Cyber Monday! Big Sale!

Hi all! I have all of my items in my store at 20% off today AND tomorrow! Come check it out and get yourself some fun new things.  I will be post new products soon and will have another after Christmas sale.  Hope you can find something you can use.  ~ Erin
Erin's Cyber Sale

The Mayflower and Tom the Turkey

So, I am back for now.  I was so sick, then hurt my shoulder and neck then sick again.  The list can go on too but, I am not going to bore you.  I have neglected my fun blog.  BUT, I did have some time to do some research on Pinterest and found this cute Mayflower Hand Print art work and wanted to share my classes work.  What do you think??

I think they turned out really cute!

Then we also wanted to share our Tom the Turkey project.  Each child got a Tom the Turkey to disguise and bring back to display in the hall.  I think they turned out great.  I love the Hello Kitty Turkey and the Native American.  But really they are all adorable! 

Happy Halloween!

I am still not feeling 100% and I have been really busy with assessments and family but, I wanted to post a Happy Halloween.  Here is a view of my children tonight.  They got enough candy to feed two classroom of Kinders. lol.

Mrs. Vadar and Her Imperial Guard

Mrs. Vadar

Imperial Guard who protects the dark side

Be Back Soon

I just wanted to update my blog since I haven't in a while.  I have been under the weather and finally went to urgent care tonight.  Sinus infection and upper respitory infection. So I will be back to blogging real soon....or as soon as I am feeling "normal" again.  - Erin

Mo Willems and Fall Trees

Fall is such a great time of year as a teacher.  The fresh beginning, the settling in and getting to know each other and all the fun themes.  Recently I redid my back to school bulletin board and wanted it to last for more then a few weeks.  I decided to take this great project I found on Pinterest last year and did with my class.  It was another huge success this year.  I can keep these up till at least December.  Now that sounds great to me!

I LOVE these!!  Don't you think they turned out great??  

We also did a fun author study on Mo Willems.  The author Elephant and Piggy,  Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!, and Knuffle Bunny.  Just to name a few! Any who, we recreated the art from Knuffle Bunny, Mo Willems uses black and white photography and drawings.  We made these fun pieces.  

I gave each of them a very small piece of white paper and they drew a few people.  They then glued them onto this black and white outdoor scene.  They loved this project. Fun and simple.

Hope you enjoy these great displays of awesome art work by my amazing Kinders.  Till next time ; )

Dice Addition Freebie!!

Here is a fall Dice Addition Freebie you can get it on my TpT store or right here! It isn't very fancy but thought I would share with my sweet followers ; )   Hope you all enjoy.  I really love this time of year.

Fall Freebie!

Pumpkin Mini Unit!

PUMPKIN TIME!  Here is my Mini Pumpkin Unit that is now for sale at my TpT store.  You can find it here.  This unit includes a roll and cover game, a list of my favorite pumpkin books I use in my pumpkin units, number recognition, creative writing "If I lived inside a pumpkin...", Pumpkins can, have are,  and sequencing.

You can also check out my other Mini Units for Fall which include, bats and spiders as well.  I also have two fall readers one on pumpkins and one on fall with sight words.  I'd love to hear what you think.

Another Amazing Blog Hop for Fall!!

Check out this fun blog hop by Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers.

Blog Hop!!!

Freebie from a Great Seller on TpT!! Check it out!

Here is a fun, and useful Freebie from a wonderful seller on TpT, Carolyn McClearly.  She has some really cute, and amazing products!  I love this freebie with Nicky Noun and Vicky Verb.  What a useful, tool.  You should really check her store out soon!  Thanks Carolyn for sharing with me and my followers!!

https://docs.google.com/open?id=1Sa4N7p0N01nXCV2COoeJ8tIolrDSQeFqjStpiBm8hUrhY--T4mVIldsWuMSQ

Fire Safety Mini Unit

Some of you may already know my husband is a fireman.  He is Dan, Dan the Fireman to us at home.  lol.  And we respect and admire all fire fighters and others in similar professions. With that said, and the fact that Fire Safety Week is coming up fast,  I decide to make a mini Fire Unit Pack to sell on my TpT store.  You can find my Mini Unit here.  It is 8 pages and includes, literacy, math and even a fun coloring page.  Hope you like and Come check out my other fabulous October Units.  Bats and Spiders.

