Our theme for the past few weeks has been community helpers.  We have been learning about different jobs in the community and what they use to do their jobs.  During center time, I had my students decide what job they would like to have and draw a picture of them doing that job. Here are a couple of my favorites.  :)

Teacher

This is probably my absolute favorite.  He said he wanted to be a "cleaner owner."  Notice the vacuum?  I head this same boy tell his friends one day "I have a vacuum, a real one."  Love it!

Want a copy of the "My Future Job" page?  Click here for your copy.  {Border by Scrappin Doodles and font by KG Fonts}


We also worked on building and drawing 2D shapes this week.  I gave each student a baggie with six popsicle sticks and a small piece of yarn.  I named a 2D shape and the students had to decide how many sticks they needed to make that the shape.  The easiest ones were the square, triangle, and circle (with the yarn, of course).  The hexagon and rectangle were a little trickier, but they got it.  :)


We also completed I Am... A Book About Plane Shapes. { This is part of my 2D and 3D Shapes unit that you may have gotten as a freebie from my Facebook Page a few months ago.}  I had to help a few students draw a hexagon, but they did a great job drawing the other shapes.  After we drew the shapes, we labeled the edges and vertices.  I was so proud of how well they did completing this book!




This is what happens when you have a paper plate with glitter on it on top of a cabinet, you open your classroom door to the playground, and there is a large gust of wind.  Suffice to say, I apologized to the custodian about all the glitter on the floor.  She was so sweet and told me it was ok.  Thank goodness - one thing I remember from my education classes was to always stay on the good side of your school's custodian. ;)  {My husband was appalled by this picture.  It may be because we had a similar, um, incident at our house when my son did a little glittering without supervision.  This happened a few years ago, but I still haven't lived it down.  lol}



Thanks for sticking with me!  I hope to share some more pictures this weekend about we have been up to the past few months.  See you then!

Remember this teaser from the other day?

Happy Friday! I am so excited to link up again with Doodle Bugs for a good old fashioned Five for Friday!






We started our Daily 5 this week.  This is where my students pick their Daily 5 choice by placing their picture next to a number.  As they finish one choice, they move their picture to their next choice.  It is a big change from what we have done previously, but I'm confident that we can get this down in no time at all!  I hope to soon show you how my classroom is set up now for our new adventure.



I received my 10 year pin this week from my school district.  If by any chance you teach in the same district, you know that this means I'm actually in my 12th year of teaching here. {Everyone gets their pins a year to two late.  lol}



I leave you with a funny.  The other day my son picked these books to read before bed.  Of course as he brought me them,  he started snickering!  {Love his sense of humor!}  Sadly, this is not the first time that Colton has brought me two copies of the same book from his bookcase.  I really should check before I buy him books.  lol

Have a great weekend!

Hi!  Remember me?  I'm the blogger who said that one goal for 2014 was to blog at least once a week.  Apparently, I am bad at goals.  haha

Some of that yuckiness that I spoke about at the end of December followed me into 2014.  However, things have really been looking up this past week! So excited about all the good that is going on! 

I will be back tomorrow with Five for Friday.  I leave you with a picture that I will talk more about this weekend.  Have a super Friday!

Did you know that when you deactivate your personal Facebook account it also deactivates any fan pages you have made?  Yep - it does.  I deactivated my personal FB account a few months ago and didn't think much of my blog page I made.  I know I should have, but with all the yucky stuff that was going on I didn't.

Yesterday, I decided to post something on my blog page.  I couldn't get on it.  Oops!  Well, I got everything all figured out last night and decided to add a freebie to my page.  Head over to the Teaching is Sweet Facebook page, become a fan, and a great freebie will be waiting for you.  {Hint:  It's my best selling item on TpT and will only be up for a few days.}

As 2013 comes to an end, I want to thank you for sticking with me!  I know I havent' been the best blogger out there, but I am going to try harder in the new year.  Have a fun and safe New Year!

My class and I had so much fun working on verbs in November.  {Yes, November. Remember that I have been a tad absent in my blogging?}

We started out our unit on verbs by singing this groovy song by Have Fun Teaching.  It was great to get the students up and moving.  {Warning:  This song will get stuck in your head and your significant other may look at you strangely when you start singing "A verb is a word.  It's an action word."}


Funny side story - I was being observed on my use of Kagan strategies and this was my little intro to my lesson. See where this was going?  Yep, for some reason right at that moment was when Youtube decided to stop working on my classroom computer. Going with the punches, I had the students sit down to start our strategy.  No sooner had they sat down, the video started playing again.  So we got up and started singing and dancing.  I am so glad my Instructional Coach had a great sense of humor and enjoyed the song.  {She was dancing along with us!}

We also did another activity that got my Kinders up and moving.  I call it The Verb Can.  Original, I know.  Don't be jealous of my creativity.  haha

Anyway, I had different verbs written on slips of paper in an empty can.  I would pull a piece of paper out and my Kinders would act it out.  The students had so much fun!  When they would start to giggle, I would say "The verb wasn't giggle" and that would make them giggle even more.  We had such a great time!

