Counting, Numbers, and Sight Words

Woo Hoo!!! Fall is here. That means pretty leaves, apples, strawbales, and scarecrows! Here are a few goodies, which I have posted in my !!

Feel free to check them out:)! I am super excited about my fun new clip art from Scrappin Doodles!

The Flat Stanley Project

Ah...the school year has started, the testing is settling down (I mean as much as it will settle down!), and we are ready to start getting into some fun year long learning! I have been researching ideas for what to do with my kindergarteners to provide them with a really fun writing experience which would allow them to write about what they do in their day to day lives as well as be engaged in sharing their writing/experiences with others. While researching I remembered the book Flat Stanley, and my own experience with reading the book as a child. When I was in school I had the chance to read Flat Stanley and then we wrote a story about where we would go if we could make ourselves flat. I loved the project and I loved using my imagination!

And now, as a teacher, I am going to use the same story to help my students develop their writing skills, create relationships with people all of the world, and use their imaginations! We are going to link up to the Flat Stanley Project This week my students will each create their own "Flat Stanley". They will color them, take pictures with them, and write a letter introducing him or her. Then, we will send them out. Flat Stanleys will go to people I know as well as to people we find by on the official Flat Stanley Project website. My hope is that our Flat Stanleys will take us on a tour of the world!

If you are interested in hosting a "Flat Stanley" from my class, feel free to post a comment or send me an email. The requirements are simple...hang out with Flat Stanley and show him where you are from! Take him to work, to the park, a ball game, a historical site, or any where really! Take lots of pictures and then send him, the pictures, and any other fun souvenirs or brochures back to me. My students will look forward to learning about all of the places Flat Stanley will visit!

All the while, my students will be having their own adventures with our class Flat Stanley. Each weekend one of my students will take home our class Flat Stanley. They will each get the chance to create an adventure and journal about their adventures.

I can wait to get started on our fun adventures with Flat Stanley! Check back Monday night for pictures of each of my students Flat Stanleys! Maybe you will see one that you would like to host:)!

Wow...It's been a long time!

Well, I am back. And although I know we are all busy, I gotta give a shout out to those of you who can handle the beginning of the year craziness, your home life (i.e. Kids, house cleaning, cooking, etc.), AND still find time to blog!!! I seem to be lacking in the ability to balance it all. Anyway, I have a few blog ideas for today and I am going to try to make the time to get them all done!

This first blog is just to share a link to Teachers Pay Teachers. If you don't know about this website already, I gotta say, it's AWESOME! I love the whole idea of it. I love the idea of being able to buy printables to use in my classroom from other teachers instead of paying outrageous prices for books and activities from the teacher store. I am so grateful for the activities I have found on TPT. Anyway, here is the link, enjoy your shopping friends:)!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Data, Data, and more Data!

Hey blogger friends! It has been a while since my last post, but I had good reason, I have been in my classroom getting ready for this year's kiddos to start on Monday! I can't wait to meet all of my students and to start learning with them.

Onto today's post...data! We are constantly collection data on our kids. At our school, in the older grade levels, each student has a data notebook. They use these notebooks to keep track of how they are doing in preparing for the FCAT, our state test. Well, this year, I decided to implement data notebooks into my kindergarten class. I believe it is great for our students to have goals and to know where they are at in meeting their goals. Each month I will conference with each student to discuss a learning goal that they would like to set for that month. It could be learning more letters, writing their name, or even drawing a person. Then, we will work on that goal together for the month. That goal sheet will go into their data notebook which will include this Data Packet. Our school is focusing on the basic skills this year in order to help our students become better readers and mathematicians. Here is the data packet I created.

Each of the pages in this packet lists different skills. When I am testing students I will mark the letters, numbers, words, etc. that they know. Then, the students will take the folder to their seats and color/trace the items that I have marked. For my students this will be like graphing what they know. For some of the skills I will simply write a date once the child has mastered the skill. Students will practice writing their names, drawing a person, and following directions once each quarter in their data notebooks. It will be great to have a folder to pull out during conferences to show parents how their child has grown over the course of the school year! At the end of the year the students will have a wonderful collection of many skills we cover in kindergarten! Thanks to Scrappin Doodles for the super clip art! Click here to view the data packet in Google Documents. It looks much better than the one on Scribd.com!
Kindergarten Assessment

If for some reason you cannot download this item, or if it does not download neatly, post your email and I will gladly email you the original file. Some of the alignment seemed to be off when I uploaded to scribd.com!

