Happy New Year!

The end of December already?!? Whaaaat? The entire month seemed to fly by! Some love from Mr. Coop, who by the way is TWO!!!! I can't believe it myself.

He's completely his own little person now. Full of strong opinions, a temper that completely throws me, and a funny personality! I LOVE being his "Mama" more than anything!

Things for me continue on the unexpected path. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is seriously no joke, but I'm trying essential oils and loads of prayer, lol. Life continues to improve, I promise! That little blue eyed bundle just keeps me beyond busy!

I just finished up an Emergent Reader Companion pack for Poetry Journals for the Primary Classroom, if you're interested. It took me forever and a day to get it together. There is a reader for each poem, the file itself is just over 250 pages :0)

Everything in my store is on sale through tomorrow. 

 

I wish you and yours the happiest of New Year's. Stay warm and safe tonight!

Shannon

Cyber Sale

Gotta go back to school tomorrow...boo, well kind of boo. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the month of December!!! I can't wait to do our Gingerbread Unit' it's probably my favorite. You can read all about our Gingerbread shenanigans here....http://kinder-pond.blogspot.com/2011/11/run-run-as-fast-as-you-can.html

We do some fun Holiday stuff. I can't wait to start Holidaying it up!http://kinder-pond.blogspot.com/search/label/Holidays

Saturday-Sick, Sunday-Sight Words

Ohmiword, this has been one of the worst weekends E.V.E.R!!!!

At 1AM on Saturday, Coop started coughing and the next thing I heard was vomitting. He choked on the ick he was coughing up. Nothing can wake you up like cleaning up a crying toddler and a crib can. The little guy was wide awake then. We read for an hour, that's right...my lil' guy who is near two will sit for an hour just listening to me read. I left his room and he refused to sleep. Around 2:30, I brought him into my bed for the first time since I brought him home from the hospital. He slept for an hour. I then woke to him "meowing" at my face, LOL. I proceded to sing every song I know for close to 45 minutes.

He choked and vomitted twice after that. Off to the doctor we went. On our way, I got the chills and a fever, ugh! He has a sinus infection. Fortunately, he is in fine spirits :0) On our way home, Coop started saying "uh oh" and the next thing I knew...vomit, E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

We're re-cooping. Today was a day of play, cuddles, songs, and lots of books...plus some wild weather here in the burbs of Chicago.

After finishing up my report cards, I decided to revamp my beginning sound sight word decoder puzzles. Originally, I had only made a handful, but my kiddos have always loved them! So, I remade them and included 38 sight words. Words that are included are: the, to, and, you, it, in, said, for, up, look, is, we, go, little, down, can, see, not, one, my, me, big, come, blue, red, where, jump, away, here, help, make, yellow, two, play, run, find, three, funny. Students take the laminated cards and use a dry erase marker to write the beginning sound of each picture. After writing each beginning sound, a sight word is revealed!

They're laminated and ready to go! Click the pic to purchase.

Here's hoping our week is less eventful than our weekend!
Shannon

Fall Fun and a little sale...

Hello Friends! Or as Coop says (in his deepest voice) HallOW!

Some Coop for your viewing pleasure....

Agnes and her minion

Onto school...
We use PBIS in our school. Our class can collectively earn "Willow Wildcat Certificates"...for every 20, I let my students vote on a party. And, let me tell you, allowing the students to choose whatever pops into their little Kindergarten brains is absolutely silly. I let them pick whatever they want. One year we had a beach day in December. I cranked up the heat and we all wore beach attire, some of them actually wore their bathing suits ALL day. It keeps me on my toes and inspires some creativity on my end.

Our first Wildcat party was a bear party. Too.cute.for.words! We started planning our day and then I took some things from my Bear Unit and our day was planned. One of my little Hoppers asked, "Is Jay Cutler coming to our party?" Ummmm, who? My assistant was dying, first because of the question, second because I had no clue who Jay Cutler was. Upon reflection, perhaps I should have know just based on the fact that he is married to Kristin Cavallari...but hey, I wasn't into The Hills or whatever MTV monstrosity she came from. I mean she's no Teresa Giudice, just sayin'.

