It's Been a While

Hello all!

I cannot believe how crazy this year has gotten.  October is always a crazy month in our household, but it seems like November didn't slow down at all.  Anywho, I have FINALLY finished my Christmas Literacy Centers.  With all of my center bundles, they are differentiated three different levels.  I like my centers to be something that the kids can do independently, correctly, and in the time frame that I run other groups in (about 15 minutes or so).  Also, the digital paper that the

The Write the Room can be done with 2-3 syllables, 2,3,4 syllables, or fill in the word in the sentence.

The Ispy, where you color the matches by beginning sound, ending sound, or medial sound.

Santa Sorting File Folder Activity-Sorting Syllables or putting words in the correct sentence.

Gingerbread First Sounds, First and ending sounds, and CVC words.

Hang up the stockings-word matching, one letter missing, and creating sight words.

Pocket Chart-Put the Christmas Lights in Order with some put together, with capital letters, and with mixed letters.  There is also a recording sheet for students to write their letters on. 

And for some reason, when I was at school today, I had a total mental block to take a picture of the reindeer word family sort and sentence scramble.  There is also a sensory scramble.  Put all of the pieces in a sensory bin.....

and students put together either word puzzles, onset rhyme puzzles, or CVC puzzles.

E-L-F bingo-phoneme segmentation Bingo!

and Super Fun Find the Rhyme!

Also Included is Independent Work for each skill at different levels.

You can purchase this in my TPT store here.  You can also check out other literacy and math bundles.  Hopefully your December has been as great as mine.  Only three weeks left until break!  So excited!

Apples Galore

We had an awesome second week of apples!  The kids looooovvvvveeeeedddd making apple pie!  Here is what our yummy snack looked like-

It was super yummy!  We had fresh apples, apple cider, apple pie, and apple sauce.  I love fall!

On Thursday, I had the kids help make the apple pie filling and topping.  They did an awesome job!

The kids helped cut up the apples using plastic knives.  

We mixed all of the yumminess together.  

This was the finished pre-baked product.  I took the pies home and baked them.  On Friday, I had a wonderful parent volunteer that cut up the apples to make apple sauce. 

Then we graphed our favorite apple.  The choices from left to right are apple pie, apple cider, apple sauce, or raw apple.  

We used my All About Apples bundle to go with this.  

This comes with a Johnny Appleseed story, Apple Life Cycle activity, Apple Browning observations (which we did last week), Apple labeling activities, Class graphing activities, Who stole the Apple from the Apple Tree? Class book, 4 part sequencing page, 6 part sequencing page, and Apple Vocabulary Cards.  Here is a picture of our class graph-

It was an awesome week!  How do you like your apples?

Differentiated Center Set-Up

I am so happy to finally be at the point in the year where we are starting to get the routine down.  The kids are really starting to get into the groove of things.  I did introduce my centers to my kiddos two weeks ago, but they have been pretty simple.  This is the first week we have differentiated them.

I do love how this system runs.  I feel like it is the best way meet the needs of my kiddos.  My centers are differentiated more for my Math Groups, because we ability group for Reading.  I will do some, but it is not as needed as in Math.  Each student does a different center activity every day.  This way, each student at a center is engaged, but not around others, as to alleviate some behavior issues.

Here is a look at how I set up centers.  These are the bins that hold all of the center items.  I have 6 different centers in my room.  Centers 1 and 4 are iPads, so they are not in a bin.

This is a pocket chart that tell students what center they are at for the day.  I run three groups for Reading and Math.  One group with me, one group at centers, and one group at independent work or with a parent volunteer or assistant.  My centers are 1-iPad, 2-Write the Room or I Spy, 3- File Folder Game, 4- iPad, 5-Manipulative-based, and 6-pocket chart.  I have had 7 centers if I need to, but I usually just add another manipulative based center.  This year, we were able to add another Kinder teacher, so we have smaller classes.  It has been WONDERFUL!  Anywho, moving on.....

This is posted above the pocket chart.  This is a good way for students to remember what group they are in if they don't remember.  

Ok, now this is where the the differentiation comes in.  Each bin has 3 manilla folders in it.  Each group has a different activity based on what they are able to practice correctly and independently.  This works really well.  The kids are great about putting their items back in their folder.  Again, it takes about a week of just teaching centers to make it go smoothly.  But after the routines are set up, it is wonderful.  This works great with my Differentiated Apple Math and Differentiated Apple Literacy Centers.

