Bring on the Kinders! Day 2 2013

With day 1 accounted for I was ready for day 2!  Here's some basic information/ ideas from Ms C's attempt on day 2, which was also approached armed with the name tags, a pile of books and invisible bag of teacher tricks.

Day 2

Schedule "routine" items for day 2:
Playground rules, quiet sign, attention getter ("bump-ba-da-bump-bump" is the only one I use), clean up bell, fire drill, morning meeting, and jobs.  I also had to re-teach how to use the sink and the process for washing hands before snack.  Day 3 may include another round of this- I really want to get the sink routine under control before I spend the entire year cleaning up puddles and running out of paper towels.


Activites for day 2:
After reading Wemberly Worried we talked about things we worry about in Kindergarten.  Students drew a picture of his/her Kindergarten worry, again with the option to write words if they were ready.  Here's a link if you're interested: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By1GkRIpToipY0EtNG5mclFySk0/edit?usp=sharing

The second must-do for Day 2 was the start of a project using the Kissing Hand.  This project will take a few days.  Before working on this project students explored scissors.  We talked about how to safely use scissors and then students were asked to cut a piece of paper into strips.  This is a great way to quickly tell who has used scissors before and who will need hand-over-hand support for a while.  The first part of the Kissing Hand project was to cut out a tracing of his/her hand (I did the tracing).

One other teacher must-do is to take the class outside for photos on the playground.  I love the colors of the playground!  Make sure that you take your class outside when no other class is using the playground.  I have my class sit in the shade so that each picture is of only the child and some of the playground.  I do this again at the end of the year (for the slide show).  The beginning of the year photos are used in the Art Gallery, hanging next to each child's self portrait spot all year. 

Books for day 2: 

Day 2 "things to send home": 
The only items I sent home at the end of Day 2 were from the school.   


Good luck everyone!

 

Bring on the Kinders! First Day 2013

Ok- #1 Blogger slacker here.  I have lots of Kinder D5 items to post at some point.  For now, I want to share some first day items.

Day 1

Armed with name tags, a pile of first day of Kindergarten books, and of course my teacher "bag of tricks" (the invisible one), I started off my year with 17 new friends (#18 hasn't arrived yet).

Schedule "routine" items for day 1:
Supply sorting, cubby routines (lunchbox on top, backpack on the hook), bathroom "how to," School Listening Look, School Walking Style, cafeteria rules, school tour, classroom tour, preview of Choice Time (teacher selected choice), quiet time with books, and lots of extra time for dismissal!  I saved a few items for day 2: Playground rules, quiet sign, attention getter ("bump-ba-da-bump-bump" is the only one I use), clean up bell, fire drill, morning meeting, and jobs.

Activites for day 1:
Every year I create a book of self portraits that each student draws, monthly.  The first entry in each book is a drawing from the first day of Kindergarten (the last page is for the last day of Kindergarten).  Before students complete this activity we explore the crayons.  We look at the crayons and talk about what we do and don't do with them.  There is a space on the portrait page for writing- this is not an expectation but I want to provide an opportunity for students who are ready to write or at least ready to try.  My first day portrait paper: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By1GkRIpToipQ2lsZnBQUlJBWXM/edit?usp=sharing

Books for day 1:

Day 1 "things to send home":
I send home a first day letter to the parents letting them know of some classroom policies and procedures that I need to share prior to Back to School Night (in late September).  Mainly, I let them know about my birthday policy.  I ask that families do not send in gift bags and that if they would like to send something in they can send in something for classroom, preferably a book.   As far as "celebrating" birthdays, I ask that parents send in a special book (they are also welcome to come in and read the book).  Attached to the letter is a copy of the supply list/ wish list, a dismissal log, and an allergy alert (from the nurse).  I also send home a small home project, a "me bag."  Each student is asked to bring in 3-4 small items in the bag to share the following week.  Lastly, a small postcard from me, saying some of the things we did on our first day.

I had a great, exhausting day with my new batch of Kinders and I hope everyone else did, too!


Happy School Year!

Donor's Choose Walkthrough

This school year has been a new adventure in my career.  New school, new grade, new programs- eek!  I went on a massive supply hunt over the summer to get myself and my classroom ready.  I explored Craigslist, Savers and other thrift stores, Freecycle (if you don't know what that is get on Google now!), and a few donation sites (Adopt-A-Classroom and Donors Choose). 

