My first "Currently!"

I've always thought these linky parties were cute... but feared I was too boring to post one myself...

BUT WHO CARES!

I want that super-cool pencil sharpener!

Miss Farley is giving away this neato sharpener here! But first grant me the small satisfaction that my "Currently" matters! ;)

Thank you! You're more than welcome to come on over to use the sharpener if I win it! Hehe! :)

I'm a nut (click click) I'm a nut (click click)...

That seems to be my favorite phrase lately.
I worked in the classroom today and will return tomorrow. Why? I'm a nut! But I'd like to believe the best kind...

Today my efforts yielded me tables with clever storage underneath.

Now you see 'em...

Now you don't! 

The cute tablecloths came from BigLots!

Do you remember the ottoman from earlier this week? It had to match, too!

A curtain for my Safe Place and the writing station table

 I labeled my library tubs with Velcro dots this year... genius!

Brought out just what I needed for the first few weeks and...

Stored the rest on my built-in!

 The Velcro dots also worked for my math cubbies (in my built-in... sweet).

If you still need some you can grab these here and here.
I need to make more,  any sugesstions?

Whew! I think I'm all pooped out from the matchy-matchy cuteness goin' on here!

Now I feel a little better about being a part of this linky party!

New (School) Year Resolutions

Clutter Free Classroom is at it again with another great linky party! She makes these prompts so open-ended that anyone can be a part of it. Come on over and link up!

She explains:

I don't make the typical resolutions in January. Instead, my New Year resolutions come with the start of a new school year. What are your resolutions for the upcoming school year?

I have been talking about this all summer! I was wondering how I was going to blog about it but this is the perfect prompt.

My summer has involved quite a few trainings that had me reflecting on my first year, redefining myself as a professional educator, and inspiring me to challenge myself next year. Let me lay out the (now) seven trainings I have attended or will attend:

1. Capturing Kids Hearts

A retreat model that fosters relationships between group members (class, team, school)

2. Debbie Diller: Making the Most of Small Group Reading Instruction

Examples of guided reading groups and writer's workshop ideas

3. PLC (Professional Learning Communities)

Data driven team planning and the school community

4. Texas Kindergarten Conference presented by SDE

Jack Hartmann, writer's and reader's workshop, interactive writing, and more!

5. Conscious Discipline

Teaching with the young child's brain in mind, classroom routines and structures to foster self-control

6. CSCOPE State Conference 

Coming up! I will hear presenters talk about implementing our district's curriculum system.

7. 30 Hour G/T Training

Coming up!

So it may be easiest for me to identify at least one commitment I want to make after each of these trainings. I'll go down in order, like above. 

1. (I stated this at the training the last day) I will learn to share myself with others so that I can become the leader I was meant to be. I will also greet my students in the morning with a handshake and use a launch routine to send them home each day.

2. I will start guided reading groups earlier in the year and plan them according to reading comprehension skills. I downloaded KindergartenWorks' guided reading packet to help me meet this commitment. I will also have writer's workshop everyday. 

3. I will support my team by affirming them in person and with thank you notes. Create a team binder to help with documentation of team meetings, interventions, and student data. 

4. I will sing, move, and have fun with learning more. I will not buy prefabricated posters but create them using the interactive writing method instead. I will make an interactive name chart to help the children learn each other's names, and it make take several weeks to complete it (and that's OK!) I will use my Daily 5 stamina building as a reader's workshop and model one comprehension strategy at a time during shared reading in the beginning of the year. 

5. I will breathe before I react to a challenging situation and use positive self-talk. I will create a safe place in my room and have a school family ritual every day. I will model how to be calm and in control of my inner state. 

WOW! That's a lot of resolutions! I guess that's to be expected when you go to seven trainings in one summer. I am so thankful I was allowed the opportunity to learn so much in such a short amount of time. 

I do have a couple more I need to add:

-COMMUNICATE with parents and family members more. Use a student binder to assist with this but call parents, don't just assume your note is read, and make a point to invite them to the classroom.

