The Giveaway Is Over

I read all of your comments when you entered this giveaway and you are the nicest people on the planet. I can never get over kindergarten teachers and how loving they are! I wish I could buy you all a ticket (how cool would that be?) but I can only pick 3. So hang on, have some fun today, and come back tonight for the big announcement! If you don't win I hope you sign up for this anyway so you can get a few tips and tricks to add some sparkle to your classroom!

Kindergarten Crayons Giveaway! Expo Tickets

Do you have your ticket for Everything's K Expo? If you do thank you for supporting TBA and helping teachers to continue to access professional development. These trainings can continue if we actively support them. The presenters are doing this to help the teaching community and are sharing ideas we know will be useful in your classroom. As the date approaches we have each been given 3 tickets to do a giveaway. If you already purchased a ticket think about participating in this giveaway to hand the ticket to a deserving friend as a gift or your student teacher. Is there someone in your life who cannot afford this? I know that teachers have been hit with drastic budget cuts across the country so please encourage everyone to sign up. I have three tickets to give away and I hope one of them goes to you! I can't wait to see you at the Expo. The goodie bag is full of virtual treats you will love.
What do you need to do?
Leave me a comment telling me why you want this ticket. Easy, right? No other conditions because I want everyone to participate.
Fran

Am I Growing A Pumpkin?

Do not fall over but this is what my pumpkin plant looks like in 2012. Can you believe it? As you show snow activities around the country we are having warm, sunny weather in southern California.I put my plant outside during winter break and I accepted the possibility that it would be dead when I came back. My partner put it near a sprinkler and now the kids are amazed by the size of  it. Remember when we could have gardens and grow things to observe in our classroom? I am going to plant this next to my classroom. Keep your fingers crossed that no one notices.This has been so much fun for my class.

Guess Who Is Coming to the California Conference?

I just started back to school and I amalready taking Friday off to come to the California Kindergarten Conference. PLEEEEESE  join us for our blog meet-up. I am so excited about this that I am packing tonight! So, here are your name tags that go right into your badge holder for the conference. Subtle-huh? Keep your fingers crossed because I invited Dr. Jean to join us and I would fall over if she showed up. Please stop screaming. If you are there Friday night I will probably be there at some point after I see my daughter (lawyer girl) who lives nearby. Grab this now and getting ready to rock with Pete. If your name is not on here take a blank tag and feel free to put your name on it. Everyone is invited.

Stripping In the Winter: Brrrrr

Here's what I am thinking- I better take it S*L*O*W tomorrow. I am not sure my students will remember who I am which could be a real problem. So I better not throw too much at them tomorrow after a 3 week break! They have done these little pattern books and will not find them too challenging. Cutting and coloring shouldn't be too demanding... right? Do you need a game plan for tomorrow? Grab this if it helps! I almost forgot, the graphics are by: www.djinkers.com

At the end of the day everyone loves polka dotted maps!

I had the best time with a bunch of kindergarten teachers from another district. They were so smart, so real, and so funny. I made them do a million routines and they were such good sports and we had a blast. Every time a presented an idea someone talked about how to differentiate the activity or another way to hit the same standard. We sang, we danced, we chatted, we ate lunch together and at the end of the day (I was exhausted from presentation anxiety) we left as friends. Wanna know why? Cause kindergarten teachers are the best! They roll with the punches, they laugh at their own mistakes, and they love new ideas. By the way I brought billions of things for them to make but the Thinking Maps mobile was the hit of the day! We all love cute.
A big shout-out to these guys for making my day so much fun. I walked away with more ideas than I brought.

The shop is up... finally

I finally got my shop up on Teacher's Notebook and now I can go back to school feeling like I met a goal that has been on my mind for a long time. My hubby did this for me while I did my training and I am so grateful. Honestly, I can only do one big project at a time so I am feeling pretty good about things right now until the next job comes along to overwhelm me! Check it out and see what you think. I love to shop and Pay Pal is my BFF.

Winter Chill

So school starts back Monday for me and I have been working on a weather unit for my class. We live in the OC so not much snow is happening here. However, some of my students have been to the mountains where there is plenty of snow during the winter months. They love learning about it and it is a great opportunity for me to read wonderful literature and build their vocabulary. Are you freezing where you live? Yesterday it was about 85 degrees here! Come and warm up at the California Kindergarten Conference later this month. Sorry I had a big training and forgot the link! Woops don't slip on the ice and enjoy this download

Calling All Primary Teachers... Are You In?

I am doing a workshop on Friday on kindergarten routines and I made about a billion things for it. What is my problem? Anyhow, I am using the same Power Point that I created for the blog expo. Maybe I will offer up a packet to go with the presentation. Holy Guacamole I hope I don't make them run away screaming! Anyhow, back to the Kindergarten Expo. Have you signed up? If you haven't it hurts my feelings. The other speakers are high powered experts with lots of great ideas. You will not want to miss this. Are you in? Come on... just do it.
By the way I don't do any presentations without Pete.
Right-makes sense to me.

How Cute Is This

I am doing a training at the end of this week and I am worried that the teachers attending will hate me because they are back at work and reality has hit after 2 weeks off. So here is my bribe. Yup, you guessed it- candy. My partner is addicted to m&m's so we cannot have them in the room. She adores them so after Gingerbread Activity Day and the 100th Day I have to sweep the room because she cannot handle the temptation. How cute is this for an ice breaker? Okay, never mind but at least I stuck 2 little bags in there so they will listen to me for umm, 5 minutes. I thought the questions would give me a chance to get to know them. Here is the download if you would like it. How would you answer these questions?
1. favorite movie: I Am Sam (I cried my eyes out but loved it
                             and I am a total Beatles fanatic.
2. favorite food: pizza and you can see it on my hips but
                           I also adore a good bagel
3.favorite children's book: Knuffle Bunny Free and Pete the 
                                          Cat  but I have millions of favorites
                                          Charlotte's Web still upsets me
4. favorite teacher supply: post-it notes in beautiful colors               
                                          and Avery labels, smelly markers,
                                          tabs, blah, blah, I love it all!
5. favorite grade: Kindergarten silly, best grade ever... hands
                             down (do not argue with your elders)nothin'
                             like a 5 year old without a filter!
6. favorite piece of technology: My ipad 2 is my new BFF
Now I can eat my candy. Life is good.


What about you?