Back to School 2015

Hello again!  So I have taken the biggest hiatus from blogging one could imagine.  Last years bunch was a lot of work and fitting in this blog just didn't work.  But here I am ready to try it out again.  We have started our second week of school and whew is it crazy to think I keep doing this year after year with these kinders.  I am absolutely exhausted everyday by 10:50 when we go to lunch - as are they.   Anyway, I did want to tell you a little about what we have been up to.  As you know, in kindergarten our first month or so is all about routines and expectations.  My class has done a pretty good job grasping all of those things so far.  We started week one with our classroom rules book as our main academic focus.  I thought I took a picture but it looks like I didn't. 

This is the second week and I introduced the concept of reading centers. Each day, I model how to read our center chart t and where to go. The students work at a center about 15 mins, my timer has been woderful, then we all color in the center on our chart to track the things we have finished. Now, I introduce and practice this way because eventually, I release the children to complete all 4 centers on their own while I do guided reading. This is one less things to have to teach later because they have been trained to color their center chart after completing the center. 

    

  

Here is the poetry center at work. Students read the poem from the previous week to themselves, read it to a friend and listen to a friend. Then they glue and illustrate in their poetry journal. 

This activity is at the ABC center where the students are recognizing their letters to color and make a picture. These students are working independently so I can teach the groups at the poetry center. 

Of course, there is always teaching kids how to use the computer. Here they are working on www.starfall.com. Next week, they will start on our reading program. 

This was one of our opening work activities from this week. 

Right now at math stations, the kids are just exploring the manipulatives. Here's some pictures. 

Well hope your school year is off to a great start. I'm hoping to be back Friday with my Five for Friday pics.  Cheers!

Stop, Swap & Roll - Product Swap and Review {Giveaway}

Hi!  I'm so glad to be a part of this swap again.  I am hopping that my post goes a little smoother than last time.  Thanks to Melissa for getting everything organized!

So I got to partner with Melissa from Creations by Mrs. Mouse.  She is a wonderful paraprofessional from Ohio who recently renewed her teaching license and is hoping to teach kindergarten soon! 

I loved all of her things in her TpT Store and had a very hard time choosing which one for my kiddos to try.  But here is what I picked: 

This pack has 5 different activities for your students to practice matching rhyming words.  For now, I chose to print and use the strawberry, watermelon and lemon packs.  They work well for this time of the year.  You can click their picture to purchase just that pack or the bundle picture above for the whole bundle!  The whole bundle is a HUGE DEAL!  For only $4 you get 5 rhyme packs!!!  They are each $2.75 separately! 

   

So I love that these rhymes are not strictly cVc words.  I just had a conversation with my class this week about how the words sound the same at the end and that is what makes them rhyming words.  One of my students said, "Well they look the same too."  And yes, while some rhyming words do look the same, they don't always have to.  So in steps this matching game.  The rhyming pairs in these games require the students to listen for the sounds as opposed to see the spelling of the end of a word.  

I did choose to write the words on the back of the cards because I wanted this to be a self checking station if there was an adult helper and I wanted to make it easier for me to remember the words too.  You know how busy teachers are all day!  It could take me 15 minutes to remember what that word was!  :)

So here is the prep work that I did to get these "center ready" for my kiddos:

I did choose to write the words on the back as you can see here.

The lemon pack has 3 rhyming words that match as opposed to only two.

Here's what they look like all sorted and stored in bags. 

Here are the finished stacks all cut out.  The lemons should be a much brighter yellow, however, I did not realize my ink was out until they already started printing and I wasn't going to waste the cardstock.  You can see from the strawberry and melon pictures that the graphics are nice and bright.

Here are my kiddos in action: 

  

Here they were stacking up the matches.

This was tricky for them.  They are searching hard for the matches.

So now is your chance to win a copy of this pack.  Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So here are the other bloggers that got to Swap and Review: 

Stop, Swap & Roll {Product Swap & Review}

Hi!  I'm so glad to be a part of this swap again.  I am hopping that my post goes a little smoother than last time.  Thanks to Melissa for getting everything organized!

So I got to partner with Andrea from Come to the Carpet.  She is a fabulous first grade teacher from Alaska. 

I loved all of her things in her TpT store and had a very hard time choosing which one for my kiddos to try.  But here is what I picked: 

When I first looked at it, I wasn't sure it would be appropriate for my kids (since I teach K and have a more challenging group than normal this year).  Then I realized that she has blank maps too.  So I went ahead for this one.  We actually did one of the more basic maps from the pack and they did a nice job.  

Here is where I modeled this activity first:

Then I sent them on their way to try it.  The only place we had trouble was the +10 and -10.  We haven't really practiced that yet.  So I had them color in those boxes and we just did +/- 1.  Here's my little cuties working:

When I got to this student, she needed help with the +/- 1 parts.  I had to show her where while asking, "What's one more than 18? What's one less than 18?"

I loved the idea of a circle map and this pack comes packed with different examples.  One of the maps is for addition and subtraction sentences - that would be great for a first grade teacher teaching fact families!  Andrea also includes a blank map so you can use it for other math concepts or even other subjects.  

So now is your chance to win a copy of this pack.  Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway So here are the other bloggers that got to Swap and Review: 

Stop-Swap-Roll: A Product Swap and Giveaway

Hello!  It has been a rough year so I'm glad this is my first post back. Thanks to Melissa for getting this all together. 
I was partnered with Lola from Preschool Wonders and chose her Camping Literacy and Math Pack.  It is awesome by the way!!  This pack includes math and literacy games that kept my kiddos engaged and learning. Here's a peek at some of the things this pack has: Right now my kinders are learning numbers from 1-20 so this matching game was perfect!  They loved the pictures.  This is a great book to practice positional words. My kiddos loved it!  I could really see who understood this concept and who didn't.  I haven't used this yet, but it will be a great assessment tool after teaching shadows.  Some of my kiddos are struggling with rhyming words so this is a great activity to use for remediation! Since I have already taught patterns, I used this as an assessment tool to be sure all my students could create a pattern and label it.  There is so much more to this pack!  You have to check it out yourself!   Here is my product that Lola reviewed and is giving away.  So after you fill out the rafflecopter to win the Camping Pack, head over to Jungle Learners to see what others have to share and giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway