Oh Happy Day

So I forgot to post about this, but when I returned from Thanksgiving break, I walked in and immediately saw this:

A WALL MOUNTED PROJECTOR!!

Oh Happy Day!

 I was beyond excited because I HATE these cords.

Funny how it's the little things that get to you, huh? Or maybe it's just me :(

I mean it shouldn't matter so much because I used an OHP for years, YEARS, 

but technology is spoiling us I suppose.

 So GOOD-BYE projector sitting on my ugly (but useful, so no I won't get rid of you) cabinet!

 GOOD-BYE cords that freak me out every time someone trips over them (shhh, hardly happens) and I worry my projector will fall.

 I thought for a moment about bringing the tables closer to our Smart Board, but naaah,

I love having my kiddos close to the screen while doing calendar or other SB activities,

and there's no better way to enjoy a Christmas movie before break ;)

Mama of 5 & Teacher of 21 Goes Missing

I've been MIA in Bloggyland, I know.

I've been enjoying my students at school and my familia at home.

And in between catching up on my TV shows, but more importantly, my zzzz's.

I did most of my shopping on the 24th, if that tells ya anything.

(Note to self:  Keep traffic anger in check, parents may be in the area) :-/

This year we made it to the Inland Empire Christmas lights, WOW!  I always grab some food or hot chocolate, load up the car, and we go Christmas light looky on our last day of school before break, but we were so wiped out, we waited to visit this entire neighborhood of lights.

 Not the best picture, but super cute Kids Around the World wishing us a Merry Christmas.

 I think next year we'll try walkin' it.

My poor cutie pie fell asleep and missed out because the line was soooo long.

I hope you were able to spend a beautiful Christmas with your family.

Wishing everyone out there peace and happiness :)

A Halloween Sale

I love Halloween!

We had such a fun time at out Halloween Festival yesterday.

My lil' cutie pie said, "I can't believe they have this at my school!"

It was really great to see our kiddos and their familias :)

Wish I had taken pictures.

I'm having 20% off my little TPT store.

Just click the witchy boots above :)

Spiders...Eeek!

I cannot stand anything creepy crawly!

But spiders, I don't know, they don't bother me so much.
I even brought home a spider that had lil' babies so I can show my class.  I couldn't believe those were the eggs alongside the poor mama :(

My kids wondered if I had been body snatched, they couldn't believe I brought it home.
"Mama, who are you?!"

  Anyways, we just finished Spider Unit,

so I thought I would share some pics with y'all.

Having Fun With Words

Anyone out there still reading my lil' blog?

Anyone?  Anyone?

:)

I cannot believe how busy and tired I am.

Anywho, I wanted to share some pics of a fun activity we do every week to review our spelling and high frequency words.

I number and write our words on our Smart Board and put an interactive dice or two.

A student touches or rolls the dice,

 and the rest of the students write the word for that number on their white board.

My kiddos love this!
 When we don't roll a 1 for example, I encourage them to chant,
one, one, one,
a student rolls the dice and
we cheer or awe when it lands.

Give it a try, your kiddos will love it!

University Words

I am loving First Grade!

Love the kids I have this year, just awesome!

Now I remember why I taught first grade for 9 years.

We started Read to Someone, and just like the Sisters said in their book, my kiddos LOVED it!

I just loved hearing them tell our new student why we're reading, 

"because, the more we read, the better we get at it"

"because reading is fun"

"because we love to read"

ahhhhhh, sweet music to my ears :)

On another note, our school is all about going to college!

Each class has a University or College they represent, (go Trojans!)

we hang our University flag outside our door, (go Trojans!)

and wear our t-shirts every Wednesday (go Trojans!)

Each grade level is also responsible for teaching university words,

so of course I had to use KPM Doodles super cute banners.

Hope you can use, just clicky below
and drop me a note if you do :)

or in español :)

I only used words for K and First, but let me know if you're interested in 2nd-5th.

First Grade Pics...Finally

4 day weekend, woo-hoo!
Just what I needed after 3 weeks of school.

I finally remembered to take some pics, but I wanted to share this cool App called Photosynth.

Here's a before picture of my new classroom.

 This was very helpful when I returned home and had to decide how I wanted my class layout.

This was the only after picture I took, although my classroom wasn't complete, but it gives you a good idea of how to use the App.

 And of course, I forgot I had this cool App when I took pictures this week :(

My door sign my hubby made for me a couple of years ago, along with our some Super Heroes.

This is our library.  Although I'm trying to use Super Heroes, I couldn't resist putting our comfy Teddy.

