Five for Friday September 18

Anybody else tired?!

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey! 

I posted LOTS of environmental print freebies  in my post at the PreK and K Sharing Blog.  My class is loving environmental print.  Here's some proof:

They are so proud that they're readers!

This is one of my favorite activities  to do with them- and their first "homework" was to go home and READ this to someone in their family.  It's amazing how quickly they can learn to point to each word as they read it. 

I let them choose three things they like to do and three places they like to go from the pictures I have on the papers. 

                                  

                                  

This last picture is mainly here because his shirt made me smile all day long.  It says, "Purrito" and is a cat in a burrito. Of course.  

I made my Superhero Vocabulary poster this week.  We haven't added any words yet, but I wanted to show you what ours looked like.  You could use any before and after Superhero:  Peter Parker/Spiderman,  Bruce Wayne/Batman...   

I can't wait to start adding words.  Every book we read has some new and interesting "better" word that we talk about, and we can add to the poster.  I think our first one might be the group of words "get a drink"   and then "hydrate," because I have one little guy who will just randomly shout out, "I NEED TO HYDRATE," throughout the day.  I sort of love it. 

This is just one of many ideas in the book I wrote with Dr. Jean.  We had so much fun thinking of our favorite ways to teach reading that really helped the children remember the concept we were teaching while having so much fun at the same time!

Since my theme is Superheroes this year, I wanted to think of some reading strategies to go along with the theme.  This is what I came up with:

I just used Google Images to find the pictures. I saved them and printed them out 8X10.   HERE are the pictures I used for this poster that I put together in a document (just in case you'd like them and don't feel like searching for them!).  Here's my thinking of the pictures I chose:  Mr. Fantastic is sort of blurry- but it worked fine when I cut him out.  It was HARD to find a Wonder Woman who wasn't extremely voluptuous.  And I cut Superman and his "S" out of the picture I used, because I wanted him and the first letter of his name. Just cut out the other part of the picture.   

Someone on Facebook asked about using Batman, and I said that I had thought of adding another strategy with Batman and Robin, that said, "Ask a friend if you need help."  So- that's how you could add him to the group. 

My sweet friend Anne, at Common Core Connection, just added this darling freebie of Growth Mindset Posters to her TPT store. It's perfect for a Superhero theme!  Thank you, Anne!

I wanted to share a fabulous freebie from one of my FAVORITE reading companies,  Reading Reading (pronounced "Redding Reading" because it is based in Reading, Pennsylvania.) . This company has wonderful leveled reading books that are just right for kids- great text size, pictures/photographs, stories, book length, and story topics.

Reading Reading  is offering wonderful FREE ABC Printable books.  So far, they have letters A-J, which our whole kindergarten team is using and loving to use.  More books are coming soon.  They only had A-D just a while ago- so they really are coming soon!  Here's a sample look at the A book:

We have a book closet for our primary wing with our sets of guided reading books.  We share these books among all the classes, kindergarten through second grade.  I do not have individual browsing boxes for my students in the classroom because it became very time consuming to manage, and we never had enough books.  I felt like I always had to get them back to the book closet because other classes were waiting to use them.

Instead of individual browsing boxes, I ordered the mixed sets of these Kris Bonnell leveled books for the last few years from Reading Reading with my textbook money. They come with one copy of each of the different books.   I have colored bins that coordinate with my group colors. I fill the bins with leveled readers appropriate for each group.

When my students finish an activity early, after morning work, or even for independent reading on the rug, they go to their colored bin to choose a book to read.  I have enough books to switch out often so they have a big variety at their level.  When the group levels up to the next level, it's very easy to include some higher level books in the bin.

I love it because when I have a few extra minutes to read with a child, I can easily choose a book that will be just right for that child because they are right there.

These book bins have worked really well for me.  The books are just the right length for the children to read and finish, plus the kids love the topics.   Lots of them have photographs which the kids really like. We do have lots of the sets of six in the book closet that we love to use for guided reading.

Here are some samples of the insides so you can get an idea.  I find the books to be on the "easy" side of the levels, which I like.  Don't you hate choosing a "C" leveled text and having it be so hard that you wonder who on earth leveled that book? I know...  #teacherproblems- right?

Reading Reading is a wonderful company, and are always coming out with new books, too.  

