Five for Friday . . . Fraturday

I had all intentions of finishing this Friday night. Then I fell asleep - you know the I've-made-it-through-the-first-week-EXHAUSTION, and nothing I write is making sense anymore. So Five for Friday has turned into Five for Fraturday. Normally the first week seems to fly by, but this week seemed to drag on and on and on and on. Did it seem that way for anyone else? I also think it was the hottest week ever too. The heat index the last two days was around 120 degrees. Really!!! How is the even possible? But alas I am at home in my comfy pajamas and happy to say I had the best week ever.

Monday was the first day of school. I am now up to thirteen friends in my class. Every day they do something that just amazes me and makes me feel so lucky and blessed to have this group of friends. We had a lot of fun read Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. We made a list of all the things Mrs. Bindergarten did to get ready along with ourselves. We made Kindergarten is SUPER hats (found HERE) and I have to say I have a wonderful husband who comes and helps the first day. He helps go through supplies and take photos. It's so helpful to have someone that I can just look at and he is able to know just how I want something done. This year he dressed as Superman to go along with my classroom theme! He is amazing!! Now My friends ask where he is and when he's coming back.

Thursday afternoon, I had the privilege of joining several friends for our county's first Reading Council Meeting of the year. It was held at a popular local restaurant. My friend Betsy and I both ended up texting our husbands and telling them to join us after work for dinner and had a great impromptu double date. I think nights like that might be one of my favorite things to do with friends - laughing and sharing.

This week my friends worked on learning their positional words such as above, below, behind, and in front. We started off with everyone getting two Dixie cups and one animal manipulative piece. Then they had to listen to my directions and move the piece based on my directions. They loved this! It also gave me a really good idea about what each student already knew. We also spent some time reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and writing our names. My goal is to add a photo of each student to their page and assemble their pages into a book.

Kindergarteners say the darnedest things. Early on this week one of the ESE teachers was helping keep my friends occupied while I was taking care of some business. She would call a number and my friends would hold up that many fingers. I learned this week that five and five make ten, but when you put your hands together it also makes a butterfly!!! A butterfly! - said with perfect innocence and timing it was great. I also have another friend who would like to go home. This might be the biggest challenge among my friends, which is nothing compared to past challenges. This friend refused to eat, cried, made herself dry heave from crying so hard that mom kept her home one day and picked her up early one day. While this has not helped the situation. Today she was telling me "I need to go to the hospital". She's calling the clinic the hospital. It is so cute, but she thinks if she goes up to the nurse in the clinic she will go home. I'm happy to report that today was successful and we stayed all day (with many a few tears).

This week I joined Blog Hoppin's Back to School 2014 . I made it through the first four days. Head on over and read what is happening in everyone's classroom's this year. 

Don't forget to head back over to Doodle Bugs Teaching so you can see what everyone else has been up to this week too! 

When Thursday

Once again I'm here linking up with Blog Hoppin'. Today's topic is based around our daily schedule. There have been several changes to my schedule this year. The biggest one has been starting 20 minutes earlier!! Students can now arrive on campus starting at 7:15, but our contract time starts at 7:25. Now some kids eat breakfast in the cafeteria and some eat in the classroom. It's a bit confusing. Here's my schedule.

7:15 - 7:30 Buses arrive and students eat in the cafeteria

7:30 -7:45 Students are sent to the classrooms to eat. This is new this year. So I am trying to need to have something for our friends to do when they are finished eating breakfast. In the past my kids would have completed some of A Teeny Teacher's morning work pack when they entered the room, but I'm having to figure this out. Right now, I'm thinking my friends will eventually start the morning work. Then they either write in their journals, read a book, or on Fridays watch something special while we wait for the official start of our day. 

7:45-7:55 Our day officially begins with the pledge, our school PBS Whiz Kid Pledge, and the news, which is put on by the third, fourth, and fifth graders. 

