#Kinderblog13

One of the main things that attracted me to blogging was the incredible sharing of knowledge and ideas. This summer I have been trying to expand my knowledge and networking even further by using twitter for educational purposes (before I was simply following silly stuff like Big Brother updates - which I still do on a separate twitter account - my what a season this one will be) Anyways, while surfing around on twitter I stumbled across #kinderchat and their #kinderblog13 challenge. The challenge is just beginning, but you can join in at anytime. You can find the details here. You can also follow me on twitter by clicking here. I added some beautiful social media buttons to the top of my blog yesterday but I don't believe you can see them on mobile devices.

The first task of the challenge is to sum up myself in 250 words or less. Yikes, well here goes nothing.

I teach full day kindergarten in Eastern Ontario where I teach a mixture of Junior and Senior students. Ontario rolled out a brand new kinder program three years ago where a Designated Early Childhood Educator and a teacher form a partnership and together we deliver a play-based program with an incredible emphasis on child led inquiry. As educators we have been encouraged to really look in depth at our practices and rethink/replace things that aren't working or aren't developmentally appropriate. This past year we discontinued calendar time, ditched my big bulky classroom teacher desk and increased the amount of time given to student directed play. We are encouraged to get rid of our theme based units, ditch our worksheets/prescribed crafts and let kids lead their own learning. Overall, I feel that its an exciting time to be a Kindergarten teacher here in Ontario. I love the new program and as each year passes (this will be my third year teaching the new program) I become better at "letting go" of the control. There are still areas that I need to improve upon - like how to better document student learning and progress. I also hope to gather some more ways to further integrate technology into our program. I believe that I'm working with my students in a way that is the best way for them and I'm having a blast learning and discovering with them. 

Happy Canada Day!

I hope all of my Canadian followers have had a great day proudly celebrating our nation. We were hoping to hit up the local fireworks but I don't think Cameron can stay awake that late for the second night in a row (he had a sleepover at his Aunt and Uncle's house while Mr. G and I attended a wedding out of town last night.) We might just sit out on our back deck later and catch some of the higher fireworks from there.
In honour of Canada Day I'm linking up to a Canadian Teacher linky party over at Teaching is a Gift. Lots of Canadian bloggers have already linked up organized by province so I'm going to join them.

My next job will be to add each of the blogs to my ever growing list on Blog Lovin'. Anyways enjoy the day bloggers! I'm off to watch a special Canadian themed episode of Phineas and Ferb with my boy.

Newbie Blog Hop

I'm linking up with Janis over at Grade Three is the Place for Me for a newbie blog hop.

This weekend has been crazy busy but tomorrow I hope to visit some of the blogs that have already linked up. I know that I will find more fabulous new blogs to follow.

1.  What state you are in? I'm actually not in a state. I'm from Canada, a small town in Eastern Ontario to be more exact.

2. What is your current teaching position? This year I am switching schools and grades. I will be teaching a combined Grade One and Two class.

3. What is your teaching experience? I have been teaching for nine years. I've taught Grade One, Grade Two, Grade Three, Grade Four, Special Education aaaand Kindergarten. I feel a bit like I'm stuck in the book Moira's Birthday Party by Robert Munsch. I've also switched schools numerous times during those nine years.

4.  When did you start blogging? I actually just started blogging about two weeks ago.

5.  Share a blogging tip / blogging resource? Find some linky parties or blog hops that interest you and join in. Also make sure you find time to comment on other people's blogs. I know I love to read when people have commented on mine.

Fabulous Find Friday

I'm linking up again with Elizabeth at Fun In Room 4B for a linky party called

I scored a few really good deals for school this week, along with something a little bit different. I will share my school items first. First off I got some plastic drawer units for my classroom at 50% off. I've been keeping my eye open for a sale on these, and I finally found it.

I think I will leave off the casters and place this along my back counter to hold math games/centres/manipulatives or something along those lines. I bought two, so I basically got one for free. They were $9.99 each at Canadian Tire.

Michael's had a buy two get one free sale, so I picked up a few items and applied my teacher's discount as well. I had a gift card from awhile back so my deals felt even better. No debit to my account or charge to my credit card.

My last find is not school related, but I stumbled across these while shopping online for my son's upcoming birthday. My son and husband have been obsessed with playing Minecraft lately, so I ordered this Lego set at Amazon.com.

Not exactly a great deal, but if you compare it to the price these are fetching on eBay, I guess its a pretty good deal. Anyways, while searching for this Lego set I ran across this website to create paper crafts. A.G. Papertoys. Basically you print off templates to fold, cut and paste little paper minecraft characters. Here's a picture off their website.

You should know that this is NOT a child friendly craft, the cutting and folding is extremely intricate. Definitely an adult or older child job. But they are just sooooo cute and Cameron LOVES playing with them. A great afternoon activity. Plus Cameron is happy to 'play' minecraft using his imagination and I'm happy to get him away from the xbox. Hooray! A quick picture of Cameron with some of his new paper minecraft toys.

He played with them all afternoon cooking up various scenarios, he's a very happy boy! Thanks for reading and Happy Friday!

Fabulous Find Friday Link Up

I'm linking up with Elizabeth at Fun In Room 4B for a linky party called

Basically everybody shares some awesome items that they recently scored. Sounds good to me. Here we go. Item #1 is......

my Scotch Thermal Laminator. I just recently picked this up at Walmart for about $26.00. The prices on these things have dropped like crazy. I remember them being closer to $80.00 when I first looked into them. Anyways, I love it! Especially since I'm printing off so many great things for my new classroom off of TPT.

The second item I'm blogging about are these tasty Skinny Cow Ice Cream sandwiches. I'm trying my best to eat healthy, still trying to whittle away the weight that crept on over our lovely Canadian winter. It's pretty hot here right now so a tasty cool treat is the perfect snack. I adore the combination of chocolate and vanilla. Yummy and a figure friendly indulgence.

Speaking of Canadian winters, I ran across another linky party, calling for Canadian bloggers. So of course I'm linking up to this party as well. If you are a Canadian blogger be sure to visit Patti at Madly Learning to link up.

Thanks for reading,

My very first post!

Welcome to my very first post on my brand new blog! I have been trolling teaching blogs for quite awhile now and I finally decided that I would start my own. There are so many fantastic blogs out there, there simply isn't enough time in the day to read them all. Throughout my constant perusal of blogs and my other addiction- pinterest, I noticed that there seemed to be a lack of Canadian teacher bloggers. So I figured I would toss my hat in the ring and see what happens.

This marks my ninth year of teaching, and what an exciting year it will be! I'm switching schools and grades this year. I'm really hoping to document this transition through my brand new blogging adventure! I spent the last three years teaching Kindergarten, which I absolutely adored! I was very sad to leave my kinders but I was also excited to return to a fabulous school where I had taught previously, which also happens to be a very short commute from my home! Hooray for using less gas!

So I have a very busy summer ahead of me - planning for my new class and preparing my new classroom! Here are some photos of my new room! Photos to come

A total blank slate which is both exciting and frightening at the same time. Through my journey of blog hopping and pinning, I stumbled upon this pin which has basically inspired my new classroom theme.

                                                        Just Another Day in First Grade

My new classroom will be a colour themed room - teal blue, green and white. Although I will admit I saw some really cute owl themed items that I cannot resist adding, but only because they match my colour scheme of course. I have started doing a little bit of shopping for my new colour scheme.



Some purchases from The Dollar Tree (I'm very lucky to live close to the US Border)

Some purchases from Dollarama

So I hope you will follow me in my journey through blogging about my new classroom and my new teaching assignment.

Thanks,

Amanda