New Friends

This year has gotten off to a great start! We are getting to know each other and building a community within our classroom. Here is one of the first class books we made together.

Each child sets a name puzzle. Some needed a model. Others did not. 

After setting the puzzle three times, each child glued his or her name

On the page.

Each child completed the page by counting the letters in his or her name 

and completing the sentence by adding the numeral. They also used their

Favorite colors to write the number again in the corner square.

I added decorative duct tape for strength in binding!

Daily Math-Set up

      I recently paid a couple dollars for this mailbox structure. It had been listed on line from a district getting rid of many things.  I had not actually been able to see it before I bought it. I wanted to make it into a place to store game boards for Daily 5 Math. So here is what it looked like after I had removed some of the sticky debris. ( I forgot to take a true "before" picture.)

So I have begun to transition this into something that will compliment my classroom. Here is the progress. I am pleased so far......

Learning bottles-how to

Many people glue the lids on their learning (discovery) bottles. If I had very small children with which to use them, I would certainly glue them as well. But since my students use them during supervised times like during our Daily 5 block and Math centers, I do not glue the lids on. Instead I fasten the lids tightly. Cover the entire lid area with a circle of a pretty fabric and secure it with a pretty color zip tie. I make sure the zip tie is as tight as can be so the lid area is secure. (A note of caution about zip ties, they can be a bit sharp on the corners of a cut off part. For this reason, I snip off the tiny corners that stick out after cutting the zip tie to the desired length.)
Now, if I decide to change the contents of a bottle for some reason, I can do so fairly easily.
                                          
The zip ties can be covered with a ribbon or ponytail holder if you want. The bottle in the top picture that has the tens frame attached to it uses a ponytail holder to attach the tens frame to the bottle. That way the student can remove the frame and mark the items found with a dry erase marker to keep track. More on the specific bottles will be posted soon.

Learning bottles -use at home

Learning bottles are soooo much fun! You can ADR them to ANY level. This year for our "curriculum night,"  I wanted to allow parents to make something to be used at home to study various. Skills. I asked each family to bring a clean, dry plastic bottle with the label removed (for the easiest label removal, please see my post pertaining to that topic.)

I gave each parent a spreadsheet of various skills the child may need to practice throughout the school year. The spreadsheet included sight words, numerals, sets of numbers, letters of the alphabet, 

Short vowel cvc words, number words etc.

I also gave each a bag containing appt 2 cups of colored rice (for tips about coloring rice please see that post.) and a paper funnel.

Parents cut the skills they wanted to practiced first at home. They alternated adding rice and slips of paper. I reminded them that they could empty the bottle throughout the year and remove the papers to add slips of paper with a new skill to be practiced.

The activity went very quickly. The children whose parents had attended were thrilled to have this special bottle at home. They thought it was neat that their parent(s) made them with me without the child being there. 

If I did this again with parents, I would have them add 4-7 toothpicks into the jar as well. This variation in the flow inside the bottle helps to pull the small pieces of paper down into the colored rice as you turn the bottle over and over. Otherwise the paper tends to come to the top and stay there.

For other learning bottle ideas, please click on learning bottles on the archive list to the right of the posts. I am going to continue to add posts about various bottles I have made and used.

Daily 5

I have started Daily 5 with my kinder kiddos this week. I can't wait to see the DVD produced by the sisters that highlights implementing Daily 5 in Kindergarten. Since we are waiting its arrival, I had to get started. We read "Dex The Heart of a Hero."
     Our class decided that we would like to be a class of "superhero" readers. They love to try each day to increase their stamina. On day 1 we read for one mi ute on our first try and a minute and a half in our second try.  On the second day I told the our goal was 2 or 3 minutes. Wow! Was I excited when we got to 5 minutes. Our thud day slipped a little on our first attempt, so we tried again. Five minutes again. Today was the fourth day. We read for 6 minutes! I was happy with that especially since we did our Daily 5 at the end of the day on a day that started out with 45 minutes of MAP testing.  I guess it's time to implement another daily. I'm thinking writing, since that's what the sisters now recommend as the second daily.
     I am working on what my Cafe board will look like. It is very important, but wall space and proximity are a bit of an issue.

Here is a view of our cubbies. The top section is much larger than necessary. My wonderful dad made me these dividers that allow our cubbies to serve two purposes. With the divider in place, the bottom half holds our book baskets. The top top half can then be used as a mailbox for take home folders and papers etc.

Here is a close-up of the top of the cubbies. I have used them for several years and the dividers are still going strong.

Our chart about three ways to read a book. They loved the first time we worked on retelling. We used Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes.  

Here are a pair of my students retelling the story with the book we made together.

