A 50% off sale just to say thanks!

Good morning and happy sunday to all of you!

I am so thankful to have each and every one of you here visiting!

I have had many of you emailing me about my sight word packets on TpT and I decided since you are all so kind to me that I'd return the favor! I have slashed the price of my pre-primer through 3rd grade dolch sight word set in half. If you are interested check it out here....

As always I'm so excited to have you!

Until next time,

Blessings,

Mrs. Stanford

Check It Out!

Good morning everyone!! I'm so excited to be featured on the wonderful April's blog a Modern Teacher! She has featured us on her Classroom Crashers special (I feel like I'm on TV) please make sure to check it out! If you'd like to have your classroom featured just let her know! I'm sure she'd me glad to :)

Until next time,
Blessings,

Mrs. Stanford

Welcome to More Workstations!

I don't know about you, but I totally love reading and seeing how others have set up their classrooms! (sometimes I even snag a great idea here or there)

Writing Workstation

In our writing workstation I've found over the years that the more choices they have the more appealing the workstation is. As you can see my word wall is located in close proximity and the words are magnetic so that the students can manipulate it! My students also have access to dry erase boards, sight word pockets, sight word sentences, and their words of the week that I use from my sight word lists on TpT.

Tag Readers

Growing up I remember owning many different tools that made reading fun and when I started teaching I wanted to do just that for my students. I do have to say that this may be one of my favorites. Our class has 6 tag readers to use at their seats.

When the students take a case to their seats they open it up to find a variety of books at different levels. The students love using the tag readers to help them read, to ask them questions, and to build their comprehension skills.

Activity Trays

My students have file folder games sort by subject area and level. Students are invited to take a tray to their seat when they have completed their work or have a spare moment.

Each tray has one single player file folder game. Using the trays not only organizes the file folders in an easy stackable way, but it has increased their longevity.

Last but not least, I'd like to introduce you to my all time favorite workstation! Signing Time! My students absolutely adore this station and have learned so much from it. I apologize for the ugly cart.... Any suggestions on cutie-fying it??

Well that's about it for now! Once again, thanks for reading! Until next time....


Blessings,


Mrs. Stanford

100!!! We did it!! Giveaway results and tagging fun!!

First off may I say I am absolutely delighted to find out what generous and loving followers you are! And look at how fast it happened!! I want to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to check my blog out and follow me!

Now for what you're all here for haha
Out of 88 entries... Random.org chose number 27

Congrats to Nicole of the super cute blog Teaching With Style and I can't wait to send that donation your way! (and let me tell you iPads In The Classroom are amazing tools!!)


Now for the Tags!

Kimberly of the adorable blog Love of Teaching was so kind to tag a newbie like me :) so here goes nothing!

Here Are The Rules:

* Post these rules
* Answer the 10 questions that the tagger posted for you.
* Create 10 questions of your own to ask the people that you're about to tag
* Tag 10 people and link them with your post (and let them know they've been tagged!)

1. Why did you become a teacher?
As far back as I can remember I have wanted to be a mommy. What other profession parallels parenting more than educating? :) For goodness sake when people ask me if I have children my immediate response is yes, 20!

2. If you could have any piece of technology in your classroom what would it be?
A promethean board! I was blessed to have one last year and I truly miss it!

3. Favorite Snack:
Hmmmm that's a tough one so I'll go with what I'm hungry for at the moment... Soft cookies with a cold glass of milk!

4. What are your plans for summer?
Every summer I volunteer one week of my time to be a camp counselor at a camp for RFKC , family reunions, small road trips, tutoring, and relaxing (while fulfilling my donorschoose, TpT, and new blogging addictions of course)

5. How do you get ready for a new school year?
Every year I try to have my themes, units, and plans somewhat sketched out so that all I have to do are plug in small details as they come :)

6. Favorite project you do with your students:
Kindergarten graduation, no doubt!

7. Funniest thing a student has said to you or asked:
"Mrs. Stanford do you have kids? Why not? Well you can just take one of us home for a while!"

8. Favorite drink:
Iced tea with a splash of lemonade :)

9. Best teaching memory:
When a student who was nonverbal at the beginning of the year read his first word!

10. What is your goal for next school year?:
To have every student in my class reading before Christmas break! And to have a successful TpT store so that I can help others on donorschoose.org!

Here are the 10 people that I am tagging:

Sarah of Kindergarten Korner
Lori of Teaching With Love and Laughter
Crystal of Kreative in Kinder
Krissy of Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten Monkey Business
Lindsey of The Teacher Wife
Deanna of Mrs. Jump's Class
Amy of Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons
Kelly and Diane of Made for 1st Grade
Cara of The First Grade Parade
Abby of The Inspired Apple

*Nicole of Teaching With Style (she's extra credit she doesn't count for the original 10 hehe)

And my 10 questions for them:

1. What is your favorite part of teaching?
2. What got you into blogging?
3. If you could change one thing about your classroom what would it be?
4. When did your passion for teaching begin?
5. Other than teaching, what are your passions in life?
6. Where is your favorite place to travel?
7. What teaching milestone are you most proud of?
8. Can you name all of your elementary school teachers?
9. How many days of school do you have left?
10. If you could give advice to a new blogger what would it be?

