Busy Busy Bees

I have been busy making literacy centers for my kinders. First was a CVC word building center. I made the pictures with boxes for letter tiles. They really enjoy working with the tiles and building words. It has helped with their confidence in sounding out words and writing. You can find my CVC center on my TpT page here

My CVC word building center.

My other center I made with the help of my aide was rhyming word houses. They turned out so cute!. The kids separate pictures into houses depending on what they rhyme with. Such fun! I also have this on my TpT store. You can get it here . My aide made the houses out of milk cartons. I did have to resize the labels to make them fit the milk cartons. If you want the resized labels, let me know and I will get them to you.

Snow Globes!

We had a great time making snow globes. The kids had great ideas for living in a snow globe. Their writing is getting better.

Holidays Around the World

Whew!!

We have been very busy in my kindergarten classroom. We have visited 11 countries in 2 days, learning about holidays, making crafts, and tasting food. This was a fun unit. I got it off Teachers pay Teachers. It's actually 2 units that I combined to get more countries. I think for next year that I will add more countries. The kids enjoyed it and we were about to do reading, writing, and math within the unit. All while having fun and travelling the world. I made passports and the kids made suitcases out of cereal boxes. Their suitcases were stuffed full by the end of the day today - good thing they were taking them home. Now I am exhausted, and glad that I only have 1 more day until Christmas break. Added to this - lots of testing for the end of the semester. I managed to get all my testing done and the crafts. Woo-hoo!
Here's one link for one of the units: Holidays.. Part II
And the other one:  Holidays... with passport

Here are some of the suitcases.

Maternity Leave!

She's here! Clara Emily Shipman was born October 4 at 4:22 AM. Weighing in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. She is beautiful and her brothers are smitten. I am officially on maternity leave now for 6 weeks. I miss my kinders already though I know they are in good hands with my long term sub. My project for this time off is to create a 4-day unit on Thanksgiving as well as a 5-day unit on Holidays Around the World. I'll be scouring Pinterest and Teachers pay Teachers for ideas - if you have any, send them my way. I only wish I had my lap top as I'm working on projects for my classroom. Had to leave it for the sub. LOL First order though, is making Halloween costumes for my kids. They want to be minions. Should be fun!

Loving Kindergarten

I am loving kindergarten. My kiddos are great and we are having such fun. The reading program we use is Success for All and I love the KinderCorner part of it. It is very engaging and I even get to use puppets! There are challenges in learning a new program, but so far it has gone very well. It's only been 3 weeks but I've sent home 4 books for my students to read to their families and keep. They are so excited that they are able to read these books all by themselves.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Two days down. Today went much smoother than yesterday. I was more on my game as were the kids. Yesterday I had so many people coming and watching me - my principal, tribal officers, a newspaper person, parents. Much quieter today.

I have been having so much fun these last 2 days. I love Success For All - the new literacy program our district is using. The kindergarten program is fun with lots of activities. Byron did this program last year and I was amazed at how much he learned and grew especially in reading and writing. I'm excited to be able to watch the growth in my students this year.

Any teachers reading this - how is your year going so far?

Ready for Kindergarten!

I've been working hard in my empty classroom to fill it with lots of activity learning labs. I'm still waiting on furniture that has been ordered, but I'm making do. I'm super excited for the new reading program we are using, Success For All. The KinderCorner part is so fun and it really helps kids be able to read. I have one more day, Tuesday, to work on my classroom. Then I'll try and post some pics. Training on Monday, in my room on Tuesday, then school starts on Wednesday!