Long time no write!

Wow, I am amazed how much time and energy it is taking to make the switch into Kindergarten!  I haven't posted in forever.  I have been maintaining my classroom blog for my parents, but I have neglected my professional blog.  I have missed everyone.  I have been blog stalking you all, but I have had no time to comment. 

I have tons of things to blog about, but I will start by posting my little guys latest project.  I found this awesome Pilgrim pattern project on Teachers Pay Teachers.

You should visit her blog at First Grade Blue Skies.  I love her stuff!  She has a great Elf pattern I am going to use next month for creating our Christmas Lists.

 

Here are some pictures of how our project turned out yesterday.  It is so interesting to see how different they all are.  This required them to really practice their listening skills to be able to put all of the pieces together.  My guys have come so far since the first of the school year.  We tried an oral listening multi-step direction project and I was ready to quit teaching.  I could not believe what a disaster it was.  And it was just an apple and a worm a leaf and a stem to glue onto a piece of construction paper.  They are really getting control of their hands, ears and wiggly bodies and they are really getting the hang of following directions too. 

 

I have an enormous bulletin board outside of my classroom.  Here is the display.

This little guy wanted to show his thankfulness for Jesus. 

This young man is trying to sound out and spell words on his own.

There is nothing like being thankful for your mom!

This child is taking off and writing her own complex sentences.  I love that she added connecting words.

OK, this little lady made my day.  This is why we do what we do, isn't it?



 

Kindergarten Orientation and Classroom Pictures

Oh, I got to meet my Kinder Kiddos and their families today.  I was so excited!   The kids loved the classroom and cleaned up everything they explored!  They came to carpet when called, TWICE.  We are going to have an amazing year.  Here are some photos of my set up for orientation.  I am so excited for the school year to start.  I got lots of hugs today and I came home just smiling ear to ear.  My sweet George was so excited for me and the kids.  He said he wished he could have been there to see the kids reactions when they walked into the world.  He is so vested into the whole process.  How did I ever get so lucky?  Anyway, here are some pictures.  Can't wait to see your photos of your rooms!

View from the front of the classroom.  The pods are Team Whale, Team Sea Horse and Team Frog.  See the beach balls above the tables?  The kids sure did!

Dramatic Play Area.  There is a book shelf for cook books, write on wipe off board on the back of the library shelves for writing grocery lists, shortened table for the kids and the kitchen set we made out of an old TV stand.

The classroom library.  The kids are going to help me sort the books by category next week.  I wish you could see the shelves and pillows.  I will try to update it soon and post pictures when the kids are done with it.

My pirate word wall.  I love it.  We can write words on it as we learn them.  I am loving the shower board George put on the back of all of my shelving units to increase writing space in the classroom.

All set up with files for the parents, 1st homework assignment (which you can find in my TPT store) and the mouse from If You Take A Mouse To School all ready for next weeks lesson!

Our Writing Station.

Our Pocket Chart Station.  I currently have our Common Core Standards, sight words and basic shapes and vocabulary up and ready to use next week for some assessment work.

I love the shoe holders to hold extra supplies so the kids can get what they need and reduce interruptions during writing and reading workshop time.  The kids brought all of the supplies in today and we are going to organize them next week.  Many teachers do this themselves but I want the kids to have ownership in the classroom so they are going to help me while learning classroom procedures.  I hope it works!

Here is our small group table for conferring with students for reading and writing workshop and for guided reading.

This is my Parent Information Center.  On the back side is our word wall. 

View from the back of the classroom looking toward our carpet area and the front door.

Our BIG bulletin board outside of our classroom.  The kids loved finding their "little person" on the board.

I had a great time, got lots of hugs and I am so ready for school to start.  Let me know if you have any ideas to add to or improve the classroom.  Remember, this is my first year as a Kindergarten Teacher (not as a teacher, but new to Kinder) so I am open to all constructive comments.  Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer.  I can't believe it is over already.

My classroom, part one

So, I spent all of this week moving into my new classroom.  George thought I was a horder untill he saw how much stuff all of the other teachers had!  Whew, now he is off of my case!  Ha, Ha.  Anyway, he took off two days to help me move in and set up the classroom.  I couldn't of done it without him! 

I thought I would share some of the pictures.  The classroom isn't done, but I was proud of what we accomplished this week and I will finish it next week.  Kindergarten Orientation is next Thursday and the kiddos come back on the 15th so I need to get busy!  I hope you enjoy the tour!

View as you walk into the classroom

Classroom libray

Classroom library

Class tables and Guided Reading table

Carpet and entrance way.  The write on wipe off board will be used for our word wall.

Guided Reading table

Smart Board, carpet and large group instruction area

Dramatic Play area.  Write on Wipe Off "window" for the kids.

Main board as you walk into the classroom

Welcome board outside of the classroom.  I still have to add the lettering on.  I am thinking about "Dive into Kindergarten" or "Make a Splash in Ms. Arrendale's Class".  What do you think?