Keeping YOU and your STUDENTS organized!

Okay, back to this whole organization thing...here are a few tips that I have found in the last few weeks:)

Love this video tip, the only thing I would add is to laminate the prong folders. They last FOREVER if you run them through a laminator. After they are out of the laminator simply use a razor blade to cut around the prongs.

This is a list of 100 ways to promote organization in your classroom from Scholastic. Love some of the transition ideas!

I LOVE Kelly's Kindergarten! Her website is easy to use and everything is FREE! Anyway, her page on classroom organization offers GREAT tips. I especially like the paint stirrer name tag idea. I will be using this idea on a magnetic cabinet in my classroom. The students names will be placed in reading groups, and by having them on the paint sticks the names will be large enough to read from across the room. I like having them magnetic so that I can move them around as my groups change.

Have a great afternoon friends! I am off to do some creating...

Counting Coconuts

This is an amazing blog. It is written by a mom who is committed to teaching her child using the Montessori method. Over the last several months I have become more interested in Montessori because we have enrolled our three year old into a montessori school. We have been learning the process along with him, and I am blown away by all the things he is and will be learning in his classroom. As a teacher in a public school I have a great deal I can learn from montessori classrooms. I am looking forward to learning more and I can't wait to hear more from Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts!



These are just a few of my favorite posts from her blog:

Personalized Guess Who Game
Beach Themed Activities
I Spy Bottles
My Place on the Map

Enjoy friends!

Hop, Hop, Hop...learning to count!

We start the year off by learning the numbers 1-10. This year I want my kiddos to know the know not only the number, but how to count to 10 and the words for each number very quickly at the beginning of the school year. I created this fun game for two with that in mind. The game can be played two different ways. First, you can use the fly cards with numbers on them to play with the number word mats. Or you could use the fly counting cards with the number mats to practice counting and number recognition. I will post all of the different pages and you can use them however you please! You will have to print two of each page in order to have enough supplies for games for two kids. As you can see above I printed the lily pads on blue card stock.

Lily Pad Hop Number Mats

Lily Pad Hop Number Words Mat

Flies With Numbers

Flies for Counting

What's in YOUR bank?

Hey Friends:)

Here is a new fun activity for you to try out with your kiddos. As I mentioned the other day my goal was to create more fine motor activities in my classroom, however, I needed to make the center have more value than just the fine motor. So, here we have a center that focuses on fine motor but also incorporates data collection and money.

What's in YOUR bank?

In this activity students will place coins into a bank (I bought mine from Target for $1.00. I painted the top of each bank and made a cover for the outside.). As they put coins into the bank they will complete a bar graph telling which coins they have placed into the bank. (My graphs are laminated and we will use dry erase crayons so that they are reusable!)



Here are the pages for the activity! I hope you enjoy. If you are looking for some ways to differentiate, please read below!

What's in Your Bank Cover

What's in Your Bank

Differentiating

Eliminate the graph and focus on the fine motor and coin identification.
Use only one, two, or three coins.

ABC's, 123's, and Fine Motor...WHAT???

Well, the countdown is on! In just 17 short days I will meet my students for the 2011/2012 school year...and I am getting really excited!

With the start of this new school year I want to really focus on writing in my kindergarten classroom. I feel that we have lost some of the "other" subjects in an effort to cater to reading and math. Although I feel reading and math are very important, I also believe that some children will not come alive in their learning until we introduce them to writing...social studies...science...and all of the other lost "subjects". For today I am focusing on writing...but perhaps not writing in the way your are thinking. Many of the students in my classroom will come to me not having had much along the lines of fine motor work. How are they going to learn to write, if they can't maneuver their fingers to work in the write way. SO, for the first few weeks, fine motor activities it will be! Here are some of the ideas that I have found so far...what are your ideas?

Push Pin Punch Outs
I know...I know...many of you are probably thinking I am crazy to turn a bunch of new kindergartners loose with push pins, but no worries, they will be supervised:)! This is a great activity which will promote students using the "Pincher Grasp" which is what they will use when they are taught to hold a pencil correctly. The activity is simple. The student uses a push pin to punch out shapes from paper. All you need is some kind of "punching mat" (cardboard, carpet scrap, cork board, etc.), push pins, and shapes on paper. I will be starting the year by giving my students shapes to punch out, but as they get more advanced I will give them basic shapes to trace onto paper and then they will use the push pin to punch them out. And to appease those who do not want writing instruction done during reading time, you could use block letters as the shapes, which means they are not only developing some fine motor skills, but they are also practicing letter recognition! (I have read that puzzle pieces with the knobs make for great items to practice tracing techniques!) Click here to learn more about push pin punch outs!

