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?)

My Classroom Before - Round 2

So yesterday I went to my classroom.

Here are a few more pics of my room before I get it ready for the First day of School.

This is my kitchen area!  BORING!!!!!
Can't wait to add some color and a little fun!

From the back of my room.
(I see color and a cute little guy!)

Sink/counter area
(TOTES!!!!  Everywhere!)

My popcorn word wall/calendar.
This is still up from last year.  As the year progresses,
I add the weekly popcorn words to the word wall.
This board is always a work in progress!
Can't wait to get things put away and organized!

Okay... so that is where I started and then Target called!

You think I'm kidding, I am NOT!

Took a break to eat lunch and ran by Target.
All I needed were 3 binders.  That's it 3 binders!

This was me today!


Check out the 3 binders...

Binders!!?!!?!?!?   What?

Okay so I did get a few things done!  

Here is one of my faves!

How cute are these?

Pencil bins from the dollar spot (ADORABLE)

labels and rubber cement

Voila!  

GIVE AWAY DAY!

Today I am heading into my classroom to work!  Will post more before and after pictures on tomorrow's blog!  Hopefully I get a lot done!

But now for the FUN!

Go to my Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/LittleSmilesBigSunshine

Like the page and Share the Give away blog post!

Easy as that and you are entered to win any item up to $5.00 from my shop!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Smiles-Big-Sunshine

My Classroom

So yesterday I went into my classroom and took a little inventory of the work that needs to be done!  Guess what!?!?!?  It is BARE!

Luckily we don't have to take everything down off the walls.  Here are a few pictures of the 

different parts of my "Seussical"Room.

Remember I am not changing themes this year!  Dr Seuss was a keeper.  

I usually have Room Theme ADD and need to change it up every year!  HAHA!

Don't get me wrong I am going to make a few changes.

So here it is...my room!

I all take more pictures today.  

I LOVE looking at pics of classrooms!!!  (It must be a teacher thing!)

I would love for you to post pics of your classrooms in the comments!

It could be like a classroom hop without even leaving your seat!

View from the front door.  (front of the class)

(So thankful for the custodians for not leaving my chairs and tables stacked against the walls)

Although their are still things on the walls, it looks SO BARE!

This is my terrific work board.  Throughout the week I pick students work to display with a special sticker.  On Friday I announce the students who had terrific work and pass the papers back.  

The one thing I like about this board is that everyone can get terrific work.  Your work doesn't have to be the best in the class it just needs to be good for you.  You can pick that kiddo who is really struggling with writing letters because they took their time.  

(It may not be the neatest in the class but you can tell it was their personal best.)

This is a great way to encourage ALL kids. 

One of my class mottos:  

It doesn't have to be perfect it just needs to be your best!

(By the end of the year I can ask my class...Does it have to be perfect?

And they will respond Nope,  just your best!)

(The empty pocket chart is where I differentiate iPad apps in my classroom.  

I will post how I do that at another time!)

                       

Here is a close up of how the work is displayed.  

I used these cute Dr. Seuss cut outs (Target Dollar Days) and these nifty push pin clips.  

Notice the bulletin board itself is not covered.  You will see this throughout my room.  It used to be.  All of my boards were covered with fabric but according to the fire marshall we can only have so much of our room covered.  Being the rule follower that I am I have found different ways to add pizzaz!  The Dr. Seuss characters add a little "pop"!

This is one of my favorite boards.  This is located in my hallway outside of my room.  Every week I have a classroom star of the week.  I usually have two,  a boy and a girl.  (I need to make that "Seussical" Stars of the week.) 

 I send home a packet on Friday and have the students bring it back on Monday.  

I have different activities that we go over throughout the week.  

I put their photos and Star of the Week Papers in the hallway for the school to see!  

Notice the board itself isn't covered :( 

but it's still pretty Seussical!  

I am super excited about a new creation for Birthdays and Star of the Week that I am going to incorporate into my classroom this year!  I can't wait to share it. 

Stay tuned for different parts of my room and the progress!  

As it goes form summer ready to classroom ready! 

