FEEL THE FORCE, ladies!!

Happy Sunday Kerri here...
I found a way to excite my boys about writing!! Holy Cannoli, check this out...

Yes, you are not mistaken! When I saw this clip art on Scrappin' Doodles, I about fainted! Did you know that I am a huge fan of the ORIGINAL (notice I said original, not NEW) Star Wars movies?? I was this little lady for Halloween when I was 6 (circa 1980-the year Empire Strikes Back came out)...

I had the full set-up, buns and all. For all of you young-uns out there, the last 3 Star Wars movies PALE in comparison. Don't even get me started on Jar-Jar Binks, or whatever you call him. I suggest you rent the first 3, have a movie marathon with your hubs,  put this writing center into your Literacy Stations, and watch your boys go BANANAS!!! 

I also uploaded some other newbies to my TPT store, including this...

and this...

plus all these....

All on S.A.L.E. now through Valentine's Day!! Soon to come...Dr. Seuss, Going Buggy, Zoo Animals, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, Alice in Wonderland, and Jack and the Beanstalk! I am melting over the cuteness of it all, and I CANNOT wait to put these in my writing center and watch my kidlets GO. TO. TOWN! Click on my friend Princess Leia to go to my TPT store :)


Off to Tar-jay for my weekly fix! I wonder what wonders the Dollar Spot will have in store today??
Kerri XOXO

I Heart You! TPT Sale... and some new goodies posted!!

Happy Saturday, Friends!! Kerri here...
Thank you all for your kind words after my last "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day" post! Things were MUCH better on Friday, for myself AND my kiddos. Of course, it DID help that we had Flag Deck, Talent Show Performance, Library, Computer Lab, Fun Friday, AND P.E. (Did I teach at all on Friday?? A little bit, I think!) This week is bound to be BANANAS, what with V-Day, our 100th day, and our Black and White Report day on Friday. However, I will be following this C.R.A.Z.Y. week with a WHOLE WEEK OFF!! YIPPEE!! We call it ski week, but I WILL NOT be skiing. I will be sleeping, blog stalking, watching my stories, and celebrating my baby girl's 9th birthday!! Sooo excited!


In honor of the upcoming festivities, I will be throwing a 20% off sale from now until Valentine's Day!! I just uploaded a WHOLE BUNCH of new themed writing centers for only $2...but right now only $1.60! What a CRAZY bargain, right?? Check them out...

Aren't they such Cutey McCuteness?? If you have bought any of my Monthly Writing packs, you will see they are similar to those but a smaller version, and  include the writing mat, writing paper, and materials to make little writing books, if you want to use the mats for an extended period, such as when you are teaching Dinosaurs, perhaps?? :)


This little diddy is also on sale right now...

Click on the pictures above to mg to my TPT store...and Thank You in advance for all of your support and encouragement! 


I'm off to Date Night with the Hubs!! Marios by the Sea-Dana Point here I come! XOXO

Love Monsters FREEBIE!!

Hiya Peeps! Kerri here...
Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you're in the TWILIGHT ZONE?? Like today, for example, my kids lost their minds. Plain and simple. Lost their ever loving minds! Rules that they have been following since Day 1 (well, maybe Day 5) went totally out the window. I felt like I just kept repeating "When is that EVER okay??" all day long!
I declare, combine an upcoming holiday, plus the upcoming 100th day of school, plus a whole week's vacation after that, and first graders LOSE IT! 


I have to admit, I might have had to become Viola Swamp today. Just a little bit. As I was guiding them through how to write about all of the people they love in their lives with a furrowed brow and "angry eyes"-yeesh!! This is definitely going to cause me to eat chocolate tonight, I guarantee you. Probably chocolate chip cookies, with double the chips...


We DID manage to make our Love Monster Art today, which was inspired by Miss Rachelle over at What the Teacher Wants (Did you know she's one of my favoritos??) Click here for her post.


Last year, when I was a newbie to the whole blogging scene, I saw her post and about died right there from the cuteness of it all. Our Love Monsters came our pretty cute too!!

 OMG-HOW embarassing! My bony foot made it into this shot-how gross!!


Our Love Monster writing...

At least none of my kids wrote "I love my teacher even though she is so strict today!" HAHA!!