Clothes Pins:
It seems that I always have a center or workshop using clothes pins. This year, I will have a center dedicated to moving things using just a clothespin. Students will move objects from on location to another using just a clothes pin. Objects fun for moving...cotton balls, crayons, Lego's, balled up paper, small toys, etc.

Stringing Beads:
This is a pretty easy center to set up as you can usually find packages of beads for with string in the dollar section at Target or even at the Dollar Store.

Nuts and Bolts:
This is going to be GREAT for my kiddos. First it will help them to continue to develop their fine motor skills, but they can also use the bolts for measurement. And being that the nuts and bolts will be different sizes, so they will have to use their spatial reasoning to help solve this problem!

Fill the Bank:
In this activity students will use coins to "Fill the Bank". Putting coins into a coin slot again encourages use of the pincher grasp, and therefore builds strength for holding a pencil. To connect this to graph building and data collection (another goal of mine for this year) my students will place the coins into the bank and create a graph as they go along. At the end they will be able to see which coin they had the most of and how many coins they put into the bank!

These are just a few ideas...more to come tomorrow with pictures:)!

More free stuff:)

Here are a few pages I will be including into the take home/sight word folders for the first few weeks. Each child will also have a name practice page as well as some name activities. I will be working on those over the next couple of days. Anyway, the first one is a sight word coloring page and the second is a take home number/word/counting memory game. For the game, I would print on card stock and then have parents cut apart. To make it easier for parents and kids, I will be putting a star on the back of all of the numbers, a heart on the back of all of the words, and a circle on the back of all of the counting rectangles. That way students will choose one heart, one star, and one circle when they are playing the game. Hope you enjoy:)

Rocket Ship Coloring

I am not sure what the problem is, but for some reason this page is not looking its best. HOWEVER, if you click the words Fish Count, found below, you will be taken to Scribd, where you can download the correct version:)!

Fish Count

Kindergarten Overview

, WHello blog friends!

I have been busy this morning creating my Kindergarten Overview Packet. The idea is that we will spend the first two weeks of school going over some of the key concepts that students will be expected to know prior to the end of kindergarten. Most of these skills are taught in our school's pre K program, but unfortunately many of our students do not attend any kind of pre K. So, in an effort to review with those who have attended pre-K and to provide a quick overview for those who have not, I have created this packet. I will send all of this home in a folder on the very first day of school. Students will be expected to bring the folder back each day.

This morning I am posting just the parent letter and weekly, "What are we Learning?" pages. Check back later today for more practice pages.

What Are We Learning Overview

Numbers...what do they mean??

Hey all!

I am still working on those basic beginning of the school year skills. One of the skills that we work on all year is counting. I created the following activity to help students see that numbers can be represented in different ways, but that they are still the same number. The first two pages are number cards. Each number will be represented four times. Cut the cards on pages 3 and 4 apart. Students then sort them based on how many items are on the card. (ex. 3 hearts goes on the 3 card, 10 hearts on the 10 card, etc.) Feel free to print and use in your classroom. If you repost this link, please do so in a way that sends people to my blog as this is my original work. Hope you are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer!

Math Number Game

Classroom Organization

"I will stay organized, I will stay organized, I will stay organized" That is my mantra for this year. My first few years of teaching I was very organized and everything had a place. However, then, I switched grade levels AND classrooms. I want from a small portable to a VERY LARGE inside classroom and from teaching fifth grade to kindergarten. That transition was great, except for my organization. First of all, the classroom was HUGE compared to what I was used to, and second, there is a lot more 'stuff' in a K classroom than 5th. So, this year, I WILL stay organized. I thought I would share a few of the great and INEXPENSIVE ideas I have found to help with organization.

First of all, I have been trying to find ways to create more storage in my classroom. Specifically, storage that is enclosed. So, here is one way that I think is just great! I am thinking of creating four these to use at my play dough table. Then, when that workshop is closed I can simply put all of the play dough inside a bucket and have a clean table! Click on the picture to go to a teacher blog with directions, below the picture is a link to a website which sells actual bucket seats.



