Apples!

Our apple unit is already off to a great start! We have a ton of apple themed lessons going on. Here are a view that we are focusing on this week.

Today we started creating our schema chart about apples. Credit to Mr. Greg over at Kindergarten Smorgasboard for such a good idea! We gave it our own spin by using apple cut outs instead of post-it notes.

  

We will add to this chart throughout the unit. We will be using these books to help us learn as well.

 

One of our literacy centers this week uses my apple themed sensory bin pack. The pack includes differentiated recording sheets. We have already completed the page where students color a letter, so this week we are practicing writing the letters.

The pack also includes apple themed letter cards to place in the sensory bin. I switched it up this week with beans and letter magnets. 

I have also found some great freebies from some other awesome bloggers!

Check out Mrs. Albanese's Kindergarten Class for this bobbing for apples freebie.

 

 We will also be using a free interactive math book from Mrs. Kelly's Klass.

Hope you enjoyed this peek at our week! I'll be sharing more apple fun soon!

Fact and Fiction Cows

In the midst of grad school homework, I am coming to you to share just a small part of our farm unit from the past two weeks. Of course we have been reading a lot of farm literature! So I thought this would be a great way to introduce the concept of fiction and non-fiction.

I decided to focus on just one animal for this activity. I chose cows because most of the students in my class had some general background information.

Our librarian helped me find a wide range of books for our unit. Here are just a few of our favorites.

 

After reading each book, the students had to tell me if they thought the book was fiction or non-fiction. They also had to provide reasons for their thinking.

This part was completed over the course of the unit. We recorded our thoughts on a very simple T-Chart.

As you can see from the chart, the cow theme also went along with our nursery rhyme of the week: Hey Diddle Diddle. The students did a great job!

 

Today we also created a graph about our favorite farm animals. I love using Post-Its for our graphs! The horse was the winner.

Next week we are on to apples!

2015 Classroom Reveal

 

Thank you to Schroeder Shenanigans and Lucky Little Learners for hosting another awesome link up! This month everyone is sharing their classroom reveal. I can't wait to see all of the awesome ideas!

Creating a classroom really is a labor of love. Being a second year teacher, my classroom is mostly made up of hand me downs and yard sale purchases. Also, keep in mind that we have already been "living" in our room for about a month. It might not be perfect, but its our home away from home.

Welcome to Ms. Harlan's Classroom! 

 

 

I kept the owl theme for this year, but I've already picked out my theme for next year!

 

This is our main carpet area in front of the SMART Board and calendar bulletin board. The numbers on the wall are crooked because they are attached with velcro and the students remove/replace them by themselves.

We complete part of our calendar routine on the SMART Board, but we also keep a calendar, our job chart, or growing number line, and some other odds and ends on the bulletin board.

 You can see more details about this board on my #2getherwearebetter post from last month.

 

 

One of my favorite parts of the classroom is our reading and writing area! This includes the library, listening center, and writing center. I change out the materials in this are regularly depending on what we are learning.

There are clothespins attached to the wall to easily switch out anchor charts. You can see that there is also a small clothesline for displaying student work. 

 

 

The little blue chair came from a yard sale and the cushions are actually for lawn chairs.

 

This area is where we keep our workstations/centers and materials for indoor recess. The easel is another yard sale purchase and the kiddos love it! It was definitely worth the 5 bucks!

Here is where I conduct small groups during literacy and math blocks. I have some more clothespins on this wall for rotating anchor charts. I keep all of our small group materials on the white bookshelves. The number posters and small easel are from Really Good Stuff.

Now you are looking at our back wall. You can see our awesome color wall! Look for an upcoming post about that project. I use this bulletin board for displaying student work throughout the whole year. Underneath it is the blue table that we use for computers.

And finally, the desk area! This area is kind of my catch all. The top owl print is from the Dollar General and I painted the bottom one myself. I keep my master copy binders on the top shelf, instructional books on the second shelf, my read alouds on the third shelf, and my snack stash on the fourth shelf (Everyone has one of those, right?) 

 

 

My favorite things in this area are the giant clipboards and the personalized candy dish my sister made for me! The clipboards came with school scrapbook kits and I am not sure that they are available any more.

It may not be much, but it is just right for us!

Thank you for stopping by my classroom!

 

Humpty Dumpty Experiment

After a long week of MAPS testing, we were ready for some fun! We always start the beginning of the year with nursery rhymes. This week we focused on Humpty Dumpty, so we ended the week with an egg experiment.

