Found some goodies.

Went out last week with my daughter to start shopping for college for her.  Started to find a few things for my class also.  Here are a few goodies and what I plan on doing with them.

     These lovely goodies were found at Target in the Dollar Spot and at Michaels.  I work with new hires for Kindergarten in our county as a demonstration teacher.  We have a demo day where we discuss curriculum, planning and all those wonderful questions about teaching a new teacher will have. My room is set up early so they can view a "model" classroom.  I always like to have some kind of goodie bag for the new hires to start out their year nice.  I found out there are more new hires so guess where I am going back to?!  It's a tough life I tell you.

     I found this pennant shaped paper pad at Micheals.  Think I may try one of the pennants I saw on Pinterest or use them on the wall of my new room.  More about the new room in another post. 

     These goodies are from out stop at the Dollar Tree.  I have cassette and CD players for my listen to reading center and the kids were unusually tough on all of the items this year.  Needed to replace a few headphones.  The computer paper was too dog gone cute.  What is the Big Red for?  My Five senses lesson where we make a bear and use things for the five sense.  See a previous post for pics.  He was too cute!!

     This little bucket is going to get filled this year when kids are caught doing great things.  I am going to start with the Fill your bucket as a behavior system and hopefully do it correctly.  Ordered the kid's book and the teacher guide from Amazon.  Should be here soon.  Going to use the ribbon to decorate the handle then add stickers.
     That is all of the goodies so far.  No yard sale finds for this weekend as we held our own.  Keep any teacher items to pass onto the newbies.  Need to double check ads for this week's bargains.  Happy hunting.

I'm BACK!!

     Well, I bet you thought that I had fallen off the face of the Earth.  Actually it did feel like that a bit.  Around the New Year, things popped up in my personal life that made it difficult to blog.  Got things somewhat back on track now and going to give this another go.  Need to start with two blogs a week and maybe work up from there.  I will have an empty nest in another month and a half so there should be plenty of time for this and my National Boards.  YUPPP!!  Taking the plunge finally.  I put it off while my kids were in school and the youngest is headed to college in August.  Time for me now (in more ways than one).  Check out my boards over on Pinterest while I get this up and going.  Ideas are now flying for posts.  See you all soon.  Tammy       http://pinterest.com/mrsbsjunk/

Hello December

     I absolutely love teaching in December.  We get to use very rich literature in ways that are much more fun than the curriculum maps and Houghton Mifflin can be.  The kids are excited to see what will happen each day. 
One of the new items is decorating the door.  Here is our new door for December:

     The elves are from a unit on TPT called Let's Make an Elf.  The kids will be making them after we read the book Santa's Secret Helper.  The writing on the tummies will be how they could help Santa and why they should be chosen.  Still need to work on sentence starters for differentiation.

     I have used the Holidays Around the World theme in December for years.  Some of my projects came from my oldest daughter's kindergarten which was 20 years ago!!  I show the kids her projects and they still ohh and ahh.  There are a few days set aside to teach Kwanzaa and Hanukkah and then I choose different countries each day.  I always do Norway and reindeer on Dec. 1 which is Jan Brett's birthday and mine! 

     Well, time to search for new ornament and parent gift ideas.  I have used some of my projects since I first started teaching Kindergarten 18 years ago.  I think it is time for a few new ideas.  See you soon with lots of pictures and ideas.  Hello December!!  Mrs. B



Howdy Pilgrims!

Can not believe that it is already November!!  Where has the time gone?  Had fun decorating my door today for Thanksgiving.

     Have friends looking out for me and sending me messages about other door ideas they have seen on Pinterest to keep me going.  I now have an idea for December (on my Pinterest page already) and one for January- a snowman of course.  Need ideas for the rest of the year.  Had a former student suggest a groundhog for Feb.  May try to do something for the 100th day. 
     Tomorrow is our 50th day of school.  The whole grade level is dressing up and having a sock hop in the afternoon.  I plan on using a powerpoint about Then and Now from Martha Sheehan's site to discuss the differences in technology and fashion.  One of our teacher's was sent pictures of a student's grandmother from the 50's so I am going to look for pictures of my parents to show the class.  We are going to play Race to 50 with dice at math and enjoy rootbeer floats at snack time. I love what I see on other sites but have to watch the curriculum maps closely here. 
    Next week begins my Thanksgiving lessons in earnest.  Can't wait to try out some of the new ideas from TPT and Teacher's Notebooks as well as the wonderful blogs I read. 
Have a great week.  Mrs. B

Gearing Up for Halloween

We just finished with Red Ribbon week at our school.  Each day had a theme, which while fun, was also a little crazy as I was trying to get assessments done for the end of the marking period.  Monday was red ribbon day, Tuesday was Team Spirit-wear a jersey or workout clothes (comfie day), Wednesday was House team spirit day(red for my class as we are the Terrapins and Thursday was Pajama Day ( did I say comfie?!!). Friday was Crazy Hair Day: We are crazy for Drug Awareness.  Tried to tell the kiddos that the hair was the only thing crazy that day but didn't quite work.  Very high levels of energy.  Here is my take on the day:

