Welcome to the FuN committee!

While at a meeting this summer my principal mentioned a "fun" committee.  

Apparently their areother schools in our corporation who have similar committees!!!

Who new?!?!

A committee focused on one thing...

FUN!

She asked if anyone wold be interested in starting one of these so called fun committees!?!?!

"UH-YEAH!

SIGN ME UP!"

And that folks is where our fun committee started!

So I sent out this email...

(Principal name, colleague name,  and school name have been changed for privacy reasons.  

We don't want anyone to know that we have fun at work!  HAHA!  JK!)

Rock Star suggested that Amazing, Rockin' Elementary  has a "fun" committee.  There are other schools in the corporation who have similar committees and the entire focus is fun!  I naturally jumped on board along with a fellow rock star, Rockin' Rita.  Who doesn't like fun!?!?!  Don't worry no one is going to force you to have fun at work  .  This is entirely voluntary.  If you would like to be part of this committee just let Rockin' Rita or myself know.  Throughout the year we are hoping to bring fun to the staff at Amazing, Rockin' Elementary.  (You don't have to be on the committee to join in on the fun.)  You also don't have to participate in the activities but if something seems like fun feel free to participate.  

So for August I was thinking of a way to bring a smile to the staff at Amazing, Rockin' Elementary and I thought of getting "Schooled".  Keep an eye out on your door.  You never know when you will get "Schooled."  If you get "Schooled" pick a teacher or a staff member (or a few), copy the I've been schooled sign, and secretly place it on their door with a little surprise.  (Something small - candy, a soda, coffee, anything to bring a little back to school joy!)

As we come up with new ideas we will share them with you!  Feel free to share your ideas too! 

So what exactly is a fun committee?!?!?

It is anything you want it to be as long as it is fun.

I also think it is important for it to be strictly voluntary.  

I am one of those people who LOVE team building activities. 

(Okay, you can groan at the thought of team building if you need to.)

I love team building activities, games, putting myself out there, and being silly.  

But for some people the thought of team building activities makes them shudder.

With that being said when people are forced to "have fun" the fun is taken away.

Apparently one of the other schools had a staff nerf battle in the gym. 

Although some people would be all in because nerf battles are fun, 

others might think other wise. 

So make sure your fun committee has a variety of fun ideas.  

So you can touch on everyone's idea of fun.  

Here is the "You've Been Schooled" page.  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Youve-Been-Schooled-1997361

Feel free to copy it and use it if you would like. 

As the Amazing, Rockin'  Elementary School fun committee comes up with new ideas
 I will share them with you.  If you have a fun committee I would LOVE to hear your ideas!

  

Back to School Night Gardner Style

Back to School night with a little Gardner flare!

In 5 days I will be meeting my new kindergarten students and their parents.  

I am SUPER excited to meet my new students but I must admit I get 

SUPER nervous for the parent speech!

I can speak to little guys anytime but speaking to grownups

is a little more intimidating.  

Who am I kidding I will be sweating bullets!  :)

I have done this two different ways:

1.  parents only

2.  students and parents

So everybody needs an ice breaker.

So here is where I add my own flare.  

I do a read aloud. 

I know what you are thinking?!?!?!

You read to grownups!!!!!

Out loud!?!?!?!

Yes, I read out loud to a classroom full of grown ups.  

Why not?

I like read alouds.  That is my zone!

So what do I read?

When I have parents only I read The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing.

Click here to purchase your copy

This is a great book that focuses on the parents of kindergarteners.
It is definitely reassuring for parents as they get ready to send their little ones to kindergarten!
If you haven't read this it is a must read!
(You don't have to read it out loud to parents...but you never know you just might want to!)


When I have both parents and students at Back to School Night I choose to read
First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.

Click here to purchase your copy


This book is one of my favorite books to read!
It focuses on being nervous on the first day of school.
Which is perfect-who isn't nervous on the first fray of school!?!?!?!
We all are...students, parents, and last but not least us teachers!

So once again in five days I will be reading First Day Jitters
 not to just my students but to my parents too!

I will start my back to school night introducing myself and telling a little bit about who I am.
You know-the basics.

I will then read First day Jitters out loud!
My little ice breaker.
It is actually calming and truly helps with my jitters.
I am in my zone.

