December Currently

I have waited eleven months for December to finally be here, and I'm so excited that it finally is! I can't believe that it is already here, but excited nonetheless. I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the December Currently, so here it goes.

Listening: I used to be the person who had to ALWAYS have music, television, or some kind of noise going on at all times just to be able to focus or feel at ease. Not anymore. Teaching has ruined that. After hearing my name five thousand times a day and hearing little voices all day long, I am finding that I will drive forty-five minutes home from work without realizing I didn't even have any music on, or I will sit on the couch and cuddle with my dog without turning the tv on. Silence has become so soothing to me. With break and Christmas right around the corner and my students in an uproar 24/7 over both events, silence is what I'm needing. 

Loving: Christmastime! I love Christmas as much as everyone else does; however, I refused to put any of my decorations or my tree up until after Thanksgiving. Call me old fashioned or whatever, but I didn't want to get so caught up in the excitement of Christmas, the buying of gifts and catching all of the deals for Christmas before Thanksgiving was even over, that I completely forgot about the purpose of the holidays- being thankful for the time that I have with my family, and that began with Thanksgiving before Christmas. As soon as Thanksgiving was over though, folks, IT. WAS. ON! And it has been on ever since. I'm vigilantly counting down the days until Christmas!

Thinking: I am as wound up about break being in three weeks than my kiddos, but I just know how to handle it a little a lot better. Thankfully we will be so busy with all of these various Christmas related parties and events here in Kindergarten that the time is sure to fly by... I hope. 

Wanting: I probably picked an awful time to start eating healthier since the holidays will be jam packed with yummy foods, but I am trying to get in a habit of making better eating choices so that when the holidays and special events come around, I can enjoy them without having any guilt. One of my good girlfriends talked me into going to a SGT, Small Group Training, class at the gym twice a week for six weeks, so I figured if I am going to get back into the gym and bust my booty, then I had better make it worth my while and get my eating in check. I'm three days in and have cut out all carbs until 6 p.m. each day, and then have a low carb dinner as well. It is about to suck the life out of me because I loooooooove my carbs and soda. I'm already about over my salads. Here is to hoping I can stick with it. Studies show it takes 66 days to create a new habit. I have 63 days to go. Ugh.

Needing: Sleep. I feel like I am always putting caffeine or sleep on this one, but honestly, I am just tired all of the time. ALWAYS!

Giving: I am happily giving away a Christmas freebie from my Christmas Literacy Pack. Click the image below to grab it. :)

If you enjoyed this freebie, check out my Christmas Literacy & Math Pack. (Both also sold separately.)

I hope everyone has a wonderfully safe and blessed holiday season! 

November Currently

I am so sad to see October leave, but that just means we are all one month closer to December, and that means closer to CHRISTMAS! I am linking with Farley over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for this month's currently. So, here it goes...

Listening: When working on anything, I always have music on. I have recently latched on to SafetySuit and have obsessively been listening to them on repeat on Spotify. 

Loving: My fiance, Alex, and I just got our engagement pictures in the mail this week and we are still just oozing over them. We are so impressed with our photographer, and we are even more excited for her to shoot our wedding now. 

Here is one of our favorite images from our engagement session. 

Photography by Christine Cherry Photography

Thinking: I have been sitting on the couch waiting for my medicine to kick in and working on some products for my TPT store, and now blogging, but I really need to get up and get dinner going before it gets any later. I haven't had much of an appetite with not feeling well, but some tortilla soup sounds amazing! Thankfully it is a simple meal that doesn't require too much prep or watch.

Wanting: I am battling a serious chest cold, complete with nasal congestion and chest/back pain. This has been going on for a week now, and I'm really just wanting nothing more than to be able to breathe so I can get a good night's rest. Is that too much to ask?! 

Needing: I had given up soda for three weeks when Oktoberfest rolled around in my town, and that was about the end of that. I decided to have a cheat weekend and it became a cheat week to a cheat rest of the month. I need to give it up again, but it is just so incredibly hard! I also need to get back into the gym. As soon as I get over this chest cold, it is on.

Reading: My mom and I had a girls' day and went and saw Best of Me based on the book by Nicholas Sparks, and I was a complete and utter emotional wreck during and after the movie. So many emotions that I wasn't, but should've, been prepared for knowing it was based from Nicholas Sparks, but still... Even though I don't typically see the movies before reading the books, and typically don't go back and read the book after seeing the movie, I do know that the books are almost always better, so I'm interested in reading more in depth into this emotional story. Seriously, go read it.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful November, full of yummy food and great times with family. 

