Dunkin' Donuts BABY!!!

So this Halloween we  needed to come up with something that would knock the socks off of our families! Every year at our Family Fun Night event, the teachers go ALL OUT to impress.  We are so dang "INTO" it that it's not even funny.  I don't know who has more fun...the kiddos, the parents or all us teachers!

This year our K team decided to be "DUNKIN' Donuts"---and I don't mean just some plain old donuts...I really mean DUNKIN' donuts!  We borrowed some jerseys from Page's hubs who hooked us up!  We found some matching shorts (in my case, I somehow squeezed ALL of this into my almost 10 year old's shorts...let's just say I am thankful the jerseys were LONG to cover all my parts!)  Then we added pink headbands, wrist bands, and knee socks for the TOTAL package!

People...we are NOT actual basketball players, we only play ones on TV Family Fun Night!  No basketballs were hurt or mistreated in this event.  OK---I lie!  We did TEAR UP the court, better known as the little atrium were we were set up.  And you should have SEEN our MAD dunkin' skills!  Dribble, dribble, dribble, SLAM DUNK baby...right into the Little Tykes basketball goal.  We were VICIOUS!!!!  

Anyway, we got A LOT of laughs from our kiddos and families...especially the DADS who totally "GOT IT"!    Be sure and take a look at our past stints as Fruit of the Loom Guys, Minions, Humpty Dumpty and the Horsemen...here at this post!

Now...hopefully the moment you have been anxiously awaiting...

TEAM DUNKIN' DONUTS!!!!

We had lots of people tell us..."That is SO clever!"  And darn it, we told the truth and said, "NO!  That's so Pinterest!"  Here's the original pin that caught our attention!

Anywho, we hope you ALL have a SAFE and Happy Halloween!  And if you still need a costume idea...this post might just come in handy!!

Emergent Readers - Individual Packs for Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving

Hey guys!  Just a quick post to let you know we separated our BIG Fallin' for Fall Emergent Readers Bundle into smaller packs.

We know you may only need 1 particular set to fit into your classroom plans.  Hope this makes it easier on your wallet and your planning!

Happy Columbus Day!  

Let's READ! Getting books into your kiddos' hands!

It's so important to get GOOD FIT books into your kiddos' hands!  We have a TON of great guided reading book sets at school that work really well for our CAFE strategy groups.  BUT...what about getting these books into our kiddos' homes??  NOT SO MUCH!

Our librarian loves us, but not THAT much!  We can't let the littles take these perfectly suited books home since they are library sets.  Our kiddos DO, of course, get to check out library books, but these are not always "Good Fit" books where they can apply all of their new strategies to help them read.

SO...we came up with some EMERGENT READERS that are PERFECT for getting books into our kiddos' hands that they can TAKE home and actually READ!!!  It can be so frustrating for our guys to know all these new strategies and then when they open their library book...it's just FRUSTRATION-VILLE because the strategies aren't working...not a GOOD FIT!

These readers use almost all of the PRIMER and PRE-PRIMDER Dolch words, making them perfect books for most of our readers at this point in the year.  We included an easier version and a more challenging version for 5 of the readers, since we do have some kiddos who are already in the 100 word club.  (Read more about our word clubs here!)

These readers are great for working in guided reading strategy groups

on standards such as tracking left to right/top to bottom,

reading sight words, blending unknown words, using picture clues,

reading for meaning, and much more!

Use the You Be the Author version to work on writing standards such as spacing, capitalization, punctuation, blending, sentences, and more!

So we hope these might be helpful to you too!  We love watching our kiddos discover the JOY of reading and finding out just how powerful words can be!

Please visit our TpT store and download the preview of this pack.  We included the emergent reader, LEAVES (all 4 versions), for FREE as a thanks for your awesome support of our blog and store. 

Download the Preview at our TpT store to grab all 4 versions free!

And as always, we will give away this pack to one winner chosen randomly from ALL the comments left below!

 Now...off to the front porch to drink coffee with the hubs, pooch, kitty, and kiddos and enjoy this GORGEOUS fall day!

Fall Fever! Ready to JUMP in!

Wahoo!  I sooooo love FALL!  The weather is already turning. Nights are getting cooler.  Air is crisper! Football season is in FULL swing!  (Goooooo DAWGS...please spank some LSU tigers this weekend!!!) Fires are blazing in the pit outside!  Smores (well---to be honest---peeps in this case!  You know, the Easter blue chicks. Seriously! You would be surprised what I'll resort too when I need a smores fix!!!  Don't knock it until you are ridiculously desperate and can find NOTHING else until you try it!  That sugar caramelizes on the outside and it makes for an interestingly tasty treat!) are being roasted!  FALL--- it's just a beautiful thing!

So...in direct response to MY personal FALL FEVER...we created a pack with the same loving name!  It's 40 pages of goodies that you can use to bring the fall fever right into your classroom.  The pack is in the same spirit as our letter word work packs chocked full of literacy activities that are perfect for small group work, centers, stations, or in our case ---Daily 5 work work!

Click ANY picture to head to our TpT store to grab the pack!

Here's the whole kit and caboodle!

As always, please leave us a comment and let us know what you think.  Anything in particular you like, something we should add, your favorite thing about fall...

We'll choose 2 winners to snag this pack for FREE!

Hope you get the FALL FEVER bug soon---if it hasn't bitten you already! ;)

Minions, Angry Birds, Humpty and Fruit of the Loom

Hi Blogging Buddies! We had Family Fun Night at our school this week!

 It is always so much fun to see how all of the teachers, parents and kiddos are going to dress up! We always love this event!! Well, except for the day of this big event when all of our little friends are off the chain with excitement and anticipation!

Well, and maybe the day after this event is not that great either since the kiddos are all sugared up from eating all the candy WE gave them the night before :).

By the way, why do the kiddos seem to go into overdrive when Dads come into the classroom to help with special projects, like carving awesome jack-o-lanterns? Cuh-ray-zy!!!

Anyway back to Family Fun Night. Natalie, our super creative assistant, always seems to come up with the absolute best ideas for costumes. Not only does she come up with the ideas, but also is responsible for designing the costumes, props, and everything else. She then wrangles the other Super Assistants to help with the decor!!

 What do we do, you ask? We just show up and look cute in the great costumes designed by Natalie!! Thanks Natalie, Christie, and Renee for all your hard work getting us ready for the big night :).

Check us out this year as well as a couple of other years in the past!!

2012 Family Fun Night!!

Can you guess who we are? No, sorry we are not Bob the Builders :)!

2011

2010

2009