Bucket Seats for $6.59

Here is a similar idea using file folder crates, click the picture to see how these are made!



What to do with all of those pencils, markers, pens, crayons, etc, etc, etc! A great very inexpensive solution that could be customized to your classroom theme! I am going to try this idea, but I think I will use scrap book paper to wrap some of the outside tubes, or maybe just paint! I will also probably glue the rolls to a cork board which can then be hung on the wall. Again, click the picture to learn more!!



Okay, this next idea, I LOVE! I saw this picture and really liked the idea,
but was concerned that my little kindergartners would knock over the cups. So, I came up with this instead. Take eight Starbucks cups and glue them into a tray. Ask for both the dome lids and the flat lids when you are at the store. I would use the small (or tall in Starbucks lingo) cups. They are shorter and will hold plenty of paint. As for the tray, anything will work. Target has some plastic trays for $2.50 that would be great. Once your cups are glued into the tray, you can put the paint into the cups. When students are using the paints, put the dome lid on for scraping extra paint off of the brush. When the are not working, use the flat lids (cover the straw hole with tape to prevent drying out). The trays will fit easily on a shelf or the cups can be stacked in a cupboard out of the reach of little hands.






Happy organizing!!!

New Things!! Freebies inside!

It has been a few days since I have posted much of anything, and there IS a reason!! I have been busy working away on several fun new projects for my class. Here is a little sample of what has been going on...



Thanks to Kindergarten Crayons and Fabulous in First for sharing the awesome color/number freebies above. I printed their cards and then put them on cardstock, we will use them to play a class matching game throughout the year! I can't wait to try out these awesome ideas!

As for the other items, here they are! The game I Have, Who has is used in many classrooms. I have made a set of cards for the game using our STAR words for the beginning of the year, which are color and number words. Print on card stock and laminate to make your cards last longer! Feel free to use this activity, but please do not repost as your own! Don't forget, when playing the game, the first person to go reads only the BOTTOM of their card, place this card face up on the table throughout the game. The last person to go will be the person who is holding the card which matches the top of the starting card. Have fun playing:)!

I Have Who Has Color and Number Words

And for more color word practice, I made the My Book of Many Colors. After I made the book there was a copy sitting on our table and my kiddo decided he would like to try finding some colors! As you can see we used magazines to find pictures for each page. He also colored the words and then traced the words at the bottom of the page. This is a great activity for both preschool (like my little guy) and kindergarten. The book includes all of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, brown, black, and gray. Enjoy:)!







And here is the document!
My Book of Many Colors

I have also been very busy crafting (thanks to Pinterest) things for my classroom. Those adorable little airplanes, which I will be using to hang great work from on a bulletin board, can be found here at parenting.com

I have mentioned before that I am always looking for ways to keep my kids in one place while in workshops and centers. I have made two of these great rugs which will be great for keeping fidgety bottoms in one place. The directions can be found at Family Fun .

It has been a busy week of crafting! And there are more projects on the way! Check back soon for more freebies!!! And don't forget to follow the blog so you will be notified when there are freebies available. The link to follow is on the left!

Kinders on the Block

Check out this great new blog!! Especially if you are into giveaways and fresh ideas! She has found tons of great pre-school giveaways and linky parties!

The greatest teacher incentive: The freedom to teach - The Washington Post

The greatest teacher incentive: The freedom to teach - The Washington Post

This article makes several really valid points. Unfortunately, most of you all who read this blog are teachers, so, it will be validating what you already know. I wish there were more people in positions of power that would spend more time listening to those of us in the trenches. I dream about a day when I can actually teach my children what the need to know. There was a time when children were taught how to do basic tasks, and it was acceptable for them to work in jobs where those tasks were necessary. I hope someday we will come back around to accepting children for who they are, not push them to be someone that are not.

What's YOUR name?

"Hi there! Welcome to our class, what is YOUR name?" "Oh, (fill in the blank with student name), is here, we can sing her name in our welcome song!" "Uh oh...I have a paper from someone, but I don't know who it did all of this hard work...there is no name!" "what is the first letter in your name?" "How many syllables are in your name?" "If you have an S in your name, tap your nose!"

Let's face it, in kindergarten, your name is REALLY important. As a teacher, I want my students to know their names (both to write them and read them) VERY quickly at the beginning of the year. So, I have been spending a significant amount of time coming up with new and exciting activities to try out with my kiddos during those first few weeks of school. Here is what I have found so far...feel free to add to the list by commenting:)!

