We love Pete the Cat!

Last week we met Pete the Cat.  Pete is a groovy blue cat who goes with the flow!  In fact, the moral of Pete's story is: " No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song.  Because it's all good!"

I found this activity on Pinterest.  They turned out so cute!

I found these adorable books after hearing about them on all the great primary teacher blogs this summer.  After finding them at Barnes and Noble, my daughters and I haven't put them down.  In fact, I had to strike a deal with the girls to bring the books to school to share with my Kindergarten kids.  We read the books, looked at Pete's website and did some activities.  The students wanted me to read the stories over and over. If you get a chance, read Pete's books.  There are some good lessons for all of us in these outstanding books.

Our Classroom

It is hard to believe we have had 6 days of school already.  The students are still working on following procedures and routines.  We do a lot of modeling so the children know what things look like, sound like, and feel like.  We also talk about what not to do.  

Here is a chart we did today about American Symbols for Patriot Day (September 11th).  This activity came from Deanna Jump's America Unit on TpT.

Last week we had a visit from Miss Williams and she talked about Bucket Filling and Bucket Dipping with the students.  We also made a chart of what behaviors are Bucket Filling and Bucket Dipping.

Here is our Common Core Standards "We can" chart.  We list those common core standards that are being taught today at school.  I was able to purchase these on TpT from Mrs. Jump.  She also has First Grade common core available.

Here is our "I can" can.  I usually list those behaviors I would like to see from the students.

Here is our calendar area.

If your students have mentioned The Phonics Dance, here is a picture of the cards that we use as a visual for the students.  The children really like The Phonics Dance.  I hope it is helping the students all learn letters and sounds.

This is Reading Island.  I tried to make a comfortable place to read a book at school.

Here is a picture of our book boxes.  We will use these more when we are ready to start our Daily 5 stations.  

Here is our "Popcorn" Word Wall where we look for those Kindergarten words that always seem to "pop" up in books when we read.

We did a graph last week that recorded how we get home from school (Thanks Mrs. Jump, again).

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  Look who's in Mrs. Shriver's Room!  We made name trees and counted how many letter were in our names.

Here is an example of excellent Kindergarten work.  This kind of work really fills my bucket!

Here are some books by Mrs. Jump that we read for our American Symbols Unit.

Here is a close up of our book boxes.

Here is what is included in our book boxes at this time.  We have our poetry notebook, writing journal and some reading books to use when we read to self during Daily 5.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some pictures of our classroom.  I hope to try and post some pictures weekly of some awesome Kindergarten work.

Back to School

It's back to school time and we just finished our first week of Kindergarten.  Thanks to all the parents who were able to get their students to school to complete our state assessments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was nice to get to know the students one-on-one before everyone came on Thursday.  During the first two days, we worked a lot on routines and classroom rules.  In order for us to learn and get the most out of our Kindergarten experience, we need to remember what to do while in Kindergarten.  Some things we have worked on are:  raising hands to speak instead of calling out, hands to ourselves, walking in the classroom and using quiet voices.  We have also worked hard on learning those routines of what to do when we enter and leave the classroom.

I hope that the families were able to see a couple of items your student has brought home in their folder.  The "All About Me" books turned out very cute.  I hope you enjoyed them with your child.  We also played a number game called "BOOM!" that the kids loved!  It is my hope that during our second week, we can begin learning our routines for The Daily Five reading management system.  Please see our website for more information about the Daily Five.

On Friday, I sent home information about our KRAL assessment and your child's score.  If your child was not able to complete the assessment before Kindergarten began, I will send home this information as soon as I am able to complete these assessments with your child.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  We will also be able to discuss it some more at conference time in October.

Thank you for a great first week and working with your children.  The quicker they pick up the classroom rules and procedures, the easier it will be to create a wonderful learning environment.

My new Kindergarten teacher addiction

Have you heard of Pinterest?  Well, this is my new teacher addiction.  Have you ever found things on the internet that are so great and you write down a web address or try to remember for future use only to lose it?  In a nutshell, Pinterest is a place where you can "pin" things (pictures, ideas, websites, blogs, etc.) into an online bulletin board or scrapbook.  You are able to put these items into categories like "School" or "Crafts" or "Recipes" and then when you want to look at these items again, you can click on the image and Pinterest will send you back to the exact webpage or site that you want.  As a teacher who follows a ton of Kindergarten blogs, I think Pinterest is genius!  I have found so many ideas and have "pinned" them into my categories so when I want to remember that great craft idea or that awsome Daily 5 anchor chart, I can find it on my Pinterest page whenever I want.  If this is something you might like, check it out.  Though, I have to warn you, be prepared to spend a lot of time on this new tool!

I love me some Target!

Well, after looking at all the great blogs out there and seeing what awsome things these fabulous teachers were finding at Target, I decided to take a look.  After going to 4( yes 4!) Targets this week, this is what I found: 

Lots of baskets for organizing work stations this year!  I love colored baskets!

Loads and loads of Dr. Seuss stuff!  I found some really cool bags for Dr. Seuss books, erasers to give to the students and some notebooks for our writing center.

Number puzzles for those students who are still working on that one-to-one correspondence.

I found these dry erase plates to practice name writing.  They have very small lines on them but I can still use them.  I also found some letter stickers that I am thinking about using for Chicka Chicka letter trees. 

Here are some calendar and weather strips.

Small pocket charts for $1.00!  I think I am going to use them at work stations so each student at the station can have their own pocket chart to use.  I also found some small standing pocket charts to use while working with small groups at my teacher table and some letter and number stamps.  These were only $1.00!  Again, my thought was to use these stamps at work stations. 

Most of these items were found at the Targets at Easton and Lennox, by OSU.  I did go to the Target in Reynoldsburg this afternoon and the have lots of baskets and Dr. Seuss items.

Have fun looking for lots of goodies!

My very first entry!

Well, it is the end of June and the Fourth of July is upon us.  Even though it is summertime, I have been looking on the internet and reading a lot to prepare for the next school year.  In our school district, Kindergarten will be implementing the new Common Core Standards in Math and Reading as well as the Revised Standards for Science and Social Studies.  There are going to be many changes in the way we deliver our Kindergarten curriculum.  Luckily, we have an outstanding Kindergarten staff and Instructional Coaches to help us along the way.

Some great resources I have purchased this summer have been three books by Debbie Diller:  Literacy Work Stations, Math ,Work Stations and Making the Most of Small Groups:  Differentiation for All.  I have always heard of Debbie Diller and maybe even attended a conference or two where she was a presenter.  While I was reading a lot of Kindergarten blogs this summer, numerous teachers were recommending her books if one wanted to use more center-based learning in their Kindergarten classroom.  This is a professional goal I have for next year so that I can better differentiate the learning going on in my classroom.  Let's face it, in Kindergarten, no two children are the same in their academic or social abilities.  Using more center-based learning allows the children to work on their own level instead of something being too easy or difficult for them.  It also allows for me to meet with small groups or individually more often. 

I hope to use this blog as a resource or an open conversation on strategies and events occuring in our classroom.  I also hope that parents will take a peek and see what their students are learning.