learning zone

My phone rang last week and on the other line was the one and only ERIC LITWIN!!!! You might be thinking you don't know him, but here are 3 words to help: PETE THE CAT!!!! Eric is the author of the first 4 Pete the Cat books and a #1 New York Times Best Selling Author! To say I was geeking out when talking to him is a huge understatement!! Not only is he a HUGE deal, but he is such a down to earth and incredibly nice guy! I learned through Eric's books and from talking with him that he has a Multi-Learning Approach where he loves to bring early literacy and music together. You can literally feel his excitement and passion about early literacy and music through the phone!   Eric's 'Pete the Cat' and 'The Nuts' Series are in most of our classrooms! There may even be multiple copies of his books in our classrooms because I know my students just can't get enough!  He makes reading and literacy so much fun! His writing has also given my students confidence, i...

Back to School is often a time where my emotions are all over the place! There is: Sad- Summer Break is over :( Excited- A fun year ahead with new students! Eager- When can I get into my classroom? What are my students names? I need to label EVERYTHING!! Overwhelmed- So much to do and so little time! Tired- You all know teacher tired! Anxious- Do I have everything ready?!?! Nervous- I hope my students like me! Happy- Doing what I LOVE! Not sure if you ever feel any of those emotions, but no matter how long I have been teaching I still get them ALL! My husband can tell you all about them! The weeks before students start school we spend TONS of time in our classrooms making it cute, pretty, organized, and as perfect as possible! Before we know it students are coming in a couple days and there has not been a lot of time to plan the first week of school!! Here comes in my 'overwhelmed' emotion!! If any of you ever feel or have felt this way, I am hoping this post will be helpful to...

The beginning of the year is right around the corner!! One of the biggest things that I focus on with my students for almost the first half of the school year are letters! Not only are letters fun to teach, but seeing the growth in students is truly amazing! I love when those letters 'click' and students are able to identify the letters and their sounds so easily. I wanted to share with you my Alphabet Printables . These activities have a HUGE variety of effective, hands-on, interactive, and engaging activities to help learn the alphabet. My favorite part about these printable is that there is absolutely NO PREP!! Just PRINT and GO!!! Students will get to practice  letter identification, beginning sounds, fine motor skills, sorting, handwriting, reading,  and so much  MORE  with this BUNDLE . After introducing and modeling how to write a letter, I like to have students practice tracing and writing the letter on their own. I have t...