Advice For The First Day!

There are many things that teachers need to do during the first few days of school... but over the years I've learned the important things that work for me and the things I have to remember to do each and every year to have a successful year!

I remember my first year teaching... it was so challenging and so hard. Apparently there was a whole lot more to teaching than what they taught me in college and I felt overwhelmed and not prepared at all! Don't get me wrong, my classroom was inviting and all set up, I had all my lessons for the first week printed and planned, my planbook was neat and organized, my supplies were ready to go... and then I got my class and brought them into my room. I was so excited to have all these little faces staring at me and then it hit me... WOW! These kids are looking to me for guidance and support and to be a leader! It took me an entire year to learn behavior management skills that worked for me - those cookie cutter ideas they taught in college were a good starting point but they didn't tell the whole story! I had to find rules that worked for me and a teaching model that worked for me. I look back and to this day my first class was probably one of my favorite classes and there was a lot of learning going on in my room - the kids were learning from me and boy was I learning from them! I was learning how to be the best teacher I could be.

So what are some of the things I learned and the mistakes I made?

Mistake #1: Being a friend
My first year I was so excited to have my own classroom that I wanted my class to like me and I wanted it to be a fun year. The first few days I didn't set up rules or establish routines, we played get to know you games and had fun... it was great, the kids and I really enjoyed it... that is until I had to start my mini-lessons and I found that when I tried to establish my class rules and establish routines there was quite a lot of resistance.

The Fix:
NOW I establish routines and rules right away. On the first day of school I introduce some of our rules/routines - sitting Magic 5 on the carpet, tiptoeing/not running when you move from your chair to the carpet and back to your chair, lining up in two quiet lines and walking in the halls quietly. I have found that introducing these basic rules the first day really work for me. I introduce them randomly throughout the first day and practice them throughout that whole day (and every day after that!)

On the second day of school I formally introduce the rules of our class, they are very basic: keep your hands and feet to yourself, walk nicely, work quietly, raise your hand, respect each other. We read books about the rules, draw pictures of the rules and act out the rules to help reinforce them. We read our rules poster every morning (and afternoon) for at least the first few weeks - then only when they need a reminder. Usually on the second or third day I give them assigned seats at their tables and introduce all our table procedures - noticing which table they are at (red, blue, yellow, or green) and learning to put their supplies away (homework folders, crayons, pencils, glue, scissors) in the correct places. On the second day I also introduce where our backpacks, lunches, snacks and coats go.

I know it sounds like a lot but the kids are great and by setting up these routines and rules immediately and practicing them constantly I have found that the kids know what to expect from the get go and they are more receptive! Sometimes this means doing a little less fun the first few days and more rules/routines practice but once these are well established we have lots more time to have lots of fun!

Mistake #2: No clear signals
When I first started teaching I had NO IDEA how I wanted to transition my students from one thing to another. It was a mess - sometimes they'd pay attention, other times they wouldn't and I often found myself raising my voice which I DO NOT like to do at all! I actually hate when I hear myself raise my voice.

The Fix:
I picked on thing and stuck with it! It took a lot of thinking and trial and error before I figured out what worked for me... at first I tried to do what other teachers on my grade were doing, but then I found that it just didn't work for me! So what do I do now?

Mini-Lessons: I start my mini-lessons by always saying this little phrase: "I am the teacher, my job is to ____" The kids yell out: "TEACH", then I say "You are the students, your job is to____" and the kids yell out: "Listen and Learn!" They then sit magic 5 with their eyes and ears on me ready to learn. It takes LOTS of practice to establish this but I like it because they know I mean business when we say this! I don't use this for anything but my mini-lessons so they know what to expect when I say this and I don't want to over use it!

Math & Literacy Centers: I use a bell system for my center time and I really like it, again this is what I found works for me so it might not work for you but feel free to give it a try! When I ring my bell 1 time they students have to clean up - sometimes this means just putting the supplies in the middle of the table and other times it means packing everything up and putting it back on the shelves. If I want them to put their stuff back on the shelves, as I ring the bell 1 time I inform them centers are over put everything away! Once the tables are cleaned up the kids push their chairs in and stand behind them and WAIT! When I ring the bell 2 times in a row the kids switch centers and get right to work... Some of my friends have used various instruments instead of a bell, I may try using instruments this year - for example using a bell for math and a tamborine for literacy...

