Spring is in the Air (and there's a freebie)

With spring comes my formal observation.  Lucky me... it's on April Fool's Day.  Now, I am happy it's that week because we are going to be studying the butterfly life cycle.  First of all, I love butterflies.  Second of all, my students love butterflies.  It's an interesting topic, which will lead to engaged children.  It's a win-win.

So, being the planner that I am, I have started to think about my lesson.  I am planning on using my butterfly writing unit.  It has writing paper, a craftivity, and two emergent readers.  One of the readers is about butterflies, and the other is about the butterfly life cycle.

We use Thinking Maps at our school, so I knew a flow map of the butterfly life cycle would be perfect!  So, you are in luck, because I am going to share my flow map with you.  It is going to be a Facebook Fan Freebie!  So, head over to my Facebook page, "like" my page, and click on the "Fan Only Freebie" tab to download your copy.

I made it so you have a few options.  You can have the kids cut and paste the pictures, labels, and sentences.  The pictures, labels, and descriptions are not necessarily in order, so they will need to figure out the order on their own.  

You can also have the kids cut and paste the pictures and labels, and have them write their own sentence about each of the stages in the life cycle.  

I hope this helps you out!  Think of me on April Fool's Day, and send me some good vibes!

Can Life Please Slow Down?!

I know we all lead very busy lives as teachers.  We not only have our own biological children to worry about, but we have twenty-six other children to worry about.  Oh, man!  I am going to be the first to tell you that I have been running around like a headless chicken for the entire month of February.  I have had district classes on two of the Saturdays (which, of course, included a lesson plan that I had to create), and we went out of town to celebrate my daughter's tenth birthday (where does the time go?!).  On top of that, I had parent/teacher conferences (If you need a sheet to organize your conferences, head here or here), lesson planning, grading, and more.  Holy smokes!

Needless to say, I am SUPER excited for Spring Break to come next week.  Ahh... maybe I will be able to enjoy a bit of time to myself.  Who am I kidding?!  I will be working on new things for my classroom.

Speaking of new things for my classroom, I just finished a new set of DIBELS prep bellwork.  I can seriously tell you this bellwork has SAVED my sanity!  It keeps my high kiddos challenged, and it helps my struggling kiddos practice the skills for reading and for DIBELS.

This is the front side of each day's bellwork.  The kids read nonsense words and letter names to their neighbor.  They complete phoneme segmentation for eight words.  Finally, they read a sentence and draw a picture to match the sentence.  This is my favorite part because I love to see the kiddos' illustrations. 

Three days of the back side of bellwork looks like this.  The kids read ten of Fry's high frequency words to their neighbor.  They write five Ayres words in pencil and in crayon.  And then they think of their own sentence using one of the words listed.  If you teach kindergarten at a Spalding school, the bellwork is aligned with spelling lists 14-20.

When I originally rolled out this bellwork, I was a little concerned about this activity.  It turns out that this is their favorite!  The kids unscramble the Ayres words at the top of the page.  I usually allow them to work with their neighbor.  They get so excited when they successfully unscramble a word.  They are pretty fast, too!

I usually use this paper on the day of our spelling test.  The kids must find their spelling words (the Ayres words) and circle them.  They LOVE finding other words that I sometimes sneak in there as well (sometimes I plan that, and other times it just happens).  Again, I have never seen kids so excited about bellwork.

Can you tell I am SO excited that I finished this?!  My students are engaged in meaningful work while I am able to pull students for RTI.  In kindergarten, it is so difficult to keep kids occupied for any amount of time.  This bellwork has changed that for me.  And I'm not just blowing smoke up your skirts.  It has made my life SO MUCH EASIER!

Well, I am off to fold clothes and get ready for the week.  The last week before break is always super crazy, so wish me luck!  Have a fantastic week!

What I Wish My Future Students Were Learning Right Now!

Can you imagine getting 26 perfect students that listened, were independent, and were strong academically?  Well, don't hold your breath, because this is not a perfect world, and if they came in knowing all of that, your classroom would be a boring place.  As I think about the very basic skills I would like all of my students to know, I would say there are 3 basic things.  

