Music in Literature Plus Brain Break Giveaway

It has been quite some time since I've had a giveaway and also awhile since I have done a review on a CD from The Learning Station.  As many of you who follow me know, I do work with them in social media.  These opinions though are still completely of my own.

Many teachers like to tie stories into many activities besides comprehension.  One fun unique way is to tie in literature with music!  The Learning Station has an amazing CD called "Literacy in Motion."  There are 20 songs that correlate with very popular children's literature.

"Wild Things" goes with the popular book "Where The Wild Things Are," "The Giving Song" correlates with the book "The Giving Tree", "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" goes with the book of the same name and "Head to Toe Dance" is a fun brain break that goes with Eric Carle's popular book "From Head To Toe."

They have a video for "Hungry Caterpillar," another popular book by Eric Carle "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."  My Kindergarten children loved this song last year.  One of my personal favorites is "Green Eggs and Ham" with the song by the same name.  Other favorites, which also have videos on YouTube include: "Old McDonald," "Five Little Monkeys," "I Know An Old Lady," "Special Friends", and "Kwanzaa."  Click the names of the songs to go to the videos!

The 2nd CD is filled with fun brain breaks.  Children need to have time to just plain have fun and rest their brain.  This gets them ready for learning!  "Brain Boogie Boosters" does just that and includes many very popular songs by The Learning Station.

"Greetings" is a great song to begin the day or when you have a new student join the class.  They recently made a Yoga video for this one.  "Move and Freeze" is a fun song that tells children how to move and then all of a sudden they have to freeze!   "Boogie Rock", the title track "Brain Boogie Boosters", and "Wadlee Atcha" are fun movement songs that are bound to be favorites in your class.  "Itsy Bitsy Spider", the popular nursery rhyme is a fun movement activity to be done with a partner.  Be sure to also check out the Yoga videos for "It's a Marvelous Day," and "Brain Breaks."  "I Gotta Go" is a great song to teach your students proper bathroom procedures in a fun way!  "Skip Count" is a fun song to help teach an essential math skill in skip counting.  My favorite on this CD has to be "You Are Heart" a song with a beautiful message and the children in the video will bring a smile to your face.

 * Please note the videos do not come with the CDs.  You may view them on YouTube by clicking on the titles.

Are you ready to win these 2 incredible CDs?  You can enter by following the directions in the Rafflecopter app.  Do as little or as many entries that you would like.  Be sure to follow The Learning Station on Facebook!  The contest runs for 5 full days from September 25th at midnight Eastern Time Zone until September 30th at midnight.  A winner will be chosen from all CORRECT entries.  You will have 48 hours to respond to the e-mail or a new winner will be chosen. 

***All comments are moderated, they will not show up right away on my blog.  It is the only way to allow users to post without having an account without me getting spammed.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

 

The Learning Station Concert

I was very lucky to have won a surprise giveaway from The Learning Station for a FREE concert or a professional development session.  I won the giveaway for spreading kindness.  I of course decided on the free concert because I wanted to see so many children with smiling faces.  I have been blessed to sub in so many wonderful schools the past 2 years and been requested by so many teachers at these schools.  The school I decided to select was because I had subbed in every single kindergarten class, plus pre-k, and several 1st grade classes the past 2 years.

The children at the school I chose spread kindness on a daily basis.  They are taught to be kind through their amazing teachers who I have gotten to know and their wonderful principal.

The concert started off with the principal introducing Don Monopoli of The Learning Station and then gave me the microphone to share a few words.  I talked about how I found out about this amazing group through a teacher and then started checking out all of their videos.  The children who got to have fun were in Pre-K through 1st grade, plus the class that I subbed for, which was a mix of 1st and 2nd graders.

Don then took the stage and  from the get go he had children and teachers dancing and doing movements standing up and in their seats.  Most of the children participated for the full hour and the same with their amazing teachers.  We sang and danced to "Baby Shark," "Boom Chicka Boom," "One Finger One Thumb,"   "Get Funky," "Ram Sam Sam," "The Boogaloo Song," and many many more.

