Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

Hi Everyone! I am linking up with Jessica from Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten for her Tricks & Treats Blog Hop! I am so so so excited to be apart of this linky party! I hope you find my tricks & treats helpful to you and your classroom!

My first trick is a very simple one. Do you ever find yourself wondering how to label your classroom library bins or even your weekly teacher bins???? I spent time thinking what style labels should a make? What font should I use? But then I had an idea.... Bulletin Board Cut outs!!!  I took premade bulletin board letters and numbers laminated them and tapped them into my bin! They look so pretty and the labels are very large so it is easy to see! Looking at them makes me soo happy!

My next TRICK is for classroom management or should I say hallway management! Do you have a hard time finding ways of keeping your kiddies walking nicely and quietly in the hallway? What about behaving like stellar students during specials?!?! In my school we need to keep our students quiet in the hallways so we don't disrupt the learning of other classrooms. Students also, do not always listen to and respect specials teachers as much as their classroom teacher, so to fix this I use COMPLIMENTS to help us be the best we can be in and outside of the classroom!

We can get compliments from any adult in the school. It can be for walking nicely and quietly, for doing a great job in music class, or being super creative and following directions in art class. BUT it has to be a COMPLIMENT for the WHOLE class. Everyone needs to be doing their best. When a compliment is given, once we get back to the classroom we add a letter up to the board. I simply write them on the dry erase board, but you could use bulletin board letters as well. The best part is when we spell out COMPLIMENTS,  my class comes up with ideas for a group reward: extra playground time, pajama day, or even an ice pop party. We then vote and the idea with the most votes is our winner!!!  We have already spelled out COMPLIMENTS and our having our first group reward today!! Bring your favorite stuffed animal to school!

My last trick, is one the I have recently discovered! Go Noodle!! 

It is the best brain break system I have EVER discovered!!!  I did not make or design it, but creative genius' did and I have signed up for my FREE account and so should you! In the morning we do yoga with Maximo and then throughout the day we earn brain breaks to sing and dance to silly songs and even go zumba! After, 10 brain breaks your classroom monster grows and my kinder love love love  watch Freckles Sinclair grow!!

My Dismissal Log

You can find this freebie on my teacher pay teachers store! I use this printable EVERY DAY. The first few days of school I figured out who belongs in aftercare, who goes on a bus, and when children are walkers. I filled out my dismissal log and made a ton of copies. I attached them to my clipboard and its ready to go! If I get a change of dismissal for the day I mark it down on my form in the morning and then when it is the end of the day I just looked to see who goes where. There is no forgetting that someone is changed to aftercare for the day or even the name of someones aunt who is picking up and I know what name to look for when I am checking a drivers license.

I hope you enjoyed my tricks and treats!! If you use any of them in your classroom please stop by and let me know how they work out for you!!

Enter my raffle to win my Letter Sound Puzzles 

     

and my A-Z Letter Review Pages

      

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Check out my teachers pay teachers store! This weekend everything is on sale for 20% off!

An InLinkz Link-up

Meet The Teacher {Linky Party}

I am so so so excited to be joining in on Falling Into First's Meet The Teacher Linky Party! I am brand new to the blogging world! I just started a few weeks ago and I am LOVING every minute of this exciting experience! I have meet so many nice and creative fellow teachers through my blog, FB, and TpT!!!!  When I saw this Linky Party, I thought{Oh! Oh! Me Me!} I need to be a part of this! Being new to the blogging world I knew there was no better way to introduce myself then to link up! So here I go....

My name is Kristen Quigley and I have been teaching for 5 years. I have moved around a lot and taught every thing from preschool to third grade in private and public schools. This year I landed my Dream Job! I will be teaching Kindergarten in a public school system, very close by to where I live. No more hours of commuting far for work! YAY!!! I am so thrilled to be in my new school district! IT is an amazing place and I could not be more excited to start! I am spending all summer preparing for the start of a fabulous new year!

This is a picture of me and my wonderful husband, Mike. We will be married 1 year on September 21st! I can not believe it has already been a year! It went by so quickly. Our wedding was a real fairy tale. Just thinking about it makes me smile. Mike is the reason I landed my dream job! He pushed me to take a risk and leave my public preschool job that was over an hour away for a maternity leave position the was MUCH closer to our house. VERY RISKY and I worried the whole time that I would end up jobless! But it paid off because they hired me for a full time, contracted position starting this Fall!

