Week 3 of 2013

Another week down.  It seems this year is going so quickly!  Next week we already having to test for mid-terms that go out the following week.  We have a short week next week with Labor Day Monday and then we are also off on Thursday.  So much to do and so little time.  I also have to finish my Deliberate Practice Goals and turn them in.  I am having a difficult time deciding what goals I want to make for myself this year.  My breaks this year at school are consumed with pumping so it makes me feel like I am behind everyday.  However, it makes me happy that I am still able to feed my child with the BEST thing so that is my motivation to keep it up, even if I feel behind every single day.

Anyways, on to what we did this past week!

Every morning we begin our day with an alphabet song.  We use Read Well as our Reading Series so the song is a part of it.  We have already dove into the deep end with curriculum (we actually did the 2nd week).  The letters with pictures are the ones we have taught.  The Read Well program does a letter a week for the whole group reading.  We also incorporate Spaulding Phonics into our curriculum. 

This week I taught about the 5 Senses.  I always like finding new ways to teach concepts to my kiddos.  It keeps it interesting for me and the students.  I found a wonderful website that had a Lap Book on it. (This and That)  I love the idea of Lap Books and the kiddos always think they are so cool.  Here is the front cover of the book. (most papers for the Lap Book are on the This and That website)  I did change it a little bit, but not a lot.

The inside of the Lap Book.  I used the I Have Five Senses book from the website and the labeled tongue.  Then I found another flip book that I really liked so I added that to the inside of the Lap Book too. (Flip Book)

On the back of the book we completed this sound page.  I bought a 5 Senses Unit from TPT and I really liked this part of it.  The students loved guessing what cup had what in it.

Once we had all that 5 Senses completed the week was over.  I still have a couple spot we could have put something.  I will have to make sure I plan longer than a week for my 5 Senses unit so we can fill the whole Lap Book up.  I told the kiddos that they could add to it at home.  All my kiddos were able to name all their senses.  Wahoo!

Every week we have been adding to our PowerPix.  I just love WBT.  It has made such a difference in my class.  Here are the ones we have learned so far.  We go over these as a whole group and with our partners.

Here is my chart for my phonograms.  These are the ones we have learned so far.  As I told you before we have are diving into the deep end with it only being the 3rd week and already learning so much.  Each week we when we learn new sounds I flip over the cards.  This pocket chart is on my restroom door and is there for the students to use to help them learn the phonograms.

We had another Wolfelicious week!  I hope yours was Wolfelicious too!

Week 1 of 2013

I just completed my first week with students for the 2013 school year.  We started with a big BANG!

We had a busy first week!!  We had curriculum to learn while I was teaching my students my rules and procedures.  

~~Side Note~~
The most valuable tool for new teachers I have learned over my 11 years is make sure you teach your class what you expect from them.  From how you want them to wash their hands to how to want them to sit in their chairs.  Seriously, teach them what your expect for everything.  This helps with your classroom management so much!  Don't just assume they know how to do things.  You will get a better result if you teach them what you expect.
~~End Note~~

We learned the letter A, sight words- red, blue, and yellow, and started our first unit in Math.  We also talked about our families.  Here are some pictures of our first whole week! 

 

The Ultimate  Color Word Packet

We made hats to help us learn our sight words for the week.  We learned the Heidisongs song for red, blue, and yellow and made the color watches from The Ultimate Color Word Packet.

We played Sight Word Hop with our sight words.

Sight Word Hop

Lay sight word cards in a path and have the students jump on them while they say the sight word.

We created an anchor chart for coloring.  I wanted to show the kiddos what I expected them to do when they colored.  I have HIGH expectations and I wanted my kiddos to know exactly what I expected.  A great way to show that is using an anchor chart.

We made a class pendant.

Kickin' Kindergarten Fun- Fun for the First Week of School

We made a quilt piece.  I will save these pieces for the kiddos scrapbooks.

Kickin' Kindergarten Fun- Fun for the First Week of School

I got the pendants and the quilt pieces from this amazing TPT packet.  Kickin' Kindergarten Fun- Fun for the First Week of School.

We also started learning how to complete our centers.  I have decided to have 10 different centers so that only 2 kiddos can be in a group together.  I showed them how I wanted them to complete each center and we practiced this week doing them.  I showed them the picture that matched the center so they would know where to go.  Next week we will continue learning more centers.

Overall, this was a Rockin first week!!  We will continue to learn procedures and add more curriculum next week.  My students are definitely becoming Wolfelicious!

New Classroom Ideas

Oh, what a beautiful morning!!  

Yesterday I was heading to work and I saw this beauty.  I love rainbows!  They are so pretty.  Right after I took this shot, I could then see the full rainbow. 

 I have had two more ideas in my head that I wanted to make for my classroom.   Yesterday I worked on them so I could finally complete styling decorating my classroom.