The first thing I would want my students to have is listening skills.  I want them to be "present" in my classroom, because I pack a lot of learning into one school day.  I want them to have the drive to learn.  If a student does not want to learn, there is only so much that I can do on my end.  I want them to do what I ask them to do.  It saves so much instructional time when everyone listens the first time.

I would also like for the kids to have strong number and letter recognition.  We spend a lot of time with number recognition at the beginning of the year, so we can build a strong number sense.  It would be helpful if the kiddos could recognize the numbers 0-9.  Letter recognition is an important skill at my school.  We use the Spalding Method for Language Arts, which means we start teaching phonograms the first week of school.  We don't spend a lot of time on letter names because we start on letter sounds right away.

I'm going to throw a fourth skill in there because I feel it is extremely important.  The kids need to be independent.  I can't button and/or unbutton your child's pants when he/she needs to use the restroom.  I am not going to complete your child's "morning jobs" (homework folder in the back, lunchbox in the hallway, two sharp pencils, etc.) because your child is very capable of handling that themselves.  As I tell my parents at the beginning of the year, you need to show your child that you believe in his/her capabilities.  

Kindergarten is the most amazing year for your child.  I truly believe it's a year of maturation, self-esteem building, and outstanding academic growth.  Even halfway through this year, I am amazed at how far my students have come.  Help make your kindergarten teacher's job easier by believing in your child, and working on these basic academic skills.

Speaking of academic skills, there is a great bundle on Educents right now that will help build your child's letter and number recognition.  It's 10% off this weekend using the code "sale10", so check it out!

  

Picturing the Past

I am linking up with Brenda at Primary Inspired to talk about one of my favorite teaching resources.  Teaching little learners about people from the past is sometimes tricky.  Long biographies are boring, and filled with too much information to digest.  Two things have made my life so much easier: my little books, and Brain Pop Jr.!

Have you ever heard about Brain Pop Jr.?  It is a subscription video service that has videos on all kinds of different concepts.  Brain Pop Jr. is geared toward K-3 classrooms.  The videos feature a girl named Annie and a silly robot named Moby.  The videos are just the right amount of facts, learning, and fun.

I usually watch a Brain Pop Jr. to introduce the person we are learning about, and then make the little book.  My little books are currently part of a bundle on Educents.  The bundle is AMAZING!  It really is jam packed with great activities to celebrate America and the wonderful people that helped shape our country.

There are so many great products in this bundle.  Plus, there is a great variety of grades and subjects in case you ever move grades.  Hooray!

Enjoy your day off!

I LOVE books! Plus a little "What does the kindergarten teacher want?"!

Oh, my word.  What is my favorite part of teaching kindergarten?  The read alouds!!!  I love books.  My classroom library is very large.  I spend WAY too much money on books, but I love them.  I even love the smell of the Scholastic catalogs.  I'm weird, and that's ok with me.

I had a parent e-mail me and ask me for some book recommendations.  It is so hard to pick my faves, but here are a few books I can't live without.

I swear by the Pete the Cat series.  The free songs are so catchy that my students BEG for them.  James Dean recently added a new line of easy readers.  My students LOVE those, too!  

I also adore Mo Willems.  Oh, my word!  All of his books are absolutely hilarious!  The Elephant and Piggie books are my favorite.  I use them to teach my students about using picture clues for voice inflection.  Elephant and Piggie have the most expressive faces, which makes reading the books so much fun!

The last author I cannot live without is Robert Munsch.  If you have never read his books, you are missing out!  I like to read We Share Everything the first week of school.  The book pokes fun at how you need to share everything in kindergarten.  My class and I laugh so hard.

Speaking of the first week of kindergarten...

I am so lucky to work at a school that is in high demand.  We are a public school, but we have an accelerated curriculum (we teach kindergarten and first grade math in kindergarten), we have uniforms, and we have extremely high expectations.  Now, don't judge us... we still have a TON of fun!

Last week, we had open enrollment for our school, which means that parents can wait in line to (hopefully) be called to enroll their child at our school.  Open enrollment happened on Monday morning at 7:30, and we had a parent in line on Friday at 7:45 am.  I felt like it was Black Friday again, and we had the best deal on a big screen TV.  We had about ten people in line and an RV parked by the end of school on Friday.  We were on two channels for the local news and a national radio station called to talk to our principal.  Again, I am SO super lucky to work at my school.

