Winter Plans

So I have been thinking a lot about what I would want from a blog being a new teacher...I thought and thought and thought and came up with an idea. During my very first year of teaching Pre-K, I would try and find examples of lesson plans to see what I am doing compared to everyone else and how does it look. Georgia recently switched standards to the GELDS so it is a little more comprehensive than last years standards.

I have decided to provide an example of my lesson plans for this week coming up. We are learning about winter and the winter weather. As we do the activities I will add pictures and more examples.

Here are my small group plans and some resources that I have found or made myself. I just Google certain images or clipart and use them. I am not selling them or own them, I am just using them personally.

click the image to view or download. These standards are only useful if you teach Pre-K in Georgia! I am so sorry! But the ideas are great!!

For the Building a Snowman group, I tried last year and it went alright. I had die-cut three different sized shapes and a hat and nose and so on and they would gradually build the snowman piece by piece. This got a little overwhelming for some of my students because there were no visual cues, just verbal directions and an assigned step for each value. But I found this link on Pinterest that has it laid out in a visual form for the students to see. It also shows them what to draw.

The website has such great winter ideas! Check them out!! 

For my Reading Group, I found a winter letter sound match online that cost money, so I used graphics from Google images and the search to create my own. Remember, these are not my images. 

Here

Here 2

Here 3

The third document I won't use in my small group, I will use that later on. Maybe even next week with a different group.

Here are some of my Large Group plans for the week as well. I have not included any of my books yet. They are such a pain in the butt to me! Errr!!!

If you are wondering what Higgledy Piggledy is..it is a great tool to teach syllables to kids! It goes a little something like this:

Higgledy Piggledy Bumble bee, 

Will you say your name for me?

(name)

Let's clap it!

Let's snap it!

Let's stomp it!

Let's clap it!

I start out doing the kids' names in the beginning of the year and then move on to other words. It really helps them start to segment words into parts. 

The other Phonological awareness game is the "I'm going on a trip..." game. This game is great for beginning letter sounds. This week we are trying the letter W. Anyways, the point of this game is to sit in a large circle and name items with whatever letter sound you are focusing on that you would bring with you. 

There are plenty more great ideas for PA here!

Okay, I hope this is helpful...I will definitely add more picture and progress of what we are doing. This is just my general outline for the week. :) 

Learning All About Ourselves

So the first month of school is really a great time to learn about the rules and procedures (obviously) and this is especially needed in Pre-K. These kids are literally such young babies that they don't know about rules and how to walk in line. It is actually crazy how you forget how young they are because towards the end of the year, they are so much "older" and mature than when we started school.

Our AP at my school even said that he couldn't believe how much work Pre-K is. He never realized that you had to teach and help 22 kids open their milks, walk in line, use the restroom, sit criss-cross, and all of the other little things we take for granted or assume everyone innately knows how to do.

To be honest, it is a struggle those first few weeks. There is so much to go over and it is very intimidating and overwhelming. I started to feel angry and even upset. As a mother (maybe it's only me) I noticed that when Kin isn't listening, I take it personally. If I get on to her I am doing it with my emotions and she does not listen at all. My mom or Eric can get on to her and she listens. The difference is that they do not put there emotions in to it. After I realized this about myself, I knew that I was doing this in my room because, let's face it, we are together 5 days a week for 8 hours. If the kids were not listening, I would react with my emotions. I now know that there is no need to do that. It has made my class 100 times better and I feel the love everywhere.

PS: When I say I used my emotions, I am talking about you could hear that I was upset in my voice or that I would holler. JUST WANTED TO BE CLEAR ON THAT! LOL :)

Anyways, the first month of school is also a great time for kids to learn about themselves, their friends, and their family. The first thing we did was draw a self-portrait. My school uses handwriting without tears and so I gave no instructions. Just simply draw a picture of yourself. I mostly got pictures of scribbles and such.

The next day, we did teacher labeling. My co-worker saw this idea on Pinterest and shared it with us. The kids LOVED this. They told me how crazy and silly I was. They definitely had a blast. I wanted everyone to have a turn nso I wrote 22 body parts on sticky notes. I posted them on my teacher board and let one student at a time pick one. I will say that the sticky notes did not stick on my body or clothes too well. But it was workable.

The body parts I used were as follows:
eye, foot, toes, hand, wrist, fingers, ankle, arm, arm, leg, leg, elbow, neck, nose, mouth, ear, knee, hair, chin, chest, tummy, back.

