Take A Looksie At What I Made!

Made this March calendar set and I love the way it came out! I think it came out SUPER cute I love the owls from Prettygrafik. I'm in love with her graphics they are super cute and just adorable! They are the perfect dose of cuteness that I like. I was told that the things I make I should sell them in teacher stores... I am thinking about it because I love the things I am able to make and I would love to be able to provide them to other teachers. Sometimes as a teacher we look for certain things and can't find them which is what inspired me to start making things. Hope you like it and please tell me any suggestions about stores I can sell in.

 

 

 

Big hugs,

 

Mizz Ginnie

I am in LOVE! Organization Wednesday

Do you want to get more organized? Are you tired of your posters, anchor charts, cards, bulletin board décor etc. getting messed up? Are you tired of rolling your stuff then when you use it you can't unroll it because it stays curled up? Are you a teacher that needs organization?

If you said YES to all of the above then this review is for you!!! I was going B-A-N-A-N-A-S in my own classroom  because I was getting so disorganized mind you I am a VERY organized (an sometimes anal ok most of the time lol) person. I couldn't take it anymore I had to get organized again. I literally feel like I can't function in a disorganized classroom. So I started to think of ways I can be more organized and I was looking for pocket charts and WALAH this came up:

Carson Dellosa Bulletin Board Storage

This is EXACTLY what I needed. Although, I been telling myself I need to put all my bulletin board posters in one place and I would complain about it being bent out of shape I never organized them. Now that I finally did I am in LOVE! I love this. It fits all my posters and there is still space for bigger posters. I even put all my labels and cards in there (yup, I was HAPPY)!!! What I love about it is the material is good quality and isn't cheap. Its pretty durable. I love that its clear so I can see what I'm looking for better. I have no complaints! It's holding a lot of my stuff all in one place and it's organized what more could a teacher ask for!

I super excited about organizing and doing early spring cleaning in my classroom. Is there anyone else doing the same? Or are you like me have you been meaning to organize things but kept putting it on the back burner lol. Did you organize something this week? I'd love to hear and see what you got organized. Yup, I'm starting a trend it's called ORGANIZATION WEDNESDAY. Let's stop putting organizing on the back burner and let's start doing it. Share with me on Wednesdays. Let's link up and help each other get organized with some amazing organizing ideas!

Here is how my stuff looks in the bag. Sexy huh!

 

 

 

Hugs,

 

Ginnie

Five for FRIDAY *Uhehmm Saturday lol

I just found out about this through another teaching blog as I was lesson planning today. So I'm so excited to be doing my very 1st teaching linky party! If you want to join in on the fun just go to Doodle Bugs Teaching for more info.

This past week was the 100th day of school for us. In a sense I was SO not prepared not only because the day before was a snow day for us BUT I didn't treat it like a big deal because I never understand why put so much into it. My prekinders showed me what a big deal it is and now I am convinced that next year I will treat it as a big deal!

Although, I wasn't sure about it we still did things it wasn't as spectacular as some teachers I have seen BUT to my prekinders it was EVERYTHING and that's what matter and that's still blog worthy to me. Here we are walking around the school with our 100th day jester hats. I decided my kids are little clowns and although they drive me crazy at times they always know how to make me laugh so I had them make these jester style hats. They absolutely LOVED it! They were very excited to be parading around the school showing it off.

Then I proceeded to later in the afternoon make a little trail mix. My kids will NEVER know I thought of that at the last minute lol. Hey a teacher always has to think on her toes! Like I said not too fancy but it was fun and my little prekinders enjoyed it. They were dying to eat it lol. Some were even counting and sneak eating while counting lol. They are just too adorable! These were simple yet sweet just the way I like it!

I will have a separate post for our fun filled 100th day!

To add to the 100th day fun I fell in love with the idea my Pre-K teacher BESTIE (colleague) did with her class (FYI my mini-me is in her class). She made a necklace that looked like a pin of course the teachers had theirs too but they were pinned on them. Here is a picture of my little monster with it on. Isn't she the cutest?!

I have been making a BIG DEAL about my prekinders knowing how to spell their name first and last. I want them going into kindergarten knowing how to spell it, recognizing each letter, knowing first and last name and recognizing it, and last but not least knowing how to spell first and last name. Yup, this teacher has BIG goals for her kiddies! We did a fun activity and graph of "How many letters are in my name?" My little prekinders were surprised by how many letters they had as well as their friends. Here is what it looked like:

Look at my little prekinders hard at work sorting, looking, and pasting on their own. Proud teacher moment *wipes tear from eye*

Yup, this is how this teaching turned up on Friday lol. I know a lot of teachers understand this struggle lol but I love how excited I get thinking of how excited my prekinders are going to be! I was busy prepping, laminating, cutting, coming up with ideas and researching stuff for the new study we are starting next week. We will be starting Creative Curriculum clothing study and I am so excited because I have a lot of things that I came up with planned for my little prekinders. I am looking forward to a month full of fun!

