This week I'm linking up with Doddle Bugs and Five for Friday!  I'm glad it is Friday!!!

1. I'm in a "crafty" mood...this is going to be my next project!  I saw it on Pinterest and am 99.9% sure I can make it :)

2.  I just finished reading The Fault in Our Stars.  AMAZING!  Have some tissues handy.

3.  I've been researching penguins with an enrichment kindergarten group...TOO.MUCH.FUN!!!
We've been reading and writing about penguins and they are doing amazing. Apparently there is a penguin called the jackass penguin.  One little boy read his fact me, "The jackass penguin can dive to get fish." Who knew?!?

4.  We have trivia night tomorrow night at church and we had to come up with team names.  Our name is:  We are NOT smarter than a 5th grader!

5.  We shared this video at our PLC meeting, and later that afternoon I got a sweet note from an anonymous teacher telling me that she believed in the work we are doing :)  That made my week!!!

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I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a fantastic week!!

 

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I'm excited for February...boy 2014 is sure flying by fast!!!  Here is a reading stamina graph.

 

**If you have purchased either my Kindergarten Bundle or my First Grade Bundle, I've updated them to include my new Valentine's Day Workstation Card Pack!  Make sure you download the latest update!

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One easy way to keep workstation materials organized are by using binders.  It is easy to change materials out, and they don't take up much room!  These workstations are for beginning sounds and word work!

Thanks to Kindergarten Smiles for the great workstation ideas!

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This week I'm linking up with Doddle Bugs and Five for Friday!  I'm glad it is Friday!!!

1.  One of my goals for 2014 was to get my Progress Monitoring Binder in better order!!! Each student has their own tab with all the copies of the assessments specific to them.  I can take notes on these copies.  Then in the back,  I have all my original "student copies" of the assessments.  I'm all ready to go each week, and everything is in one place :)

2.  I'm loving my blog make-over!!!  A Bird in Hand Designs does an incredible job.  I highly recommend Megan if you are looking for a blog make-over!  I even got a watermark, and it only took me about 40 minutes to figure out how to use it.  Next time I'll know what I'm doing, and it will take about 5 seconds :)

3. I have a long weekend!  I need a long weekend to get homework done (and to catch up on sleep). 

4.  I used this book to teach writing to a small group.  This might be my new favorite picture book!  We had so much fun making exclamatory sentences :)  According to one boy, "Writing is fun!"

5.  My favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quote. 

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I absolutely love my new blog design.  I feel like one of those people you see on TV when they have their great home remodel reveal! Megan at A Bird in Hand Designs was AMAZING to work with! I cannot say enough positive comments about her talent!! Megan is beyond creative!!!!!!!  In a million years, I never would have imagined my blog looking like this!  I highly recommend Megan if you are looking for a blog makeover!!!  I used her Build Your Blog options to have a great affordable make-over and paid for some extras (like the navigation bar).  Build Your Blog was super easy....and Megan is SUPER fast (we just started talking on Sunday)!!!

I'm so excited.  She also helped me update my Facebook Page and my Teacher's Pay Teacher's banner and button!  If I could just finish school (hopefully this is my last semester), I'd have more time for blogging!!!!

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Thank you to everyone that participated in my giveaway!

Winners were notified this morning by email.

$10 Teachers Pay Teacher's Gift Card- Candi

$10 Teachers Pay Teacher's Gift Card-Kylie A.  

$10 Teachers Pay Teacher's Gift Card- CI

4 Items from My Store- Tracy

4 Items from My Store- Karen F

4 Items from My Store- Kelly B

 There are awesome ideas in the comments, and I've included a few here!

