Teacher Week - What I love to teach

I made it through and posted everyday for Teacher Week 2014! High fives all around!

This post is an easy one- What I love to teach? Well...everything kindergarten!

When I was moved from 3rd grade to kindergarten, I knew I had found my grade. I have always loved teaching the little ones. My student teaching placements were in 3rd and 4th grade and don't get me wrong, I enjoyed them, but I knew I was meant to be in kindergarten.  And now I'm there!

Kindergarten children are so full of wonder and discovery- they want to learn it all! I view it as a pure gift that I am able to teach the very young in our school. Their first day wearing the school uniform is so cute- they look like the "big" kids!

Not only am I teaching my ideal grade, I'm doing it at the most wonderful school. Our small Catholic school is a very special place. We are more than just an elementary school, we are a family and I love that. Yes, it is difficult paying my bills some times, but I know I have it really good. I know that if I have an idea or a program I want to try, my principal will listen and most likely allow me to give a try.

For example, I love teaching math. With the Common Core standards having me focus on less topics, I love it even more. What I didn't love was using our outdated math series- I ended up sending home so many extra lessons last year because we didn't get to them nor did we need to. Well I asked if I could use something else next year. I looked on Teachers Pay Teachers and of course I go to the fabulous Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills first and low and behold...Guiding Kinders: Math Workshop.

Click on the picture to go to the first unit. I tried using their units last year when our old textbook didn't included some of the CC lessons. The kids loved the games and asked to play them during the day. It was exactly what I needed and when my principal saw it, she approved my using it this year in place of our old book. 

Something else I love to teach is writing. I've always liked to write...just never found the time. Again, Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills are my saviors. Their Writer's Workshop Units are awesome. The progress I witnessed with my students last year was incredible. Usually writing is so difficult and tedious for this age, but the approach that these units use is so child-friendly, I didn't have one child groan when it was time to write. I frequently heard "I love writing time!" Click on the picture below to go to the first unit.

Finally, and this one shocks me, but I love to teach Science activities. I never had a love of science when I was in school. I took only as much science as I needed to graduate high school. I did not continue on when they told me it wasn't required. I was much happier taking advanced English classes or Social Studies. Anyway, so when I started integrating science activities in my lessons, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Some of my favorites:

Penguins- My favorite animal! Besides the fact that these birds are incredibly cute, they are fascinating creatures to learn about. I adopted a penguin (which I named after my favorite penguin from literature, Tacky!) and I get emails from him every month or so. I read them to the children and show them the pictures that get sent as well.  The people that work with these penguins write the email from the point of view of our penguin and really do a great job explaining different stages of penguin life to kindergarten kids. I've adopted our penguin from this site for years. I highly recommend. 

Another fun lesson is teaching the children about blubber with a blubber glove. Again thank you Deanna Jump. Her blubber glove experiment is so fun and the children really get an understanding of why blubber is so important to penguins. 

I also love teaching the children about owls and what they eat. The owl pellet lesson is such a fun one, even for me. I am quite the girly girl- sparkle and tutus and tiaras, but even I get excited when the children find a skull in their owl pellet. 

I could go on and on about other fun lessons, but I'm sure you want to get back to Bloghoppin and see the other awesome ideas! 

I apologize that I don't have a Freebie to share, but I have no idea how to post one :) 

Teacher Week - Schedules

This one is a bit difficult because I can not set my daily schedule yet. I don't have the times for our Special area classes yet, but I can give you an idea of the blocks of time and how we spend it. Here goes...

1. So yesterday, I showed how I organized my Work Station groups.  I think every year Work Stations time becomes my student's favorite part of the day. They work in their families (small groups that stay the same all year) and rotate through 5 areas of the room per week. One group uses the Promethean Board, another completes a Write the Room, and one goes to my teacher assistant and works with her. There are always books available in these areas in case they finish early. The other two areas vary.  One can have a pocket chart activity, puzzles, math or phonics game. The last area is the Free Play rug. This is one way with all the Common Core standards, I can still get some play time in for my kids. They may use the blocks, kitchen area, or a bucket of toys from the shelf. I rotate the options. It's the perfect time to do those choices because there are a limited number of kids in the families- smaller group=less arguing!


