Who I Am

So, this post isn't for everyone. It's actually for one. One person who has chosen to remain anonymous. One person who doesn't know who I am at all, based on what they've said about me. It isn't a person I work with and it isn't a parent from my school...just a random person. To that person let me give you some insight to who I am and what I know to be true.


I have been working with children in a teaching capacity since January 1994. I graduated high school early and began working at a Pre-School immediately. I teach because it is a part of who I am. I have a love for teaching AND learning. Some people go into teaching because they think the kids are cute, they have good lessons, or for a number of reasons that just seem wrong to me. I teach because I know in my heart of hearts that I can help my students achieve goals in fun ways. The lessons are not nearly as important as the outcome...


I am extremely hard on myself within my classroom. I am constantly reflecting on what I can do better for my students. My students are my priority. My lessons, my materials, and all the other things that go with it are important too; however, my students learning the things I want them to learn is above all else the most important. This has always been my priority since 1994. I self describe myself as a bit OCD in my classroom. I am focused on my students being successful and enjoying Kindergarten, if this is a fault...I am willing to live with it. I really don't know of any good teachers who are not OCD in some ways in their classroom. We are striving for success, we have an abundance of paper work to stay on top of, we aim to be experts in everything that impacts our classroom, we are constantly seeking new ways to teach, we are always looking for the most engaging lessons...the list goes on and on, or at least it does for the good teachers.


In regard to fellow teachers, I will do virtually anything I can to help them. I love to create and share with others. I seek help from other teachers, as well. If I have a concern of any kind, I utilize people around me. Good teachers use people and resources to help themselves. I will be completely honest, individuals that do nothing to help themselves or to improve their craft...I lose patience with. Is this a fault, perhaps; however, it takes a lot for me to lose my patience. I am not perfect. I am human. I make mistakes, but I try my very hardest to learn from my mistakes and not make them over and over.


So, if you still think of me as a teacher who isn't very good or one that you would not want your child to have, then so be it. I know who I am, my administrators and co-workers know who I am and what I can do, and my students and their parents know what type of teacher I am...no matter what you think you know just based on reading or perhaps, your other reliable sources of information.


For those of you who are anxiously awaiting my Fall post...it will be up sometime within the next week or so. It has LOTS of goods and will be worth the wait. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!


Shannon

Eat, drink, and be ScArY....

OH MY GRAVY...this girl is t.i.r.e.d. Unfortunately, I can't seem to sleep. I pray that I am not being to cranky with my little loves! I really try to stay focused on our goals and keeping positive. I can't complain because I adore my class and I am in LOVE with my little miracle, who by the way spends about 75% of the entire day doing Kung Fu. I have to share some pictures of how I celebrated Columbus Day...

That my friends, is the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I am unbelievably in awe and blessed. You have just peeked at my little boy!!!!


On to some school stuff...
I have some answers to recently posed questions...


How do I fit in all the extras with all the curriculum?
* I will be completely honest, I don't fit in all the extras all the time. The activities that are in color are usually taught during our Morning Meeting and then added to a tub for work center time. During work centers, the group that gets the tub can choose the activities they want to complete. The worksheets always supplement things that we are doing in class. Now that all being said...I really try to stay organized and try to utilize every moment of the day; however, sometimes we simply run out of time.


* Fall Activities are coming!


* Most of my clipart and all of my fonts are from DJ Inkers. I can't even tell you which ones are the best because I truly LOVE them all. I am the biggest Clipart junkie...eVeR. I have an addiction. Some of it is from some old Carson Dellosa clipart CD's.


"You kept me up all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin, and all that came was a beagle. I didn't get a chance to go out for tricks or treats."


I know Halloween is a touchy time of year. Many schools do not allow Halloween activities; however, I am not at one of those schools, so I do enjoy Halloween activities. This is the first year in a while that all of my students enjoy Halloween festivities...I will be taking full advantage of this! I, as always, am thankful for those of you who leave me kind words. I truly appreciate it. I hope you find something that you can use. I didn't include descriptions, mainly because I am just too tired to think, lol. I think everything is pretty self explanatory. If you need something specific answered, just shoot me an email smorss99@gmail.com.


Enjoy!
Shannon


Books We Love
      


Literacy Goods
Trick or Treat Beginning Sound Sort

Halloween Syllable Sort

Spooky Syllables

Witch and Cauldron Upper to Lower Case Match

The Ghosts

Witch to Hat Rhyming Match

Roll Say Keep Halloween Edition



Math Goods
Spin & Graph Spooky Bat vs. Black Cat

Number Matching Cards Moons and Bats

Patterning Practice Cards

Creepy Patterns

I Have Who Has Halloween Edition

Spooky Sorting Marshmallows)

They Do the Mash...