The concert also had a surprise where Don invited the teachers and myself to pick a child to go up to the stage with us.  He thanked teachers and substitutes like myself for all we do for the children.  He then launched into their international hit song "Tony Chestnut" where we did the movements on stage with him.

"The More We Get Together" had children singing, dancing, and pointing at me and the concert ended with "Singing In The Rain" as a super Kindergarten teacher pulled me near the stage and we danced together.

Thank you to Don, Laurie, and Jan for picking me to win this special free concert and giving the children a fun way to end their school year.  We all had a blast!

100th Day of School Books

The 100th day of school has already passed for some of you and for others it's coming soon.  If it hasn't passed yet, share with us in the comments when your 100th day of school is and what your favorite activity or book relating to the 100th day of school is.

I thought I would share today some of my favorite 100th of school books that I used when I taught Kindergarten and 2nd grade.

This first one is called "100th Day Worries."  It is probably my favorite as I am a worry wart myself at times!  Jessica worries about what to bring to school that she has 100 of that is good enough to share.  Will she come up with something in time?

Next up is "Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day."  In this book each student whose names begin with A all the way to Z bring in a project with 100 of something!  This one was a favorite of my Kindergarten students.

In this book "100 Days of School", it shows children the many ways to count to 100 by 1's 5's, 10's 20's, etc.

"100 School Days" is another fun book that I have read to my previous students.  The students are working on counting pennies.  They get a penny every day of school.  It helps them keep track of how many days they have been in school.  What will happen when they get to 100?  How are they going to celebrate?  Read this great book to find out!

Do you celebrate the 100th day of school?  What grade do you teach?  Is there a book that I missed that you read to your class?  Let us know!

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

Happy New Year! Day 5: Sounds Snowflake Set

Happy New Year!  I wish 2013 to be very kind to each and everyone of you.  My goal is to continue to spread kindness each and every day and smile as much as possible.  It's the little things that make the difference in life and if model these things to children they are bound to catch on and be kind to others and smile more as well!

Now to today's freebie!  Today's freebie comes from Christina who is a Kindergarten teacher.  Her blog is Krazy In Love With Kindergarten.  Hop on over and join her fairly new blog and say hello to her by clicking "HERE."

Christina's freebie is called Sounds Snowflake Set.  It is 3 different games all zipped together!  2 of the 3 centers also come with worksheets.  This is perfect for Kindergarten, high level Pre-K students, or low level 1st graders.  Click on the picture to get your copy for free today only!  

Don't forget to follow Christina's blog and TPT store and thank her for the freebie.  Be sure to leave us a comment on the blog so we know that you downloaded it.  We have no other way to keep track of how many downloads.

Tomorrow's freebie comes from Kim and is a fun Multiplication freebie that your students are sure to love!  Kim doesn't have a blog or FB page yet, but you can stop on over at her store and become a follower today!  Click "HERE." 

Thanks for ringing in the new year with me at Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

   

Turkey Craft and More Thanksgiving Business

I have been very hard at work on my first ever craft!  This is an adorable turkey.  Children read the color words on the feathers and color them before assembling the turkey.  I have included both a Pilgrim and Native American (Indian) turkey.  There are also blank templates of the feathers in case you want your students to be creative.  I also included a color by color code coloring picture and a regular coloring sheet as bonuses.  This is priced at just $1.50!  Wow!  Click the picture to go get it!

Next up, I have created some more Kindergarten fun!  This packet of Kindergarten Thanksgiving Letter and Number Fun includes a number match to 10: Numbers, Number Words, and Dots.  It also includes a capital and lowercase matching game!  I have included worksheets for both!  They fit the Common Core Stanards for Kindergarten!  Click the picture to check them out for just $2.00!

As always please leave feedback and a nice comment if you decide to purchase.  Need it fixed up in some way then please shoot me an e-mail tigermagic@bellsouth.net

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

Munchy Math

Does anyone else like using food in the classroom to teach?  Those of you on my facebook page know I am a huge fan of using food in the classroom!  Back when I taught Kindergarten, I was lucky enough to have parents donate loads of extra snacks for Munchy Math Fridays!  Every single Friday I came up with something fun to do with the food they brought in.  I had Cheese-Its, colored Gold Fish crackers, different kinds of cereal, etc. donated.

