Recap of Week 3 and Peek at my Week 4!

Hey friends!!!!  I am so pumped about this “routine” of posting I have been doing.  What do you think?  I review with you my week and then share my plans for the next week?  Be sure to comment below and let me know how you think it’s going!  I truly want to do what will be the most helpful for you, but I wouldn’t be lying if I told you I will sometimes go back and read my OWN posts to see what I was doing last year! HA!  Oh, yeah that’s what we did….

So, first we have to address the most adorable picture up  at the top.  The kiddos are doing such a nice job standing “hip and lip” for the hallway!  This is NOT my song and I have no clue who to credit just sharing because it works like a charm every time we leave…

I put a hand on my hip…

and a finger on my lip.

So, I won’t get in trouble…

when we take our little trip!  SHH!

So, below are my plans for the week  I just completed! It was a short week due to Labor Day and a professional development day.  You can view and download these plans by clicking the image below.

Let’s talk first about those that might need a little extra “love” to be encouraged to do the right thing!  Well, I’m sure every school, every teachers, or anybody that knows anything has their own ideas on helping students make the right choices, but I have found what works in MY classroom is positive reinforcements! I will explain this all in more detail in a classroom management virtual presentation…but for real positive over negative any day.  Instead of “you will have to move your clip down if you don’t do….” try saying, “Sit criss-cross apple sauce with your friends so you can join in on our fun games!” Will it work every time?  No!  Will it work more over the negative approach…yes!  I have also had a lot success with POSITIVE behavior charts and or sticker charts.

You can see an example of mine below! I don’t nor ever will do a chart where I write a frown face.  It’s not in me..I can’t do that!  I will be okay with a smile face not being colored in though 🙂  I do recommend that you start off with a daily reward..then as the student has more and more successful days you can back the reward down to a weekly goal, etc.

You can snag these behavior logs by clicking below!  They are just a couple of bucks!  Also, you will be able to edit the student name on each chart!  I do have parents sign and return these each day so there is a constant flow of communication!

Keeping on the subject of helping kiddos make good choices..two words: BRAIN BREAKS! Oh yes you have heard of those two words I am sure!  Well here are a few ways we are giving our brains a break…

Freebie brain break cards from Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies! 

Also, you cannot leave of GONoodle! Yes, this was a newly released Zumba! 🙂

Alright, one last little tidbit on helping the kiddos make good choices!  How about kids encouraging kids?  Yes please!  It seems like all day as teachers we are encouraging the kids…but are our kids encouraging each other?  Well, I have this big and powerful word plastered as the focal point in our room and this week I put the word in action to show the kiddos just what it means to PERSEVERE and ENCOURAGE!

Okay here is what you’ll need to make a statement…

-a yummy goody {okay I chose ringpops…don’t turn me in}

-boxes

-wrapping paper

-an imagination and acting skills

So I placed ring pops in this box and wrapped it and then placed this wrapped box into a bigger box and wrapped it several more times!  I rotated between blue and yellow paper.

So, on Wednesday morning in walk the kids and this mysterious box is sitting on the counter.  They of course want to know what it is and why I am not opening it.  I turn on the acting skills and shrug my shoulders and tell the kids that I don’t want to open it…I think it will be too hard.  We then go about our business, but they most certainly want me to open it.  

The next time we come to the carpet they again begin talking about how I need to open the box.  So, I walk over and poke at it a little and give them a perplexed look.  I say, “Well what if I mess up?” They are really getting into it then and shout that it will be okay if I mess up.  So, I take off the first layer and they are amazed that there is more paper.  I just kept telling them that I couldn’t do it, I don’t know how, someone might laugh at me if I mess up, and anything else I know five year olds will say.  They all were so encouraging and continued to cheer me on like I was running in a marathon.  It was really cute…and of course when we got to the inside of the last box they started shouting in excitement that there were ring pops in there!

I then pull out my teaching moment and say something similar to this… “Boys and girls would I have ever found the ring pops if I gave up and didn’t try?”  “It was because you were so encouraging that I kept trying.  I knew you wouldn’t laugh at me and you made me feel really good!”  I then explained the word persevere and we of course ate the ring pops SHH!

 It was a great lesson and I truly think kids need to experience a situation in order to really understand it…I also snapped this picture of the “AFTER” lol!

In true teacher fashion we multi-step with eating ring pops and practicing our names!

I have a name mat for each kiddo that we practice our names with!  We have done play dough and dry erase markers!  These are a free download from me and you can view the link directly below!

Okay, moving on friends to Kindergarten Close Reads!  This week we worked on the Rainbow Fish close read…another favorite!  This book is so adorable and has a great meaning!  We worked on the focus word: sharing.  Such a big part of the beginning of K!

