First Week Five for Friday (with FREEBIES!)

Well, I barely survived my (second) first week of school. I feel like I need a month to recover, but I made it out alive. That’s all that matters… right? New kinders are so exhausting, but they’re pretty darn cute. I have some teenie tiny ones this year! I have also absolutely loved seeing all my kiddos from last year in the halls. Not gunna lie--I've missed them a ton! Here is a peek at what we did during our first week of school.

(Don't you love the new Five for Friday linky pic?)

1. I made some labels for my take home folders to help my kiddos organize their papers that go home. I like these because I can say "put this paper on the red or green side" and it is easy for them to do. You can grab this freebie here.

2. My mom got me this amazing straw dispenser to use for pencils! I am absolutely in love with it and it helps avoid the kiddos searching for the "perfect pencil" since it dispenses one pencil at a time AND they think it is just about the coolest thing ever. 

Click here

 to see where she bought it.

(It doesn't cost 50 bucks like a lot of the other ones I have seen either.)

3. Of course we talked about rules and procedures over and over and over this week. Some of the activities we did came from Growing Kinders' Monster Manners freebie. It had a great story (The Day a Monster Came to School) and sorting activity to go along with our rules discussions.

It also has these pictures that we used to talk about good vs. bad choices. This is definitely not my cutest anchor chart, but it really helped the kids think about what is a good or bad choice and why.

4. Tattling is one of the things that drives me CRAZY at the beginning of the year. The kids run and tell the teacher every. little. thing. My favorite "tattle" I have heard is "so-and-so said my last name!!". What?!? I just had to laugh at that one.

One of my favorite books to read to help cut down the tattling is A Bad Case of the Tattle Tongue. It talks about tattling vs. reporting and gives "Tattling Rules" for kids to think about before they run and tell the teacher. The kiddos really don't want to "catch the tattle tongue".

5. I changed up my behavior chart a little bit from last year. I added another positive space for the kids to move up to. You can get this freebie here.

The different pieces say:

Pink- Way to Go!!
Purple- Great Job! 
Blue- Ready to Learn (Students start here)
Green- Think About It
Yellow- Make Better Choices
Orange- Slow Down!
Red- Uh Oh!!

Students start on blue. They can then move up the chart for good choices or down the chart for bad choices.

Have a great weekend!

Currently August and Back to School

I can not believe school starts on Monday. Where did the summer go?! It went way too fast.

I have been working like a mad woman trying to get my classroom ready. It is still not as finished as I would like it to be, but it will have to do. I went with a polka dot and bunting theme this year. Here is a look at some parts of my room.

This is how my name is displayed on my desk (without the black blobs of course).

These color posters are part of my Number, Shape, and Color Posters set.  My classroom has zero bulletin boards, so I have to create my own. I used a plastic table cloth for the background and the border is from Frog Street Press. You can buy it here from Amazon.

These posters are also part of my Number, Shape, and Color Posters set. 

Above are the hooks where my students hang their backpacks. They each have an assigned number and hook. You can grab these numbers here.

Today is Open House at my school. We have a morning and night session where the parents and kiddos drop by to meet their teachers before school starts on Monday. I'm excited to meet the rest of my new students! When they drop by, they will pick up a folder of information about the year ahead.

Some of the things I include in the folder are:

• Student Info Card--Parents will fill this out and leave it with me, the rest of the folder they will take with them. I keep this card for reference all year because it has a ton of important information on it. Grab this info card for free here.
• Introduction Letter--I write a letter to parents letting them know a little bit about myself (where I graduated from, the things I like to do in my free time) and welcoming them to my classroom.
• Discipline Plan--This informs the parents of the class discipline procedures and how they will know how their child behaves each day. (I will post more about this in the future. You can see and download the behavior chart I used last year here.)
• Homework--I write a small section about kindergarten homework and the consequences if it is not completed.
• Class Website--I write a little about how to navigate the class webpage. Our newsletter is on it each week, so it is really important for them to know.

And because it is August, it is time for Currently!

Now off to nap before I go back to school tonight!