TPT SALE! 3 Million Teachers Strong Celebration!

TPT is all abuzz with news of the site wide sale!  

You can get up to 28% off by using the promo code TPT3!  

Click on the picture below to go and check out the HUGE blogger link-up, 

hosted by Primary Possibilities,  to go directly to some of your 

favorite TPT stores who will be having a SALE!  

To go directly to MY TPT STORE, simply click HERE!

It's Almost Time.... For the Spring Blogger Meet-Up!

WHO:  YOU are invited!

WHAT:  Spring Blogger/Follower Meet-Up

WHEN: March 22-23rd

WHERE:  French Lick Resort & Casino - French Lick, IN

WHY:   To meet new friends, share blogging tricks & tips, 

and just have fun!

Need a little inspiration? Want to re-energize your teaching?  

Then join us for this fun filled weekend!

Below is the basic agenda for the weekend. 

(Please note that if you are interested, there is a link at the bottom of this post you can follow to tentatively register.  Once you submit your info, I will send you, via email,  even more event details. Sometimes it's better not to post "too" much info on-line!)    

Friday, March 21st

IF YOU CHOOSE... You may check in on Friday night and check out the resort on your own!

Rooms will be offered at the French Lick Springs Hotel in the "blogger block"  for a discounted rate of $169.00. 

(Regular rooms have two queen beds and sleep 4...but there is plenty of room to add a roll-away and pack in even more co-workers or blogging friends!  The room rate doesn't change...you just have one person book the room and then split the cost!)

Saturday, March 22nd 

12:30 pm - Blogger Meet-Up Luncheon

(Private Meeting Room at the French Lick Springs Hotel)

Join us for a get-to-know-you luncheon event filled with prizes and product give-aways!

The cost for attending this luncheon event will be $25, which includes your lunch and beverage, as well as a portion of the room reservation fee.  This is the ONLY required fee for the entire weekend!  The rest of the event (hotel fees, if you choose to stay on site, and the remainder of the meal fees will be on your own, based on your choices!).  This fee needs to be paid by March 1st to guarantee your registration.  (More details for payment will be sent via email if you register using link at bottom of this post.)

2:00 pm - Teacher Tips & Tricks for Blogging, TPT and more!

At the request of many attendees, we will be having an informal sharing session about blogging and creating TPT products.  Bring some of your best ideas and a list of your favorite resources to share with others!  You might want to bring your laptop for this too!  This session is totally optional...but may a fun way to share ideas and set up networks for "linky" parties, etc.

5:30 pm - Dinner Reservations at Resort Restaurant/s

We will meet up for dinner at one of the resort's casual, but classy restaurants!  This event is not required (just in case you plan to bring your spouse and would prefer a romantic dinner!?), but we will be offering group reservations for dinner that will offer an incredible meal at reasonable prices! (We are teachers, ya' know!)  

7 pm - After Dinner Options

After dinner, attendees may go their own ways...or travel in groups via complimentary shuttle to any of the resort's entertainment hot spots!  Suggested group after dinner activities include visiting the West Baden Hotel's spectacular dome, where you can enjoy drinks at Ballard's Bar while watching the dome's colored light show, or visiting the French Lick Casino for some gaming fun! Other options include visiting the Xanadu Coffee & Creamery for dessert or gathering with new friends in one of the resort's grand lobbies to share blogging tips and tricks!

Sunday, March 23

9:30 am - Sunday Breakfast/Brunch

We will meet at the resort's famous breakfast buffet for our last gathering!  

Good food, good conversations, and goodbyes!

After brunch, you are free to explore the resort or head home, 

re-energized to be the best teacher-blogger you can be! 

These incredible companies/organizations recognize 

YOUR hard work and dedication to children... 

And want to support you in all you do.   

Look forward to some WONDERFUL give-away prizes!

AND  MORE!!!

Click HERE to "pre-register" and receive more 

information about the meet-up!

After you submit your information, I will send you an email with complete details so you can finalize your registration!

For more information about the beautiful 

French Lick Resort itself,

click HERE!

Looking for a FUN and ENGAGING way to teach about VERBS?

We are responsible for introducing the basic parts of speech to our kinder-kiddos... and I always have struggled with how to make nouns, verbs and adjectives meaningful.   Recently, I was searching for resources to help make teaching verbs more engaging... and a FaceBook teacher-friend referred me to Kathy Griffin.  Friends... Kathy had created exactly what I had been searching for!!  Songs, videos and interactive activities to teach your kiddos (k-2) about verbs in a way that they will "get!"  If you teach verbs... you MUST check out her resources!!!  Here is a little information about Kathy's resources....

