Kinder Organizing!

Check out some of these other teacher blogs that talk about classroom organization.

Growing Kinders

I love to be organized at home and at school. I have a sub folder that I update each year.  On my laptop I have saved documents "all day sub plans", "a.m. sub plans" and "p.m. sub plans". The times don't change but the activities and specials might. My sub folders includes important information about students with special needs, office/nurse phone numbers and emergency procedures. I also have a binder for those little stickers (sorted by theme/season) and our master schedule, duty schedule and yearly calendar printout we get at the beginning of the year.

My I use tons of clear storage bins and baskets for the many manipulatives I have: sorting pieces, math games, books, supplies, etc. I took a Math Their Way workshop about 10 years ago (when VCR tapes were still being used!!) and one teacher suggested going to Sam's and buying clear VCR tape storage boxes for their sorting items.

 I have a cart near my easel I use for morning message/interactive writing supplies (markers, hi lighting tape, post it notes, wikki stix).

 Each child has their own cubby box for supplies and I have boxes for community supplies if someone needs a glue or pair of scissors.

 Here is my daily jobs chart and my center board.

We either do "green" names for heterogeneous groupings or "purple" names for homogeneous groups; mostly for when I do guided reading/writing. My blue pocket chart is perfect for my center icon pictures that change daily or weekly.

Next year I'm investing in this for my daily lessons/organization.

 I also have the coolest drawers that are perfect for storing posters and pocket chart strips.

One thing I did last summer was use images from the internet, DJ inkers clip art and a Lakeshore Learning magazine and I cut out pictures and taped them to boxes or shelves to help the kids with finding where things go when we clean up.

The BEST thing I ever did was break down and buy clear plastic boxes for the floor puzzles. Every year my classes LOVE floor puzzles so I bought 20 or so boxes, taped a picture of the completed puzzle on the side of the box and yahhoooo, no more lost puzzle pieces and broken, torn up puzzle boxes.

Lastly, I COULD NOT do anything without my LAPTOP. 99% of the websites/blogs I frequent are blocked at school.  I have a ton of DJ inkers clip art cd's which I use to make things and I save them on my laptop. My school does not have a color printer so most of the stuff I make has to be made/printed at home. Thank you to my husband for buying me this laptop last year.
Here is an overall picture of my classroom.

 

Lots of Valentine's Day and Math stuff

I gave the kids two dice, had them roll them and write the number that is greater or less.

My student observer worked with the kids and made the cutest Valentine bracelets. I had this stuff leftover from a kit from several years ago.

Sorting candy conversation hearts by how many letters on the hearts then we glued the hearts on a separate sheet and practiced writing words.

Valentine art project. The kids used heart and circle cutouts to make a caterpillar then wrote how many hearts, eyes, antennae and legs they used for their project.

Valentine's Day

Addition with candy hearts. I got this idea from Math Their Way.

Candy heart patterning.

Counting candy hearts to match the number on the cards.

copying February words in our journal.

I got these cards from www.makinglearningfun.com and had the kids use letter tiles to make number words then write the words they made.

Vintage Valentine card memory game.

Froggy!

This was something different I tried. Normally I use white paper lunch sacks but I could not find enough so I took two paper plates, stapled them together and cut a slit in the top to make a holder and let the kids decorate them. It was cute but not near big enough for all the valentines and goodies my kids got but they liked it anyway!

Another activity from www.makinglearningfun.com

Candy Heart Graphing by color.

Day 100 and other stuff

This is a game I found online, it is not mine. It is called Unlucky 7. The kids roll 2 dice and  put an X on the number they rolled. If they roll a 7 they sing out "I'm unlucky!"

I had my student observer worth with the children on writing weather reports. The kids observed the weather for the day,   what they think the weather could be for tomorrow and their favorite weather. When they were finished they did a sorting game of nice weather/not nice weather. To make this game I used simple clip art pictures of various weathers and outdoor activities.

This math activity came from Deanna Jump's Snowman packet. We write out story problems, listen for the problem and draw how to solve the problem.

This came from www.makinglearningfun.com The kids painted 10 gumballs in all 10 gumball machines to equal 100.

I had the kids use tongs if they wish (for fine motor work) or they could use their fingers and put 10 of each item in 10 circles to equal 100.

Play Doh numbers with cookie cutters.

A different activity from the Read/Draw/Solve series of math journaling. I do this whole group this year.

During our Day 100 centers, when I had a group with me we practiced phonetic writing and completed each 100 themed sentence.

Displaying Day 100 collections.

Making Day 100 hats. I wanted to have something printed out or some kind of groovy counting by 10's thing to go with the hats but I ran out of time so we just decorated them and glued a "Happy Day 100" sign on them.

We also made a necklace.

This was another center. The kids rolled 1 dice and recorded the number in each box. The object was to roll and record 100 times!

This came from www.makinglearningfun.com gluing 100 Cheerios in a bowl.

Also from www.makinglearningfun.com painting 100 apples on the apple tree.

Stamping 100 times.

Our ice cream party. Each child got a cup of ice cream and could choose toppings: whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate chips!