Best Books for the First Week of School

I love the first few weeks of school.  The students always seem so well behaved, eager to learn, and are soaking in everything!  My favorite thing to do during the first week of school is to read LOTS of books.  These are a few books that I consider must-reads for the first week of school!

(affiliate links included)

• The Kissing Hand - Follow-up Activity: Create a chart with all the students feelings about coming to school 

• No, David! - Follow-up Activity:  Sort different behaviors into either a No, David or Yes, David column (ex: throwing a ball inside vs. throwing trash away)

• David Goes to School Follow-up Activity:  Create class rules!

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom  Follow-up Activity: Create a large display in your classroom with a coconut tree - have students add their names to it.  Have students create individual trees where they stamp their names onto the tree.

• How Full is Your Bucket?  Follow-up Activity:  Go around the circle and have each person compliment a friend.

• First Day Jitters  Follow-up Activity:  Make Jitter Juice!  Mix green punch with some sprite & serve to your students!

• The Rainbow Fish - Follow-up Activity:  Create a chart showing ways to be kind to one another, create an act of kindness jar & place pebbles in the jar for each act of kindness you see - reward the class when they fill the jar up!

• The Book with No Pictures - Follow-up Activity:  Make a slime -call it Blork or Bluurf - have your students play with it before filling out a chart talking about how blork/bluurf  smells, feels, looks, and sounds.

• My Mouth is a Volcano - Follow-up Activity:  Practice different noise levels for your classroom - practice whisper voices, silent voices, partner voices, group voices, etc.

• Kindergarten Rocks - Paint actual rocks - place them in areas around the outside of your school to brighten peoples day!

• How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?  Follow-up Activity:  Go on a dinosaur walk and show students the dismissal areas and procedures.

• How Will I Get to School This Year?  Follow-up Activity:  Create a graph of how students will go home this year.

• Chrysanthemum - Follow-up Activity:  Have students count how many letters are in their name - create a class graph!

• Kindergarten, Here I Come - Follow-up Activity:  Have students write or draw what they are most excited about!

• The Night Before Kindergarten - Follow-up Activity:  Have a former student come in and answer any questions your students may have about kindergarten!

What are your go-to books for the first weeks of school?

Ideas for Flipgrid in a Kindergarten Classroom

I love summertime.  It gives me time to relax and learn about new tools for the classroom.  This summer I learned about Flipgrid.  Flipgrid is this really awesome platform where you create video grids around a question or a topic.  It then can be shared with your students, colleagues, PLN, etc.  Those people upload video responses.  You can then respond to responses and so on.  It is GREAT!

So, with all these new tools and platforms, I always want to know how it would work with my kinders.  I know that my kids are capable of doing anything they put their mind to, however, there are some technology tools out there that really are not very kinder friendly.  This one, Flipgrid, is!

Here are some ways to use Flipgrid in your Kindergarten or elementary classroom!

• Book Reviews - Students upload a review of a book they read (you can even create a separate topic for each genre if you would like: non-fiction, poetry, fantasy, etc....that would be good for upper grades!)
• Weather Reports - One of our big science standards is to understand weather and how it changes over time.  My kids will submit reports on the weather.  I hope to collaborate with classrooms across the country or globe to have them submit weather reports as well.  My kids could really see how weather is different all over the world!
• Culture Reports - One of our big social studies standards if to understand how cultures are the same and how they are different.  I hope to have people from my PLN and classrooms around the globe add videos to a Culture Grid.  Topics will include food, clothes, traditions, etc.  We can then look through videos and learn about many cultures!
• Genius Hour Pitches - Use this as a place for your kids to pitch their ideas for genius hour
• PBL - Use Flipgrid as a place for students to reflect on PBL
• Math Word Problems - I am going to let me my kids be the teachers!  They will submit a response where they state a word problem they create.  Students can then access the grid and solve their classmates word problems.
• Writing Process - Create a grid with a topic for each part of the writing process - have students check in after each step!
• Individual Portfolios - Create a topic for each individual student.  Let that serve as a digital portfolio for that student.  They can share any work on their individual Flipgrid topic that they would like - writing samples, word problems, counting, book responses, etc.

How are you going to use Flipgrid in your classroom?

End of Year Dress

Don't you love Pinterest?  I remember seeing a teacher who let her students design her dress and I knew I had to do that for my End of Year Celebration.

I bought this plain white dress on Amazon (last minute decision, needed quick shipping!!), and it was perfect!  I was nervous about a white dress being too light, but this was great.  It also was cheap enough that if I couldn't get the markers to work with my kiddos, oh well! (affiliate link)

So, I brought the dress to school and wrapped it around a cardboard box so that the fabric was not doubled up anywhere.  I pulled out plain old sharpies, of course the rainbox pack, and called the kids over.  My directions were "draw"!  That is it.  Use color, make it as big as you would like, draw me a picture that I will love!  I rotated the dress until all the white space was filled.