At the end of the week we celebrated the book with making our own Rainbow Fish!  The kiddos each got a shiny sclae {aluminum foil} and then I had cut up pieces of tissue paper.  They used their glue sticks on the paper then stuck the scales down.

A finished Rainbow Fish! You can download a freebie fish template by clicking HERE!  

How about a little whole group guided reading?  Oh yeah!  This has been such a blast to do these two weeks.  It has for sure prepared us for the start of the REAL deal next week {more on that in a bit}.  This big book selection was a big hit….

We are for sure becoming experts on using our one to one tracking!

You can check out my whole group introduction to guided reading below…

When taking a little survey on my facebook it was brought up about me explaining what I’ve been up to in writing thus far and I need to do that SO bad.  Just like I mentioned above I like to come back and read this “diary” to know what worked and what I need to try over.  Writing has actually been FUN and exciting time in our classroom.  As a building we transitioned to Lucy Calkins writing units and I have really found an excitement for them.  I promise to explain more in detail on writing SOON!  However, I just had to share this brain-ac idea I came up with.  Well, because the kiddos are not yet writing their dates I was spending precious time during writing to place the date on their papers as I was conferencing.  So, for September I said no more and typed the dated in!  This has saved me a lot of time and the kids think that it is pretty cool too 😛

If you would like to try these out in your classroom as well you can grab this September freebie below!  Not sure if I will still need this in October, but if I do I will pass it along to you as well!

How about a little discussion on KinderPhonics!  Whoop! Whoop! Here are my little darlings watching the introduction to the Leap Frog Letter Factory!

I believe I mentioned it during my classroom tour…I purchased a DVD for each kiddo in my classroom to use at home!  I placed a little note on the dvd for parents to know they could keep the dvd as long as needed and then to return it once their kiddo has mastered their letter names and sounds!

Letter Bb day!  I have really emphasized the difference between rainbow WRITING and coloring!  We’ve got it down now and know that we use our crayons at the top and pencils at the bottom.  That darn teacher has so many rules 😉

One of my favorite things about KinderPhonics is the dedication to handwriting!  I know that I stunk at this in the past, but this year we are going to be pros!

 Also, the word on the street is Unit Two is straight off the press!  You can check out Unit Two and snag it for 20% off through Sunday evening!

I also posed a question on facebook regarding a need for a home/school connection piece to KinderPhonics!  I received an overwhelming YES that there is a need for parents to connect with their kiddos on the phonics instruction.  I am working on getting this piece added.  It has just posed a few hiccups when it comes to now knowing what letters you will be covering in your classroom at a certain time.  I am hoping to make it generic enough to work for all!

A quick little blurb about number sense!  I have an extensive posts that I will link to below…but people there are my two favorite current number sense routines!  An organic number line and dot card match up!  We just had the best math “talk” on Friday using the dot card match up routine!

I will also be going into more detail about number sense when I do my number sense virtual presentation!  Until then you can gets LOTS of information by clicking below!

Friday was also our first day to meet Zero the Hero! We had a blast meeting him and he just might have brought us a zero-shaped piece of sweetness..trust me I really don’t feed my kids sweet stuff everyday hhah!! This adorable little guy and the below mentioned “craft” is from Crystal’s Zero the Hero packet!

I am linking up with Dee Dee for Peek at my week!  You can click below to view Dee Dee’s plans along with other great K plans for the week!

ALSO………..

I’m so excited to be teaming up with my favorite freebie-friends for a BIG giveaway to help get you going this school year! Over at the Freebielicious blog, we’re giving away a BIG, GRAND PRIZE (scroll down to the bottom of this post to read all about it!) and right here on my little blog, I’m giving away $25.00 to my favorite store to go school shopping: Teachers Pay Teachers- -obviously! HA!

So, if you just so happen have an overflowing TpT card I would love to help you out…

You can enter to win the $25 gift card below!  I will be choosing a winner on 9/13.

But, wait! That’s not ALL!

The Freebielicious ladies know how much of your own hard-earned money goes into buying supplies, tissues, books, and classroom décor to get your classroom “kid-ready,” and we want to be able to put some of that money right back in your pocket. Over at the Freebielicious blog, we are giving away a $300 Visa gift card! YES…YOU READ THAT RIGHT! $300!!!

To enter the BIG GIVEAWAY, click HERE or on the button below!

Also, while you are there, be sure to check out what the other Freebie-ladies are giving away. Be prepared for some AMAZING prizes. Take a peek at some of them below!

         Okay that is all I got!  Have a super week and I hope to be back real soon with some additional projects for you! 🙂