Rules and procedures are soooooo important to establish at the beginning of the year with any age, but especially with kindergarten!  
 
This is one of my absolute FAVORITE books to read to my kiddos at the beginning of the year!  I always read it before we explore math manipulatives.  In this book, the Mine-O-Saur wants everything to be his and does not want to share anything with his school friends.  The Mine-O-Saur realizes that if he wants to have friends, he is going to have to share and the ending of the book is so cute!
   
I love this book because it is so easy to reference not being like the Mine-O-Saur was at the beginning of the story while they are exploring the manipulatives.  They get so into sharing and it is so cute to see them excited to share with their classmates.
 
This book is available from Scholastic and is definitely worth investing in!
 
Click the picture below to link-up and share what books you like to use at the beginning of the year for teaching rules and procedures.
http://mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com/2014/08/book-talk-tuesday-wiggles-learns-rules.html
 
Happy Beginning of the School Year!!
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What a great Blog Hoppin' Week this has been!  I've been able to read a lot of awesome ideas this week from other teachers which is a lot of the reason I wanted to participate in this myself!  Here is a little about what I love to teach!

Here are some of my favorite activities to do with my students throughout the year:

Veterans Day - I LOVE doing this activity with my students!  I think it is so important to teach students about important days such as Veterans Day.  Students use a sponge to make the shirt look like camouflage.  

Penguins - We usually teach about penguins when we talk about what different animals do in the winter.  There are tons of great non-fiction and fiction penguin books.  This is the cutest little penguin activity that also has a writing piece along with it.  

Addition with Dominoes - An edible domino for math?!?!  How FUN!  I usually do this with my students when we are learning addition.  This is made using a graham cracker, pretzel stick, icing, and m&m candy.  I have them go around and record the number sentence for the edible dominoes their friends made in their "Notebook of Learning."  Of course at the end, they get to eat their math!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Snack - This is another fun thing to do and the kids love it!  We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then make this snack using a banana, pretzel sticks, chocolate chips, and red and green Jell-O powder. 

Check out my TpT store for a lot of fun FREEBIES!!  
 
http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2014/08/meet-teacher-what-friday-with-freebie.html
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Here is what my schedule looks like! 

And on a different note...I ordered this book and it came in the other day.  I CANNOT wait to read it and play the song for my kiddos!!  It is sooooo cute!!
 
http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2014/08/teacher-week-when.html

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These are the labels I am using on my book baskets.  I am hoping this will help me stay more organized with my huge book collection!  I got most of the clipart from My Cute Graphics.  Love that website!!

This is the communication log I am using to keep myself organized with family communication.  I copied a bunch and put them in a 3-prong folder.  Grab your free copy from my TpT store by clicking the picture below!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Communication-Log-1367685

 http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2014/08/teacher-week-why-organization-free-item.html 

Wishing every teacher an organized school year!!


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Enjoy a few pictures from my classroom!  This is just a quick post!

 

http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2014/08/teacher-week-my-classroom-digs.html 

 
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So I am loving all of these blog link-ups and I am enjoying reading about other bloggers so I am going to participate too!  Some of this information was on my other link-up blog post, but a lot of it is new!

Here is a little more about some of my favorites...

Target
I seriously love this store!  Their dollar section usually has the best things and I always find something for my classroom.  My family thinks that I go to Target every day and they might just be right!!  (But I would never admit that hahahaha!)

Christmas

 I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!  Christmas is such a magical holiday!!  This year we had an "Elf on the Shelf" visit our classroom!  SO.MUCH.FUN!  The kids voted for a name and they voted for Jingle.  Look at what Jingle did with the pattern blocks in that picture!! 

Macaroni and Cheese
I love macaroni and cheese!  This was a seafood mac and cheese with crab in it...are you drooling yet??!?!  Seriously SO delicious!  I love trying mac and cheese from different restaurants because they are usually all so different!  

Leprechaun Traps
We do this lesson every year with the kids when St. Patrick's Day rolls around and every year I love it more and more!  It is such an awesome lesson - there is a design process involved, writing/drawing/labeling the trap, writing how their trap will catch a leprechaun, math is involved because we have them tell how many of each item they used, and more writing after to tell what happened with their traps.  Look at all that learning and fun happening at the same time!!  Exactly why it is my favorite lesson to do!  

The Hello, Goodbye Window
I LOVE this book!!  I pretty much cry every time I read it!  I usually save this book to read when we have Grandparent's Day at school and it is an absolutely perfect Grandparent's Day book.  Definitely worth buying for your classroom library collection if you don't already own it!    