I digress...our day included, wearing Chicago Bears colors/clothes, bringing a bear to school, bear snacks (Honeycombs, Goldfish Crackers, and apple juice), tasting and graphing our favorite teddy grahams, making a Bear class book...which is a.dor.able (I wish I had a pic), reading The Three Bears, doing Bear songs....just so much fun. It felt like Kindergarten, ya know when they learned without timing them on everything and expecting them to have first grade brains. Crazy thoughts, I know.

I took a ton of photos, but most of them have my little Hoppers in them and as you can see by picture number two...warping their faces is creepy. It makes me feel like there is the offset chance that someone may be climbing through my television set soon and nobody wants that.

My bear unit is full of some cuteness.

My lengthy description...

OVER 150 pages of FUN! This pack has some of everything, 14 literacy and math activities; including 2 emergent readers, 11 centers, a class book, Teddy Bear Picnic ideas, parent notes, a class graph, and a few whole class activities.

Click on the pic for TpT 

Other Fall Hoppenings...

I found this poem on Little Miss Hood's Adventures in Kindergarten (link to her site on the pic). We used it to start off our Fall Unit. Some of my little Hoppers guesses about what the poem was about was, let's just say interesting ;-)

We made these AWESOME leaves. My kiddos NEED, NEED, NEED all the fine motor help they can get! So, we practiced using stencils and did some labor intensive cutting, but then followed it up with fun sponge painting. I've been making these leaves forever and they always turn out beautiful. Pretty simple...take red, orange, yellow, green, and brown pain and put it on a paper plate (like blobs of paint all over it. Instruct the kids to press lightly into the paint and gently press up and down on their paper. It doesn't matter if the colors mix, as long as they don't go back and forth to paint.

My kids current addiction would have to be Tackle the Quarterback. It's a spin on the math game Bump and they beg for it!

Tackle the Quarterback is in my Fabulous Fall pack on TPT.

Both the Bear, Fall, and Thanksgiving units are on sale this week on TPT, be sure to check them out :)

Have a wonderful week!!!

Shannon

Spooktacular Hoppenings {A long overdue SALE}

WOW, I simply cannot thank you all enough for the emails and comments. You are so kind and just made me miss blogging even more! My newest creation is Spiders, Bats, and Spooky Cats...(link to TPT in the first pic). All things fall related are on sale now in my TPT store :)

There are a total of 14 activities included (7 literacy and 7 math), over 110 pages! Each activity is aligned with the Common Core.

Skills addressed include;

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1a Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1c Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3c Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to,you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1d Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2a Recognize and produce rhyming words.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2b Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

RF.K.1. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

RF.K.3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

RL.K.10. Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

RL.K.5. Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1d Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3a Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1a Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4a When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.5 Fluently add and subtract within 5.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.5 Count to answer “how many?” questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1–20, count out that many objects.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.NBT.A.1 Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each composition or decomposition by a drawing or equation (such as 18 = 10 + 8); understand that these numbers are composed of ten ones and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.

K.CC.6. Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.A.2 Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

K.MD.2. Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has “more of”/“less of” the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.MD.B.3 Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each category and sort the categories by count.¹

K.CC.2. Count forward beginning from a given number within the known sequence (instead of having to begin at 1).

I absolutely LOVE all things Halloween...unfortunately, this year I will be unable to participate because I have a couple of students who don't celebrate <enter sad emoticon here>. I will be able to use about half of this unit. Have no fear...I have a monster unit, an owl unit, as well as, a fall unit that can be used during the month of October.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Shannon

The Vanishing Act

Ohmiword, has it really been 6 months since I blogged?!? First and foremost...I have missed you all so, so, so much!!!

So, where have I been? Sick. That pretty much sums it all up. After my world collapsed back in May 2012, I began to try to rebuild it....toddler in tow and on my own. Tra-la-la, I'm going about things having ups and downs just like anyone else. Then from December through January, I kept battling recurring strep throat. From January-April, I would wake up with a fever, chills, and overall achiness several times a week. Doctor visit after doctor visit with no answers. By the end of April, most days I couldn't get out of bed.

I missed the last 7 weeks of school. Most days were without my little guy :( I will tell you my life was no fun at all. The beginning of the summer I started to recoop. Although every few days I would still wake up with a fever, chills, and body aches with extreme fatigue. It's no joke people....there are days that I sleep for hours on end. It's so bizarre, I've gone from a non-napper to life as a cat.

