Relax and Enjoy Summer!

First off…HELLO! How are you doing?  Are you grinding away in the classroom or are you enjoying your break already?  I am the latter of those two! 🙂  I’m most certain that summer break and teaching goes hand-in-hand for a reason!  First day of summer break I am like….stress?  What stress…and most of all I am already excited to start the new year {come on like the “newness ” of the year…not actually the whole working part HA}.

I posted on Facebook the other day a “back to school” post and posed the question to see how many teachers are like me and start thinking about the next year almost immediately!  Surprisingly SO many of you agreed!  That same day I sent about a bazillion copies to the copy center to be made for those first days back.  It’s just such a stress reducer when you eliminate those “small” tasks that consume so much of your time at the beginning of the year.  It seems like those teacher work days are more preparing for the kids with putting names on things, etc. You don’t get that much too to actually PREPARE to TEACH!  Which is the most important part, right? 🙂

Anyway, get on with the point…I wanted to put this post together as a central location for teachers that are in the back to school mode…whenever that might hit you!  Below I will list out a few “must haves” for back to school…must haves AKA LIFE SAVERS!

It is obvious that I sell my resources…but in all honesty THIS IS THE BEST  BACK TO SCHOOL RESOURCE I’VE EVER MADE!  I kind of forget about resources I’ve made when I am not using them currently in my room, but when I opened this one up the other day my eyes got huge.  I was like yes I need to print this, THIS, THIS, THIS, and THIS TOO!  It really is an awesome packet for back to school time!  I’ll give you “run down” of what is inside below!

You can see from below that the packet is specially designed for those new kinders!  The “writing” skills were all printed and prepped for next year!  I sent off the writing strokes, scissor practice, cut & glue practice, coloring practice….and the my supplies reader is and adorable story about using their supplies!

I had prepped the math and literacy centers last summer so I didn’t have to do that this year, but those are MUST!  

You can click on the photo above to read the full description, but I prefer actions shots so let me get to those!
Here is one of the math centers… Drivin’ Down Number Lane!  Who couldn’t love that right?  I purchased my little plastic cars from Dollar Tree!

This one is called Apple Pickin’ and the students not only work on their one-to-one counting skills, but also fine motor work!

Apples in the Basket…for this center the students math the upper and lowercase letters!

If you’re interested in snagging this packet and prepping it before the new year you can grab it HERE. It sells for $6 and when on sale it’s $4.80 🙂

Okay, now let’s talk about a little “guided reading.”  Now…..take this with caution.  I’m for sure not telling you that you need to do full on reading as soon as school starts. However, I like to start in on those initial skills …like one to one reading!  My Introduction to Guided Reading packet offers one to one strips, easy readers, and corresponding extension sheets for two weeks of reading instruction!

One to one reading strips…

Extension activities…

Looking back one of my most proud moments from the 2014-2015 school year was KinderPhonics!  I was simply BLOWN away with what the kiddos learned and how much it effected their reading and writing!  If you haven’t stumbled across these units I’ll give it a quick explanation!  KinderPhonics is made up of three units, but you could choose to use 1, 2, or 3 units and get great results!  Unit one is an introduction to the alphabet dedicating one day per letter.  So basically your first 26 days of school would be going through the alphabet one time!  This helps those kiddos that need to be introduced to a letter once and then they have it.  Unit two goes through the alphabet again focusing more on the sound of the letter.  Unit three is where students take these sounds and place them in words!

These are the sound posters that come with the units….

You also get these awesome handwriting sheets!

Okay, the last unit I have to share with you in KinderMath Number Sense!  This packet also offers teacher lesson plans {read word for word} the number sense activities can be done whole group and the placed into a math center.  The activities also work great for intervention groups!
The packet currently has 38 lessons and 6 whole group routines!  You also received a student practice sheet for independent follow-up for most lessons!

The lessons build slowly and are all labeled with the common core standards that they cover!

Now for some back to school projects to keep you busy over  summer {lol do we need anything else to keep us busy?}
We tried a lot of new techniques when practicing writing strokes last year!  These paint bags worked great and kept throughout the whole year and they look good to go still from next year!  It was just as simple as squirting the paint into the bag and making sure it sealed!

And sticking with writing strips…these laminated stoke cards really helped build that strong writing foundation!  If you want to get them prepped for the new year you can download them HERE.  They are a freebie 🙂

When cruising the aisles of Dollar Tree this summer be sure to grab these!  Some fuzzy pom poms, cupcake pan, and tweezers!  Fine motor LOVE!

Last summer I took some time to prep some adorable writing folders!  They were simple and the kids were able to keep them organized with their group so much better!