Royal "T"ea Party!

Today was the big day!  We did our Tie and Tiara Royal Tea Party!!  It was such a great day! We really believe that learning should be fun and engaging!  We had 6 different centers...we couldn't have done it without some wonderful moms to help run the centers!  Here are some pictures of the day...

We love trying out things on our kids to see what works and what doesn't.  The castle game and the bingo were a great addition this year.  Our kids always love creating their own castle with sugar cubes and colored icing.
You can get the whole theme with ideas from how to set your classroom to printouts of the games and centers HERE!  This unit is a repost as I added pictures from this years party!  We would love to hear about your ideas for thematic units as well!

The Liebster Award

The Liebster Award!

I just found out that I was nominated for the Liebster Award!  I am very new to blogging so this was something I hadn't heard of yet! The award is given to new bloggers with 200 followers or less and I think that's great!  I was nominated by Mrs. Sommer at What's working this year in Kindergarten; thank you so much!  Her blog is wonderful and she has some great ideas, including elf on the shelf for her classroom!

Ok, here is how this works: 
And the rules are:
1. Post 11 random things about yourself
2. Answer the questions the nominator set for you
3. Create 11 questions for your nominees.
4. Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them to your post.
5. Leave a comment on this post if you were nominated so I can learn more about you and see who you nominate
Our 11 randoms:
1.  Liz has lived in south Florida for 21 years.

2. Liz just celebrated her 22nd wedding anniversary!

3. Liz has a senior in college, a senior in high school, and a 7th grader.

4. Liz coaches volleyball!

5.  Running a marathon is on Liz's bucket list!

6. Liz loves camping, especially with my husband who cooks an amazing steak over a campfire!

7.  Liz and Kim ran the disney half-marathon for team in training!  Liz's daughter who is a leukemia survivor was our hero we ran in honor of, we also ran in honor of an art teacher we worked with who lost her battle and now lives with Jesus!
8. Blogging with a friend is better than blogging alone!  Anything is better with the hand of a friend.

9. Both our lives resemble the book Sidney and Norman!  Our husbands are

10.  Liz and Kim  love the author Francine Rivers and our favorite show of all time is heroes!

11.  Liz loves the moon especially when it lights up the whole sky.


Now, for my nominations:
1 Carrberry Creations
2. Glue sticks & Crayons
3. Ms. Jones' Junction
4.Fun in PreK-1
5. Coyne's Crazy fun Preschool
6. PreK and K Sharing
7. ...and they all fall down...
8. Mrs. Jones's Kindergarten
9. There's a Party in the Art Room
10. The Tennesee Teacher
11.Teaming up to Teach
Make sure you check out these great blogs! They all have a lot to offer fellow educators :)

For my nominees -- My questions:
1.  What is your current favorite article of clothing?  Liz says, "Should I say my fat pants?"  Way too much turkey here!
2.  What is your dream car (obviously, money is not an object)? Liz-A convertible Mini Cooper 
3.  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Liz says, Expresso Chip Ice Cream
4.  What is your most memorable teaching moment? Liz-When I see a light bulb go on and they get it.  I also teach the heavenly bus in bible and I love to see kids want to ask Jesus in their heart!
5.  What is your favorite lesson or topic to teach?Liz- Bible and Reading
6.  Do you prefer to read books or magazines?  Liz-Books
7.  What made you want to get into blogging? Liz-I was a blogging wanna be for a long time and it was fun getting help with fresh ideas.
8.  What was your most favorite vacation that you ever took? Liz-Camping with my husband and Cruising with my whole family.
9.  What is your favorite pizza topping? Liz- Pepperoni and Pineapple
10.  Why did you decide to become an educator? Liz- Because I majored in Psych in college and loved it but was a stay at home mom, when my girls went to school I helped there and I fell in love!  I used to teach school to my stuffed animals in 4th grade.
11.  What is your favorite holiday?Liz-  Christmas!  Yay it's here!!