2. Another time of day the kids love are afternoon workshops. This idea was born when I decided to get rid of our nap time. Right after lunch, the children are again divided and placed in groups.  These groups vary from week to week. I ask for volunteers to come in for 45 minutes and work with the children on an activity.  It's perfect! The kids get to transition back to school work after lunch and they get so excited when their parent/grandparent leads their group. It also gives the parents an idea of what the classroom is like and how their child is interacting with their peers. I even have grandparents who continue to volunteer even though their grandson has been out of kindergarten for two years. They love it...and the fact that they are retired teachers plays a small part too :)


3. Project/Playtime, as I call it, is right before our Writer's Workshop time. The children get a chance to play and socialize and then they are able to focus and write. This is another time where I squeeze in the play. My assistant and I each have an activity to complete- usually the activities are a craft project of some sort. We work on a lot of coloring, cutting, and gluing at this time. While we call the children to our tables, the remaining students are on the rugs playing with selected choices. Here is where I keep my eye out to see who is getting along, who is off alone.  I also "eavesdrop" and see how they are solving the little issues that come up. No matter how academic kindergarten becomes, it's still so important they learn to get along without an adult to help them.  Of course I intervene if needed, but more often than not, they solve it on their own.


The other blocks of our day include our prayer time, calendar notebook, Math, Reader's and Writer's Workshop, and a mix of science and social studies. All of this plus Spanish, art, music, gym, computer, and library classes. Throw in a Mass here and there and...how long is our school day?!


Thanks for reading about our day. Sorry about the lack of photos this time. Head back and keep Bloghoppin!

Bloghoppin Organization!

So it's "Why" Wednesday- My tips for staying organized and why they work for me.

This is my favorite piece for organizing my weekly activities. I put the handouts, games, and crafts in the bin for the day. I love that each bin is big enough to hold craft materials and bulky things. It came with plastic file folders that are color coordinated- I put the handouts for the day in the folder. This way if I am ever unexpectedly absent, the sub can just look in the tub and do anything in that days tub.  I bought this organizer from Lakeshore here. It was pricey, but I'm pretty sure I had a coupon of some sort. I've had it for several years now and it still looks perfect! 

This is where I keep track of our work station rotations.  I have 5 families that rotate through 5 stations every week. I've seen so many ways to track this activity and they always seem so confusing to me. This is super easy- I just move the family down each day. Easy Peasy!

These carts seems to be in everyone's classroom.  I have two of them- they were a Black Friday steal at Michaels a couple of years ago. With coupons and discounts...final cost $14.99! Anyway, I use one to store originals of my handouts.  Each drawer contains the handouts for one month.  The other one stores my work station and afternoon small group activities, again drawers are organized by months.  At the end of the year, I weed through each drawer so I am ready to start the new school year.

I can't remember where I saw this idea first, but this is a new one for the school year. I love the idea of this especially now with 25 kindergarten kids in my classroom. I have several bins that I made a "Tidy Tub" label for and stuck it on with contact paper. I will put them on the table when the children are doing any cutting to collect scraps.  I can't believe I never thought of this before. My assistant and I would constantly walk around tables and pick up scraps as the children cut. These tubs are going to make it so much easier! 

This organization idea was born from a BTS nightmare. I usually have my families bring their supplies at my open house before school starts. I stack them in the coat area or behind my desk. It's basically a hot mess.  And then I'm always worried that they won't label the crayon box or smock and then I don't know whose is whose. Well with 25 families bringing in supplies, I knew I needed to come up with a plan. A big thank you to our local Trader Joe's for letting me have enough paper bags for my students for FREE! I stapled a sheet protector so I could reuse the bags.  The note has a place for the student's name and asks for 4 supplies to be put in the bag.  These are the supplies that I want to make sure get labelled for the right student. They can then put the other supplies in the classroom or hallway for me to store for later.

So those are the things that keep me organized. Well besides my lovely Erin Condren Teacher planner. Love, love, love it!

Head on back to Bloghoppin for more tips for keeping organized!

My Classroom digs!

 I'm Bloghoppin again!  This time I'm showing off my classroom.  You'll have to excuse the mess still. They were going through the textbook boxes in my room and there was still a few in there when I took the pictures.  Also, the new shades haven't been put up in my room yet, hence the bare windows.

Ok, enough with the disclaimers...here is my room!