  

You can download this free recording sheet that we used from I Heart Crafty Things.

Not only was this a lot of fun, it was also a simple way to introduce my students to the scientific process of creating a question, making predictions, and conducting an experiment.

I'm pretty sure the best part was my animated facial expressions ;) I was cracking up when I saw the pictures my paraeducator took! 

We conducted our experiment by wrapping the eggs in various materials then placing them in small plastic container. The students counted down and I dropped each container on the floor.

 

 

We thought it was so exciting to unwrap the egg and see if our predictions were correct!

We ended up with two eggs that didn't crack.

 

 

Next week we will move on to Hey Diddle Diddle and farm animals!

WWW Wednesday: Managing Snack

Hello everyone and welcome to another What Went Well Wednesday!

Last year I developed an effective snack routine with my kinders and am already implementing it with my students this year.

It keeps everything running smoothly and keeps the classroom nice and clean.

We have snack time right after literacy centers and the students know that the quietest table gets their snack first. I then release students by their tables to get their snack out of their backpack. Students are responsible for bringing their own snacks, but I always keep extras on hand in case someone forgets.

My paraeducator and I ask the students to try opening their snacks to help build their independence. Then we circulate to help anyone still struggling. After the students are done eating, they are allowed to come to the carpet for brain break time. They know that they are not allowed to come until all of their snack trash is cleaned.

We use the wide variety of videos offered on the free website GoNoodle.  

It gets the students' wiggles out before specials classes and keeps them occupied while their friends are still eating.

I also have two jobs each week that are part of the "Clean-Up Crew". These students get to use my special sweepers that were purchased from the Dollar Tree. They sweep up any crumbs that happened to find their way onto the floor.

This simple routine keeps everyone busy and our classroom clean! It especially helps since students finish eating at different times. I am always a fan of getting students moving :)

Have a great Wednesday and happy snack time! :) 

Engaging Guided Math Ideas

I hope the beginning of your school year is going great! My kiddos have their morning routine down, but are so sleepy by the end of the day.

Today I am guest blogging over at Kindergarten Chaos about ideas for your guided math groups. This can really be a fun part of your day by incorporating play and relevance to your students.

 

Make sure you head over there to read the post!

Also, there are certain materials that I always keep on hand during guided math. You can read about those materials here.

Thank you to Abigail at Kindergarten Chaos for having me!

Hope you get some great ideas for your math groups!

 

Five on Friday: Name Activities

What a week! We started school on Wednesday, so of course we have been very busy. 

The past three days we focused on learning our routines and working with our name. 

 Here are five different activities we did to practice our name.

1. First Letter Collage

We started with being able to recognize the first letter in our name. Students also learn how to use a glue stick properly and work on their fine motor skills by tearing the paper.

2. Name Puzzle

After writing the students' names on sentence strips, I allow them to practice their cutting skills by cutting the letters apart. We then practice putting them in order and naming each letter.

3. Rainbow Write

We use rainbow writing as a center throughout the year, so this is the perfect activity to introduce the concept. 

4. Self Portrait

This is our first piece of work that goes in the hallway. We talk about how to draw people and take our time with our art. At the bottom, students will write their name.

5. Shared Writing

We start this on the first day of school and complete it throughout the week. The students really get into it because I tell them that they can learn to read on the first day of school! Plus, they like using the smelly markers ;)

In just three days students can make considerable progress! Students who could not even recognize their name are now practicing writing the letters. 

I can't wait to see the progress they continue to make :)         

Five on Friday: Open House

I have been very busy this week preparing for my new class of kinder kiddos! Our open house is on Monday and they will start school on Wednesday.

These are five of my favorite things I have ready for open house.

1.Interactive Door Display

Each student gets an owl for their name and chooses where to put it on the door. Instant ownership of the classroom. Even if they all end up near the bottom ;)

2.Student Gifts

Each student receives a book from our resource center and a bag of Jitter Glitter! I don't know who wrote the original Jitter Glitter poem, but you can find many variations of it on Pinterest. It is so cute to look down at their little heads on the first day and see some of their glitter still stuck in their hair :)

3.First Homework Assignment

I give the students their first homework assignment at open house. It is a family project to help us get to know the students. I also send home the small poster boards with them.

4."Owl" About Me Form

I ask each parent to fill out an "Owl" About Me page giving us a little information about their student and family. You can download your own version for free on my TPT store!

5. Photo Booth!

So fun! I have this up for open house and the first day of school so parents can have a little photo op.

And it includes fun props I made with my Silhouette! 

