Showing our Appreciation with T-Shirts for Teachers!

We at Freebielicious are so excited to announce teaming up with A+ Teacher Images (the greatest t-shirt company for teachers and more, in case you haven't heard of them!). We all received the fanciest custom designed t-shirt we've ever owned AND now we can give a t-shirt of the winner's choice from each of our individual blogs.

I just love my t-shirt because it is so much more than just a shirt.  It represents friendships, fun, and business relations (oh wait and STYLE, of course!) all in one "blinging" design.  Where else could you get all that from one t-shirt?  A  special thanks goes out to Doug from A+ Images.  He worked with us to make just the right shirt to represent our company and is still giving us a shirt to give one lucky winner for each of our blogs!

We have made this giveaway super easy for you to have almost 50 chances to win one of 23 t-shirts.  It is a blog hop, so you can enter as many or as few giveaways you would like!  The contest begins Saturday, May 18th, at 8:00 a.m. EST and ends on Sunday, May 19th, at 12:00 a.m. EST.  Winners will be announced on the following Monday.  Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy!  Start by entering my giveaway here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next, you will head over to my blogging buddy and freebielicious friend, Tammy from Live Love Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten and enter there and keep going until your fingers are too tired to hit click (that is how simple we made it for you!).

And then . . .

Go to our Freebielicious Facebook page and like us so you never miss a freebie or giveaway like this one!

And in case you don't win . .  . here's the other 'best news ever:' our friends over at A+ Images has set up a coupon code just for Freeblielicious followers so that they can get 20% off any order over $20.  All you have to do is use the code FREE20 from now until June 15th to get yours.

They have tons to choose from, so make sure you check it out.  Good luck and I can't wait to see who wins.

Five for Friday Linking Up

I'm linking up with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday linky party to give you a quick peak of my week.

Have a look at my very own five random things from this week and head over to Doodle Bugs if you'd like to check out other bloggers five random pics.



You know you're nearing the end of the school year when your pencils start getting a little ratty, tooth bitten and dinged up.  I think it's time to hit the local golf course up for a donation.

We love studying dinosaurs.  A pteranodon had a wing span as wide as 33 feet or 8 kinders long.  (You never know what my class might be doing when you walk down our hall.)

Over half the class has passed ball words (that 220 sight words) and we don't want to loose that fluency so it's on to Speed Racers.  A favorite coordinating activity...Speed Bump!

My wish for next year . . . more and more and more leveled readers please!  Even though my baskets are 3/4 of the way full, you can really never have too many. Can you?

Can't quite imagine anything more random than my family's successful attempt 3 generations of spoon balancing on Mother's Day.  

And just because my kinders having being going crazy over telling time, I had to zip up something for them to use during these dinosaur days we're having.  I know it's not common core for kinder, but they love it and it does rationalize why we need to count by 5s.  Besides, who doesn't love a write the room.

Hope you had a great week.  I have a little secret . . . you're not gonna want to miss my post tomorrow.  It's fun and it's something you could win!  Shhhh.  You'll just have to wait to check it out.

Until then, don't forget to check out all the other fun blogs linking up this week for Five for Friday.

Roundin' up next year's kinders!

It's springtime, and that means kindergarten round-up in my neck of the woods.  Our district takes four full days to meet, greet and screen all the incoming "5 before November 1st" kinders for the fall.  Michigan recently passed a new age cut off for kindergarten.  In the past, it was 5 before December 1st, but, over the next several years, that cut off birth date will continue to be pushed back a month at a time until the new cut off day is September 1st.

This year's kindergarten round-up is bitter sweet for me personally, because it's the last one I go through as a mom.  My own pre-k honey is heading off to kindergarten this fall.  Now while he'll be right in my own school with me, there's still something a little sad about seeing that last one go through the process and head off to school all day every day in the fall.

He, of course, is rip raring ready to conquer the kindergarten world.

On the day of round-up, each child is welcomed to our school with a name badge and, of course, of pile of papers for mom and dad to complete.

This is the time we can collect birth certificates, check immunization records and get all the paperwork done that is necessary for registration.    While parents are completing those papers, one of our teachers escorts the child to a room where they will 'play some games' with different teacher-screener.  The screening process can really be anything that your district finds useful to make a good recommendation for placement and also to get information that will help when dividing students up and creating class lists.

When asked to draw a picture of a person, he drew a picture of me.  The hair is dead-on, but I would have loved to have more of an hour glass rather than a pair shaped body. 

Our system is  a very thorough process and takes anywhere from 15 minutes to a half and hour to complete.  It just depends on the student.  The great thing is that once it's done, we have a very good snapshot of the student.  Parents often have this assumption that it's a pass-fail kind of 'assessment,' but it's not. The intent is really to find the best placement for their student to find success. 

There are many areas that we consider before making a recommendation at our school.  Of course, there are some basic skills we like to see, but social and emotional maturity are often just as important as their academic readiness for the rigors of kindergarten.  We are fortunate in our little elementary school to have junior-kindergarten classrooms (some schools call this young 5s or transitional kindergarten) as well as regular kindergarten classes.  Both allow students to attend all day everyday.  Junior kindergarten just allows for a slower pace, smaller classes and time for growth. That time is so important, especially for a child who may not be mature enough to handle the rigors of kindergarten.

I put my own son who is in kindergarten this year, in junior kindergarten last year because, although he was academically ready for kindergarten, he was deathly shy, insecure, immature and just NOT ready for kindergarten.  After his year in that classroom, he is a leader in his classroom and excelling in school. He was fortunate enough to have a teacher who differentiated so that, although he was not mature enough to handle kindergarten, she was still able to challenge him academically and keep him interested and engaged in school.  It really is a wonderful option for students who just need more time to get themselves ready academically, socially or emotionally for kindergarten.