Lining Up: I use songs to help line up and remind them about the rules in the hall. The kids like the songs and it makes lining up fun. Some years I have given line spots to my kids other years I let me kids just line up wherever they want - this really depends on how the kids are each year. I give them a few weeks before I decide whether or not they will have line spots. I usually have a girls line and a boys line, for me it's the easiest... but a cute idea my friends use is to have favorite character lines. They use their two class mascots, mouse and corduroy, as the "line leaders" and each kid is assigned a line - either the mouse line or the corduroy line. They make a chart that hangs by the front door to remind the kids (and themselves). They have used this system because without fail they have had a lot more boys than girls in their room and they needed a system to line them up.

Getting Their Attention: I used to use a ton of different methods to get my kids attention and it just didn't work. Consistancy is key... most of our school uses a clapping pattern to get the kids attention - you clap a pattern and then they clap back. Since they often use this in the cafeteria to get the kids attention I have adapted this and use this method.

I am sure there are many more things that I have learned over the years but these are the important ones that stand out to me and the ones that I think every new teacher should be aware of!! What are some things you have learned over the years?

What I Do On The First Day Of School

I know many of you wonderful teachers are busy getting ready for the first days of school... some of you may even be starting soon! I still have a few more weeks left with my little munchkin at home before I head back but I thought I'd share how my first day of Kindergarten has gone over the past few years... and some updates I am thinking of trying this year!

 For the past few years (actually for as long as I know) the Kindergarten classes in my district have started the year with 2 half days (the teachers typically spend those two after noons putting away supplies as well as planning for the remainder of the month). This year there is talk that the Kindergarten students will have one half day and the second day will be a full day... this means rethinking and changing a whole lot of things!

Many of you have posted about your first days, the activities and lessons you do. You've also posted about having a meet the teacher day BEFORE the first day of school. What a wonderful treat that is, in my school we don't meet our children until that very first day of school and the parents are not invited to join them in the classroom, we pick them up from either the cafeteria or the school yard (depending on where our designated pick up area is that day). This means it's not only their first time in our rather large school but they don't have a chance to meet me or our classroom with the support of their parents - I try to plan activities and lessons that will help ease this transition for them.

BEFORE THE FIRST DAY

Before the kids come in on that first day there are a few things I always prep:

1. I make a sign with my name and room number on it, usually the size of a piece of paper which I put on my clip board and hold up when I go and get my kids on that very first day. 
2. LABELS!!! I print out ALL of my labels before the first day so I can start labeling the students notebooks and folders immediately. I also have their labels printed for the closet (one label for their coat, one for their backpack and depending on the closet one for their lunchbox). 
3. Large index cards with each child's name clearly written in black - I always keep extra on hand incase a new student shows up or a name is spelled wrong (I use these for an activity). I also punch two holes in the top of the card and attach string so the students can hang them around their neck. 
4. Camera! I always bring my camera those first few days to make sure I capture their first experiences in Kindergarten. 
5. The basics - I make sure the typical basics are also done (calendar is up, attendance sign in board is made, tables and bins are all clearly labeled, etc.)

DAY 1

I always go pick my kids up a little early on the first day. I usually show up at the designated spot and take a moment to say hi to the kids and give them time to see me. I take it slow and we don't rush to go upstairs. Once I feel they kids are ready to move up to our room I explain to them where we are going and that they must keep their eyes on me at all times. Then off we go... when we get to our room I have the kids line up outside the door and again introduce myself (it's a lot less noisy right outside our door). I tell them that they can pick any chair they want to sit down. Once all of the children have found a seat I introduce them to our classroom and explain to them a little about what they will do while in school, the special's they will go to and all the fun they will have. Then I have them pay attention to what table they are sitting at and talk about how we tippy-toe from the table to the carpet and back again. We practice this a few times, over and over again, of course giving lots of praise for the students who tippy-toe perfectly.