Here's our Questions:
1.  If you lived on a deserted island and could only take one thing with you, what would it be?
2.  How long have you been blogging?
3.  What is your passion in teaching?
4.  What is something you are very proud of?
5.  What is something that people probably don't know about you?
6.  Where do you dream of going?
7.  Which state is your favorite?
8.  What sports do you like?
9.  What did you do before you taught?
10.  This is from Kim....Are you a Seminole or a Gator?  Your answer is important! Hee-Hee
11.  How do you linky?  and do you like it?

To my nominee's copy and paste my instructions and questions into your blog and then nominate another 11 bloggers out there!  Make sure you come and leave a comment here so I can go and read your responses!  Happy blogging!

Hang on...Kim's answers are coming soon!  She is out getting her christmas tree!!!
We just got nominated for the Liebster Award by Pink Polka Dots & Pre-K

1. When did you start blogging?  Well if you count blog stalking then for 3 years, but blogging on my own, 1 month

2. How many kiddo's are in your class? 18

3. What is your favorite theme to teach? Boy that is hard, after every event I say, "that was my favorite day"....Dinosaur Days and Tie and Tiara are up at the top!

4. What is your favorite teaching blog to get inspiration from? Pre-k Pages

5. Favorite color? Pink and Purple

6. Favorite holiday? Christmas

7. Do you look forward to summer vacation? In May I do...right now I don't....

8. If you could own any animal, what would it be? a Horse

9. If you had to choose another grade to teach, what would it be? Second

10. What is your favorite children's author & book? Eric Carle...all of them

11. What is your favorite Disney character & movie? Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie because me and my daughter watched this movie when she was 3 about a million times and Buzz Lightyear is my favorite character because when my son was 4 he really believed he was helping Buzz save the universe when we went to Disney World....

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Bear Day!

Hi Everyone!
We just finished our "B" week during the week before thanksgiving and we had a BLAST!  We started the week off  with reviewing circles and making these adorable Bears to hang up in our classrrom! Then we had loads of fun with Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles! Our 3rd grade Reading Buddies decided to join us and we read our favorite bear books on our blankets. Next, we learned about different kinds of bears ( Brown bear, Black bear, and Polar bear) we even did a Preschool version of a Venn Diagram! We ended the week with our students bringing in their favorite stuffed bear, making home-made butter, and eating bear-shaped biscuits! We graphed the different types of bears that were brought in, and played Bingo with our teddy-bear manipulatives! We ended our week with the song "Teddy-bear, Teddy-bear Turn Around", and Dr. Jean's "Going On a Bear Hunt!" It was a very busy and blissful week!

Bear photo spot!

Eating the bear biscuit and butter!

I love that they all turn out different!

Bear craft on poster board

close up of homemade butter
and biscuit.

 Check out our bear unit HERE!  The first 3 people to rate us on TPT can have this unit for free!
You can also grab the bear graph as a FREEBIE HERE!

What is Success?

Hi everyone! Hoping you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was a beautiful time filled with family and friends and sharing how God has blessed us in the past year.When my time came to share, I chose to read something that I had just heard at the ASCI Convention a few days earlier. And I would like to take this time to share it with you:
"Success is waking up in the morning whoever you are, wherever you are, howeve old or young and bounding out of bed because there's something that you love to do, that you believe in, that you're good at, something that's bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again today." (Charles Wetzel)  I love this quote and I am very thankful this Thanksgiving and everyday that I am able to teach, and do what I am so passionate about! Happy Turkey Day!

Tea Party!!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am full of Turkey and enjoying some great family time!  My daughter is home from college this week so that is extra special!  I am gearing up for one of our many preschool events!  It is review week and for "T" day we celebrate with a tie and tiara tea party!  We change our classrooms into a princess castle!  We do have spiderman tablecloths for the boys...we invite moms in to help us with our day...We begin in car line by announcing each child as they arrive with a bugle.  In the classroom we set up centers and divide the kids into groups and they move around the room when the bell rings. We finish with a tea party accompanied by 4 disney princesses.  partycharacters.com donate the morning and send 4 princesses and spiderman!  Here is a picture from last year's party!