Ok, so back to round-up . . . once the student is finished with the screening process, it is looked over by our kindergarten/junior kindergarten staff and a recommendation is made.  Then a teacher, either a junior kindergarten or kindergarten, meets with the parents and student to go over the recommendation and talks a bit about what school will be like in the fall, when classes starts, what a typical day might be like and answers any questions.  Students get to check out all the different classrooms, take a tour of the building and check out the playground.  It's an exciting day for them, and we love having the opportunity to get a peek at the new recruits coming in the fall.

So how's your kindergarten round up process?  Drop me a line if you'd like to share.



Diggin' Some Dinos, Freebies, A Sale Just for You and What's in My Cart!

I haven't blogged in so long.  Ok, only a week, but it seems like a year and that is just way to long for me.  I promise I have tons to share with you and I'm hoping to get a few extra posts out this week, but, if you are anything like me, this time of year is crazy.  Soccer . . . swimming . . . baseball . . .  kindergarten round-up . . . spring concerts  . . . you name it, it's all happening all at the same time.  Tell me I'm not the only one.

I did get a few hours this weekend to get myself ready for DINOSAURS...they're coming.  I've pulled out my real/nonsense word bones. (There is a freebie that will help you will this if you don't have bones or a sensory table...just click HERE.)

The freebie version looks like this...

My pointers . . .

Some write the room sheets (these are a freebie by the way.  Just click HERE)

and have boxes and boxes and boxes of books, dinosaur figurines and all kinds of fun activities to introduce.  So stay tuned this week for some new pictures.  

I also got around to making a set of new dinosaur math stations.  

Now is a good time to check this out to because starting Tuesday you can get it for a steal during the TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale.

Everything in my store is on sale from me for 20% off it's original price. Then . . . on top of that . . . you get to take an additional 10% using the TAD13 code.  So what does that really mean?  Take a look at two of my latest items.  

With savings like these you can be sure I'm filling my cart.  Here's a couple of things I have ready to get.  

From Caitlin over at Kindergarten Smiles, I lover her All About Plants unit.  It's HUGE.

I've had my eye on these for a while.  Annie's things are always so fun.  I just love the Moffatt Girls.

Hadar, from Miss Kindergarten has a nice Ready Made For First Grade pack that will be perfect for my kinders. 

I'm also taking the plunge and getting Jeannie's Sealife unit.  (Don't you just love Kindergarten Lifestyles?)

Mary, from Kindergarten Sharing, has this super unique and creative Digital Scrapbook Slideshow that I have had my eye on.

And finally, I love everything from Mrs. Miner's Monkey's so I have  to have her Guided Drawing unit.

I'm off to make sure I have all my feedback done so I can use all my TpT points for the big sale.  Don't forget about those points.  They can save you some big bucks.  I'll be posting any other great find that I come across or products I love on my facebook page so stay tuned.

Speed Readers Dolch Phrase Frenzy . . . I mean Fluency!

When I started doing 'Ball Words' (my Dolch word mastery system) four years ago, I ran into a very good problem to have.  My kinders that were able to master all 220 Dolch words were NOT satisfied with 'now you're done.'  They wanted more.  They wanted more of a challenge. They weren't even close to being done.  So I started Speed Readers. I'm so glad I did, because as of today, I have 10 kinders who have already mastered all 220 Dolch words, and I have to keep them challenged.

 My class back when I started all this was 20 boys and 4 girls. They were on the go all the time.  Ball Words were a great motivator for all of them, even the girls, and I knew I needed something else that would be just as motivating, engaging and hold their interest.  So I placed Dolch word phrases on a big poster with different kinds of transportation for each level this time.  It wasn't very user friendly, so I quickly switched back to the ring system that worked so well with  ball words. That first year after ditching my great transportation posters halfway, I simply wrote the phrases on sentences strips  and progress was tracked in a simple notebook.  Not very pretty, but it worked.  I kept the same kind of games, certificates and poster idea to keep things consistent.  Luckily, the system has progressively evolved and has become slicker over the last couple of years and it really runs itself.

Like ball words, there are 11 levels of phrases and I placed 16 phrases on each level (if you would like to add more you can because the unit includes some editable cards to add your own if you choose).  Each level is associated with a different type of transportation.  From the slower skateboard to the eventually top speed rocket.  

These are Dolch words that they have already mastered so they should be very fluent in reading these  phrases, but what I have found is that they need that constant practice and re-familiarization with the words to keep them flowing easily . . .fluently.  I ask my students to read each phrase, no self-correcting, no mistakes  . . . all within one minute.  It seems easy to them at first until they correct themselves that first time and it's 'game over.' But they soon get the idea of really knowing what they are reading by practicing their speed and familiarity with reading the phrases.  

I give them opportunities to practice with some games that go along with the rings and phrases.  

Speed Reader Slap

Speed Reader Champ

Speed Bump Spin Read and Win Game

Speed Reader Read and Win

Memory Match and other activities for promoting fluency with these phrases.  Then, of course, there are editable certificates of achievement for each level 

and I included some editable pieces that you can use to make posters.

Finally, I don't use that old notebook anymore to track progress.  It's all in this simple, editable recording sheet.  

So if you're finding your kiddos are going gang busters with ball words (I have to tell you...we're having our basketball party this week ...that's a minimum of 60 words for every kinder in my class), then you might want to think about the next step.  

Thanks for checking it out.  Make sure you stop back later this week.  I have a giveaway you're gonna want to enter.  My friends from Learning Resources have done it again.