Monthly Archives: August 2014
Literacy Work Stations
My colleague who teaches next door to me and I had a brainstorming session this summer about our Literacy Work Stations. Last year, we had to wait so long to get our work stations up and going that it nearly killed us! 🙂 This year, we were determined to get them going as early as possible. We wanted our routines going smoothly so we could start introducing our more “normal” daily schedule.
We decided that if we were going to introduce them earlier, we would focus more on the idea that the children would learn how to get the materials out, use them for a specified amount of time, and learn how to put them back. We decided to dig through our cabinets and find materials that the children could use independently, with little to no direction from us. Here’s what we came up with:
We realize this idea is not rocket science, but because we had a little more freedom this year to decide when we were going to start our “normal” routines, we decided to jump in with both feet and introduce these on the 6th day of school. We let the children use these materials for 5 days (they rotate through 2 tubs each day) and then the following Monday, we started introducing more specific targeted materials.
I’ve prepared all 10 Work Stations from my BTS Literacy Work Stations pack and have been introducing them one day at a time. These activities are simple activities that require very few materials and can be used over and over (if laminated) by many students.
As I get them all introduced, I’ll take some pictures and share them. 🙂
Our hunch paid off…15 days into school and our kids are ROCKING their Literacy Work Stations. They already know how to read the chart independently to find out their station for the day and they know where their stations are located. We can also clean up fairly quickly and get the tubs put back in number order. 🙂
I’ll share my Math Work Stations next week. 🙂 We waited a week to introduce those so we wouldn’t confuse our new kiddos. 🙂
My Silhouette Portrait
Last year on Black Friday, I bought myself a Silhouette Portrait machine. I think it’s been on everyday since then, cutting out vinyl for different places in my classroom. I thought I would show you some of the ways I’ve used it so far.
I think this one is my favorite so far! I cut 6 inch circles out of vinyl (turquoise of course) and stuck them to my carpet. My kiddos line up on them and its helped to make our line a lot straighter. Since this picture was taken, I’ve added numbers to each dot with a permanent marker. Each child has a number and lines up on that number no matter what. Its cut down on “he cut me” and I don’t want to go to the end of the line. I can assign new numbers at anytime and the children know that if the person in front of them is absent, they leave their dot empty.
This is where we store our school supplies. I labeled each tub with its contents to help us keep things in order.
I used turquoise vinyl here to label my morning baskets. The children turn in their red take home folders each morning and eventually their baggie books and homework folders will get returned in the other bucket.
I also added some vinyl to my Author’s Chair. The kids think it’s so cool that the chair has a title! 🙂
Open House
In my school, we usually have a special night before school starts where the Kindergarten students can come meet their teachers and have their first look around our classroom. Its also a time when they can bring in school supplies and fill out all those necessary forms. Here are a few pictures of the special tables in my classroom where the children and their families had to visit.
I made station signs that the families had to visit to complete different tasks. I held up the signs with pool noodles and popsicle sticks (they are in the back supporting the back of the sign). 
Station #2 was to have parents fill out the forms on this table and return them to the buckets.
Station #3 had the children come meet me, tell me how they were getting home on the first day of school, and to get their pictures taken.
This is the first time I’d had stations all set up like this and I LOVED it! I laminated the signs so I could use them again next year. It really gave the families something to do and the kiddos could help sort their supplies out. It was much easier for me to put my supplies away too because all the sorting had been done already. 🙂
My Classroom Library
I really liked my classroom library last year…it was cozy, cute, and the perfect size for 2-3 of my Kinders to snuggle up with a good book or two, but it lacked something!
This is last year’s library. 🙂
So thanks to my friends at Oriental Trading Co., my classroom library has a whole new look and theme–RAINBOW!! I kept many of the colors the same as the rest of my room (turquoise and black), but added some lime greens, purples, and a few splashes of red, orange and yellow to help bring it to life…
I just LOVE these blue, teal, and lime lanterns!! I hung them with fishing line and some hooks in the ceiling! It helps to define the space, yet still ties in with the rest of my room!