I put a project up on Donors Choose to help get leveled readers for Daily 5.  Here's what I learned from the experience:

You start of with a certain number of points.  Projects cost different amounts depending on the type of project you are submitting (supplies, author visit, trip).  If you are putting up a supply project, the point cost depends on where you are getting the supplies, more points for using a vendor not in the "mall." 

Once submitted, Donor's Choose will approve (or not) your project.  It will not post instantly.

If this is your first project you will get a special code for friends and family to get donations doubled up to $50.  Unfortunately, you can not donate to your own project.    The code is only good for about a week so post it everywhere!

It is important that you quickly post on your project wall thanking each donor.  This is used to determine how many points you earn toward your next project.

Any donations over $50 will require a personal thank you card from your class.

When your project is funded Donor's Choose will send the items to your school.  These items technically belong to your school now.  There is a notice on the DC website explaining this policy.

You will be required to upload 6 photos of your students using the materials.  There is a release form on the DC website.  My recommendation is to get these release forms out to parents while you are still waiting for funding. The form says something about the teacher either having a funded project or working on a project, so it shouldn't confuse the parents if you start early (although, we all know that this will happen anyway). 

Using Donor's Choose was fairly easy to do.  I was able to get a few sets of books for my Just Right Daily 5 baskets.  The part that I didn't like was how much DC added on for their costs.  However, considering that there were a few donations from strangers it balanced out.

Here's the link to my project (it was funded in about a week!):
http://www.donorschoose.org/project/building-a-classroom-library-to-build-a/874092/

Good luck!

Seuss here, Seuss there. Seuss EVERYWHERE!

This week, one of the things my class of Kinders learned was that, Ms. C loves Seuss books!  We did not stop our Seuss fun with Read Across America Day.  Rather, that was part of our kick off.  Here is a little of how we celebrated Seuss.  (Still working on remembering to take more photos, you may have to use a little imagination.)

My favorite Seuss book of all is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day.  This book was written by Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith.  I emphasize to every class I read this to, that Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith helped write this book by using Dr. Seuss's notes and thinking like Dr. Seuss.  Doing this sets the stage to have your students work like Dr. Seuss as Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith did. 

My students illustrated a teacher that they think could teach at Diffendoofer School.  Lane Smith and Jack Prelutsky had to create additional teachers (who teach silly things like smelling and laughing) to fill in Dr. Seuss's notes.  After students illustrated his/her teacher, they named the teacher and what that teacher teaches.  Of course, in true Seuss style, the subjects and teacher names rhymed!

How do you celebrate Seuss without a little science experiment?  Seuss and science?  It's true- it's not the first connection people usually make.  Until you remember about a little boy named Bartholomew Cubbins from the Kingdom of Didd, where Oobleck rained from the sky.  First, I showed my class the process of how to use water and an eye dropper to slowly add water to the cornstarch.  We determined that a small plastic spoon (from the cafeteria) full of cornstarch took 5 eye droppers full of water to make Oobleck.  Students each mixed a cup of Oobleck and were given time to play with the substance.  I really wish I had photos of what the tables (and let's be honest, the floor) looked like afterward!  Since the Oobleck in this story resembles more of a green silly putty we made silly putty later in the week.  Students used the ball of silly putty to make letters during Word Work (Seuss inspired Daily 5).

We used There's a Wocket in my Pocket for non-sense rhyming.  The first part of this project was to create a creature who rhymed with 'pocket.'  Students were given a half sheet of paper for this.  After coloring the creature students cut out the creatures.  They were given the direction that it was OK to cut around small parts (we have been working a lot to cut right on the lines).  Completed creatures were traded for a pocket on which they completed the sentence: "There's a __________ in _____________'s pocket."  Student glued pockets on three sides, leaving the top open.  Students then decorated the paper where the pocket was attached.  Later, I taped string to the back of the creature and then inside the pocket.  The  projects were displayed with the creatures peeking out of the pockets.  

As for The Cat in the Hat, we took on two projects.  First, we made hats by using cut outs of the cat's hat and attaching it to a band of red construction paper.  Students used a red crayon to create a red and white AB pattern on the hats.  Simple and Kinder-cute!

Our second project was for math.  Students were provided with a blank hat cutout (which they cut out), two different colors of paper (which they selected), and a form for writing an addition equation.  Students cut strips from the two colors of paper and arranged an AB pattern on the hat.  Students then counted the number for each color and put the number in each of the boxes, writing the total in the last box.  To help associate the numbers with their work, students outlined the boxes in the coordinating color. 