I am excited to see what Daily 5 Brings for next week. My kiddos are earning extra recess when we get to stamina of 10 minutes. They are very excited!

Open house etc

It has been so much fun working with my kindergarten kiddos individually this week. They each have such a unique personality. Their excitement is contagious! We are giving our reading diagnostic as well as the KRAL test. I am looking forward to working with my kiddos on a regular basis. We have a staggered start agin this year. Half of the kinder kiddos come on Monday, the others on Tuesday. Then all come on Wednesday. What fun that will be.
     After meeting with each child they received this special gift Baggie.

The note inside explains the meaning behind each thing in the Baggie. 

Here is the inside note:

Beginning of the year

Two of my kiddos brought me special beginning of the school year gifts. It was so nice of their families to think of me. We will have a great start to our year.

This cute pot of dry erase marker "flowers" is so creative. It says, " Mark my words! This will be a great year! The kiddo even painted and decorated each individual flower. 

A family after my own heart. Caffeine and chocolate, perfect!!!!!!!

I love it! Thanks!

Open house

It was so fun this evening to meet my new kindergarten kiddos. The are all so full of energy and excitement.  Here is a picture of our "giving tree" that was part of our open house.

Generous parents took many coconuts off the coconut tree to make donations to our classroom. Thank you parents.

Silly Sally

After reading Silly Sally to the class, 

This is a child's page in a class book. I take a picture of each child doing something he or she enjoys at school and the picture is attached upside down to the page. Each child programs the page to match the upside down picture.

They love reading this book over and over again.

"Those Sounds" Song

This book goes with Shari Sloanes's song "Those Sounds" from her CD "School is Cool."

The letters are cut from scrapbook paper on the Ellison machine. The book is bound together with colored zip ties. 

Poetry

Here is a really cute idea for a poem/song I want to put in my classroom this year. I love it!

It came from Pinterest. It says its from a blog called "kindergarten corral". I wanted to make a link directly there, but I cannot find it on that blog.

It is the words to Dr Jean's song, "Good-bye" written as a poem.

Here is a Link to a site that has a reader to go along with this poem/song. Even if you do not want to use it as a reader, you can print it with several book pages on each page. That way the pictures will print smaller and you can cut them out for illustrations for the poem.

Sprinkles to Kindergarten

Check out this great giveaway!

As I have said before, I LOVE the blog Sprinkles to Kindergarten. Check out her fabulous back to school give away, but hurry it ends soon. While you are there, check out her great ideas for Daily 5 and other ideas.
Click here for a link to her blog/give away

Garage sale find

I am excited to use this cool, glow in the dark tepee in my classroom this year. I found it for a steal at a local garage sale. It will make a great Reading Spot. Since we are going to Daily 5 this year, it will be a perfect place to read. My niece Elliot tried it out this weekend with her brother and my children. If their response is any indication, it will be a hit at school!

Sprinkles to Kindergarten  is a super blog that is helping me to gear up for beginning daily 5 this fall. Follow this link to a fabulous blog. It also has many other fabulous ideas for a kindergarten classroom.

Pete the Cat

I love when my mailman toots her horn because I have a package and the package is for me.
Today I got the new Pete the Cat book that was released this week.

Pete the Cat The Wheels on the Bus

Click on the title above to get to a video of the book on you tube.

Great websites

Some of you in attendance at my sessions at Creative Cornerstones asked for me to post information about the websites I recommended. For now I will post the sites. My email at home is VERY slow.  I cannot post a link to them yet. When I get to a place with faster Internet soon, I will update the posts with links.

My favorites on Teachers Pay Teachers are Julie Lee and Deanna Jump. Everything they produce is quality!

Kellyskindergarten has great games that you can program with your own words and skills. This is a fabulous website with tons of ideas.

Kidscount1234 is a fabulous site. Both of Shari Sloane's CDs are wonderful! On her site she has the ready to go enlarged text and some pictures making it easy to make big books of her songs.  I LOVE her song Bingo Bango Bongo (my kiddos did too).

I recently learned about a really great math site it is k-5mathteachingresources.com .  It is a great resource for common core math standard ideas for all elementary grades.

teacher gifts

 This is what is inside the "First-day" box.

Here are two COOL "first day" gifts I received from great students and their families this year! How generous and thoughtful! Great ideas too!

Open House

Here is my "giving Tree" from open house. Unfortunately, I did not remember to take pictures until most of the coconuts were already removed. I displayed it with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book and a few monkeys.

Getting Ready

Here is a tour of some of my favorite places in our classroom! Last week, we were testing Kindergarten kiddos. Monday and Tuesday this week, half of the class attended each day. Tomorrow is the first full day with all of the kiddos.