Classroom Management What works for me

I have wanted to share something with you all for a little while now. I know we all have to have a plan for how to manage our classrooms, how to make sure we setting the bar for good behavior and what do we do when behavior is not positive.  I have changed and tinkered with my plan many times.  How am I suppose to manage behavior, but also make it FUN and EASY for me and my students.  I want to celebrate my students successes, not always come down on their mistakes or misbehaviors.  About a year and a half ago I stumbled upon  www.ClassDojo.com  It is a free site that I use to give or take points from my students for the behaviors they show at school.  The first thing that drew me in was the cute, fun avatars that you can give to each child, or if you choose you can upload their own picture.  Let's face it the fact that it is FREE is also a very important thing for teachers.  Can anyone say BUDGET ; )  

Basically you load your students names into the list and each child is given a little monster type of avatar.  Unless you choose to use their own pic you have taken.  Every teacher can customize their page by deciding to start at zero and work your way up to a goal or by starting at a number and taking away.  I start at zero and when you reach twenty points you go back to zero.  Once you get to twenty you get to choose from the treasure chest. You can reward individual children or groups of children.  You also get to choose what you are rewarding for and what you are taking points away for.  My rewards for good behavior are for the following- Creativity, Great Insight, Compliment, Hard Work, Helping Others, and Making good choices.  My points are taken for the following behavior- Disrespect, Tattling, Hurting Others, No self discipline and interrupting.  Many of the 'negative' behaviors I do not use such as interrupting or tattling.  Those only used when it 

becomes an issue.   

At the end of each day you can open up a circle graph that will show you the positive and negative for the day for the whole class.  You can also open for each individual child however I never do this with the whole class.  In the graph you will see a percentage of what the positive/negative behavior was.  Sometimes we check this and sometimes we skip this at the end of the day.  It all depends on the behavior and the time we have left.  My students love to see how we did as a class.  They try and reach for 100% positive many days.  You can also email a child's report to their parents so their parents can see what the issue is and when it is happening.  Overall I just love this site, my students love this site and my new teammates at my new school were so excited when I show it to them.  If you are looking for something new to help spice up your classroom management I highly recommend you check out ClassDojo.com!  

I mentioned yesterday that I had a Mini Unit on Spiders as well as Bats,  I thought I would post incase anyone would like to check it out.  Hope you all enjoy!  October is one of my most favoirte months.

Mini Spider Unit

Batty Fun!

Here is my latest product on TpT, I also have a great Mini Unit on Spiders. Come check them out! Let me know what you think.

Batty Mini Unit Fun

Fall Activities/ BLOG HOP!! Check it out!

So, this week we finished up our apple unit.  We did some fun art with our apples as well.  We made apple stamped apples, (that's a mouth full lol) and paper plate apples.  We will be working on fall activities for the next 2 weeks and I am super excited.  Here is a little example of our apples art.

In the next two weeks when we do some more on Fall we are going to make these cute trees I found last school year on Pinterest.  I made them with my class last year and they turned out so cute and festive.  I wish I had taken a picture then but here is an example from Pinterest.

<div align="center"><a href="http://teachingmy3.blogspot.com/2012/09/fall-blog-hop.html" title="Teaching My 3"><img src="http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o527/hlpharris/fall-blog-hop_zpsc925475e.png" alt="Teaching My 3" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Appleseed Freebie!

Here is a little something I used with my apple unit this past week.  The kids loved it.  I used this as a quick morning activity, they drew/wrote 3 facts about Mr. Appleseed on the back when they were done  coloring.  I hope some of you can use this cute freebie.  You can get it on my TpT store.

Johnny Appleseed

Some Issues & New Look

Hi all,

I am having some issues with my blogger.  I am trying to work on it and fix the problem.  I had some great things to share and am very disappointed about not being able to post documents on here.  I will work on it and try and get it all working soon.  Thanks for being so understanding.

