He's taking chocolate!

Yesterday one of my little sweeties was doing a whole lot of talking. He likes to talk anyway but yesterday he was really at full speed. I knew that in the past his medicines for his allergies had made him hyper because his mom had discussed it with me and she even said she had noticed it at home. She actually decided to switch the medicines and it did help. I thought yesterday maybe he had an allergy flare up and I asked him if he was having to take some medicines for allergies that would make him over talkative. Before he could answer, another student said "no, he's taking chocolate!" I guess he knew we'd all had too much chocolate for Valentines Day!
My idea for today-use Deanna Jump's posters for Common Core Standards (visit her blog at mrsjumpsclass.blogspot.com) -they are simply the best and the first purchase I ever made off of TPT!
Enjoy the long Presidents Day weekend!

Life is Love!

"Aren't they sweet?!" Our preacher always says that when all the children go up for Children's Sermon at church and it's so true. Children are just precious and so sweet-maybe that's where the saying comes from "I could just eat you up!" that we say to little sweet babies.
Valentine's Day in Kindergarten-What a Sweet Day!WOO HOO! This morning I was telling the students that to me everyday was a day of love and one of my little sweeties said "Life is Love!" From the mouth of babes. Life really is love-love is what created us-God's love and his love saved us through his son Jesus. We could not have life without his love! I am just in awe at how God can speak to me through his precious children. My own children have taught me so much about God's love and forgiveness. I often think God sent them to me to make me a better person and draw me closer to him.
Dr. Jean shared an idea at one of her seminars to use a can and cover with construction paper and glue googly eyes to it. Whenever a child says I can't, say you are an AmerICAN. It is your I (eye) can-get it? I use mine instead for when we are stating the focus standard for our lesson. I state the standard. Then the students recite with me "I can spell words phonetically or whatever standard we are focusing on for the day."
 I hope you have enjoyed a Happy Valentine's with all the sweeties in your life! My hubby grilled burgers for us tonight and even washed the dishes! It doesn't take much to keep me happy! :)       

It's all about the atmosphere!

So our preacher told the story Sunday of a little girl who had gone down the street to play with her friend. When the little girl didn't return home when she was supposed to, her mother began to worry. Very shortly thereafter the little girl came home and her mother asked her why she was late-the little girl told her that her friend's doll had broke. Her mom said well you couldn't put it back together why did you stay. The little girl replied "I held her hand and helped her cry." That made me think of many things and how when we get down to it the atmosphere we create in our classroom is essential to each child's learning. If we and our classroom evoke an inviting and caring atmosphere, I firmly believe that each child will feel safe, secure and ultimately succeed. Now I know that each child is different and we can only do so much but at the same time we CAN control the atmosphere we create.
It makes me sad and I must admit irritated when teachers have a reputation of screaming and fussing at their students. In my own life, I have never found screaming to solve any problems.
So as Valentine's Day is upon us, may we all remember that our actions speak louder than our words and that for many kids being at school is the BEST part of their day. Make it special and memorable for all of them!
My idea today would be to to let each child have a turn at doing something throughout the day-whether it's at sharing time, helping solve problems on the promethean board, leader, door holder, return my tray to lunchroom,deliver something to office, pass out papers,etc.-use the pick sticks if you can't remember who has had a turn or not. That way they know that they are important and very much loved and appreciated by me!

Blogging...

So I was thinking - uh oh have I gotten myself into another thing that I have to add to my to do list by starting a blog....Well, I think it's all in the way you look at it. If we start comparing ourselves to other teachers out there or comparing ourselves to anyone then we are setting ourself up for failure. God made us all with a special plan in mind and as long as we utilize the gifts he gave us we should never be concerned with wanting to be like anyone else. He loves us and he knows us and our strengths. We should be blogging because of the connections and resources it provides us with in the teaching world not because we want to be like someone or feel that we are competing with others to be the best blog out there. I know some bloggers have posted some personal struggles with this issue and let me assure you that the bloggers who have posted those concerns are AWESOME bloggers and teachers and they have great ideas! Just my thoughts on that...

My idea for today would be to use HeidiSongs in the classroom. Visit her link here www.heidisongs.com
I use her dvd's everyday and we LOVE them!