After the read aloud I then go through a packet of papers with my parents.

Including:
*Specific kindergarten information that pertains to the school and more specifically to my class.
*Transportation forms
*Volunteer forms
*Qr codes for my classroom twitter page and my classroom webpage
*The First Day Poem
(I will find a copy and add a link soon)

After I go through all the info I then take the time to answer questions,
talk to parents, and hang out with my little kindergarteners.

Our back to school night is the night before the first day of school
so I go home after back to school night with my own case of
First Day Jitters and toss and turn ALL night long!

6 Days and counting!

A few tips to get started

So...I am officially back from vacation and I have to say it was AMAZING!  

I spent one week on an island with my family.  It was a little busier this year than the 

last time we went.  One day the beach was SO busy we saw 6 people. 

Here are a few pics to share how my week was.

     

                                     
 
                                                        

Well now it's time to get back to reality.  

Okay so as soon as typed that my mind instantly went here:

https://youtu.be/G7spia6eTjU

"Back to life, Back to reality..."

School officially starts in one week!  

ONE WEEK!!! AHHHH!!!

So first I will share one of the little goodies I give my students at back to school night.

Last year was the first year I did this and I had SO many parents talk about it!  

Kiddos slept with confetti for the first week. :) 

I can't take credit for the idea so I will share the link.  

Bonus:  It's FREE!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Back-to-School-Ready-Confetti-Card-141557

So this is were I got the idea but of course I had to add my own touch.  

Why!?!?!?!

Because that is what I do...I have to add my own flare!

So here it is.  

Here is the cover

The inside

(Of course I didn't just add confetti I definitely felt a tattoo was necessary!)
Who doesn't love a KiNdErGaRtEn RoCkS tattoo!

This is the all you need to bring smiles to your own kinders.

Construction paper, confetti (dollar tree), snack baggies (dollar tree), and of course kindergarten tattoos!

Click here to order your own!

7 days and counting...

Stay posted for a week of ideas.

Have you filled a bucket today?

After today's post I am going off the grid for the next 10 days.

It's time for some quality family time before school starts!

But before I go I thought I would talk about one of my favorite books to read 

at the beginning of the year.   

Click here to order the book

This book is a great book to read to students of all ages.  

It is a book all about being kind.  It does a great job illustrating how your actions make people feel.  

The book is based on two options "bucket filling" (being kind) or "bucket dipping" (being mean).

The concept is simple and easily understood by all ages.  

After reading the book we brainstorm ideas of things that we can do to become bucket fillers.

We talk about why we want to be bucket fillers and how we feel when people fill our

buckets vs. dipping into our buckets.  

I then introduce our Bucket Fillers Bucket.  

(All purchased from the Dollar Tree.)

As I notice students "filing buckets" they get to move a 

pom pom from the green bucket to the purple bucket.  

Once the purple bucket is full we get to celebrate with a class reward.

I am all about celebrations!

Anyone who know me knows I love a reason to celebrate!

Students can also point out when they see other students filling buckets.  

This is a great way to build a classroom community!

On the flip side if someone is "bucket dipping", 

they have to take a pom pom out of the classroom bucket. 

This is a great visual to show students the effects of bucket filling and dipping. 

There are a lot of FREE resources on the internet and TPT.  

Just google:  Bucket Fillers 

Almost there...more classroom pics!

18 more days until blast off! 

SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!

So I went into my classroom today and made lots of progress!

Although my room isn't complete...for now it is.

I can't finish until I have my class list so I can add personal student touches.  

Check it out and let me know what you think.  

This is the front of my room.

From left to right, terrific work board, white board, noise level, bravo board.  

These are my I Can posters.  I have put these in wet erase sleeves. 

I have one fore each Literacy station color and for Math & Writing.  

Although I will have the kindergarten standards posted I also have these.

For instance, if we are woking on (writing) high frequency words at the blue station

I would write "write popcorn words".  (I can write popcorn words.)

This is easier for kindergarteners to understand rather than the official standard.  

Click here for the FREE "I can" printable:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Can-Posters-1937586

Noise level charts

This is a great visual in my classroom. 