Once on the carpet I show the students the attendance chart and explain how it works, the students can't actually use it at this point because I always add their pictures to the chart after the first day of school. Next it's time for our first getting to know you game. I take out a small stuffed animal or ball and we go around the room sharing one thing about ourselves - usually a favorite color or a favorite game. After the game it's back to business. I introduce the "Flow of the Day" and explain explicitly what they will be doing for the day, mapping it out so there are no surprises.

Next we go on a tour of the classroom - usually I just walk around and show the kids around the room. I'm thinking that on the second day of school (especially if it's a full day) I might try a classroom scavenger hunt, I've been seeing a lot of them on the teaching blogs and taking lots of good notes! At this point the kids are ready to be moving and want to explore more. I go over the procedures of how to line up and practice a few times. Then we take a walk to see where the bathrooms are. This gives the children a chance to get out of the room for a little while and they learn where the bathrooms are which is very important.

After our bathroom break it's time for our first mini-lesson... right away I introduce the term 'mini-lesson' and explain that my job is to teach and their job is to listen and learn. I usually repeat this mantra often throughout the year before my mini-lessons, it seems to help the students realize it's time for business! Our first mini-lesson for the year: MAGIC 5! I make a great poster using pictures of a former student and the kids love it! We talk about what it means to "sit with magic" and why it's important. We practice it, sometimes I take out a magic wand and sprinkle magic dust on them to help them! Now that they know how to sit quietly I can introduce our next activity.

Before I go on let me just add, at this point ALL of the children's belongings are still scattered around the room, on the floor and at the desks. Don't panic, I'm getting to putting them away, I promise!

It's time for our name tag coloring activity. Each child gets their large name tag and they are going to color and draw pictures of things they love. (I have old crayons already set up in bins for each table to use). I had seen on another blog (I'm so sorry I forgot which one I saw it on.... if this idea is yours please let me know so I can link up and give you credit!) about making name headbands using sentence strips. I might try this as it is something different and could be a lot of fun.... BUT I usually keep the name tags for the first few weeks so the kids can wear them to specials so I'm going to have to really think about how I want to do a name tag activity this year! Anyways, I have baskets of books and extra drawing paper also sitting on the tables so if a student finishes early they can keep themselves entertained while I FINALLY do my supply check.

I used to actually sit down and check off EVERY supply for each child - that was WAY to time consuming. Now I make a simple sheet to just check off who brought in the important things: folders and notebooks. Everything else I don't worry about any longer... this makes putting away the supplies so much easier. While the kids are working on their name tags I call the students up one or two at a time to help me put their supplies away. I have lots of bins and boxes in the front of the room labeled and I challenge the children to sort their supplies. As they do this I monitor that they are sorting correctly - I also work on trying to put all some of the larger supplies away where they will stay for the remainder of the year, such as: paper towels, tissues, and baggies. Crayons, glue and scissors go into larger boxes that I then split into smaller community bins. I try my best to get most of the supplies into bins and boxes that are manageable for me.

I try to get through ALL of the students supplies while the children work at their desks. I do not keep them at their tables for longer than 20 minutes and I constantly look to see what they are doing. If they seem to be getting antsy before 20 minutes is up then we clean up and move on to the next activity. Anyone whose supplies I do not get to I just pile in the corner and pretend I don't see them.

Now that supplies have been collected and name tags are decorated we play the name tag game! The kids bring their name tags to the carpet and we play 'I spy' and 'We both like'... the kids look around and find someone who drew the same thing as them, at times I will call out 'I spy' clues for the kids to find certain students in the room based on whats on their name tag. This game helps the kids realize that they have things in common as their peers and really helps them warm up even more.

It's time to read a book! I review 'Magic 5' and remind students to leave their name tags alone (or collect them). I usually start the year with a Miss. Bindergarten book, I LOVE all the 'Kissing Hand' books BUT I like to read them back to back so I wait until we are in school for a full week so we can do a mini/informal character study. After the book I introduce the students to our circle talk procedures and we discuss how they might make friends in our room!

