Happy Birthday Giveaway!

Yesterday was my birthday and I had just a fabulous day at summer school. My sweet teacher friend brought me donuts and an iced coffee, gave me a fabulous gift, and then surprised the K team with lunch! I brought popsicles and we sat and watched Word World while eating popsicles before dismissal. The BF planned a great dinner last night and I was home and in bed by 10pm....my kind of night! 

Today my girlfriends and I are heading to a cute little Color Me Mine-esque place where you can drink a glass of vino as you paint away. I am so excited! 

I'm a big fan of extending birthday celebrations [I'm pretty sure I celebrated my 21st for an entire month!] and I wanted to include all my sweet friends out here in blogland. I'm having my very first giveaway to celebrate! You can enter to win a $26 Amazon gift card...check out the details below!

You can enter up to 5 times! Leave a separate comment with your email address for each entry :) 

1 Entry: Follow my blog 

1 Entry: Follow Littlest Scholars on Facebook

1 Entry: Follow me on Pinterest

1 Entry: Blog about this giveaway

1 Entry: Follow Littlest Scholars on TpT

I will randomly select a winner on June 29, 2012. 

Thanks for helping extend my birthday celebration! :) 

I wouldn't want any party guests to leave empty handed...so go grab your goodie bag at my TpT shop! 

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Playdough Letter Mats [Freebie!]

Summer school began on Friday and I am nothing short of exhausted. I only teach until 12:45 each day but I am spent and ready for a nap as soon as I get home. Is this what having 3 weeks off does to a teacher? I'll go ahead and blame it on the 95 degree weather.

Meeting my incoming kinder kiddos was very exciting! I have a fabulous class this year... I've got a good mix of kiddos and, unlike last year, an even mix of boys and girls. Meeting my kiddos reminded me how much we have to teach kinders before we can actually teach them. I asked my kiddos to trace their names today and a few students stared blankly at me. Thus began the "how to trace" mini-lesson. I've already taught the "appropriate use of the restroom" mini lesson, the "how to sit on the carpet" mini lesson, and the "how to open my milk and use my napkin instead of my shirt" mini lesson. Once we get the basics of being in kindergarten down, we're diving right into academics. We have ambitious literacy and math goals this year and not a minute can go to waste!

I introduced a few, very basic literacy centers today so my kiddos could work busily as I assessed each student. I introduced our play dough letter center and it was a hit! We use play foam instead of play dough though. Play foam is easy for students to mold and never dries out...its just perfect! Anyway, I posted the playdough letters mats to TpT and you can grab them for f-r-e-e by clicking the picture below. They'll make a great addition to your literacy centers for the beginning of the school year!

 

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Playing Catch-Up!

It's been a few days and I have so much to catch you up on! My speech at the event last Friday went very well! The spotlight was so bright in the auditorium that I seriously couldn't see anyone in the audience. It was just perfect!

Yesterday I began Mission Crate Seats. I got the wood from our local True Value...only $13 for the wood, enough to make 8 crate seats. I bought foam seat cushions in packs of 4 for $6.97 at Wally World and heavy duty fabric to cover the cushions on clearance for only $2 per yard. Now I just have to decide on the cutesy fabric I want to cover the seats with. Decisions, decisions. I'll be posting pictures when the project is not strewn about my kitchen completed.

I also received my copy of In Pictures and In Words by Katie Wood Ray for our book study! Head on over to Mrs. Will's blog to grab the bookmark and participate...all the fun starts on June 22.

Last thing, friends...Jennifer at

 

is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her blogaversary! There are lots of goodies up for grabs including a $20 gift card to Amazon! I'm giving away my Beach Math and Literacy Packet and there are other TpT treats as well. Click her button above to go and check it out!  

Off to get ready to meet my new kiddos in just two days! 

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I've Got Butterflies..and Currently

So I have to speak at an event tomorrow in front of over 300 people...podium, microphone, spotlight, the whole shebang and I am starting to get nervous. Put me in front of a bunch of kiddos and I can sing and dance and make a total fool out of myself no problem, but in front of grown ups I'm beet red and shaking in my boots. So in an effort to distract myself, I'm linking up with Farley for the June Currently...

Africa because I would l-o-v-e to go on a safari. I went on a cruise this year to Cozumel and although I was scared out of my mind that I'd be murdered and turned into a drug mule, we had a fabulous time! I grew up 20 minutes from the beach and I miss it terribly! I live over 5 hours from a beach now and am dying to have my toes in the sand at least once this summer. 

Now, back to rehearsing my speech. Please tell me I'm not the only teacher who still gets stage fright! 

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Summer Update!

Isn't it crazy how we still manage to stay so busy even when we're on summer break?! Since my last day 2 weeks ago I've gone to Kentucky for a friend's wedding, visited Cincinatti, Nashville, and Memphis. The wedding was beautiful, sweet, and so personal.

BF and I at the beautiful country wedding.

Cincinatti was h-o-t but we went to a Reds game and I ate my weight at the Taste of Cincinatti...have you ever had fried PB & J? You MUST try it...delicious! 

We came back home and then had house guests for the past week or so.  We finally have the house back to ourselves and it is eerily quiet (doesn't help that we live in the middle of nowhere). I haven't done one thing for my classroom or accomplished any of my pinterest projects and you know what, I'm okay with it. It's been great to just relax and enjoy sweet summer. 

I start summer school next Friday so I've got to kick into gear shortly. Is anyone else teaching summer school? I'd love to hear about other summer school programs and curriculums! 

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