Oh my goodness, I don't think I've been more tired than I feel around 2PM, no kidding! I am not a good sleeper and I never nap...and the 3rd trimester is here :-)


In other news, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new Kinder-Hoppers!!! As of tomorrow, I have 22 little smiling faces and they couldn't be any cuter or lovable. I will be honest though, having a student teacher is quite challenging for me. First, I am a girl on the go, almost always at full throttle....I am perfect for the five and six year old crowd (so I am finding it somewhat difficult to just sit and watch) and secondly, I am a bit of a control freak (I like my classroom to be organized a certain way and I obsessed with making sure my students get what they need academically). I am learning a lot and hopefully growing in the process. I am finding some time to create more, but my pregnancy brain is creating a bit of a creativity block. So....are y'all ready for this....I am working on Halloween and Fall activities right now and I am taking requests. I won't guarantee that all ideas will be created, but I will definitely try my best. Just email me a description and whether it should be an in color center/whole group activity or a black and white printable.


On to the goods! We do a mini monster unit in October. I don't have a ton of stuff for it, but what I have...I offer to you. I hope there are things that you can utilize in your classroom, and I truly hope to inspire you to share your creativity and materials with others! Show some love if you download....comments can be left at the bottom of any post if you have a google/gmail account (for those of you who keep emailing me) :-)


Enjoy!!
Shannon


All documents contain fonts that are copyright DJ Inkers. Virtually all documents contain graphics that are copyright DJ Inkers. They are used with permission. Please visit http://www.djinkers.com/, for wonderful clipart and fonts.


Books We Love
      


Literacy Goods (sorry there just isn't much!)
ABC Monsters is a printable that has students practicing writing lower case letters alphabetically.
ABC Monsters


The Monster Sounds Go Fish is in order for those Jolly Phonics users out there! They don't have to be used for Go Fish of course.
Monster Sounds Go Fish


A printable. Students print the missing sounds in the appropriate box. The second page is for your little over-achievers!
Monster Middles (Beginning Sounds)


A little book to help with color word recognition, tracking print, and basic sight words.
See the Monsters Little Book


Math Goods
The sequencing cards are great for whole group, small group, and center instruction time.
Monster Number Sequencing Center Cards 1-20


These cards are the printable after using the cards above. Students color, cut, and glue the numbers in order on a sentence strip. I have all the way to 20 even though it says 12 to help differentiate.
Monster Number Sequencing 1-12


Number cards for matching.
Monster Number Memory Game


A center or whole group activity. Print out on cardstock and laminate for durability. Students find the hat match for each monster....that's right, in my world, monsters should be wearing hats.
Monster Number Matching


I love doing this graph! It always comes out the same, almost all the boys say they aren't afraid, but after discussing it more thoroughly...in the end, they fess up...super cute!
Are You Afraid of Monsters Graph


We also make some super cute Big, Green Monsters. We discuss symmetry. Students get an 11x18 sheet of black construction paper and we fold it in half (I let students choose whether they want to fold it vertically or horizontally), then we put green paint down the center of the fold. We re-fold it and press it down. Let it dry and then we use these pieces to create our monsters...http://www.kizclub.com/storypatterns/monster.pdf

A kooky little song to go with If You're a Monster and You Know It... http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/book.jsp?id=1312582

Spiders....the cute kind

I loathe spiders! I know, I know...if it weren't for spiders the Earth would be taken over by mosquitoes, well, that just doesn't change anything for me. The only thing worse than a big hairy spider for me is a centipede, super fast, waaaay too many legs and I'm fairly certain that when I try to kill one and I miss, it runs and gets its' posse of centipedes to haunt me. I digress. I do what I consider to be a mini unit on Spiders the first week of October. I wish it could be longer, but there are just too many fun and amazing things to do in October, plus the landscaping in the front of our building is usually full of cool spider webs and creepies at the beginning of the month.

Teaching my little Hoppers about Spiders is always fun. #1- other than the handful of non-fiction books, the rest are so darn cute! #2- The projects, books, and worksheets we complete are all pretty cute, as well. #3- I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching my cuties get so excited as they sing There's a Spider on the Floor or do The Itsy Bitsy Spider gently on each others backs. I like the cute aspects, as you can see.

As always, I greatly appreciate everyone's kind words and emails! I LOVE my followers and readers! I hope you can find something here to use. Leave a comment if you download, por favor.