Name Tracers- A pretty simple concept but yet SO valuable. Use note cards or sentence strips to write students names either in dash lines or gray marker. Laminate and students can use dry erase markers (or dry erase crayons) to trace and then erase.


Name Puzzles- Use notecards or sentence strips. Write the students name on the card and then cut apart like puzzle pieces. Students will love putting their own name together and then will even learn to put other student's names together! Laminate for durability!



My Book of Names- I have been thinking about doing something like this for the past few years and will be using it this year. In the picture below I have written the students names into the book, and for some early kindergarteners that would be possible. In order to differentiate I might give some the names of each student printed on paper and let them glue the names into the book. Either way, this is a fun way to help students learn to "read" each other's names. Follow up with the homework assignment of adding the names of different family members! Your students will be so excited to show off how many different names they can write and read!




And some more ideas without pictures!
~Shaving Cream Name Writing- Give each child a glob of shaving cream and allow
them to practice writing their name!
~My Name Book- I love this idea! Check it out!! My Name Book
~Write a students name in glue on a piece of paper and allow it to dry. This can
be used for SO many different activities. After the glue is dry allow the
children to paint over it. Place a second piece of paper on top of the glue
name and create crayon rubbings. Add glitter to the glue before it dries for a
sparkly effect.
~Give each child cut outs of their name. Give them a variety of materials to
decorate with (sand, glitter, feathers, beads, magazines, beans, paint, ripped
paper, etc.) The children will make beautiful collages of their names!
~Add a picture of the child and their name to the digital photo frame I mentioned in this post ! Your kiddos will LOVE seeing themselves
on the screen and everyone will get a few more chances to practice recognizing
their name and their friends' names!
~We will also sing TONS of songs with our names and do many graphing activities with our names. If you want to learn more about graphing your students names check out this site!

Freebie AND a giveaway...

Have you ever walked through a teacher store and thought, wow, if only I made enough money to buy everything!!! I certainly have thought about what I could do if I had the money to invest in some really quality premade centers. This weekend while taking a walk through the teacher store (and I quite literally walked all through the store to get to the very back where they store the laminating pages for my laminator), I saw so many great ideas. Unfortunately, the price tags were all outside of my "back to school budget".

So, I came home feeling slightly defeated thinking about all of the opportunities for learning there are in that store, and began to think about how I could provide some great opportunities for my students without spending all of my summer money! And tada...my thinking worked! Farm Animal Number Sequencing Puzzles. Although not entirely free (cost of paper, ink, and laminating), I love them! I think my students will, too. This center will also help my students learn the names of different animals before our farm field trip in the fall. The center includes 8 different animal puzzles, with number practice from 1-10. (This center works great for all of you mommies of preschoolers/kindergarteners/first graders! My little guy has been playing with it!)






The good news...I am going to give this fun farm puzzle set to all of my blog followers! All you have to do is comment on this post and leave me your email address. Then, I will email you the electronice version. Once you have the copy you simply print, laminate, and cut.

Even better...for two lucky blog followers I will do all of that work for you and send you not only the electronic version, but I will also send you a hard copy (via the mail or my car--dependingn on which is closer!) already laminated and cut! Oh, and it will be in a great little storage case! That's right...a completely ready to go center for TWO blog followers. Winners will be chosen by number at random.

And the best news...coming soon I will send each of you a second set of African animals with the numbers 10-20, via your email! Again, I will pick TWO lucky winners at random to receive this second set of sequencing puzzles laminated and ready to use in a fun storage case.

All you have to do to receive the puzzle and an opportunity to win the complete center...post your email in the comments section of this blog after signing up to follow on the left side.

If you want additional chances to win you can: post a link to this blog on facebook, post a link to my blog on your blog, or find a friend to sign up to follow my blog with your reference! If you do any of these things just post under the comments an additional time for each thing you have done:)!

Mrs. Kelly's Kindergarten!!

Howdie!

Well, in the midst of an intense World Cup game, I was busy working away on some fun ideas:)! The inspiration for one of those ideas came from Mrs. Kelly's Kindergarten . I was SO excited to find her blog. All in one place I found these:





Those spellers were my inspiration for these:





Mrs. Kelly has tons of great ideas and she would love for you to visit her blog! Make sure to check out her posts about literacy centers and organization. Look at the left side of her blog to find her posts organized by subject! Hope you find some great ideas from Mrs. Kelly!

