Clearly, What Happens In Vegas Stays On Facebook! And We Have A Winner!

First, Our Sands Alive Sea Life Adventure Winner is...

Carolyn Winland!!!

The best part is that you can leave it out and it won't dry out!

I will mail that entire set off to you as soon as you email me your address.

Now, For Vegas:

I was so thrilled to be able to present FOUR sessions at an amazing national kindergarten conference called "I Teach K".  I truly think they should change the name to "I Love K" because I met so many teachers who were so passionate about kindergarten!  :)

I worked on sooooo many "make & takes" that filled my home with clutter.  I had 2 people helping me, but it was just so much stuff that it filled an entire extra large suitcase.  

There was an extra paper bag cut out just waiting to be turned into a gingerbread house, but I tucked it into my carry-on bag and turned it into a castle while waiting for my flight at the airport.  

If you round off the points on the roof,
and color it green, and color the draw bridge yellow,
you can create the city of OZ complete with
its yellow brick road.  :)

I took off from California and the flight was only 40 minutes.

Are those crop circles???  Hmmmm....

My room was fabulous!  Bigger than our first apartment!

At the Palazzo in the Venetian.  

One of our So Cal Bloggers.  

I went down to pick up my materials for I Teach K and I ran into Fran from Kindergarten Crayons.  

 

If you haven't already checked out her blog, you need to. 

I got to pick up my name tag and check out the room where I was to present to groups up to 250.  It looked so big!

Sooooo excited!

Last Minute Preparations:

I wanted my attendees to be able to touch and feel the huge hat we make for Mother's Day and I knew I would never get it on and airplane and through security, so I brought the supplies to make one in my hotel room.

Painting on the glue solution.

Molding the paper over my salad container.

Holding it all together until it dried with my Brighton belt.  

I used the container from my salad as a mold for the shape and mixed up the glue solution in my wine glass.  Hey, whatever works, right?

Then, I practiced my PowerPoint presentation by projecting it on the hotel wall.

This is what the hats look like once they are fully decorated. 

Day 1 of I Teach K:

The day was filled with amazing presenters.  I watched them all very carefully to see if I could reveal any secret tips about presenting.

Here is Calvie presenting on T.K.

I concluded that all presenters had 3 things in common:

1.  They all had a polyester dress that looked like it just popped out of the suitcase and jumped right into shape!  (Good thing I brought along, not one, but two polyester dresses.)

2.  They all wore a really, I'm talking REALLY, big necklace.  (Luckily, I brought a couple of big necklaces along.)

3.  And 3rd, they all had something I didn't have and didn't think I could ever get.  They all had a Southern accent.  (Oh well, 2 out of 3 isn't too bad, right?)

Here is DeeDee Wills.  She was also amazing.

That night, Heidi, from Heidisongs, and I got to meet "Rocking Dan Teaching Man" who came all the way from Australia for I Teach K!  He has a YouTube channel where he posts his educational songs which are tons of fun!  You can view his song about facts to ten, called "Friends of Ten" by clicking HERE.  

Heidi and Dan collaborated on a song/video together via the Internet.

Click right HERE and you will see his Facebook page.  Like it and you will get to see his new songs as soon as they are released.  

Heidi and I had a fun dinner out.  If you haven't checked out her amazing CDs & DVDs of songs that really teach, you really have to.  She is an amazing person, so talented, and she really knows what works with kids.  Look for her blog and Facebook.

Day 2 at I Teach K:

Day 2:  Ready to hit the workshops.

I continued to attend more amazing sessions and I kept my eye out for those polyester dresses an necklaces.  And, of course, I and to stop by the ESGI booth to visit with Elvis!

That night, ESGI took us out to dinner.  If you haven't already heard of ESGI, do yourself a favor and check them out at esgisoftware.comhttps://www.esgisoftware.com/ESGI/ to see what you have been missing.  Their web sight turns testing into a fun, efficient process that my students actually beg for.  It is fast, easy, customizable, and your students will beg to be tested.  The data you get from it will amaze you and the time it will save you is a gift.   Once you have used it, you'll never go back to the old way of assessing, recording, and preparing intervention.  This site does it all for you and it prints out parent letters in English or Spanish.  

Enjoy a FREE 60 day trial by clicking HERE.

AND... enjoy a $40 discount code by entering B2174 during check out.

How many kindergarten teachers can you fit in the backseat of a town car?

If you haven't checked out Jayne Gammon's blog yet, you must check it out today.

It's called Smart Kids and it's filled with great ideas and give-aways.

So what do kindergarten teachers do when they are out on the town in Vegas?  You guessed it, they hit the Target Dollar Spot!

Too much FUN!!!

... to be continued

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)