Last but not least, I was so excited about the short and fun week. I was just happy it was FRIDAY! Not to mention the lovely outfit I'm wearing lol. Loving how flat my tummy is looking thanks Shaun T for your amazing T25 workout program! Yes, I can have diva tendencies... Don't judge me lol. I love how the purple looks with that sweater and apparently my little prekinders have good taste too because they loved this outfit too! That's good enough for me lol!

Until next Friday and yes now that I know about this linky party I will be posting it on Fridays (unless something comes up lol). I don't need anyone thinking I don't know my days of the week lol as much as we go over it I would hope I know it even though sometimes some of my colleagues and I tend to switch days lol. Oh well we are human right?! What's wrong with trying to fast forward the week... just sayin'

Be blessed always,

Mrs. Ginnie

ADDICTED to Anchor Charts!!! Martin Luther King Jr Anchor Chart

Yup, the title to this post says it all! I'm SO addicted! I got inspired by a few I seen on Pinterest. I always made them but not as beautiful as some I seen. I figured I'm going to spice up my anchor charts and use them often and to preserve them I will have to make a trip to Lakeshore and laminate them. Anchor charts are a great tool for any grade level it makes thinking visual and fun. It also builds a classroom full of literacy. It's also an effective support tool to build on instruction after a lesson you taught. Besides my pre-kinders love it they love them so much they want to see more. Sooo I'm going to give them what they want. They also love the colors I use in them! Yes, I am a very colorful girl my classroom has to have cute bright colors!

Here is the anchor chart I made for Martin Luther King Jr. I will post the rest of the stuff I did that week once I take all the pics

My pre-kinders are SUPER smart I loved their responses to this amazing man!

My absolute FAVORITE response was Kenneth's. I also loved the attitude he gave with it.

Like DUH Mrs. Ginnie he is awesome! Lol! I loved the response so much I made it's own label.

I leave you with this beautiful quote that means so much. Always take the first step with everything you do that is the most important one! He truly was an amazing man!

My Germany Bulletin Board

As promised I wanted to share the cute Germany bulletin board we made for International Week. It was fun learning about Germany and my pre-kinders loved it. I made this to tie in with the ball study for Creative Curriculum and Germany of course. My pre-kinders also loved the German jersey I drew. Hope you like!

I had to take it from different angles because of the way the hallways are in my school.

International Week: Hallo Deutschland (Hello GERMANY)

Last week was international week at my school. For those of you that don't know international week is when you take your class on an international trip to other countries around the world. At my school the country was picked by my director and randomly assigned. I was given Germany. I have nothing against Germany BUT I was a bit disappointed only because I was thinking "What am I going to do?!" The minute I received that email with my country I started searching and unfortunately I BARELY found anything.  At least not nothing to my liking (there was only like 3 crafts for Germany) UNTIL I realized that we are focusing on a ball unit with Creative Curriculum and that's when my brain started thinking. Not only will I talk about German culture but I will make a BIG hype about their FOOTBALL! Overall it was a great country to work on I must admit it was a challenge but the turn out was great and the children had lots of fun!

Here is what my week looked like:

 Monday Day 1

Focus Vocabulary:

Similar
Difference

I introduced the country and the vocabulary words to the children. They were very excited about learning about a new country. I also previously had a talk with them in the beginning of the New Year explaining that now they are BIG boys and girls and they will be learning a lot more new and exciting things. I spoke about the flag and they were able to tell me the colors and the shapes they found in the flag. We also did a comparison of Germany's flag and the United States flag. The responses were GREAT!

Responses:

* "They both have 3 colors." (Germany black, red, and yellow U.S. red, white, and blue)
* "They are not the same. They only have red the same."
* "The (United States) of Amenica (America) has a lot of stars. Germ (Germany) doesn't."
* "They are similar because they are both a flag for a country." (I really loved this response)
* "The United States America got more shapes on it. It got three. Three shapes square, stars, and rectangles." (This was a great observation too)

For a craft:

I had each table create the German flag with paint and their hand-prints. In Pre-K sequencing is very important. So I made things a little tricky for them I placed one plate on each table (table 1 black, table 2 red, table 3 yellow). I wanted to see if the children would be able to work as a team and go to the right table and put the colors in order the way they saw it on the flag. I didn't have no display flag that was also done purposefully. It was great to see the team work and the debates going on in each table on which color comes next. Each table did great and was able to work together and figure out the correct order of the German flag. I will post pictures soon!

