Making Centers!

Unless you just buy the pre-made centers from Lakeshore (and I do love that .com) you are probably like me and spend a lot of time making centers that are fun and engaging and MEANINGFUL for your students.

I haven't taught Kinders in quite a while so I have a lot to do!

I like to use little clips in fun themes for my students. It seems they try harder to do the work I want them to do if I make it colorful and fun. I bought lots of different themes at AC Moore recently. They were on sale, which helped a lot! Especially since North Carolina has taken away the $250.00 teacher deduction which we always have had..... Anyway, thank goodness for sales! The monkeys were the most expensive, but I had to have them!

I use the smooth jumbo sized paper clips. 

I glue the paper clip as shown in the picture above. I try to cover up the ends, but if you go too low down, the clips will eventually come out.

The little clips look like this after you have put the two sides together.

You could do the clips like the picture above, but they eventually come apart. You will get more for your money, but most will not stay for the year.

I started out with these stars. Boy are they sparkly! They are also pretty thick, which makes the clips a bit larger than I want, but they are pretty.

I ended up with this pile! My students are going to love these.

Here's the monkey clips. Too cute to pass up. I had to do double sided on the monkeys also since I want the clips to stay on.

I made the sports packet also. These are felt and really nice. Again more expensive, but double sided they will last for quite a few years.

This was a large pack of felt flowers. So colorful. You can see in this picture the clips that I did not get perfectly aligned. (I was getting tired!)

This heart packet had a paper backing that I could glue back on. It still wasn't strong enough though after quite a few times of poking and pulling like a student (might) do, it started coming off.

This is how the hearts turned out. I might save these just for February since I made so many of the others.

I also made Wiggly Sticks as my students called them. I had a few left over from way back when, but the painted craft sticks were so nice I had to make something with them. I made about 25 of the goggly eyed sticks for my students to use as they read in Daily Five.

One more thing.... this is my newest product for TPT. This is a huge pack of beginning sound word cards. 278 large, colorful cards. I needed a pack to use in whole group that was interesting and not just the usual words. My students are a little more sophisticated now and I wanted to use words and pictures that would keep them interested.

The center that goes along with this packet is great to use with the clips above!

Just in case you do not have all the little themed clips, I have different fonts you can laminate and glue onto the jumbo paper clips or use clothes pins.

Ohhh.... this was a long post. Hopefully you made it to the end. Don't forget to go download the 2013 TPT Annual Holiday Freebie Book for K-2 (I have a product included and I am so honored!) Happy December! Pam

2013 TPT Happy Holidays eBook - 50 Freebies! I am honored to be included!

Happy December and a Freebie!

Hi all,
If you are a TPT fan, you probably know the Annual TPT ebook is out with tons of freebies!
I am so honored to be included in the book this year!

So many great products and tips! Download here!

Also, I just put up another freebie in my Kindergarten Store! It's an emergent reader about a cat and a hat. My students loved it so I thought others might also like to have a copy to put in students' browsing bags. I am starting the Daily Five and need lots of readers!

Have a great week, Pam

Science and Social Studies Vocabulary Word Walls

Most schools are now requiring Science and Social Studies Vocabulary Word Walls. We have always had Word Walls for ELA and Math. The Science and Social Studies words can be a little more difficult because these words are usually harder to spell.... so harder to recognize for the younger students.

Here is a picture of my Science and Social Studies Vocabulary Word Wall.

I don't really have a lot of room for so many Word Walls, but they are required and my students use them in their writing. My Kindergartners would not be able to recognize these words though if it wasn't for the pictures. They use the School Tools pictures a lot in their writing. This is included in my School Tools packet on Teachers Pay Teachers (link.) Lots of other activities and printables are included also.

My Science Vocabulary Word Wall was put up after we did whole group lessons and other fun activities with this packet. (link) This deals specifically with K.P.1.1 in the Common Core curriculum. These are words that my students need to know, the pictures help.

Notice I had to use one of the center cards! I let my students use these cards at their seats whenever they need to for writing. It really helps them to see the words along with the pictures and sometimes the cards turn up in a journal instead of in the baggie where they can be found!

This is one of the whole group cards that I use to teach and show what the words mean.

****** After writing this post, I realized I should have just made Word Wall Cards with the pictures! So I have included those in this packet. If you have already bought this from my TPT, just go to your purchases and download the updated version.*******

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! We are on our countdown to Winter Break... I love those words! I try not to think about it though because I want to take my time with my students and not rush through their Kindergarten Year.