Here are some of the examples of what might be in the different folders.  This is a file folder game.  Group 1 is matching quantities to numbers up to five, Group 2 is making 5 with red and green apples, and Group 3 is making ten with apples.  File Folder Games are center #3. 

This is the I Spy.  Students go thru and circle numbers either up to 5, 10, or 20 depending on their group.  

Here is a picture of one of my reading students doing this.  

Here are some of my manipulative activities that I have as well.  

There is a lot of information here.  Check out my Differentiated Apple Math and Differentiated Apple Literacy Centers, or look at my Mini Bundle.  I have one for each month.  Just print and go!

We have officially been in school for 17 days, and now that centers are rockin, we are ready to take off!  How is your year going?

The First 2 Weeks

Ok, today during math groups it finally felt like we are getting into the grove of things.  As I have stated before, I dislike the first days of school.  However, I love the fact that the routines come fairly easy and the kiddos learn it so quickly!

We have worked very hard on our color books.  We got them sent home on Friday.  It is a great way to introduce many different skills and color recognition within the first days of Kinder.  You can download My Book of Colors here.  Go ahead, it's free!

Here is what the color copy looks like.  I print this off to use as a book during our choice reading.  It's awesome to see the kids go back and read it.

This takes a while.  However, the kids really do like it and it is a great way to solidify those color skills.

Another beginning of the year must is Pete the Cat.  I LOVE Pete the Cat.  The yellow papers show a craft where the students had to assemble Pete, put shoes on him, and cut apart the sentence strip to show what shoes they love.  The original idea is posted here.

Mat Man is another beginning of the year staple in Kinder.  We make journals with our drawings of all of our friends.  With Mat Man, we watch this video that goes over the different parts of the body.  This is a great way to show how to build a person.  Then, I broke the kids into small groups to build Mat Man as we listened to the song.  

They did so awesome!  This week we are gearing up for our apple unit.  Stay tuned for more fun!

The first day

Oh my goodness.  I am soooo tired!  To be completely honest, I don't really enjoy the first couple of days.  I LOVE it after we get routines in order, and the classroom starts to flow.  And even though setting up those routines is a SUPER IMPORTANT part of how the year goes, I am not fan.  Today we did some super simple activities.  We took a tour of the cafeteria to talk about lunch room procedures.  We also did some fun name activities.

We worked on using the dobbers.  I like to set up these procedures now.  It makes for things to do faster in the weeks to come.

In this picture, we put stickers on our names.  This was a great way to see where some of the kiddos fine motor skills were at.  

I know we accomplished other things, but the first day is SO exhausting.  How was your first day?

Back to School Night

Back to School night at our school is always a couple days before Kindergarten starts.  The kiddos (and parents) can come in, we have a brief slide show to go over some of our building specifics, and I always have my kiddos do a scavenger hunt.  Here is a preview of different things I set up for back to school night.

This is my door that I'll keep up all year.  I might add some student work to it, but for the most part, this door will remain the same all year.  

Look at this awesome monkey a co-worker of mine asked her husband to draw!  Isn't it fabulous?!?!?!  I'll add the kids' names to the door.  This is a door I'll change out, but not a lot.  I'm not a good door decorator.  You'll find that out as the year goes on. 

For the parents that brought their supplies for back to school night, I have them put their shared supplies in the these tubs.  Other supplies will go in their pencil boxes and stay in their cubby.  

The stack of papers on the left are for my texture alphabet.  I ask that all the kiddos take one and bring it back later.  I'll hang it up above our curriculum alphabet.  The papers on the right are a scavenger hunt for the room, it has different things like finding their cubby and the bathroom.  

Because back to school night can be so crazy, I also send the parents home with a packet that covers most of our classroom items, such has dismissal procedures, parent volunteering information, and contact information.

I also send home a classroom schedule.  

This is something I'm very excited about this year.  This year I'm trying the remind app.  I've heard really good things about it.  I'm always looking for ways to make communication easier for parents and myself.  

I also send home a scholastic book order.  I send one home a month with a cover letter stating the due date and ways to pay online.  I really like how scholastic has revamped their website.  Super fun!

This is a little card that I also give out at back to school night.  In my district, each classroom has a direct line.  I have the parents take these home and put them on their fridge or another safe place.  Again, the more communication, the better. 

How was your back to school night?