You can link-up by clicking the picture below!
http://imbloghoppin.blogspot.com/2014/08/teacher-week-who.html

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So who doesn’t love Jeopardy?!?!  I personally like the Teen Tournament or the Kid’s Jeopardy episodes because I usually know all the answers hahaha!  That picture on my "Meet Teacher Blogger" picture is from when my mom, sister, and I went to LA and we were able to be in the audience of Jeopardy – FUN!!

I am new to the blogging community and thought this looked like a fun post!  Thanks so much to Falling Into First for doing this!  This will be my 11th year teaching.  I have been at two schools, taught second grade for one year, and the rest have been with my kindergarten friends!  I love teaching kindergarten!  It is such a neat age and watching them learn new things is one of my favorite parts about teaching kindergarten. 

My husband and I live in Maryland and we have two furry children – a cat and a dog.  We are big football fans and love cheering on the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Redskins.  We also love traveling and taking day trips.  One of our favorite trips was a trip to Bermuda!  It is absolutely beautiful there and a place I didn’t realize I would enjoy as much as I did.    
 Even though I'm dressed in Redskins gear, I'm still wearing my Ravens earrings!!

 Love this picture from Bermuda!!


These are a few of my favorite things
People: Family and Friends
Stores: Target, Michael’s, TJMaxx
Hobbies: Baking, Crafty things, Traveling
TV Shows: The Little Couple, The Bachelor, Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars, Drop Dead Diva (only on reruns now), pretty much anything on ABC Family/Hallmark/Lifetime
Movie: Overboard, The Wizard of Oz, Sweet Home Alabama, 13 Going on 30, and I'm a sucker for most "Chick Flicks"
Books: Hunger Games Series, Divergent
Sports Team: Baltimore Ravens
Food: Macaroni and Cheese

If you weren’t a teacher, what would you want to be?
I have always wanted to be a teacher since I was younger.  I was one of those kids who would set up stuffed animals and dolls and play school.  However, if I was not a teacher, I would want to have a bakery.  I love to make cupcakes, cake balls, peanut butter balls, cookies, and many other sweet treats!  I took some cake decorating classes because I didn’t have the patience for cake decorating and now I love it!
 Peanut Butter Balls - A favorite of soooo many people!  One of my most requested treats to make!

 One of my favorite batch of cupcakes that I have designed!  This was one of my first times using fondant on cupcakes and I LOVE how they turned out!   

 Another one of my favorite cupcakes just because they are so fun!
  
Three little words that describe you:
Honest, Friendly, Hard-Working

Finish this sentence, “________, said no teacher ever!!”
“I think I need to delete my Pinterest account...said no teacher EVER!!"
Hahahaha!!  What did we do before Pinterest ideas?!?!?!

It’s your birthday and you can invite anyone (dead or alive) to the party.  Who are you inviting?
I would obviously be inviting my family and friends to my birthday, but if we are talking famous people I think I would like to have Kellie Pickler sing at the party (I just love her from back when she was on American Idol!); Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lawrence because they are my favorite actresses; and William and Kate and their adorable son just because I think they seem like the nicest people!!
  
If someone wrote a book about your life, what would be the title?
“Always on the Go”

You get to pick one superpower.  What is it?
Some sort of healing superpower since I have broken my foot…not exactly how I pictured the beginning of the year!  Yikes! 

What’s your favorite quote or saying?
“Once in awhile, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.”
(This was our wedding quote!!)

If you had to sing one song on American Idol, what would it be?
I have always joked that I would sing “The Tooty Ta” by Dr. Jean OR Britney Spears “Baby One More Time”
WOW those are two COMPLETELY different songs!!!

Are you a morning person or a night owl?
During the summer I am a night owl for sure, but during the school year I like getting up early and being more on a routine.   

What’s your favorite resource that you’ve created in your TpT shop?
Favorite freebie: First Day of School because over 400 people have downloaded this so I know that other teachers are excited about using this recourse in their classroom!  Get your FREEBIE by clicking the picture below (it will take you to my TpT store)!!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Day-of-School-1366975

Favorite item for sale: POP! ABC Game because this is such a fun game for little ones!

Share something we might not know about you!
 I can play the flute and piano! 

You're next!!  Click the picture below to link up and answer some questions about yourself!
http://fallingintofirst.blogspot.com/2014/08/meet-teacher-linky.html
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