 

 I let it dry overnight (not even 24 hours) and rocked it the next day at our end of year celebration.  It was a hit!

I have already bought a few dresses for the years to come!  I can't wait for this to become an end of year tradition for me.  I hope I can hold on to the dresses & wear them when my kiddos graduate from 5th grade!

The 3 Big "To Do's" before heading Back to School

Ahh, summer vacation!  It is supposed to be relaxing and refreshing for teachers, right?!

I have a hard time turning my teacher brain off - I think it will always be on, summer, fall, winter, and spring.  It is just who I am.  Summer is a time for me to check some things off my list that stay there all year long.  These are the 3 things that I think should be at the top of every teachers summer to do list!

Toss It.  Wash It.  Update It.

1. Less is more - toss it!

 I recently went into a storage closet at my school that was filled with stuff from teachers over time.  I have not been able to utilize the closet as a teacher at this school for 3 years because it was that packed with items from teachers who don't even teach at the school anymore!  I think we all have a weak spot as a teacher when it comes to tossing things out - "I can use those empty tin cans for something!"  "Don't get rid of broken crayons or pencils that are snapped in half, you can use them for something!"  The truth is, most of that stuff sits around, and accumulates, and just wastes space.  Less is more - toss it!  Go through your items: closets, shelves, storage bins, filling cabinets - if you haven't touched it in the past 2 years, TOSS IT!   If you have used it in the past two years or know something you will use it for this year, keep it.  Trust me, it feels good to get rid of stuff.



2.  Germs be gone - wash it!
Yuck - I know the items in my classroom have been loved and used all year long!  All that loving, leaves lots of germs.  I wipe things down and clean things off all year, but there is something to be said for a good cleaning.  Take your bins, baskets, scissors, legos, toys, buckets, etc. and put them through the dishwasher and get those items clean.  Clear off your shelves (see if there is anything to toss *step 1), and WIPE THEM DOWN.  Get your room and items clean.  It will feel great!


3.  Refresh the look - update it!
Check your website, social media, blog, e-mail, class page, etc.  Make sure your content is up to date, clear out info that is no longer relevant.  Add more recent photos.  Look at your files, what is no longer relevant for these kiddos, update it, find something that will work better.  Take the time to make those small changes and you will be all set for the new year!

What is your must do before heading back to school?

if it INSPIRES one student...

My "non-teacher friends" are always commenting on some of my elaborate outfits that I have worn to school or my collection of onesie pajamas that continues to grow.  They say "teachers do the craziest things".  I like to think there is some sort of method to my madness.

I figure, as long as whatever I do helps one student, then I am going to continue doing those things that "non-teacher friends" (love them!) will never understand.

Each time I come to school in a bit of an odd outfit, the kids are always intrigued.  Why are you wearing that?  Who are you?  Why do you look different?  They are curious and seeking knowledge.  As a teacher, you have a lot of power.  You can simply answer the question and let the child move on OR you can reply in a way that is going to make the child wonder, explore, and want to know more.  I prefer the latter.

You see, I've worn multiple onesies to school this year.  Yes, the kind that you have with the footies when you are a kid.  I have been a shark, The Cat in the Hat, Thing 1, Ms. Frizzle, and the list could go on.  Is it fun for the kids? Of course, they are kindergarten students and they do LOVE that kind of stuff.  Is it crazy?  Maybe, depends on who you ask.  Are they learning from it, YES!  And here is the proof:

Ms. Frizzle was a new outfit for me this year.  I had some funny looks, but as the kids started piecing it all together, they couldn't stop asking questions.

I remember talking to one boy who seemed to be the most curious.  "Why are you Ms. Frizzle?  Do we get to go on a field trip?  Is the lizard going to move?  Where did you get the dress?...." and the questions went on and on and on.  I simply responded to my friend, "I wanted to be this character (ahhh, see his brain turning and making connections) out of all the characters I know. What if you could be any character you want!  Would you be one that you know or would you create a new one?  My little friend said "oooooooooooohhhhh......".  And walked away.

Fast forward many weeks to writing one day.  This little friend had some wonderful writing about the ocean.  A boy explored the dark ocean and saw lots of ocean animals.  He was so excited to share his story.  He read it to me and it was fabulous.  He pointed to his picture and said, "but ya know Ms. Cones, ya know who this is?!?!?!"  I made my best guess, "you?".  "Nope!! That is Scuba Joe!  He is my character.  You said we can be any character.  Scuba Joe is my character!" and his eyes lit up as he continued to tell me all about this character he created.

So might teachers be a little crazy?  It depends on who you ask.  But as long as it inspires one student, I am happy with being crazy.

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