 I have an arrow magnet that I move that points to the expected noise level

during different parts of the day.  

At the beginning of the school year we practice using each color voice.  

We also practice using our outside voice.  

This is a great way to help the students differentiate between the different voices.    

My Bravo Board 

I have 4 different color tables in my classroom where students sit.  

Each table earns Bravo Points when making great choices as a table.

For example:

*working hard

*sitting quietly

*working together

Once they earn 10 tally points the entire table gets a Behavior Buck.

We save the Behavior Bucks for our classroom shopping days.

Click on the link for the Free Behavior Buck printable:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Behavior-Bucks-Positive-Reward-Coupons-1908050

                  

These are a few of the pom poms that I made to hang over my tables and at my stations.   

Standing at the back of my room this is on the right side of my classroom.  

My classroom library is on the left and my calendar is on the right.  

 My classroom library

The book bins are labeled according to theme, author, or type of books.

The books in each bin have coordinating stickers.  

The red tote has my big books and stuffed animals to use as reading buddies.

The reading buddies can be used during quiet reading time.  

The plastic bins of drawers have writing workshop items.

Another picture of my library with my boys when they were DONE!

(They were ready to go home)

These bins came from the dollar tree.  I labeled each one with monthly labels.

For every month I have specific themed station activities.  I store them here. 

This makes planning just a bit easier.  

 This is the back of my classroom.

This back wall includes my student cubbies and my alphabet.  

I use the table for my guided reading station.  

 A closer view

The back corner is my teacher corner.  It has my work desk, computer desk, 

filing cabinets, and book shelves.  

I store my math manipulatives on the wooden shelves.  

These wooden shelves also serve as a separation to my teacher area.  

These are my reward buckets.  

The purple bucket is my classroom bucket fillers bucket.  

We move the green pom poms into the purple bucket when we 

are bucket fillers.  Once the purple bucket is full we have a class celebration!

Our School Wide PBIS committee has created Gold Stars to increase positive behavior. 

Students can earn gold stars for making good choices.  At the end of each week we draw out one star and that student receives a special reward from the office.  

I use the blue bucket to keep all of the stars throughout the week.  

This is in the kitchen area of my classroom.  

I also use this wall as my art gallery.

I hang student artwork on this wall.

I am also SUPER LUCKY to have a bathroom in my classroom.

This is just a fun Trufulla tree decoration to go along with my Seuss theme!

Hope you liked stepping in to my little world of kindergarten!

Please don't pick!

WARNING:  

You may not learn a lot from this post!

It is just for your picking pleasure!

We have all had years where we have classes with A LOT of pickers!  And no I don't mean the infamous American Pickers I'm talking about nose pickers!

Every year you have them, but some years are worse!  

They're kids and kids pick, I get it.

But at some point you have to get them to stop.  

There are lots of different methods:

have them wash their hands

have them get a kleenex

have them sanitize

talk about why you don't want to them to pick

talk about germs

showing them where the kleenexes are located

(Have multiple locations)

showing them where the sanitizer is

You get the point... lots of methods.

Well this past year I had tried everything and nothing worked.

They tried, but habits are hard to break!  

I thought about getting one of these for everyone in my class.  

Just kidding!

How funny would this be!?!?!?

Now in all seriousness...

I did do this which might be just as bad (for me)!

But once again my kiddos loved it and that is all that matters!

Bonus...It worked!

After almost an entire year of nose picking, colds, and sinus infections,  

I resorted to creating my very own cold and flu crew!

Now I didn't want them to just use Kleenexes so I created:

As cheesy as this is -  it worked!  

My kiddos couldn't wait to use 

Captain Kleenex and Sassy Sanitizer!

So this year I am going to introduce these characters right away

along with this super cute book that I found at Half Price Books for $1!

Hope you enjoy!  Feel free to use any of my videos to help

"Keep your classroom healthy, too!"

I am hoping to make some manner videos soon!  

Letter of the Week - What are your thoughts?

When I started teaching we did a letter a week.  That was then...this is now.

What do you do?  What are your thoughts?

In the area that I teach, the majority of our kindergarten students come in to kindergarten already knowing their letters.  (I will talk about what I do for the students who don't know their letters and sounds at the beginning of kindergarten in a few.)

