Freebie Fridays - May 20th, 2016

It's Friday and you know what that means, freebie time!!! If you missed last week's freebies hop on over HERE. Please show your kindness to myself and the sellers who are sharing freebies by leaving positive feedback. You can always go back to My Purchases and click on the freebie tab to leave feedback after downloading it.

This week I am featuring my Cell Phone ai and ay Long Vowel Team Center activities. This set includes texting, abc order, and word sorting using the fun cell phones! Please leave positive feedback if you like the activity. I do have a long vowel pairs set available for purchase in my store.

Link up to 3 FREEBIES of your choice from your store or your blog. I'd appreciate sharing the post.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thank you for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings! Keep on smiling!

Mom Made Us Write This!

I received an e-mail a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd like to review the book "Mom Made Us Write This In The Summer" by Ali Maier.  I received a copy of the book and the offer to give one away to one of my blog readers in return for a book review!  Click the picture to purchase the book on Amazon.

This book is written for children in grades 2nd through about 5th grade.  The story is about two twins Maggie and Max who get on each others nerves so their mother decides to have them share a journal to write in all summer long!  They take turns picking a topic to write on.  Then the other sibling reads the entry and writes little things in the margins before writing their own entry on the topic.  They write about things that children can relate to like ice cream, hotels, roller coasters, doctor visits, and back to school shopping among others.  They also get to draw and doodle all over the entries.  It is interesting to see the different funny views that each one has about each topic.

This story would make a fantastic read aloud or for children to read independently at school or even at home.  If you are a homeschooling parent of more than one child you may want to try this idea with your children.  Give them one journal and have them take turns picking a topic and writing on the same topic.  It's a great way for children to learn to share and get along with each other.  It could also work in the classroom if you pair students up.  It may be one way to get children to learn to love writing!

Check out the website Mom Made Us Write This to purchase the book, find out other journal ideas, read Max and Maggie's blog, and more!

Do you want to win a copy of this book?  Follow the simple Rafflecopter directions to enter.  You must be a United States Residence and you will have 48 hours to claim your prize by sending me your mailing address if you are the winner or a new winner will be selected.  The contest will end at midnight Eastern Time Zone on Saturday, December 6th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About The Author Ali Maier

Ali went to John Carroll University and earned a BA in Elementary Education.  She lives in a Cleveland suburb with her husband and two
children. She loves to read, write and spend time with her family.  

Ali chose to write the Mom Made Us Write This series to encourage young readers to do something she loves – to read! Ali wanted to write a book series that would allow readers to laugh and encourage them to write and share their own stories.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MomMadeUsWriteThis

 
Thanks for hoppin' by!  Keep on smiling!

Fun Times In Kindergarten in Hopkins' land!

I was so busy teaching the little ones all year that I just didn't have as much time to blog as I had hoped I would.  Here are a few of the fun things we did this year that I remembered to get pictures of!

Here are our snowmen with rhyming words on them!  I love how no two look exactly alike.

These are the amazing bean plants my student's grew.  They really took off!  I had them take them home at spring break.  If they really planted them in the ground like I told them to do, I bet they have beans!  

Here we made Abe Lincon's cabin for President's Day.  This was a huge hit with the children and many teachers gave me great compliments!  

St. Patrick's Day I was sick so I barely got this fun activity in before we spring break.  On each of the clovers are words that rhyme with luck.   

One of my terrific writers who went on place first place in the Young Author's Conference!  I'm so proud of her!.  She wrote on the hearts that she loves me very very very much.  Such a sweet child, who filled my bucket right up to the top!

Our ocean themed t-shirts sure did turn out cute!!!  We used stamps and acrylic paint.  They were a big hit.  I borrowed the stamps from a teammate and hope I can find some somewhere.  I have checked the craft stores with no such luck finding big ones like these.  If you see any around online, let me know!

We ended the year with a fun memory book from Lesson Plan Diva.  I received some great compliments on these too.

I will miss those kiddos.  I look forward to finding a new job with a brand new class of children.  Each of my years of teaching has brought a completely different group of children and I look forward to learning about my new group in August.  I know I'll find the perfect place to teach!

