Setting the Theme – A Classroom They Will Love

If you are like me, before you even step foot in your classroom for the new school year, you have spent hours brainstorming for the perfect classroom theme. Whether you are a kindergarten, preschool, first grade or enrichment teacher, you want a classroom that students are excited to enter. As we know, classroom decorations and bulletin boards are not the key components of a happy and safe environment, they can help create that welcoming learning space.

I have decorated using specific themes life farm, camping, ocean, retro and superheroes, as well as, basic color themes with brights or black and white polka dots. I have created printable decor sets that can be used in your classroom with so much variety that you will not need any other set.

Each of these sets include alphabet posters, number posters, shapes and color posters, banners, calendar walls, labels, word walls, classroom rule signs, and so much more. The BEST part is that they begin at $10.00 for some of these complete sets.

Just click on the classroom decoration set you like!

 

Classroom Decor

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Cutting Practice with Scissors: First Week of Kindergarten Lesson

“Whose hair is this in the reading center?” “Did you give yourself that haircut at home (please, please don’t say it was at school)?” It happens to the BEST of us, the new teacher, as well as, a veteran teacher! It happens to the busiest kids and the most well-behaved (but inquisitive) students. I have spent many moments in my kindergarten classroom matching up hair shade to a child, as I conduct an investigation to who is missing a chunk of hair. Boy, do I dread that phone call and sending that bag of hair home. We all need to take a moment to teach that first week of kindergarten lesson on cutting with scissors and have them practice with a lot of direct instruction.

A quick lesson on scissor safety and rules is a must before they get to try out their new school supply. We do this lesson BEFORE we ever discuss the correct way to hold a pair of scissors. Like most, it is not a one and done lesson. We all know the kids that need this the most are probably not fully engaged the first go round. You will find me teaching and reteaching this same lesson throughout the year.

I did create a set of print and go cards that can be used to teach scissor safety and procedures. Included are sorting cards for whole group lessons (you can use these in a variety of ways). The cards are perfect to use in a simple display for an anchor chart. You will also find a variety of pages of differentiated cutting practice for improving fine motor skills. These worksheet pages can be used throughout the year for morning work or center activities. You will be able to use every page of this set! Don’t forget the first week of kindergarten lesson on cutting with scissors…you will thank me later!

Click here to view this invaluable lesson!

Learning with Pop Fidget Toys

Pop it fidget toys in the kindergarten classroom for math and phonics games.

I know you have heard of the pop fidget toys. It is all the rage with elementary students. Of course, as teachers, we can make anything a learning tool, and that is exactly what we are doing. We are incorporating learning with pop fidget toys in our lessons. You can use these as a fun manipulative for math, phonics and phonemic awareness. These are perfect for whole group, small group, centers, morning work, literacy or math tubs and so much more. The best part of all is that it also helps build fine motor skills as they push with their fingers to pop! I am going to share some fun activities that you can use in your preschool or kindergarten classroom.

A few ways to have fun learning with popping fidget toys:

  • Counting Practice – Give students a number card, have them roll a dice or two, or simply call out a number and have them pop it for one to one correspondence.
  • Counting Games – Have students take turns rolling a dice (or pull a number card). They can pop that many (I have mine count out loud). The student to pop all of it first is the winner.
  • Addition Manipulative – Students will add two numbers. They will pop in the first number, then pop in the second. They will count all of them as they add them together.
  • Subtracting Activity – Students will pop in the first number. Then, they will reverse the popping for the number they are taking away.
  • Phoneme Segmentation- Students will pop one popper for each sound.
  • Syllable Practice – Students will pop once for every syllable they hear.
  • Letter and Number Formation – If the bubble popper is large enough, the student can create the number or letter by popping in the formation.

There are so many fun and interactive things you can do!

I have created some task cards with recording pages to use with or without the card set. Click here to check them out!

Kindergarten Digital Calendar & Morning Meeting

It’s back to school time! As you are busy planning, don’t forget to rethink your daily calendar time. With a new school year comes change, so now is the perfect time to bring your morning meeting to the next level. A preschool and kindergarten digital calendar and morning meeting is the perfect way to up your morning meeting game. Now that I have brought in a digital calendar into my morning meeting, it has quickly become my favorite time of the day. In my kindergarten classroom, each child is engaged, eager to participate, and they love all of the digital interaction that is included.

My calendar wall would get cluttered with so many resources and I was simply running out of space. Both of these problems were solved when I converted my calendar wall into a Google Slides and PowerPoint! I still have a calendar wall with basic resources for reference, but I use this digital version during my morning meeting.

Easy Peasy Digital Morning Meeting & Calendar Time

In this Digital Preschool and Kindergarten Calendar and Morning Meeting, you will find over 130 slides to choose from. It never gets boring! This resource has a variety of slides including: counting, monthly calendars, weather, money, patterns and so much more! I also included “flash card” type slides for the months, days of the week, alphabet letters, colors, shapes and numbers 0-20. Editable slides to introduce the new sight words for the week and add a morning message to the class are included. One thing I added to my personal version for my class (you may want to add to yours) is links to learning songs and brain breaks on YouTube.

Students love the interaction and variety. Teachers love the simplicity! This digital morning meeting and calendar time is perfect for preschool, kindergarten or first grade students.

This is so simple! It has truly made my morning calendar time “easy peasy” and enjoyable for my kindergarten class and their teacher!

Click here to see this digital calendar set in Google Slides!

Or Click here to see this digital calendar in PowerPoint version!

Digital Morning Meeting and Calendar Time for Kindergarten Preschool
I also have a powerpoint version!!