Food can be used for graphing, counting, adding, subtracting, making patterns, etc.  Older students can use it for multiplying, dividing, fractions, place value (how about use pretzels sticks for tens, skittles or cherrios for ones, and crackers for hundreds, and maybe graham crackers for thousands?) etc.  The Kindergarten children loved it and had so much fun!

So I have made a freebie for you!  This one is for Pre-k, Kindergarten, or struggling 1st graders.  It uses Candy Corn.  If you use the color copy do it in small groups or centers.  If you print them in black and white it could be done in color.  Give each child 20 pieces of candy corn or whatever number you are currently working on (only use those cards).  Children pick a card and read the number (numbers go from 0 to 20).  They take out and count that many pieces of candy.  Then the next child picks a card and does the same thing until all cards are used or time is up.  There are two worksheets one from 0 to 20 and the other from 0 to 10 that have the children drawing candy corn.  When completed they can eat the candy!  Of course that is the best part and what motivates the children! 

Click on the picture to get your FREE game!  Please leave me a nice comment and rating on TPT for downloading it, it only takes a minute!

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

Positive Fridays - Week of September 10th, 2012

It's Friday again!!!  That means it is time for my Positive Friday post, which is my favorite thing to blog about it!  I hope that you enjoy reading about my adventures in subbing, job hunting, and blog news.

 

Last Friday I had the opportunity to sub for a half day in a 3rd grade class.  This was a different group of 3rd graders, but in the same school.

• The students were very cooperative and respectful.
• They were very quiet during test time and did an excellent job of raising their hand when they needed help with other work.
• All of the students cheerfully said goodbye to me when their teacher came back.  I look forward to hopefully subbing for this bunch of great students in the future! 
• Before school one student in 2nd grade saw me and before going to her class cheerfully said my name and gave me a hug and a huge smile.  Awesome, that she remembered me from last year!

Saturday, I did a good deed of filling many buckets by paying $1 at Arby's to help feed children.  My $1 paid for 10 meals for children I was told!

Monday, there was no school due to an inservice for teachers.  I did though get to interview for a Kindergarten position in Orlando.  Unforutnately, they were on a hiring freeze and I believe had to take a transfer from another school. 

So the next day I worked was Tuesday as an assistant in a Pre-K class.  It was nice to be called in personally instead of picking it up on the computer system.

• There were only 8 students in the class.  They were a fun loving group of children.
• A couple of students kept coming up to me during their center time for me to read stories to them.  I read 5 or 6 books to them and then a couple at dismissal.  I even tied in Math with them having them count groups of the same things in the pictures of the stories.  They did a great job!

Wednesday, I got a wake up call again this time to sub as an assistant in an exceptional education class with 6 boys.

• One boy was especially attached to me if I moved somewhere else he would come follow me, it was so sweet!
• The same boy kept calling me Dad!  First time that has happened in my teaching career, I have been called Mom a time or two though. haha 
• I enjoyed helping them at P.E. and helping them make a color book.
• Several children in 1st grade from the first class I subbed for this school year saw me when I took the boys to the playground and came up to talk to me and give me a hug.  Very sweet children!

Unfortunately, I did not get to work on Thursday, but I do have a regular position as the Skills teacher (I believe Math) with Kindergarten through 6th grade today.  I will include my fun positives in next Fridays e-mail.

In blog news I am excited that I have 148,000 views and I should hit 150,000 before next Friday.  I also hav eover 950 FB fans and can't wait to hit 1,000!  Did you know I have over 100 products, 1/4th of the products are free? 

Please leave your positives from the week.  I look forward to reading how your year is going.

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

Cover The Number

Here's a simple game of rolling the dice, and counting the dots.  Children then cover it with a counter.  After all numbers are covered the child with the most numbers covered is the winner!  It works well with Kindergarten Common Core Standards.  Click the picture to download it for free, I appreciate kind feedback and ratings!