We also used our buddy time last week to read Seuss books.  Our big buddies were great sports tackling all those rhymes!

We did so much Seuss that I may have missed an activity or two!  I hope some of these ideas are useful for someone.  

 

Happy Seuss'ing!

DIY Truffula Trees! (Dr. Seuss's The Lorax)

Appropriately enough, my last post was about New Year's resolutions of which I am realizing I never actually made (for myself).  Here's my Spring time resolution: remember to take photos and post more often. Here's the first step to accomplishing that goal!

I recently helped host a Dr Seuss themed party.  As center pieces for the party I had this idea to make Truffula trees and place them in bottle 'vases.'  Personally, I think it turned out pretty cute.  Here's what I did (sort of step by step... that whole taking photos as I go thing is a work in progress).

Ok, so I will be honest about the fluffy top material- it's about $5 for 6 feet. When you are doing just a few and you want multiple colors you're going to end up with some left overs.  If you are a cost-aware teacher (I love my bargins) you might want to make a whole bunch of trees, or at least go to the store with one of those 40% off coupons AC Moore and Michael's always has out.



Materials:

• Dowels (I used 1/2" thick, 3ft dowels)
• White paint (small bottle of 'craft' paint)
• 1 inch foam brush
• Glue gun and glue sticks 
• Something to cut your dowels (I used a little saw and cutting box made for dowels)
• Marabou Boa medium weight 
• Black marker (Sad to say, my trusty Sharpies failed on this one.  Mr. Sketch worked perfectly though!)
• Some sort of working surface you can dispose of (I used a large poster board), the feathers will get messy!

Step 1: Cut the dowels to 18".
Step 2: Paint the dowels with two coats of white paint.  The stems need to be bright white.
Step 3: (When the paint is dry) Use a black marker and make zig-zag esk rings randomly around the stem.
Step 4: Cut the Marabou boa into 8 inch sections.  Glue one end of the piece to the top of the stem.  Twist and wrap the piece around the stem and attach with dots of hot glue to make it stick but remain 'fluffy.'

 Step 5: Repeat with other colors until you're work space looks a little like Big Bird and friends may have exploded and you have something like this:

I used my Truffula trees for a party so they were added to these vases and Seuss-esk ribbon was added around. To finish off the tables, Seuss books were added next to each vase.  My trees are currently sitting in a tall, shiny metal 'vase' (bucket) in my classroom, appropriately being 'recycled.'

And just think, this is pretty close to planting that last Truffula seed!

I am Ms. C and I speak for the crafters of these trees! (Hopefully you're picking up on the Lorax spin-off quote).

New Year's Resolutions

It took 2 days and some small group work but by the end of the day today I was holding 17 completed New Year's resolution goal setting organizers.  Tomorrow, the plan is to send home this sheet as home work.  The idea is that the parents will talk to their children about why they chose the resolution that they chose and help their child think of ways to reach that goal.  Crossing my fingers that at least half of these resolutions come back on the due date assigned.

The only thing different about this PDF and what I am handing out is that I am handwriting on "My resolution is" onto the top line to help the parents see how to use the lines.

PDF link: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0By1GkRIpToipN0dPQjJUOTI3czQ

I hope this is useful for someone! 

Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolutions, Kinder-style!

Happy New Year!  Today my Kinders worked on the first part of a project to create New Year's resolutions.  I really wanted to do this as my January home project but I was concerned about there being too many variables to this project for homework.  I am still pretty set on wanting the writing of each resolution to be a home project so I took the process apart. 

First, I read Squirrel's New Year's Resolution.  Squirrel has a hard time making a New Year's resolution but helps her friends throughout the day.  The focus of the book was that a New Year's Resolution is something that makes you a better person or helps you help other people.

I found an idea on http://littlemissglamourgoestokindergarten.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/new-years-resolutions.html to have each student break down what they can do, almost can do and want to do before creating a resolution.  I felt that my Kinders needed a little more space to work with.  I also added an area for an illustration and removed the resolution writing piece.  With these elements in mind I created this paper (for the best effect you'll need to print on 8.5" x 14" paper.) https://docs.google.com/open?id=0By1GkRIpToipT1AyTHBQajI4dmM

Once I create the form for the New Year's Resolution writing I'll upload those as well. 

Here's to a new year full of special moments with special little people!