My niece was in my class last year!  Such a blessing...The other thing I do is have the girls take a picture in a ballet pose and then add it to their memory book with the caption: "I'm a child of the King!"
Check out the unit HERE!  The first 3 people to follow me on TPT  will receive this adorable unit for free!  Thank you for checking it out, we hope you love it as much as we have loved teaching on this day!

ACSI Convention

We are at a wonderful conference in Orlando. We are enjoying the area and getting to know each other a little better and hear some amazing speakers. My head is full of great new ideas like do the hokey pokey as we review our letters. Another great idea is to make a Bible basket for each child and have them put it by their beds. When they have something new from bible they can put it in their baskets and share it with their parents.

Almost Friday!

Happy Thursday!!  Like some of you, there is only one day left before Thanksgiving break!  We have a teachers convention in Orlando which will be a great time with some of my amazing co-workers!  As a bonus if some of you did not know we get to go to Sea World on Sunday for free!!  Yes, Sea World in Orlando let's teachers get a free ticket for the day....Wanted to share some of the pictures of my kids doing my Thanksgiving centers....They thought measuring themselves in Turkeys was very funny!

Thanksgiving Fun!

So I just knew this was going to be a bad sleeping night.  One problem was my kids are coming to school at 8am and our Thanksgiving Feast doesn't start until 11:30.  I picked up this adorable Thanksgiving clap the syllables from the Mofatt girls (love her blog).  You can grab it HERE!   So to add to my new found goody and to keep my precious ones busy I created some quick fun Thanksgiving Activities.  I will be sure to take pictures tomorrow and let you know how it goes!  I have these cute fall beads to use as markers for my bingo cards!

Check them out HERE!

Blog Hopping

I have enjoyed blog hopping tonight and found some linky parties that got my brain swirling   I hope I can sleep tonight with all the great ideas I want to implement into my classroom!   Still trying to figure out how to link up to  a linky party!  Tomorrow is my Thanksgiving party so I best get a good night sleep!  4 more days and it is vacation time!  Sleep well fellow bloggers!

Candy Corn Bingo!

Each week I like to reinforce skills on Fridays in a game form.  The last week of October we played Candy Corn Bingo.  We used candy corn as markers.  We had to begin by eating one candy of course, it is way too hard to wait!  We play in small groups of 6.  I always call the letter and then ask what sound that letter makes and for my emergent readers, I ask for a word that begins with that letter.  For some that still need help with recognition, I show the card and have them find it.  It is important that they repeat the name for me.  It is a great game for different levels of learners.  We play until everyone wins.  The student has to call "Candy Corn Bingo".  We also praise the winners.  I let each of them eat a few and put the rest in a baggie for home.
Pick up this freebie HERE!

50th day freebie!

Thought it would be fun to add a freebie from our fifties sock hop packet!  We break up our students into groups of 3 or 4 kids and send them from center to center.  We give each of them a sticker chart and they put a sticker in the corresponding box when they have completed the center.  It is fun for the kids and a good visual for the parents to show what they did with their day.  Hope you enjoy!
 Get your freebie Here!

50th day Sock Hop

Good afternoon!  We just finished our 50's day sock hop this past week and we had a blast!  We transformed our rooms into a 50's style ice cream parlor and had the children move from center to center.  We enlisted help from moms.  Center time lasted about an hour, then we taught 50's type dances such as strollin', hand jive, and splish-splash!.  We finished the party with root beer floats and a bubble blowing contest.  One of the mom's brought in a pinata!  Not sure who had more fun the teacher or the kids. 

Check out our Fifties Sock Hop Unit here!