Come On! Let's Celebrate!

I am finally launching my *NEW* blog, and I couldn't be more excited or nervous! To celebrate, I am offering a free, new item from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. It's something that I recently made for my littles, and they LOVE the activities included! I hope you enjoy them, also.

If you love my blog design, please check out Courtney over at Blogs Fit for a Queen. She has been amazing to work with. She's very professional and does amazing work! I was able to rattle off a few of the ideas I had, and she came up with something promptly, and it was just what I was looking for! I definitely recommend her to everyone needing any types of her services! She is a gem. Thanks again, Courtney.

So, celebrate with me by checking out my freebie! And remember to stop back again soon!!

Glitter Glue...

is all over my room. Has anyone else ever used the really cutesy glitter glue?! We attempted to make these adorable (in my head) Mother's Day gifts. I was utterly disappointed with them when the glitter *glue* did not dry because my littles used gobs and gobs of it. By the end of the day, I ended up using another teacher's hand dryer in her classroom bathroom and wiping off the excess *glue* with paper towels, so we could send them home in time for Mother's Day. SO, someone please remind me next year when I undermine this catastrophe and attempt glitter glue again... that I should never use it... ever. (Sorry to all the mother's out there that are getting a possibly drippy, and not yet dry gift!) Can anyone relate?!

Alright... moving on to something less dramatic. I work with some a m a z i n g teachers who are constantly supportive and incredibly creative. Our Kindergarten team has a Kindergarten Celebration instead of a graduation. And let me tell you that it. is. adorable. Since this was my first year involved in this celebration, I was blown away by the amount of time and effort my team spends preparing the students for this big day! The kids learned songs and poems and performed their hearts out! I was so proud, and as I told my principal last week, my heart was bursting with pride for my school community. I am just so thankful to be a part of such an exceptional team of people. Does anyone else ever feel that way? Like if you look around just once more you may burst from joy and contentedness?!

The team of teachers have done a zoo theme in the past, and we decided to continue this year. The plan is for the parents to come in during the school day, and the kindergarten puts on a show full of songs and poems. I promise there is SO much happiness at this celebration! The kids were ecstatic to see their special family members in the audience. After the program, the kids share some of their precious work with their families over some delicious cookies. Since the theme was ZOO, the kids shared a fun journal that we made leading up to the celebration.
To prepare our journals, we read books about the chosen animal, watched a Scholastic for Kids Creature Feature (These are amazing!! Thanks to a teacher at my school who showed me how awesome this site was!! Check it out, guys!), and then we wrote our three most favorite facts in our Zoo Animal Web, and then colored a picture to go along with our facts. The kids LOVED learning facts about the animals and this activity helped them to organize their writing:

Okay, so if you do anything zoo themed, check out these Zoo Writing Webs and Journal Pages. They are super fun!!

Now I'm off to drink my Cafe Mocha brewed fresh from my Keurig! ;)

Growing Littles

As I sit here on this lazy Sunday afternoon,  I've been reflecting on my past first year as a teacher. The year is quickly coming to an end, and I can't believe I've been a teacher for ten months now. I learned *SO* much in the past ten months and it feels bittersweet to be in this moment. My kindergarteners and I have both come such a long way, and I only wish I had begun this blog in August when the journey began. Now that I am beginning in May, I hope that I can use this blog as a reminder each year how much my littles have grown.

This blog is called Growing Littles because I do just that everyday. I "grow" them by teaching them, helping them, cheering them, encouraging them, mending them, listening to them, crying with them, smiling with them, laughing with them, singing with them, chanting with them, reading with them, being silly with them, counting with them, dancing with them, learning with them, and practicing with them. I "grow" them by preparing them for their future. Not just their future in school but their future in life.
 Perhaps the biggest thing I have learned in my first year of teaching is to  s t o p. 

Stop and enjoy the moment because even though I do this thing called teaching, 

I also do this thing called growing littles, 

and I think that is even. more. important. 

Dontcha think?