Fall Favorites- Pumpkin Pickin'

Thanks for stopping by for the Fall Favorites Blog Hop! My name is Lindsey Law from Miss Law's Kinders, and I have a confession. I am OBSESSED with fall. I spend the majority of my year looking forward to fall, and I am in a much better mood when the fall weather begins making its way into Southern Indiana. My favorite thing about fall is all of the activities and events that go on. My favorite thing I get to do with my Kinders in the fall is our pumpkin picking field trip. What's so great about that? So much! Not only is it a fun time to go and pick pumpkins, but we also learn so much, too. This year we went on our pumpkin picking field trip somewhere different than the years before; we went to a farm in our county called Cornucopia. 

We were split into groups with the other kindergarten classes from our school and we went through different stations. The first station we went to was the animal station. We learned a lot about the farm animals they have at Cornucopia, and we even got to bottle feed a calf! My heart melted. So. Stinkin'. CUTE!

The next station we went to was the pumpkin learning station. We went inside a barn, sat on hay bales, learned all about the life cycle of a pumpkin, and got to see many different types of pumpkins. I even learned a few things like there are pink and blue pumpkins. Who knew?! We ended by getting to look at some of the bees they have at the farm they use for pollination.

Our third station was to do the long awaited PUMPKIN PICKING! We hopped on the hayride and rode over to the pumpkin field to find our perfect, small pumpkin.

We ended our day with a little free play in the hay maze, slides, and corn kernel pit.

Now that I have shared with you one of my favorite things to do in the fall with my Kinders, I'd like to share with you a freebie and a sale on my fall related products in my TPT store!

The freebie I am offering to all of you blog hoppers is this short and sweet pumpkin quantity discrimination activity. Students decide which pumpkin has the bigger number on each card and records their answer on their recording sheet. Perfect for a quick assessment, review for a RTI group, or practice for kindergarteners just learning the concept. Click the picture below to download this freebie.

I have a handful of great fall activities in my TPT store that I have marked down to just $1 until the end of the blog hop on the 27th, so go grab them while you can. Click any of the pictures below to go directly to that product. 

Thanks for coming by! Now hop on over to Primary Inspiration and see what her fall favorites are! 

(Click the button to be redirected.)

Scare & Share Blog Hop

Thanks for stopping by for the Indiana Teacher Blogger's Scare & Share blog hop. My name is Lindsey Law from Miss Law's Kinders, and I have the perfect freebie and $1 items just for you primary teachers. 

Let's start out with my freebie. This time of year, Kinders are just beginning to recognize the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. I have created a fun, simple matching game for your kiddos to practice their first sound fluency, letters, and sounds all in one! Perfect for Kinders and great review for First Graders. 

Not exactly what you need or you aren't a primary teacher? No worries! I created this product using my own Split Candy Corn clipart. Grab this extra clipart freebie, and create your own activity to meet your needs!

Now, on to my $1 items! 

Do your students love craftivities as much as mine do? I love craftivities, but only the ones that are made with the teacher in mind, and not just the students. What does that mean? Ever bought a product and it was in a bunch of pieces when it could have been more simplified so that there aren't so many pieces floating around for your kiddos to keep track of? All the time, right?! I always try to create crafts that have the least amount of pieces possible, I put all pieces that need to be copied in the same color on the same page so there is no confusion, and I make the directions quick and simple. My newest product is perfect for Halloween and is most definitely teacher/student friendly! 

Check out my Haunted House Glyph. Students will answer three simple questions on a recording sheet and will construct their haunted house based on their answers. Grab this just in time for Halloween and get it up on your walls! :) 

I realize that Fire Prevention Week was this past week, but my Fire Safety Literacy, Math, & Activities Pack is loaded down with literacy center activities, math center activities, an original Fire Safety book, three color by color words coloring sheets, and two fire related crafts. This pack is typically $4.50, but for you blog hoppers, it is $1 for these three days. Grab it now, use it later. 

Who doesn't love Pete the Cat, right? We do a Pete the Cat unit towards the beginning of the school year in my kindergarten classroom, and I created this activity to supplement the Pete the Cat story, 

I Love My White Shoes. We read the story and then brainstormed ideas of things we could step in that could turn our shoes different colors. We then did our writing of what we stepped in and what color it turned our shoes, colored the shoes the color from our writing, and then put the craft together. Talk about adorable... and SIMPLE! Remember what I said about making things teacher friendly? Here ya go again. :) Also, this is great for teaching cause and effect. I didn't go in depth with a cause and effect lesson with my Kinders, but you most certainly could with first or second grade. 

