Ready for SMORE fun in kindergarten?

Time to start thinking about the new school year! My start of the school year has to do with s'mores. It all began with my s'more obsession at the end of last school year. I went on a s,more kick- drinking Dunkin Donuts S'mores Iced Coffee and eating S'mores pop tarts. (I don't even eat pop tarts!) I was so excited to find out that National S'mores Day is Thursday, August 10th. Which is the first day of school in my district!!!

I made these tags to go on some treats for the first day of school. Click on the picture to get to the freebie.

Since I am at a Leader in Me school, I made a back to school s'mores board. At the end of the last school year, I had my kindergarten students write a tip about being a leader for my new students. At the beginning of this school year, I plan to have my new kindergartners brainstorm ways to be a kindergarten leader and make their own s'mores for this bulletin board.

Talking about last year's group, I gave them a summer reading challenge. I made some bookworm tags to go with their prizes of reaching their goal of 50 books read over the summer. Click on the picture to get that tag freebie.

 Life has been a little bit more joyful with this little puppy! Meet Daisy, our Shihtzu. We got her late April and she has stolen our hearts! I am busy making different little bows for her to wear. I opened up an Etsy shop- TturtleTimeCreations. Below are some bows I made for my aunt's pups, Cherie and Caleb.

I have one week of summer left before I go back to CGI training and then Pre-planning! Enjoy the summer!

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Do You Bee Bot?

We do! This is the first school year that my county has initiated coding in kindergarten. My kinders and I are having fun with it! They are completely engaged and excited about learning with our bee bots. After a few lessons about coding, directional words, and algorithms, they were ready to work in small groups.

First, before splitting them into groups, we discussed how we could synergize and communicate with our teams. Each child was given a job: Coder, Card Handler, Algorithm Reader, Beebot Programmer, and Supervisor. The job cards were made into necklaces so that each child remembered his job.

Supervisor: decides where Beebot goes and makes sure everyone is doing what they are suppose to

Coder: creates algorithm for Beebot to get to the specified area

Card Handler: puts directions cards down for the algorithm created by the coder

Algorithm Reader: read the algorithm to the programmer

Beebot Programmer: push buttons on Beebot and make sure Beebot stays safe

They switched jobs after a round of trying to get Beebot to the specified area. This way, each child got a turn at all the jobs.

In math, my kindergartners used Beebots to describe and identify shapes.

 During our literacy block, some groups reviewed letters and sounds.

 Another group worked on reviewing sight words.

Yesterday, we used retelling pictures on the mat to help retell a story using Beebot. It is so easy to use whatever cards I have and place them under the transparent cover to teach whatever skill I need to. Where has Beebot been all my teaching career??

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Another Monday Made It!

Summer flies by too quickly! Last week, I spent time with my family visiting from out of town. This week, I am at workshops and pre-planning. I will meet my new students next week!

For My 1st Monday Made It: I usually like to make something for my team for the first day of school. I wanted to make a first day survival kit for them. My friend Tina and I made pencils out of Pringles cans. They are not quite done, but I think they turned out so cute! I filled them up with all sorts of goodies. I still need to add the tags, but that will be later! I will be making one for myself as a box top collector.

Pinterest Inspired Craft

My 2nd Monday Made It project is for my littles when they come to Meet the Teacher night. Typically I make homemade cookies, but just didn't feel like baking and icing the cookies this summer. I found some adorable owl pops on Sue's The Very Busy Kindergarten. I had to make my own! These were definitely easier and timely! 

 Linking up with 

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Monday Made It, Summer 2015!!

Happy belated July 4th! I have been meaning to blog all through June, but my friends and family have kept me distracted... which is a wonderful thing! During my free time, I also managed to create two things... one for a friend and one for me.

One of my teammates has a cute monster theme to her kindergarten classroom. I love it! Her room is a bright and cheerful place to learn in. She has created her own monster lanterns and monster pillows- adorable!! Well, I spotted her Rate Your Understanding chart, and loved how it was backed on black paper and connected with red polka dotted ribbon. In my mind, there was a slight issue, it was a superhero theme versus her cute colorful happy monster theme. So I made her one, using monster graphics. Click on one of the pictures if you would like this freebie too.

Last school year, I really started having issues helping my little ones keep their word sorting activities organized. I had their sorts in a basket with their numbers on clothespins. The clothespins kept breaking apart. So, I thought about it... and remember those teacher tool boxes that everyone made a few years back. I went to Lowe's and bought one. It was in my car trunk for months! I was going to paint it black... but decided to just go with it. I plan to hang it up on my classroom wall. This should help me keep my student word sorts differentiated as well as organized!

Thanks for stopping by. To see other Monday Made Its...



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Valentine's 5 for Friday

It has been a fun week of learning about penguins and getting in the Valentine's spirit! Here are my top 5 of the week.

1.

I asked our cafeteria ladies to save some large cans for me so my kinderkids could make some penguin tins for their Valentine's containers.

Here is one holding his with some Valentines in his penguin tin.

2.

I used my Papertrey Ink stamps and crafting supplies to make some Valentine covers for lollipops.

 3.

These yummy homemade sweets made by my room mom made our day more festive!

 4.

In the afternoon, my Valentine, Mr. Brinn, came to help out with our Valentine Math Centers. He helped my kinderkids measure with nonstandard measurement with these Valentine Cards we made for our families. This one shows the outside, before Happy Heart Day was written on the outside arms.

On the inside, we used Kim Adsit's activity to measure the arm span in nonstandard units: pennies, cubes, paperclips, and hearts.

5.

Here is another math activity we did. It is an old one using candy hearts for addition. We also practiced subtraction using hearts with my freebie offered on TPT.

 I hope you had a happy Valentines. Enjoy the 3 day weekend!

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