Several Posts in One!

 I'm trying something new out this year... something else to get my mind off school, for a little bit. I have needed to fill my evening schedules with something so that I am not spending my nights, yes my nights still at school in my room. Last year was great. I got along with the custodial staff and was able to stay in my room until they were finished their work. It felt just like old times when I was at my preschool job and the center (we were a part of a community center) didn't close until 10pm at night. I didn't stay that late every night... But this year is different. I have to re-learn our new custodial staff because all kindergarten teachers are in the main building with the rest of the grades unlike last year when we were in a different building.
 So since I don't know the evening staff too well, I had to find something for me to get engrossed in at least ONE day of the week. So I have managed to get myself into Girl Scouts. And I am totally excited and nervous about what we will be doing and how everything is run. For most of my life I have always felt like that outsider looking in, dying to know what they are doing and finally I took the plunge and went to find out. We have some great girls in our troop and it is going to be a fun year. I was even excited about having to purchase myself a vest and maybe even add on some patches for myself... well that got shot down quickly. Volunteers (me) only are required to wear a Girl Scout scarf and pins. That's it! But as I am typing this I wonder if they will still let me get the vest or should I just find something else to put my patches on.
 Now while that is in my mind, the other stuff is rolling around... trying to understand all the terms (or people titles), to learn the Girl Scout promise just like the Boy Scouts have their honor. As the school year goes along I hope that I can make time for my class and my troop too. Exciting!
 Don't forget to enter MY GIVEAWAY and join my Field Trip linky party. It's my first ever so I'm loving just having a few people enter.

 Other Finds:

 Have you guys ever tried Wordle? Well I was reading Mrs. Zrihen's post and I thought I would check it out. I have seen them before and thought that looked too complicated so I didn't try. But yesterday I thought why not see what I need to do and do it. Well it is way easy once you get into the "groove". In order to get started make sure you begin your "list of words" in a document that way it is easier to copy and paste right into the create box. You just come up with your words that you want in your wordle. Mrs. Zrihen's suggestion was to use your kids' names (once you get your roster of course). But you could use any words such as 100 ways to praise a child (include some), favorite authors, favorite books. Now once you get into spacing of the word it gets tricky. A trick I did learn is that if you have words that you want to stand out, include them together but multiple times. Say you wanted the word "reading" to be big in your wordle, you would type it: reading reading reading. And in your wordle "reading" would be bigger than the other words. Now I mentioned spacing would be difficult. If you have a word that has a space, just type it in without the space. Such as "social studies", put them together to make "socialstudies"... wrong on your document but cool on your wordle. Now check out Mrs. Zrihen's post to see some examples of a wordle. I haven't quite decided what I wanted to do yet. But when I do make one, I want to do one meaningful to either me or to my students for this year.

- Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons posted pictures of her homework folder with FREEBIE downloads. I like it sort of. I like it because it has letters, numbers and sight words on the homework. I think that is essential for students to practice. I've been trying to figure out how I would get that info on our composition notebooks. I may go packaging tape crazy and stick info on the inside and back covers... I don't know what to do. Last year was my first time doing homework and I was just a newbie at it. This year I am still a newbie but since I've began blogging this summer I want to be able to show my team some things I've learned.
- Have you heard that Ladybug Teaching Files is on vacation this week? Don't worry, her blog is not going silent... Kristen has lined up some other teachers to be guest bloggers on her site. Check it out, it's called Kristen's Printables Paradise weeklong giveaway. You get a freebie a day. So while Kristen is on vacation she is treating us to a "mini spa" of great ideas and freebies.

- Check out the post from I {Heart} Teaching about using book trailers to "tease" their interests about a book you are about to read to them.
- Check out Mrs. Jump's blog as she shares first week of school ideas and offers up some freebies. You know I can never pass up freebies because they are always helpful no matter what. I like to star the freebies when I "read" them (skim them) so I can bring it back to you and see if you can use the freebies and maybe learn about a new blog or make you aware of posts you might have missed while you were on "vacation".
- Check out Kindergarten Kiosk's Give Me Five poster. She is offering it at her TPT store for only $1. Isn't it cute? I've never heard the give me five chant sung so I am excited to start it with my new class.

- Spunky K Teacher is in her 2nd week of school. OMG! And is sharing her Shape Spin and Graph game. I always love that especially since we are doing shapes at the beginning of the year. And since I am trying, trying, and trying to incorporate math work stations into my classroom this year I love getting games like this that will help my students.

- Over at 2nd Grade Shenanigans she is offerings some great Freebies. If you love colorful covers for your teaching items (notebook, student files, etc.), so head on over there to snag those. Also there is a Hollywood/ Movie themed alphabet set if anyone is doing movie or popcorn related themes. Oh and her Record Number Line from 1-100 which is a HUGE file of over 50 pages!! Isn't that wonderful and it's all free.

- And I just had to share this one from Little Miss Kindergarten. She has shared some of her ideas to use with the book Mouse Count. Like I would have never thought to go to the Dollar Tree's cat section and pick up some items to go along with the story. I don't think I have it in my large library so I will have to borrow it from my team or the reading specialist. I have made myself a promise not to buy anymore books until I have complete the "I have NEVER read aloud" list. Might be an uphill battle as I LOVE shopping for books, especially when the Scholastic "bus" comes through our city and we can get discounted books. Oh and another one of her ideas... penny stamps. I can't wait to make them and if don't know where they are click on her name to find out.

 I have included LOTS so enjoy your week! Desiree