Apple Day

 Apple Day!  We celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday with lots of apple activities including making applesauce, graphing our favorite apples and tasting apple foods!

Kindercamp!

So today was our first day of Kindercamp.  This is a week long glimpse into kindergarten for students enrolled to begin in August.  We learn about the computer lab, cafeteria, walking in the hall and our way around the school  We also learn some math and language arts.  Students come for three hours each day.  Today was our first day!  Here's my room ready to start!  

Some of the books we'll read this week. 

Bears and manipulatives.

Playdough and Letters!

A letter activity I made.

Pattern Blocks!

Letters and Counting!

Letter Jar Activity

I found a picture of this activity online somewhere, maybe Pinterest but could not find a printable so I made one.  I plan to print it and attach it to a plastic "jar" in my classroom and fill with letters.

Please feel free to download and use!

Whole Brain Teaching

I use some whole brain teaching strategies in our classroom.  I created these posters as the ones I saw online did not really fit to my teaching style or to our classroom.  Feel free to download and use in your room!  Let me know what you think!

Counting the Days Ten Frames

I saw something similar on a web posting.  It was part of a set that I didn't really want/need so I made my own.  Feel free to print and use for counting days in your classroom.  You can add stickers or draw circles in the boxes to count the days!   Click on the picture to go to my TpT store to download!

Getting Started

I have to admit that I'm really excited about starting my second year as a kindergarten teacher.  However, I have to admit that I have been having trouble getting motivated about leaving my life as a teacher on summer break.  I brought a few items home to work on this summer.  One of them was a big box of papers that I wanted to file.  Another was all of my math and literacy games that I wanted to organize better.  

Today I took them to my classroom to finish the job by putting them in my cabinets.  However, all of the cabinets were moved to the sides of the room from cleaning.  So I started the summer adventure of setting up my classroom.  The good news is that I moved much of the furniture to where I want it to be (for now at least :) ) and I finished all of my FILING!!!  That's something that I never seem to get done.  Here are the before pictures.  I'll post after pictures soon.

Freebies

This is a freebie I created some time ago.  I printed it, laminated it and bound it into a book to "read" or "sing" in my class of kindergarteners!  Click on the picture to download!

I created another freebie today!

You can also use this for a formative assessment in your class.  It's four pencils with numbers.  You can print, laminate and place around your classroom for a fun "multiple choice" activity.  Download it for free by clicking on one of the images below!

I created a new freebie today!

This is a product that can be used for formative assessment in your classroom.  Just print them, laminate them and glue them to tongue depressors! Students can hold them up to show their understanding.  Grab yours by clicking on the picture below.

I really would love to get into constructing items for TpT.  Usually I just end up buying.  In my dreams I will eventually have a "real" store.

Until then, here's a freebie I created.

I print these out (with my contact information added) and then I laminate and put a magnet on the back  Then I pace them in a basket for parents to pick up during Open House or Meet the Teacher Day!

An Apple for the Teacher

Sight Word Ideas

I am always looking for ideas for how to teach sight words to my kinders.  I will keep some of my favorite ideas here.

Here are some great ideas from Blue Mango

Freebies!!!

Here are a collection of freebies on the web!!

Here's a great freebie from I Teach Kinder to go with the fun book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons!

Tagul.com

Have you seen https://tagul.com/?  This is the coolest website!  It's so easy to use.  I think I will even try it with my kinders!!!!  All you have to do is put the words in!

I can think of so many things I'd like to make with this site.  Here is something I created just fiddling around.

Summer Fun :) :)

Like many of us, I brought home several projects for this summer.  Here's a little one I'm trying today....running all of my scissors through the dishwasher!  I also snuck a couple of baskets in there!  Have any of you tried this?  I'll let you know how it goes!

Update:  I ran one load of in the dishwasher.  The scissors turned out like new!  I was a bit nervous about the crayon baskets as I wasn't sure what was gonna happen when the dishwasher got really hot on any crayon residue.  The baskets are cleaner than they have been since I bought them and my dishwasher is just fine!!! (pictures to follow)

Encouragement for New Teachers

Ages ago I had website with great resources for new teachers.  I would love to rebuild some of these resources for teachers.  Here's my first shot! :)


Jennifer at Simply Kinder shared this great resource that I'm sure you all would love!  Take a look!

What Would You Tell Your First Year Teacher Self?

I'll be adding my favorite new teacher resources!

Summer Bucket List

I'm happy to say I made it through my first year as a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER!  This was an exciting year.  As I look back, I realize I didn't do all I wanted to do and there is so much more that I want to do next year.  I also have a loooong SUMMER BUCKET LIST for my classroom.

The top of the list are two things I wanted to do last year but didn't:  Completely organize my library and organize and label all of my math manipulatives!  I know I can do it!

What are your plans for your classroom this summer?

But the most important plans for the summer are to have fun with this little girl, my Breha!

Rocks and Soil

Today we continued our study of rocks and soil by collecting soil samples from our playground.  Tomorrow we will make observations about the soil we collected.

We also read Rocks:  Hard, Soft, Smooth and Rough and sorted our own groups of rocks by properties.

Here's my first post about our Rocks and Soil unit.  Introducing Rocks and Soil