This is a photo of my classroom door before I wrote the names on the cupcakes. It says "How sweet it is to be in Kindergarten." I made the awning from poster board and ribbon and the wreath from rolls of sparkly tulle that I rolled and wired to the frame. After I made the wreath, I realized it was a bit too puffy for my door, so I trimmed it. The cupcakes are cut from different cardstock.

This is my desk area. The empty bulletin board behind my desk is going to be for anchor charts. 

                                                           

Here is the view from my desk.  We were sorting religion lessons on two of the tables.

 This is in the back corner. On the closet door I put the chains for the kid's brag tags. By the window is where the materials for one of my Work Stations are stored.  The Write the Room boxes are in the baskets on either side. They were my Monday Made It a few weeks ago. In each box is a crayon box with materials for each child.

Also along the back wall, you'll find the pocket chart and puzzle area.  In the baskets are the book bags for Reading Buddy time- of course they are empty now :)

This is the free play area.  All of the toys are still bagged up from the summer.  My assistant washes them at the end of the year and then bags them to keep the dust off until back to school. Toy buckets are pulled out a few at a time during project time.  Some of the kids work at the tables on a project while others play on the rugs. We may have pushed more academics in Kindergarten, but we'll always have time for free play.

                                                           

This wall is on the right as you walk in. Under the curtain, there are cubbies I use for storage. You can see the monster treehouse job chart and "Student of the Week" board which is a stage setup.  Right now it is decorated to share things about me!

An important part of my classroom is our prayer table.  Being a teacher in a Catholic School, we begin every day gathered around this table. 

Next to the prayer table is my book cart.  The top row of books are seasonal and changed often.  The middle and bottom rows stay the same throughout the year. Children do choose books for their book bags from the lower bins for their Reading Buddy bags. The popcorn word display will soon be filled with our sight words.  

Finally this is the view from the door- excuse the textbook boxes. The bags on the table are their "Welcome to Kindergarten" bags filled with little toys and pencils and such I've picked up here and there.  They will be at their seats for the open house in a week.  I can't believe it's only a week away...where did the summer go!

So that's my classroom! Head on back to Bloghoppin to see more classroom digs! 

Back to School with Bloghoppin!

I did link up to a few of these posts last year.  I hope to make it through the week this time, but my parent orientation for my 25 new kindergartners is in a week. It's going to get crazy this week.

So Monday is all about me!!

I've been teaching for 11 years ( I think! Is it bad that I'm not really sure?) at a small, Catholic school in New York.  I began teaching in 3rd grade, but after 2 years I was moved to kindergarten and I've been there ever since. I love kindergarten and never want to leave! Where else can you wear a poodle skirt?

So outside of my classroom, what else do I do for fun?  Truthfully...not much.

I started dancing when I was in kindergarten. I instantly fell in love with it! Ballet was and still is my favorite genre- dancing en pointe always made me feel so pretty! Now, over 30 years later, ballet remains my favorite because it hurts my body the less than others! I am presently in a modern dance company which I love, but I have to be careful I don't throw my back out again- it surely stinks getting old!

Photo from Nacre website

As most teachers, I love to read! I'm reading the last in the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness

I hope to finish this last one before school starts, but then I am going to have to go back and read all three again.  It's been so long since I read the first two, I can't remember everything about the story.

And then there is my love of hockey and the New York Rangers. When hockey season begins, you can usually find me with my school work on my lap and the game on the TV. I watch almost every game, except the ones they black out because the network thinks I should be a Buffalo Sabres fan- don't even get me started on that! Makes me angry every year! But I digress... 

Last season my team made it to the Stanley Cup Finals and losing in those finals really hurt, but hopefully we'll get back there again this season. One of the main reasons why they got there is because of my favorite player- goalie Henrik Lundqvist. All I can say about him is...wow! Here he is being honored for wins and shutouts. His daughter is so adorable too!

And he ain't bad to look at either... :)

And last but certainly not least is my family.  I have the best parents in the world. This summer we spent a couple of days in Lake Placid and it was wonderful! Beautiful place and a beautiful time had by us. We laughed so much and had such a good time, it almost made the difficulties that came later easier.  At least we could hold on to that little vacation.  One thing about my family- if there is a rare side effect to anything, we will get it! I'm hopeful things will go back to normal soon.  

So that's me! Thanks for coming.  Tomorrow I'll show you around my classroom.