Organization

Well I am moving rooms!  I put the exclamation point there because it means I will be with the other kindergarten rooms and not down the first grade hallway.  While I like my family down there it feels removed from all the action.  I am excited to bring our kindergarten hallway to life.  Check back later this year and see the cool way we utilize our hallway space!  ( I am geeked for the new ideas)

In the effort to move and get organized I have taken a pintrest trip and gotten a lot of good ideas that I wanted to share in case you might have missed them in your exploring.  First I got a great deal at target on tupperware with two different colored lids. I am organizing my math materials in one set and my literacy in another. This way students will know where to return them in the room. I also made labels which you are welcome to print off and use yourself if you want.  I will have more as I get packed and move ( I take pictures of what is in the tub so the kids know what goes where). 
Check back and I promise to have these uploaded....really big picture files I need to size down...sorry :(
I also wanted a new way of labeling books.  On pintrest there was a picture label that I really liked.  I ended up making my own because I needed bigger pictures.  My students have a hard time getting things back where they belong and I thought this might help them out a little better than my other labels did.  I went to IKEA and got blue tubs for all my books so that it looks uniform.  I did snag a few red ones for my math books because next year we are going to try out Guided Math and want a math literacy center.
Click Here for labels
Last but not least my supply organizer. I totally stole the idea from a pin but I thought you might like the one I found. I got a hardware organizer with 18 drawers at Lowes for 14 dollars and then got scrapbook paper at JoAnnes for 5 dollars. I typed up some labels and glued that to the scrapbook paper and then taped it inside the drawers.  It turned out pretty awesome! Let me know what you think.  You can grab my labels here too all you need is to get paper you like and have fun!

Father's Day

I know it has been a while since I posted anything.  Assessments have eaten all mine and my students time.  We have had very little time to anything other than review and taking tests.  Yes even in kindergarten students are being asked to take tests.  The best part of it was when during teacher appreciation week my students made a circle map about me during Media.  They said the usual nice things like "she loves us" and "she reads to us" but my favorite was "she gives us math tests".  Honestly it is sad when the kids are commenting on it.  But you know how it is the district has their sets of tests, and we have our tests and the school has their tests.  Pretty soon all you are doing is testing!

Well with that rant off my back I present to you the book my students will be making for Father's Day.  We go until the 14th of June so we have plenty of time to sneak this in.  I put it up on my teachers pay teachers.  This is the first time I am charging for it.  I only put it up for a dollar so hopefully you still feel like it is a deal.  I thought I would see if I could make any money at this thing.  We'll see I guess!  Make sure that you rate me or leave me a comment!  I would really appreciate it!

Click Here for the book!

Wonderful Weather

Wow I have been so busy on this spring break. I wanted to make sure that I got the big stuff done so that when I get back with the kids I don't have as many things to get done each night.  We all know I will be working on things every night anyway.  I am sure my plans will change at least two or three more times before I actually put this into action.  We are getting ready to start a weather week.  I am pretty excited for the kids to get to play around with wind, water and sun! Click the words and it will link you to my teacherspayteachers site.  Everything is FREE!!! Leave a comment to let me know what you think...any suggestions would be appreciated as well!

Books we are going to read:

 

Weather Math/ Morning Work

What is the Weather Book

Weather Writing

I even threw in my non-fiction features book. Made it half pages so that we can save on paper!  It is like gold and we all know how hard it is to copy a book when we know it is using tons of paper. This one should print back to front as well!

Non-Fiction Features Book

Funny Frogs Part Dux

I am plugging along on the unit.  I have added two more things; a sentence sequencer and a easy reader for the kids to use during read to self time. I try to have a book the kids can read each week added to their book bags so I know that they have something to practice.  It is great to see them pulling them out on their free time and with their friends.  Hope these add to your plans! Have Fun

Frog Sentence Sequence

Five Green and Speckled Frog Book

Funny Frogs

Spring Break!!!  Let's all admit it now....we use this time to catch up on the teacher planning we haven't had the time to do while teaching.  People keep telling me that I am supposed to be on break and I just laugh. Break?  from going in to school everyday yes....but not from work.
We only have 8 weeks of school left....how crazy is that?  I am using this break to plan the rest of the school year out and get started on all the activity planning and making for the themes.  Right now I am working on frogs. I have used kinder-pond.blogspot.com as an inspiration for pretty much all of the things that I came up with.  I hope she won't mind the status of muse.  Below is a link list to my teacherspayteachers pages.  They are all free so please download and use!  Tell your friends! I want as many people and kids to get a chance to use them as possible. I will post more as I get them finished and uploaded!

Frog Mixed Up Sentence

Frog Sight Word Code Coloring

I Have A Little Frog Poem

I Have A Little Frog Homework

The "H" Brothers

One night I was of course working on school stuff and surfing Pintrest.  I came across the "h" brothers story. I had heard it before but hadn't really linked it in my mind. I knew about the choo choo train one and the brother who keeps sticking out his tongue and the oldest one trying to study.  It was the one pretending to be a police man that confused me. Telling kids that he is trying to whistle only makes sense with the word whistle, but not the action of trying to whistle. Your mouth doesn't do the same thing as when you say a "wh" word.  So I substituted in a detective brother who is going around asking everyone who, what, when, where and why questions.  I of course wanted these to put up in my room for my kids so I had to draw them myself. I can't say that they are very good since I drew them myself, but maybe they will be helpful to someone!
 Click on pictures below to download the images FREE!

Rocking Awards

I can't believe how awesome my students are doing with this new behavior system in place.  They have truly taken ownership of their choices and I have seen some serious changes. One of my students who used to be on yellow and red almost everyday has changed things around and now gets on pink and silver almost everyday.  I actually saw him make a mistake and take responsibility (which he never used to do either) and then walk back to his desk and immediately get down to work quietly so that he could move back up the ladder.  He was self motivated to make a change without any talk from me. It honestly made me want to scream for joy in the middle of my room.
  My kids have started choosing the behavior coupon where they can get a recognition award. I tried to find cool ones online that were free (on that no money budget we teachers are familiar with) In the end I just made them up myself.  Below are the links to a boy version and a girl version. Hope they are useful to you all!

 Boys Rock                    Girls Rock