Literature Response Sheets
(click on the picture for a link to TPT for the whole set for $3.00)
Kindergarten Focus Wall
One of my big projects this summer has been revamping my “Focus Wall”. I use my mimeo (Smart Board) for a lot of the number sense and daily phonemic awareness stuff…but I wanted to make sure I was really using that space around where my morning message and the projector….projects. I’ve looked at a million Focus Walls on blogs and pinterest this summer, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far.
The sad looking paper is where my morning message will go. I will switch out our vocabulary weekly (from our Language Arts, Math, and Science Vocabulary). My sight words are color coded. I use the Rainbow Words system. We learn the purple words first, then the blue…etc. To the right you can see my mimeo and my magnetic number lineand magnetic alphabet. To the left you can kind of see my helper chart and my calendar.
This is the other side of the board. We will do the date, and number of the day activities (that get progressively harder as the year goes on). We will also use a magnet to track how many days we are in school on the 100 chart. After 100 days, I add the “rest” of the days and we track both how many days we have been in school, and how many days we have left. I LOVE my new magnetic border around everything
On the (newly painted black) file cabinet, you can see my daily schedule. It along with everything else is printed on fabulous magnet paper! It has saved me so many times! Best invention ever.
Sharing my Focus Board freebies for anyone that wants them!
Projects
I meant to finish mowing my lawn this afternoon, but it was SO hot, do I decided to go into school for a little bit.
Kindergarten welcome letters go out next week, and I’ve got mine all ready to go now. In mine, I include a letter to the kids, a letter to the parents (includes, important dates, staggered start information ( we only have 1/2 our kindergartners for the first 4 days of school: A group, B group, A group, B group, then on the 5th day all together!), as well as a school supply list. I also include a magnet with all my information (website, phone number, email), and a letter of the alphabet (the kid’s first initial) for the kids to decorate and bring in on meet the teacher night.
In the past I’ve bought wooden letters, but found these cute “sun catcher” letters this year. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!
I then spent a couple of hours cleaning out my art cupboard (a job I’ve been putting off forever!). I think I have enough craft sticks and feathers to last the rest of my life. I’m still covered with glitter.
I wish I would have taken a before picture…but here is the final product!
Planning for 2015-16
Here’s my year unit plan schedule for 2015-16, as well as my daily schedule…at least until I change it AGAIN. Yes, I know I have a “rainbow” problem.
Setting Up A Writing Center and Freebies
I love my writing center! I finally took the time to organize things so I am slowly introducing different types of writing to the writing center as we learn about them in our curriculum. Let me tell you a little bit about what you see here.
First Things First
My writing center is right next to the classroom door where my kids enter every morning. My classroom isn't very big (cue 50 people emailing me to tell me that they are teaching 35 kids in a former milk cooler...sorry about that!). Everything in my classroom has more than one purpose. My writing center is also my "sign in spot". The first thing my kids do when they arrive in the morning is to sign in for snack time milk. In my school, they get to choose chocolate or white milk every day.
When I taught preschool a million years ago, I had a sign in procedure in which the name cards were already written for them. In kindergarten, I have them sign in every single day.
We use(d) Handwriting Without Tears in our district, so my sign in tickets have a "starting corner".
Most of my kids come in able to write their names, but in all caps. When they come back from Thanksgiving Break, my expectation is for them to write their name "The Kindergarten Way" (Capital letter at the beginning and lowercase for the rest). Here is a freebie of my sign in tickets.
I print them on card stock, and cut them apart. They sit in a little basket on the writing center. The kids write their name on the name ticket, then put it under white milk or chocolate. I save the name tickets from the first day, and the end of each trimester, and glue them on a sheet all together to show growth throughout the year.
What Can I Write?
I have center time for 30-45 minutes every day. When I say "center time" I mean good old fashioned centers...blocks, dramatic play, paint, and of course, the writing center. I feel VERY strongly about the importance of play in the kindergarten classroom...but that's another blog post. :)
I introduce my writing center very early in the school year. I make a point to talk about how the writing center is different from the art center. The writing center is a quiet center for just two (lucky) friends, and it is for writing.
I have 7 different writing forms at my writing center. I introduce them slowly in this order:
1. Postcards
Postcards are printed on cardstock. There is room for a picture on the back, a sticker "stamp", a To and From spot, as well as room for some writing.
2. Labeling
I have some simple pictures of castles, circus, farm, etc. The kids can choose a picture they like, color it, and label it.
3. Cards
Cards are printed on cardstock, and folded to look like a card. We have birthday cards, get well cards, and thank you cards. I also add different cards for Holidays. A local Hallmark store donates unused envelopes to our school (by the BOX load). I add those to the card bin as well.