These awesome new book tubs are the perfect size for holding my collections of books! I’ve since added labels to the front of them to show the kiddos where to return the book they are looking at. They come in a pack of 6 and I used almost all of them here in my library.
I’m also LOVING this shelf top book display unit. It took me about 2 minutes to put together and it holds SO MANY books! I put all the books here that didn’t really have a category and so the children could see some of the fronts of the book covers instead of just the spines.
These red, yellow, purple, and blue pillows helped to make the area oh so cozy and the kids LOVE curling up on them to read their favorite books! Be sure to visit Oriental Trading Company’s website to start decorating your classroom library with one of their cute new themes!!
The views expressed in this blog post are my own and were no way influenced by Oriental Trading Company. I was provided with products as compensation.
My Classroom
I am so happy with the way my classroom turned out this year! I stuck with a turquoise and black color scheme to keep things calm and neutral and it just makes everything pop! Here is a little tour of my room…
More on my AWESOME new classroom library later this week…
LOVE, LOVE, LOVING the Chalkboard paint I used on our Home Living area! The red is the “before” shot and the black is the “after” picture. After decorating every where else in my room, the red just didn’t fit in, so I decided to paint it and I thought chalkboard paint would be fun! I can change out the decorations on the outside of the house seasonally or each time I change the purpose of the house (grocery, vet, pizza parlor, bakery). My VERY artistic sister did the initial chalk drawings for our Open House (with a little help from my niece and nephew) and I think it turned out so GREAT!!
Back to School Boost Sale!
Tpt is having another great BTS stock up sale this Wednesday ONLY!!
My ENTIRE store will be 20% off for Wednesday only and you need to use the code: BOOST for the discount to apply!!
My BRAND NEW Back to School Math Work Stations pack will be one of the products on sale!
Included are 10 Math Work Stations to get your MWS started for the year. All of the activities focus on developing number concept (matching quantities, one to one correspondence, number identification and more!!)
Read the Room pages in included in two formats to help you differentiate for the needs of your students!
My kiddos LOVE Rainbow Roll!!
These clip cards are fun for the kiddos to use! They LOVE using clothespins! 🙂
Some of my other products that are on sale!
Back to School Sale
Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale and I’m joining in!
Use the Promo Code: BTS14 to get a 28% discount on my entire store, including my brand new BTS Literacy Work Stations Pack!!
My August and September Problem Solving Packs are also on sale!! Great for beginning of the year in Kindergarten! 🙂
My 1-10 Number Books are on sale too! I use these at the beginning of the year to help teach my kiddos numbers and beginning number recognition.
Back to School Sale
Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale and I’m joining in!
Use the Promo Code: BTS14 to get a 28% discount on my entire store, including my brand new BTS Literacy Work Stations Pack!!
My August and September Problem Solving Packs are also on sale!! Great for beginning of the year in Kindergarten! 🙂
My 1-10 Number Books are on sale too! I use these at the beginning of the year to help teach my kiddos numbers and beginning number recognition.
Back to School Sale
Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale and I’m joining in!
Use the Promo Code: BTS14 to get a 28% discount on my entire store, including my brand new BTS Literacy Work Stations Pack!!
My August and September Problem Solving Packs are also on sale!! Great for beginning of the year in Kindergarten! 🙂
My 1-10 Number Books are on sale too! I use these at the beginning of the year to help teach my kiddos numbers and beginning number recognition.
Back To School Sale
Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale and I’m joining in!
Use the Promo Code: BTS14 to get a 28% discount on my entire store, including my brand new BTS Literacy Work Stations Pack!!
My August and September Problem Solving Packs are also on sale!! Great for beginning of the year in Kindergarten! 🙂
My 1-10 Number Books are on sale too! I use these at the beginning of the year to help teach my kiddos numbers and beginning number recognition.
Kristen's Kindergarten 