Color week Revisted (Freebies)

We start color week this week and I wanted to share what we were planning but I just haven't had the time or energy to sit down and write a great post. So I thought I would reshare an old post.This is pretty much what we are doing this coming up two weeks. I'll be back later in the week with some pictures. There are 2 freebies in this post. Be sure to check them out!

For the past 2 weeks, we've been celebrating the colors. I'm kind of glad it is coming to an end but we've done a lot of really cool activities that I thought I would share.
Red day - We read Clifford goes to school. The plan was to make a Clifford mask from Scholastic.com. But we didn't actually have time for this activity since it was the first day with all the kids.
Blue day - This is one of my favorite days. We read Blueberries for Sal. They then completed this sheet and cut out blueberries to put in a pail and practiced writing their names.I cut construction paper in blue in half and drew 8 blueberries on the sheet. They could choose how many they wanted to put on the sheet. This group needs some practice writing their names. This was our first cutting and gluing activity. It was a little scary.

Blueberries for Sal Document 
Green day - We read Five Green and Speckled Frogs and made frog puppets. More practice with cutting and it went a little better. I sent these home that day so I don't have any pictures of them.
Yellow day - We read I'm your Bus.This was a really cute book. It talked about riding the bus the first time and had repetitive text in it. Then we made buses to go with it. I was inspired by the buses I saw on Deanna Jump's Fun with Literacy and Names packet. I cut yellow construction paper in half and then gave them 2 black squares to cut the corners off for the wheels.

 

Purple Day - We were going to read Harold and the Purple Crayon but I couldn't find my copy of the book. So we watched it on United Streaming and the kids loved it. Then they completed a sheet that said __________ loves his/her purple crayon and drew a picture to go with it. I then made a class book out of their sheets. 

 

___________ loves his/her purple crayon sheet    

Orange Day - My boyfriend found this story Axle the Freeway Cat on this website http://en.childrenslibrary.org/. This was a story he liked when he was a kid. It's a good story with good vocabulary and an orange cat for orange day. We read the story and then made cats. I had traced a circle and 2 triangles on orange construction paper. (I couldn't copy it onto the paper because we have a new copier and I didn't want to be the one to jam the machine.) They cut out the shapes and then added the face. I gave them some black rectangles for whiskers. They turned out pretty cute but I only have a picture on my example.

  

Brown Day - We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See? and completed the little book from Kinderpond. This actually went really well. I was worried because it involves a lot of coloring and cutting.But the kids did really well. We had a little lesson on how we color and we don't color. I was proud of how well the did and that most of them could put the pages in order with a little prompting so we got some sequencing done as well. Here's a picture of one of the completed books. 

Overall color week went pretty well and I learned a lot about my students and their abilities. Hope you can find something useful in this post. Please leave me a comment if you use something from here. I could use the encouragement.

Back to School

So I had every intention of blogging last week and participating in Teacher Week. But it just didn't happen. I had registration Monday and Tuesday night. We have registered so many kindergartners. It is crazy. I have 22 on my list right now. Wednesday was our first official day of work and things just got more and more hectic from there. Friday was the first day of school for all kids except kinder. We screened in the morning and then did planning in the afternoon. I was at school until after 7:30 on Friday night. Chris beat me home which never happens on a Friday. Usually he's the one working late. He's been threatening to go live with my parents for the first six weeks of school because I'm so crazy. I just don't sleep this time of year. I'll go to sleep fine but then I wake up at ridiculous times. Wednesday morning it was 4:30 and Thursday it was 5 ish. I used the time to work on some things. We had these videos we had to watch for training on bullying, cyber bullying, suicide and blood borne pathogens. It was loads of fun. But at least I got it over with and could do it from the house. Another big change is we are required to do our lesson plans on an online website. So worked on that one morning as well.
So I think my room is ready for kids to come and I think I have planned what we're going to do. But I'm still not sure I'm ready. We have a staggered enrollment for 3 days thankfully. But this is the first year we've moved to a full day kindergarten. In the past on the first week, all the students left at 12:30. But it's going to be good and I have some fun stuff planned for the week. I thought I would share a few things we're doing.

