If you have been a follower for awhile, you may remember my summer project of organizing my classroom books.  If you are you new, you can see my past posts here, here, and here.


One section of my library contains my books that stay in my library throughout the whole year.  These containers contain alphabet books, math books, and school themed books.  Books about Clifford, Froggy, and Biscuit are also housed here as "whole year" books.


The other section of my library consists of my seasonal/theme books.  As each season/theme comes around, I switch out the books in this bookcase.  There is always a buzz throughout the classroom when new books appear.  My bookcase currently houses Valentine books and books about teeth.  {This bookcase also makes it convenient for me to grab a read aloud when it is story time.}


I love how my classroom library is working this year.  It is always new and refreshing for the students.  They love to visit the library and even go there during "play center" time.  It always makes me smile when I see them make that choice.  :)

Thank you for letting me share my new classroom library with you.  I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow with your students!

Welcome to my second installment of Math Monday!  I'm so proud of myself - two weeks in a row.  ;)

Today, I am going to be talking about comparing numbers.  We have been working hard on comparing numbers in our classroom.  The first thing we did was to make three anchor charts.  We spent one day on greater than, one day on less than, and one day on equal to.




After we made our charts, we played a friendly game of Compare {otherwise known as War}.  I gave each pair of students a deck of number cards.  Depending on the day, either the card with the greater number won or the number that was less won.  They were excited when they got a WILD card, because a WILD card always won!  If the cards were equal, each child got his/her own card back.  As I walked around the room, I could hear my Kinders talking about which card was greater than or less than.  Made my heart smile.  :)

Another activity that we do in our classroom is to play Squeeze.  We are currently playing our Valentine version.  To play Squeeze, I pick a number between 0 and 50.  Students take turns picking a number.  I then use the terminology "greater than" and "less than" to move either of the Valentine bears until the secret number is "squeezed" between the bears.


If you would like your own copy of Valentine Squeeze, please click on the picture below.

What are some of the ways that you practice comparing numbers in your classroom?

 

This post will be short and sweet.  :)

I wanted to share with you the Valentines that we are sending for my son this year.  To make the card, I used Google images to find an earth in the shape of a heart.  {I felt like I got bonus points when the one I liked the best looked like it had been colored with crayons.}  I then made a quick card using a DJ Inkers font that was a little cutesy.  {I'm sure my son is thrilled about the cutesy part. :)}  I then put the card on the front of a new box of crayons.  We are sending these in for both his self-contained class and his gen-ed class.  If you are still looking for a Valentine for your students, I think they would love this!  Who doesn't love a new box of crayons?  :)



Well, I must go.  It's time for Family Movie and Game Night!  See you tomorrow for my second installment of Math Monday!

I am linking up with The Polished Teacher in her very first linky party!


App:  My favorite app, by far, is Pinterest.  I got the app as soon as it was available for Android devices.  Whether I am looking for an idea for my classroom, or a little pick-me-up from the Humor section, I love going to Pinterest.

Yep - I'm a dork.  I took a screenshot when I got it. I was that excited.  lol

Book Character:  My favorite book character is Clifford.  I just love all of the adventures he goes on.  Plus I love that there is a book for nearly every holiday/activity.


Clip Art:  I love clip art from Scrappin Doodles, KPM Doodles, and My Cute Graphics.

Dollar Spot Find:  Um, all of them.  lol  Curently, I am loving the heart dice and all of the cute items that conversation hearts on them.

Essential to Start Day:  This is absolutely awful, but it is Diet Sunkist.  I don't drink coffee, but Diet Sunkist gets me going in the morning.

Font: I love so many fonts.  Probably the font I use the most is Architect's Daughter.

Game:  Scrabble - My husband is the king of Scrabble.  I have never beaten him, but I still enjoy trying.  :)

Holiday:  Christmas is my favorite holiday.  I love everything about it - making cookies, decorating the tree, seeing my son open his presents.

Ice Cream:  I like plain old vanilla ice cream {with caramel sauce}.

Jewelry Piece:  My wedding ring is my favorite piece of jewelry.  Close second, and third, are my engagement ring and the band I got when my son was born.

Kid-ism:  My favorite kid-ism goes way back to when I was student teaching.  One of little girls asked me if I was married.  I said no, and she replied "Doesn't anybody love you?"  I told her that my parents loved me.  lol

Location to Travel:  I loved the trip my husband and I took to Europe.  We traveled by car through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.  My favorite place in Italy was Asolo.  It was such a beautiful, and relaxing, place to finish up our trip.

This i the hotel that we stayed at in Asolo. Absolutely gorgeous.

Management Technique:  My favorite management technique is that I have a simple clap pattern to get my students' attention.  They know that when they hear this pattern that they must stop what they are doing and look at me.  I love that I don't have to raise my voice!

Nail Polish:  I don't wear nail polish.

Open House Idea:  I wish that I had some great idea, but we don't do much for open house at my school.