Freebie!!!

Hey all! I am trying to get ready for the start of the school year and thought I would share a counting practice center with the blogger world! So, here it is... Behive counting! Students count the number of flowers on the beehives and then match the correct bee to each hive. The center is all ready to go...just print, laminate, and cut! Hope you love it!

Please do not post this document as your own work, if you would like to repost please create a link back to my blog. Thanks!

Bee and Bee Hive Counting

Pinterest...best thing since...Stumble Upon

Okay, so, as a teacher I am ALWAYS looking for new ideas. Problem is, I never remember them! Lucky for me I received an invite to join Pinterest.com. Never again will I have to worry about forgetting those super great ideas. Why? Check this out!

Heidi Buffa (heidibuffa) on Pinterest

The idea...if you see something you like, Pin It. Once you have pinned it you can place it into any category your heart desires. Then, when you want to go back to it just pull up your homescreen and take a look. So easy! Pinterest even lets you write a description for your pinned pictures. It gets even better...you can look through pictures that other people have pinned, giving you even more opportunity to find even more great ideas!

Combine Pinterest with Stumble Upon and you end up with the perfect opportunity to not only find some really exciting new ideas, but the chance to actually remember them down the road. (This site is seriously an organizers dream as far as web searching goes!)

If you are interested head on over to www.pinterest.com , it may take a bit to receive your invite, but once you are invited it is very easy to set up!

For those of you who do not know what Stumble Upon is, well, it is basically a web browsing service that takes a survey of your interests and the provides an endless supply of websites that you might be interested in based on the answers to the survey. It is fun to click the stumble upon button and see what comes up next:)!

Have fun exploring the WWW, friends!

Awesome Blogs!!

Hey all! Found another really awesome blog with great ideas and tons of printables for you to check out! Ladybug's Teacher Files and Ladybugs's Teaching Resources is a great place to go for ideas both in the classroom and for the blogging world. For those of you who are interested in creating a blog for your classroom, you should definitely check out her tutorials! I am becoming addicted to world of blogging and all of the wonderful people and their wonderful ideas:)!





Check out this blog soon, there is a great giveaway with awesome prizes! She just hit 1,000 followers. That's amazing! Teachers of older grade levels with love this site, she has tons of ideas for your classrooms:)!

Have a great day! I am off to see what I can find at Target for my classroom:)!

Who is this person anyway?

In my recent rereading of the Parker Palmers book, The Courage to Teach, I realized that I have lost a bit of myself to the pedagogy of teaching. In other words, I have gotten so wrapped up in what I am being told to do as far as the technical practices of teaching, that I have, in fact, lost some of my purpose as a teacher. Not that I do not still value the reasons that I became a teacher, but at times I find myself struggling to reconcile my inner teacher with the outside forces that are placed on me as a part of the system.

In the book, Palmer begins by saying that the question that he will seek to answer is, "Who is the self that teaches?". As he states, that is a question often ignored during trainings and workshops. It is much more likely that educators will sit and discuss questions like, "What will we teach?", "How will we teach?", and sometimes "why do we teach?". Rarely do we allow time for the question of "Who". Palmer asserts that the "who" question is harder to answer than the others because it involves a great deal of self discovery, as well as, a willingness to engage in conversations about all parts of our teaching selves- intellect, emotion, and spirituality. Palmer states, "Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher". What a true statement.

This is where I have been left to work on my inner teacher, the part of me that does not get attention during the hours of workshops/seminars/and trainings which occur every school year. The part of me that builds relationships with my students and creates excitement in my classroom. Parker proposes that this conversation should begin with a look at the people who inspired us as learners. Parker, however, does not simply ask the question, "Who is your mentor?". Rather, he asks the question, "What was it about you that allowed good mentoring to happen?". Parker describes the mentoring relationship as, "one of mutuality".

