Thinking in Primary

Pin I I wanted to thank everybody who took the time to check out my Cyber Monday Sale! You are so appreciated!  I personally had very little time to shop because I've spent hours on end entering test scores into the computer (carpal tunnel brace on, ugh)!  If I could only do a little more teaching and a little less testing I would definitely be a happy girl.  At any rate, the test scores did reveal some good information.  A lot of my kiddos are having trouble counting objects and representing the amount with a number.  And most of those babes are having trouble identifying the teens.  Personally, I think that's developmentally appropriate at this point in the year, but...at least I can make it fun. I am lucky enough to have a lot of parent helpers so they are typically the ones to implement interventions in my class.  I like to give them games to play with the kids that will focus on the specific skills.  So I made a little gingerbread game. ...

Pin It   Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you survived Black Friday Sales!  I'm not one for big crowds or long lines, but I LOVE shopping on-line!  I've linked up with  Blog Hoppin'   Myself and so many other bloggers are offering 20% off our products and TPT is giving you another 10% when you enter cmt12 during checkout!  I know I'll be crossing a few things off my wishlist!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you find some amazing products!!! Jody

Pin It Well, I know that I haven't posted in a while.  I started teaching 1/2 day kindergarten this year and I have to admit, it's been keeping me super busy.  It seems like every time I sit down to update this little blog, there is always something pressing that I need to do for school.  Today is no exception, but I feel like I owe it to everyone who follows my blog or who has purchased any of my products to say a big thank you!  This really doesn't have anything to do with school or products, just my precious little pug!  We came home a few days ago and found our little Frankie unable to move his front or back leg on the left side.  He was in a lot of pain and couldn't eat, drink our walk.  We took him to the vet, who sent us to a specialist, who after running some very expensive tests explained that he needed a very expensive surgery.  We applied for care credit but did not get approved for the full amount.  It all worked out though becau...

Pin It Summer just goes by too quick!  Oh well, at least we have back to school sales to look forward too!  August 12th and 13th all of my products are on sale for 20% off and Teacher's Pay Teachers will give you an extra 10% off if you use this code: BTS2012. First Grade Garden  is having a linky party so you can find out who else is having a sale or even link up with your own sale!  Happy Shopping and Thanks for stopping by!!! Jody

Pin It So the name tags are free and I will get to them in just a second but I thought I'd share the reason why I made them first.  I haven't taught half-day kindergarten in a while, but when I did, I always had everything color coded.  I used to buy these perfect name tags.  They were exactly the same, they had letters and numbers, and they came in yellow or green.  Perfect! Yellow for the AM and green for the PM. Now, they only make the green :(  So, I made these name tags.  I can just print them on different colors of paper and I wont even have to go to the store when I need new ones! I'm thinking I might make some thematic name tags soon, but here is what I have for now!  If you can use them they are available at my  Teachers Pay Teachers Store ! Thanks for stopping by!! Jody

Pin It Okay, I've mentioned before that I'm taking three classes and they are kicking my behind!  Part of it just might be my lack of focus.  Luckily I downloaded a cool new app on my kindle called mind games or something like that and guess what?  It's going to help me practice keeping focused just by clicking on these little arrows! =) Anyway, I should be reading and responding to posts, but here I am, distracted as usual.  I thought that if Big Brother After Dark played in the background I would be able to get some reading done, not so.  But I did do a little reading.  My online professor linked to some great math lessons, so I thought I would share!  I really like how this lesson starts with manipulates and takes kids all the way to symbols, not in one day of course! You can get to the lesson plan here-  Illuminations Lesson Plan I really like the subtraction chart!  I'm feeling a little inspiration!! Hope you all have a great ...

Pin It Wow!  I can't believe how long it's been since I've had the time to sit down and sit down with my little blog!  I want to say thank you to all of my followers who have stuck with me!  And welcome to my new followers!  Since my last post I finished two of the five classes I'm taking this summer.  Those two were not too bad, just PDE's.   These last three are all on-line graduate credit courses.  Who knew that on-line classes would be so much work?  Not me!  I know that I’m a bad blogger, but maybe a sale will help! J All of my Teachers Pay Teachers  products are on sale from Monday, July 9 th through Thursday, July 12 th ! Anyway, sine things have calmed down, a little; I've been able to get a bit of work done!  First of all, there was a mistake in my Kissing Hand Unit.  I accidently made two cards with 11 paws and no card for 12 paws.  So, if you bought that unit please re-download it! I’ve ...

