Sunday, August 28, 2011

A Glimpse into my classroom!

I thought some of you out there might want to see what my classroom is looking like lately.  I have a "beach monkey" theme in my room and as you'll see on some of my boards we have been busy!

This is the sink area, birthday banner, and our little stores from Poco & Pop- We use these a little later in the year for practice with money.
This is our tree where we will track all of our letters from our letter exchange with Brooke Perry from Primary Perspective!

Our door- Welcome to Kindergarten!
No More Monkeying Around- behavior clip chart
Our "compliment" tree...for whenever someone compliments our class- 5 bananas = Party!!!


Shelf above our cubbies- My birthday balloon pixie sticks are in the cute monkey!
Smartboard..."stage" is underneath (my awesome hubby made it)...Document camera....student of the week board





Our class library and word wall


Where we will track our "Rainbow Words"- each child will get a rainbow to put on the board to track with


Letters on the bus from Deanna Jump!

We learned how to do our calendar opening on the SMARTboard!  They loovvee it!

More practice!
We practiced using "raindrops" of  glue.....NOT "puddles"!  Rainbow names from Deanna Jump!

We've been reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom....so we did our first science experiment!  Will a coconut sink or float?
More practice with "raindrops" of glue...our initials!

We graphed boys and girls!
All of this WORE US OUT!!!!

30 minute naps just are not long enough!  Good thing we have WEEKENDS!!!
Stay tuned for more!!  I forgot to take pictures of my outside bulletin boards and what we did there!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Loving our NEW Makeover!!!

Thank you Jena Snowden from 1st Grade With Miss Snowden!!!  She made over our blog and we are loving it!  She did an awesome job and it was sooo great working with her!  Thank you, Jena!  You are AWESOME!!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Christmas in July!

Monday and Tuesday we are joining in on the TPT sale!!!!!  Our entire store will be on sale for 2 days!  We have put ALL of our Jukeboxes on TPT!  Come check it out!  We are nearing 150 followers!!!!  Stand by for a giveaway and a FREEBIE!!!!!!
Merry Christmas in July!!!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

HIP HIP HOORAY! It's Christmas Day! TPT Two Day Sale

Well, it IS Christmas in July for teachers!  We know everyone is "gearing up" for a new school year. So, to celebrate, we are having a 20% off sale on TPT!  The sale will be for Monday and Tuesday.  Check it out.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Birthday Balloons

Well...I felt a little crafty yesterday, so I got out my glue gun and made the awesome pixy stix balloons.
When I saw these on someone's blog, I HAD to make them.  My kindergarten class is known as the "Kindergarten Cowpokes" so I put the completed balloons is a boot.  And, I used wrapping paper for the balloons.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Math Scrapbook!

One of my favorite kindergarten teachers-Kimberly Jordano-inspired me to compile a math scrapbook for my kiddos.  They are usually those cute, thematic, math projects you would do anyway...she just told me that the parents will tend to KEEP things when they are made into a book!  This is sooo true.  I am always so sad when the kids come back the next day and their work is STILL in their backpack!  And it is something AWESOME that they have worked so hard on in class!  So...I set a goal of at least one page per month or sometimes per theme.  Most of these pages are Kimberly Jordano's ideas.
This is the cover of my math scrapbook.  We make these at the end of the year...right before they are to go home.  I give them the blue and yellow squares and they make a pattern around the edge.  I give them the poem and they cut around it how they want, and I give them a white piece of paper and they create "math" things for their cover: shapes, numbers, + signs, - signs, and = signs, etc....
This is our first entry.  I have a beach monkey theme in my classroom.  We start the year with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  So we make these coconut trees and glue on the letters in their name.
This haunted house one is my favorite!!  I give them the pre-cut haunted house and they decorate it with spooky doors and windows using a white crayon.  I give them orange squares and white rectangles which they turn into circles (jack-o'-lanterns) and ghosts. They draw on eyes and mouths with black markers.  They decide what type of pattern they are making and write that on with orange markers.