Dramatic Play Area.  Do you like the stove/refridge unit we made out of an old entertainment center?

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I will update with more pictures when I finish the classroom.  Leave me a link with pictures of your classroom.  I would love to look!

Making a Dramatic Play area for my classroom

When I realized we didn't get a kitchen set for Dramatic Play in my new classroom I told my George.  We went on Pinterest and found an idea to make one out of old upcycled furniture.  He said we could do this no problem.  We learned a lot during the process, but it was well worth it!

The old entertainment center.

Repainted, step one.

George decided it needed a real stove.  He even installed a plexiglass front so the kids could "see" what they were cooking.

He has a steadier hand than I do so he painted on the burners.

Almost done.

We still needed to put on the knobs for the stove but this is it almost finished.  The glass on the doors was painted over with chalk board paint.  We added a beach theme for the kids to see out the window!

Here it is all done and in the classroom!

my Kindergarten teacher shoes!

I am so excited. There is nothing like a new pair of shoes for the new school year and I found the perfect pair! I thought I would share with other people who would understand. Let me know what you think. I can't wait to see what the kiddos have to say.

The Daily Five Book Study Chapter Six and Freebies!

1.      Experimenting with words for learning and practicing a spelling pattern (brainstorm a list of ways you can do this)

I love word wheels.  They are hands on and the kids love to manipulate them.  I also love creating theme based letter cards so the kids can use those to form simple words.  I print out multiple copies so several kids can make words together.  I usually start with cards that have the picture and the word so the kiddos can copy them (cat and picture of cat).  This is a great way to introduce them to the concept of making words.  I will move on to putting cards that are of the same family (cat, hat, rat, bat, mat) together so they are concentrating on one word family and see how changing one letter changes the whole word.  I am including some of my letter cards for you here for free.  Just click on the link and download from google docs!  They are part of my packets on TPT

Camping Letters for Word Word

 

Dinosaur Letter for Word Work

Beach Themed Word Cards

First Letter Sounds and Pirate Words














2.      Memorize high frequency words (How often do you introduce new words? Do your students have their own lists of words that they can work on? How will you keep track of words that they already know)

At my school the teacher used “popcorn words” and we add a new piece of “popcorn” to the giant popcorn box on the wall.  Each time the class masters a new popcorn word a new one is introduced.  At the end of the year if all popcorn words are mastered they get their own popcorn party with popcorn and a movie!  The kids love this.  I may do this after each set of words are mastered for my Kindergarteners for more frequent reinforcement.

3.      Generalize spelling patterns (brainstorm a list of ways you can do this)

I am looking forward to seeing other people’s ideas on this one.

4.      Adding to our knowledge and curiosity of unique and interesting words. (What is the best way to do this?)

I love having a word of the day!  Funny sounding words with lots of syllables are the best.  It makes the kids laugh and exposes them to vocabulary.  I figure if the kids know the correct word for the dinosaurs (and goodness knows they correct me when I am wrong!) then they can learn all kinds of cool words.  I try to tie the words into something we are learning about.  Like, ARCHOLOGIST when we are learning about dinosaurs.  Or PLETHERA when they want to say many or a lot.  The kids feel so smart when they use those big words.  I may introduce a Linguist of the Week and have the student (with the help of their parents) send in cool words to introduce during morning meeting.  I am all about the home-school connection so this may be a great way to get the kids and the parents exploring words together and then having the kids bring those words to school to share.

What materials do I already have?

I have so many word games, word cards, letter cards, magnetic letters, playdough, alphabet and word stamps, wikki sticks and other assorted letters and words for the kids to manipulate to create words.

What materials would I like to get?

I don’t know, what else should I have.  I can’t wait to see what else other people have/want so I can get/make those items too!

How will I store them?

I have a serious container addiction so I have plastic tubs, zip-lock bags, pockets, pencil boxes and on and on so I don’t think storage will be a problem!

Where will students work?

My students work EVERYWHERE inside and outside of the classroom.  Words are everywhere so they work everywhere.  Yes, I have the traditional desks they can work at, and the word work center, but I don’t want them to feel limited by space.  Whenever they want to work on words, I want them to grab the opportunity.

I can't wait to read everyone's posts!  Please follow my blog if you like it.  That way I can come and find your blog and follow you too! 

Freebie! All About Me Book Assignment Packet for Parents

I have had several people ask me about the All About Me Book that I have the parents do at the beginning of the year with their kiddos.  I have put together a packet that can be given to the parents as a resource for completing this project with their kiddos.  It is free and it is available at my TPT store.  I hope this helps you all.  This is a great way to introduce "reading to self" and "reading to a partner".  I also use these books to teach the kids how to care for not only their books, but all classroom materials.  I will be handing this out to my parents at Kindergarten Orientation.  I can't wait to see the books they create this year.  I will post pictures after they come in. 

Link to free All About Me Book Parent Packet on Teachers Pay Teachers

Sorry, I know it is not the best picture but you can see it much better at Teachers Pay Teachers.