It's Off to Work I Go...

Well summer, it's been real.  We knew it had to end some day.  I just wish it wasn't so soon.  We had a good run.  Good times...bad times...I will treasure our time together.

After a very sad break up with summer vacation it was back to figuring out what to do with my space.  Last year, I had an owl themed space.  This year, I went with a zoo theme based on Krista Wallden's super awesome Zoo Clip Art which you can find here.  

I don't like clutter and I don't like having things up that won't get used...especially in such a small space.  Here's what I have done so far.

My word house is up.  It's waiting for the millions of post-its that will cover it.  I have no idea why all my pics are blurry so my apologies in advance!

This was me sorting out my awesome, can't wait to use posters (I made them smaller).

Here they are in action.  While I liked them up and want them up, I ultimately took them down.  I just don't have enough space in my cubical and don't want every inch of my walls covered.  I think I am going to put them on a binder ring and use them as flash cards.  I did something similar last year but I like mine better ;)  If you are interested in getting these posters for yourself, here are the links: Short Vowels, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, Vowel Digraphs, & Diphthongs.

Here's my student supply section on top of my binder bookcase.  I made a mini welcome sign along with pics of my family and favorite books.  Last year, all my student supplies were located in that white box you see.  I found certain grades were destroying my pencils and erasers.  I am holding them accountable this year by giving each group their own pencil box.  This way they can't argue with me about it being a different group who destroyed my supplies.  This is also where I have the student hand sanitizer and tissues.  They are kept far away from me and I have my own NO STUDENTS CAN USE THESE supplies right near my spot but where they can't touch it.  I try hard to minimize germs, not for myself but my own babies at home.

Here are my cute zoo themed behavior charts!  I hate buying them so I made my own to go with my theme.  Also, I color code my groups so I did it to their charts as well.  It will be easier for them to find their chart!  Like the signs above the sticker charts?  They are a great freebie from Class of Kinders and you can find them here!

That's really all I have to show you right now.  Apologies again for the blurry pics.  The lighting in my space this year seems really off.  I'm finishing up my NO PREP Vowel Diphthongs packet.  I'm also working on a pirate themed r-controlled vowel packet, NO PREP Halloween Packets (currently just Kindergarten is almost done), and of course a NO PREP R-Controlled Vowels packet as well.  Stay tuned my friends!

Five for Friday...FUN WEEK!

So much fun this week!  My husband took Thursday and Friday off.  It was our "summer vacation."  We had a play date earlier in the week with my niece.  On Thursday, the four of us headed to the Bronx Zoo.  Friday we dropped the boys off at my mom's, we checked into a hotel, and went to a Yankee game!  Thanks  Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

I put up a few new products.  These two are my bigger two.     I also have a few really great freebies.  I'm planning on making more too!  Keep checking back!

 

Play date with the princess!  The kids seriously love the water table my mom picked up at a tag sale.  They also love my 90 cent plastic garbage pen storage bins haha.  I actually had to go inside and get a third one so they could each play with one.   

 

We finally had a fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows.  A little late I know haha.  My little one made this face every time he bit the marshmallow!

Cuteness overload in that top pic!  They were sooo excited to be at the zoo!  We had a blast!  We saw a polar bear playing with a ball!  It was AWESOME!  I recorded it too but my phone and Facebook are currently hating on each other :(

Last but not least, my hubby and I said "goodbye" to Derek Jeter and his cuteness...I mean awesome baseball skills.  It was really sad.  I heard a couple of people yell "bye" to him as they left the game.  Won't be the same!  Oh, and I totally made it on the jumbotron lol!  I was one of those people who didn't realize it at first then started waving like crazy when I did!

Diphthong Moon Bounce

FINALLY!  You have no idea how long this took me.  It was seriously done but a couple pages were giving me issues when I was trying to extract it from Adobe to flatten everything.  Ugh!  And they were the simple pages!  Anywhoooo here it is!  My Diphthong Moon Bounce.

 
This packet includes 4 fun and colorful activities/games to reinforce diphthongs.  I created these to use in my small group settings.  3 of the games would be great to use for centers.  Read It, Spell It, Fly It was designed to be teacher led.  If you are like me and can't always print in color, NO WORRIES!  Every activity comes in black and white.  This allows you to easily print whenever you need to.  You could even do it on colored paper to jazz it up a bit.

Moon Landing Sort asks students to pick an astronaut card and say what the picture is.  They must then decide which diphthong they hear and place it on the correct moon.  Everything is based strictly on what they hear not the spelling of what they hear.

Read It, Spell It, Fly It is the activity I mentioned earlier and said it will be teacher run.  You can, of course, run it whichever way you feel works best for you and your students!  The students will choose a colored alien card and their color will be the same on the game board.  They teacher will then read a card to each student one at a time.  The students must write the word on their board.  You can either play it where they must spell it exactly right or that they need to at least get the diphthong they hear correct.  If it's right they get to move their piece up one space.  Whoever lands their flying saucer on their planet first is the winner!  My kids will love this!

 Star Light, Build it Right will make a great center.  Students will go through each picture card and build the word using the star tiles.  They can easily self check with the answer sheet.

 I KNOW my students are going to love working with these little aliens in Alien Mix-Up!  Students will lay out the planets and review each picture on them.  They must think of the diphthong they hear AND how it might be spelled.  They will then take turns picking aliens, reading the words, and placing them on the correct planet.

And now I'm tired haha.  Off to bed!  I should be posting my diphthong posters soon!

(Graphics by Pink Cat Studio)

Dipththong "Whiners" Posters, Activities, & Worksheets

 I DID IT!  I finally finished my Diphthong "Whiners" Posters, Activities, and Worksheets packet! Yay!  Actually, I'm almost finished with my R-Controlled Vowels "Bossy R" one too!  Wahoo!  My Vowel Digraphs "Talkers" Packet is getting a lot of traffic on Pinterest and seems to be becoming a popular download too.  I'm hoping this packet and the R-Controlled Vowels one will be just as helpful to everyone!

Here we go!

For those of you familiar with my Vowel Digraphs "Talkers" Packet you will know exactly what's in here, just with diphthongs!  For those of you unfamiliar with my previous packet, here's what's included:

*Features AU, OO, OI, OY, & OU Diphthong Cuties graphics created to help students get a visual of what sound each “whiner” makes
*Diphthong “Whiners” mini posters
* Pocket chart sorting activity
*Spin and Read game
* Memory game
*Worksheets (Missing Diphthongs and 3 levels of Fill in the Blank)

My students REALLY enjoy these activities.  I made the posters smaller and they are now hanging under their appropriate spot on our word house.  They frequently refer to it!  It's been a great tool!  I will be posting pics of us using it in class soon!  PLEASE check back frequently for more great products!  My R-Controlled packet should be done this week as well as my digraph books!