When doing a letter a week we are spending 26 weeks teaching the alphabet.  We are teaching letters up until late February early March!  WOW!!!  That's a LONG time!  

(Especially for students who already know their letters.)

In order to keep students engaged we need to teach them new things and help them grow.  

With that being said, I teach a letter every two days and review on Friday.  

Here is an Example of my week:

Monday

Letter A

(Introduce the Letter, Write the letter, discuss letter sound, Introduce Zoo friend  (Allie Alligator), do unscramble a name with letter A names, 

(split into 2 days if you have more than 2 names)

clap syllables, add stickers to a sentence strip with name on it, hang name onto word wall.  

Do letter (Letter A) work during Literacy stations for Monday & Tuesday.

During Literacy Stations we do a letter A writing page or a letter A activity. 

(I do Literacy Stations Monday - Thursday.  I do six stations over a two day rotation

twice a week.  I will go over my Literacy stations in a future blog.)

Tuesday

Letter A review

For the review I have a set of picture cards that I use.  I pick out all of the picture cards with pictures of items that start the letter A.  I mix in a few cards of pictures that start with other letters.  

As I go through picture cards, if the letter starts with the letter A the students say the letter A sound /a/.  If it starts with a different letter they hold up their hand and say "stop"!  It's a simple game that takes just a few minutes and my students love it!  

Then I read a Letter A book

Brainstorm words that start with the letter A on an anchor chart. 

example:

Wednesday

Letter B

(Introduce the Letter, Write the letter, discuss the letter sound, introduce the Zoo friend  (Bubba Bear), do unscramble a name with letter B names, 

(split into 2 days if you have more than 2 names)

clap syllables, add stickers to a sentence strip with name on it, hang name onto word wall.  

Thursday

Letter B Review

(same as Tuesday)

Read a Letter B book

Brainstorm words that start with the Letter B on an anchor chart.  

Friday

Letter A & B Review 

I use letter cards with pictures that start with the letter A and B.  The students then say the letter sound that the picture starts with it.  Once they get the hang of this 

you can throw in a picture that starts with a random letter.  

I continue to do this every week until we have completed all of the letters.    

My thoughts on homework are something to be discussed in a different post, 

but I do send home written homework when introducing letters.  

I send home a writing page on Monday night and on Wednesday night.  

Now lets talk about the students who come to kindergarten not knowing all of their letters.  

(I totally understand this, my youngest son was one of them.)

I remember stressing about sending my son to kindergarten without knowing 

all of his letters and sounds.  (Seriously, I was a kindergarten teacher and my own son didn't know 

all of his letters and sounds!?!?!)  He was busy he wanted to play.  I realize now that is okay.  

Guess what... he learned all of his letters and sounds in no time!  He is now a fifth grader who is 

exactly where he needs to be.  

So for those kiddos I spend more time with them working on 

both letters and sounds. 

 During my literacy stations, I have a guided reading group. 

This group is grouped by ability.  I take this time to work with students 

on what they need.  At this point, these students need more work on letters and sounds so that is what I do.  We still work on reading and sight words like the rest of the class but I just add a little more.  

This way all students in my class are getting what they need.  They all have the opportunity to grow.  

Here is a link to my alphabet pages if interested.  

I will do these along with our kindergarten writing work books.

(One for in class and one for homework.)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Practice-Pages-No-Prep-1884343

So no letter of the week for me...

I guess I do 2 letters a week!

Once again, these thoughts and ideas are mine.
It's just what I do in my kindergarten room.

Who doesn't want to be a STAR!?!?!?

Okay so this is something that I am SUPER excited about!

I know I am always pretty excited, but this time I am SUPER excited!  

This post is going to show the true kindergarten teacher in me!  HAHA!

So first let's start with "Star" of the Week.

When I first started teaching we used to send a Star of the Week bag home for the weekend 

with our Star of the Week students.  (SOW- for short)

We used to collect spare change during our Bear unit at the beginning of the year.  At the end of the unit all of the Kindergarten teachers would take all of the money collected for their classrooms and have a Build a Bear Shopping Spree.  

(Sometimes we had enough money to buy 2 bears, a boy and a girl, and lots of accessories.)