We always do a unit over healthy foods every year, so I created this math and literacy pack to supplement our unit. This pack is loaded down with center activities for both math and literacy. 

Now, continue on through our blog hop with Kinder Doodles to see what other goodies we all have in store for you. 

An InLinkz Link-up

October: Currently

I honestly can't believe that it is already October, but I couldn't be more excited! October is by far my favorite month of the year, with December coming in close second for Christmas purposes. October is the time of year I get to break out my scarves, celebrate my birthday, pick pumpkins, and use all of my favorite pumpkin scented items. I am linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her monthly Currently. Be sure to check this out because I have a goodie for all of you! So here it goes...

Listening: I have been so busy and had so much on my mind lately that I completely forgot all about doing this yesterday on the 1st of October. Thankfully my BFF, and Matron of Honor, Jena Hudson at Sew Much Music texted me and reminded me last night. So, here I am with my clothes for the work day in the dryer de-wrinkling while I sit and sip my V8 Energy drink and blog. 

Loving: As I explained above, I love October. Birthday, pumpkins, pumpkin scented everything, cooler weather, scarves, leggings, boots, etc.

Thinking: I am starting to get a little overwhelmed by all of the things that I have going on this month, but I am very blessed for all of it.  Just to name a few, this coming weekend the city I live in, Seymour, has it's annual Oktoberfest. I never miss a year of going, and this weekend will be no different. I finally get to take Alex this year since he isn't training for his next physique competition until November (thank goodness!), so I am excited to enjoy it with him. Alex and I have our engagement pictures in the morning on Sunday the 12th and meet with the pastor at the church we want to get married at that evening. We have our Fall Break the 13th through the 17th this month and plan to get a ton of wedding things checked off of my list. The end of the month doesn't slow down much either with my birthday, my in-laws celebrating all of our October birthdays (there is something like twelve of us!), some football and, of course, fall festivals and fall parties at school.

Wanting: I am EXHAUSTED! I have been getting back into the gym after work, and I don't know if that is draining the life out of me or what. All I know is that I seriously think I could sleep for a week.

Needing: I gave up soda a month ago, and my McDonald's Dr. Pepper on the way to school was seriously the best part of my day. I'm sure you can imagine how I feel now that I have cut it out of my life. I have added in a small can of V8 Energy: Orange Pineapple, but it just doesn't get me all the way through the day. Something has gotta give here for the above reason!

Trick or Treat: TREAT! I am going to discount my fire safety items in my store with Fire Prevention Week just around the corner. I have taken off a dollar on each item and will leave it off until after Fire Prevention Week. Check out my Fire Safety Literacy, Math, & Activities Pack, as well as my Firehouse Glyph (included in my activities pack and separately). Grab them while they are discounted!

Click the below pictures to view the item in my store.

Have a great October!

Giveaway Winner & a Freebie

Congratulations to Amy McRae for being randomly selected as my Fire Safety Giveaway winner! 

I am the unluckiest person in the world and I NEVER win giveaways when I enter. In case you just so happen to feel like you are the unluckiest person as well, I will be sending all of those who participated in my giveaway a little something special via email as a token of my appreciation for participating. I really do appreciate your interest and your time. Thank you!

Although Fire Prevention Week is October 5th-11th this year, the kindergarten classes at my school will be learning all about fire safety a week early. Regardless of when you are teaching fire safety at your school, it is important but can be so much fun! We have planned as a whole kindergarten to try our first PBL, Project Based Learning, project together this week that will go hand in hand with our fire safety unit. Check back later to see how we integrated PBL into our fire safety unit and to see how my Fire Safety Literacy, Math, & Activities Pack was used in my classroom. 

One of the many activities included in my pack is my Color by Color Words activity sheets. I love to use these as morning work or as an early finisher activity. Click here to grab a sample as a freebie. :)

A Fire Safety Giveaway!

Like all TPT sellers, I strive to make products that are quality, meaningful products that can be used to supplement instruction in the classroom. If I don't feel like a product is good enough to be presented to others, it doesn't get uploaded. So with that being said, I think all of my products are great; however, sometimes I begin to make a product and it far exceeds my expectations of what I had envisioned for it. I feel this way about my Fire Safety Literacy, Math, and Activity Pack that I recently completed and uploaded into my store.