As the summer came to an end, my "episodes" were getting farther apart, almost 2 weeks apart! Then I went back to school, I'm back to challenging days in every week. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

Throughout all of this, I have tried to keep my head high while facing some serious life changers....loss of 13 year marriage, his infidelity (and some scary things that followed), the loss of a house, moving out on my own for the first time EVER, and the realization that things can fall apart when you least expect it.

My school and coworkers have been the most incredible support system I have. While the people who I trusted and relied on have seamlessly faded into the background, my school has been my beacon. That's the kind of place I work. They are my family. I trust them and love them and could have never gotten through the last few years without them. My mentor, Pam, is honestly, the best person I have ever met. I am blessed to work with her and call her my friend. I will never be able to convey how lucky I am to work at Willow School.

How's the little mister? BIG and a tad naughty ;-) He's definitely mine. He's book obsessed (like me), he lives on a steady stream of milk (like me), and tests the boundaries of everything!

I have read each and every email and comment from you! Unfortunately, I just haven't been able to keep up. For this, I truly apologize from the bottom of my heart. If you needed something or needed something answered, please comment or shoot me an email smorss99@gmail.com and I will try my very best to answer you quickly.

For those of you that wanted a Wake-Up Work pack for August/September, I worked on it throughout the summer and simply just couldn't get it finished. :(  I am working on the one for October, it just takes me a lot longer to finish things these days. I have just finished a Halloween type pack which is getting edited tonight, so be on the look out!

That's it for now. Know that I miss the blogging community and all my friends out there! I'm working out my come back, slowly and surely.

Lots of love,
Shannon

Spring is Here and Everything is on SALE!

Could it be true? Did we finally break the back of Winter, probably not. It will probably snow or something on Monday, Winter's way of sticking it's tongue out at us :0)

My kiddos and I love this song from The Learning Station. Although, fair warning, it gets stuck in our heads and then ends up being sung ALL day long!

My TPT shop is having a little sale in honor of warmer weather! I just finished up my Spring Unit. Here are some pics..the first pic links over to my shop.

Here are the activities and skills that are included...

We Spring for Words-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.¹ (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)

In the Spring -RF.K.1. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. RF.K.3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. RL.K.10. Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Do the Bunny Hop-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2b Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

Beautiful Printing-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1a Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

Befuddled Bunny-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3c Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to,you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

Happy Day Vowel Sort-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3b Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

Spring Counts-CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens.

Flyin’ High with Place Value-K.NBT.1. Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each composition or decomposition by a drawing or equation (such as 18 = 10 + 8); understand that these numbers are composed of ten ones and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.

For the Birds-CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.C.6 Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.¹

Little Addition Showers-K.OA.5. Fluently add and subtract within 5.

Missing Tweets-CCSS.Math.Content.K.OA.A.4 For any number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record the answer with a drawing or equation.

Rainy Day Measurement-CCSS.Math.Content.K.MD.A.2 Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has “more of”/“less of” the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter.

Tomorrow is my last day of Spring Break. I'm sure it's more than a little strange that I am excited to get back to my little Hoppers! Have a wonderful Easter!
Shannon

Spring?

When I closed my eyes and imagined Spring Break, I did not see cold and snow playing a part of my dream. No, this is not what I had imagined at all. I guess it's like the saying...You get what you get, and you don't get upset!

This Spring Break so far is a bust! The weather outside is frightful, I am desperately trying to find a small house to buy, and I am attempting to pack up 13 years of stuff. <sniff, sniff> I am keeping my head held high and picturing a new life for the little mister and I.

I miss blogging! I miss just creating stuff and giving it away. I do. I miss the interaction with all of you! I keep thinking things will change and that I will go back to what I use to be, but realistically, I don't see that happening anytime soon. I am a completely different person that what I was a year ago. To be honest, I am a better person now after everything that has happened. I am a better Mommy. I am a better teacher. I am way more empathetic and understanding than I was...so that's a plus. But, I do miss all of you! I wish I had more time to devote :0)

Here's a little Coop-a-Loop for you...

You see the blur, the boy is ON THE GO!!!

I just finished up the April Wake-Up Work pack. A HUGE thanks go out to my Facebook editors, without you the pack would be...well, full of mistakes! lol. Click on the first picture to purchase.

I have a new Spring Unit, but I am moving at a turtles pace with finishing it. I am hoping it will be done later this week! Hope you are all well :)

Shannon