4. Surveys
Surveys are WILDLY popular in my classroom! They are on a half sheet of paper, include things like cake/icecream football/soccer pirates/princesses dog/cat as well as some blank surveys. I include some small (half paper sized) clipboards in the bin as well.
5. Lists
I usually add this bin around Christmas time when my kids are excited to make wish lists.
6. Stories
These pages are very much like our journal papers. A great place to draw a picture and write a story.
7. Books
These are also a favorite. I copy the cover paper on colored copy paper or card stock, add a couple of sheets or copy paper, fold in half and staple to make a book. I sometimes ask parents to help staple them for me. They LOVE to make books, and especially love when I read one of the books at the end of the day!
Can't picture what I am talking about. Check out my forms by clicking below!
Writing Center Samples and Forms
(click on image for link)
Getting Them To Write
I keep a close watch on my centers, and when I notice that the writing center is losing its popularity a bit, that is when I introduce something new. It might be time to add another writing form, some new pens/pencils, some thin crayola markers, or smelly markers.
I also make a BIG point of showing off awesome work at the writing center. I often will stop everything in the classroom to have everyone take a look at the cool book someone created, or to praise someone for making a "Get Well" card for a student that is absent. Like anything else in our kindergarten world...if the teacher "endorses" it, suddenly everybody wants a turn at that center.
Let me know if you have any questions! I love hearing from you!
Vegas Baby!!!
I had an amazing time at ITeachK in Las Vegas! I met so many amazing teachers and presenters (and a mostly naked version of the band KISS…but that’s another story).
Kim Adsit’s presentations ROCKED as always, and I came back with lots of great ideas for literacy. She is always so inspiring. Totally making a “boa constrictor” out of a stretchy fabric for the boa constrictor song. She had a volunteer come up and step into this big sleeve of fabric with a snake face on it, and she slowly pulled it up over the guy as we sang the song about being eaten my a boa constrictor. My kids will LOVE it!
SDE hosted a dinner for presenters on Tuesday night, and I was a nervous wreck meeting all the presenters #wayouttamyleague. 2 amazing things happened though, and it turned into a great night!
Amazing thing 1 (backstory):
The first year that I went to IteachK, I was sitting in a session about literacy with an amazing (and hilarious) presenter named Danny Brasell. He was showing some slides that had teacher sites he loves. So he starts talking about this site…about how he would love to meet the teacher someday…all these nice things….then he puts MY site up on the screen. It’s ME! He was talking about me!
I kind of gasp and he turns and looks at me and I say “that’s me!”. He said some more really nice things…and I promptly burst into tears (because that’s how I roll, I guess).
Anyway, fast forward to this year, I got to see him present again about vocabulary, AND I got to take my picture with him (and hear him tell people the story of me bursting into tears).
Awesome thing number 2 was meeting these 2 wonderful ladies Palma Lindsay fromKFundamentals and Jayne Gammons from smartkids .They were both so sweet, introduced me around, gave me the inside scoop on lots of things, and shared dessert with me! I <3 them!
I spent WAY too much money at the vendors. Did I REALLY need 3 more kindergarten shirts? I bought two more kits from Katie & Co. One is to go along with the gummy bear song, and the other is the cutest watermelon/seeds game for the beginning of the year. I LOVE Katie & Co. and always, always buy something from them!
My two favorite things from the vendors, though are these amazing whiteboard paddles, and an awesome reknrek like I’ve never seen before!
The whiteboards are from KleenSlate, and here is what is amazing about them: One side is just a regular whiteboard….the other side has this plastic sleeve that you can put anything in….like a 10 frame, handwriting paper, etc. The marker (which doesn’t smell bad and will NOT lose it’s point even if you bang the tip) clip right into the handle of the board, and have an eraser cap. The big soft cloth eraser (that’s the blue thing) is hooked to the bottom of the board with a ring. BOOM. Pretty much all my problems I’ve ever had with whiteboard solved! I handed over my credit card and bought a whole class set (that arrived at my house a week later!). Oh, did I tell you they come in rainbow colors?????!
The other is this awesome rekenrek from MathLine . I love, love, love this! It works so well with how we work on the concept of 10, as well as decomposing teen numbers. I love that if I have all 10 rings, and push 5 of them away, the numeral 5 is right there, so the kids are manipulating the rings, using it as a tool for solving problems, AND learning number recognition.
I talked with the Mathline guy forever! He has “big number” ones too. I am thinking I want a 100 one for whole group activities, and a set of these “20” ones for each of my kids at small group.
I can’t wait for next year!!!!!
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