Pin It For the past several years I've created a time capsule with my kindergarten students.  I write the parents a letter and I ask for a shoe box that will serve as a time capsule.  Parents write a letter to their child and they fill out a survey with their child.  I add pictures that we've used in our classroom, a writing sample and an art project or two.  All of these things go into the capsule along with the "All I Really Need To Know About How To Live and What To Do And How To Be, I Learned in Kindergarten" poem.  I also let students write letters to each other and they put those in the capsule.  A day or two before school lets out we wrap up our time capsules and put on a label that says "Don't Open until my 18th Birthday".  It's a super fun project and it really doesn't require much work from the teacher (time capsules are sent home with the student).  Here are the materials you need.  I hope you can use them! Time Capsule 2024 A...

Pin It I am calling this a last minute sale.  Not that I've been stingy or anything.  I've honestly just been overwhelmed!  It has been crazy busy.  I'm trying to take about 10 more credits between now and the end of the summer, my class is ready for summer, it's hot out, and I can't seem to pull myself out of bed in the morning because that's when I get the best sleep!!!! Oh well!  I got the idea from  Dee Dee Wills  and then I linked up with  Kinderzoo!   Check it out if you can and link up if you're having your own sale! Jody

Pin It I will get to the good stuff in just a second but first I need to talk a little bit about keeping things simple. It's tough sometimes to find balance between making sure things are cute, because those things do keep kids engaged, and keeping it real! With that said, I made a not really cute, but totally effective and fun sight word game.  Sight Word Bingo!  Just have students write words from the word wall onto the worksheet.  You can have them include a free space if you like.  Then use your flashcards as bingo callers.  Its perfect because students are writing the words, hearing the words and reading the words. Here is the version that I made for my class- Sight Word Bingo I hope this can work for you! I've quite a few useful and cute products on my Teacher's Pay Teachers site. They are on sale, May 6-8th! Just follow this link for 20% off!  Use the special code for an extra 10% Thanks for stopping by! Jody

Pin It I am so excited to teach about dinosaurs next week!  I bought Deana Jump's unit and I read a few dinosaur books that I've owned for years (I had to teach myself about dinosaurs before starting with the kids)!  I'm even making the paper mache egg this weekend!  My kids are going to be so excited!  Now that I'm able to name a few dinosaurs I made a write the room for my class!  You can get your own at my TpT store! Dinosaur Write the Room! Thanks for staying with me! Jody

Pin It After some feedback I have recently updated a my some of my write the room products.  Several people asked for more pictures to be included.  So, I increased the number of pictures from 6 to 12.  My own students were super excited about this change (although I think it would have been too many pictures in the beginning of the year).  Here's an example- Anyway, I received additional feedback saying that they still would have liked more clip art.  Here is my question, (I suppose the answer would depend on your grade level).  How many words would you want your students to write during write the room?  Is six a good number?  Should it be 12?  How much do your kids write?  I typically make products with my own class in mind, but I'm always curious about what other classes are doing.

Pin It It has taken all year long, but I have finally introduced all five components of daily five!  Today we introduced working with words. I sort of felt like I was just introducing literacy centers that the kids already new about, but the were still SO excited!!!  They did really awesome and I let them work for 10 minutes!!!  I'm a little nervous about putting things all together.  But I know that I can do it!  Right now we are working in three breakout sessions.  First I do a shared reading type of lesson followed by student choice of Read to Self, Read to Someone, or listen to reading.  Then I do a phonemic awareness and sight word or phonics lesson, followed by working with words.   I finish up with a quick writing lesson (today we did directed drawing) followed by work on writing.  Well there is my celebration for today!!!

Pin It This week my class is putting the finishing touches on our  Student Treasures  books.  I love making these books, most of the time.  Today we drew our final pictures.  I carefully explained to the students why their pictures needed to be on the back of someone else's writing (so their picture would be next to the words). I showed examples and even had students restate the directions. Then we got started.  When the first student asked my why they had someone else's page I calmly re-explained.   I was calm when the second student asked and even when the third student asked.  By the fourth time I was just about ready to pull out all of my hair!!!!!  But, at last we are finished and I can't wait to see our final product!

Pin It I would love to make a product for my Flat Stanley unit.  Does anybody know of some good clip art for the little flat guy?

Pin It I love the Little Bunny Foo Foo books.  I think they teach a great lesson and they are a perfect alternative when you can't teach the Easter Bunny!  Next week I'm planning to read all of the versions that I have.  We are going to compare the books and graph our favorites.  Here's the graphing worksheet I made to go with the unit!  You can grab it for free from my TpT store!

Pin It Happy St. Patrick's Day Sale! It's a great day to save some "green" at my TpT store where everything is 15% off!   Have a lucky day!

Pin It I just went through and added pocket chart cards to this product.  When I introduce a new sort I like to start it in the pocket chart before giving the students their individual sorts.  If you already purchased this product you can re-download it now on teachers pay teachers!  Just click on the picture!