Have a great December!

Technology In Our Kindergarten Classroom

My students seem to learn best with technology, color, and interaction. I guess it has always been that way, except now technology is more high-tech.

My Ks are using the little Chromebooks I wrote a grant for last year. Of course at that time I didn't know I would be using them with Ks! I was uncertain if they could use them without a mouse, but they went for it immediately and all three are using Starfall. If you have other websites that are easy for Ks to get around in, please leave a comment.

This is actually going to be my writing center. I have a big ole Teacher Desk that is taking up prime property in my room. This was moved out yesterday so I now have room! These two Chromebooks are now in my little listening center so this is my writing area. My room is actually a mess right now and I can't wait to straighten it out this week. (We had 27 students and just split the classrooms so I have way too much stuff.)

This is my new assistant who is actually a certified teacher. She is showing students how to use the Smart Table. They love this! I can't wait to find time to make some activities on this. We do not have a Smart Board but I was able to get this from the EC Dept.

These pictures are our Cut N Paste Center. They rainbow trace their names and then cut the letters out to build their names. Turns out so cute. I wish I could figure out how to put this in an interactive pdf file so everyone could use this. Any ideas?

The Cut n Paste Center is one of their favorites.

What are some of your students favorite centers?

Today we plan on doing this center. This should be an ongoing center from now on until these sight words are mastered.

I only have 5 girls in my room, so while this will appeal to them because they love to make things and all of my girls play some type of sport, my boys will especially love the graphics.

Thanks for visiting! Pam

Veteran's Day Wish

I hope that all Veterans today have someone that will shake their hand, hug them, give them their love for all the sacrifices they have made for our country.

My son, my father, my mother's grandfather, my sister's husband, my sister-in-law .... these people are near and dear to my heart and they have served our country with pride. I know there are so many others that have served our country and I thank each and every one of them.

Sending special love and thanks to all our service men and women!

How Do You Display Student Work?

We have to have student work displayed in our hall and classroom. I love to do this anyway, but it is a requirement at our school. I wrote about how I display my students work on a previous post.

I thought maybe someone might be interested in  how I display my students' work in the hall. In a previous county we had a pretty strict Fire Marshall and things could not be hanging all over the place (I think it was only 60% of a wall could be covered??)

This is what I came up with a few years ago. I like the way each student has their place on the wall!

I usually only change it once a month, but in the past I have changed it weekly.

I didn't notice till now that one of the little spider webs is crooked!

How do you hang up your student work? Leave a comment below with a link to a pic! I would love to see how others display their students' work!

I have my  Student Work Topper on TPT. I printed my original Toppers pictured above in black and white and then took Sharpies to color in the WOW's (I do this a lot!) No color at the time and I had to finish this! The TPT packet has color and black and white Toppers, plus 10 different describing words! And instructions! Check it out if you are interested in displays! (Click on the picture below for a look!)

Thanks for the visit! 

October Flew By!

I don't know about the rest of you, but October just flew by for me! I love October and all the fun activities that we can do with our students, but I couldn't get it all in.

We did have so many fun times and I know every one of my students look at spiders in a different way. We never got around to actually carving a pumpkin, but we did make the cutest little pumpkins as our 'curtain.' I love to hang things from my window.

This is a picture of my class window last year. These are the dodecahedron's we did in 4th and 5th grade AIG. Mr. J. Hughes, one of my favorite TPTer's made this item up! He is amazing. You have to visit his store, (here's the link.)

This is my window this year. I haven't decided how I am going to do my 'curtain.' I think I want a little more color than I had before. (More on this later.)

We have 27 students in our K classrooms. Next Tuesday I will have 21! I am so thankful we have a new teacher. She is right beside me (we connect with a hall with a B and G bathroom!) She loves Science and I am so excited. I will miss my students but they will be next door and I can pop in anytime.

I can't wait to have just 21 folders, notebooks, activities to make, students to meet with.... and the list goes on and on!

I do have a little Turkey Center Activity in my TPT store if you want to take a look. It is Gobblin' Fun! I am going to introduce it today in whole group and then let my students have a go at it! We are working on Beginning Sounds and this is just another way for them to have fun while practicing!

I'll take pics later!

Thanks for visiting.