We read on a daily basis. My students have book bags that consist of books they check out from our classroom library. In their bags are two picture books, two non-fiction books, and 2 or more chapter books depending on their level. My really low kids pick leveled readers as well. When they complete something before the class is ready to move on, they take out their book bags. During reading centers, one center is book bags and they sit in a quiet place a read the books in their book bag. They are constantly reading. For their monthly behavior goal a couple of months back, they choose a read-a-thon. It was a wonderful experience and they have asked to do another one. - JCASHELL

I just let them read! If we want our students to build their reading stamina they need to be given the time to actually sit down and read. This January we will be building reading stamina using the Daily 5 model. We will start with everyone reading at the same time, when one person is not reading the whole class is brought back together to track their time and review proper reading behavior (ie: READING ALL THE TIME!). I like to do this after every break from school that is longer than 1 week because it gives the students the opportunity to review the rules and expectations and they have an end goal to reach (20 minutes of uninterrupted independent reading in grade 1). As we progress throughout the year, this takes less time. My class SHOULD get back on track to about 15 minutes by the end of January.  -Mrs. de Vries

I use the Daily 5 procedure to build stamina with my first graders. I start off explaining how I would need to build stamina to run around the school building more than once and how I would build up to a goal of 10 times. Then we start practicing our reading stamina with a goal of 3 minutes. We build up a couple more minutes each day. The students love the suspense as I fill in the squares on our stamina graph to show the total. My teaching partner and I also have our first graders build up their bathroom stamina and that really seems to make sense to them!  -Lori Karcz

This eCard made me smile...except sometimes I find that short weeks seem like the longest weeks EVER!  After this week, I'll be having a four day week!

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Linking Up with Doodle Bugs!

1. I'm not to Season 4, but will catch up on a few episodes this weekend on Amazon Prime.  I could explain very well to Lady Violet what a weekend is :)

 

2.  I'm loving this scarf organizer my children gave me for Christmas.  I think I need another one (or a scarf intervention)!

 

3.  I've been helping a second grade teacher organize her room.  This is what we came up with to help with workstations.  She always has ten workstations and students work in pairs.  By the end of the week students have gone to all workstations.  This is free until 8:30 pm CST!!!

 

 

4. When I got the email from Vera Bradley about their new colors for 2014, I wasn't super excited...until I saw Citron in a store.  I love it!!!  They had a smaller cross-body bag that was perfect for spring and summer!  Considering how cold it has been, I'm looking forward to spring :)

 

5.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway...the theme is Building Reading Stamina!  There are lots of great ideas from teachers in the comments on how to help students build up their reading stamina!

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**Just wanted to remind you to enter!  There are lots of great ideas in the comments to help teachers build reading stamina!

To celebrate 2014 and to help give teachers more ideas on how to build reading stamina, I've created a Celebrate 2014 Giveaway!  There will be three, $10 Teacher's Pay Teacher's Gift Cards, and then three winners will win 4 items from my store!

It is very easy to enter...just leave a comment about what you use to help build your students reading stamina!  This will be a great way for teachers to collaborate and share ideas with other teachers.   

How do you build reading stamina in your classroom?

What do you do when students struggle reading?

What are students read during independent reading?

Click on the picture to download a free Winter Stamina Graph (in 1 min. and 5 min. increments). 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Linking  up with Farley!

I go back to school tomorrow and had a wonderful break!  My favorite memory involved my sister and I doing a last minute Old Navy run (she needed a pair of jeans), and we ended up getting all the grown-ups coordinating outfits for present opening :)  On December 23rd, pretty much all that is left at Old Navy is the picked-over, clearance "holiday" apparel.  Needless to say, we had lots of laughs and have great pictures! My sister and her husband wore the 'regifter' t-shirts.  My parents wore 'eggnog' t-shirts.  My husband and I were 'PEACE.'   I think we got a good deal- the t-shirts were all $3.27 :) 

I'm super excited for 2014!  I loved 2013.  I was able to travel to Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as lots of new places in the United States.  I already have some great travel booked for 2014...Las Vegas, Cayman Islands, and a Disney Cruise.  I'm also hoping that 2014 will be the year I complete my doctorate!  That would be wonderful!! 

My big "healthy" resolution is to run 500 miles in 2014...we shall see...

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