Thursday, September 10, 2015

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Share reading is quickly becoming one of my absolute favorite parts of our day.  Each week, I am choosing a new picture book to share with my class.  My goal is to not only teach reading skills, but to share some wonderful picture books and teach my students to love reading them!


Our second week of school, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

On day one, we read the story just for fun.  The kids absolutely love the repetition of it and the part where the "mommies and daddies and uncles and aunts" all kissed their booboos and wiped their knees.


Day two, we reread the story for fun.  Then each student decorated a large letter for the first letter of their first name.  We attached a sentence strip that said "is for _____" and they traced their name.



On day three, we read the story once more.  Then we made our coconut trees with foam letters to spell out our names.


Day four, we did a shared writing.  By this point, my kiddos basically had the story memorized.  I wrote onto chart paper, as the kids recited the basic lines "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Will there be enough room?"  As I wrote, we talked about how we start on the left and work our way right.  We talked about how we put spaces between each word.  We even practiced some one to one correspondence.

On day five, we did a retell of our story.  I gave each kid a letter of the alphabet.  My assistant and I took the extras.  We went through and decided which letter climbed the coconut tree first.  The student that had the first letter got to bring their letter up to our big coconut tree and put it on.  Then the next student, with the next letter and so on.  The kids loved it!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Classroom Reveal

I have been in school for 3 weeks now and I am just now finding the time to sit and update you with all that has been happening!  I thought you might like to know that I am still alive.... I am surviving Kindergarten!

I wanted to share with you my new classroom.  I have been teaching for 9 years now and there have only been 2 times that I have not had to change rooms.  Let's just say, I am getting good at packing and unpacking!  My theory is that they just keep moving me around so that I will clean out the classrooms and throw away all of the non essentials that get left behind.

So here is what I started with:




Please take note that the built in bookshelves and all around the bulletin boards were painted LIME GREEN!  I love some bright colors and all, but having the walls painted that way was just a little much.


So the first step, was to paint.  I wanted a more neutral and calming color for the classroom walls, that I could then brighten up with accents.  Here is how it turned out:


So much better!

I decided the door and my drawers needed some color too!


Then to finish packing and hang some bulletin boards!  When hanging bulletin boards, I really changed out my fabric and boarders ten times because I just couldn't decide!

But here is my final look:

My bulletin board at the back of the room with all of my class pictures.

I couldn't decide what boarder to put on this big bulletin board, so I went with some left over fabric and bunched it all up around the bulletin board.  It looks great on our word wall!

I used the closet doors to hang my birthday banner and class helpers.


I use a shoe rack for storing water bottles.  I hung it with command hooks and it works great!  The little cookie sheet is for keeping magnetic names for each kid.  Then can then move their name to the square on the door on the bathroom to show that someone is in there (we have metal doors).  If they are waiting for a turn to go into the bathroom, then they can line their names up along the side of the door frame.

Here is mine and my assistant's area.  I chose not to have a desk this year because I never actually sit anyway.  She has a small desk and I keep a small table for my computer.  That is pretty much it!

Our reading nook

Our play area is between our cubbies.  It keeps the toys out of the way and still gives us a place to play.  My goal is to give them some play center time at least once a week.

Our center are going to go here.  It isn't quite organized yet but it will get there.

Our view from the door.


Our view from the back of the room.

I decided to use little name tags this year since we are using tables.  It gives us more table space.

Our lunch chart and a pocket chart for sight words.

Our daily question for graphing.  I used dry erase sentence strips so that I can change it each day.

This wall will be for hanging brag tags.

Our first day of Kindergarten sign.
We are ready!