We do A LOT of work in our school using famous artists and looking at artwork. I introduce this component to our day and we look at Norman Rockwell's painting Coming and Going, 1947. We talk about the painting and where the family might be going... I use the painting to lead into a discussion about our favorite summer memories. After discussing our favorite memories on the carpet I let the students draw pictures of their memories. This is a good way to see who can write their names, who might attempt to write a sentence or add labels to their drawings, and I can see who can follow directions.

Next we move on to Math - I introduce the children to the Math area of classroom. I show them our Math bulletin board and go over the calendar routine. I then take out some of our Math manipulatives and let them have some free exploration. IF I have a lot of supplies left to go through I take this time to do it... otherwise I walk around and sit at the various tables and chat with the children about both the supplies and how their first day is going. (Of course as any good kindergarten teacher would do I always review the rules of how to use the manipulatives BEFORE the kiddies go back to their seats and start playing working.)

To end the day I introduce a STAR book and read it. Our star books are 'favorite' books that we read for an entire week to help the children build the confidence to be able to 'read' the book on their own. I try to pick a favorite fairy tale that many of the kids already know.

At the conclusion of the book I tell the kids how proud I am of them and how much fun I had meeting all of them. I also tell them that tomorrow is going to be a GREAT day! I go over the schedule for the next day and give them some fun things they can look forward to! I've seen a lot of posts about Jitter Juice and I think I'm going to have some for the second day of school - I can tell the kids about a special treat I'll be bringing in the next day and that might help keep them excited to come back!

Before the kids leave we review how to line up and our dismissal policy. For the first few weeks of school I explain that NO ONE can leave my line without receiving a sticker. I usually purchase smelly stickers or really shiny ones that the kids will love!

Well my friends, that is a glimpse into the first day of school for my kiddies! I'm exhausted just typing it all out! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures but I will try to get some this year and add them.

So what do I want to add/change this year?

• First day pictures - I saw some great pins about taking first day pictures with kids holding picture frames or chalk boards. I think I am going to get a small chalk board and decorate it. Then I will have each kid write their name on the board to the best of their ability and I will take a picture of the kids holding the boards. I will do this again during the last month of school, what a great keepsake it will make! I will still take a picture of the each kid without anything in their hands so I can use the pictures to label the attendance chart and other things.
• First day name tags - I usually do the index cards but maybe I'll do headbands - anyone have any other fun ideas for this?
• Craftivity - It might be fun to introduce a craftivity on the first day, although all the supplies wont be organized so this might be a good idea for the second day of the school. Does anyone have a cute craftivity to try?

Well I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my first day of Kindergarten.... I'd love to hear your ideas and insight!!

Pictures and a New Product!

I know it's been a few days BUT I FINALLY have pictures of all my great deals and purchases from the past few days....

Teachers Tools for The Grade is closing their doors on Sunday, June 29th. Such a sad day, one of my favorite stores to stop in and pick up goodies for my classroom! I got some great deals when I was there this past week - 70% off! I purchased a coffee pot for my daughter for only $8, she LOVES it! I got three different bulletin board sets (birthday, manners and weather), a new hand washing poster, birthday crowns, a few different types of bulletin board boarders, tons of stickers, lots of pencils, stamps, stationary, and some spring/Easter window clings for my daughter! I'm hoping to head over to the store one last time to say goodbye and get a few more goodies!

Shopping in Target's Dollar Bins is always a treat - especially when you are 5 hours from home and can find all sorts of goodies! From white boards to flash cards I LOVE all my purchases and my daughter loves her new sandwich cutters!

These are the goodies I got at my local Target! I'm so excited to decorate and hang up my new foam pieces... first I have to figure out how I am going to use them!

After shopping in TWO Targets miles and miles apart this is what I ended up with! I'm so excited to start organizing, hanging and using all these wonderful new supplies.

How could I pass up the opportunity to purchase CRAYOLA Crayons for only 25 cents? What a steal! I saved over $50 on all these and spent under $15!!! LOVE IT!