-GO HOME at the end of the day. Nothing good happens after 4 pm. 

-Work out at least 2 nights a week. 

I feel so empowered! Let's do this! 

A Blog I Admire

Yay! But also, boo. It's the last day of Clutter Free Classroom's linky party. Today's prompt is to write a letter to the owner of a blog you admire. Well, I think responding to this post is just... peachy! Hehe!


One of my favorite blogs is Meredith's Keen on Kindergarten. As always, I'm never really sure how I find ya'll, but somehow I made it to her page in June. Right away I fell in love with her blog template. It is fun, simple, and neat! When I was working on my own template I was striving for the same feel. I use Google Reader and whenever I see Keen on Kindergarten pop up as an unread item I often will leave Reader just so I can look at her blog again.

Let's begin!

Dear Meredith,
If you peek at the above, I admire your blog very much. I appreciate that you share yourself with the blogging world and enjoy reading your posts. So imagine my great joy when you became one of MY followers yesterday- and I just started on Monday! Thank you for taking the time to visit my page.

The thing I like most about your posts is your well-organized writing, clever ideas, and fun freebies. I have to admit that when I was in Target and bought 4 packs of those magnetic numbers, I turned to the person next to me, exclaiming, "now I can use Keen on Kindergarten's cute little mat!" She had no idea what I was talking about.

Your generosity and positive attitude are truly appreciated.

Cheerfully yours,
Nicole

PS- What's your favorite Henkes' mouse book? :)

Pancakes for Breakfast

Thank you, Clutter Free Classroom! 

Today's prompt is to share a recipe that you make during the school year. Well, unfortunately I don't have a crock pot, so there goes those bonus points. BUT I get bonus points for being a Really Nice Teacher! Everyone loves...

Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

We had a week or so on "How To" writing last year and the other classes chose vegetable soup or the like. One of my FAVORITE wordless picture books is:

So we made pancakes! In the morning we read this book and put together the ingredients. There is a recipe inside that I wish I could show you, but I can't find an image. I believe it uses baking powder, which does give the pancake a little lift, but no baking soda so it doesn't get the bubbles going before then. The pancake is definitely not the best-tasting and comes out a little flat, but it was really important to me to follow the recipe with the children EXACTLY. To compensate, I shared how my mom used to make me chocolate chip pancakes and we agreed to add some. The mini-chips, please! That's how mom used to make 'em. :)

When the children when to Enrichment (Specials, Block, what have you) I cooked up the pancakes and served them for snack! Only ONE kiddo decided he didn't want one, and that was pretty typical of him.

Mmm... pancakes sound good today!

My Favorite Children's Author

Ooo! I figured out how to link to the party through the picture!

Alright! Thanks again to Clutter Free Classroom for starting this up! I made my first 3 followers from this linky party! Be sure to check out my new friends pages!

Marvelous Multiagers

Herding Kats

Yaya's Kindergarten World

Todays prompt is: Who is your favorite children's author? Mine is:

Kevin Henkes

(Pronounced HEN-KUS)

I took a graduate class on picture books and wrote a paper about his works. Too bad I can't find it for this response! Just as well, I found a wonderful video where he talks about how he wrote his latest book:

I do remember loving how he firmly believes the text and the illustrations should work together to convey a message. With that method it's no wonder he won the Caldecott medal for Kitten's First Full Moon.

OF COURSE I haven't forgotten about his mouse books (my favorite is Julius, Baby of the World), but it's his latest work for the youngest reader that reveal his gift for writing. He pays careful attention to how a book sounds when read aloud- a quality we certainly look for in kinder!

Now, onto the video clip. Thanks again for stopping by!

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash

Howdy! It's time for Day 2 of Clutter Free Classroom's easy-peasy-lemon-sqeezy linky party! 

My favorite picture book based on the illustrations alone is Trinky Hakes Noble's The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash. Steven Kellogg is one of my favorite illustrators and you'll see why!

