Hodge Podge

I found these cute canvases to hang in the hallway outside of my classroom door.

Here is our carpet time, where I hold Number Talks, model read, and do phonemic awareness activities.

On April Fools' day, another (amazing) kindergarten teacher and I dressed up as one another. We switched classrooms and tried to trick the students.... They were on to us. ;)

On Bike to School day in May, I led a bike ride to school from Las Vegas Cyclery. 100 students followed behind me on our 1 miles ride to school. I stayed in my helmet and kit all day to promote bicycle safety!

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Classroom Pictures

2013-2014

Here is our library center, complete with an anchor chart on "The 3 Ways to Read a Book."

Here is a goal setting bulletin board.

Art center is always integrated with math and ELA. Towards the end of the year, the students create story elements.

Here are a few centers.

• Restaurant Center
• Seat Work Center
• Write the Room
• Sight Word Stars
• Magnetic Letters
• Journal Center

Listening Center

Word Puzzles and "Games"

Play Doh Centers (students write letters and words in Play Doh) and Whiteboards

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Elf on the Shelf

Our Elf on the Shelf has been candy cane skiing in our classroom.


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Anchor Charts

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Authors' Mic

Here is one of my kindergartners reading about rainy and sunny weather from his journal. He's pointing with a water squirter (Dollar Tree) and speaking into one of our classroom mics. My kiddies LOVE this and are so proud!


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New Technology

One of the benefits of our new classroom is the new AV system. We use the projector to watch www.brainpopjr.com videos and the enVisions clips. I also use an iPod daily during seatwork and centers, playing mostly Steven Fite, Dr. Jean, and The Beatles (for our First Grade Promotion Ceremony--more on that later).





We also received two microphones, so one of my aides and I each have one. I love them, especially during centers when it's louder in the classroom. It's great to get everyone's attention. The kids also love to read from their journals or the morning messages using the microphones! They are much smaller than the mic I used in student teaching. You also have to get in the habit of clicking them off when you want to have a one-on-one conversation. Now, I just have to remember to stop taking it home accidentally!



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Big Changes

I haven't posted in a while, simply because of chaos. In the past few months, our kinder aide left, we gained a new one, we gained a second one, we packed up our room, unpacked our room, and performed a Spring Assembly five times for the entire school.

Here is the new room...

I didn't put up too many things, but that will change over the summer. I'm thinking of switching to an ocean theme for next year...

iPhones

I reset the two old iPhones we had in my house and downloaded phonics apps. I grabbed four apps that are like digital flashcards for letters and sounds. I plan on giving them to early finishers or my kids who need extra help during centers. They can only access the four educational apps.





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Centers Details

As I begin to incorporate structured centers, I thought I'd share what works best for me...

For the first two weeks of centers, I do not try to pull kids for a small group since I'm constantly getting up to assist the kiddies. I circulate the room until my feet hurt. When I finally assign centers groups by ability level, I send home a note to the parents listing their child's group, so the parents can help them remember the group name.

I have six groups of 4-5 children in each group. They are the: Yellow Suns, Red Apples, Orange Fish, Blue Cars, Green Turtles, and Purple Stars. Since moving to full-day K, I have two 40 minutes centers sessions, one are Math Centers and one are Reading Centers. During the 40 minutes, I do two centers stations for each group, so the kids visit a total of 4 centers a day.

It is SO IMPORTANT to practice finding their centers, walking to their center quietly, completing the center, and then CLEANING UP the center the way they found it. I include pictures of what the centers look like neatly organized for my visual learners.

My Math Centers include: blocks center, board games center, computer center, small group with me ("Mrs. Payne's Round Table"), whiteboards, seatwork, puzzles, manipulatives, etc.

My Reading Centers are: reading group, computers, listening center, LeapPads, whiteboards, file games, mailbox center, friend center (where they match each classmate's picture to their written name), write the room center (writing environmental print), journals, teacher center with the overhead, alphabet puzzles, art center, etc.

Here's a link to a previous year's half-day centers.

Mission Accomplished

Here are pictures of the new, smaller room!











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