Creative Cornerstones 2014

Once again this year I am excited to be presenting at Creative Cornerstones near Cleveland, Ohio. I will be teaching on Sunday for half day. The session is:
Not So Common, Common Core Math. Pre-K and K
Join me there!!!
Registration opens in February.

Reading websites

This comes from the "Really Good Stuff" blog. 

(I would have provided a link, but it would not work. Sorry).

 I will have to check out these sites. We use Starfall and Tumble Books. One year I used "We Give Books", but the others are new to me. I will have to check them out. 

Christmas Presents for Students

This year I decided to make my kids dry erase boards out of melmac plates as their Christmas Present.

I had a great time dying the socks. I let them sit over night to get really colorful before cutting the rubber bands and  rinsing them.  Each sock is attached to the plate with ribbon and ties tight. 

Inside the sock is a dry erase marker. 

I used glitter bubble paint to write the names. Be sure to plan ahead for this project. The names take a few days to dry. 

Many kids returned from our long holiday break talking about the dry erase boards. I think they were a real hit!

One suggestion, be sure you are able to drill through the plates BEFORE you spend a lot of time on this project. Thick plates are very tricky!

Thanks Dad!!!!!!!!!

Daily 5

This is my first year using Daily 5 in my kindergarten classroom. This week I tried a new organization system for my Daily 5.  I felt like I needed my kiddos to be more involved in the transition to each daily. So I organized it in my pocket chart. Each of my groups is heterogenous. Each group has a helper (or two). This is the designated person for their questions or problems, so I am not interrupted during reading groups. It has been a very important part of my center structure in past years. This year I also am including helpers in my Daily 5 structure.

Here are a few pictures of Daily 5 in my room today.

Word work-water paints

Word work-The kids call this "packages". I cut letters in different fonts from various product boxes like cereal, boxed mixes or games. Students find the letters to make words they are learning. 

Read to Self

Listening to reading with Tag Readers

I will post more Daily 5 ideas as they progress.

50s Day

We had such a great time on 50s day this year! Of course we dressed to go to a sock hop. (I love to see what everyone comes up with for their kinder sweeties to wear to school.)



This year we made a Venn Diagram about bubble blowing. This year's class is able to look at data and really process it. It was a great way to cater the activity to fit my kiddos this year!

    

They had a blast teaching each other to blow bubbles. A friend in my class shared a cool way to flatten your gum against the roof of your mouth before blowing. It was the magic cure for some of them! It sure was a good time. Of course we all pretended not to see the gum wad that flew out of the mouth and was quickly fetched according to the 10 second rule. Ugh!!!!


Hoola hoop practicing with friends was also a hoot!