Baby, it is cold outside!

Check out the cute snow people we made this week!

Center Chart

Here is the our center chart that I promised to post. Each day children rotate to two centers. During that time I am working with guided reading groups.

Clip Chart Incentive

After implementing the clip chart in our class for a while, I decided to add an incentive to reach the top. When students reach the top they get to bring home a reward slip to be used during the next school day. I got these coupons from Mel D. Over at Suesstastic Classroom Inspirations. You can get yours here!

Center Labels

Ahhhh, centers! This is everyone's favorite time of the day! Here is a copy of the center signs I use. When I get back to school I will post the picture of our center board.

Pin of the day!

This week we read "No David" by David Shannon. I found these ideas on Pinterest and am going to try them out.

Morning Meeting

Here is an idea that I started a few years ago that just clicks with kids. During our morning meeting, we color code the message. Everyday we look for capital letters and color them green, punctuation is red, and sight words are in orange. We also use this coding when we work in our poetry notebooks.

I also use Victor Borge's way of reading punctuation. Check it out here...super funny!

Pin of the day

I am a Pinterst addict. Seriously! I don't watch tv anymore. Instead when the kids go to bed at night, I get out my iPad and I search though all the fun ideas on Pinterst. I haven't watched the news in forever. In fact, I had no idea that today was supposed to be bitterly cold. I was quite surprised last night when my phone rang to find out that school was going to be 2 hours late. Yeah! So what did I do? I stayed up really late looking for GREAT ideas. Here is one that I found and am going to try.

This idea comes from here check out her blog. It has some great word work ideas.

Dramatic Play/Literacy Center

During the month of January I always convert the dramatic play center into the post office. Students mailboxes are made out of one and a half paper plates and stapled together and then stapled to the wall. TheY love giving and getting mail. I also have a supply of paper, stationary, and envelopes.

Writing Rubric

Here is what my writing rubric looks like. Children have an opportunity to earn more ladybugs the more they use writing skills.

Here is one of the jars close up.

Quick Assessment Check

Here is a form I create from an idea I stole from my favorite sister who also teaches Kindergarten. I have my foster grandma's use flashcards with the students and this form helps them keep track of you knows what and who still needs work.

Book boxes

Here is where I store each student's book box. They also store their whisper phones in their box. I wish we had leveled readers for each student. If I only had a money tree... Students use these books for read to self.

Writing Center

Here is what my writing center looks like. It is filled with chalk boards, blank paper, envelopes, notepads, doodle boards, crayons, markets, twistables, color pencils, stickers, and catalogs. This is one of the most popular centers.

Guided Reading

Here is how I keep track of which kids are on which level. I love how easy it is to switch kids to different levels.

Behavior

Ok, here it is...I am going to try to have student document their behavior each day so parents can see how their child is doing.  Here is a copy of the letter sent to parents

Here is the calendar for parents  This will stay in each child's home folder.

New clip chart

I just started using a clip chart for behavior management. Before I always used a stoplight chart. I found the clip chart on Mrs. Bainbridge's site and decided to to give it a try. I really like how it rewards the smarties that are doing well. This week, I am going to try to incorporate a student calendar that goes home everyday so that parents can see how their day went.

Daily Lesson Materials

This is where I put the materials for the day. These bins are located right next to my teacher chair.

Organization

This is how I organize my materials for the week. I try to stay a week ahead. That way if I have to be gone the sub will have everything they need.

Lesson Planning

I finally got a chance to take a few pictures of my classroom. This picture is what my lesson plans look like. I find it to be much faster to type them and it looks so much neater. I keep everything in this binder. The cover art work I found on someone's blog but I can't remember where. Let me know if it yours and I will give you credit. In this binder I keep lesson plans, schedules, student information, long term planning, curriculum standards, and more. If you haven't converted to one of these, DO IT! It will make your life easier.

Well Hello There!

Welcome to my very first post! I am new to blogging so bear with me while I venture into this world. I currently teach Kindergarten and absolutely LOVE it! Okay, there are some days that I question my sanity, however, I think that most Kindergarten teachers would understand. For instance, most kindergarten teachers would agree that we do not plan anything outside of teaching during the month of September. I also joke with my coworkers (who are fabulous by the way) that I like to call in sick on the first snow pants day! Kindergarten is its own world.