I loved this quote and this picture so much, that I put them together.  I feel like we've got to start swinging the shift back to teaching and learning what it means to be human.  We've got the technology down. We can't forget to teach children to be good people, share, and to get along with and work with others.  For a while I feel like everyone's been so caught up in keeping up with all the technology, that the human side of teaching has fallen by the wayside and has been labeled as "old fashioned." 

 I do think with people are seeing the consequences of too much technology:  seeing children getting less exercise and having more health issues, having more cases of ADHD, and having difficulty with any sort of down time. The consequences are unfortunate, but I'm glad people are recognizing these effects, and maybe realizing we need more balance.  At home, there is less family interaction because everyone is on some device- and instead of spending quality time together, often either the parents or children, or both, are doing something else on on a phone or iPad, while they're together.  

I like to see and use new things in the classroom, I just want to protect the human side of teaching as much as I can.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Five for Friday June 12

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

Dr. Jean wrote these wonderful activity cards and is sharing them with you FREE! There are 60 fabulous, fun learning activities to do with children that would be perfect for over the summer.  It's a way to really engage with your child and make some wonderful memories together!  The cards would be great to print out and send home with your students for summer, too (if you are still in school, like yours truly...)

I added a little design and pictures to them for Dr. Jean, so if you would like them, just click on the picture or HERE to download them!  Have fun!



My books for my little sweeties came to the house!  How exciting to see this box!  It seems like a dream to me to actually have the real, live books!  The whole experience working with Dr. Jean and SDE was something I will remember forever.  It was perfect.

I signed each book, and then as the children sat on the rug, I went through each page to show them their fabulous pictures- and to talk about the activities on the pages that we had done over the year.

Then, they got a chance to look through their books.  They studied everything. It was so precious.  I carefully put each book in their folder afterward so I knew the books would get home safe and sound.

Hopefully, this will be something they can keep forever to remember kindergarten and some of the fun things that we did!

One of my students' mothers who teaches in another district took it to her school, and they ordered eleven for the district.  That made my day.

The book has  many practical, easy to implement ideas and variations for teaching literacy concepts. We each chose our favorites!  It goes with any curriculum or your own curriculum, because they are just fun ideas that work, and that both Dr. Jean and I have and do really use. Plus, the children really enjoy all of these activities and they help the students remember what they're learning.

Click on the picture below or HERE  if  you want to go to the link for the book! 



We are working on a Math Recipes book now! 



If your kids  really need to  get their wiggles out this time of year (or anytime of year) and get those feet moving- this is your song. We love it!

Our favorite part is when it builds and builds until we can yell, "GO!" at the top of our lungs! (at about 1:07 in this video... Luckily my sweet friend is in the room next to me and totally understands that sometimes we need this!)

BUT- it doesn't work well for quiet center time... My kids got on Prezi for iPad time- and guess what she was watching? I don't think they realize I can tell if they're not on the app they are supposed to be working on... because their feet are moving wayyyy too fast...

We had our Kindergarten Orientation for the new little sweeties coming to our class next year. I had my current class write a book for the new class about things the new kindergarten students will like about kindergarten. Each of my students had a different activity to write about. My current class felt so grown up to be sharing their wisdom- and it's a great time for discussions about what we loved about school when you read the book to your current class, too!

This would be fun to have your class this year do for the incoming class!  They are so proud to make the book.  

My friend Sarah from A Sunny Day in First Grade made and shared these wonderful autograph books.



She made covers for Kindergarten through 3rd grade so you can share these with all of your teaching friends.  I did!  My class had the BEST time writing in each others' books- and I had the best time watching them.

I put markers out on each table, gave them each a book, and let them go!

They will never forget their love of Minecraft...

You should have seen Albert beam when he read that he was "awesome!"

This was the page I used to write in each child's book.  I MAY have written "You are a bucket filler!" and added little hearts going into the bucket.  I love how she decided to do the same thing.  So sweet.

Thank you, Sarah,  for such a wonderful gift!


I was out for meetings one day last week, and this was on my desk when I got back the next day. It was the first thing I saw, and it MADE my day! 



And FINALLY...  My daughter Ellie made me these fun salts for my birthday!  I can't wait to use them.  The ideas for them sound fabulous!  She bought Kosher salt and added the other ingredients into the food processor!  YUM!

Happy Weekend! Thank you for stopping by!