Christmas Presents

Now that Christmas has passed, I can share what we made for our parents this year 

As an adult, I love looking back on the things I made for my parents when I was a child. My hope is that these keepsakes make my students and their families smile and share a memory whenever they place it on a tree AND hopefully when they are older it will make them smile! 

For the christmas tree, parents volunteered their time to paint the popsicle sticks. My teaching partner laminated the green and brown construction paper and assembled the ornaments. The children used q-tips to paint the "ornaments" on the tree. We used their school picture so they could be reminded of what they looked like in kindergarten years from now!

The Rudolph ornaments were the students' handprints. I glued the lighter paper onto darker paper and cut it out to give it a more polished look. I laminated the paper. While I was watching Christmas movies at home, I glued on the eyes; nose; and ribbon.

I let the students wrap the presents and create gift tags for their parents. The students were so excited about the whole process. It's so exciting to hear the students take pride in the gifts they get to give their parents on Christmas!

Number Order Game

In kindergarten we focus a lot on numbers.  The newest math game we have been playing is putting numbers in order. It's an easy game that you can play at home. If you don't have playing cards, you can make cards with paper. I like the cards I have for the classroom because there are pictures with one-to-one correspondence to match the number on the card.

What you need to play:
Cards (I used the numbers 0 -10 but you can use higher numbers if your child/students are ready)
Optional
A paper to record results.

How to play with 1 person:
1. Pick 4 cards
2. Arrange the cards in order (I had them do smallest to largest.)
3. Record results (optional)
4. Shuffle cards
5. Repeat

How to play with 2 people:
1. Each person picks 2 cards
2. Arrange the cards in order (I had them do smallest to largest.)
3. Record results (optional)
4. Shuffle cards
5. Repeat

Here are some pictures of my kindergartener's playing the game. They love smiling for the camera!   

                                     

                                    

                                    

                          

Save The Worms

I try to see every moment I'm with my students as a teachable moment. 

A few weeks ago we went outside after it had rained. 

A sweet little girl in my class came up to me to show me her new friend.

I told her that she could save the worm's life if she put him back on the grass. 

Some of the other students heard me and ran around the blacktop looking for worms to save. 

They were very concerned for the worms. It was a very touching moment for me. 

It was one of those moments that will stick with me for life. 

This is one of the many reasons why I love my job. 

I work with 24 amazing children every day!

                 

            

                                    

Don't forget to let the children in your life teach you a lesson every now and then. 

They are wiser than most people give them credit for.

I Miss my Mom!

My family and friends are such an important part of my life. I have pictures of them all over my classroom. When I see their picture I can't help but smile. I wanted to give my students that same experience. I started looking on Pinterest for picture display ideas. I came across this picture:

Inspiration 

I instantly fell in love with it! I showed it to one of my girlfriends who teaches art. She came to my room and drew some picture frames for my students' pictures of their families. I had her add the quote: 

"Every family has a story. Welcome to ours."

Not only do I love how it looks in my room, I love how comforting it is to my students. 

Some students go look at their family when they are working on their writing and want to add detail to how their families look in their illustrations.

Some students look at their family when they don't feel good, are sad, or because they miss them.

Some students go and talk to their families about what they have been working on for the day...so cute!

I used to hear, "I miss my mommy" ALL the time. I put pictures up as they came in the students' folders. It didn't take long to fill up after the first child brought in his picture! The students would be beaming when they saw me hanging up their picture. The pictures sparked conversations which is surprisingly something I didn't think would happen. Once children had their families on the board I stopped hearing the 3 dreaded words...I miss my ______! 

This has become a must have in my room.

Halloween Math

First of all, you should know that I'm a child at heart. That is why I teach kindergarten. I love animated movies, mac & cheese, playing outside, and the holidays. 

Now that you know I love Halloween, I'll share one of the spooky math centers I did.  Our school uses Math Investigations and one of the math centers for the week was called Build It. Children flip over a card and "build it" by filling up a 10 Frame with the appropriate amount of bingo markers. While "Build It" is a favorite game to play...I wanted to take it up a notch. 

Skull ice tray served as a 10 frame and plastic eyeballs as the counters.

The witches pot where the eyeballs were kept. 

A student using eyeballs to "build" the number 10.

Pumpkin ice tay served as a 10 frame and Halloween rings as the counters.

Students working on "building" their numbers.

I found the ice trays at Kroger.

I found the plastic eyeballs & rings at Dollar Tree.

  

Be Prepared

School is right around the corner. We all know that preparing for the school year can be very stressful.  If you’re anything like me, you rearrange your furniture 5 times; spend countless hours looking on pinterest and blogs for bulletin board ideas; your hands begin to cramp from labeling everything with your new students’ names; the list goes on and on.

My school has an open house before school starts. That night I give my parents an introduction letter about myself; information about my classroom management; and forms for them to fill out and return.  My first year I was so worried about setting up my classroom that I almost forgot about all the paperwork and I was rushed to get everything finished the night before the open house. I didn't want to make that mistake again! Last summer I worked on the forms for open house.

Creating the forms over the summer had multiple benefits. I was able to space out the work over a few nights, which let me have time to think about the wording and layout of my forms. I was also able to go back and look at the forms to see if I forgot anything. It also saved me time because I wasn't stuck with multiple teachers waiting in the copy room the day of open house getting frustrated with the copiers for jamming. I guess slow and steady does win the race!

This also gives me motivation at the beginning of the year because I get to cross something off my list of things to do within my first 15 minutes of being back at school! 

Organization: Takes Time in the Beginning...Saves Time in the End!

I come from a highly organized home. From a young age I was taught that everything has its place, otherwise you waste time looking for things! I’ve carried this idea into my classroom and it has been a HUGE timesaver!

WARNING: If your classroom isn’t organized already, designating a place for everything is very time consuming. My suggestion is to focus on one cabinet at a time…baby steps!

I already spider proofed my room by covering all my open storage with paper. With that being said, I will only be sharing pictures of my cabinets that have doors. I promise to post more organization pictures when I get back in my classroom in August.

I have a total of 6 overhead cabinets in my room.

• 2 of them are by the large meeting space hold: student supplies & craft supplies because I don’t need to get them as often.

Student Supplies

Craft Supplies

• The other 4 are by the students’ tables because they are all based on educational supplies which are mostly used at the students’ tables or centers.

ReadyGen (Reading Program) Supplies

Literacy Manipulatives

Literacy & Math Games/Manipulatives

Math Manipulatives

Do you have any organization tricks to share?