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! 

Kahoot!!

Kahoot!! 

I may be a little behind on this but I recently discovered a website that can be used as and replace a poll response system in your classroom. 

Visit getkahoot.com to create your FREE account and then you can create quizzes or surveys for your students (or potentially parents) to do. I'd stick to 8-10 questions because beyond that it can get kind if boring. After you make a Kahoot you will get a code to share with your audience. 

Next they visit Kahoot.it and enter the code. This works for any device that has internet.... iPad, iPhone, android, laptop, anything really. Once people have entered the code you can start by projecting it on your smart board and having them enter their choices. 

It is pretty awesome and hope this helps you in your classroom. You can use it in any grade level really. In kindergarten I would use it for --

Review, word recognition, number recognition, colors, shapes, sight words. 

On Fridays a teacher friend of mine allowed her kids to bring their tablets or devices to school and she used them in her classroom and then let them have free time to use them as a reward if they had good behavior or completed work and the like. Shout out to Courtney Ewing, a fabulous teacher!! Anywho, I will probably do that this year, with my kids. There are so many kids that have tablets and I really want to find ways to incorporate those in my classroom the best I can. The possibilities are endless and I am so excited to try it out this year. 

The game of power!

This week I am at NCCAT for a workshop by the Institute of Play, called TeacherQuest. We played a game that is really awesome to play as an adult and I am positive it can be used in middle and high school classrooms. It might be modified to lower grades but I am finding it easier to incorporate with upper grade standards right now. So enough talking... This is how you play....

Put students into groups. We had a group of six. One person is the ruler and the other five are citizens. Each person gets three blocks-- one red, one yellow and one green. The ruler gets the same but they also get a bank of blue blocks. (We used a basket). The goal of the game is to get the most blue wealth blocks.

Now you flip one card that explains the green block. The green cubes- wealth! one blue wealth block per green block shown is given. Citizens show the green block and five blue wealth blocks are distributed as the ruler sees fit. Play a few rounds with the ruler distributing wealth.


Now, explain the yellow block. Yellow blocks- STRIKE! No wealth is given for yellow blocks but the ruler loses 2 wealth blocks if majority of citizens strike. Some people may still show a green and for those wealth is given.

Now, the citizens have two options- green and yellow. Play some more rounds and the ruler distributes wealth again and citizens may negotiate and strategize ways to get more wealth.

Finally, reveal the red block purpose- rebellion! If the majority rebels a new ruler is chosen and the ruler loses a quarter of their wealth.

This is a great game to teach government, power, economics, socials skills, economics, etc.

Thematic word charts

Writing is something that is really encouraged at my school and I am always trying to find things that can help facilitate that, even in my kindergarten classroom. well over at the Busy Teacher's Cafe I found a list of thematic word charts. They are sorted by month and best of all...they are FREE!!

Click here to visit the page and download your own set!  There are also links there to download pre-writing activities and venn diagrams too!

Calling All Volunteers

Volunteers are hard to come by sometimes but I really don't think it is because parents jus don't want to help. I have never met a parent hat didn't want what was best for their child. And so, here is an easy way to help parents get involved...

I am confident that this document is one of he best hints I have downloaded from Teachers Pay Teachers. I have used it several years to get parents to volunteer in and for my classroom. It is a very simple, one page file that you download. I send it home with my students and the parents send it back letting me know how they would like to help out in our classroom! I know a lot of parents work during the day and can't physically come to the school but are all for helping out. This is a great way for them to do that! Go to Teachers Pay Teachers and search for "Calling All Volunteers." It is a FREEBIE from Sarah Shelton or click here.

No desks this year!

Two fellow teachers have implements a NO DESKS policy in their classroom and I m really excited to try it out this year!

From what I know it is great for the kids, especially those in primary grades (k-2). Benefits include- better handwriting, more participation, independence, and more creativity. I got the idea from Greg Smedley, over at Kindergarten Smorgasboard. He has videos and pictures me and all sorts of tips on how he started it and implemented it in his classroom. So if you're considering it you should definitely go check it out. Even if you're not, just go read his blog because there is a smorgasbord of ideas on his page.

I am still working out some kinks, like how my classroom will actually be laid out or how my students work and supplies will be stored and organized. If there are any other teachers that are doing this or have done it recently any advice or tips would be helpful. I will keep yall updated on how it goes.