On another note, I hope you like the new look.  It was also a pain to put up but I got it done!  Also wanted to tell you that,  I am posting some new items for sale at my TpT store, so if you are interested check them out.  Thanks!  Erin

Back to school night (a little late)

I can not believe I never posted my back to school night gift for my students.  I know we have already started but, I want to make sure I do this just incase some of you are interested.  Plus I love to share and the kids loved getting this mini gift.

I saw this on pinterest (of course) and loved the idea.

I happend to have all the materials.  I have 30 glow sticks from my own kids birthday parties, and bright paper.  I also had green ones.  The kids loved them.  They read "Let's have a Bright year!".

What did you do with your kiddos?

New product! Mini color books

Check out my new set of mini color books I plan to use in my classroom in the next few weeks.  We will be focusing on a different color a week.  I decided to make my own and they are being sold on my TpT store!  Check them out!!  Tell me what you think.

Source: teacherspayteachers.com via Erin on Pinterest

My TpT Store    http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Erin-Attaway

Chicka Chicka and learning our Initials

So this was our first official full week of school.  We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Chrysanthemum.  Two of my favorites!  We made the coconut trees by tearing brown paper and green paper and glueing them onto the yellow paper.  I then cut out the letters in each of their names so they could put the stickers on their trees.  Aren't they cute!!

After the Chicka Chicka project we talked a lot about our names, and how important names are.  We had our parents send a quick note as to why they named their children their specific name.  We talked about the letters in our names, and that our first letters are our first initials.  We did this great project I saw on pinterest.  I originally saw it done with masking tape and crayons, but I chose to do it with tempra paint instead.

I think they look so fun once you pull back the masking tape.  I chose the 3 primary colors because we will be talking about them soon and because I figured if they mix in any way they will create new colors.  I really love these and plan to hang them on my brag board in my room.  

So what do ya think??  Love to hear your opinions.  

I Maaaaaade it!

Well, I made it through my first week of school! We had our ups and downs, dare I say but we made it.  I do have to put out there that I have some major challenges but I am going to conquer them all.  Right?

Next week we will be working on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chrysanthemum.    Two of my favorites.  What are your favorite?  I would love to hear.

One last thing....a very special Welcome to my new followers, I got a few more in the last few days! Thanks for showing support all! Erin

Back to School Night

So we had back to school night the other night and it seemed pretty well.  Today was our first day and again not too bad.  I know that every year brings challenges and I know that we have a ton of room for improvement but, it wasn't my worst.  Thats for sure!!  I did want to share some things I am using in my classroom.

So every year I wonder how to share supplies at the tables in Kindergarten.  It is a task that may be easy for some but really it keeps my mind busy.  I wanted to keep my bright rainbow colors idea going around my room and found these awesome colorful pencil boxes and lidded cups.  I added scrap booking stickers for table numbers and stars because, our mascot is All Stars.  In the cup I put two boxes of 24 crayons, and in the boxes I added markers, 8 pencils (2 per kid), glue sticks, and a big eraser.  I have 4 per table and hope that this will work.  I will pass out scissors when needed.  Thoughts??  I'd love to hear them.  

On to the next project.  I had a 24 slot mail sorter.  It is old, gray and lets just say it.....UGLY!  It was falling apart and it is made of plywood.  I acquired it so that means it was free!!  Couldn't get rid of a free item....right??  So I used some wood glue and that fixed the falling apart issue.  Now what to do with the gray UGLY issue.  I thought about Mod Podging it with cute fabric or paper.  Sounded good but messy.  And then I had an epiphany.....DUCT TAPE!!  Here are some pics before first then after.  Again opinions??  You know I love to hear what you think.

Before = UGLY

After, side view

Front view, half way through

Other side.

What do ya think??  

Since today was the first day of school, I am going to have to blog on that at a later time.  Too tired for more.  : )  Can't wait to hear what you have to say about my projects.  

Classroom Update...Pictures!

So I know I have kept you all waiting to see some of the "after" pictures of my new classroom.  I have been working my fingers to the bone.  And of course I am not completely finished.  I have had some real fun mishaps, and some crazy DIY (more on that later).  But, here are some pictures of my new room.  More will follow in the next few days I hope ; )

This is my first bulletin board I finished.  I used the

Whole Brain Teaching rules.  Love them!

