As with anything you do in teaching, you work with something for awhile and then decide it needs to change…so my binder pages are getting an overhaul.  I was noticing the kids were having trouble if I oriented the pages vertically, so I changed the layout to horizontal, that way the rings of the binders or folder prongs don’t get in their way. You will also notice that there are now permanent places for the children to write numbers on the money and base ten block pages.  I’m working on a new number writing page as well (to go with the Dr. Jean Number Writing Song…it takes 2 minutes and we get in practice writing numbers everyday!!)

Included are a new color page, money page, base ten blocks page, and tally mark sheet.  Also, I’m uploading the 8 1/2 x 11 sheets I use on my visual presenter to show the children the animal they should be pointing to and singing about while singing Dr. Jean’s color song.  I model how to point to each letter as we sing.  I’m sorry the pictures don’t match up exactly with the color page for the binders itself…I made my set about 7 years ago and I can’t find the clip art for them anymore and couldn’t get them to shrink without looking ick!  They are old school clip art! 🙂

colorsongbinders

moneybindersheet

basetenblockbinder

tallymarksbinder

drjeancolorsongpicts.

Q & A about binders

Q: How and when do you use binders?

A: I use them daily, from the first day of school.  I introduce one page at a time, beginning with their name, then the calendar, days of the week/months, weather graph, money, base ten, days in school, tally marks, color, shape, and number songs, until I have introduced them all.  If we did their name on day one, day two would then be their name and the calendar…just keep adding a page, until you are doing them all. The birthday and tooth pages are used on special days (birthday=first day of the month we are in school, we add tally marks for that month’s birthdays, tooth=when a child loses a tooth)

To assemble the binders, I use 1 inch 3 ring binders.  Each of the pages are inserted into page protectors back to back (in the order listed above).  The children use dry erase markers to complete the pages that require marking.  There are a few pages (days of the week/months and color song) that the children just use their finger to point to the words.  The children do all of the recording…I never write in their binders, but they do help each other by keeping their friends on the correct page and activity.

I like to use these binders to help reinforce calendar concepts and to allow each child to have practice all the calendar activities each day in a low risk way.  I might lean over to correct their number writing or to make sure they are completing the activity correctly, but I want to see what they can do on their own! 🙂  By the end of the year, the children can complete the binders independently, in under 5 minutes.  Not only do we talk about what we are doing on each page daily, I have the children explain what they are doing and why to other adults just to check their level of understanding.  It’s amazing how they explain the base ten blocks and money pages!

I hope to get a page that looks like a clock face as well, so that we can practice telling time to the hour on a daily basis.  I’m thinking that if I just had a clock face, the children could draw in the hands to correspond to the number on the calendar or a random time that I tell them (just to the hour and half hour). What do you think?

I hope these pages help!

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Kristen 🙂