ENGAGE your students and KEEP their attention by using multimedia to teach!

Do you need a fun way to teach verbs to your students? How about giving them a brain break and letting them act out the verbs to this multimedia file? Your students will be marching, jumping, hopping, and laughing as they learn about verbs. And since learning verbs and their shades of meaning are important parts of the Common Core and Language, you can build their knowledge of what a verb is by "doing" them. 

This is just ONE of her amazing VERB resources...

Common Core Verbs Show Action 

Mini Video Fun

(for the Smart Board, Interactive Whiteboard, Digital Projector, or Computer)

CLICK ON ABOVE IMAGE FOR TPT LINK, which has a video preview!!!

      

Includes:
1. Common Core Alignment for K-2nd Grade ELA Lanugage
2. mp3 Version of the Song “Verbs Show Action”
3. 27 “Build a Sentence” Cards & Directions
4. 2 Differentiated “Build a Sentence” Recording Sheet
5. 2 Differentiated “Change the Word Ending” Recording Sheets
6. 27 I Have Who Has Cards & Directions
7. “If You’re a Verb and You Know It” Song Book
8. 27 Action Verb Poster Cards & Directions
9. Verbs Show Action Big Book or 8 1⁄2 x 11 Book
10. Student Action Verb Sheet

Verbs covered in this song:
walk, jump, twist, dance, turn, ride, clap, hop, blink, stomp, laugh, wave, sing, kick, run, snap, cross, spin, twist, sit, and cheer

"Is it Common Core aligned?" you ask..... OF COURSE!!! (See below)

KINDERGARTEN
ELA-Literacy.L.K.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
ELA-Literacy.L.K.1b Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
ELA-Literacy.L.K.4b Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word.
ELA-Literacy.L.K.5b Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites (antonyms).
ELA-Literacy.L.K.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.

1st GRADE
ELA-Literacy.L.1.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
ELA-Literacy.L.1.1c Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; We hop).
ELA-Literacy.L.1.1e Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future (e.g., Yesterday I walked home; Today I walk home; Tomorrow I will walk home).
ELA-Literacy.L.1.4c Identify frequently occurring root words (e.g., look) and their inflectional forms (e.g., looks, looked, looking).
ELA-Literacy.L.1.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings.

2nd GRADE
ELA-Literacy.L.2.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
ELA-Literacy.L.2.1d Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
ELA-Literacy.L.2.1f Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The boy watched the movie; The little boy watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy).
ELA-Literacy.L.2.4b Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell).
ELA-Literacy.L.2.5b Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g.,toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny).

Visit Kathy's blog for an awesome video preview file:

http://kathygriffinteach.blogspot.com

Here are a few more of her VERB resources:

  

And friends.... she has MANY, MANY more resources that are super engaging that you need to check out!   Take a minute to check out her TPT store (HERE)!  

...And if you are going to Vegas for SDE's "I Teach K" or "I Teach 1st"...

Check out one of her many sessions!   :)

Celebrating Presidents' Day!

** NOTE: This is a "Throw Back Thursday" of my own variety!  :)  With Presidents' Day around the corner, I thought you may be looking for some ideas to use in the classroom... so I'm "re-posting" my Presidents' Day post from last year!  Hope you find an idea you can use!

If you haven't figured it out already...you certainly will come to the realization after this post that sometimes things can get a bit crazy in our kinder-classroom!  Today's "Fun-Friday" theme was Presidents' Day....so what better way to "celebrate" (a.k.a. secretly TEACH) than to invite George Washington and Abe Lincoln themselves into the classroom!

(My educational "partner in crime," Mrs. Kidd, and I LOVE to dress up in character costumes to bring learning to life! Look at Abe's serious face!)  

 

We began our "Fun Friday" afternoon activities by having our awesome Friday "Mom" volunteer read Celebrating Presidents' Day by Anne Rockwell.  After the reading, the students were surprised by a knock at the door....

And the entrance of George and Abe themselves!  After a bit of small talk, George and Abe broke into an awesome Presidents' Day rap song and dance! (Shout out to HarryKindergarten on YouTube for the great President's Day song and video!) 

Click below to see us in action!  
It's good for a few laughs at the very least!!!

   

Next, George shared some facts about his life...his accomplishments, jobs, life stories (yes.. I included the "cherry tree incident")...and even threw in a "plug" for dental health month by sharing the secret fact that he didn't take care of his teeth as a child and how he ended up with hippopotamus false teeth!  (The kiddos will NEVER "forget" to brush their teeth again! Ha!)  George was sure to point out SEVERAL reasons why many people refer to him as the "greatest president ever!"