The first one I worked on was my Sight Word List display.  I have been using an awesome football field that the players students have to get from yard 1 to yard 12 throughout the year.  I painted it on the wall a couple of years ago and I have LOVED it!  I just felt like this year I wanted to do something a little different.  

One thing I didn't like about the field was if a student passed list 1 but had trouble with list 2, the student would stay on list 1.  Sometimes one word would keep that child on a previous list.  For example, a child may pass list 1, 2, 3 and then 5 and 6 but they missed a word on list 4 so I would put their football player on list 3 because they didn't have list 4 complete.  Well, this got to me because the students really did an awesome job learning their sight words.  Their average on all the sight words were 80% and above.  I didn't think the field really showed the true knowledge of the students.  So I came up with this...

 When a student masters a list, I will add their name to the ribbon attached to the list.  This way they could see really how well they are doing and not be stuck if they only missed one.  I think this will be more motivating then the old way.  I know I would want to get my name on each ribbon!

Last weekend we took Liam to get new shoes for the school year.  We had a tax free weekend so we thought it would be the perfect time to do it.  He decided to get the bright orange shoes!!

 I love all the bright shoes out right now.  I am so glad that Liam decided on the orange ones.

Tonight my lil Chalan was so exhausted from school that he fell asleep in the Jumperoo.

 He is so precious!!

Have you seen all the picture frames with the wires on Pinterest??  I have too and I know I had to make one for my class.  I thought I would hang pictures from our classroom on the frame!  I LOVE, Love, love how they turned out!

I have a few more smaller black frames that came with the set so I may make a few more and make it a bigger group.  I think it looks so great against my green walls.

Room Reveal 2013

We officially began school last Thursday, Aug. 1st!!!  Yes, you read that correctly, Aug. 1st and it was on a Thursday.  I have no idea why we start on a Thursday, but we do.  We have teacher work days and in-services days up until Thursday, August 8th, which will be the kiddos first day.  Today (Saturday) we had Open House from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  I have been working in my classroom the last few weeks to get it prepared.  I have the same theme as last year (Black and white zebra with blue and red highlights) but I decided to make it more Wolfelicious than it was.

 Click HERE to see my classroom last year or here to see a close up pictures of the different areas in my classroom from last year (2012).

Here is the before pictures of my classroom.  Since I am in the same classroom as last year I didn't have to take a lot of things off of the walls.

View after walking in the door.

View from the door but looking diagonal.

View from the door looking all the way to the left.

Now, onto the fun part!!!  I know I love checking out other rooms.  I always love to get new ideas.

For Open House I put some information my kiddos will need at their desks.  When they come in for Open House they leave their supplies at their spot and parents fill out the forms.  This year I laid out puzzles on the floor that the kiddos could play while their parents were writing away.  

The forms are: (Forms on the left) Student Info Sheet, Transportation sheet, a clip for my Dismissal Stars.  (Forms on the right) Welcome letter telling the parents what to do, Important Information, Student Handbook, Behavior Expectations, and School Information.  

I usually have the student's Take Home Folder ready at Open House with even more information in it but this year I decided to do it a little different and have the Take Home Folders ready for the first day of school.

Here is what it all looked like at the child's spot.

After the student's parents filled out the paperwork they clipped their clothespin to the Dismissal Star of how they were going home.  I thought the Dismissal Stars would be an easy reference to see how each child is going home and easy to change for those that change how they go home.

The next picture is the view of my classroom as soon as you walk right into the class.

View from the door but looking diagonal.

View from the door looking all the way to the left.

I ended up switching where I had a few things from last year.  I really like how it looks this year.  It seems alot more open.

Here is my bulletin board.  I made it my calendar and my Super Improvers Wall.

My other bulletin board in my classroom I made an iPhone.  A friend of mine (Rachel) came up with the idea and made the apps.  I added the word family to the apps and drew the iPhone.  The name of the bulletin board is iFamily.  Get it??  iFamily!!  Each app is a word family!  Throughout the year when we are working on the word family, I will write words that fit the family.  I LOVE how this turned out!!!  Thanks so much Rachel for the Wolfelicious idea!!! 

Last, I have my table set up for Open House.  The apples on the right came from HERE.  The apples are my wish list items.  The three papers on the table are my sign-in sheet (families get volunteer hours for coming), email sheet, and a party sign up.  I give a choice as to which party the families would like.  If I have parents that forgot to sign up for a party, I go ahead and add them to a party that needs more people.  The baskets are for paperwork and fees.  The other baskets have water bottles that say Welcome to Kindergarten. 

Thanks for checking out my classroom.  I still have a couple more things I want to do to it.  When I add them I will post them too.  I hope you like it!!!  I know that I do!!