Specials Schedule

Please remember on P.E. days to have your child wear gym shoes or send gym shoes with in their backpacks. Also on library days make sure to return your child's library book in order for him/her to check out a new one!

Specials Schedule

Information Packet 2012-2013

Here is the kindergarten information packet that was handed out at open house night!

Kindergarten 2012-2013

Clipboards

After purchasing some clipboards from Big Lots (great deal about $1.50 a piece) I decided I wanted to jazz them up. First I cut the colored cardstock to size. Then I applied elmer's spray adhesive to the clipboard and laid the paper down smoothing out the bubbles. Then I placed letter sticks and letter chipboard pieces to the cardstock. Once those were applied, I put an even coat of modge podge on using a paint brush. Let them dry and voila! I did this all in a total of 20ish minutes outside sitting on my deck!!



Clipboard Redo!

Purdue Love

I am a Purdue College of Education Alumni and proud of it! Here is my version of subway art...
Purdue

Owl Theme

Whooo's here today? Home and School Lunch Signs

Word Wall Letters

The vowels are in red and consonants in blue! The border is called black white scribble frame from the 3am teacher blog and the fonts are ABC Teacher and Dnealian Lined:

Word Wall Letters ABCTeacher

Word Wall Letters Dnealian Lined

Colorful Welcome Sign

Colorful welcome sign to go with owl theme

Owls

I am creating a new theme for my upcoming kindergarten classroom...owls! I am so excited, I found some really great items at Sharp School Services and United Art and Education. I have also been working on creating things to personalize my  room...here they are!

Take Home OWL Folder Cover

OWL of the Week...Oustanding Wise Learner

Classroom Sign and Specials

Colorful Shape Table Signs


Fonts are from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/

Borders are from the http://the3amteacher.blogspot.com/

Parts of a Plant Emergent Reader

We are currently studying plants and butterflies in our classroom! Here is a printable emergent reader created on PowerPoint!

Parts of a Plant Emergent Reader

End of the Year ABC Calendar Countdown

Check out the awesome end of the year activities we will be doing!!

2012 End of the Year ABC Calendar Countdown

Volunteer Opportunities in Kindergarten!

Field Trip Chaperone

Kindergarten Round Up Volunteers

April Classroom Calendar

April Classroom Calendar

Daily 5 Printable Word Work

These are each activites that students can use for Daily 5 Word Work or other Literacy Stations!


Roll a Sight Word
Fill in the sight words that you are currently working on in the top rows. Each time a student rolls a number, he/she writes the coordinating word in the column! Fill up the whole page, it is 2 sided also!


Word Pyramids
I just introduced this activity to my kinder kiddos and they LOVE it! It is so easy for them to learn. The students get to choose what sight words to turn into word pyramids (I have specific lists the kids choose from depending on what level the students accomplished for sight words). See the link for an example of how to complete the boxes!


Big Book Word Search
Another favorite of my class is this activity! The students search various big books to find sight words. When they find it they "slap" the word with what I calll word swatters (fly swatters holes cut into them). You could try a variety of items to isolate or make contact with the word (use wiki sticks to place a circle around the word, use witch fingers to point to the sight word, use word windows- index cards with rectangle cut outs, finger pointers, etc.) Once the students spotted in my case "slapped" the word, they write the sight word next to the letter that it starts with. I combined some letters that are used less frequently, so that I could print back to back.

Check them out!!

Twisty Noodle

This site is great for both parents and teachers. There are tons of FREE printable worksheets in various categories (numbers, letters, school, months, and much more!). You can even customize sheets by changing the font (standard, d'nealian, cursive). This is another great resource.


Twisty Noodle Worksheets

Mastery Connect

If you are a teacher and have not been to this website, you need to check it out!

Mastery Connect

Sign up for the free version, it is fast and easy. What you will find is assessments for specific subjects and standards (single strand/multi-strand). It is a great resource!!

Author Study

This upcoming week we will be doing an author study of Kevin Henkes! Check out the writing journal that goes along with our Kevin Henke's books that we will read daily

Kevin Henkes Journal

March Classroom Information

March Class Calendar

March Book It Reading Log

Dr. Seuss Week February 28 - March 2

Read Across America is coming up next week and is full of themed days in honor of Dr. Seuss

Each day we will focus on a specific story and activities to go with it.

Monday : The Sleep Book - Wear your pajamas to school!
Tuesday : Green Eggs and Ham - Wear the color green!
Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday - Wear mismatched clothes!
Thursday: The Foot Book - Wear silly socks!
Friday: The Cat in the Hat / Dr. Seuss's Birthday! - Wear red, black, and white

http://www.seussville.com/

http://www.readacrossamerica.org/

Read Across America Classroom Printables

America Week

To honor President's Day the students participated in an America themed literacy unit this week. Each day we read books about past presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, we also focused on American Symbols: bald eagle, statue of liberty, American flag, and the liberty bell. The packets that the students worked on will be sent home next week. Check out the different facts that your child now knows!!

Valentine Craft

Love Bugs!

Create by decorating, coloring, and cutting 3 various sized hearts. Attach google eyes, glitter, and more! Don't forget antennae and legs :)

Miss Schaufele's Bug

Valentine Printable Templates

Print a photo and attach to the templates,  one for boys and girls!

Valentine Card Template

100th Day Crowns

Click the link to access my 100th day of school crowns.

Print this for free, color, cut, and attach to a sentence strip or strip of construction paper for a fun 100th day crown!!

Printable Crown Template

February Classroom Information

February Classroom Calendar

Valentine's Day Celebration

February Book It Reading Log

Handwriting Club

This is something new that I will be trying in our classroom to help motivate the students to write neatly and improve fine motor control. Check it out!

How to form DNealian letters

Rocket Writing Test

Handwriting Club Note to Families

Handwriting Club Student Tracking Sheet

100th Day Snack Mix

100th Day Snack Mix

100th Day Activities

The 100th Day of School is this Thursday!

Here are some of the activities my kinder kiddos will be up to:

100th Day Dice Roll

100 Steps

100 Years Old

100 Finish the Sentence

100 Dollars

100 Days Ago

All of the fun fonts can be found on fontspace.com and downloaded for free!

Daily 5 Anchor Charts

This week, we are about to start the 4th activity in our Daily 5 reading routine: Work on Writing. Each time we start a new activity the students and I create an anchor chart of expectations. I have attached the anchor charts below as examples.


Daily 5 Anchor Charts

Assessments

Here are some items that I created to help me assess my students, they follow the common core standards for kindergarten.

Phonemic Awareness Assessments (we use Heggerty each day- it is based on this)

Assessments continued

Word Wall Words: Printable!!

I wanted a word wall for my classroom, however most word walls are printed on manuscript print. My school system still uses DNealian...which is impossible to find at times! I spent a Sunday afternoon create my own word wall. I want to give you a preview of what it looks like! All of the words are in shape boxes and vowels are colored red. If you would like the entire power point, I will email it to you!! There are around 30+ slides of words, so I did not want to upload them all! Here is a preview...

Shape boxes with HF Words for Word Wall

More words

Upcoming School Wide Fun Fair

Flint Lake Elementary's Annual Fun Fair will take place on Friday January 27 from 6-9 pm. Come out and support our school and enjoy food and games! Pre-sale tickets are available at this moment for a discounted price or you can buy them at the door for regular price. I hope to see you there!

Check out the student coupons available during the kid raffle!

Student Coupon Raffle

Report Card Sight Word Info.

Below are the attachments explaining the 30 sight words that the students will be tested on for the first term report card (sent home on January 27). Please practice these words nightly with your child! The goal is 80% accuracy, 24/30 words correctly with immediate recognition (no decoding, these are sight words).

Sight Words for 1st Term Report Card

Note Home

January Documents

I have included attachments for each of the January documents that I sent home earlier this month. You will find the January "Book It" reading log and our January classroom calendar.

January "Book It" Log

January Classroom Calendar

Things to look forward to!

Here are some upcoming classroom themes for the month of January! The students will be participating in many math and literacy related activities revolving around: snowmen and the arctic tundra through penguins and polar bears!

Our previous author studies on Mo Willems and Laura Numeroff, were a huge success. I know that te students will be excited to do another. Our 3rd author study of the year is going to feature Jan Brett! The students have been introduced to a few of her stories: "Gingerbread Friends," "Gingerbread Baby," "The Night Before Christmas,"  and "Who's that Knocking on Christmas Eve." During our upcoming author study we will be reading the following: "The Mitten," "The Hat," "Home For Christmas," and "The Three Snow Bears."

Looking further ahead....February - 100th Day of School Celebration and 101 Dalmations! March - Dr. Seuss week!

Jan Brett's website

Subway Art

I love being creative! I wanted to try to create some subway art (pinterest inspired of course) but I don't always have the greatest handwriting or stenciling skills, but what I can do is work the computer! I was able to make this teacher inspired subway art for a friend (Miss J!) and myself. I used Microsoft Power Point and came up with teacher related words. Then I changed fonts (all the fonts I used were downloaded from the www.fontspace.com website....if you haven't checked this out before, it is AWESOME!), I also changed the colors, orientations, and sizes- VOILA, SUBWAY ART! If you like this idea and would like the actual attachment to manipulate; just send me an email and I will send you the digital copy :)

Pinterest

If you know what this site is then you know the AMAZING ideas you can find on it. If you don't know about the Pinterest website then I strongly suggest you check it out; however, here is my warning- you WILL spend immense amounts of time and stay up very LATE and may lose sleep because you are laying in bed thinking of all the ideas you want to try! I have several Pinterest boards which include topics relating to : classroom ideas, (I've already used tons in our classroom this year and will be incorporating others very soon!),  DIY, fashion, photo ops, and wedding ideas (I'm not getting married, a girl can dream right??). Anyways the amount of ideas and varying topics are amazing, I will click on one pin and the next thing I know I am off on a tangent and have 7 webpages open! I am a firm believer in this site, CHECK IT OUT! You can follow one or all of my boards by simply typing in my name into the search box, choosing the people tab and clicking on my name OR if you need an invitation to join the site email me and I can easily send you an invite to the most amazing site ever! Enjoy!!

Pinterest

Mac the Moose

As you may know, our Kindergarten classroom has a mascot. His name is Mac the Moose. He loves going on adventures with the students! Each weekend Mac goes home with a student. Along with Mac is a journal and his favorite Laura Numeroff book "If You Give a Moose a Muffin." In the journal the students find fun information about Mac such as his birthday, favorite foods, favorite activities, and more. The journal also contains entries from each student who has spent time with Mac. Each child writes what they did with Mac during their weekend adventure. The student may also draw illustrations to go with their entry or attach photos with the help of a family member. The following Monday, the student shares what he/she did with Mac over the weekend and the journal goes onto the reading shelf so that each child in the class has an opportunity to see all of Mac's journeys. The students enjoy spending time with Mac and adding to his traveling journal! Mac also joins us on any special classroom occasions such as field trips and celebrations.

I promised the students that over winter break I would take good care of Mac. If you scroll down you will see a Photobucket slideshow containing some of the things Mac and I did together over break! Mac received some Christmas presents: a new backpack (his went missing!) and a Purdue t-shirt (my alma mater of course!). We traveled in the car to the mall to visit Build a Bear workshop and Cinnabon, yum! We also took part in Christmas day, opening presents, playing games with family, and having a delicious meal (which included Mac-n-cheese, his favorite!). As you can see Mac is an important addition to our classroom and has brought many wonderful memories to the students and I! If you would like to know more about Mac's journal or the students' assignment please feel free to email me. Have fun creating a classroom mascot and traveling journal!