Between Target, Toys-R-Us and the teacher store in NY that is closing on June 29th (so sad to see them go!) I think I made out pretty well! Have you found any great deals? I'm still trying to locate a few more items - blue and yellow small pocket charts from the dollar bins at Target and the small foam cubes/dice from the Dollar Tree. My local stores don't have either of these items, I'm disappointed and hope I can find at least a few packs of the cubes. Miss. Kindergarten has a GREAT blog post about how she is using these dice  DIY Foam Dice and I know that her ideas would be a great addition to my classroom... now if I can only find these dice!

Since I couldn't find the dice I decided to start working on another project - my Attendance sheets! Every year I make calendars to keep track of my classes attendance. The students sign in each day by moving their names on our class chart (I'll have to get a picture of it once I'm back in the classroom), but I need a way of keeping a record of their attendance. Our office gives us a printout for attendance but the whole class doesn't fit on one page and I find it hard to follow the lines on the pages. That being said I took matters into my own had and I make my own attendance calendars. I usually rush at the end of each month (or a few days into the current month) to try to make my calendars... but the teaching blogging world has inspired me and I actually made ALL my calendars already! I am all set for the whole year, I just have to add my students names! I'm super excited about this!

My calendars are pretty simple and easy to use - all you have to do is add your students names! I never mark off who is present (that would mean WAY to many check marks!) instead I use a red pen to mark who is absent and a blue pen to mark who is present.... OK I start like that in September and by the end of October I am using a pencil so I can easily erase the marks, plus pencils are easier to come by in my classroom!

You can see in the picture above that the calendar clearly has NO SCHOOL marked off on a few days!  I love how neat and clean that looks. Now my packet contains 3 sets of blank calendars with dates and months already filled in BUT there are no days off marked (does that make sense? I didn't mark off NO SCHOOL on any days). The sets that you will get are blank with no graphics, seasonal/holiday themed and pirate themed. I also included the calendar I will be using so you can see what the year would look like with our vacations marked off.

IF you love these calendars but want them to look as pretty as mine with all the vacations and PD days marked off for you please send me a message, include your email address and your school calendar (or the vacation/pd days in a list with what you want them to say), you can also include what theme you want. I hope you enjoy these calendars as much as I do! Stop by my TpT store and check them out: Back to School Monthly Attendance Calendars/Forms If you decide to use these forms please leave some feedback, I'd love to hear what you think and how you use them!

I'm working on my forms for organizing my reading and writing conferences... I hope to have them up and will write about them in the next few days!

Travels, Sales and New Products

I'm back!! Did you miss me? I'm sorry for disappearing on you like that, can you forgive me? You see I had many many many family obligations over the last two weeks which literally took me across the entire east coast of the good ole' U.S. of A. (and Canada too)! From Florida up to Canada my family and traveled. We had a great time and I wish I could have had some friends come do some guest posts, but I had NO idea how to set that any. Anyways, I'm back and I have some great things to share with you!!!

Not to long ago I read a blog (sorry I forgot which one, they are all just so wonderful and I blog stalk WAY too many of them) and the wonderful author referenced being forced motivated to go visit Target and Walmart and Dollar stores to get all the latest goodies all the other bloggers have been purchasing... well I got the bug to! While traveling I managed to find lots of stores to stop and get great deals on many things. I couldn't believe that what was sold out in the stores by me was fully available at stores in other parts of the U.S.!! It was great - thank goodness everything fit in my suit case and my car. To top off all my purchases the teacher store right by me is closing it's doors which means 70% off everything! I went to town shopping!! I even purchased a toy coffee pot for my little peanut, I mean it was $8 how could I not!! I got tons of handwriting stickers which I will be using to help make some take home baggie activities (don't worry I'll share once they are done!)... I got posters, boarder paper, stamps, pencils, oh so much stuff! Of course I can't keep myself away and I KNOW I will be going back there before the finally close their doors for good. Now I'd love to post pictures of all my goodies but my princess decided to wake up at 6am come in my room and tell me she was hungry. After having a snack of some cereal she somehow found her way into my bed and fell asleep... I have no intentions of waking her so my camera and it's cord are in my room and I am NOT disturbing her no matter how much you want to see pictures of all my goodies! You will just have to wait.

