GoNoodle rules!

I follow @kickinitinkindergarten on Instagram and she recently posted this poster of rules for GoNoodle! 

I never thought to do something like this for GoNoodle but these are great guidelines for your kids. I didn't have as many kids yelling "do it again do it again!" At the end and very few children were bumping into anybody else (I think two out of 15, maybe). I typed these and posted them on the SMARTBoard. 

COLOR BOOK!!!

I am really excited to do COLOR DAYS in about two weeks. Each day we will learn about a different color. We will make a book about the color of the day, wear that color to school, and make a collage of things that are the color of the day. I might try and get a schedule of the snacks we have from school cafeteria so we can work those in too!

I just downloaded the cutest book from Teacher Laura on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is called "I Can Read COLORS!"  It has all of your colors and an object that is the color you write about.

For example, the "red page" says "The apple is red" and the "yellow page" says "The sun is yellow." It s really simple for them to read with picture clues and repitition. The kids will trace over the color word then color the pictures. I think I will use it to introduce colors to my kiddos and then when we do our color days I will create a new book for each color. (Come back in a few days to take a look at those with tracing, drawing, coloring, etc.)

If you would like a copy of this super cute book, it is FREE on her page. Click here!

Homework Folders left and right!

I got poly folders for my kids' "homework folders" yesterday and have stuffed them with all the back to school goodies they need to send home after their first day. We stagger the first week so these will be sent home during that week. Parents will get to look through them and fill out stuff before we officially start things full swing the following week!

Left and right can be hard for kindergarteners so I am putting hand prints in the folders that say "LEFT at home" and "RIGHT back to school."  It's kinda cheezy but it works.

If you would like your own copy of these cute handprints leave a comment below! 

New fancy printed duct tape!

Oh my goodness, y'all Scotch has a Smorgasboard of fancy duct tape prints including GLITTER at Office Depot. They are on sale for $2-$5 with a discount. Plus teachers save even more. I am super excited about having dry-erase duct tape and this print called "word up" that I got yesterday!

Right now, I have noclue what to use these for... So if you have ideas, please share!

Name Practice for Kindergarteners

One of the first things I do with my kindergartener's is help them recognize, write and spell their names. Some of my kids come into kindergarten knowing how to do this very well, whereas some may come to me and cannot even recognize their name when it is written down.

For the first two weeks I will use their names in the place of sight words in their word work center. Whatever they would normally do with their sight words, they will practice with their names. This is a good way for my kids to learn how that particular center works and what to do with a low amount of stress in learning the words. So later when we are practicing words there, they can focus on the word more than logistics of that center.

One of the first things I did was put all of their names on a small sentence strip. I got a pack of 30 at the Dollar Tree and they are perfect for this. I then cut the names apart. Make sure you put enough space in between the letters for cutting. Then I put them into a sandwich bag. I stuck a label on the front with their name so we can see what the finished product would look like/spell. This is really easy to do and simple. I made 14 last night in about 45 minutes.

The next thing I did with my kids' names was dot them out on the sentence strip. Again, I used the small ones from Dollar Tree. I dotted their names and then next week when they return with their photgraph/internet agreement I will take their pictures and attach them to the ends. I will laminate them and cut them out. They will use a dry erase marker to practice tracing their names. 

Finally, I have a box of beads with letters on them that I will let them use to practice making their name with. They will string the beads and this also helps develop their fine motor skills as they thread the bead. I got this image from Google, but these are the kind of beads I will use. You can get them at Wal-mart, KMart, or Hobby Lobby.

The first week we staggered in our Kundera and they got a chance to play with and make their names with the name bags I made (above). Here are some pictures of the name bags in action!