7:55-9:30 English Language Arts - There's a lot that happens during this time: Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Whole Group Skill based instruction, Daily 5 centers, and Guided Small Groups 

9:30-10:00 Writing Instruction 

10:00-10:30 Immediate Intensive Intervention (iii) Reading Instruction - This time is set aside to directly instruct students in an area they are deficient in. This year every teacher in my pod is have this at the exact same time and will be sharing kids based on their needs. 

10:30-10:50  Calendar Time - We count, we sing, we count the number of days we've been in school, we review different math concepts

10:50-11:02 - Math Centers Part 1 - Just like we have Immediate Intensive Interventions for Reading Instruction we also have it for Math. 

11:07-11:32 Lunch

11:35-11:50 - Recess

11:50-12:50 - Math - We learn about numbers, shapes, sorting, addition, subtraction . . . you know the standards.

12:50-1:40 - Specials - We go to PE three days a week, art once and music once a week for 50 minutes. 

1:45-2:00 Math Centers Part 2 - My students have several minutes after coming back from specials to finish up their centers from earlier in the day.

2:00-2:35  Science/Social Studies - My goal is always to connect what we are learning in science or social studies so that we can spend as many afternoons with hands-on activities. Some weeks it works out perfectly and some weeks . . . not so much.

2:35-2:45 Prepare for Dismissal

That's our day. Head back over to Blog Hoppin' and check out how everyone else structures their day.

Why Wednesday

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' once again! Today's topic is about being organized and WHY it works.

I would like to think that I am very organized . . . possibly bordering on OCD. One of my summer projects was called Operation Organize which pertained to going through tons of resources that I have acquired since starting kindergarten. Here are three of my best tips.

Jump Drives
I actually have three drives which range from 8G to 16G. One holds all of my stuff from when I taught Second grade, the other holds all of TPT documents that I have bought, and the last one is what I call my daily jump drive, which holds lesson plans and any documents I might need each week. I have numerous folders, and am known to keep documents in multiple folders based on the skill, theme, or multiple documents that are a part of a series such as monthly writing centers. Keeping my jump drives organized means I know where I can find any document I might need and I'm not wasting time searching. If I ever lost (or washed) one of my jump drives I would devastated. This last May, God must have been watching over me because I did wash my daily jump drive, but thankfully after a bag of rice it still worked! Thank you God!!!!

Centers
In Kindergarten all of my centers are standards based, but they tend to have a monthly theme. So, I organize centers by the month. Each month has one or two 12x12 storage containers where I may store any important books for that theme and all of the centers that I already have printed, laminated, and ready to go. This saves me tons of time digging around for centers. As you can see, I do dig through each box . . .

Letter Boxes
This was a part of Operation Organize. After two years in Kindergarten, I realized that while I had my letter stuff organized nicely, I was getting one thing from over here and another thing over there. I was spending 15 to 25 minutes each week pulling out and putting away the different resources from all of the locations around the room. While it may not seem like I lot, I knew there had to be an easier way - Letter Boxes! I purchased a bunch of photo boxes from Michaels this summer. Next I sorted through the variety of letter resources. I mod podged two to three letters on the front of each box based on the order it is taught in our district. Once they were dry I placed all of the resources that pertained to those letters inside. So next week when we start with the letter M, I can pull out the first box, and within two minutes everything will be ready. Plus everything for the next week as well when we move on to A and S.

Where Tuesday

I'm not sure about anyone else, but the first day of school just about wore me out. I am now up to 11/13 friends showing up for our class. It's more than I had on Friday when I left. This week I have realized, I am not the energizer bunny and the thought of four more days right now seems crazy. Somehow I make it through each year, but man am I wiped.

I'm continuing to link up to Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week. Today is all about where I work and spend my time so here I go.

I had no plans to change my classroom this year until I showed my husband a bulletin board idea. Then, everything changed to SUPER HEROES! Here's a peak inside.