 Here are the dimensions for our Love Monsters:


black background-9 by 12
pink body-9 by 9
antennae- 2 turquoise 1 inch by 5 inches
red feet-4 by 3 folded in half so they can cut once and get 2 identical feet
blue mouth-2 by 3
white teeth- 1 by 2
black eyeballs-1 by 2 folded in half for the same reason as the feet


Heart eyes and tops of antennae are foamy hearts from Michaels. I have a bunch out and they can choose. I especially love the cut out hearts because they look like glasses!! :)


Click here for the paper, courtesy of DJ Inkers clip art...

We also worked on this little center this week. Check it out... Heartbreaker Long Vowel Word Family Sort!

                             


My kiddos were VERY successful completing this center, and had a BALL thinking of ways to use the words to write rhyming sentences of the back of their recording paper. I was shocked at their creativity!! 
You can snag a copy of this little Valentiney Center just in time for V-Week, for only $2-HOLLA!!
Click below to head on over to TPT!

Happy Thursday, friends! TGIalmostF, for real!!

Candy Heart Math and Happy Anniversary to Us!

Hello friends!  Lindsay here . . .

Yeesh.  Next week is a busy one.  100th Day. Valentine's Day. President's Week Kindergarten performance.  Need I go on?  There is just TOO MUCH fun stuff that I want to do with my kidlets for the month of February and it seems like there are just not enough hours in the day to squeeze in all of the fun!

Last week I did Deanna Jump's Candy Heart Probability activity and it was SO fun.  The kids were so funny when they kept drawing the same color over and over from their bag!  Then they had such great reflections as to why that happened once they examined the contents of their bag.  I highly recommend you try it!

Another fun candy heart activity I do every year in centers around Valentine's Day is our Candy Heart Graph.  I am giving you this FREEBIE for you to enjoy!  You can laminate the colored sorting mat, and then have your kids count each color, graph each color, and then practice their addition!  Math + candy = Good times!!

(Click on the heart to download)

One more thing . . .

Have any of you every forgotten an anniversary?  I am USUALLY really, really good with remembering important dates, birthdays, etc., but last month one got away from me.  Last month was mine and Kerri's 6th anniversary. Sigh . . . Where has the time gone?  It seems like only yesterday that I was her lowly student teacher who she was ordering around and sending to get her coffee all the time.  Wait a minute, that was last week! (Just kidding!)

Anyway, yay for the Dynamic Duo of Bordelon-Messner!  Even though we are fiercely competitive when it comes to the cuteness of our classroom art projects, and even though I sometimes drive her crazy with my fear of change and she drives me crazy with her Scotch tape obsession . . . and even though she was often WAAAAAY too eager to "help" when one of my kinders earned the right to slime me each year after our Jogathon Fundraiser (umm . . . that poor kid didn't even get to hold the bucket!) . . .

. . . Kerri is the best and I truly am inspired by her on a daily basis for the amazing, creative teacher and wonderful mommy that she is every single day.  You rock Mrs. B!!

Alright, alright . . . enough of all that mushy stuff.  Hope you enjoy today's FREEBIE and have a very Happy Thursday tomorrow!

Lindsay

Holy Hedgehog!! And, a Patriotic FREEBIE!

Hi Friends! Kerri here...
I just had to share about what visited my classroom today!! Look at this little munchkin...

Meet Delilah, a 4 year old hedgehog!! I think I'm in love, friends! Seriously, this little critter was SO CUTE! And, my kids were so stoked because we read The Hat a couple weeks ago, so they TOTALLY  got into it!! Well, except one little guy, who freaked out a bit (I think it was her prickles!) but, overall, WOW!! What a neat experience! Here is what they wrote about her...

"VARe quot"? Gotta love that phonetic spelling!! I especially heart his Hedgehog drawing!

I also just uploaded a little FREEBIE on TPT to go along with my "We Heart America! Math and Literacy Centers" just for all y'all to go and grab!! 

My kiddos have been working on counting on and counting back on a hundreds chart, and some of them are just not quite getting it, especially the counting back part, so I made this center to help them practice. Maybe your kidlets could use the practice as well?? You can also use these cards to practice place value, if you have sets of cubes and rods in your class. DOUBLE BONUS, RIGHT?? :)


Click on the Capitol Building to go to my TPT store and grab your copy!!

Gotta go, Parenthood AND New Girl is calling my name!! Hope you like your freebie and you have a great Hump Day tomorrow~ 
Kerri

Cargo of Dreams...and a "Going Buggy" Vowel Sort!

Happy Sunday, friends! Kerri here...
Yesterday my family and I had the opportunity to help out at our church, painting a GINORMOUS shipping container that we are turning into a fully functioning classroom to send to India! We are working with an organization called "Cargo of Dreams", and the mural we were working on yesterday is AMAZING!! Check it out...