We have kindergarten readiness testing in the spring, so we can see where our new kiddos are at, which allows us to make balanced classes.  I am weird, and I love those two days.  First of all, I'm not sure there is anything more cute than a little peanut that is a bit nervous at first, but after ten minutes is ready to tell you his life story, and his mom's age, his sister's favorite color, and how he ate waffles for breakfast.  I love that age!  Anyway, this testing allows us to see if there are gaps in the fundamentals needed to be successful in kindergarten.  But what do kids need to know to be successful in kindergarten?!

This is where one of my favorite products comes into play.  My team and I wracked our brains to think of the skills a child should have in order to be successful in kindergarten.  Together, we have close to forty years of experience teaching kindergarten.  We asked ourselves what skills and knowledge was necessary (in any kindergarten classroom... not just our accelerated classrooms) for a kindergartner to know when they begin the year.

At testing, we collect all parent e-mails and send them our "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" packet.  This packet contains printables to work on shapes, colors, numbers, letters, and first sound.  It also contains clickable links that take you to videos, printables, informative articles, and more.  We used the packet for this year's kinders, and boy, were they ready for kindergarten!  Our beginning of year DIBELS scores were higher than last year.  In my opinion, the higher scores were due to the fact the kids knew how to say a first sound.  I LOVE this pack!

And, you are in luck!  This pack is part of an Educents bundle.  I have teamed up with 17 other amazing sellers to load your classrooms with 19 resources!  

For a limited time it is $29.99 from Educents which is over 70% off!  It also includes these other great products so there is sure to things you love!  (They even have $10 off for first time customers… so it can be even cheaper if you have never bought anything from Educents!)

Parents are always asking how they can help their child be ready for kindergarten.  Here is your answer!  A whole slew of resources is just a click away!

Click here to go to Educents to check out all of the amazing products! 

This bundle is FULL of great products!  Take a look below to check out some other blogs and their awesome contributions to this bundle.  :)

George Washington had Bad Teeth (and more!)

If you stopped by on Friday, you heard about the AMAZING Educents bundle that is on sale right now.  I have downloaded these products, and they will be SUPER helpful in your classroom.  They really are great products.

I have two products in the bundle.

  

The U.S. Symbols pack has everything you need to teach and write about seven U.S. Symbols, including the American flag, White House, Capitol Building, bald eagle, Mount Rushmore, Liberty Bell, and the Statue of Liberty.  Check out Tuesday's post for more information.

This file includes fifteen easy readers about important people in American history.

Today's freebie is an entire writing unit!  WHAT?!  I LOVE teaching about George Washington.  Perhaps it is because there are some awesome books that were written about him (Have you ever read George Washington's Teeth?).  The craft comes out SUPER cute, and the kids have a BLAST learning about our nation's first president.

You must be a fan of Nurturing Noggins on Facebook to download this product, so click here and check out my other "Fan Only Freebies" by clicking the picture of the search lights near the top of the page after clicking the "like" button.

If you like this unit, I have another for Abraham Lincoln in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

I Love History!

If you stopped by on Tuesday, you heard about the AMAZING Educents bundle that is on sale right now.  I have downloaded these products, and they will be SUPER helpful in your classroom.  They really are great products.

I have two products in the bundle.

  

The U.S. Symbols pack has everything you need to teach and write about seven U.S. Symbols, including the American flag, White House, Capitol Building, bald eagle, Mount Rushmore, Liberty Bell, and the Statue of Liberty.  Check out Tuesday's post for more information.

This file includes fifteen easy readers about important people in American history.

Today's freebie is an Abraham Lincoln easy reader.  The easy readers are so easy to put together.  Two readers take two double sided copies and two staples.  I can whip up a class set in about 10-15 minutes.  The kids LOVE illustrating them, and I love the fact that we can have class discussions about the person while we are drawing and coloring.  We talk about each page as we go along, which is much more interactive than just reading a biography on a famous person.  We have SO much fun (even though I hear, "Mrs. McCleary, you are trying your best" when I am drawing)!

I'll have a few more freebies coming within the next week, so check back to see what is new!