I've been a busy bee trying to get some stuff up at my TpT store. I got so swept up in all the excitement I've started way to many projects at once and had to take a deep breath and start over. I have two new items I want to share with you. The first is a back to school parent interview. I have been using this parent interview for years with my class and LOVE it. Yes it's a bit long but I use all of the information throughout the year. It includes questions about who lives in your house and how they are related to you and whether or not they have any siblings (this is very helpful information when we get to our social studies family unit). I also included in this packet the sheet I use to make a class contact list. Some of the information all the sheets is repetitive and yes I can find a lot of it in the files BUT I have found errors in the past and like to have all of the information I find important on one sheet that I can quickly access! Click the picture to visit my TpT store and check it out!

Kindergarten Back to School Parent Interview/Questionnaire Packet

The next product I am posting is an alphabet sorting activity. I already have a black and white sorting activity that is a bit challenging. The letters are small and the fonts are a bit challenging. You can check it out here. Knowing this was not a great product for the beginning of the year I decided to make an easier one. I used bright colors and larger fonts. Its a great way to review letters with your students or use as an assessment to see what letters the students recognize and can match correctly. I hope you enjoy it, click the picture to check it out

Preschool Letter Sorting Activity

Well thanks for stopping by, sorry for going on and on... I just had so much to share and tell you!

What Have You Been Up To? I'm joining my FIRST link party!!!!

Vicky over at Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After is having a great linky party called: Summer  Plans: What Have You Been Up To? She found me on Facebook and invited me to join her party. I'm super excited because this is my very first time joining a link party (so I hope I do everything right and follow all the directions - you know it's really funny that I say that because it seems that A LOT of new teacher/mommy bloggers are worried about following the rules - I guess that's the teacher in all of us!) Anyways... here's what I've been up to!

As you get to know me better you will come to learn that I am ALWAYS busy... there are very few times that I sit and do nothing, especially during the summer. I have a 3 year old daughter and the thought of keeping her inside doing nothing is just not to pleasing to me, SO I am constantly looking for fun things to do with her. We love to bake and do fun projects together.

Here are the crafts/baking projects we have done this summer:

This is the University of Tampa cake I made for a family friend... she's heading there in a few weeks and asked for this cake for her High School graduation party!

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These are the clipboards I made for my fellow Kindergarten teachers for the end of the year... I'm sad I didn't make one for myself, BUT I have plenty of extra supplies so I think I will be making myself one this summer for the fall! I mean who doesn't love a personalized clipboard?

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On a rainy day we need to find fun things to do inside... my daughter got this ceramic butterfly kit as a gift and I let her have fun. I'm learning from my 3 year old that things don't have to be perfect or a certain color to be beautiful! I let her paint these butterflies any way she wanted!

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Another fun rainy day activity we did was playing with Newspapers... this was the only picture I could snap of her because, while I enjoyed making things with the newspapers she enjoyed crumbling and tearing them apart! It was very entertaining and we were busy for at least an hour making hats, shoes, boats, and even a small hat for her doll.

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We were heading out to a family event and I love to bake so I thought, why not spend some quality time with my little one while I baked.... we made cookies! Typically I like to make the dough from scratch but lets be honest, that part isn't much fun for a 3 year old. So I bought some sugar cookie dough from the refrigerated section of our local grocery store and we rolled it out and used lots of fun cookie cutters. After they were cooked and cooled I let my little chef decorate them however she wanted - check out her hand! You know you had fun if you are all messy! The best part was that the family was so supportive and ate the cookies and told my little chef how yummy they were!

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I was running out of fun crafts to do so I started to blog hopping and oh my did I find lots of FUN things!! I stumbled upon The Artful Parent and found this fun project to make melted bead sun catchers! Ok so ours didn't come out as pretty as the ones at Artful Parent - but my daughter had fun making it and she LOVES seeing it in our front window!