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

Positive Fridays - Week of June 25th

I know, I know, I know I said no more Positive Fridays until school starts, BUT I have some wonderful positives that I just must share so Positive Fridays are back for this week anyway my friends.  Keep reading and I promise a freebie for you all as well!

- Last weekend, I got to babysit my nephew on Friday and Saturday will be doing the same this week and the rest of summer until school starts!  He is 7 years old and going into 2nd grade.  He kept me on my toes for 2 days.  This was my first time ever babysitting.  He had fun on the computer playing http://www.abcya.com and http://www.spellingcity.com  It is hot with no A/C in my house right now until the part comes in to fix it so we spent some time outside throwing water at each other using water bottles and his squirt gun.  We also played my Fishy Sight Word game (it's free!) along with some other games, read a bunch of Clifford books, made some snow, etc.

- Then on Thursday I received a call to interview for a tutoring position for the summer on Monday!  I can't wait as I am so excited to get to help children again.  I love making a difference in their lives.

- Also, on Thursday an amazing parent of a 3rd grader wrote me the nicest recommendation letter.  It brought tears to my eyes.

- Finally, on Thursday I found out from another parent and former collegue that her daughter had a book published on the web.  I taught her daughter in 2nd grade and she is going into I believe 8th grade!  Wow!  Where does time go?

- Almost forgot I also heard that a student of mine that I taught in Kindergarten my 2nd year just got straight A's on her last report card (4.0 average all year!) and scored 4's on FCAT in reading and math barely missing a 5.  I am so proud of her!

Now for your freebie.  Click the picture to get this letter matching freebie for Kindergarten.  I am working on a Kindergarten packet, Fraction packet, July Behavior freebie, and another behavior freebie!  Hope to have them all done this week!  We'll see!

Until next time thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings and keep smiling!

Common Core I Have Who Has Sea Life Kindergarten Games

I have been creating Sea Life things for 1st and up and decided it was time to make something for the wonderful Kindergarten children to enjoy!  My I Have Who Has Games have been a hit while subbing and also   with many other teachers around the country and world!  I wish I had pictures of the kids playing the games, but being a sub that's not something I can do.  


The games includes: Capital Letters, Lowercase Letters, Pre-Primer Sight Words, Numbers 0 to 20.


Click on the pictures to go to my TPT store to make a purchase if you are interested!

Easter Addition Common Core Games

I have been hard at work today making some new games for everyone. These games are geared toward the primary children. First up is a free 20 page game using Common Core Standards. The strategies focus on Adding +0 and +1. You can play match, go fish, or instead of Old Maid how about Hoppin' Hopkins! haha

Next up is a game that I am very proud of and I can't wait to get your feedback on it.  This game uses Common Core Standards also.  It is for Addition Strategies Doubles, Doubles +1 (also called Near Doubles), and Making 10.  Children turn a card over and answer the question if everyone agrees the answer is correct, they get to flip an egg.  If the egg is a number other than 0 they get that many points.  If it is 0 their total score is 0 and it is the next person's turn.  If it is not 0 they can decide to go again and again and again and keep adding the points to their total, but if they get a 0 they lose everything even from other rounds.

Example: Joe gets a 2, then a 3.  He now has 5 points.  He goes again and gets a 4.  Now he has 9 points.  Joe decides to stop.  On Joe's next turn he gets a 3.  He now has 12 total points.  Joe decides to try again and gets a 0.  He now has 0 total points.

Feel free in the comments to request other skills, I'd be thrilled to make games to meet your needs!!!  Click the pictures to go check out the game!

Thanks for hoppin' over to  Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!  I appreciate every single of your support!  Love to you all!

Brian :-)

Positive Fridays - Week of March 12th, 2012

Happy Friday everyone!!!  Some of you may be ending Spring Break and others about to start it.  We have another week to go!

Time for some hoppin' positives that I hope will make you smile!

- My blog has over 16,000 views!  I can't believe so many of you keep coming back to my blog.  You make me smile every time that I see those numbers shoot up like that.  Amazing!