The following day we listened to the Mat Man song and used our listening skills to put Mat Man together. There are several curves and lines that you use to put him together, so I explained what each part was. I gave everyone a piece and let them listen to the song. When the song said, "Mat man has 2 eyes, 2 eyes, 2 eyes..." The kids with the eyes had to put them where they go. This is a great song to help build listening skills as well. If you would like to learn more here is the site from Handwriting Without Tears. I made my own parts out of foam and googly eyes for the eyes. Here is our finished product. 

The next day I explained that we made Mat Man using shapes. When we draw ourselves, we can use shapes. We even drew Mat Man on chart paper together. After we drew him together, they went to their seats and made themselves using shapes. We talked about how girls can wear dresses and I let them guess which shape that would be. They guessed triangle. *ding ding ding*

Here are their before and after Mat Man. Can you guess which is the before? :) 

They really enjoyed this week and learning about themselves and their bodies. 

Monday Made It -July 22, 2013

So...only two more days of freedom and I still have work to do! lol

I am excited to get back and meet my new kitties! I even have some cool ideas for my door! But since it is Monday, I guess I should get in to some of the things I have been working on making. :) 

Here is the first thing. I made these awesomely huge pillows for my reading area (don't worry I added a carpet to the reading area, looks much better) that have been floating all over Pinterest. I made mine a tad bigger! Check it out.

Step 1: You really need to pick two corresponding fabrics that you want to use as your pillow. One for the sides and one for the top and bottom. The fabric that you choose for the top/bottom needs to be 2 yards. The side fabric needs to be one yard long. You need to lay the 2 yard fabric out and cut it in half. Take the yard of side material and measure two pieces to fit the length and two pieces to fit the width. The depth of each side piece needs to be 7 inches.

Step 2: Once you are finished cutting, make sure that you pin the sides to the top (like sides facing each other) and sew them together. Do this for each side. When you are finished, make sure you take the other yard of fabric (the bottom of the pillow) and start pinning them to the sides of the fabric. Sew it all up! While you are there, sew the creases except for one. Pull the fabric right-side-out. This is where you will shove all of the stuffing. 

Step 3: With the last slit open, get some help from little hands (child labor laws don't apply to home situations, right?!), and push the  stuffing in. When you are finished make sure you sew that slit. 

Finally, enjoy your pillow. Kin and Eric looooved it. They want me to make them their own. 

Here are some links that helped me: 

I got the tutorial and idea via Pinterest. This is the lady's tutorial (it is probably way more in depth and helpful than mine). She really uses plain English and no-sew terms that works for beginners. 

Also, be aware, I made my pillows much bigger than hers. She made hers 30X30 and mine were about  36X42. I used 5 pounds of stuffing. You can get it at Hancock Fabrics for $15.99 plus 15% off with your teacher badge..it came to $13.99 with mine.

This is what it looks like

The next thing I made were some tissue paper pom-poms to spice up my room. I made them myself because in the stores, they want like 6 bucks for them! Seriously!! But thanks to the internet, I made these babies for a whopping $1.99. Get you some tissue paper from the good ole HobLob and find a tutorial on line (like this one) and you are there!

And finally, as promised, a close-up of my job chart and weather chart. I failed to do so in my last post, so here is a better view. 

Now that I am almost finished with everything, I have to make a "How we get home" board. I guess I will work on that for next week. :) 

Monday Made It! 7/15/13

Welcome to Monday Made It! This is one of my favorite Linky Parties! I just love getting to make things from other things that have inspired me. Did that even make sense?! LOL Well I have so many projects happening right now that I don't even know where to start or finish. So here is what I have finished for sure..Also, I am the worst at taking before and after pictures! So I have a lot of finished things that I have been doing this week, BUT I never took a picture of. So look for those next week (hopefully)!

So there is so much on Pinterest that we all love and want to re-create, right?! Well a while back I pinned a picture of a gift idea with 30 lollipops with the caption "30 Blows!"

Well, July 4th was my sister's 30th birthday! What better way to say happy birthday than 30 lollipops. I set out on my journey looking for 30 lollipops (Blow Pops to be exact) and something to hold them in. Well, after a trip to the Dollar Tree, I had all that I needed.

Here is the Pin-spiration and here is my creation!

I also got the chance to finish my job chart. I posted some graphics of the job chart I made a few weeks back and did not know what I was going to do. I posted the pin of the iHelp iPad and loved that idea. So I ran with it! After all, we are living in a technological world! :)

There it is on the board that I finished up the other day! I didn't take a close up. I should have!

I also made the weather chart that's on the board. I saw it on Pinterest and followed the link. When I went to the blog, the blogger offered it for free but you had to pay to use the document download site. I decided to make my own! The only thing is.... I made the snowy and weather today boxes a little too big. You'll have to cut them to size! Sorrryyyyyy. 