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

Positive Fridays - Week of March 31st, 2014

I was happy to be back to work after a great start to Spring Break for my birthday where I went to 3 days of country music concerts.  It was so much fun seeing Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Sarah Darling, Joe Nichols, Rodney Atkins, The Band Perry, JT Hodges, Neon Summer, and more!  Toward the end of spring break I ended up at the doctors twice and found out I have a Kidney Stone.  Your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated!  Enough of the unfortunate news, let's get to the positives!

It was great to be back with such a wonderful faculty and students.  My students really shined this for me!

• One child who was having a rough day raised his hand and said Mr. Hopkins, you're the best teacher.  I think you should be the teacher of the year!  How sweet is that?  That is bucket filling at its finest!
• They worked on making some wonderful bunnies and wrote about why they are a lucky bunny.  They did such an amazing job, I'll try to get pictures and try to find sometime to get that up on here for everyone to see how cute they turned out!
• They worked so hard in groups together doing an Open Picture Sort with cards.  They had to figure out the beginning sounds and then group them together and write the sound on each card.  I challenged my Kindergarten children and had both long and short u.  Surprisingly the group that had low/average children (all in my 2 intervention groups) was the group who figured out the long and short u as well as the rest!  
• I started doing DRAs on my students again and I am so pleased that 2 of my girls have jumped considerably.  In fact so much that I need to hear them read again!  One has jumped at least 2 levels and the other 3!  Our goal is to read a level 6 at the end of the year and they read a 4 independently!  I was so excited and so were they!  The smiles on their faces told it all.
• We said goodbye to an intern I've had for awhile.  She is a freshman in college and worked so well with the children, always asking me what else can she do to help me or the children.  This wonderful lady is going to be amazing teacher.  She wrote me such a sweet card thanking me for everything and said she got some great classroom management tips and classroom ideas.  I also helped her see that she truly does still want to be a Kindergarten teacher.  I'm glad I could influence a future teacher!

Anyone have any group student success stories?  Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

Day 7: Winter Vocabulary Flash Cards

I hope everyone had the chance to snag the cute Multiplication Monster game yesterday!  I also hope you are all finding some brand new blog, stores, and FB pages to follow!  I can't believe we are already at Day 7 of the freebies to celebrate my blog's Blogiversary!

Today's freebie comes from Kim and Deborah.  These two wonderful ladies have a blog geared mostly toward Spanish called "Teaching Spanish Beginning Sounds."  The freebie today though is in English, but would work well for ESOL (ELL) learners!  Click on the button to visit them and become a follower today.  Tell these ladies thanks for the kind freebie!

Today's freebie, which is only free for today, is called "Winter Vocabulary Flash Cards."  These are cute cards with pictures on them and then word underneath. They would be so perfect to go on a bulletin board for your students when they are writing stories so they don't have to ask you how to spell this word or that work.  Click on the picture to get the freebie and please leave us a kind comment so we know how many of you downloaded the freebie!  Thanks a million!

Please be sure to become a follower or say something nice to these ladies on their blog, TPT store called Doodles and Kreations, and FB page today!

Tomorrow's freebie comes to us from Lori from The Kindergarten Pod.  Please click HERE to visit her blog and become a follower today!  Tell her that you are looking forward to her exclusive freebie!

As always thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!  Keep on smiling!

Day 3: Diary of a ... Winter Writing Project

I hope everyone enjoyed the first two freebies.  If you missed them be sure to check back on my blog daily so you don't miss another freebie!

Today's freebie comes from Jodi at Realistic Teacher!  She is currently teaching 2nd grade.  Head on over to her blog and say hi to her!




Jodi has a fun winter writing diary for your students to make that will last for 7 days.  It is called Diary of a Winter Writing Unit.  It's super cute.  To get this great freebie click on the picture below.  Then come back to the blog and be sure to leave a kind comment so we know how many of you downloaded the freebie!

Please stop by Jodi's blog, FB page, and TPT store to say hi and thank her for the exclusive freebie!  She has many other great products and freebies in her TPT store!  Check them out.  Thank you so much Jodi for the freebie for my readers, you are awesome!

Tomorrow a pretty new blogger who blogs about Science in Middle and High School has an awesome freebie for you that you are sure to love.  Tara's blog is called Science in the City.  Head on over and say hi to her and become one of her first followers!

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!  Keep on smiling!