Imagine my surprise...

When I went to one of my favorite kindergarten blogs: A Differentiated Kindergarten and found this post!?!

And finally, yes finally, I have a winner for our Jo-Totes Camera bag giveaway.  

Janet Anderson Black

You get the gift certificate for one of those amazing camera bags of your choosing.  Congratulations.

I could hardly wait to visit the JoTotes website to pick out the camera bag of my choice! 

I decided to go with the Rose Raspberry camera bag. I love all shades of pink and this bag will certainly stand out in my black and white classroom! Here's a picture of the one I chose from their website:

I want to thank Marsha McGuire for hosting this super giveaway and invite everyone to check out her blog for lots of great ideas and freebies for differentiating instruction in your kindergarten classroom!

Videos For Our Food Unit

This website www.neok12.com has some fantastic videos that bring the farm right into your classroom!

From Farm to the Fridge is a 2-part video that does an excellent job explaining the process.

From Farm to Fridge part 1

From The Farm To The Fridge, part 2/2

CALENDAR TIME

We have been in school 50 DAYS! 

The Koalas are 50 days smarter and 50 days more independent with their learning! Our student-led calendar time incorporates both ELA and MATH common core standards.

This actually occurred on October 24th - our half day of school marathon in which we had our classroom Halloween party followed by Parent/Teacher conferences lasting from 1:00 pm until 7:30 pm.  The two highlights from the day include 100% participation from the Koala parents at conferences and the delicious food our parents' club brought in for the teachers to eat throughout the afternoon and evening.  

The Big Reveal

We have been in school 25 days and I finally have a few minutes to post my new black and white classroom design!

 

Starting with entrance to my room...

 

 

Some of the special areas in my classroom...

 

 

 

 

 

We are building stamina with Daily 5!

 

 

I had so much fun creating this new look this summer!

 

Here are the before pictures...For the last 12 years in this building my room was crazy busy with primary colors as well as every inch of the wall covered with learning posters. Prior to that I spent 12 years in an older building that had slate chalkboards and cinder block walls.

 

 

 

I did like my reading nook though. :-)

 

 

 

The Vinyl makes the wall pop!

 

A big shout out to Melanie Duspiwa for cutting and applying the wall art above my windows. Not only is she a fantastic second grade teacher at my school she also has her own business, Memorable Moments By Mel, where she creates beautiful wedding gift plaques and other personalized gifts like you see here. Be sure to check out her website. She is very reasonable!

 

 

 

 

Delta Kappa Gamma SWRC ~ Branson, MO

I can't believe a week has flown by since my fellow teacher, Judy, from Streaming Thru Second and I attended the Delta Kappa Gamma Southwest Regional Conference. The hotel accommodations at The Hilton at Branson Landing known as the Hilton Promenade Hotel were very nice and we certainly enjoyed helping at the registration table. We always have the best time and love seeing key women educators from all over the world. We are looking forward to going to Indianapolis next summer for the 2014 DKG International Convention!

 

If you are interested in joining Delta Kappa Gamma please go the website and search for a chapter in your area. Judy and I have been members for over 14 years and both have served as chapter president. We have grown professionally and our chapter has provided assistance to many charities as well as giving two grants-in-aid yearly to high school senior girls who are planning to study education in college. 



Monday Made it!

Monday actually it was more like Tuesday around 3am when I completed a few more projects. Check them out! Now I am off to take them to my classroom. TTFN!