My Teachers Pay Teachers sale has been extended!

I decided to extend my 20% off Teacher Appreciation sale on Teachers Pay Teachers through Friday! So if you didn't get a chance to take advantage of the big TPT sale on Tuesday and Wednesday, here is your chance to take advantage of saving a few dollars. :) Happy Shopping!!!!

Kerry's Teacher Pay Teacher Shop

Teacher Appreciation Week!!!

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week! Have you heard about the big sale TPT is having? On May 7th and 8th you can save up to 28% by using the code TAD13.  My entire shop will be on sale during this time so you will be able to save 28% on all of my products! Check out my shop at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kerry .

Also if your shop is participating in the sale please post a link in the comments. I would love to come check out your products and follow your shop! :)

Spring is in the air!!!!

This year is flying by! Spring has sprung and I have been busy working on some new products for my shop. In the spirt of spring, I have created a ladybug counting book that can be found in my TPT shop.

What are you teaching about in your classroom right now? Any fun units coming up? We have our big ocean unit on the horizon. It is my absolute favorite unit of the year! I don't know if it's because it was the very first unit I taught when I was a student teacher eons ago or just all the wonderful animals and nonfiction texts available, but I just love teaching about the ocean.

HUGE Teachers Pay Teachers Sale!

My Teachers Pay Teachers Shop is holding a back to school sale for the next two days! All of my items are 20% off and use the code BTS12 for additional savings! Don't miss out on these great items! In my shop you will find behavior management tools, classroom stationary sets, alphabet games, math practice, and much more. So check it out during the big TPT Back to School Sale!

Beginning of another school year!

As the beginning of another school year is looming, I know everyone is thinking about classroom setup and management tools. Today I would like to feature my behavior management plan that I created for my classroom many years ago.

I've always used a traffic light behavior management plan. It is simple for even my youngest students to understand. I've put together a packet of wonderful tools to go along with this plan. If you are interested, the packet can be found in my TPT and Teachers Notebook stores.

This packet includes the following letters and forms that I use in my kindergarten classroom:

Letter to the Parents:
This is a letter that I send home at the beginning of year to explain the classroom behavior system to the parents.

Weekly Behavior Chart:
I used this behavior chart in my student's Take Home Folder. In my classroom, I use a light system to monitor behavior throughout the day. At the end of the day the student's are responsible for coloring in the block for the day, either green, yellow, or red to reflect their behavior and then I initial the box to ensure the have correctly recorded their behavior for the day. I also require the parents to initial each night to let me know they have seen the behavior chart. I use the comment section to relay to the parents any issues or accomplishments that the child had throughout the day or the parent can comment in that section back to me about any follow-up they have. Later in the year I will often have the student write what their bad choices were for the day and what the consequences were for their action or what good choices they had made for the day.

Traffic Light Chart:
I print this out on card stock and laminate it to post by the "How are we doing today?" pocket chart as a reminder.

"Caught You Being Good" Slips:
I cut these out and keep them in a basket on my table. Anytime I see a student making exemplary choices, I fill out what I caught them doing as a way to celebrate good behavior. I send the slip home in the student's home folder so the parents can see what their child was doing well with at school that day.

Red Light Report:
I use this form when a student has a red light. At the beginning of the year, I transcribe what the student says on the form. As the year progresses, the student takes over the responsibility of filling out what choices they made and what actions they are going to take to fix the problem.

Why had I never tried this helpful little tool before now?

Last week, I picked up a Fiskars circle punch like the one below to cut out some iron on tags I had made for my son's clothes for daycare. Well I haven't gotten around to printing those out yet, but today I made some positive reinforcement coins for my classroom using the punch. I'm in love! I think I need to get more of these in all different shapes! I cut out over 300 little circles in no time. This handy little punch saved me sooooo much time! I laminated all the coins, but the punch doesn't like to cut through the thick laminating so I'm having to cut all of the coins out of the laminating, which is taking forever, but I can't imagine how long this project would have taken if I didn't have this handy dandy punch.

Here are the coins I made. I plan on handing them out to the students for following directions and making good choices in class. After they earn 20, they will earn a trip to the treasure box. If you would like a copy of these, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers shop for a free copy. I printed these on cardstock, punched them out and laminated them.

Back-to-School Number Fun!

I've made some Back-to-School Number Cards that can be used to play games like Memory and Go Fish. Or put them in a pocket chart to let your students practice matching the numerals to the number words to the picture cards. These are a great way to build number sense and make a great addition to any math center. The Back-to-School Number Cards can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Teddy Bears Galore!

I've decided that the theme for my classroom this year is going to be teddy bears. They are just so cute and cuddly! I can't resist a cute teddy bear! I have been collecting teddy bears since I was a kid so I have quite the collection. Most of them are sitting in storage right now, so I figured why not use some them as a warm, fuzzy addition to my classroom.

Since I decided to use the teddy bear theme, I've been busy making all kinds of fun teddy bear 'stuff' for the classroom. I've created printable nameplates for the tables, cubby tags to label each child's cubby, stationery/letterhead for letters home, sticker/incentive charts, and 2 in. x 4 in. labels to label home folders, bins, etc. I'm really excited about the stuff I made.

If you have a teddy bear theme going in your classroom or just like the stationery set, check it out in my Teacher Pay Teacher store.

FREEBIE Linky Party

Who doesn't just love FREEBIES?!?! Lauren at Just Add Clipart is hosting a freebie linky party today, so be sure to checkout all the wonderful free stuff for your classroom!

My freebie is a Teddy Bear Counting Book. It combines practicing counting and writing of numbers and number words. Check it out at my TPT store.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Right now my kids favorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. They can recite the whole book backward and forward! Since we have been working on letter identification and letter sounds with my oldest two girls (2 and 4 years old), I decided to create a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter game.

I made cards for each uppercase and lowercase letter.  I printed the cards out on cardstock, cut them out, and laminated them. My kids love having their very own Chicka Cards. First we played it as a letter matching game, practicing identifying each upper and lowercase letter and matching the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter. We also played memory with the cards. we turn all of the cards upside down and take turns picking two cards to flip to try to pair up the matching letters. My oldest daughter also had an awesome idea the other day. She wanted to use the cards to play "Go Fish!" I love the idea so we are going to try playing that today. 

I have the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom cards posted on Teachers Pay Teachers if you are interested in trying them out. 

Thank you for visiting my blog! I new to blogging so I'm still learning how to do this so please bear with me as I learn and try new things.