Isn't it RAD?? (My daughter Katie is walking through the middle by the painted schoolhouse!)  
We are also going to be filling it up with backpacks filled with school supplies and reading books, and we are sending over a playground so the kids have something to play on, instead of just playing in the dirt with rocks, like they do now! Which made me think how INCREDIBLY blessed I am to teach in here, with a beautiful classroom, school supplies out the wazoo, textbooks at my disposal, and a clean campus with lots of places for the kids to play! I hope this portable classroom will bring some joy to the kids in India!


Lindsay and I had such a great date night at our Grant Dinner on Thursday night...Here we are, all gussied up!

Lindsay made this one all artsy fartsy with her fancy camera app!

And, of course we had to take a "sexy" shot. 

I know, I know, we're looking pretty amazing, right?? :) HA!!

Finally, a Sunday freebie for y'all! I actually posted this freebie WAY back last April, when we had like 12 followers, so I thought I would post it again today, since many of us are working on differentiating short and long vowel words. Plus, is it FAIRLY adorable, and will work in February or March, or Aril for that matter, since it is a ladybug theme! Kiddos sort the long and short vowel bugs into their correct jars and record the words on the corresponding worksheet! (Clipart by DJ Inkers)...

Going Buggy Vowel Sort

Click here for the recording sheet... Going Buggy recording sheet


Hope your Sunday is relaxing and fun. Oh, and GO FOOTBALL!! I could care less, but I feel like I had to say something football related...While the hubs watches with his Dad, I'll be getting a pedicure! :)

Black and White, Baby! and a freebie or 2-TYPO FIXED!

Is this door not the cutest thing EVER?? I just had to share. An adorable mom, and fellow teacher in my district did it for me. I think I may just need to marry it, I love it so much! (Remember saying that when we were kids??)
Happy Thursday, Peeps! Kerri here...


Here is what we've been up to... Arctic Life Learning Centers!!

Arctic Life add 3

Arctic Life! Noun and Verb Sort

More Adding 3!

Arctic Life! Place Value

More Place Value!

This Unit is only $4 in my TPT store, and includes 3 Lit Centers and 3 Math Centers. Perfect for a week of learning with our friends at the Arctic and Antarctic!


**Please re-download the Black and White Letter to parents. I fixed the typo! :) see below...


Here come the freebies...How many of you like that song "Black and White" by Michael Jackson? I know I do, but then again I love all things Michael Jackson, well, the MJ before he made his face all freaky. Sorry, MJ. You were so darn cute before that! Well, these freebies have NOTHING to do with MJ or his songs, but they do have to do with all things black and white!


I am so excited because we will be having our firsties do an oral report on a black and white object the week of Valentine's Day and our 100th day. Crazy, you say?? WAY too much in one week? You may be right, but I say, LIVE LARGE and suffer the consequences later. As in, I will probably be comatose on the couch for the entire weekend after, but it will be WELL worth it!! 


Back to the Black and Whites...You can do this great activity in your class too!! Print up the freebies and send them home. Your kiddos will research a black and white object: dice, oreos, zebras, black and white movies, what have you...you catch my drift, right?? and fill out the report form. Then, on a designated day, they present their report to the class. Here is the best part! Ask them to all wear black and white on Report Day, and your ENTIRE class will be ADORABLE!!! The first grade teachers at my old school did this every year, and I was always in awe of their CUTENESS on the day of their reports! 
While each child reports, the rest of the class fills out a paper with their classmates' names and a picture or word showing what they are reporting on. This keeps the others engaged while they listen to their friends giving their reports! Then, they can take the paper home and IMPRESS their parents!! Pretty neato, huh?? (This is NOT my invention. I got it from my dear teacher friend, Kim, who I love and miss so much. I just re-wrote the report forms! You go, Mrs. Mac!!) You can click on the pictures below to get your own report forms. I hope you find time to this FABULOUS project with your kidlets!!

Letter to parents and classmate recording form

Black and White report paper

Well, I'm off!! Lindsay and I have a DATE NIGHT tonight!! (Well, plus my hubs too. He's the third wheel!) We both got grants from our District's Foundation and tonight there is a celebration dinner! I can't wait for some quality time with my girl, Linds!! 


Thanks to those of you who have already purchased my newest unit, We Heart America!! I am excited to use this with my kids this month!!