Monday, September 5, 2011

My favorite blogging projects

I follow over 50 blogs on my google reader and then I have some that I have bookmarked. I love love love looking at what other people are doing in their classrooms. It has helped me be more excited about teaching and it gives me an outlet for my own creativity. But I have a horrible habit of trying to do too much. I have so many ideas swimming around in my head from other blogs, it is becoming a little overwhelming. There are so many things I want to try and make that I can't quite keep up with them all. So instead of awarding my top 10 blogs because I don't think I could choose just 10, I'm going to post some of my favorite lessons and projects that I want to try.
The biggest change I wanted to make in my class this year that I have been inspired from blogging is to work harder with my literacy and math centers and small group work. I have a post about how I'm doing that coming up this week. That's an ongoing major change that I'm making.
I'm a list person. It helps me to make a list of the things I need to do or want to do to actually get them done. So I'm attempting to make a list now of all the projects and lessons  I would like to try and then blog about each one. I'm learning that blogging is giving me a different accountability.
So here's my list in no particular order:
  • Carpet bags from Kindergals - I think this will really help organize the kids materials and hopefully make transitions smoother which help my mental state during math time. With the new evaluations that we're going through this year, that is something that is evaluated and right now I stink big time with it.
  • Whose in the Club? book from Kindergarten Rocks! I've seen this idea on a variety of blogs. This was just the one I found most recently. I like the idea of having a book for the students to sign when they complete something. I also like the idea of posters around the room but I'm not sure where I'd put them. I'm still mulling over what categories I would have but it's something I need to get on. We still do a Brigance assessment at the end of the year where they need to know their birthday, address and phone number so I can see this helping with that.
  • Calendar notebooks - I've seen these all over the blogging world too. I downloaded the freebies at Growing Kinders and have Kim Adsit's packet on TPT on my wish list. I love this idea but I'm a little scared to try it. Right now my kiddos are just not ready. I'm hoping by October they will be and if not then I look at starting this in January. I like the idea of them being more active during calendar time and this is similar to something my mentoring teacher did when I was student teaching. 
  • Writing Center - I have seen so many good writing centers and I have all kinds of ideas of what I want to do in my head. I just can't seem to get on it. Some of the sources I want to use are the posters from Chalk Talk and then some word cards with different pictures depending on the unit or theme we're studying. I found some back to school ones  and sentence frames from Teacher Bits and Bobs
  • Birthday balloons - This is another idea I've seen in various places in the blogging world. I liked this one from Kindergarten Rocks. Using silly straws with a balloon for a present for the kids. I have my first birthday this week so I need to get on this one. 
Here are some lessons I want to do in my class or have already attempted.
  • Lunchroom Expectations - I loved this idea at Kindergarten Kindergarten about working on cafeteria expectations. We started this project but haven't finished it yet so I'll post some pictures when we finish. The lesson went really well. They were good at coming up with the good and bad choices. Check this lesson out.
  • Germs lesson- Over at Little Miss Kindergarten she has a great lesson about germs. I need to do this lesson this week. I've already got kids coughing all over each other and not covering their mouths. I think this will be a great visual to help the kids remember not to spread germs.
  • Tattling Lessons - There are some great tattling lessons out there in the blogging world. Tattling drives me crazy but I have to remember that the kids don't know what it is until I teach them about it. I'm going to start with this lesson from What the Teacher Wants. I also love the idea over at Kindergals for discouraging tattling.
  • Kind words lesson - I saw this great lesson on someone's blog which I cannot find right now where they had kids say unkind things to a paper child and crinkle the paper. Then they said nice things and uncrinkled the paper showing how it still hurts the kid. Hopefully I can find where I saw it and give them credit. I love this idea.
So there's my list of my favorite projects and lessons that I can't wait to try out.  Have you done any of these activities or projects? How did they turn out?

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