This is our dog Dexter. He is just the cutest thing ever! I get to spend my summer off with this guy! He has so much energy and always keeps us busy. I spend most of my summer days at my parents pool where he loves to play in his sprinkler and I blog! :)

Now its time for the fun Q&A Session!!!

Q: These are a few of my favorite things…

Dollar Tree, Target, J Crew, Nail Polish, Alex and Ani Bracelets, and Ice Cream!

Q: If you weren’t a teacher, what would you want to be?

I love anything to do with the ocean so I would have to say a Marine Biologist 

Q: Three little words that describe you.

Creative. Obsessive. Girlie

Q: Finish this sentence, “___________________, said no teacher EVER!!”

"Yes I have tons of time to drink water and go to the bathroom during the day!" said no teacher EVER!! 

Q: It’s your birthday and you can invite anyone {dead or alive} to the party. Who are you inviting?

Jimmy Fallon... He is so funny!

Q: If someone wrote a book about your life, what would be the title?

Confessions of a Teacher/Shopaholic *LoL*

Q: You get to pick one superpower. What is it?

I would want to be able to read the minds of people and animals

"Q: What’s your favorite quote or saying?

"It takes a BIG heart to shape LITTLE minds!"

Q: If you HAD to sing one song on American Idol, what would it be?

"Chicken Fried" - Zac Brown Band (I am not a good singer so I would want to sing something that is fun!) I love country music!

Q: Are you a morning person or a night owl? 

I am a morning person I usually go to bed very early except for the summer time!

Q: What’s your favorite resource that you’ve created in your TPT shop?

Since I am a newbie I do not have that many products to pick from but  would have to say that my favorite product so far are my Letter Watches!

 

Q: Share something we might not know about you!

I can not drink caffeine! No coffee for me! Only Decaf Tea in the morning. If I drink caffeine I get all jittery and am bouncing all over the place! Even if I have it in the morning it takes me forever to fall asleep at night!

  I hope you enjoyed learning about me :)  

To meet more of your faves, and to link up yourself, click on the button below!

What's in Your Cart? Linky Party!

TpT is having a site wide sale August 4 - 5!!!

Jenna over at Speech Room News is hosting a linky party for the TPT back-to-school sale. You can save up to 28% on products using the code: BTS14. This is my 1st time being a part of the sale and a LINKY PARTY!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!!!! This is such a super fun idea Jenna!

So here goes... This is what is in my cart...

1. Busy Bees Beginning Sound Interactive SMART Board Game

This will be a FABULOUS game to use during center time up at the Smart Board!!! It will help my kinders practice letter sounds and it is a great, easy way to give them experience working with the Smart Board! I always like to have my kiddies use a special Smart Board Wand to drag letters and pictures across the screen. The wand is MAGIC. They just are so engaged when using the Smart Board! I think I KNOW this will make a great, great, great center!

2. Sentence Strip ABCs

Over at Animal Crackers and Apple Juice's TpT Store they have soo many adorable products I can barely contain myself! This product is such a fun idea! It will go perfectly with my letter of the week unit!!!! This will be such a great activity for my kiddies to do before we make our whole-class letter anchor charts to display around the classroom!

3. CVC Writing Strips

I am a HUGEEEE Tara West fan! I love her blog, Little Minds at Work and her TpT Store! Her products are not only cute but AMAZING materials to use in the classroom! Her products are also very age appropriate!! These CVC Writing Strips will be such a great activity for me to use during guided reading with my small groups! There are so many ways to differentiate this activity as well! I know my kinders will love love love this activity!

4. Teacher Binder

This teacher binder, #1 is so cute and will go so nicely with my chevron & polka dot themed room and #2 will keep me so organized during my first year in a new school! Jeanna Norman's Teacher Binder has everything a teacher needs to not loose her mind! I can not wait to use it to keep track of everything during the school year and bring it to staff meetings to stay organized with dates, events and meetings and hopefully get some compliments along the way! ;)

That's all I have for now! I can't wait to see what everyone else has on their list! I know I will add more to my list after reading everyone's ideas!

Have fun shopping!