Next came Abe, serious and stoic... sharing facts of his life and the things he did as our president.   (I think the kids actually understood the Emancipation Proclamation by the time "he" was done!?) Abe argued why HE is often seen as the "greatest president ever!"

Finally... after a classroom debate, it was decided that BOTH George AND Abe were great presidents!

Next came George and Abe art! 

(I just created some basic shape templates for this project. Most pieces were pre-cut.  The project was a nice, basic follow-the-directions step-by-stepper!  If you would like the shape templates, post a comment and I will send them to you!)

  

Followed by a reading of Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire! by Diana DeGroat . 

We concluded the day with a "gift" from Abe ... a Presidents' Day book to add to students' familiar reading book boxes.  (Abe had shared his deep LOVE of reading with the kiddos earlier and that one of the "greatest gifts" one could receive is a book!)

    

(Click on the pics above to go to Lil' Country Kindergarten's TPT store and find the book!)

How do you celebrate Presidents' Day? 

Share with us!

It's THROW-BACK-THURSDAY... Penguin Style!

I'm linking up with Primary Possibilities for a new Throw Back Thursday linky! 

Our freezing cold temperatures have been the perfect backdrop for all of our polar animal studies these past few weeks... 

So I thought, why not "re-share" some of my polar penguin resources!

So here ya' go.... "Flashin' back" to last year's penguin post.....  GO!

************************************************************************

Happy Friday!  Boy, do I mean that! 

This week seemed incredibly L----O----N----G.   On top of that...my little kinder-cherubs were unsusually "spirited" today.  (I'm sure you know what I mean!)  I'm telling you... I came home, sat down for "a second" (which I sincerely RARELY do).... and 15 minutes later found myself WAKING UP to a ringing phone!  Ugh!  I am one tired bunny tonight!  However, before I hit the sack... I wanted to take a minute to share some of today's "Fun Friday" events with you!   Today's "Fun Friday" theme was PENGUINS.   Gotta love those waddle-y little guys! 

If you do a penguin themed study in your classroom, you HAVE to show this little video to your kiddos.  It's CHOCK-FULL of great information about penguins.  Super engaging for little ones... and incredibly cute!  (Oh and it's only a few minutes long so it holds their attention well!) 

CHECK. IT. OUT.

Also... I needed a "math enrichment" activity so I whipped up this little gem.   If you think you may be able to use this in your classroom, check out the preview.  It's a peek at the full file.  

Click on the image to go to my TPT store!

I began the afternoon with a "schema" chart.   I made a chart on a large piece of chart paper.  (Yep!  I forgot to take a picture of it...so I re-created it with a drawing below.) 

1. We charted what we already knew.... "Schema."   We discussed how it's fun to use fancy-grown up words sometimes since we are SO smart!   We wrote our schema ideas on post-it notes.  (You will see why in a moment!)

2. We read a non-fiction, fact filled penguin book.

3. We watched the penguin video from by post below.  (It's a GREAT one!)

4.  We charted "NEW LEARNING" and moved any post-it notes with incorrect facts to the "OOPS!" or "Misconception" area.

5.  We made these SUPER-CUTE and EASY-PEASY penguins in a step by step format.  Gotta love how they all have their own "personalities!"  (We ONLY made the penguins themselves on Friday.   On Tuesday during Writer's Workshop we will re-read our schema-chart and write our own non-fiction stories.   This picture is from last year so you can see the finished project!)  This writing idea came from the wonderfully talented Deanna Jump originally!  I changed it a bit...but if you are looking for additional penguin activities, check out her TPT store!

 

6. After our penguin art activity, we had a penguin snack!  Yum!   We made OCEAN ICEBERG FLOATS (blue Hawaiian Punch with scoops of vanilla ice cream) and Goldfish crackers.   Did I mention that we put the Goldfish crackers on a napkin and the kiddos had to eat them like penguins....with no hands or fingers!   Take a peek!



  

7. We ended the afternoon with a Penguin Egg Relay Race!   We plopped a penguin egg on our feet and did a relay race in the gym.  The kiddos had to pass the egg to their teammates. It didn't take long for the kiddos to realize what a tough job it is to be a penguin parent!

That was it for our "Fun Friday!"    Do you do a penguin unit??   If so, please leave a comment and share what YOU do!  Sharing ideas is the BEST!!!

 ***************************************************************************************

Hope you enjoyed the TBT post!  Check out the other TBT 

posts over at....

It's a SUPER BOWL SALE!

Check out my TPT store today to take advantage 

this 20 % off sale!  
(Click HERE to shop now!)

Dozens of my friends are joining in the "SALE" too!  ALL of their store links are posted over at....

Have fun shopping while the BIG game is on!