Work Smarter = New Blog Design!

We've all heard it said: "Work smarter, not harder." Now don't get me wrong, I love some hard work…and wanting to figure things out for myself has saved money at times. But when it comes to technology, I NEED HELP! Besides, even if I was capable of redesigning my blog, it probably wouldn't be the best use of my time. My precious hours could be better spent on more creative things that I'm actually good at. 

Here's a great article from The Right-Brain Business Plan site. The author says, "If you're trying to do it all yourself, STOP IT!" Focus your energies on the tasks that you are best at; then get help for the rest. 

Enter Kassie Garlock from Designs by Kassie. I told Kassie that this little blog was about to have a one-year anniversary and needed to grow up. She cleaned it up, colored it up and VOILA! Here it is. I was so happy, I sent Kassie a little song. So play it, sing along and if you need a new blog…call Kassie!

If you like the look of her work, please leave her a note in the comments.

I'm in Love with Linking Up!

Yes, I do. I link up. All the time. I love connecting with my teacher friends out there in the big wide world. So today I'm linking up with Molly at Lucky to Be in First.

So many things to love in this here life. Here are my big teaching loves…

The Mitten Tier 2 Vocabulary…and 2 Printables

"I am very jostled in this mitten," said the bear.

So we were challenged by our administration to focus more on Tier 2 vocabulary. Our district even worked with mother nature to provide us with snow-day time to watch the videos. How kind was that?

Just as a reminder, Tier 2 vocabulary words are the words that appear in reading that may not be used in common language but are important to academic rigor. They are not content specific. They may not be discovered by children on their own.

Sometimes it can be a challenge to understand how research and learning strategies look in a kinder classroom. I found some extra help in this article: Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in Kindergarten.

And here is a look at my "have a go" with college talk and The Mitten. Over the course of several days, we reread parts of the book. As I read the page about each animal, my kids would let me know if they heard a "college" word.

We also acted out the meanings of the words. Here is a darling showing us how to swoop.

If you want some props for this, masks can be found on the Jan Brett site. 

Next each child selected his or her favorite college word. If you want the free printable, click here.

"The bear lumbered to the mitten."

Now on to my other four things for the week. 
#2
Take a look at a survey and graph we made about the seasons.

#3
We started our rocks and soils unit. I put the vocabulary words in a tub of dirt so the kids discover things and animals that can be found in the dirt. They really "dig" this center. Ha.

If you want to see more of this unit, click here:

  

#4

I have a Valentine Freebie for you. I'm going to have my kiddos add adjectives. We'll mount the pages on pretty scrapbooking paper before we give them to our families. Get it free here.

#5

I went to Dollar Tree and bought a class supply of Valentine candy. Then I went back again because the dogs ate half the boxes! We are going to use them to make these books.

That wraps up my Five For Friday! Be sure to check out the other great blogs at Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Get more freebies over at The Primary Gal!

Half Time 50% off Item

Math Problem Freebie and A Super TN Sale

"Why, oh my stars!" (Imagine small southern gal with hand over heart.) "Down here in lil' ole Georgia, we only had to work two days this week. What is a poor teacher to do?"

"Rudolph"

I'm sure you've heard about the snow disaster down here. Fortunately I live an hour south of Atlanta. I am not one of the AMAZING teachers that stayed in a school overnight with her students. I did pack a whole of lot learning into two days, so here is my Five For "Monday and Friday" post.

Winter Clothes Tree Map

1. Thanks to the snow, this makes a whole lot more sense to my kids! Now we can make some text-to-self connections.

2. Since there was a bit of snow still on the ground, I threw in a quick science experiment. I keep a diffuser in my room (you know I love those doTerra essential oils) and we often watch the steam that comes out. Now we've also watched the snow melt in our room. We revisited the word hypothesis, predicted how long it would take the snow to melt, and measured how much liquid would be in the cup.

"It is going to melt to one. Maybe take minutes or an hour. I was right. It melted. There was more snow than water."

3. I can't take credit for this…After some discussion about the sun and the seasons, one of my smart kids came back with a little project. I love it when kids take off with their own learning. I just had to put it on display.

4. Our math problem was about snowballs and works on addition within five. Here's what our class chart and student work looks like.

Here's another example of our math problems.

You can catch your free copy here:

5. Don't forget the Super Sale on Teachers Notebook today and tomorrow!