This is the Pinterest one I was going to have to pay for! Click to get my version! :) 

Well that is it for my MMI! Check out the other great links on 4th Grade Frolics. There are some good ones. Oh and keep checking back this week...I am going to post some pictures of my *ALMOST* finished classroom.

Monday Made It! *Class Management Addition*

I love how the Tattooed Teacher does a Monday Made It. I decided to do my own Monday Made It - Classroom Management edition.

So I have been thinking...what am I going to do for my classroom management and reward system! Last year I used the class dojo and it was amazing!

If you are new to the Dojo thing, you are in luck! Class Dojo works for almost every grade. The students are able to create their own little monster avatars and get a visual of "good" choice and "bad" choice. They get green points for good choices and red points for not-so-good choices. This is especially awesome for Pre-K because we are always teaching the kids about making good choices. Dojo makes the students SEE what is a "good" and "bad" choice and what are the consequences of those choices.

*If your interest has sparked and you want to join the Dojo movement, click the picture above!

As you can see, each student has an avatar and points.

Last year, I used a daily point system. If you had one green point, you were able to get a sticker, if you had 2 points you were able to get a candy, and if you had five points you were able to get into the treasure chest. This system was when I first started the program. After a few months, I switched it to a weekly point system. If you got 10 points you were able to go to the treasure chest, 5 points for a sweet treat, and 2 points for a sticker.

Pinterest has a lot of great ideas for this! I have seen a lot of people use coupons for their class. I may do that later in the year, after the students are used to everything. I also saw that people had cute little reward charts. I decided that I wanted to make one that fit my needs, pictured below. If you would like to use it, click on the picture and save it!

Last year, my treasure chest consisted of an undecorated shoe box (boring, right?). This summer, I decided I was going to do it right. Make it something cute and exciting. Who wants to get a prize from a shoe box? I went to Michael's and got a wooden treasure chest box. I had a coupon for 40% off and a teacher's discount. Well, here it is....before and after...

Five For Friday!

So it is my first time joining a Linky Party and I am not sure how to do it! Ha but here is my attempt. :) 

1. On Wednesday, Eric and I took our daughter on a mini-vacation to the aquarium and World of Coke in Atlanta. It was a lot of fun! We watched the dolphin show there, which was pretty cool. We also saw penguins and whales...and sharks! I am not a fan of sharks. I have a legit phobia of them (even pictures make me cry and I really avoid talking about sharks during ocean lessons). Anyways, we decided to take a trip to the World of Coke after that. Y'all, I have a Coke addiction. I love it. So I was excited. Kinley really like the 4D movie and tasting the sodas. She even got to taste the Kinley from England! 

2. Being home with Kinley during the summer has been hard but also rewarding. She is such a diva and a girly-girl. Speculation says that I am the one making her that way, but I believe she was just born that way. Check out this video I took of her putting on my lipstick! She always wants to put on make-up with mommy. (quicktime video)

3. I have been working on my room for the past few days. It has been a lot of work! It is always tough moving in to a new room with a lot of things that are not yours. I must say, I am rocking it though (thanks to my mom for helping). It doesn't look like we did much, but 20 garbage bags later, it feels more organized and clean! I am excited to get the decorating done. 

4. I have also been working on things for open house. I have made an "About Me" letter and gotten a few ideas of things from other blogs. Let me know what you think about my letter! I got the border from Jennifer Jones. It was a great deal! 

5. Yesterday, Kinley had a dance recital. She has been in dance for 3 weeks and they had a recital yesterday. She did not like a room full of people looking at her. She cried and did not want to dance! After a little girl helped her for a little bit, she got a little more comfortable! 

Thank you for reading my first Five for Friday! I promise, next time I will have more interesting stuff to say! :) And pictures of my FINISHED classroom....right?! 

PS: Don't forget to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching and all of the other great blogs that are linked up there!

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Getting Ready

I have been working slowly to get a few of my classroom essentials put together. Last year, I moved to a new school midyear, so I left all of the old decorations and job charts and organization the same to not confuse the children (and me!). So this year I get to start fresh and create my own things! I have started with a job chart! I will add the graphics here if you would like to use it or Pin it on Pinterest. 

I think I am going to print the images on cardstock and use magnet pictures of the kids in order to show who has what (nice and simple). I also was thinking about cutting each cute little polaroid out and creating one of those cute little iHelp job charts that are all over Pinterest (shown below).

 

We shall see! Let me know what you think!! :) 

My cute little Jobs!