Fundraising for Jonah with Tamera at My Heart Belongs in First

Okay...I've been a naughty blogger (it's been a long time, since I blogged). I don't know how others are so good at blogging weekly or even bi-weekly. However, I was moved by Jonah, a boy I don't know, but is in need of support. Tamera at My Heart Belongs to First is having a fundraiser in honor of Jonah. He has EB, which causes his skin to blister or shed by the slightest touch. Read about this amazing family here .

With a $10 donation, you get over $85 worth of amazing blogger products! How can you pass that deal up AND help Jonah fight against EB?!

Click on the link My Heart Belongs in First to learn more and/or donate!

Here are some amazing blogger products you get!

                                   

 Brigid's blog

Brigid's TPT Store

Brenda @ Primary Inspired is donating her Calendar Math Pack.

     

Brenda's TPT store

Brenda's Blog 

Carolyn @ Exceptional Kinders is donating her Spring Birds Addition Pack.

   

Carolyn's TPT store

Carolyn's Blog 

Catherine @ Brown Bag Teacher is donating her Painting Prepositions.

   

Catherine's Blog

Catherine's TPT store

 

Jennie J @ JDs Rockin' Readers is donating her Retelling Stories Pack.

 

Jennie's Blog

Jennie's TPT store

 Jennifer @ First Grade Blue Skies is donating her GeoBoard It Pack.

Jennifer's Blog

Jennifer's TPT store

Jennifer @ Rowdy in First Grade is donating her Roll a Picture Pack.

Jennifer's Blog

Jennifer's TPT store

Jenny @ Suntans and Lesson Plans is donating her Possessive Pets Pack.

 

Jenny's blog

 

Jenny's TPT store 

 

 

Kathy @ First Grade a la Carte is donating her April Math & Literacy Color by Codes.

 

 

 

Kathy's blog

 

Kathy's TPT store

 Lori @ Teaching with Love & Laughter is donating her CVC Memory Pack.

 

 Lori's blog

Lori's TPT store

Marlana @ Lil Country Kindergarten is donating her There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell mini Math & Literacy Pack.

 

 Marlana's blog

Marlana's TPT store 

Michelle @ No Monkey Business is donating her Accelerating into Analogiespack.

   

Michelle's blog

Michelle's TPT store

 Rachel @ the Tattooed teacher is donating her Sweet Summarizing pack.

   

Rachel's blog

Rachel's TPT store

Richard @ Room to Read is donating his Speed It Up fluency pack.

 

Richard's blog

Richard's TPT store

Sarah @ I Dream of First Grade is donating her Barnyard Buddies Math Centers.

      

Sarah's blog

Sarah's TPT Store  

Sherre @ Peterson's Pad is donating her Word Family Charts and Word Wallpack.

 

Sherre's blog

Sherre's TPT store 

Stephanie @ Primary Possibilities is donating her Alphabet Pack.

 

 

Stephanie's blog

 

Stephanie's TPT store  

 

Stephany @ Primary Possibilities is donating her Sweet Sentences Pack.  

 

 

 Stephany's blog 
Stephany's TPT store

Teri @ A Cupcake for the Teacher is donating her Happy Birthday Craftivity and Printables.
  
Teri's blog
Teri's TPT Store

Teacher at Heart is donating her Geometry: 2D & 3D Shapes pack. 

     

Teacher at Heart blog

Teacher at Heart TPT Store

 And I am donating one of my favorite vocabulary packs for the book,Chrysanthemum.

    

Tracking with LED Car Rings

FINALLY! Something that makes my kids look at what they are reading! I don't know about you, but my students are experts at fake reading...you know, they memorize the words  and 'read.' When I tell them to point as they read, they (okay half of them) randomly point to words with a smirk on their cute little faces. My personal favorite is when they are 'reading' the words from their decodables,  but their eyeballs are glued on me (side note: I started to tape sight words on my clothes; I figured if they're going to stare at me while they read, they might as well see real words written on me).

Back to the LED car rings! I LOVE THEM and so do my students! They were excited to use the 'highlighters' to highlight the words as they read (I told them they were just like Wyatt, from SuperWhy who uses a highlighter to read words). They actually even placed the car rings on the pointer finger (and not the middle finger - that some of darlings not knowingly use - gotta love kindergarten!) I dim the lights so the ring lights are focused on their words. They were able to read for 7 minutes all by themselves AND (get this), they actually pulled out their reading box to read some more! The ring lights are super cheap too (you can get a set of 20 for less them 10 bucks).

26 Random Acts of Kindness for Sandy Hook Elementary

As I was doing my usual blog stalking reading, I came across 26 Acts of Kindness in honor of the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary. I thought it was an excellent idea and a great way to honor those who are no longer with us. I'm making an extra effort to volunteer more hours at my local Animal Shelter in honor of Charlotte Bacon who loved animals. You can read about other acts of kindness here (Facebook.com/26acts). 

I was moved by all the different kinds of random acts of kindness. I wanted to create tags to give out with my random acts of kindness, so I created mini bio-tags with the pictures of each Sandy Hook Elementary victims that I was honoring. My hope is that the next person will be moved by the random act and to continue to pay it forward. If you would like a copy, please let me know, if I get many requests, then I'll post it up (I feel a bit strange posting their tags up, even though it is a way of honoring their precious memories). 

Here are some of my pre-planned ideas:

1. Pay for the person behind me in the Starbucks Drive Through (and ask the cashier to hand them a random acts card)

2. Donate toys to a newly adopted pet owner from my Animal Shelter (in honor of Charlotte)

3. Donate to Toys for Tots

4. Pass out candy canes

5. Create a care package for a person in need

6. Bake cookies for the local fire department

7. Pay an expired parking meter

8. Donate blankets to the animal shelter

I hope you join me in this endeavor...a little bit of kindness, goes a long way. Happy Holidays. 

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Apple Pickin' Resource

Musings of Me is one of my ALL time favorite bloggers. Her resources for Kindergarten are amazing. Since it's September...APPLE season in KinderLand, I thought I would share with you Apple Pickin' from MOM (Musings of Me). It's only $5.00 and 119 pages. It includes 12 Language Arts activities, 10 Math centers and science and crafty arts. If you haven't checked out her blog yet, click here or click on the picture to send you directly to some Apple Pickin' fun.

Kindergarten Common Core

It's time to get serious with Common Core and the Kindergarten Common Core Book is an amazing resource to have. It has over 600 pages packed with ready-made activities and centers. The graphics are adorable (most of which are from ScrappinDoodles - love them). The book is divided into Math and English Language Arts and each activity has the Common Core standards on them (so when someone comes into your room asking what you're doing...you can tell them exactly what Common Core Standard you're addressing). I have the Common Core State Standards for First Grade Book and I love it! It's teacher-friendly and gets straight to the point (no theory and love winded-conversation over nothing), this book is all about how to help students meet the Common Core Standards. It's $40.00 and well worth every penny.