I had a little time this morning and I decided to cutesy it up a bit.  {I have to say it was great getting back into the designing mood.  It's been a while. :) }

I can't wait to take it to school and show it to my Kinders.  They will love the updated version!


If you would like to have your students giggling up a storm while practicing verbs, you can get your copy {here}.  I have it discounted right now for 20% off.


I would love to give away a few copies of The Verb Can to my followers.  The first three followers that comment and leave their email address will get a free copy.

What fun activities do you do in your classroom to practice verbs?

I saw this fun linky around blogland and thought it was just what I needed to get the year over with finish off my year.  See, I have had a kind of yucky year and am impatiently waiting for the new year to begin.  {I won't go into all the yuckiness here, but I will say it has nothing to do with my class or husband/son.  Those two (3?) things have actually been the best things going this year.}  Anyway, no one came here to listen to me whine.  On with the show blog post.  Thanks to Hadar, Traci, and Kristin for hosting this linky!


13.  Favorite piece of clothing
Last Christmas, my mother-in-law bought me a sweater to wear over my shirts at work.  My classroom gets cool sometimes so I have always had a long sleeved shirt at school to wear.  This sweater looks so much nicer.  I have to confess.  I also wear it at home and in the car when we go on trips {my hubby likes to keep the car/house cool}.  I may be wearing it right now.  ;)

I am wearing it here.  Love it!

12.  Favorite Movie You Watched
My favorite movie that I saw in the movie theater was Frozen.  We took our son to see this movie earlier this month, and I absolutely loved it!


My favorite movie that I watched at home on Netflix was The King's Speech.  I thought it was such a good movie. {I may have to watch it again soon!}


11.  Favorite TV Series
Unfortunately, I don't have just one favorite.  My favorites are How I Met Your Mother, NCIS Los Angeles, and Blue Bloods.  I also enjoy Two Broke Girls, Elementary, Big Bang Theory, and Hawaii 5-0.  {I think I just realized why I've been neglecting my blog.  haha}

10.  Favorite Restaurant
Sadly, I no longer have a favorite restaurant.  I did yesterday, but not today.  We went to my fav restaurant today, and they changed their menu.  I had two entrees I liked and my husband had an entree he liked.  Guess what?  All three entrees were off the menu!  The waitress said they took a few items off the menu.  I guess the few items were the things we liked.  :(

I will have to answer this question now with my favorite fast food place - Cafe Rio.  I love the pork burrito and queso with chips.  Yum!

9.  Favorite New Thing You Tried
Kagan Strategies!  We had some inservice about Kagan Strategies in November.  I love using them in my classroom!  {I hope to write a blog post soon about this.}

8.  Favorite Gift You Got
I am going to have to break the rules again.  I have two favorite gifts, but they kind of go together.

I got my Silhouette Cameo as an early gift in November.  I haven't used it a lot, but I love it!  I also got a Cannon Selphy to print off pictures at home.  I can't wait to use these two new items to do a little scrapbooking!

7.  Favorite Thing you Pinned
I have two of these too.  {See a pattern here?}

I love quotes, and this one really spoke to me.


I laughed when I saw this one.  I showed it to my husband, and he didn't get it.  I guess it's a teacher thing.  :)


6.  Favorite Blog Post
It would probably have to be my post about how I set up my classroom tables.

5.  Best Accomplishment
I finally reached 200 followers on my blog this summer.  Thanks everyone!

4.  Favorite Picture


I snapped this picture of my husband and son watching the fireworks at Disneyland from Disney's California Adventure.  Normally Colton has to have his headphones on when the fireworks are going off, but since we were in the other park, he was able to enjoy them without.  :)

3.  Favorite Memory
My favorite memory this past year was probably going back to Kansas last January to see my grandma.  She passed away in June, and I was so happy that I got to see her one last time.


2.  Goals for 2014
Personal:  Make time for myself to do what I enjoy.
Home:  Use my cleaning schedule and meal planning apps.  :)
Professional:  Teach with rigor and intention.  Continue to make learning fun for my students and for myself!
Blog:  Post at least once a week.

1.  One Little Word
Challenge - I am going to try to challenge myself in different ways this year in order to achieve my goals.  It's not always going to be pretty or fun, but I need to do this for myself.  :)

Thanks for reading my Thirteen in '13!