This is my calendar area.  I still have to add the days 

of the week, but I found this great wrapping paper

in the closet and had to use it.  

This is the bulletin board I will use to introduce

new books and themes.

I used some more wrapping paper and colored duct 

tape on my desk and filing cabinet area.  I am still

organizing this, as you can see.  

My Word Wall

And this is my kitchen area, with my homemade

window, and my show off board ; )  I have to get a 

few more close pins.  I ran out. 

Can't wait to share the rest with you in the next few days.  Hope this helps others, as much as looking at other's rooms helps me, get great ideas.  

Can it be??

I went from 3, yes a wonderful 3 but, 3 followers to a AMAZING 10 followers in one week!  Can you believe it???  I almost can not,  I though there was some kind of mistake when I saw the numbers.

Any who, because I am working my bottom off in making this blog great and my classroom PLUS my TpT and Pin boards I am feeling so generous, and I want to also thank you amazing followers for giving me a chance.  Love you already!!

Here is a freebie I know you will love!  Spread the word it is not just for followers. ; )

By the way, I meant to upload pics of my classroom (halfway though) today but, we were not able to get into our room until this afternoon.  Again.  So with in the next 2 days I should post some pics.  Thanks for being patient. 

NEW BLOG PEOPLE!!

So turning this PERSONAL blog into a CLASSROOM, TEACHING, PERSONAL, CRAFT, ETC  blog.  
Here is something I have been planning for a while.  I am going to post my classroom BEFORE pics. I have been working my BUTT off ladies and gents!  I can't wait to post the after pics because they rock so far!!  Here is what you have to think about for the next few days.  

Ribbon Wind Chime

Well, as summer is really getting under way I have been able to go into my new classroom.  (I will be posting pics soon).  There is so much to be done and although it is a little overwhelming, I am so excited.  I have been taking some pinterest projects and working on them.  So here is a tutorial on a ribbon wind chime.  Here is the one that inspired me.  

Here are my materials and finished product. 

 I am so in love an can't wait to hang it in my classroom. 

I chose 8 different colored ribbons to make it vary and I wanted to 

add some patterns to my end product too.  Solids were $1 each

and the patterned ribbon was on sale for 2 for $2.50.

I think this is a 7" embroidery hoop.  It cost me about $1.50

Here is my lovely girl holding the finished ribbon wind chime. 

 What do you thing?  

Just a quick post to say how lucky my children and I are to have my husband in our lives.  He is a wonderful father and husband.  He loves his children and it shows in his actions and words.  They adore him and we are very blessed to have him.  

I am working on my TpT store this past week.  I have used this site many times and always am satisfied with the great work I buy.  Since I find myself thinking what to do sometimes in the summer I decided to join the club and start my own TpT store!  I am really excited and even though I haven't sold anything yet I have had some down loads on my Free items.  I even have 2 followers, lol.  I hope to make it a very successful place for myself.  I love making my own work and the chance to share it is very exciting.  I will soon post my blog address on there so I can share.  I want to put up a few more things.

Summer Time!

Ok, this is long overdue.  I have neglected my blog for about a year....yes a year!  I had an interesting school year back in Kindergarten and with my amazing team that I love so much!  The best ladies ever.  However, due to a new school being built two of the four of us are moving to different schools.  I am NOT happy about that.  I am excited to meet new teachers and learn new things from this new team.
Enough of that, because it is summer time!
I am completely enjoying summer!  Time with my own two children, sleeping in, reading for pleasure when I feel like, swimming, sunning and crafting.  I also have decided to open a store on TpT.  Never did I imagine but, it is exciting.  I have about 6 items. lol!  Most are free but, that is how you get followers right?  And why not share with other wonderful teachers from all over!  One of my summer goals is to make this blog more of a priority.  I also plan to focus more on my teaching on this blog and share my ideas here.  So check out my TpT store.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Erin-Attaway

Its not much but, I promise the best has yet to come.

You can also follow me on Pinterest.


I look forward to some new followers!  I'd also love for you to tell a friend about my site and share the love ; )