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To keep us nice and cool on hot days we like to make ice pops! I have all these cute ice pop molds BUT this time around I bought a huge pack of small cups and lots of popsicle sticks (all from my dollar store). We made healthy fruit ice pops - and the best part, my daughter thinks she's eating yummy treats and in reality they are healthy yummy treats! I love it! And she LOVES them!!

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We did all of those activities within about two weeks - that's how we started our summer break! It was awesome and my daughter loved every minute of it! We also visited the library and signed up for the summer reading club.

We then headed off to Florida to visit my Grandma and my Great Uncle... as well as some other family members. Motivated by all the blogs about organizing I spent the week helping my Grandma organize all her old photos and sort through her shoe collection (I'd say she has at least 1,000 decorative shoes if not more)... Of course it couldn't all be work while in Florida (although I LOVED looking through all the old photos of my dad and his brothers growing up, my grandma and grandpa first meeting, my grandpa in the Army... old photos are history and they are amazing to me!)

In the midst of cleaning and organizing we managed to fit in going to the pool almost every day! As well as visiting Lion Country Safari (this is a tradition in our family since we were little we always go there! We used to visit the orange grove also, but they closed the one by my grandma's house :( so sad!) We also headed south to the Miami Seaquarium which was a lot of fun. I don't have a lot of pictures on my camera (most of them are on my brother's camera) but here is a little snapshot of what we did at the Seaquarium:

We saw the killer whale - dolphin show which was really cool. We also so the Dolphin show. We missed the Flipper show, but somewhere I have a picture from the arena. Supposedly the arena was used to fill most of the Flipper show!! I thought that was pretty cool. My daughter got to feed seals and sea lions (top right picture) she actually held the small feeder fish (which were frozen) and dropped them into the tank. I'm shocked and proud that she did it! It was pretty neat!

We've been busy busy busy and the fun hasn't stopped! We have a family reunion coming up and are hoping to go back down to Florida one more time this summer. Of course I'll be baking away with my daughter and looking for fun crafts/projects to do with her... Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm looking forward to reading about "What you've been up to!"

Great finds and more organization tips

I've been reading about how everyone is off finding great deals at their local stores and just couldn't resist checking out the local Walmart! I went this this evening and as soon as I walked in I could see the bins lined up down the center aisle... I was so excited, yes I'm going to find great deals tonight! My excitement slowly changed and bin after bin after bin was EMPTY! I couldn't believe my eyes, there was almost nothing left. I was able to snag a few packs of crayola markers, 10 count, in various colors for $0.97 each. I guess I really can't complain since I am currently visiting my grandmother in Florida. I could just see my husbands face as I got home from my trip and started to unpack not clothes but lots and lots of school supplies! I think it would be pretty funny, not sure he would find the humor in it as much as I would. Have you ever gone back to school shopping out of state? Was it on purpose? Or because you happened to be there and just came across some great deals you couldn't pass up? ********** I thought I would continue to share ways that I organize my classrooom... Let me start off by saying that since its summer break I don't have pictures of what my room looks like and I am on my iPad (which is proving to be a bit more challenging than I thought) but once I can get back into my room in August I will get lots of pictures and share them. So I thought I would share how I organize my desk. In my old room I had two desks side by side. One was actually a computer table and the other was more of an office desk than a traditional teacher desk. The computer desk had no drawers and was just as table top, the other desk had a small pencil drawer and then a file drawer under that. The two desks were the same exact height and size. Under the computer table I bought a rolling cart with five drawers - four of them were skinny drawers and the bottom drawer was a larger one. (This year I chose to leave this cart in school and I'm so disappointed because I saw all the great Pins on how all the teachers out there are covering and decorating their plastic drawers.... Totally wish I could be doing that this summer, I may have to do it in September once I can get it home, or stay late at a day or two and decorate it then!) Anyways, each drawer had a label, stickers, birthday/lost tooth rewards, extra bulletin board pieces, post-it notes, reward charts and a few other things. I love this cart because I was able to store so much in it. The top of my desk was my favorite part. On the far left, right next to where the kids homework folders are, I have five black stacking trays - one for each day of the week. As I get copies or notes that need to go home or I finish checking any work I place the items on the correct day of the week and then I always know what needs to go into the kids folders. Next to those I have two metal paper trays. One is labeled: Notes got the teacher and the other is labeled: Extra papers. The second bin becomes my catch all which is great because for the most part I don't end up with lots and lots of papers scattered around on my desk and then once this bin is full I know its time to file everything. I do try to keep up with the filing on a daily basis but sometimes that's just not possible so instead I have a place to keep all my papers until I can file them. I also have a pencil holder filled with markers, another with pens and pencils, and a box with reward stickers. On the teacher side of the desk I usually keep my planner, a calendar, as well as the rest of the office supplies - scissors, staplers, and tape. In my school the kindergarten classes don't have assistants helping but we do get parent volunteers who come in the mornings and hell us go through the folders and stuff homework folders for us. They can also check work if we need the to. Since I had two desks I always made the computer desk esy for my parent helpers to use. They had all the tools they needed to stuff folders and heck the homework packets if I ever neede them to. In the beginning if the year I always typed up a letter of what I expected from my parent helpers and how my folders were organized. I usually taped the letter to the desk since there were sne years I had more than one parent coming to help. This upcoming year I will be in a new room - I have to rethink my organization system and how I set up everything, I'm excited to see how it all turns out. How do you organize your desk. What do you do to organize your students homework and papers that need to be handed out? I csn't wait to read all your ideas!

