Kindergarten Kindergarten

Blog Hoppin' Teacher Week: Classroom Pictures

I'm not ready!!

 I cannot post pictures of my classroom yet, because...

1. Today was the first day of school and it looks like a small tornado hit.
2. Most of my shelves are completely empty. Seriously, this is how I start school. I don't put out anything until we have gone over the expectations for it.

Exhibit A: Art Center

 
Exhibit B: Writing Center

We learned about crayons. gluesticks and scissors today, so they are now in the table buckets. But we don't even have pencils, yet! (We have to learn about the sharp/not sharp bucket--tomorrow!) We will also do the whole dried out marker lesson, and then we will add those to the shelves, as well.

In a few weeks, the shelves will be full of paper, stamps, drippy glue, fun foam, watercolors, even glitter and a stapler! And the kids will be able to use them as they need/want. But the key is laying a strong foundation and going over expectations explicitly. That takes time--but it's worth it. The kids become extremely independent.

So, I promise I will get some good pictures of my room soon. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek of my new Expedit shelves in the library:

 
And here's a link to last years pictures:

2010-2011 Classroom

I am exhausted and am off to bed now!

Sweet Dreams!

 PS...

I'm sure there are lots of finshed rooms over on the Blog Hoppin' Blog. Check it out! 

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Teaching Rules and Routines: More glue and markers...

I'm diabolical. Truly.

I got the brilliant idea to purposely leave the lids off a few markers and gluesticks and let them dry out.

 

Today, when we were making our No David! puppets, I innocently handed out the dried up gluesticks for the kids to use. They tried and tried, but those noses just kept falling off. A few kids caught on pretty quickly..."Ms. Warner--someone must have left the caps off these gluesticks and now they won't work anymore!" (Me, in response) Really? Well what should we do?

 

We agreed that I would give the tables all new gluesticks and they promised they would always put the caps back on so they would never dry out! Then I taught them the song--which, by the way, I wrote wrong on here a few weeks ago. It actually goes like this (to the tune of London Bridge):

 

Put the lid back on the glue, on the glue, on the glue...

Put the lid back on the glue, so it won't dry out! SNAP!

Tomorrow...same lesson with the markers! (I think the kids really get it now.)

By the way, another helpful hint...

 
Keep a collection of spare lids. Because no matter how great your lesson is, lids are still gonna get lost! 

Teaching Rules and Routines: Taking Care of Books

I'm really excited about my latest project. I worked on it all day Sunday, even though I had loads of laundry and lesson planning to do! But it was worth it. I made a book to teach kids the right and wrong ways to handle books.

This is not my idea. There is a famous book out there called Mr. Wiggle. Several teachers at my school have copies made from laminated construction paper with a cute little bear. I even think there is an actual published book out there, but it seems that it's out of print, and used copies are running $80 and up (yikes!). Anyway, making this book has been on my to-do list for years. So when I finally got around to doing it, I decided to update it a bit.

So here it is:

 
Just like in Mr. Wiggle, someone has been very naughty with this book and the forest friends are very sad! (Cheesy, huh?!)

Here someone scribbled with markers and crayons... 

Here somebody drew a picture with a pencil... 

Here somebody got mud on the page... 

Here someone got juice and chocolate on the page... 

Here someone glued on paper and stuck on stickers. And yes, that says snail when it's actually a caterpillar. I fixed it. (Thanks, Anh!)

And here somebody ripped a page... 

But now all of the forest friends are happy again, because they know the kids are going to take good care of the books in their class (awww....) 

When I'm done reading this book, we will make a T-chart of good/bad choices when it comes to handling books. Here it is, all ready for tomorrow. 

I'm also going to make a bookmark that the kids can take home to remind them of how to properly care for books (I'll post it when I'm done). 

You can download Forest Friends here:

Download Forest Friends

I printed mine on cardstock and had it bound at Office Max for just a few dollars. You will have to do the scribbling and ripping yourself (it's kind of cathartic, although my friends inform me that I am not a very realistic scribbler). I used red watercolor for the juice and let it drip. I used brown tempera paint for the mud and chocolate.

I'm sure we will still have a few torn pages here and there, but I think the kids will be more invested in taking care of our library. 

Have fun scribbling! 

To All My New Teacher Friends...

I'm continuing to participate in Teacher Week over at the new Blog Hoppin' Blog. Today is Teacher Talk: Advice for New Teachers.

So--to all my new teacher friends:

We were all in your shoes once...anxiously preparing for our very first day in our very own classroom...filled with a mixture of giddy excitement and pure terror. Shoot--I've been doing this for a decade now, and here I am the night before school starts and I still have butterflies in my stomach. (Really huge, possibly extra-terrestrial butterflies).

