Christmas in July! {and some randomness}

Whoa!? What?! JULY?? This summer is flying by! I’ve been keeping busy all summer playing chauffeur to my two girls…they are dancing fools and will spend all day at the studio if they could!

We’ve been trying to do a lot of what makes us happy :) And often that is just chilling out at our house!

My oldest daughter spent two weeks at Concordia Language Villages at the Norwegian camp.  If you want your child to learn a language in a fun and engaging way, Concordia Language Villages is the place to be.  This was her 4th summer there, and she can hardly wait to go back for more!

We’ve also found some time to chill out at the lake and pool…

 

and enjoyed some 4th of July fun

We have just finished up our final arrangements for our family summer vacation….what started out as a little trip to California (because airline prices were great) turned into something bigger!  If you are in SoCal and have some suggestions of places to see/things to do, please let me know!

I will also admit that I have been neglecting my little old blog…along with all of the family summer fun, I’ve been preparing my presentation for I Teach K.  I hope to finalize things tonight, but it’s been all sorts of crazy in my house with alphabet stuff all over the place!

My WBT posts have been shoved to the side….sorry about that.  I hope to get back to it soon.

I have a winner from my Pin it to Win it giveaway too!

Keep watching my blog for more Pin it To Win it Games!

and….I promised I would pick three more winners of my newest alphabet games:

 

Congrats to….

Thanks for hanging on with me…..now onto the best part…everybody loves a SALE, right!?

I’ll be announcing my deal of the day each day on my Growing Kinders Facebook page, so if you’re not already following, now is the time to do so so you don’t miss out on some deals!

Also, I have a new spot on my Facebook where you can get some FAN ONLY freebies! I’ll change these freebies throughout the week – keep your eyes open, they’ll only be up for a short time!

 

I’m also linking up with my friend Michelle for her Sunday Smorgasboard!

Calendar Time

It’s been about a year since I posted my It’s Calendar Time daily calendar activities.

My kiddos were SO successful with math this year – even my lowest babies.  I was absolutely astonished EVERY day when they could add/subtract in their head and could make number combos to a certain  number like it was nobody’s business! Every day they knocked my socks off!

I always get a little stressed thinking about the beginning of the year, because there is always a learning curve in Kindergarten! But, I know that I wouldn’t change a thing with Calendar Time!

I started off the year with my Calendar Wall looking like this:

I had all the pieces of the calendar up and ready to go.  But, I’ve been doing my calendar on my Promethean board for 4 years.  So, I made the switch and had to do calendar on my board!

So, my Calendar wall turned into this:

I kept my calendar and date up and that was it :)

The children each have their own 1/2” white binder that I purchase from Sam’s.  I slip the monthly song in the front and any chants that we are doing on the back cover.  My binders usually last about 2 years. 

Unfortunately this year was the end of that two year cycle.  I’ve been contemplating using the poly 3 prong folders for my calendar book.  I would love to hear if anyone has experience with those…are they sturdy enough to use in their laps?

All of my calendar songs are available on my blog, but I’m working on a packet that will have them all available in one spot with different styles of the poem PLUS fun craftivities to do with each song!  Stay tuned!

At the very beginning of the year, there isn’t much in the binders…

We keep a pencil and some crayons in a pencil pocket.  This year I MIGHT try the ol’ duck tape baggie pencil pocket.  Any experience on how those hold up??

and then our calendar pages…

As the year progresses the skills get more difficult.  However, if I need to spend more time on a particular skill, I can do that daily page for another month, or just a few more weeks/days into the month.  The monthly headers are programmable so you can vary the month if you need to.

  

This is how the pages look on my IWB. I used the import PDF option on my software to import the pages and rearrange as necessary.  I link directly to the weather channel, songs, and so on to make a pretty smooth transition.  It usually takes about 20 minutes to get through the whole calendar. (Ask your school’s tech person to help you import to your IWB!)

Often I will have the children come up and complete the daily page.  They LOVE being the teacher, and I LOVE being SO proud just sitting back and watching them do their thing!

This calendar pack was truly a labor of love! I spent many, many hours on it – arranging, re-arranging and trying to fit SO many skills.  This calendar goes above and beyond the kindergarten common core! I realize that patterns and coins aren’t specifically on the care, but patterns help children to develop a strong sense of number, and learning to identify and count coins is FUN! Why not give them a jump start! Since Calendar time is a guided time, the children that are ready will jump on board, and you will be able to scaffold the kids that aren’t quite ready.

If you want to check out my calendar book, just click below!

If you’re interested in the components for your wall, you can find them in this pack:

or, together as a bundle:

Have you used my calendar set?  I would love to hear your results!!

Alphabet Fun!

I have been busy getting ready for my presentation in Las Vegas this summer, and made some fun new games to share with you!

The first one is called Monster Munch!  This is a great game for the beginning of the year to help our sweet little babies understand that there IS a difference between a number, letter, symbol and word :)

My 6 year old LOVES to play around with this game!!  She makes little munching noises when she feeds the monster the letters. SO fun!

There are two options included for making the game.  The photo on the left shows it made with a nut can! I just cut the mouth out and cut a mouth with an exacto knife out of the nut can. 

You can also use a regular old gift bag!

   

 

You can purchase Monster Munch at my TpT store.

The next game I have for you is a fast paced, super fun card game!

It’s called Bubble Pop!

I guarantee you your kiddos will LOVE this game!

 

My daughter and I played FOREVER! (My dog, on the other hand, was not as impressed!)

You get three sets of cards in the pack – upper and lower case and picture cards for letter sounds.  You can mix and match all three games or just focus on one of the three.

You can find Bubble Pop at my TpT store!

I would love for someone to win each of these games!  Leave a comment below!  The first THREE people to comment will win! Be sure to leave your e-mail address!!

Wow! You guys are fast! Keep commenting and I’ll pick three more random people!! 

Favorite Things–#2!

Sorry for the delay in my next favorite thing! That darn summer….. ;)

First up! The winner of my first favorite thing is….

Are you ready for favorite thing #2?? I use these every single day!

I would love to send you a set of Mr. Sketch markers for you to use next year!

Here is what you need to do:

1. Follow my Pinboards on Pinterest.

2. Come back to Growing Kinders and find something on my blog that you want to pin to one of your Pinboards.  I just installed the Pinterest hover tool, so it should be easy for you!

Remember to add the #growingkindersfavoritethings

3.  Finally, come back here and make your entry on the Rafflecopter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway