The Kissing Hand School Tour for the First Day of Kindergarten

Hey guys!!! It's Katie, from Little Warriors.

Man, July is FLYING by!!!!!! And as we all start thinking about planning for the NEW and upcoming school year, this becomes one of my most popular and pinned posts :) So, I thought I'd bring this old post back and share it with you so you can see what works for me on that first day of Kindergarten.

Like so many teachers everywhere, I LOVE to start the first day of Kindergarten with The Kissing Hand!!!! I mean, what a PERFECT story!!! Yes, I had a couple of “Chesters” this year…but, luckily, they calmed down and warmed up pretty quickly 

Here we are on we are on our very first day….all 26 of us  Reading the greatest first day book!!

After we all talk about how we felt before coming to school today, we go on a school tour. This is the best activity to kick off a Kindergarten year!! Chester the raccoon leaves his little clues all around school and we go from room to room to find out where everything is and meet all of our teachers! That puts everyone a little bit more at ease and makes them feel a little bit safer 

Our first stop….the Potty, of course!!! You know on that first day EVERYONE is asking to go to the bathroom before you even get started on things  So, that’s where we head first. We find Chester’s clue out by the water fountains. He went somewhere else…but, I tell the kids that before we go look for him, we all have to use the bathroom. AND, remember to stay REALLY quiet so you don’t scare him away! LOL!! Works like a charm! 

Here we are searching for Chester’s clues and becoming acquainted with all of the new places and faces in our school….

At the end of the hunt, we found our last note from Chester back in our classroom! He had left us bags full of hugs and kisses to take home!! <3

Want to see the rest of the clues??? You can check out the School Tour pack by clicking on the image below!!

We always make these Chesters On the First day of school….YES, the FIRST day! LOL! I don’t remember where I got this original pattern from many years ago…but, I’ve been doing them for years!! All it is, is different sized rectangles, squares and triangles that are pre-cut. The kids just have to follow directions and glue them in the correct spot. It is THE PERFECT first day of school art project for Kinders!!!! They really do turn out cute!!

If you’d like to grab this little title page to hang with your Chester art-you can snag it here!  Just click, save and print! 

Have a great year!!!!!!!!!

How to Establish a Successful Writing Experience

Students in Kindergarten write at different levels. We try to engage them in activities that will help develop their writing skills, but sometimes it's difficult to find something that will fit everyone's abilities. We have always been told to differentiate our activities to meet every student's needs. But, how can we do this in a room full of 20+ kids? I came up with Differentiated Thematic Journal Prompts that include a picture/word bank and sentence starters. How can these journals help? The focus on themes will make their writing meaningful and engaging. The thematic picture/word bank will develop their vocabulary skills. And, the sentence starters will help struggling writers feel successful. There are 5 journal prompts for each theme which will cover a week's worth of writing. Each journal prompt has been provided in three versions. As the students develop their writing skills, the teacher will provide the corresponding writing page. This is how the writing pages are differentiated.

Level 1: These journal pages includes a sentence starter. They may also have extra wording on the picture labels. This will help students write a complete sentence by using the wording on the picture cues.  This format will help struggling writers use complete sentences and have a successful writing experience without the stress.

Level 2: This journal page does not include the sentence starters. Students are encouraged to use their knowledge of phonics skills. They are also encouraged to use any other words that may not be in the illustrated word bank.

Level 3: This journal page is for advanced writers. It does not provide place a for an illustration. This is so that students may have more writing space where they may include details in their sentences. Illustrations may be added to the back of the paper.

I have sets ready for the entire year. If you would like to learn more about them, you can find them all under the JOURNALS tab at the top of my blog. You can also find my Differentiated Journal Prompts in my TPT store. Click on any picture above to see my December Journals :) I hope that you like them :)

Color Mixing Fun for the Beginning of the Year with a Freebie

Hello Friends!

This is Cindy from Love Those Kinders. I love to begin the school year discovering colors! It is such a joyful way to get kids into school routines and following directions while at the same time learning some fun color and rainbow facts. PLUS when we are finished with this little mini unit, kiddos have a fun book to take home and share with their families!

We begin with a discussion of primary/secondary colors. I love "Monster Mess" in Deanna Jump's Back to School with Math and Literacy pack. After reading this cute little story, we do Deanna's play dough mixing activity which is a HUGE hit and a great way to begin this mini unit.

 
We then do a little pocket chart color/word matching activity. I leave the cards up to use for our next day's activity.

The next day, I project "Color Mixing Fun" onto my Promethean board and we review primary and secondary colors.

After our review, I pass out "Little Monsters' Color Fun" booklet.

Each child finds a red, yellow, and blue marker and holds it up high. The rest of the markers are kept inside their box. This REALLY helps kiddos to concentrate only on the 3 primary colors.  They use the primary colors to color the paint cans. We use the pocket chart activity from the day before to find the correct color word.

When the primary colors are finished, the markers are put away and the secondary colors found and taken out of the box. Using the pocket chart cards once again, the secondary colors are used to color the paint blobs.

The following day, we discuss "Monster Mess" once again, review primary colors, and my kiddos get to  paint their first monster face. I put a teaspoon of each paint color on the page and the kids use their fingers to mix. We follow the same procedure for all 3 Monster faces and let them dry overnight.

The next day, the children use ribbon, rick rack, wiggle eyes, construction paper, sequins, and oil crayons to give their monster a face. I love the uniqueness of each child's face!

The final monster face is a Rainbow Monster. Before painting the Rainbow Monster, we discuss the order of the rainbow. I read "All the Colors of the Rainbow" by Allan Fowler.

We take prisms outside to  look for rainbows. When we return, my kiddos use their watercolors to paint their Rainbow Monster face. I tell them they must paint it in the correct order of the rainbow! The next day they add details to their face.

Once all the pages are dry, I staple them together and send home! Yay! A fun way to begin the school year!

Click the image below to find "Color Mixing Fun".

You can find Deanna's "Monster Mess" in her BACK TO SCHOOL WITH MATH AND LITERACY pack.

And finally, click the image below to download "Little Monsters' Color Fun" book.

Until next time!

Cindy

Using Edmodo Badges for Tracking Student Goals... In Kindergarten!

Hey everyone!  It's Ashley, The School Supply Addict!  I hope you are getting a great start to the school year... or enjoying your last bit of summer!  Today I wanted to share a little bit of what I'll be utilizing this year with my kindergarteners.  This year, we are jumping into data binders, student led goal and data monitoring, etc.  At first I was a little skeptical about it working well in kinder, but after visiting some other schools with a team of colleagues, we are pumped.  Yes, nerd alert.  We are pumped about data binders!  Here's a little bit of how it will be laid out in my room.

1. Set Goals: (learning goals, personal goals, and class goals)  These can be anything from learning letter sounds to increasing our reading stamina by 10 minutes to sitting on the carpet for an entire lesson without nose picking.  Obviously, goals will vary based on each child's needs.
2. Data Binders:  Each student has a binder where we will keep hard copies of their individual growth for various goals.  Each student will have graphing pages for things like letter naming, fluency, sight word reading, reading level, stamina, etc.  They will also have individualized pages for their personal goals (shoe tying, # of books read at home, etc.)
3. Edmodo Badges: Each of my students has an Edmodo account.  Sounds a little ambitious for K, right?  We are just getting started with it and the parents are pretty excited!  We don't utilize it in the same way (or frequency) that a high school class would, but we make it work for us.  Baby steps.  Edmodo has a feature where you can award badges to students.  There are badges for things like homework, attendance, hard work, etc.  There is ALSO a feature that allows you to create your own badge for whatever you want it to be.  I have been making a lot that will coincide with the various skills that our little friends will master throughout the year.  That #2 above?  Whenever a student achieves a goal and tracks it in their binder, they will receive a digital badge!  We don't start until this Wednesday, but I sent a badge out to students who have already joined our Edmodo group.... and oh my y'all!  They're obsessed.  

If you're new to Edmodo, it's pretty easy to use.  I won't get into a tutorial on how to get started because there are a bazillion out there.  Google it if you want to get started. :)

I do, however, want to show you how to make your own badges.  It's SUPER easy.  All you need is PowerPoint (or similar program), some fun digital papers, clipart, and time.  This little tutorial is for PowerPoint, but there are similar steps for other programs.

Screenshot of some of the badges I have in my Account.                  

How to Create Custom Badges

• Open a new PowerPoint File
• Insert a circle from the "Insert" tab
• Adjust the size of the circle to about 6" in diameter
• Play with the settings of the circle: add a thick border, fill it with a digital paper or color, etc.

•   Add clipart and text to indicate what the badge is for (I have lots if you need some! Haha)

• Select ALL the elements by pressing CTRL+A.  Right click and "Goup" them together.  You can also just use CTRL+G to do it.
• Right click your creation again and select "Save As Picture"
• Save it however you want!  It will be saved as an image and you can then upload it to Edmodo via your Badge manager.
• Finally, they're ready to be awarded!  Dish them out as your kids reach their goals... and watch them become little badge kleptomaniacs.  Haha!  They LOVE getting them and showing off what they've accomplished.  

Easy peasy, right?  You can make as many as you need.  I've got a long list of badges to make for this year, but the kiddos love it!  One thing I've found helpful is to make similar badges the same color.  All of my ELA's have a red chevron background, science is green, writing is yellow, etc.  

 I hope this was helpful for anyone who uses Edmodo or is interested in getting started!  It's an amazing tool to get your kids engaged outside of class, build relationships, share content, receive feedback, and track progress in a fun way.

Have a wonderful week Blog Hoppers!

Phonics Fun

Do your students still need extra practice with phonics? We have been working on letter identification, beginning sounds, sounding out words and sight words with some fun Phonics Bookmarks that I created for my son. They address specific skills for beginning readers and can also be used for differentiation and as an assessment tool. Hop on over to see these activities in action.