I have now been on both sides of the mentoring spectrum and can honestly say that I completely agree. As a mentor this past year I was more energized and motivated for my career and my students. And looking back on my time as a student, I can say that the reason my "role model" or mentor was so impactful on my life is because I was at a time in life when I was ready to see change in my own life. My mentor gave me the opportunity to make a difference, and being that I was just 12 years old, that felt incredible. So much of childhood is spent being told that as a child you aren't old enough, big enough, smart enough, etc. And this teacher was constantly telling students that they were old enough, big enough, smart enough...and just enough. It was this teacher that helped me to realize my passion for helping others. Because of his passion for making an impact in anyway that he could, I was energized and have tried to carry that energy throughout my day to day life. This is the part of myself that often feels pushed out or weighed down by all of those outside forces. I find myself struggling to accomodate the part of me that wants to please those in superior positions at the same time as being committed to teaching and nurturing the learners with whom I have contact.

For now, I have started by acknowledging that a small part of me has been lost to the system. Going forward, after acknowleding, I will continue to try and bring my identity as a teacher- intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually- together into an undivided self.

More great ideas that cost very little...

I have three things that I want to focus on this year as far as my classroom set-up and organization.

First, I want my tables to be neat and organized. I want my students to know that everything in our classroom has a home.

Second, I want my students to be able to work independently and in pairs. This is hard in a classroom of 18 kindergarteners because it seems no matter what I do they end up sitting right next to someone else or a group other than their own. So, the goal is to make work stations very clear but also flexible because I do not always have the same number of kids in each group.

Third, I want my students to know exactly what they are allowed to do when they have completed their work. Again, this is difficult in kindergarten because finding activities that are truly self led can be challenging!

The GOOD NEWS, day two of my blogging I have solved all three of the above problems, thanks to some other people and their great ideas! So, here goes!

My student tables this year will feature premade icing containers. Simply wash the container, cut pencil size holes in the lid and you have inexpensive pencil holders that if knocked over will not create a distraction for other tables! If you really want to get fancy, attach a strip of velcro to the bottom of the canister...it will keep the canister in place but allow you to take it off of the table for bigger projects! Messy tables no longer!

On to how to keep those squirmy kindergarteners in one place...HULA HOOPS! That's right, when you have a folder center or workshop where students can work on the floor, put them in a hula hoop. This will keep each pair or individual in their own space. So SIMPLE...but yet SO good. For more great ideas like the Hula Hoops and Icing containers visit http://patricia_f.tripod.com/tips.html and http://www.kidschalkboard.com/.

And for that time when students have a few minutes of down time...chart folders. A binder filled with charts and laminated pages which students can take out whenever there is downtime. These charts could change throughout the year or be added to as students learn more skills. And the final idea, a digitial picture frame to flash sight words, letters, or numbers. The frame will hang on the wall in the front of the classroom. It will be a constant activity for my students when they have finished their work. (Thanks to www.teachertipster.com for these awesome ideas:)!)

I can't wait to get into my classroom to start setting up for this school year. It will be exciting to see how these organizational changes will enhance the learning my students do.

Awesome Ideas:)!

Hey friends! I have been exploring some great blogs this morning and came acorss "Kindergarten Crayons". She has so many great ideas to share! Visit her page at



I especially like all of her Pete the Cat activities. I will be incorporating those into my workshops this year for sure! First grade friends, those might be really awesome review activities for the first few weeks of school. Enjoy!

Some people just bring a special energy!

So, in my browsing today I came across the TeacherTipster. And I was addicted. I have now explored his website, youtube channel, facebook page, and shop. I can honestly say that he has inspired me to get more creative and use more songs in my classroom. I love the energy that he brings in his videos, and I cannot wait for him to share more videos once school gets started.

My favorite two things from his site: Chart Folders for after students finish their work and using a digital camera to scroll sight words for students to practice during down time. Both are seemingly maintenance free ideas that provide structure for students in times when structure is essential!

Check out his site:)!

www.teachertipster.com

31 Days...

Yikes! 31 days from today will be the start of a new school year. It is hard to believe that the last weeks of summer are upon us! That being said, it is time for me to start my annual self led teacher renewal. Yes, that does in fact mean that I am going to be researching and discovering all sorts of fun and exciting things to hopefully try in my classroom over the course of the next school year!

Hence the inspiration for this blog! I am hoping to share all of those really great ideas that I find with all of you (and maybe a few originals along the way). There are so many people with so many great ideas...and I have decided that instead of just sharing with one or two people, I will share with the blogging community. In this blog you might find reviews of other blogs, helpful websites, and ideas that might be worth trying. Although I teach kindergarten, I have experience with other grade levels. I will share whatever I find as long as it as some value to creating a fresh start and bringing new ideas to the classroom!