Of course the children LOVED getting dirty with the paint although I do have some that want to wash their hands the minute they see the paint on their hands lol (yup, these are girls). That's my lovely assistant working with table 3.

Tuesday Day 2

Today I went over facts about Germany with the children. They were amazed by these facts:

• In Germany they speak German.
• Germany is one of the wealthiest countries.
• Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Germany.
• 99% of Germans know how to read.
• The population of Germany is about 82 million.

Then I proceeded to show the children this short but great video on Germany.

They were amazed that by the architecture of Germany. A lot of the girls loved that Germany has castles. They also loved the mountains and beautiful green grass. Of course, the boys loved the part with the trains, jets and the factory building the cars. This was a great visual for the children and they loved the music too!


Wednesday Day 3

Today I spoke a lot about the sports in Germany.  I chose to talk about the sports today because I wanted to tie it into the ball study so we spoke about Germany's popular sport football (soccer). We went over the differences even though the name is similar to our football.  The children responded, "that's not football Mrs. Ginnie that's soccer" so I explained it to them. I also showed them pictures.  They also compared the the two sports our football vs. their football.  This was a lot of fun!

Thursday Day 4

Today we went over the taste of Germany.  We spoke about all the delicious foods and German culture (clothes, beliefs, and traditions). I also showed them pictures.  The children were shocked that pretzels are from Germany.  One of my students said, "but Mrs. Ginnie how can pretzel be from Germany when my mommy bought it at the zoo!"  I thought this was a super cute response because he was amazed that the zoo had pretzels and that mommy got it from Germany lol.  I explained to the children that we have a lot of foods that was originally made in another country and its either shipped here or we make a similar recipe for it. Yup, this conversation on pretzels was the main topic of the children's conversation all day lol.

Friday Day 5

Today was the last day of our trip to Germany.  We ended our trip with a BANG!  First I spoke to the children about the sounds of Germany.  We listened to German music and they saw the dance and attire. I also taught them how to say hello and have a good day in German.

Since the school was going to have a parade we made mini German flags.  Then I gave a the children a BIG surprise by telling them we are going to make PRETZELS (cooking activity)!  They were so excited. This was also a great sensory tool they had fun molding the dough and making the shape of the pretzel. I used this great recipe the only thing is I substituted the sugar for honey buttery soft pretzel recipe it was quick and easy. They ate their pretzel with applesauce.  They loved this combo.  I decided might as well dip it in something since some people eat it with a mustard sauce but I know the children will not want that because let's be honest what kid really likes mustard?!

For the parade we marched up and down the halls and the children were greeting everyone in German.  We was also chanting "Ger-ma-ny, Ger-ma-ny is the country to be! Ger-ma-ny, Ger-ma-ny, Ger-ma-ny!"  We even had other children especially toddlers that were doing other countries chanting Ger-ma-ny with us it was so cute!

Welcome!

Hello and a warm welcome to my blog! I am a Pre-K teacher of about 4 years and I must say I absolutely LOVE teaching pre-k! I always had a passion for teaching since young although when you are trying to figure out "what you want to be when you grow up" you go through many different choices but at heart I was ALWAYS a teacher.  I would take my cousins and younger siblings and teach them things about strangers, reading, math etc. it seemed to come naturally and I was able to teach them a lot. I was also very observant of what they had problems with too.

I had a few different career choices I went from wanting to be a model to then wanting to be a vet. Then in college I wanted to be a pediatric nurse to then thinking about social work. Then I started to think mor about being a teacher. I starts thinking back on all the teachers I had in my life and what an impact they made on me especially one teacher in particular, Mr. Major. He helped me through the toughest moments in my life and I knew that from then on out if I became a teacher I wanted to help change the lives of children especially in low income communities.

Being a Pre-K teacher within the UPK program is a wonderful experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love teaching 4-5 year olds. It's so much fun and you can do so much with them. I made this blog because sometimes I come up with things that people love and I'm told that I am very creative and I would like to show it and help other teachers too, as well as share things that I find online to help with certain themes. I hope you enjoy my blog and please invite others to follow me as well.

Hugs,

Mrs. Ginnie