It is a busy week for us on the homefront. I had to take Kirk to Nashville on Sunday for an FBLA meeting. He is coming home this afternoon-Marty will go and pick him up. The seniors' Great Pretenders performances are this Fri. and Sat. night. This is the biggest fundraiser for Project Graduation. It is going really well and should be a very entertaining and fun show! Practices are every night this week-LATE NIGHTS!!! Kara is busy as usual with school, babysitting, and school activities. Kali is of course staying busy with homework, playing at home when we are there and tagging along to Great Pretenders' practices.

Our class will celebrate Valentines with a party on Thursday afternoon. We will begin mailing our Valentine cards to our friends this afternoon. What fun! I am thankful that our school still allows us to have parties for all the big holidays. I know of some schools that do not.

Have a great day and a very Happy Valentine's Day!!!
Leigh Ann

Woo Hoo! My new blog design!

I'm so excited that after 6 weeks in the making I now have my new blog design up! Thank you so much to the Honey Bunch Blog Design team for all their hard work and efficient service. They went above and beyond to tailor make it for me. Just another quick thank you to Alessia and Deanna. :)

My goal from the beginning of my blog has simply been to journal and share with others my life as a teacher, a mother, a wife and a child of God. In case you haven't read enough of my blog, the reason I chose krazy4K as the title is that I love teaching Kindergarten but of course I love my own three children-Kirk,Kara and Kali even more thus the title! Now I don't want to leave out my husband-Marty for I love him very much too! For some crazy (krazy as i say) reason I love the coziness and warmth that gingerbread evoke and so I wanted them incorporated into my blog design. Maybe it's because when I was little my grandparents always kept those ginger snap cookies at their house. :)

I have met so many incredible and wonderful teachers through the blogging world. Many have become dear friends to me. It all started with teacherspayteachers.com a couple of years ago. As I learned more about tpt and followed some of the teachers on tpt, I eventually started reading their blogs. Last fall after I had met some of these teachers face to face at I Teach K! National Conference over the summer , I set up my own blog just as a means to make it easier and more convenient for me to keep up with the teachers and blogs I follow. I do not create products for tpt I just buy the ones I really like. :)

As a teacher,I would like to simply be able to use my blog to let others know what I have tried and/or what I do in the classroom that seems to work. The ideas I share are not all my own so if I give you an idea I will always let you know who gave me the idea so that you can also check out their blogs or tpt products. I wish that when I was first starting out as a teacher, that the blogging world had been available!!! Can you imagine how AWESOME that would have been?!!! For my niece Emma, who is student teaching now and will receive her degree in PreK-Third Grade this May I am so excited that the blogging world is available for her starting out! By the way, she was just a little sweet toddler when I first started teaching and now she's going to be a teacher and also a sweet little momma by this summer. We are so excited to get to welcome a sweet little baby boy into our family this summer hopefully on my birthday!!!

My goal is to give you an idea each time I post on my blog that works well for me and my sutdents. Today's post idea is to use the pick sticks (popsicle sticks with students' names on them) and each morning as you come together for circle time/morning meeting draw a few names and let them tell the class something good. We start each morning with "Tell me something good." This idea was shared by Dr. Jean Feldman and it was an idea that was shared to her. I usually pull about 6 sticks and then some days I tell them to turn and tell a neighbor something good. This works well for that little sweetie who always says "I didn't get a turn. " :)

In closing, for my first blog post I want to say that I am very thankful that the Lord chose me to be a Kindergarten teacher. I truly feel that it is a calling. I am also thankful that I get to teach at the primary school that I went to as a little girl. I love going to school everyday!
Thanks for reading! Have a great day and God Bless You and Yours!
Leigh Ann :)

krazy4K: I'm so excited and I think you'll like it!!!!

krazy4K: I'm so excited and I think you'll like it!!!!: "I'm so excited and I think you'll like it. I'm about to get my new blog design up and going." woo hoo! this is my last post before my new d...

I'm so excited and I think you'll like it!!!!

"I'm so excited and I think you'll like it. I'm about to get my new blog design up and going." woo hoo! this is my last post before my new design goes up. I can't tell you how excited I am about this! Alessia-thank you so much for your encouragement to do this. Deanna-thanks for redesigning your blog design to head me in the right direction to get mine up and moving. The friendships I have gained through SDE and blogging are priceless! You truly all mean the world to me and I'm so thankful for being connected with such wonderful teachers as all of you are. God Bless All of You and thank you for the blessing you are to me!