I am so excited for my new students to get here! Kindergarten Rocks!

11 Back to School Read Alouds

One of my favorite parts of setting my classroom up is getting out all of the great books!

I have a set of books that I keep out for the kiddos in the library. I change these out every couple of weeks depending on what we are learning about. 

Right now it is all ready for the beginning of school!

I also have a special set of books that I keep just for read alouds. Reading aloud time is probably my favorite part of the day.

I LOVE being able to share new books with my kiddos! If you share them with excitement, the students will react to them with excitement. It becomes one of their favorite parts of the day as well. 

These are some of the read alouds I include at the beginning of the year.

1. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

The Kissing Hand is a back to school classic, so I had to include it! I know most kindergarten teachers read this book within the first week. There are a ton of activities out there to go with this book and make a keepsake hand print. I refuse to get paint out on the first day of school so we just use it to discuss our feelings. 

2. Pete the Cat:Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin

I read this one of the very first day of school and the kiddos love it! We talk about the different places in school that Pete goes to before we take a school tour. We also make a graph later in the week showing our favorite color of shoes. I use a coloring page and first day certificate from Inspired by Kindergarten that you can download for FREE!

3. David Goes to School by David Shannon

We read about David on the second day of school to review our rules and expectations. Then we do a sorting activity as a class where we sort behaviors into good or bad choices.

4. If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

Laura Numeroff is one of my favorite children's authors, so I was pumped when Kohl's had her books and stuffed animals this summer. I grabbed the mouse to use as our class pet this year. My dad has named him "Colby". I am going to introduce Colby to the class with this book. Each student will get an opportunity to take Colby home throughout the year. We also revisit this book at the end of the year to write our own "If You Take a Mouse to Kindergarten" stories.

 5. Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London

I love to incorporate this book because it was one of my favorites as a child. I usually use it towards the end of week one as students are becoming more comfortable with school. You have to read it with lots of expression! It is a funny favorite of the kiddos.

6. Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney

 This book is perfect for kinder kiddos during the first week of school! I read it towards the end of day one when they are starting to get tired, cranky, and wondering if their parents are going to come back to get them. 

7. Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff

 

 I use this book during the third week of school to introduce our color unit. It is a very calming book and the illustrations are awesome!! One of my favorite read alouds!

8. Dr. Seuss's ABC Book and 9. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Classics! No kindergarten class should be without these books. I use them, of course, to introduce letters.

10. Never Ride Your Elephant to School by Doug Johnson

Another great humorous book! After reading this book, we make a graph about how we come to school. 

11. How to Read a Story by Kate Messner

I saw this book last year and just had to have it! I can't wait to use it to introduce literacy centers. Many students coming into kindergarten have never sat down with a book. This story is the perfect place to start!

I hope this gives you some ideas about books to read aloud in your own classroom. 

This time is so important to kindergarten kiddos!

Show them your love for reading right off the bat! :) 

Interactive Kindergarten Calendar

Thank you to Schroeder Shenanigans and Lucky Little Learners for setting up an awesome linky party! Today we are linking up to share bulletin board ideas with you.

One thing essential to my classroom is spaces that are functional and easy to maintain. I have two bulletin boards in my classroom. One is completely devoted to displaying student work.

The background is actually the fabric from my college dorm curtains. It lasted the whole year and still looks great for this year.

The other bulletin board is for our calendar time. We complete part of our routine on the Smart Board, but I like having part of it on the bulletin board to reference through out the day.

The actual calendar has wipe-off capability so I have the students physically write the date on the calendar each day. We then discuss what the day of the week is, yesterday, and tomorrow. 

We use the hundreds chart to play games and practice counting. The orange sentence strip is where we will start our number line. We add to it each day.

We keep track of our days of school on the ice cream wipe-off poster. 

I keep our calendar songs in page protectors and change them each month. This set is from growing kinders.blogspot.com. After introducing the songs, I pick a student to lead the songs.

The white sentence strips you see are for our letter of the day and sight words. They also have wipe-off capability and came from the Target dollar spot. 

We also keep our job chart on this board. This owl set is from Carson-Dellosa. 

I attached magnets to the titles and my kiddos' names to make them easy to change out each week. 

I designed this board to be interactive. Anything that needs to be written is completed by the kiddos. 

Like I said earlier, the rest of the calendar is on our Smart board. 

I am so happy to have my bulletin boards ready for the beginning of the year! Only 9 more days to go! :)

Don't forget to go back to the linky party for tons of great bulletin board ideas!