 Writing

Word Wall

Word Bank

 Color Words

The World

with a graph displaying students and their Kinder teacher.

Luckily, I got to loop with 14 of my students :)

Language Arts & Whole Group Area

Math

 Guided Reading Table

(sorry so messy)

 My Goals

and student book boxes for Read To Self.

Have a great long weekend amigas!

You deserve it ;)

So now that I've had some time to relax, I'm catching up with all the super ideas in Bloggyland, so I'm joining a Linky hosted by Swimming into Second Grade

Sooo tired...

I'm sorry sweet friends that I have been MIA.

This is our 3rd week of school and I have been so exhausted :(

And as tired as I am, I have to say that I am soooooo thankful for my kids!

I have such awesome Firsties!

We started The Daily 5 with Read to Self (Leer Solito).

My kids love it, LOVE IT!

I promise I'll have pictures soon.

We just get so busy that I forget to click.

I finally finished translating the First Grade CCSS with the help of my Bloggy pal, Beth.

I hope to post that soon too.

On another awesome note, I was so happy to see that I have 253 followers!
I have to say, it put such a big smile on my face!
Gracias amigas :)

I Puffy Heart DJ Inkers

And now I love them even more, why?

That's right, they're offering a commercial license :)

Ohhhh, the possibilities :)

I have pre & post pics of my classroom, I'll try to post tomorrow.

Today we're having a Surprise Birthday Fiesta for my mama,

so I need to get moving.

 And who doesn't love a sale?

I'm hoping to get lots of shopping in tomorrow, after our fiesta :)

Common Core In Español & A Freebie

So... summer is slowly sliding, slipping away (darn, I couldn't think of another S word to finish).

I finally finished translating the Common Core Standards for Kindergarten in Spanish,  WHEW!

Since I'm more familiar with Kindergarten Standards, I completed these first and will finish up First Grade, hopefully before summer ends...summer ending?....sigh....

Anyways.... who doesn't love Deanna Jump?
She was so sweet and okayed for me to use her CCSS format.  They were a true labor of love, I'm tellin' ya.  I included 4 colorful theme/title sets for The Common Core Reading, Language Arts, Writing, and Math.  I also included "I can" (Yo puedo) and the "We can" (Podemos) statements, which I thought would be perfect if you recite your daily objectives orally with your class.

And because it's my dear mama's birthday (Feliz Cumpleaños Mom), you can find them on sale  if you click below:

I know how difficult it is sometimes to find anything in Spanish, so below you'll find a checklist for the Kindergarten Common Core Standards in Spanish.
I work a lil' backwards and made the cover page last, which I love, so I'll try to cute-ify the checklist later.  Just click on the pic to grab your free copy :)

Drop me a note/comment, question, anything if you snags ya a copy :)

Batman and Monkeys?

I love BATMAN!

Probably one of the main reasons I'm so willing to do a superhero theme this year :)

I had a great weekend with the familia, why?  We went to IMAX and saw
The Dark Knight Rises

AWESOME!

And what about monkeys?
I just uploaded a number review and matching set with this adorable monkey.

           

Hope you can use :)

Sorry For The Confusion

I've really tried to follow all the licensing policies out there regarding clipart.

I thought I was, but I guess I was a little mistaken.

So where I previously had some freebies on TPT

I found out that the licensing I purchased requires me to charge.
So I tried to keep the pricing low.
I'm sorry for the confusion.

Cute-ify Your Desktop

Hola bloggers!  I swear I get super motivated one day and the next several days I just love veggin' out (that sounds like something my son would make fun of me for, what's veggin' out mama?)

Anyways, my husband showed me this cute (I mean cool) way to label, decorate, umm I.D. (?) my files. 

So MAC users if you want your desktop files to go from this:

to cute-ifying them like this:

then just keep reading. 

1.  Open your clipart file (it's better if you use png clipart, so that the background doesn't show)

 2.  Double click the clipart  you want, it should open in Preview

3.  Hi-light image and Copy >Command C

then exit out of preview

4.  find the folder you want to cute-ify

5.  Right click on the folder and click >Get Info

6.  This window will pop up

notice the Images Folder is not hi-lighted (hi lit?)

7.  Click on the Images Folder, it will slightly hi-light

8.  Press paste > Command V

Exit out of Images Info

9.  Ta Da!  You have officially cute-ified your desktop :)

Whew!  It only took 9 steps :)
Let me know what if this worked for you, this is my first tutorial, (I feel so techy, shh don't tell my kids).
I would love to hear from ya :)