Did I remember everything? Do I have enough planned? Do I have too much planned? Will the kids like me? Will they listen to me? The best advice that I can give you is to take a deep breath and have courage. Everything will be OK.

Remember...

• Take time these first few weeks to teach the kids your expectations for every single routine you can think of. Be explicit--do not make any assumptions! It will feel like you are not teaching any academics at all, but the investment now will pay off in spades, later!
• Take time to really get to know your kids. Talk with them (not just at them) everyday. These days, we get so caught up in rigor and academic achievement and high expectations, we sometimes overlook how smart and funny and kind our kids are.
• Don't beat yourself up. You're going to have bad moments. You're going to have bad days. You're going to plan out the perfect lesson and it will all fall apart--possibly at the exact moment that your principal decides to do a walk-through. It gets easier--I promise.
• Take time for yourself. I know you're excited, and there's nothing I can say to keep you from spending ridiculous amounts of time in your classroom or from bringing home huge tote bags full of work. Trust me--there will always be just one more thing to do. So step away from the teacher stuff and go see a movie, or get a pedicure, or reconnect with some non-teacher friends (and you are not allowed to talk about school!)
• HAVE FUN!!!

 

I'll leave you with one of my favorite songs--I Have Confidence from The Sound of Music. Please--7 children. Maria, honey, you've got nothing on us. We can handle 20+ kids from all different backgrounds and of all different ability levels. We can tie a shoe and wipe a nose and band-aid a scraped knee all while teaching a differentiated lesson on the five senses! (OK--so maybe we don't have Nazi's--but we're still pretty amazing!)

 

Have a great year!

And be sure to check out the great advice of other teachers over at Blog Hoppin:

 

Meet the Teacher (That's me!)

Hello!

  

I've decided to participate in Teacher Week over at the new blog Blog Hoppin' (started by Babbling Abby, Deanna Jump and many other great bloggers.) Day 1 is Meet the Teacher Monday--so here goes!

My name is Kathryn and I have been teaching for 10 years now (and I can't believe it...it seems like YESTERDAY when I started). I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl and I forced my younger brother to sit and play "school" with me. (My mother always said that's why school was never his favorite thing--he had already been to school for years before he ever started kindergarten. And I think I was a really mean teacher!)

 

I am still single and do not have kids of my own, but I have a very spoiled dog named Calvin. He does not enjoy back-to-school because I often forget to do things like, you know, feed him! So maybe it's a good thing I don't have kids!

When I'm not teaching, I love to be crafty--especially art journaling and paper crafting. And jewelry making and sewing (well, OK, I'm still working on that last one!) I'm getting ready to buy a new, fancy camera and am going to learn how to take decent pictures--so there's something to look forward to...no more iPhone pics!

I love to read--especially "Chick Lit." And I love movies--especially romantic comedies. I'm a sucker for a happy ending! I also think I've seen just about every Jane Austen/Charles Dickens/Henry James adaptation out there.

I'm addicted to reality TV--Project Runway, Top Chef, Survivor...

I love to travel and am planning a big trip to Europe next summer. I can't wait!

 

I spend way too much time on the computer--reading blogs and on Pinterest! And I may have a slight addiction to Diet Coke.

That's about it!     

School starts tomorrow for me--so I'd better run. But I do have something very special to share later today--(I worked on it all day yesterday!) So check back later!

 

Setting up my classroom...

I'm in my classroom today. I'm trying some new things--we'll see how it goes. I got some new Expedit shelves from Ikea--they make me happy. Here's my progress so far (pics from my iPhone...sorry). I'll post some good pictures when I'm all done.

 

 
Here's my big project. See that mess--those are my paper files. I'm going through them, purging most of it, and making electronic versions of what I can. My goal is to get down to a quarter or less of what you see.  So I'd better get busy. Have fun in your own classrooms!

Kindergarten Rules and Routines: Getting the Lids back on Markers and Gluesticks!

How many of these have you found lying around your room?

 

Dried up markers with the lid just a few inches away. It's hard enough getting the kids to put the lids back on. But even if I can do that, they don't push down hard enough and the lids just end up falling back off again.

So we sing a little song to the tune of London Bridge. Sing along:

Put the lid back on the marker, on the marker, on the marker...

Put the lid back on the marker, until it goes

click!

We sing it everytime the kids use the markers. And they love listening for the click. Even in May, I would catch them listening for the click.

It also works with these:

...although the click is not as clicky. We sing the song anyway (substituting gluestick for marker, of course)--the kids get the point. Just one more little trick to make our lives easier!