I added real candy corn to bobbie pins with glue dots.  I wore my candy corn earrings and lanyard along with an orange sweater and halloween socks. 
     Now to get ready for tomorrow: Halloween.  My principal has always advocated "Fall" themed activities so we hold a Harvest Activity Day.  It's not really a party as much as a rotation of fun- yet academically connected- activities.  We have it in the afternoon until dismissal and it has been a hit for years.  Adding new activities this year thanks to Pinterest.  Some of our activities will include: -painting indian corn patterns with q-tips ( pointillism idea from Kindergarten Crayons site)
- toilet paper roll pumpkins (Family Fun site idea)
-scarecrow hands(popcorn in a glove)
-decorate a cookie to look like a scarecrow ( Family Fun site again)
- patterning necklace with pony beads
-graphing ghost marshmallows
- Monster Munch mix( snack items renamed to be scary and kids count in sets of 10)
- Paper bag scarecrows (Pinterest)
- Apple Dice game- I use a pattern of an apple and blow it up to full paper size.  Then I draw lines to look like a puzzle.  Inside the sections I write the numbers 2-12.  Students roll 2 dice and color in one section that matches that number.  I created this a long time ago with a wonderful co-worker: Cathy Harper.  We used to make dice puzzles, as we call them, for every unit.
The lists are made, the supplies are almost prepped_ finishing that tomorrow, and a few volunteers are scheduled to help.  Hopefully the kids will be calm- that would so be a wonderful Treat for tomorrow.  Let's hope I don't get tricked there.
Have a great, fun, exciting, and hopefully calm Halloween.  I will post pictures of these activities as soon as possible.
Here's a treat for the kids: ( Pinterest)

Spooky S'mores

Wallets full of words or sounds...but no money:(

My kiddos need something at home to help them learn the sight words or word wall words as I call them.  So I took an idea I got from a wonderful workshop put on by The Bag Ladies from FL and used it to create a home connection tool to extend the learning.  All you need is a large lunch bag- large works better to hold 3x5 index cards.  You will also need some clear packing tape.

1. Fold the bag into thirds so you can see the fold line.

2. Cut along the side of the bag down to the fold line.  Then cut across the fold line using only 1 thickness of the bag.  Cut up the other side so that you leave a flap.

3. Round the edges of the top of the flap.

4. Tape along both sides with the packing tape to create your pocket.

     I added a label using DJ Inker clip art ( AWESOME CLIP ART!!) and a letter when it goes home.  This wallet is set up for alphabet letter and sound recognition.  One side of the card has a letter and the other has a smaller version of our alphabet/ phonics chart (we use Fundations).  The wallet stays at home.  For the following weeks, the cards go home in a ziploc asking parents to put cards in the wallet and return the ziploc to school. 

     When they are ready, kiddos get the word wallet with a different label.  I used 3x5 cards in the past but found half sized ones from Staples with our supply money and ordered them.  This year we are writing the words on the cards so that the kids have a model of good handwriting to trace over and the cards are more legible than in the past for parents.

    How to use the cards at home:  I tell parents to flash them, look for a word in the book they are reading, leave them around the room and do a word hunt, or even lay them out and swat a specific word with a clean fly swatter. 

     The cards definitely help.  I am now trying to come up with numeral/ sets cards for my low kiddos in math.  I always made the word wallets and just started with the sound wallets this year.  Definitely need to think more mathematically. 

Happy practicing.

Mrs.B



Happy Fall Y'All

I am back.  Things have been hectic here but I will strive to post at least 3 days a week.  Just a quickie to get back into the swing of things.  I found a wonderful door decoration on Pinterest and decided to copy it.

I absolutely love pumpkins and scarecrows.  Next to it will be the fence with the pumpkin glyphs on them.  Shari Sloane is the site for the pumpkin glyph directions.  Click on the left side to find glyphs and then you will find the pumpkin glyph directions when you scroll down.  You can use a pattern (you will need a tall thin pumpkin and a short fat one) or get lucky like me and have access to a large die cut for both.

This is our board with our October family involvement project.  I read the book The Pumpkin Blanket to the students and they had to create a "quilt square" for a class quilt.  They are only told to use whatever materials they want to.  It is amazing how different they always are and from year to year.  I think this is my 15th year or so of doing this project and I still love it.

One of our fun fall activities is to see how many pumpkins tall we are.  The students then use small die cut pumpkins or stickers on a recording sheet then draw themselves next to the pumpkins to show how tall they are.  Great lesson in proportional drawing.  Will figure out how to link files soon so you can have the recording sheet to go with this idea.  We use all sorts of die cuts or premade cut outs to see how tall the kids are. 

Booksie, our class mascot, had a great time at a local pumpkin farm with the class.  We are now using the pumpkin for a long term science observation that links to the book Pumpkin Jack.  After it has been carved, students complete a monthly observation of the current condition of the pumpkin.  It will go outside in a planter when the smell gets bad.  I did remember to leave a few seeds this year so hopefully there will be some sprouts in the spring to continue the cycle.
Happy Fall Y'all.  Mrs. B