Permission to Pin? Say What?

OK, I am completely guilty of not reading fine print.  In fact, I often avoid Term of Use agreements.  Just check the box and move on.  Now I realize this is not always the best course of action, and I'm not advocating it.  I, along with many others, neglected to read the fine print when signing up for Pinterest.  Now that it has been brought to my attention, I feel an obligation to responsibly and respectfully follow the rules.


Laura Candler at Corkboard Connections has brought this to our attention in a recent post chocked full of information regarding Pinterest.  Laura has given permission to pin from her blog and sites.  She is asking fellow teacher bloggers to link up if they are also giving permission to pin from their site.





Now on some level I'm thinking that the Pin It  button at the bottom of my posts implies that I am OK with people pinning from my blog.  But to be absolutely clear...I hearby give my permission for my fellow pinners to pin from my blog!  


Please feel free to follow me on Pinterest as well.


I have actually sort of been avoiding this post for days.  Mostly because it just seems like a big, fat bummer, and it seems like it somehow takes away from the fun of Pinterest.  Please click on over and read Laura's post, consider your permissions, and link up if you consent.  She has all the details in her blog post.

Giveaway at Growing Up Teaching

Growing Up Teaching is having a flash giveaway to celebrate 100 followers!  She's giving away a $25 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers. She's picking her winner tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday) so the winner can use it at the huge TpT sale!

Hurry over, check out her blog, and enter!

Read Across America Shared Reading

OK, I know everyone is busy preparing for the big week next week - or maybe you're super organized and you're all ready to go - but I wanted to share what we will be using for our shared reading next week.  Just makes me happy!

It was inspired by the fabulous Mrs. Parker on TBA last week.  She shared an adorable Read Across America Bookmark, which I promptly printed for my class.  If you haven't already, you must go and download them immediately!

As I was reading the bookmark I thought this would be the perfect shared reading for next week.  It has some easy, peasy sight words for my struggling ones and some vowel teams for my higher ones.


Anywhoo, with Mrs. Parker's permission, I have made a large version for shared reading and a corresponding pocket chart version.  

If I had a red pocket chart I could have achieved the same effect with only white cards :)


For the shared reading:  I printed odd numbered pages on white and even numbered pages on red. I put the sentences together in strips, arranged them on a sheet of poster board, and then traced a hat shape around them with a Sharpie.  I had to used a second sheet for the brim of the hat and just taped them together.


Here is the shared reading.


Here is the pocket chart version. (Again, I alternated the pages between white and red when I printed)


And last but not least, an individual student sequencing sheet.


Thank you Mrs. Parker for your inspiration!  Wishing everyone an amazing week of Seuss-filled fun and learning!

Dr. Seuss videos and SafeShare

This is just a quick post to share a Dr. Seuss sqworl I created for my kids to use at listening center next week.  I shared it with my team and thought you might find it useful too as you embark on all things Suessy next week.  It has links to a variety of Dr. Seuss videos.

There are tons of videos out there, but since I am planning on using this at my listening center next week, they are all about 10 minutes or less in length.  The other beautiful thing about this sqworl is that I ran all of the video links through SafeShare.

I love SafeShare.  If you have never used it, you must go check it out!  It's super simple to use.  All you do is paste the URL for the YouTube video into the box and click "Generate Safe Link."  It will generate a unique link which will play original YouTube video with all of the other distractions of YouTube filtered out.  It's so simple to use that you can generate a safe link within seconds.  I use it all the time in my classroom.

Below is a screen shot of what you or your students will see when you click on a link for a video.

It's the YouTube video, but all your little darlings can see is the video.  Everything else is blacked out.  It's perfect because their only options are to watch the video, pause it, or close the window. No trolling around YouTube or begging to watch "related" videos!


If YouTube is blocked at your school, this may be a work around for you.  Teachers in my district have to access YouTube, so I don't know if this is any more filter friendly than YouTube, but it seems like it should be.