Pin It All of the products that I create and sell are things that I make for my classroom.  I am not one of those super machine teachers who has everything prepared a month in advance.  So, that explains why I just now finished the things I needed for the week before St. Patty's Day!  Now I'm hoping that when I go into school today (Saturday) that the luck of the Irish will be on my side and there will be lamination for my pocket chart.  Keep your fingers crossed for me! If you need any last minute St. Patrick's Day items I've just uploaded my Little Leprechaun Song and Poetry Page and Pocket Chart  to my TpT store.  There's also a Little Leprechaun Write the Room  activity.  Here's a little peak at them if your interested.  Happy St. Patty's Day!

Pin It On February 29th my entire Teachers Pay Teachers store will be 20% off and you can get an additional 10% off by entering the TpT code L2P9Y. Happy Leap Day!

All About Mrs. Kalnicki-Mrs. K. has earrings, Mrs. K is nice to me, and Mrs. K rings the bells ;) Pin It It seems like the one thing that I always struggle with is writing.  I am always looking for new and better ways to teach writing.  This year I am focusing a lot of structure on my  star student writing.   That has been working great.  My kids are writing structured "because" sentences everyday and I see that skill transferring to their other writing as well.  Recently I came across a writing program by a woman in Nevada named  Jodie Black , nice first name, I know.  Anyway, she pulls from Ralph Fletcher and Lucy Calkins, among others. I've not used her entire program, but just recently I started teaching her "All About" posters unit.  Basically my kids are learning to write nonfiction posters.  They write fact sentences (very difficult) onto smaller pieces of paper and then combine them into a poster.  In my class we all...

Pin It So at the start of this year I planned to do Daily Five.  I had read the book several times over the summer and I felt that I was ready.  Then, it was the first day of school and guess what?  I couldn't do it.  I felt like my little babies would not be able to handle it.  So, I set a goal to begin in January.  It didn't take until January.  After 9 years of centers it was time for a change (at least for this class). I started Daily 5 with my class at the beginning of of December.  I followed the book very carefully, but I soon found that one day's lesson in the book often took me 2 or 3 days.  I also learned that sometimes I needed to modify the lessons (just a little) to suit my own needs.  It didn't matter though, because it worked!   We now have 2 sessions.  The first session is read to self and we are up to 14 minutes!  Our second session is read to someone and listen to reading (also 14 minutes). ...

Pin It Superbowl Sunday Sale! I hope everybody has a fabulous Sunday!  I was so excited this morning when I opened my email and MY  Skunked  game was listed as a free download!  What a great thing to wake up to!  I also have a sale going on at my  Teachers Pay Teachers  store!  Everything is 20% off until Wednesday!   Some people have requested a master list of the words in the skunked game. You can get that list  here .  I've also revised the game to include blank cards so you can add your own words.  Hope that helps! Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Pin It Heather's Heart is having just about the most fabulous giveaway I've ever seen.  She's giving a Jack Hartman CD, an adorable shirt from Sewing Sassy, AND 5 of her TpT products!  You don't want to miss this one!

Pin It When I first started teaching kindergarten the report card that I was using didn't really even cover sight words!  It was part of the standards but I just don't remember it being on the report card.  Slowly but surely things have changed.  For a long time students had to know about 25 words by the end of the year.  I felt like this was a pretty good minimum number considering some kids come in knowing zero letters.  But, this wasn't a good number for all kids.  I solved my issues with the  Dolch Kit  from a website called The School Bell.  This sight has tons of great ideas and I really love the sight word program.  Not to mention it's free, you just have to download and print.  The best part of this program for me is that it allows students to work at the pace that is best for them. This year our district gave us a list of 100 words.  Students need to know the first 50 to get meets standards and they work on the...

Pin It It's been a while!  Sorry about that!  This has been one of those years that I'm just on my toes, running around and working like a dog!  Thanks for hanging around this little blog and not giving up on me!  We've been working so hard!  We started daily 5 but we are taking it very slow.  One of the lessons in the book might take me 3 days to get through.  But, we are up to 6 minutes of reading to self and 8 minutes of reading to someone.  Not to mention that my students groan on the days that I tell them we aren't doing daily 5! We have also been working very hard on our writing!  We read all of the Tacky the Penguin books that I could get my hands on, then we wrote about Tacky. My bulletin board could have used a title, but reality shows that I am not the bulletin board queen.  Sorry! After writing about Tacky we starting our non-fiction penguin study.  Next year I think I'll do Non-fiction first, I think ...

Pin It Thank you so much for entering my giveaway!  I am so excited!  Here are the the winners!  Please let me know what items you would like!