Enjoy!
Shannon

All documents contain fonts that are copyright DJ Inkers. Virtually all documents contain graphics that are copyright DJ Inkers. They are used with permission. Please visit http://www.djinkers.com/, for wonderful clipart and fonts.

Books We Love

   

The Literacy Goods

These ABC Spiders can be used as a whole group to practice recognition or to put in order or of course, you certainly could use them as a center. I print them to cardstock and laminate them and velcro to the back so they can be used on the flannel board.
ABC Order Spiders

Beginning sound match ups to use more of your ink ;-). Cute center or whole group activity. I tried to coordinate it with the first set of Jolly Phonics sounds.
Spiders to Web Beginning Sounds


Worksheet to correspond with above activity. A good assessment for the second set of Jolly sounds.
Beginning Sounds Spider Match Up


I love this little book! I have a similar one in my Insect unit. Each student will need one copy of the book and one strip of spiders (5) to glue on each page. Great for positional words!
Little Spider Crawls Little Book (Positional Words)


These cards I copy on cardstock and laminate. I will make a few sets so that each one of my table groups can play at the same time.
Spider Sight Word Memory


It's usually around October that my Kinder-Hoppers fall in love with sight word finds. I create a table to make the actual word find and use words that correlate to our curriculum, but it is fairly easy to create. Now go open up PowerPoint and create a table word find of your own. Play around with it, your kids will love 'em!
Spider Sight Word Find


The template to this book is just like the one for Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Copy the title page and the last page on to white cardstock. The remaining pages are just copied on regular paper, sequenced, and then stapled to the bottom of the title page. The web page is then stapled behind the title page. Easy Breezy!
The Very Busy Spider


The Math Goods


I can't wait to use this! I am going to give each student a copy and then let them use stamp pads and their fingers to create the spiders for each page! After they have the spiders on the web, they will use black markers or colored pencils to give their spider legs and eyes. Great for reading and counting!
Counting Spiders Little Book



Simple worksheet to practice writing numbers 1-20. One number goes in each circle. It never fails that no matter how many times we practice writing our numbers, so many students will need additional practice ALL the time!
Spider Numbers 1-20


Simple graph to copy, cut, and glue to poster board. Have it laminated. Give each student a spider square, have them write their name on the dotted line, color, and cut. Sticky Tac it to the graph and go over the results. I love seeing how all the boys usually say they like spiders and then we get outside and about half the boys shriek when they see the spiders all over the landscaping in front of our school! Cracks me up every year!
Spider Graph


A graphing worksheet.
Spinning Spiders Graphing Worksheet


Lastly, the every popular I have/Who Has game for numbers 1-24...sorry for all the ink you will use! Print to cardstock and laminate...it will last you a long time!
I Have Who Has Spider Edition Numbers 0-24


For Fun
You must, must, must use the Raffi song Spider on the Floor! I bought these cheap wiggly spiders at Target last October, and I give one to each student to use while we do the song. I LOVE watching them and hearing them giggle as we approach the end of the song!


We also sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, part of our Poetry Journals...after we learn it, students pair up and gently do the song on their partners back. So cute!!! Great for teaching how to gently touch!


Misc.
We use to make these spider headbands, but alas, our curriculum is too full now and doesn't afford us the time to do such projects! Pic taken from the old Little Giraffes website (how great was that site, Mrs. Flanagan...where are you?)



We also make these webs for fine motor development. The pic was from Little Giraffes. We make them using black paper plates, white yarn, and then a little orange or purple spider ring to hang from it. Just make small slits in the plate and have them weave the yarn back and forth through the slits. Tape the end down. Add the ring for the full effect :-)



A teacher on my team always does this, so I have no idea where the original idea came from. Anyway, I make a copy of this house on cardstock and have the kiddos color it. I give them a bendy straw and a spider ring. Tape the bottom of the straw onto the side of the house, so it's like a gutter. Put the ring on the straw and then tape the top down. Now the spider can travel up and down without getting lost.


The Itsy Bitsy Spider

A Little of this and a Whole Lotta That!

YOWZA, This was a CrAzY busy week! The first week back is always hectic and normally, I relish in it; however, it has just been exhausting. I found out on Tuesday that I would have my first student teacher. Believe me, I am so excited to be cooperating teacher. My student teaching experience was...well, let's just describe it as less than ideal. So, I am excited to be able to share, share, share!!! By Friday, I realized that hosting a student teacher is a positive and rewarding experience and it's also work, lol. The week felt longer because HOLY hot! Our school is not air conditioned AND the best part...my classroom has 4 windows total that face a courtyard! I'm feeling HOT, HOT, HOT!!!