We're going to read Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes and then go on a tour of the school. Thanks to my friend Mary over at Mrs. Lirrette's Learning Detectives. She posted one earlier this summer. (Check it out here.) When we get back to the room we're going to have Pete and a snack waiting for us. If the weather is good, we're going to have a picnic outside for snack. Later in the week when all the kids are there, we're going to reread the story and practice retelling the story with pictures.
We are also going to start on Nursery rhymes for the week. Monday-Weds we'll read Humpty Dumpty and make a puppet. Thursday we're reading Little Miss Muffet and making a spider and then Friday Twinkle Twinkle little Star and making a glittery star. I made a PowerPoint of nursery rhymes and I'm sharing it with you.

Click here to download the freebie from TPT

We're also going to be doing a self portrait and a picture of me. I found this freebie from Fran at Kindergarten Crayons. (check it out here) This will be their first piece of work to hang in the hallway and I will keep it as part of a portfolio assessment. 

In math we're going to be exploring manipulatives and working on counting. I hope to have a chance to listen to each kid count and to check about their one to one correspondence. We'll see. 

There will also be lots of practicing and learning procedures. I plan to launch into some Whole Brain Teaching. I've also decided not to use a clip chart this year. I'm a little nervous about it but I think it will be good. Kids are going to have logical consequences for their actions. They will also have a place they can go and have a breather. I bought 2 bath mats to make the spaces in the room. So that's what's going on in my room. 

I'm participating in the Back to School sale over at TPT. So be sure to head over there and check out what is on sale. 

Meet the Teacher Monday

Oh I am so glad that Blog Hoppin is having this party this week. I need to get back into blogging but school is starting this week and there is so much to do. So I'm joining for meet the teacher Monday (We'll see if I make it for the other parties).

1. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary in June. My hubby and I went to high school together and knew each other but we didn't date or anything. He's 2 years younger. We had both moved back home and either I was running late or he was early and he saw me turn into my school. He found me on facebook. I was dating someone at the time but we talked some on fb. When his birthday rolled around, I wasn't dating anyone and asked him to dinner. The rest is history. By our 3rd date (It was all in the same week) I knew he was something special. I was almost 31 when we got married and Chris likes to say that I didn't even think about getting married until I was 29 and half and met him.

2. I love being an aunt. I have 2 beautiful nieces who are my favorite girls. They call me KK. (I think when I have kids they will probably call me KK too. Everyone does. Some of our friends at church's kids call me KK too) Here are my girls!

3. I teach at the same school I went to. It is a K-8 school and I only went there for 7th and 8th grade. One of my favorite teachers still teaches there and he's still one of my favorites. I love my school. I can't imagine teaching anywhere else now.

4. I am starting my 10th year teaching this year. I can't believe I've been teaching that long. One of my first teaching friends posted a picture of our first 3rd grade team on fb last week.

5. I love to read. (If you read my blog, you know this.) This year so far I have read 61 books. I keep track of the books I read each year. I write them down in a book. It's to help me keep track so I don't reread books unintentionally. While we were on vacation this year, I read 7 books. It was glorious.

6. I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. My great great uncle was a published writer and he always encouraged me. When in college, I started out as a journalism major and then an English major. But teaching won out. I still have dreams of being a published writer beyond blogging but this is a great outlet.


7. I also wanted to be a detective when I was a kid. I love reading mysteries and watching detective shows. My brother in law calls my sister and I old people because we liked to watch Matlock and Murder She Wrote. (I still do)

8. I love to craft. I know it's not shocking. My craft stuff has taken over my guest room. I have tried so many different crafts. I use to scrapbook but I lost interest. I have sewed, made jewelry, cross stitched, embroidered, crocheted, and so much more. I love it. Teaching gives me a good outlet for being crafty. This is one of my most favorite blankets I've made.

9. I love back to school time. One of my favorite things to do is get a new planner.

I am loving the fun of washi tape for decorating things.

10. Blogging has changed my life for the better. I've gotten more confidence and excitement for teaching since I started blogging. I have made lots of great friends. I no longer feel like a weirdo for loving the things I love. My husband my disagree with my love for blogging because sometimes it seems like I'm addicted to social media.
Be sure to head over to Blog Hoppin and link up with the party.