I hope you will join in this cute tag!!

Until next time,
Blessings,

Jessica

Wooooohoooo halfway there!

I want to thank all of you for following!! I can't believe how successful this contest is! We are now half way there! That means if each follower invited one friend to follow we would be ready for the giveaway!

Blessings,

Jessica

*NOTE: to enter contest please follow directions on the post below*

Calling More Followers!!!

I am so excited to start this journey and would like a few (ok a lot) more followers! I'm ready for a little giveaway... how about you? Here's how to play:

How to Enter
*1 Entry for following my blog (leave comment below with DC project link)
*1 Entry for following my TpT store (leave comment below with DC project link)
*1 Entry for following my Pinterest (leave comment below with DC project link)
*BONUS Entry for mentioning this giveaway (leave comment below with DC project link)
(total of 4 comments per person if you use each entry)

If you already follow my blog, store, and pinterest just let me know in a comment with the link to your favorite DC project!


Winner will receive a $20 donation to their favorite donorschoose project!!!
It's as easy as that! Once we reach 100 followers on the blog I will use random.org to choose our winner, so be sure to leave a comment for each step! The sooner we get there the sooner you can win the donation so spread the word!!


Best of luck to you!!

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday everyone! There are so many things to be thankful for today! Today is the last day before break (well for the kids at least) where we will get to spend time with our families. The sun is out and it's a beautiful day. Not to mention we will be off until the 16th of April. What a much needed break :)

In the meantime let me share with you a few centers that my students love!

Our Listening Workstation:

consists of 4 individual listening centers. Each child is in charge of their own story and book! They love the fact that they are completely independent and everything is up to them! Books are stored in the middle box and each nano is clipped to where the child should sit to read.

Each book has its picture filed alphabetically so that the students can either find the book by title or picture. Students match the books cover to picture on the screen and click! (as easy as that!!!) 

Students then follow the prompts to turn the page and follow along in the story. Our book box includes many different levels of books to meet all needs of all readers. My students love this center!!

Our Computer Workstation!

My students are fortunate enough to have 6 computers and navigate our class website on their own.

On my class website students have the option of a few student websites and many students use the website at home during their free time.

Our class page: http://www.wix.com/mrsstanford/kindergarten

Our iPad Workstation:

My students were fortunate enough to receive 2 iPads from www.donorschoose.org/mrs.stanford My students absolutely adore this station! I have organized the apps onto subject area pages and ask them to work on specific skills during specific work times. Students are also rewarded for behavior and academics with time on the iPad throughout the week.

Our Library Workstation:

My students' comfy corner is another wonderful item in our classroom from the generous people of donorschoose! The have comfy mats, a canopy, and easy readers of different levels to build their love of reading! I still remember my reading corner from grade school and I remember trying to recreate it at home. I wanted to give my students the same feeling to associate fun and excitement with reading!

Well we have much more to share, but I'll save some for next time!

Until next time,

Mrs. Stanford

Welcome to Our Room!

Good afternoon everyone! I hope that this Tuesday is treating you well! As promised I have many pictures to share with you of my classroom.... So without any further adieu here it is....

I am very fortunate this year to have a large room. For the past 4 years I was teaching in a classroom no bigger than our master bedroom at home! You can only imagine how delighted I was to see this classroom's size! It was a lot of work to get it from what it was (an old vacant school for 7 years) to what it is now, yet I love what it's become! I even have a video to share the progress with you...

You may be wondering what I'm doing with all of those orb looking things all over their tables... those are their amazing ball chairs! I love how exciting they make my classroom. They not only are amazing for the kids, but they add a little something to the brightness of the room. We were fortunate enough to get almost a full class supply of them through our DonorsChoose page last year. (thanks again to all of our amazing donors! We couldn't do it without you!) If any of you are interested in checking them out they were ordered from School Specialty

Well that's it for now. Next time I'll share our wonderful centers with you!

Well I hope that you have an excellent Tuesday!

For more photos of our classroom:

click {here} {here} {here}

 

Some back to school products that I will be using to decorate my room :)

 

Also available in a Kindergarten version!

It's editable!!! If I didn't add the words you need, you can do it yourself and they will match the rest!!!

 

I'll be using the rainbow version of this!

 

 

What Teaching Means to Me!

{pin here}

It's true. I teacher to enable, enliven, and encourage!

en·a·ble/enˈābəl/

Verb:	Give (someone or something) the authority or means to do something. Make possible.
Synonyms:	empower - authorize - authorise - permit

en·liv·en/enˈlīvən/

Verb:	Make (something) more entertaining, interesting, or appealing. Make (someone) more cheerful or animated.
Synonyms:	animate - liven - vivify - revive - exhilarate - vitalize

en·cour·age/enˈkərij/

Verb:	Give support, confidence, or hope to (someone): "encouraging results"; "I feel encouraged". Give support and advice to (someone) to do or continue something: "pupils are encouraged to be creative".
Synonyms:	embolden - hearten - support - promote - stimulate

Plan and simple. Teaching is not a career. It's a lifestyle. As my alma mater says: "Caring Teachers Life What They Believe"