future purchases! Here is how you do it:

1. First go to MY PURCHASES under your my TpT tab.

2. Under Paid Purchases, sort your purchases by NEEDS FEEDBACK. 

Go through and leave feedback on all the paid purchases that say provide feedback. Once you do, it will say "Thanks for providing feedback.... " like in the picture.

It's always wonderful if you leave feedback on your free downloads as well because that helps the sellers rating!

3. Next open the My TpT tab again and this time go to TpT Credit Balance.

4. Once you open that you will see how many credits you have saved up! You can use them when you check out if you have at least 20!

5. During the checkout process be sure to redeem those TpT Credits! 

Its a great way to add to your savings during the site wide sales!

Be sure to take time to do that tonight so you can spend your time shopping tomorrow!

4th of July Sale!

My TPT store is on sale this weekend to add to your July 4th celebrations!

Check out some of these products to help get your year started off on the right foot!

Click on the pictures for more details!

Classroom job signs

Agenda circles! These coordinate perfectly with the classroom jobs! :)

teacher planners

Around the World Factbooks

Decoding Strategy pack!

Reading Comprehension posters

Writing Resources

Go HERE to see all my Back to School Products!

And be sure to download some of the freebies as well! ;)

Five For Friday: Busy days!

LOTS has happened this week. I'm still in shock that we are down to 3 weeks left! It feels long and short at the same time.  We are slowly getting through assessments, while still trying to enjoy our last unit, How We Organize Ourselves at the same time! :)

{one}

I love having a kid in school. It's so much fun to put together little teacher presents. But I don't like being so las minute about it... anyways Tuesday afternoon I realized that I didn't have gifts yet, but our team was doing a parent night, which was going to keep me out late... Not good planning! But, a quick trip to Lowes and a couple minutes at the computer using some fabulous KG fonts was all I needed for these cute basil gifts! I love useful plants and not only did these smell so good, but they are perfect to sit in the kitchen for fresh basil whenever you need it. Maybe I will get another one for myself too. ;)

{two}

The last two days we have spent a good 2+ hours outside before bedtime. It has cut bedtime down to 20 minutes! I love watching them play and love that bedtime is much more manageable! :) The beautiful greenery in our backyard is quite wonderful too.

{three}

I finished up my FAVORITE teacher planner this week. I think I have figured out which one to print for next year! There are lots of fun tribal themed backgrounds in this one. You can check out the preview here. Or look at the Nautical or Colorful versions too! They are all on sale this weekend and the calendars will be updated yearly, just download the updates!

{four}

My team had a parent night this week to give parents some ideas and resources for how to keep their kids engaged in learning over the summer. I shared some of what we talked about here, as well as some things I will be sending home this summer!

{five}

There are going to be some changes happening on the blog this summer! Read more about them here!

This weekend is well deserved! 14 days left for me! :)

I love joining the Five For Friday linky that Kacey does at Doodle Bugs Teaching! It's always a fun way to reflect over the week. :)

Happy Weekend!

Five for Friday: {hello} May

What!?! It's already MAY? 

I'm in disbelief. April flew by. Now the end of school is really in sight. 

Here's how I spent the last week of April!

{one}

Alex gave me this dandelion as we were headed to the car for church. To put in my hair. Because he loved me. Got to love the sweet gift of dandelions. Whether they are from your own kids or your school kids...who also (accidentally) call me mom on a regular basis! ;) 

I love all my sweet kiddos!

{two}

Our plants are growing! We planted them in pots on Monday. It's so interesting to see how differently they all have been growing in the bag and paper towel. Don't you love the "noticings" (or lack of) that this child wrote... even after I encouraged them to add lots of details... we try.  At least she added some good detail to her picture. ;)

{three}

Plant love always bleeds over to my house too. We are a little late in starting our seeds, but I am determined to get them to grow better this year! We have a lot of tomato plants going and some basil. Those are my two staples and as long as we have those I am good! Alex was super excited to plant some sunflowers and watermelon. :)

{four}

Does anyone get a little frazzled feeling in April. The end of the year can be a struggle. {Here} are some ideas to finish well. What are yours?

{five}

It feels a little scary that I just planned out the rest of the year! We have one more unit of inquiry to finish and I don't want it to get lost in the end of year assessment madness. Our district provides us with pacing guides, report card rubrics, but we work hard to mesh everything with our units too so it all gets covered. Some units flow better than others, but at least now I have a better feeling about the end of the year and it will make weekly plans a lot easier! I still need to figure out the best way to mesh our planners and all the ELA standards together. So many great tools, I just need to make them work for me a little better.

Oh. And mark you calendars! Teacher Pay Teacher's annual teacher appreciation sale is May 5th through 6th! You can save up to 28% at my store! Its the perfect time to pick up some great products to help you finish out the year! Be sure to check it out! My cart is already filling up! :)

Linking up with Five for Friday! 

Have a great weekend!

It's Your LUCKY Day!

Be sure to head over my TPT store today and tomorrow for 20% off all the products in my store!

Click on any of the pictures to go directly to my store! :)

This packet it full of all the resources you need to help your kids start using their reading strategies to decode unknown words! Includes a parent letter too!

Are your kids decoding well, but needing to work on comprehension? These posters and response sheets are just the thing (Don't forget to check out my free bookmarks too!)

These Vowel team and R-Controlled Vowel word building cards are a huge hit in my room! 

Both included recording sheets too!

 

This time of year, it can be really tricky to keep kids motivated to make good choices. 

But they love getting notes to show their parents and parents love the positive communication too!

These notes are perfect to send home to reward the great choices kids are making!

Those are just a couple fun activities that might help you as you work extra hard to keep kids motivated and engaged this spring!

Be sure to head over to my store to check out more resources!

Happy St. Patricks Day!