First Day...GIVEAWAY!!

I survived my first day with all of my kids!

We do staggered entry during the first few days of school.  The kids get to come to kindergarten is small groups.  We get to assess them, show them around the school, and see how they are without the chaos of an entire class.  I just love it.

Now I have my whole class together and just love it even more!

Today was my first day and so I am going to have a GIVEAWAY!

It is really easy to enter...

Just comment below with a product you would like from my store (excluding bundles).  I will pick a random winner tonight!

Best of luck!

Twas the Night Before the First Day

Twas the night before the first day
and all through the house
not a teacher was calm
nor was any spouse

There were papers to cut
decorations to hang
things to laminate
so the year can start with a bang!

That is all I've got!  Tomorrow is my FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! Woot, woot!

I get butterflies in my stomach each year.  I love the first day.  My kids come in 5 at a time this week - we do staggered entry with kindergarten so we can test and assess the kiddos. The real "first day" with all my students will be next week.  Still - I am very anxious, nervous, excited, exhausted, and ready to be wearing real clothes again!

When was your first day?!

Classroom Chaos!

Tomorrow is my first "official" workday.  I have been in my classroom numerous times this month trying to get things set-up, decorated, and feeling just-right. 

During that process I decided to change the color scheme of my room which meant everything needed to be tweaked in one way or another.  Not the best decision to make with the school year just around the corner.

My room is still a work in progress and will continue to be for a while.....I wanted to share the start of some of the projects that I have been working on.

The first is a reading bench!  I saw so many cool classroom libraries on pinterest and decided that mine needed an update.  I could never find a system to organize my books that worked well with my kinders...but really, I don't think they need them sorted into pretty categories with labels.  They pick what they want and they read it.  My baskets were a mess and my library just wasn't quite right.  So...I ordered a set of 2 tall bookshelves from Walmart that you can turn horizontal. They were fairly cheap and super easy to assemble.  I made little cushions to go on top and then neatly tossed my books into the cubes!  I LOVE IT!

Now my library needs some display walls up and the pillows are still a work in progress (I don't sew....) but it will come together - I have faith!  Here is a little preview!

I am amazed at how many books the shelves hold!  I have 8 cubes all together but one of them overlaps.  I used that to store my carpet squares (access is from the other side) that my kids can use during Read to Self and Read to Partner!

The next simple project occurred when I decided I wanted to change my color scheme.  I had lime green for the past couple years but I also had the basic primary colors.  It was a little too much and to be honest, it really clashed.  I decided to stick to my table colors and Daily 5 rotation colors (red, blue, green, yellow, orange) and to get rid of all my lime green.  I wanted a little pop on my extra large window so I picked up some super fun and colorful ribbon and tied it to a tension rod!  This is going to be in the window behind my "desk" area (I got rid of my teacher desk this year...fingers crossed that I am fine without it!).

That is all for now.  Once I get this room together, I will show you it all!

Have a grrreat day! 

Dollar Deal!

I have an unhealthy obsession with the dollar spot at a certain store.  I can't walk into that store without browsing the dollar section for goodies for the classroom.  It is crazy because I seem to ALWAYS find something that can I need for my classroom.

Well, I found myself at that store AGAIN this week and was so excited to see my favorite product back!  I bought these little guys two summers ago.  I used them in my classroom for the past two years and they are one of my favorite things to use in the classroom!  I had to stock up on some more because we use them CONSTANTLY and when they are not being used by my students, another teacher is borrowing them to use with her students!

You are probably looking at these and thinking what is so great about whiteboards?!  Everyone has whiteboards in their classroom.  They have been around forever.  Well, yes. That is correct, but there is something so great about these little ones.

Things I LOVE about these mini-whiteboards:

•  Kids only have a limited space to write = no crazy drawings and scribbles all over the board
• Primary lines = perfect for practicing letter formation
• Two sided = we don't worry about erasing until the end {does anyone else find the transition from writing to erasing and back to writing to be the biggest headache?!}
• 4 whiteboards for $1 = SUPER FABULOUS DEAL!
• Tiny boards = perfect for tiny hands!

 Ideas for use:

• Name practice - at the beginning of the year, some kinders need the extra practice writing their name!  Here is a great way to practice!
• Letter practice - I say a letter sound and kids write the letter that goes with the sound.  They hold it up and it is a quick way to check to see where the kiddos are
• Letter names - Same as above, just say a letter name and see if kids are capable of writing it
• Sight words - writing the sight words for the week, practicing spelling, etc.
• Sentence formation - I give the kiddos one word and they take that word and turn it into a sentence {ex: I say "pig" and students responses may vary from "Pigs are pink" to "I saw a pink pig rolling in mud at the farm" - it differentiates itself!}
• Math equations - students write and solve equations on the board
• Math equations (again) - I give students an answer and they come up with as many equations as they can that equal that number

[Who has used these in the classroom?  What other ways can you see this tool working in your classroom?]

100th Day Fun!

Here are some quick pictures from our 100th day of school - just a couple of the craftivities that we did!

Our 100th day hat!  Last year we tried 100 stickers and it was a mess!  It took so long for the kiddos to pick and place 100 stickers that most of them ended up with 37 or 64 stickers on their hat.  This year, we went with tally marks!  It was a great way to practice making our groups of 5 and counting to 100 by 5s.  It also was much more time efficient (the 100th day of school seems to go by soooo fast).

100 Gumballs for the 100th day!!  Paint was too messy - so we went with dot markers.  Kiddos were supposed to pick 5 colors and do 20 dots with each color...

Did they do it right?  Probably not...but they practiced counting and they turned out cute anyway :)

Hip Hip Hooray!  We are 100 days smarter!