Organizing Data

I was reading many posts this past week about how to organize data and keep your files together. I wanted to share with you the various methods I've used to keep my students data. I don't have any pictures yet as I'm just starting out with blogging and learning as I go. When I can figure out how to do that I'll add some on!

My first year:
When I first started teaching I used a binder. I had two binders, one for Writing and one for Reading. Each student had their own tab and I kept important assessments (alphabet recognition, running records) in the binder. I also keep all my conference notes for each student. Back then I just used lined paper for my conference notes and didn't have much of a system for conferencing. I loved using the binder because everything was right there BUT by the end of the year my binder was overflowing with data and was bursting - literally pages were falling out and I could not longer open and close the binder to remove important papers without risking everything ending up on the floor! Oh was it a mess. As messy as it was this was still one of my favorite ways to organize data. I used this system for two years!

The middle years:
After using the binder method for two years I moved on to a folder system. I did this for two reasons 1) I was tired of all the papers falling out by the end of the year and 2) I was co-teaching which meant we would both need access to the students files at any given time and having a binder just wasn't going to work. So I started using folders. This method worked pretty well. Each student had a folder with their name on it. On the inside of the folder I put two labels - Writing Conferences and Reading Conferences. As I met with the students I could just pull out their folder and see their progress. I like to have my folders in alphabetical order so that I can easily pull one out during conference time. To help maintain this order my co-teacher labeled each folder with a number next to their names! It was very helpful. My first year using the folder system I had a wonderful pocket chart on loan from a friend of mine. It was brightly colored and I was able to put two or three folders in each pocket for easy access. It was magnetic and was able to hang on the door to our bathroom. I really loved this chart! Unfortunately she needed the chart back.... so I ended up using one of the plastic folder/magazine holders I had. I liked that when I was conferencing with my students I had all of their work right in front of me - both reading and writing! By this time I had streamlined my conference note system (I will share that another day!) so each student had one sheet per month which cut down A LOT on the papers!

My current organization system:
This year I will no longer be co-teaching and will be back in a room on my own. I will most likely stick with the folder system BUT I do all of my conference notes in google documents! I love it!! I find that my notes are neater and I conference much quicker this way because I type a lot faster than I can write. I'm thinking that once a month I will print out my notes and add them to the folders.

Aside from organizing my conference note/running records I also maintain large file folders for each student. I collect all their published writing pieces and save them. At the end of the year I bundle them up and send them home. I think it makes a nice gift to the parents to see how far their child has come since September. I also pick and choose some other drawings throughout the year to save to add to their end of the year gift to their parents. In these portfolios I also keep their ECAM (math assessment) as well as the formal Writing Assessment we do.

I'd love to hear from you - what types of assessments do you use? How do you organize your data and conference notes?