I feel I could've approached this in one of two ways: a book that I've used in the classroom or a book that I loved as a kid myself and continue to love. I went with the latter today!

What I love about Steven Kellogg is his attention to detail. Every crease in clothing is there, every book title, every shadow, every untied shoe, feather, hair, pattern, it goes on! And he balances it all with plenty of white space. I don't get overstimulated looking at his books because of this balance. 

This story, if you don't know already, is hilarious! Jimmy and his classmates are on a field trip to the farm with a rather overbearing teacher (there will be a quiz when we return to class). How he manages to smuggle his pet boa constrictor in his schoolbag is beyond the reader.

The story works backwards as another child tells her mother about the day in speech bubbles. I LOVE speech bubbles in picture books! It connects the story to the illustrations in such an authentic way. As the reader becomes more engulfed in the child's story the speech bubbles and frames disappear. They return as she and Jimmy (with a new pet pig) set out for an after school ride. My favorite illustration is on the last page when the farmer's wife is knitting a long sock for their new pet boa! 

I found this short book talk that walks you through the calamity of a sweet boa constrictor on a farm. Thanks for visiting! 

How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation!

Ok! So many thanks to Clutter Free Classroom for starting up an easy week-long linky party, not to mention for giving me the ooomf to launch The Kinder Kid! What a welcoming way to enter the blogging world!

I have yet to introduce myself elsewhere, so hello! I'm Nicole from Texas and I'm eagerly awaiting my second year teaching kindergarten. This time last year I was shakin' in my boots but now I can hardly wait for my new batch! I've been following quite a few blogs all summer and I can't get enough of the latest Target Dollar Spot steals, details from conferences, and newly minted activities to start the year. 

So let's talk summer! I'll work backwards:

5. Target!

I finally made it to Target! Part of my summer has been spending time with my cousins (ages 5 and 9) and when my aunt said she needed to go to Target for belts I was ALL OVER IT. I found all the great items you bloggers have been talking about and I even had helpful little hands to find the buried treasures! SO HAPPY!

My favorite scores are the alphabet and number stamps, the number magnets, and the "Great Work!" stickers. 

4. Conscious Discipline

A large part of my summer was dedicated to reading this book and writhing in regret as well as bursting with enthusiasm to implement the strategies within. Don't worry, one of the commitments I made in the early chapters was to forgive myself! Reading Conscious Discipline was truly a reflective experience and getting to go to a training in my district with her consultant Jill Molli was ten times better! She is an entertaining presenter and includes such poignant examples of Dr. Bailey's work in action from her own life. I am so excited that my principal wants my team to be leaders for this program for our campus. My favorite part of the training was learning about the brain states. I could go on and on about this piece but I'll save that for another time. 

3. Texas Kinder Conference

A few people gave me crazy looks when I announced I would be going to this conference by myself with my own money. All I can say is that it was TOTALLY worth it. I got to see Jack Hartman! I also learned about interactive writing, reader's workshop, math stations and more!

2. PLC, Debbie Diller, and Capturing Kids Hearts

Luckily, I didn't have to pay for these trainings, and I am incredibly thankful my principal thought of me when she registered our teachers to go! These opportunities launched my reflection and growth this summer in June. Again, so much to say, but this is only my first blog entry! :)

1. Family and Friends

I've been all around Texas since June for the above trainings and to visit the people I love. I have family in Round Rock, friends in San Marcos and Austin, teacher friends in Victoria, and my family and boyfriend in San Antonio, to boot! Wherever I go I receive hugs, news, and food! It's worth all the driving!

So that brings me up to the present! I have relaxing poolside, a trip to California with my mom, and some more blog reading to do before my last training (have you been keeping track?... 6 all together!). Not to mention setting up my classroom... and we moved our campus to a new building... eesh! 

So, again, thanks to Clutter Free Classroom and...

hello, blogging world! :)