Pinterest Find:  I couldn't narrow it down to one, so I'm going to show you three of my favorites.  Two are funnies, and one is actually a teacher one.  {I could probably post all day about my favorites.  I was really proud of myself for narrowing it down to three.  lol}

Change this to 10 years and this is me. My husband always laughs at me when I use the wrong light switch.

My friend looked at me like I was crazy when I showed her this.

I think this is so cute!  I plan on doing this activity next year. :)

Quote:  Sometimes I forget to do this.  When I remember, it seems like my life gets back on track and everything is right in the world.  :)


Read Aloud:  I love reading The Littles and the A to Z Mysteries to my classes.  I loved reading about the Littles when I young and still enjoy reading them now.  I like the A to Z Mysteries to introduce mysteries to my Kinders.

School Supply:  What could be better than a brand new box of Crayola crayons?  Not much.  I just love the smell of new crayons.

TpT Product:  I love Katie Mense's Kindergarten Portfolio and Memory Book.  It was my first purchase on TpT.  :)

Un-Official Hobby:  When I get the chance, I love to scrapbook.  One would think with only one child I would be up to date on his scrapbooks.  Not me.  However, it is something that I enjoy doing when I do have a little free time.

Video Brain Break:  My students have enjoyed the HeidiSongs sight word videos.

Way to Spend a Day Off:  I love to spend time with my husband and son.  We take a lot of mini vacations when we have a three day weekend.  One of our favorites is Disneyland.

X-Stra Special Blogs You Love:  I love so many blogs, but these are probably my favorites.



Yummy Dessert:  Gelato - When we went to Europe, I loved eating gelato.  My favorite was from a place in Bellagio.  We were there for two days, and I had gelato four times.  Yes, it was that good.

I felt a little weird taking a picture of "my" gelato store, but I didn't want to forget it. lol

Zoo Animal:  I love giraffes!  Don't ask me why, because I'm not sure.  Just something about them that I love.  Here is a picture of me and Colton feeding a giraffe at the Phoenix Zoo a couple of years ago.


I had such a good time coming up with my A-Z favorites!  Thanks to The Polished Teacher for the fun linky!

I hope that everyone is having a great week!  This has been a fun week so far.  Monday, we had our 100th day of school, we finished up some 100 day activities, and today we talked about dental health.

I just wanted to take a few minutes to share some of my students' 100th day writing.  I loved seeing what they came up with for both sides.  :)




 I thought the funniest one was the last one.  I told her 100 boyfriends were way too many.  lol

I leave you with a picture one of my Kinders drew for me today during play centers.  I love how she sounded out rose.  {I also love that she spelled my last name correctly.  There are many, many adults who misspell it.  lol}

So you know that whole thing with time getting away from me?  I thought what a better way to make sure I write a blog post than if I have a plan.  What's that?  Me - plan?  Yes, that's what I said.  I have made a small plan to write about what my class is doing in math on Mondays.  {Look at that alliteration.}  Math has always been my favorite subject.  I was that kid in high school that loved Trig and Calculus.  So I thought this was the perfect plan.  I hope to share all that my Kinders are learning, as well as a freebie every now and then.

What a better day to start my new adventure than the 100th day of school.  We had so much fun today!  During calendar time, we counted to 100 by 1s, 10s, 5s. and 2s.  Today was the first day that we have counted by 2s, and boy were my students excited!  They talked about that off and on all day!

After calendar time, we went back to our tables to make our 100 day hats.  The students colored in the pictures, cut them out, and glued them in order by counting to 100 by 10s.




We then shared what we had brought in our quart sized bags.  We talked about how even though some bags were filled more each bag still contained 100 items.


I wish I could show you the great pictures at the end of the day when the Kinders had their hats and necklaces on.  So cute!

As usual, time got away from us and we didn't get to everything I had planned.  Tomorrow, we will be writing about what we would and would not like 100 of.  I know it's not exactly math, but if you would like a copy of my writing paper, click on the picture and download it for your files.  {The picture looks a little funky, but the PDF looks fine in Google Docs.}

Border by Scrappin Doodles

Thanks for stopping by for my very first Math Monday!  Have a great week!

Is your family a football family?  Ours is not, so we won't be watching the big game.  However, I will be doing some big shopping today.  Teachers Pay Teachers is having another huge sale!  My store is on sale for 20% off today and tomorrow.  Add SUPER to the promo code box {today only} for an extra 10% for a total of 28% off.

Thanks Ashley for the super cute picture!

Here are some things you might like in my store.

Presidential Squeeze 0-50 - This is a fun way to practice comparing numbers.


President's Day Math Activities -  This packet contains six different activities including addition and subtraction, counting by 10s, and identifying 3-D shapes.


Sweet Syllable Sort - This is a "sweet" way to practice identifying syllables.


3-D & 2-D Shapes Unit - This is my most popular unit on TpT.  It contains posters, games, and books to help students learn the 3-D and 2-D shapes.


Well, I am off to do a little shopping, a little laundry, and a little lesson planning before my son's 7 year well check. {Love living where the ped's office is open on Sundays!}  Happy shopping everyone!