I have put a lot of time into making this, and have already gone back in and added more activities twice because I just keep coming up with ideas. I finally have it the way I love it, and with Fire Prevention Week just around the corner, I want to share it in a giveaway for one of my followers! But first, a little prelude into the giveaway...

Here is a little sneak peek into this Fire Safety pack...

-Write the Room with Writing the Word and First Sound Fluency Differentiated Option

-Can, Have, Are Anchor Chart Labels and Pictures & Student Can, Have, Are Recording Sheets

-ABC Order with Fire Safety Words

-Safe or Dangerous?: Nonsense Word Fluency with Basic CVC Words & Blends Differentiated Option

-Syllable Sort: Cards and Student Recording Sheet

-Rhyming with Fire Words

-Label It! Sheets with Cut & Paste Word Banks

-Color by Color Words Student Sheets

-Original Fire Safety Book for Read Aloud

-Missing Number with One and Two Numbers Missing for Differentiation

-Number Ordering: 2s, 5s, and 10s

-Put Out That Fire! Quantity Discrimination

-Count the Room: Up to 10 and Up to 20 for Differentiation

-Fired Up About Measurement with Non-Standard Measurement

-Fire Collage: Great for Fine Motor Skills

-Three Thank You Card Templates

-Firehouse Glyph

This pack is geared more towards Kindergarten and beginning of the year 1st Grade, but can be altered to be used for interventions in 2nd Grade. 

To enter for your chance to win this product for free just in time for Fire Prevention Week in October, go and follow my TPT store and you're in!

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

September Currently

I can't believe that it is already time to do the September Currently with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade! I always enjoy these because it really causes me to sit down and reflect and think forward into the next month because it always makes me realize how quickly the next month has come. So, here it goes...

Listening: My BFF, Jena Hudson at Sew Much Music, is over spending the better part of the day with me, and our choice of music to play while working on TPT products and things for our classroom is always The Best of the 90's. Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, & N'SYNC really get the creative juices going. 

Loving: I know that I am in good company when I say that I am a fall fanatic, and I am seriously so ecstatic that it is not too far away anymore. I honestly think that fall is the only reason I didn't go into deep depression when summer break came to an end. I love pumpkin scented everything, and very little makes me happier than seeing it back out on the shelves right now. I'm looking forward to hoodies, bonfires, cool air, colorful leaves, and all the various fall festivals; more specifically, I am looking forward to my city's Oktoberfest the first weekend of October. I'm sure I'll have something in my October Currently all about my excitement for that. Alex and I will also be having our engagement pictures taken this fall, so I am really looking forward to that. 

Thinking: I wish I had one more day to get stuff done before the work week. I realize that I already had one extra day to get things completed this weekend because it was a holiday, but let me tell ya... holiday weekends are so much busier for me. We end up spending more time out running around, more time with family, more time for friends, and more time for relaxation. It isn't until the night before going back to work that I realize I had big plans for getting stuff accomplished, and very little of it happened. I am preparing to start sending home our high frequency words on flash cards, and I have sixteen sets of weeks 1-4 words that I need to get cut out and put into baggies so they can get in binders tomorrow to go home, but am I actually working on that or the 5,679 other things I need to be doing? Nope. I am doing this blog post. Priorities, people! ;) 

Wanting: food and caffeine. I have yet to have either of these mandatory things today, but I am looking forward to Pizza Hut and a Dr. Pepper for lunch. Mine and Jena's go to meal on our days together.

Needing: to cut out lamination. Like I said before, I have so many things to do and I have probably five pounds of lamination in the backseat of my car that needs to be cut out. I will be driving my fiancé and puppy crazy later this evening with cutting it out, and we will all be finding and picking up pieces of lamination out of the carpet for a week, I am sure. 

3 Trips: Hawaii- I have always wanted to go to Hawaii. I love going to tropical places to vacation and relax, and Hawaii has always seemed to be the epitome of that. 

Australia- Birthplace of Keith Urban, home of koala bears, and beautiful scenery. No need to explain this any further.

London- I love traveling abroad, and although I have been to Europe, England wasn't one of our stops. I would love to go and walk around in a foreign country where I can understand other people, and where they can understand me. That would be another reason for Australia as well. 

I hope everyone has a great September!