Tomorrow is the DAY!

Two things:

I have been SEUSSED!  If you haven't checked out Target...I went again and the Seuss stuff is out at Dollar Days!  SO IN LOVE!  Plus if you need a little more Seuss decor check out my store!  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Posters-Whimsical-Cat-Theme-1899926

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-Sight-Words-Whimsical-Cat-Theme-1923728

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Behavior-Clip-Chart-Whimsical-Cat-Theme-1928203

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Noise-Level-Whimsical-Cat-Theme-1941140

Don't forget...

Check out my Store!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Smiles-Big-Sunshine

Tomorrow is the first day that I can get back into my building since summer break!  

What does that mean?

1.  For me, summer is almost over!

2.  For you lots of exciting blogs form inside of my classroom!  

Stay Tuned...

I'M HAVING A SALE!

I AM HAVING A SALE!!!

CHECK IT OUT!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Smiles-Big-Sunshine

I can... (evaluation tips for all grades)

I don't know about you but one of my biggest STRESSES is the teacher evaluation process.  

This is so true!  Especially during my first year of the evaluation process.  It was the first year of the new evaluation process and a new administrator!  Normally I would consider myself a confident teacher - confident in my teaching style, my methods, and my classroom management skills but the minute my administrator walked in the door all that confidence flew out the window!  

I FROZE!

I have to admit it wasn't just my new administrator it happened with the last one too!  I just get nervous.  It takes me a while to get a feel for the process.  No matter how confident I am or how highly I have been evaluated in the past - I get nervous!!!!

 I am constantly work on improving and want to continue to grow professionally.  

So the battle with he evaluation is my own.  It is me against myself!  My battle to always do better - to improve every year.  

Fast forward 3 years later...

I am me, kindergarten teacher, what you see is what you get.  When my administrator walks in I just keep on doing what I am doing!  Whether that is singing a song, zipping coats, dealing with a melt down, pop see ko-ing (made up word), or engaging 100% percent of my students authentically!  

(see what I did there!?!?!)  

It may not always be the best timing but it is kindergarten.  Lots of things happen in kindergarten - some things planned some things not so much!

So I thought I would blog about a few things that you can do to make the process go a little smoother!  

I am sure that most of you have to have your standards posted!

I find that very important especially for kindergarten since they can't read!  :)

 RIGHT!?!?!  

But it isn't really worth complaining about and should be looked at as an easy point to get!  

Just post them and voila!  One point for you!

That is practically the easiest part of the process!

Here is a link to the updated version of the Indiana State Standards for kindergarten. 

Just print and post and you have already received your first point!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Indiana-Kindergarten-State-Standards-College-and-Career-Ready-1825911

Now although these are written in "I can" statements and should to be posted this way the average kindergartener can't repeat what the standard is.  

For example, 

I know that words are put together to form sentences. 

                                                                            K.RF.2.3 (Print Concepts)

This is an "I can" statement but if a student is asked what they are doing at a particular station 

will they be able to recite this standard?  Probably not!

Here is your answer... I can statements to go along with your standards!

Here is how I do it in my classroom.  I pick all the State Standards that I am going to use for the week for Language Arts and Math.  (This is a more general explanation of my week) 

I post those under my Standard headings on my front board. 

(These are included in my TPT product above)

I also have "I can" pages.

Since I do Literacy Stations every week, I have made an "I can" page for each color station.  I have also included one for math and writer's workshop.  I then write a more specific statement for each station that goes along with my weekly standards.  This is more like the reason for why the students are doing this particular activity.  I go over each of these when giving instructions.  

For the above standard K.RF.2.3, I would have the standard posted on the board with all of the other standards for the week.  Since we are writing sentences at the blue Literacy station I would write:

These are free!  Click on the link.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Can-Posters-1937586

Put these "I can" pages in picture frames or in wet erase sleeves.  

(I prefer wet erase sleeves)

Like these

Hang them on the front board with I can pages inside.

Although I leave my general standards the same all week I change my "I can" 

pages throughout the week.  Just erase and rewrite!

Voila! Much easier!

I hope you can use these!