Duct Tape Beautification!

I saw this idea on Pinterest (of course) and I finally got around to trying it out for myself over Spring Break! Using pretty Duct Tape to decorate plain boxes! 

It was really very easy. My husband orders a lot of stuff from the internet for his job and he also ships a lot of merchandise (CDs and T-shirts, etc) for his band, The Reticent. 

So I took a few plain boxes and got the pretty Duct Tape from Walmart, peeled the labels off, and started taping!

 Aren't these neat designs!? I just love how bright and fun they are!

I started with the edges and worked my way down. I didn't do the inside of any of my boxes (mainly because I haven't decided what I'm going to do with them!), but I may go back and complete the insides later. 

This box is a particularly neat shape. I may use it as a puzzle or game box at school. (We all know how easily boxes get torn up when handled for several years in a K classroom!)

My fellow K teachers and I are working on an Ocean Exploration Room - we are very excited about this new addition to our schedules! - this tape will come in handy in the room!

I think penguins are just the cutest birds there are! I couldn't resist making a penguin box! This would make a good book box. The duct tape really reinforces these boxes while making them so pretty!

And my last box of the day is my pink and gray plaid one. My favorite colors (well, pink and black, but that's close enough!)!  My only problem with this one was that I couldn't line the tape up well enough and it really shows on this box. (That may not even bother anyone else, but I am kind of weird about things like that!)

And once again, the completes boxes! :)

Spring!

I saw this rainbow on St. Patrick's Day! How neat! My class was in the middle of learning all about weather, so it was perfect! I shared the photo, we read A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman, and completed a graph "Have you ever seen a real rainbow?".

The Friday before Spring Break, my kids made bunny ears headbands. This one was particularly creative!  

While my class was in Art, the Easter Bunny stopped by and hid some eggs out near the playground. So, my kiddos all got to wear their bunny ears and hunt for eggs! (I asked parents to send in eggs for the egg hunt and do you know - they really came through! There were enough eggs for each student to collect 12 and a few dozen super special ones that got passed out in the classroom!)

One of my students brought this basket with rice krispy treats for the class! He used the basket to collect his eggs from the egg hunt, but I had to get a picture of it first! :)

 I saw this little guy in my yard the first day of spring break! How sweet!:)

New Centers!

I'm not sure what inspired the activity for sure (Pinterest, probably), but here it is! 

An alphabetical order/letter-sounds center activity! This could be used either way.

I got the poster board at Dollar Tree (2 for $1).

I got the letters from Dollar Tree and the library card pockets from Oriental Trading Company. 

 I just used a glue stick to attach the pockets to the poster board and again for the letters. 

I doubled up the Q &R and X &Y for lack of space (my logic was that there won't be very many Q or X words.)

This center can be used for sounds for the students who need that and also alphabetizing words for the students who are ready for that. I will add photos of the center once it's in place next week! 

I am thinking of using craft sticks with pictures attached for the sounds activity and sight words on craft sticks for the alphabetizing. any ideas? :)

Math center Update:

I got the idea for Skip Counting Posters from Pinterest. I just made my own, though. I didn't download them.

I got this idea from Pinterest, too - using dollar store photo albums for flash cards! Brilliant! 

These geoboards have been in my office storage for who knows long! I finally remembered them and pulled them out for my math center. My kids really enjoy making shapes and letters!

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!

Kindergarten Memory Book

Each year, I like to save certain things my students do that parents may want to keep to look back on as their child grows up. I also understand that many parents may not know what to consider "important" as far a milestone in kindergarten and what they might regret losing throughout the year.

So, this year I put "3-ring binder" on my class supply list. Many parents were concerned about their 5 year old needing such a notebook in kindergarten, but others willingly sent in a binder filled with notebook paper! 

My plan was to use these notebooks as memory books or scrapbooks for each child's kindergarten year!

Here is what he have so far:

I keep the notebooks arranged like this in alphabetical order by first name in the back of the room on top of the blanket cubbies. They are out of the way, but easily accessible when we need to add to them. 

Here is a peek inside one of the "scrapbooks:"

The first day of school, I read "The Kissing Hand" to my class (as I do every year - I love that book!). After reading the book, we discuss it a little bit and then I have the class color their own "Chester Racoons." We also ask them to write their names on these if they can. This gives us a really good idea of who is where. Some kids cannot write their names, while others already have pretty good handwriting! We can also tell a lot from the way the children color - color choices, staying in the lines, etc. I also make sure to date everything that goes into this binder. This way the parents (and kids when they get older) can see the progress throughout the year!

 This is an activity after we read the Big (Rigby) Book, The Monster Pet. Each child got to make their own monster. We put these in a sheet protector since they used pompoms and feathers. (We  didn't want any part of the creativity to get lost or messed up!)

 The first predictable chart I do is "My name is.." I write "My name is" on large chart paper and have each child use the complete sentence to tell me their name. I also ask them to spell their name if they can. Then I cut the sentences into words and have them put the sentence back together, glue it to a piece of construction paper and illustrate. (We do this with other predictable charts as well, and later I have them copy their sentences to work on spacing, capitalization, and punctuation!)

Beside the name page, I added something that this girl did in the art center. She found pictures of butterflies and made a collage! This hung in the room for a long time before I placed it in her memory book!

 Next, I added the page the children completed about apples. They colored this sheet and then wrote a sentence about apples. I also let them choose one apple to add glitter glue to! (This picture doesn't show that very well, I know.)

When the fire department came to visit our school, my class had the most guests - parents, grandparents, etc. who came to the school to learn about fire safety with us! The school guidance counselor took a class picture and made a copy for each student to have. This is one of those things I thought might get lost throughout the year if we sent it home the day we got it, so we put the photos in the memory books. This way every child has a class picture! 

Left: Our class pumpkin patch! Each child brought in a pumpkin for our life cycle of plants unit in the fall. 

Right: Hand print turkeys for Thanksgiving! Each child also wrote what they were thankful for.

For the new year, we made resolution hats! 

Penguin unit - we made booklets! The cover page is the penguin and we stapled that to the writing paper that is the same shape! Very cute! 

For the 100th day of school, we made self portraits from the future!
"When I am 100 years old..."

For President's Day, each student wrote about what he or she would do as President! 

This all we have so far. As the year comes closer to an end, I will let each student decorate the front of their memory book. I think this is will be a great end of year gift for the families!