- I was in the same Kindergarten class all this week.  I didn't have hardly any plans as it was due to a big emergency so I got to try some of my own things out, which was so much fun!  I also got to play a lot of music from my favorite CDs by "The Learning Station."  They happen to be located in Melbourne, FL and I'm from Brevard County so it is so excited to have a children's group so close by!  I loved seeing their excited faces a they did the movements to the CD.

Here's a fun song you may enjoy:

- A parent from the class wrote me a few very nice notes and also said she complimented me in the front office!   It makes me feel so good when parents go that extra mile and especially since I'm only a sub right now!

- Walking into the cafeteria was just so much fun this week as I had Kindergarten children and 3rd graders who were just beyond excited to see me!  It's so nice to see so many get so excited.  That's the nice part of subbing that I feel so loved by so many different classes of children and different grade levels!

- Today, I head off to 1st grade at another school that I sub at a lot.  The Kindergarten children will have another sub as I was already booked and I hope their teacher will be back next week, they miss her so much!

Until next time keep Hoppin' with me at Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!

Brian :-)

Hands On - Letter Recognition!

Today I thought I would share a hands-on letter recognition activity that I used to do when I taught Kindergarten and I actually tried this with pretzels in a Kindergarten class when subbing a few months ago. 1. Give each child card stock (looks even better if it is colored) or cheaper for your pocketbook colored construction paper. 2. Next write the letter they are working on using a Sharpie really big on the paper. 3. Either you or the child trace the letter with glue. My students for the most part could do this themselves so I was able to have it be a center after awhile! 4. Give them something that starts with that letter. The child puts it right on the glue to trace the letter. Example - C - Cheerios, D - Dots (the ones that are stickers), P - Pretzels or popcorn or pom poms, Y - Yarn and I'm sure you can come up with a bunch more! See the picture for a finished product for the letter P - Pretzels

This is a perfect lesson for Pre-K, Kindergarten, or 1st graders who have not mastered their alphabet or really any child no matter the grade that hasn't.  I have had 2nd graders who don't know all their letters.  The children have fun with it and I have seen them master the alphabet so much quicker this way!!!

 Brian :-)

Country Morning!

I hope everyone is having an amazing Leap Day and had a great day with the children doing fun activities!  Today, I want to take a trip back down memory lane.  I started my teaching career in 2003 when I took over for a popular teacher teaching Kindergarten.  It surprisingly to me, took me no time at all to win the hearts of those children and their families!  Many families from my first year of teaching have stayed in contact with me.  The children I taught from that year are now in 7th or 8th grade!

One of those amazing parents wrote a children's book a few years ago called "Country Morning."  It is written by Christine Lynn and the publishing company is Tate Publishing.  Nobody asked me to do a book review on it.  All opinions are of my own.  Clicking the book will take you to the site on Amazon, where you can see inside of it!

Country Morning is a story about life on a farm in the early mornings!  Those of you, like my Grandma, who grew up on a farm get up bright and early and know all about those wonderful farm animals get ready for the day.  The sun is rising while the animals come out to start their day.  This book is also a perfect book to teach rhyming words.  It has such beautiful and crisp illustrations that make the pictures come alive!  I can literally imagine myself waking up at a farm and going to see the animals as they are just getting up for the day!

I was blessed to have Christine come read to my 2nd graders many years later even after transferring schools.  The children had a blast listening to her read this wonderful story and asking her questions about the writing process!

I would love to see this book in every classroom library.  Most young children love farm animals and this book is so perfect for grades Pre-K through 3rd.  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have!

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings!

Brian :-)

New Saint Patrick's Day Games

I have updated my St. Patrick's Day file to include some new games.  These are recommended for Kindergarten, but it may work with Pre-K or 1st grade.  I added 4 I Have Who Has Games, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and pre-primer dolch words.  I hope you find these games fun.  This makes 36 pages and 32 are the games and activities!  I have left the price at $4.00 for now so grab it before the price goes up!  Click either picture to grab it!

   

Click the link below to go to the original post, which lists the other games and materials!
http://hopkinshoppinblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/st-patricks-day-games.html

Enjoy the games!  If you have any other ideas for I Have Who Has Games for Kindergarten let me know!

Brian :-)