Back in Action

I've been a little MIA lately.  The end of the school year came fast and furious for me.  I had several new 3 year old students and TONS of IEP meetings.  It was a challenging year to say the least.  At the end of the year, I also made a tough, but necessary choice to leave my school in Milwaukee.  I love my students and the staff, but this was best for my family.  My husband is a small town guy who never adjusted well to the city, so after 5 years, we decided to move back to the area where we both grew up.  Having our daughter in November really made it clear that we needed to be closer to our family.

So, we put the house on the market and began making plans to move from one side of Wisconsin to the other.  I took a job with small, rural school district.  I'm very nervous because it's going to be a big change from Milwaukee.  My caseload will be much smaller, but I'm going from teaching K3-K5 Special Ed to K4-5th Special Ed.  I've spent a lot of the summer nervously researching upper grades and trying to make some plans.  I am going to post later this month a before and after of my new classroom.  I've been chronicling some of the prepping on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK!  Click on the links to check it out!

Since I can't get into my classroom regularly yet, I've been focusing on some new products. I also gave my exisisting sight word writing cards a facelift, Check them out below!

I'm very excited for the coming year and look forward to sharing awesome activities, tips, and pictures with you!!  See you soon!

Kelsey

Eggs, Jelly Beans, & a Trip to the Movies

This week was our last week before Spring Break.  As much as I love teaching, I am looking forward to a nice long break.  The weather here in Wisconsin hasn't been very spring like but hopefully it can still be a relaxing few days away.

This week started by talking about Easter egg hunts.  We talked what eggs looked like in the carton and how eggs for hunting look.  After that, we completed a writing activity where each student worked on coloring, writing their names, and color identification.  Most of our writing activities are centered around my littler learners names and then have a little added flair to them.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Tuesday was a special day.  As part of a school-wide positive behavior incentive program, my students earned a trip to the movie with 170 other kids from our school.  My little learners were so excited, but I underestimated what a movie with 3 and 4 year olds would be like.  Thank goodness our school had the theatre all to themselves.  All in all, it was a very fun experience.

The next day, we were back to business as usual. We did not do a new letter of the week this week as it was a short week, so instead we reviewed by playing different games on the SmartBoard.  We also worked on a jelly bean interactive reader.  My students had to count the beans, write or trace the number in the sentence, and then color the beans by the word in the sentence.  You can find the reader in my Jelly Bean Early Learning Pack or by itself in my store by clicking the pictures below.

We continued the jelly bean learning on Thursday by sorting 6 different colored jellybeans.  This was of course my little learners favorite activity because once they were done, they could eat the jelly beans!  The mats are also in my Jelly Bean Early Learning Pack.

No short, before holiday week would be complete without a lot of playing.  This little lady decided that she was going to be a loner during iPad time and play with the blocks.  How could I say no?

If you think your little learners would have as much fun as mine did with these activities you can find them here:

   

I will be taking the next week to work on some products, do some planning, and enjoy some time with family both near and far.  I hope everyone else is enjoying their spring breaks or long holidays.