We would then vote on the name and our class bear(s) were ready to go.

The SOW took the class bear home in the SOW bag.
Took pictures with the bear and added to the class SOW book.  

That was then...this is now.

Allergans, lice, bed bugs, smoker's vs. nonsmoker's...

TOO MUCH TO WORRY ABOUT!

I started to become leery of sending home a stuffed animal, with clothes, and accessories.

Eventually I stopped.

I still did Star of the Week but I didn't have anything special to send home.   

Lets face it it wasn't as fun!  :(

This is where I get SO EXCITED!  

So one day I was thinking, all things kindergarten, 

and I was trying to figure out what I could send home.

I loved the idea of kiddos taking pictures with a special classroom item (bear) and sharing it with the class.  Maybe I could find a plastic Seuss toy.  (My theme is Dr. Seuss).

My mind went a million places but at some point on that trip I thought of Flat Stanley 

and how lots of classes send Flat Stanley to places all over the world.  

And that folks is how Flat Cat was created.  

Flat Cat is a normal cat who likes to go on adventures.  One day he went to the circus and 

low and behold he was rolled over by an Elephant on a circus ball.   

He then became Flat Cat.  

Check this out..

Introducing the NEW & IMPROVED Star of the Week Bag!

Cute?  I know but it looks like you typical Dollar Days Dr. Seuss bag, 

but it NOT.

This is what is inside:

plastic pronged folder

(a binder would not fit in the bag)

Inside the folder is the Adventurers of Flat Cat

and pages to complete a class book.  

The Flat Cat book explains the story of how Silly Cat became Flat Cat.  

Super Cute!

The book ends with the SOW the week taking Flat Cat on an adventure.

Cover page with directions of what to do.

On this page students can take a picture (or draw a picture) of what they did with 

Flat Cat and write about it.

I always have my students share their favorite book when they are SOW.  

So here is a page where they can draw a picture of their favorite part of their favorite book.  

Don't forget Flat Cat!  

Flat Cat is laminated card stock.  

He is kept in the back pocket of the folder.  

Kiddos can take pictures of their adventures of Flat Cat.

Here are a few more pictures:

 Just a few pics of the Flat Cat book. 

I also like to send home a special book for parents to read with their kiddos.  

The one that I will be sending home is 

I'm Special, I'm Me! 

by Ann Meek

This is everything that gets sent home in the Star of the Week bag.  

Now don't worry I didn't stop there.  

I am all about adding a fun back into kindergarten.  

It's birthday time!  

Due to all of the different food allergies our school is technically a snack free school. 

With that begin said students no longer bring in birthday treats.  

I totally understand the reason behind this but that was one of my favorite memories 

as a child.  Bringing in my birthday snack.  It was special and made the day about me.  

I still do a birthday crown, sing Happy Birthday, and give a birthday pencil, but I felt the excitement was lacking.  Could you imagine a kindergarten classroom without excitement!?!?!

Introducing the Birthday Bag!

Starring Flat Cat in a Birthday Hat!

CUTE!

Yellow plastic folder with prongs and the cover of the 

class birthday book.  

 Cover page with directions of what to do with the Birthday Bag. 

 Draw yourself wearing a birthday hat and decorate and color the Birthday page. 

Left Page:  Write the date of your birthday and write how old you are.  

Draw that many candles on the cupcake and color.

Right Page:  Take pictures or (draw a picture of you) with the 

Birthday Flat Cat and write about it.  

Here is Birthday Flat cat!
Copied on card stock and laminated.

Of course I added few birthday books to my Birthday Bag.
I am going to be ordering the Dr. Seuss
Happy Birthday book to go into this bag
(but for now any birthday book will do).
Now that will be so cute!

This was my project for last night!
Once I had everything completed I realized that something was missing
form the birthday bag...
A Flat Cat Birthday book!
Have no fear I am working on it now...
I know you were concerned!!?!?!?

If you are interested in getting your very own set of for your Take Home bags here is the link!
This includes all of the printables you need to include, even the Flat Cats, and the Flat Cat books.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Birthday-Star-of-the-Week-Take-Home-Bags-1943182

Hope you liked this idea.
Sorry if it is a little FLAT!
(See what I did there?)