Fabulous Free Fonts

Fonts are like office supplies: you can never have too many.  There are a million (ok- a lot) of free fonts out there, unlike office supplies.

  

Mrs. Lyon at Teaching the Art of Possibility is having a

Here are a few of my go-to favorites that are kinder friendly.

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/freescrapbookfonts/rhino-dino/

http://www.dafont.com/lavender-lime.font

http://www.dafont.com/mtf-peach-cobbler.font

http://www.dafont.com/champagne-limousines.font

A fun font I used for our insect unit last year

http://www.dafont.com/a-bugs-life.font

and one from my oldest son's Harry Potter party last year

http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=789

I loved themed fonts to go with our units and there are so many fun ones out there.

Link up with Mrs. Lyons and share your favorite free and fabulous fonts!

Tis the Testing Season

Tis the season for state testing.  Our kindergarten team supports and encourages our 4th graders throughout the testing season with encouraging notes and cards.  We also try to provide an encouraging treat for them each day they test.  Our PTG provides the healthy brain food, and we provide the fun ones!  I wanted to share some of the "fun" treats and notes that we have sent to our 4th grade friends in years past.  I found some of the sayings on ProTeacher several years ago, and others were inspired by the candy aisle.

And a little Pinspiration...


This one might be fun because I think we actually test on St. Patty's Day this year!

source 

I love this cookie one! I might have to add it to the mix this year!

source

I would love to hear what you do to support the older classes while they are taking state tests.

And the winner is....

Sorry, I'm a bit late selecting a winner.  Thank you to everyone who entered and everyone who follows my little blog!  It made me smile to read all of your sweet valentine memories!  Hope this year brought everyone some new sweet memories!

Congratulations to Jennifer at Keys4Education!

Will pick a winner tonight so if you haven't entered my giveaway you still have time!

My oldest is having his "Epic12th Birthday Party" today (his words not mine - although the preparations are starting to feel like some epic work) which culminates in a slumber party tonight!  I'm sure I will be getting very little sleep tonight, so I will figure out the random number thingy and pick a winner tonight.

That means you still have time to enter!  The winner gets a $30 gift card to Amazon, Target, or Teachers Pay Teachers, your choice!  You can find all the details and enter here.

30-30-30 Giveaway

I know I'm breaking the don't post more than once a day rule, but...
I just posted my 30th post and I currently have 30 followers.
Ok, I know it sounds pitiful, but it seems rather fortuitous (or maybe just random coincidence - it's late).  At any rate, I decided it's time for a giveaway!  Valentine's Day is coming and I want to spread a little love!

In honor of my 30th post and my 30 followers, I am giving away a $30 gift card.  
You choose the destination: 

or 

There's 3 ways to enter:

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment. (1 entry)

2. Blog about my giveaway and leave a comment. (1 entry)

3. Share a sweet Valentine memory or story. (1 entry)

I'll pick a winner Friday night!

Now, I'm off to find a post I tagged about number comments, so I can do this right! 

Valentine Activities and a Some Freebie Love!

I can't believe Valentine's Day will be here on Tuesday.  It seems crazy to be having a class party on Tuesday, but I guess it's better than Monday!  I loved this idea I saw on Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten, and I have been looking for a way to use it.

They are using Q-tips to represent teen numbers on ten frames.  Here is the Valentine version we are going to try in work stations his week.

And for my little lovelies that are still working on numbers to 10...

My students seem to think they are being subjected to unusual cruelty when we don't have a Write the Room station for either literacy or math, so I created a quick one for math - with a recording sheet.  We are working very hard on ways to make ten.

We are also going to give scrambled sight words a try this week.  I picked up some of the cute little plastic heart boxes that are everywhere.  I was just going to use my letter tiles, but they were to thick.  So I created some quickie letter tiles for our sight words, and a recording sheet.

Here are some scrambled color words we are going to try too! I am not sure how the color words will go so I created a black and white set and one that has colored letters, in case they need a little extra support!


Here's to a sweet week!