For this turkey one I give them the turkey body which they cut out.  I then have a bunch of colored rectangles out and they choose two colors and turn them into feathers by cutting off the top two corners.  They sort their feathers on their turkey body and write their sentence and addition problem.  I have them draw on a face with markers, and add glitter!
For this one I gave them blue rectangles and had them create their snowflake and then they choose the pattern block shapes to glue on.  They had a recording sheet to record their findings.

For the penguin page they created their mound of snow by tearing white paper, and we created our penguin by following directions TLC style!  They picked two different colors of tiny di-cut fish and sorted them on each side of their penguin.  They then filled out their recording sheet.  They also made white dots for snow on their blue background with a white crayon.

This heart one is great!  They begin by painting a heart.  It can be any color/size.  I usually have out several valentine colors to choose from.  They paint their heart and decorate it-some use stripes, dots, or make hearts inside their heart.  Once the painted hearts dry they cut them out and use tiny, di-cut heart to go around the outside of their big heart.  I then have them write a number on each tiny heart.  They record their findings like above.
For the jellybean page I trace their hands and cut them out.  They roll a large die and glue on the number of jellybeans in one hand and the money to buy them in the other.

This one is sooo cute and we complete it during our insect unit with The Grouchy Ladybug.  Obviously they create their ladybug and color their clock. They only glue the red, circle body at the very top so it will flip up and they can glue their clock underneath.  I attach the hands of the clock with a brad.  They then fill out their recording sheet and show the times with their clock.  They LOVE This one.

There are a few additional pages that we make.  We do one for Christmas with a Christmas "I Spy" tree. and I also do another Valentines one with cookies.  This little girl was absent when those were created...I guess.  You can find tons of other ideas on Kimberly Jordanos website. Kinder By Kim!!!

I hope this post was helpful and inspirational to some!  I get tons of compliments from my parents!!!!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Name Games & Beginning of the Year Poems, Games, & Songs!!

I have just finished posting 2 cute, new files to TPT!!!
These are games I have played with my kindergarteners for years!  I have finally created SMARTboard files to go with them!  I also have made the templates available and given directions on linking your music or YouTube videos directly to the pages so it will all be available at your kiddos fingertips!  I am very excited about this SMART notebook and know that my kids are going to love it!!!!! I also think this would go along perfectly with Deanna Jumps Names and Literacy unit!!!  We both purchased it so we could tie these 2 activities in together with our kiddos!!!!
It includes:
Willoughby Wallaby Woo-for phonemic awareness fun!
Bippity Boppity Bumblebee- for syllables and phonemic awareness!
Cheerleader Names- letter identification fun!  They are going to love manipulating this one!
Name Detectives- little balls come up with the letters of their names for them to unscramble!!! Super Fun
This came out soooo stinkin' cute!  I can't wait for my kiddos to enjoy! 
ALL of these name games are hands-on ways for kids to manipulate and play with the very thing that is the MOST important to them.....their names!!!!!
This is available on TPT for $3.00- I tried to make it cheap so you can all try it out!  Let me know what you think!!!

Also introducing......

Beginning of the Year Songs, Poems, and Games!!!
These are SMARTboard files I have actually had a while!  I gave them the "cutesy" makeover and am making them available to you on TPT!!
Colorful chorus- this is a poem and game I play the first week of school- directions included!
color chart for class reading practice
color dice game!!! Always a favorite!
This HAS to be my kids favorite game the first couple of weeks of school- directions included!!
Orange is a carrot!
Bubble Gum, bubble gum in a dish!!!!! Directions for playing included!
 Couple of apple songs included with directions for attaching music and video!

All in all there are 18 pages to this awesome resource!  

Please let us know what you think!!!!!!  We really value your comments on how we can make SMARTboard resources available and valuable to you!!!!


Thanks for checking us out!!!