What has truly impacted my temperature and exhaustion level is.....wait for it....I am pregnant! For anyone who has read my blog from the beginning you know that having a family has been something I have wanted for a looooong time. We have been trying for three years and experienced a heartbreaking loss last September. We used fertility drugs and underwent to fertility treatments (IUI). We found out in April that it had worked! While we were incredibly excited, we were very scared! We waited until I was 23 weeks to even announce it. I have been scared to even let the parents of my kiddos know because they just met me and have no idea that I will do EVERYTHING in my power to ensure the great Kindergarten experience that their child deserves. I owe so many of you many thanks for all the emails and prayers over the last months. You all have been an incredible support to me!


Now on to some school stuff...I have meant to take pictures of my room and bulletin boards, but atlas, I didn't! I thought I would upload a few documents that I use for anyone who wants to see.


Hope there is something that you can use! Have a wonderful week! Don't forget to leave some love if you download!
Shannon


All documents contain fonts that are copyright DJ Inkers. Virtually all documents contain graphics that are copyright DJ Inkers. They are used with permission. Please visit http://www.djinkers.com/, for wonderful clipart and fonts.


Here is the newsletter format I use, I create it in PowerPoint because I am a P.P. junkie!
August 29 2011


Here are my lesson plans for the week of August 29. It's not quite in the normal format because we don't have all our specials yet, all components of the curriculum don't start yet, and because I don't start teaching centers for a little bit...I like to give my new kids time to adjust to the hectic pace of Kindergarten. This is one of the few things I do in Word. It looks fancy, but it's just tables. I split and merge cells, just takes practice!
Week of August 29 - September 2


Here is my crazy pacing guide for the year. I print it out on 11x17 paper and use it as my desk calendar, which is actually always covered in piles! Again, created in PowerPoint. You can see that all my poems aren't on it yet...that's because our theme order changes based on field trips and special events that aren't always in my control.
My 2011-2012 Pacing Guide


Here is the Language Arts Assessment that I use.
My Language Arts Assessment Chart


Two little Pete the Cat Goodies for you...
The first is a little book that is a bit goofy...before you send me emails that say "Pete's shoes wouldn't turn yellow if he walked in bananas"...I know this. The book is to help teach colors and is fun!
Pete Loves Colors Book


The second upload is an idea from Leslie Bjelde! Leslie has been so generous in sharing materials with me! This is a school tour book. I needed to save on colored ink, so I had to make my own version. The first and last pages are copied on white card stock. The rest of the pages are copied on colored cardstock that corresponds with the color of shoe that Pete lost. I copy the large shoes on colored cardstock, as well.
Pete the Cat School Tour Book

Coming Soon...Spider Unit!

Poetry Journals: Making them Matter (November Edition)

Before the Poetry Journal post...

• You can find how I introduce Poetry Journals here...http://kinder-pond.blogspot.com/2011/07/poetry-journals-making-them-matter_07.html
• Yes, I will be posting December...soon.
• I will be creating a post on activities that we do later on in the school year with our Poetry Journals at some point.
• I will not be creating a Teachers Pay Teachers account. Read previous posts and you will soon realize I just don't believe in charging for materials. Would I enjoy the extra supplement to my income, sure...but it's not going to happen.
• Scribd goes slow. It's free. A cross you must be willing to bare.
• I will not change my documents for you to different formats nor will I email them to you. I don't mean to sound wenchy...it's just a fact.

Now with the post :-)
November is a CrAzY month for us in our district! The kiddos are off for the entire week of Thanksgiving. We have Parent/Teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday, then we are off the rest of the week. I LOVE it!!!

With that being said, what you will find with this edition is not much, lol. The first week of November/the last week of October we learn about Fall (I am going to repost Gray Squirrel because that is the poem we do). The two weeks that follow are a combination of Turkeys and Thanksgiving. The week of Thanksgiving we are off, so there isn't a poem. The final week of November/first week of December we do our Gingerbread unit. Sorry for any confusion this may cause!

As always, I hope you find things that you can use in your own classroom, and I hope to inspire you to share with your fellow teachers! Leave a comment if you download :)

Enjoy!
Shannon

All documents contain fonts that are copyright DJ Inkers. Virtually all documents contain graphics that are copyright DJ Inkers. They are used with permission. Please visit http://www.djinkers.com/, for wonderful clipart and fonts.

All of my Poetry Journals can now be found on TPT, as well.


Gray Squirrel


Gray Squirrel

A Turkey Is

A Turkey Is

Thank You

Thank You

Four Gingerbread Men

Four Gingerbread Men

Sorry no picture of the poster. I forgot to take it, maybe I will remember at some point to take it!