This is the view when you walk straight into my classroom. I have the carpet area sectioned off with our classroom library and book display. A few of our math manipulatives are stored under the Smart Board, and my desk is in the far corner. It's really nice and cozy. 

 If you look to the opposite corner from the front door, you can see our table area. Each table has their own buckets. I found it was so much easier when two friends shared versus four friends constantly learning over to the other side. We're very blessed to have four student computers in our classroom as well. The back door that is open leads to the pod office I share with three other amazing teachers and some of the best paras around. One of our paras created a coffee and tea bar for us. The other door with the white poster leads to the student bathrooms. You can just peak the corner of the kidney table in this photo. I keep my small group area right by the front door so I can see both zones and the computers while working with my small groups. 

 These photos were taken from the office door in the back corner.

 Here is the front of the classroom. 

 

Here is an up close look at our word wall. Tomorrow all of my students' names will be on the word wall. 

The state of Florida has some pretty strict fire codes. Two major codes involve us not hang anything from the ceiling or blinds and only 25 percent of non-bulletin board space my have paper covering it. One year I really though about that and visualized moving everything I had attached to the walls to just one wall. It's not a lot of space and requires some creativity. So, I try to use every flat non-wall surface I can find. I use my cabinets, I use the back of book cases, and this year I figured out a way to use my windows. All those windows are quite nice, but most of the time they are closed due to student distractions and the gleaming sun on the SmartBoard. Well, I attached 3M hooks across the windows and made my own clothes line without the clothes. I have three different levels that I can hang everything on. The first one I placed my favorite numbers on so it was eye level for my friends. Every other spot I thought about would have put them up high and my little friends just would not have been able to study and explore each number. Let's just hope my idea continues to work this year. 

I have not had a chance to dig through or even think about getting my materials out for centers. I am definitely only bringing out what we need as we use it. Eventually everything will be up and running, but for now it's just one day at a time . . . maybe a week at a time. 

Thanks for taking a peak of my classroom. Don't forget to head back to Blog Hoppin'.

Super Hero Freebies

It's been a busy day!!! My plan to sleep in was an epic failure. By 7AM I was awake and thinking about all of the products I wanted to and needed to make today. So instead of trying to fight it, I got up and started working with the plans of taking a nap this afternoon.

If you haven't caught on, my classroom has a Super Hero Theme. Today I spent time creating several products to help organize and prepare for the new year. BONUS - it's all available in my TPT store for free!!!! Here's what you can find.

 

First up is my Homework and Communication Folder Labels. I used sticker paper when I made these since I had it readily available at home. You can always print them, laminate, mod podge, packaging tape, or use any other method you so desire to adhere them to the folders. I placed a Homework Club label on all of the homework folders. My kindergarten team does a monthly homework calendar. To help encourage kids to stick with it each month I am going to have the Homework Club. Any student who has completed that month's homework will get to eat outside with me and have a special treat. 

My school has these large envelopes that go home every Wednesday. Student work, school fliers, and random other fliers all get shoved into this one envelope. It's crazy! As a parent I would not want to dredge through the depth of this envelope. Most do not for that very reason. The Communication Folder is going to be my way of helping parents sort through all of the stuff that goes home. Graded work is still going to be placed in the school envelope, but everything else is going to go home in the folder. Papers that parents need to read but do not need to sign or return will be placed on the left side to be LEFT at home . . . get it? Papers on the right side will require parents' attention and be sent back. After I made the labels, I realized that I should have switched Thor and Hulk on the labels. I don't need my parents thinking I will turn into Hulk if they forget to bring something RIGHT back. You can grab this product HERE.

This last week I made this quick sign for orientation thanks to some Pinterest Inspiration. Of course I had to add some Super Hero twist to it. It's available HERE. Print the sign and add a bowl of mints.