Calendar Birthday Cupcakes

 

I need to get a better picture of them, but if you look closely, they are cupcakes. It's where I write down my kids' birthdays. Here they are if you want them...just click the link below the picture. I print them once, laminate them and then write on them with a Vis-a-Vis marker. I put them in 2 files, because they are big pictures. Enjoy!

 
Download Calendar Cupcakes

Download Calendar Cupcakes July-December

Crafty Fun: ABC Sorting Box

A little crafty project to share on a Sunday afternoon. Crafts make me happy! I made an ABC Sorting Box from materials I got at Hobby Lobby. I'm going to have the kids sort different pictures and small objects by their beginning sounds.

  

Here's how I did it:

 
I found these cardboard Advent calendars in the Christmas Craft aisle at Hobby Lobby. They are $12.99--but 40% off. Never pay full price for anything at Hobby Lobby! It will go on sale eventually.I also used some cheapie craft paint and paper scraps. 
First I painted the box.

 
I did not paint the insides. I quickly painted along the edges. I did not worry too much about being perfect. I wanted it to have a time-worn look like kids have been playing with it for years--so the more messed up, the better!

 
I covered my drawers with scrapbook paper, but you could just as easily paint them. I cut my paper into 2 X 2.5" pieces (the drawers are roughly 2x2", so that gave me a little to wrap around the sides.)

 
I used a 1" hole punch to punch out the little notch. If you don't have one, you could use an exacto knife (but I highly recommend getting one. I use it SO much in my classroom).

 
I glued the paper on with my favorite glue: Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. I trimmed up any extra paper with an exacto knife. I also used an emery board to sand them a little (a paper crafting trick but completely unnecessary!)

 
I used puffy letters from the scrapbook section for the drawers.

Yes...they're a little wonky! The M's barely fit and I could only fit the uppercase W. And because it's an advent calendar, there are only 25 drawers. So X and Y have to share. But it's still pretty darn cute. So, now I'm on a mission to find little trinkets. I have a few--there's a bucket, bird, bottle and balloon.

I also found some on ETSY:

Grab Bag of charms, trinkets, nic-nacs, doodads, beads (50)

I also found these on Etsy and now I want to make some of these, too!

I Spy Bags 

Somebody stop me now...

Kindergarten Rules and Routines: Lunch

Teaching School Routines is Essential!

The first few days weeks of school, I go over every single routine I can think of and explicitly teach students the expectationsregarding those routines. Never take anything for granted!! Trust me--if you just assume that five-year olds know how to sit at a cafeteria table with 20 or so of their new friends and quietly eat their lunches--you're going to end up with 20 or so kids running around the cafeteria with chicken nuggets in their pockets and peanut butter in their hair!

On the very first morning of school, well before their their little bellies start rumbling, I take the kids down to the empty cafeteria (this is actually a school-wide expectation.) We go over everything--step by step. We line up, we go through the cafeteria line, we get our invisible milk, we get our invisible trays, we make our invisible side choices, we scan our lunch cards--all the while, I'm talking about what their bodies should look like and their voices should sound like.

We go to our table and I show them exactly how to sit. And then I show them what not to do--stand on the benches, crawl under the table, run around, scream, yell--they love that part.

Then I show them exactly how to clean up. We go through the whole routine with our invisible lunches. And then we line up to leave.

I try my best to think of every possibility and cover it all (although they always manage to think of something else. I mean, who knew that some kids think it's funny to stick pretzel sticks up their noses?)  

It takes a big chunk of time, but it's well worth it. Depending on the class, I sometimes do this 2 or 3 times that first week. And I always do it again mid-year as a refresher.

After we return to the room, we make a T-chart of good choices and bad choices. I let the kids act these out (they always want to act out the bad ones!) From this list, we make a final list of expectations.

 

The next day, I print these out. We review them again and then we make fun little paper lunchboxes and glue them inside (good coloring, cutting and gluing practice). I let the kids take them home and ask the parents to go over these expectations with their children for a little added reinforcement.

 

Here is a blackline master for lunchboxes. I've included a MS Word document as well in case you would like to use your own class/school cafeteria expectations.

 
Download Cafeteria Expectations Lunch Box

Download Cafeteria Expectations Lunch Box

 

I always read the book Lunch by Denise Fleming to introduce this activity. The kids love to guess what food the mouse will eat next.

But I also found these on Amazon:

Manners in the Lunchroom by Amanda Doering Tourville

I just ordered this one. I have Manners at School already and really like it, so I'm hoping this one is good as well.

Mealtimeby Elizabeth Verdick

I love all of these Free Spirit Publishing books. Even though they're for toddlers, I find they are good jumping off points for kindergarten discussions.

Please Pass the Manners by Lola Schaefer 

May your year be filled with many, many, completely boring, uneventful lunch periods!