Back to School Time!

Felt Footies for my chairs! It makes the chairs practically silent when they move! I decided to use different colors for each table. I got the idea here: http://artwithmre.blogspot.com/2012/07/chair-footies.html

So easy and cute!

My friend Brent painted my new reading center table for me!

We got a brand new literacy pack this year! Journeys came in these neat tubs that are separated into units, but they are SO BIG! It took some creative thinking to end up in the back of my read-aloud book stand.

New birthday idea! (Thank you again, Pinterest!) http://thinkshareteach.blogspot.com/2012/06/monday-made-it-and-cafe-freebie.html and http://thinkshareteach.blogspot.com/2012/06/monday-made-it-and-cafe-freebie.html

I am going to give these to the kids at Open House. 

My new window treatment! A friend asked me over the summer what my classroom theme was. I was sad to say I didn't really have one. And I still don't, but I do have a lot of RED! :)

My word wall:

I used the left over fabric from my new curtains! I hot glued it on first and then used red electrical-type tape to trim the edges:

Read Aloud area (those are all my "first week" books!):

The window to the office - all dressed up!:

Reading center: 

 ...with my AWESOME table that my daddy built for me! 
http://www.woodnmirror.com/

 Books and reading buddies!

Journals and ABC booklets: (and yes, these bins match the footies for the tables!)

 Back to school packets and pencil boxes are ready to go!

This area will be the math center and on Fridays, we can set up the easel right there for painting!

Orange folders for homework and green daily folders! I thought is was cute how the little monster tissue box matched them! :) 

My lanterns make quiet time very pretty! 

I'm not completely done here, but I will be by Monday - Open House night! I always get nervous! Any tips on how to not be so nervous when meeting new parents!?

Math Time!

My school uses Everyday Math and one of the recent activities had to do with place value. Each morning during calendar time, one of our daily activities is counting the days we have been in school (today was 141!) and we use straws and number cards to show place value. Even with this daily routine, I realize I always do that part and my kids aren't really getting it. So, to get to the point...I was talking with my husband (high school teacher) and got this idea from him:

Using dimes and pennies to represent the tens and ones, respectively. (Why couldn't I come up with that?) All I knew was I didn't have base ten blocks to use and I wanted the lesson to be meaningful for my kinders. I just hand- drew the tens and ones mats (or you can grab this simple Place Value Chart here) and let my students work in pairs. We did this as a whole group on the carpet. I gave each set of partners a mat, ten dimes (I used plastic ones from my math center), and nine pennies (I used real pennies because we had $12 worth after the Class Collection activity from two weeks before!). 

 On the board I wrote a number (example: 43) and showed the class how to make that number with 4 dimes (counting by tens) and 3 pennies (counting by ones). As a bonus at the end of the lesson, I asked students to show me how to make the number 100. About half got it right away :), however several tried to count out the pennies and realized it wouldn't work. *In case anyone is curious, I only gave 9 pennies to ensure their success in using only dimes to represent tens.  

This little money chart is also part of our daily calendar routine. As we count the days of the school year and use straws for place value, we also use this cute chart (I got it on clearance from Really Good Stuff!)When we got to the 100th day, we traded all those pennies for the dollar! (What a big deal!) Now, when we count, I remind students that while there are only so many pennies on the chart, the dollar represents the hundreds place. 

I couldn't resist sharing this photo. Kids have a tough time with tally marks (just like money!) and we do tally marks each day with our weather routine to try to really give them time to grasp it. This little angel used his string cheese to make tally marks! I love it when kids take what we teach them and make it their own! These are the moments teachers treasure! :)

Dr. Seuss Activites

For Dr. Seuss week, I found a glyph (I think it came from The Mailbox  years ago) to use to decorate the classroom door! (Glyphs are great following directions activities!)

 On March 2nd, the class got to wear their Cat in the Hat hats to lunch! 

 "What would you do if Thing One and Thing Two were loose in your house?"

I got this idea from a Pin on Pinterest!

Left: "I will feed them and kick them out!"   

Right: "I will play with them and sleep and kick them out."

 Here they all are in the hallway!

Classroom Organization Ideas

Have I mentioned that I am addicted to Pinterest? I have been getting all kinds of ideas from fellow teachers' boards. Here is one idea I saw on there - using a Lazy Susan turn table with buckets for supplies. I decided to use this idea for my art center. My art center was always so messy after my little ones were hard at work creating - and the mess drove me crazy! :) So, I got this idea from Pinterest and here it is:

I had each student bring a 3-ring binder to keep at school at the beginning of the year. I use these as scrapbooks for their school year. Any "Super Star" work, photos, etc goes in their scrapbook and they will have a ready-made memory book for when they graduate kindergarten! 

 My school uses these phoneme posters each week and I found this chart hanger in a spare room. I have found that this is a MUCH easier way to store my posters.  I can flip through them easily and they are out of the way. In years before, the posters would be in the way on the floor or on the board held by magnets. This keeps them together and the whole thing can be moved to any spot in the classroom. 

Yet another Pinterest idea - using a dish drying rack to store writing center supplies. I got the rack for about $8 at Walmart and the white boards fit perfectly! The rack fits just right on the shelf (and again it cuts down on the mess in the center!).

This hangs near the door to the classroom. It is purely decoration. We don't have a real need for hall passes in kindergarten!

 Our class rules are the 4 Be's. 

 We hang this outside the classroom door when we have perfect attendance! This way anyone walking by can see that we have everyone present that day!

 Martian Fingers! I purchased these from Oriental Trading Co. and they make my guided reading groups so much fun!

 My assistant I have found over the years that having small group time (guided reading, testing, etc) works best during centers time. We each have a group, so only half the class is in centers at a time. This helps with noise; and we rotate, so the students in groups Monday get to play Tuesday, etc. with "free" centers on Fridays, meaning everyone gets to play in centers on Fridays.