Anyone that has spent time in a primary classroom knows that tattling is bound to happen. There's always those few that feel they need to tell you what every single friend is doing. Really? We spend quite a bit of time the first few weeks discussing the difference and importance of Reporting vs. Tattling. I made this sign to hang in my room in hopes to help remind my friends. Even with it hung I know it won't stop it but I'm hoping it will help eliminate some of the tattling. Feel free to grab this product HERE.

Finally I made these adorable first day of school welcome goodie bag printables and bookmarks for my friends. Of course they also had to have the Super Hero Twist. I am so excited with how these turned out. Feel free to pick these up as well HERE. 

So after all of that and a trip to Target, I have yet to get my nap today. After church tomorrow we are having brunch with some of our best friends. Then my husband and I are going to swing by my classroom to drop off a few things. I have a few more projects I need to do for the first week of school, but they can wait for another day. 

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday again. It's been a crazy long week, and I am very ready to sleep in tomorrow.

 This week I have spent most of my time getting my classroom ready for my new friends. Since I was not able to get in early at all, it was a very busy week. I wish I had remembered to take a before picture because Monday morning I had all of my furniture in my room, plus the office and one of my pod mate's furniture in my room as well. It was a little overwhelming! Thankfully the moving guys who helped clean last week came while we were in a meeting and moved all the furniture back (albeit in the wrong spot). I have the best husband who took 2 vacation days just to come in and help me set up. He was amazing! There is no way I would have been anywhere near ready without him this year. I'll blog more about my class set up next week during Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week. 

Today felt like Christmas!!! Several years ago I transferred to the school I am at now. In doing so I left a school that had Smart Board, Light Speed systems, and Document Cameras in every room. My new school had the sound system when I started there and installed Smart Boards my first year, but Document Cameras were only given to the upper grades. Kindergarten had Viz Cams, which are alright if you don't know the power of a Document Camera. I hated the Viz Cam. It was too dark, and I had to unhook part of the Light Speed system to get it to work. It was really a pain. In the spring, I actually told the school librarian I did not want it back. Well today I got a new Document Camera!!! I think I squealed and jumped up and down when I heard I was getting one!!! Truthfully, I was in the line for the copier (you know the never ending line at 2:30 before the first student contact day) and actually left the line to go pick it up. Yes!! I left the copying line for this wonderful present. It's all hooked up and ready to go. Oh I can't wait!!!! I might still be squealing!

The beginning of this month I had a Pampered Chef party for my friends. We had the best time! So in among the craziness of this week all of the goodies we ordered were delivered. On Wednesday when I was sorting through and packing up every one's stuff, I felt like Santa Clause. I never realized how happy kitchen stuff makes me. Everyone needs kitchen stuff!

Last night we had Parent Orientation at my school. I work at a relatively large school. We have 8 kindergarten units and one self contained unit. Florida also has laws pertaining to class size limits. The kindergarten class limit is 18 students. Schools are fined for students over the limit AND for students under the limit. There are ways around the limit once certain counts occur during the fall, but for the most part, classes stick pretty close to it. Currently, I only have 9 students on my list. This is pretty similar in all of our units. At last night's orientation (which was 3 hours long), eight of my students and their families came. This was a really good turn out! I have a lot of positive and supportive parents, almost all of the families spoke English, and I did not have anyone run around the room, roll around on the carpet, or trigger any major red flags. I have several that do not know how to spell their name but it will be alright. I'm excited to see what will happen in the next 180 days of school.  However, if our numbers don't go up we may lose a unit or two. We will have a few more students enroll on Monday but I don't think we will get 40 students coming our way to ensure we keep all of our units. All I know is Monday will be crazy. 

What better way to end this week than laying in bed with Miley? Please forgive my gnarly hair, but that is what happens on a Friday night after a 50 plus hour week. This morning, I just wanted to sleep for another two or three hours so cuddling with her was a perfect ending. Tomorrow I will be sleeping in and then delivering some more of the Pampered Chef orders. 

Be on the look out for a few freebies this coming weekend. I'm working on a few projects and will share them once they are ready. See you all next week!