School is in Session!

The first few weeks back has been a blast!  I have had fun getting to know my scholars and there individual personalities! Let me begin by showing you what we have learned so far within our centers.

The very first week of school was dedicated to the introduction of our Read to Self component of literacy.  I like to do my own modified version of the Daily 5 and our first priority is to cover the 3 Ways to Read a Book:

1. Read the Pictures
2. Read the Words
3. Retell the Story

Once my fabulous kinders got a hold of that, they had a blast finding a nice cozy spot all around the classroom to practice building their reading stamina.

Here is one the kinders reading the words to the class!

Our Calendar Math Journals have been a big hit with my kinders.  Usually, I introduce the journal to scholars at the beginning of the school year and tell them, once they learn all of their rituals and routines we will begin to use our "big kid" journals for Calendar Math.  Then one of my kinders shouted "Why don't we start today?"....and that was that!  I was blown away by how fast my scholars grasped the concept and they really love it!  

 

Here is a sneak peek of the centers we have explored within the classroom

Find the missing letter

Letter match

Magnetic letters center

 

The play-dough center has been upgraded to beginning sound identification....

and words!

Here is our bible center.  We focused on the Creation story last week.

Pocket chart center

Also,  I received a special birthday gift last Friday and I just have to share!

 

That's all for now!  Until next time.....

Live, Laugh, and Love to Teach!

It's Great to be Back!!

Greetings blog world!  I know it's been a while but I have had so many changes this past school year.  Here is an update...

* I am now Mrs. Williams!!!!

* I have just completed my Master's Degree in Elementary Reading and Literacy

* I have transitioned from teaching within a charter school to a wonderful private school

* I have just completed two moves and am now preparing for a new set of kinders this year!!

With that being said....let me give you a little tour of my new classroom.  If it isn't already evident within my blog design, let me just say I love birdie decor!  So as you can guess my classroom is filled with those subtle hints ;)  Check it out!

So here is my parent information board.  This board contains my class schedule, monthly lunch menu, money notes, classroom newsletter, parent volunteer sign in, and a wishlist.  

As you enter the classroom, you notice the cubbies to the right and the writing center straight ahead (table coming soon).

This is how the classroom looks from the back.  I'm not sure if you can see them, but I found the most adorable bird houses from the Dollar General the other day and had to incorporate them into the classroom!  So now these bird houses hang above each table group.

Here is a closer look at my writing center.  Remember my  little writing table is on it's way and this center will eventually have a lot of the writing tools, strategies, and techniques posted as I began to teach them.

 This represents one of two word walls that I will have in the classroom.  I usually have one for sight words and one for vocabulary.  This wall will be used for all of my sight words.

 So here is my second wall that I will use for our picture cards/vocabulary words. Notice the hint of cute little birdies ;) This word wall can be found in my TPT  or Teacher's Notebook store if your interested.

So the word wall above is perpendicular to my Calendar Math wall.  Calendar math is my absolute favorite way to teach math.  I have created an interactive calendar math journal that goes along with the Common Core standards for kindergarten math.  Here is a link back to that information if interested. Click here.

Here is my literacy center.  The book shelf to the left is for many of their center activities and the one to the right is designated for their book baskets.

Here is the math center!  Students interactive calendar math journals are placed on the bottom shelf to the right.

Here is my desk area...but my all time favorite area is....

...my small group table!  This is where all of the one on one teaching takes place.  I get to really know my kinders and see their academic growth first hand in this area.

Like I said, it's great to be back in the blogging game.  Until next time!

Live, Laugh, and Love 2 Teach!

Pumpkins and Turkeys!

Our classroom has been filled with all types of wonderful explorations this year!  One of my all time favorites is our pumpkin exploration.  In the month of October we learn all about pumpkins and apples.  During our apple inquiry we conduct a lot of science experiments with our apples and even make candy apples! We take an amazing field trip to the pumpkin patch and then we come back to school and explore all of the ooey gooey goodness inside our pumpkins!  We even end up with a beautifully carved pumpkin!

My kiddos were pretty excited with this activity.

It only seemed fitting to indulge them with the same type of activity for our apple unit.

How did those pumpkins get there!?!?!?

This one turned out so beautiful, I decided to keep it!

Very first time making candy apples in the classroom and they turned out pretty nice!

We decided to make our own little turkeys for Thanksgiving:

I always love doing this activity before the Thanksgiving holiday.

This is an excellent following directions activity!  They turned out so cute!  Unfortunately, they didn't last long due to a class full of hungry students.

We did this cute sequence of events activity after reading "A Turkey for Thanksgiving"

This was a fun math center for my kiddos as they discovered ways to make ten.  Check out my TPT store or Teachers Notebook shop to grab this fun center.

Here is another much needed center you can find in my shop!  Finding fun ways to teach kindergartners how to solve an algebra problem can be pretty daunting, but my kiddos seemed to like this center.  I actually remember being introduced to a problem like this when I was in middle school, except it looked more like: x + 3 = 10.  Welcome to kindergarten!

Finally, a little something to be thankful for from our lovely ESE teacher, who surprised all of the teachers with a cute little gift! 

 Live, Laugh, Love 2 Teach

School Is In Session!

Well, as many of you know school has been in session and I have been in full throttle ever since! This year will be packed with planning events for our school's Spirit Committee, TOT/Eagle Patrols, doing homework, planning a wedding, oh yes...and creating fun packed lesson plans! However, let's stick with our fun packed lessons for now.

This year I have a small group of students with such wonderfully exuberant personalities!  They definitely keep me on my toes and challenge me to come up with fun and engaging activities. Our center time is an awesome time for each of them to gain a hands on experience of what we are learning in class.  My students love discovering new centers.  Just the other day, as I explained how to do a few math centers, one of my students said, "Ms. Yarde, I love the way you teach!"  I sweetly smiled and said "thank you" as I sung the happy song and did the happy dance inside my head!

Here are some of our math centers:

This center was introduced early on within the school year to help identify numbers that are the same.

This was another early center activity that we have switched so far.  I felt that it was so appropriate early on because we had so many August birthdays this school year (including mine :)).

 I introduced this counting center this week that I found on teachers pay teachers.  The kids love using little acorn pieces as counters!

 We have really dived into the meaning of greater than and less than.  For some reason, grasping the concept of less than can be a pretty daunting task.  That is why I introduced this center. Students grab a handful of two different colored cubes, sort and count, and then circle the number that is less.

This is another greater than/ less than activity (which focuses on less than) that one of my students within my small group suggest I introduce as a center.  It was a big hit, I guess kids really know what they like when it comes down to learning!

 Here is a fall color, count, and graph center.

 In honor of our apple theme we have a number order center and...

a "how many apples on top"  counting center.

Here are some of our literacy centers:

 We use magnetic letters to place letters in the correct order, spell our friends names, and to spell sight words.

 It was a challenge helping my students fully understand that we do not make pancakes with play dough any more!  I tell them that was so pre-k.  Finally we are using the play dough the way kindergarten students are supposed to :)

 

 I believe thy are beginning to get the hang of it....

This is apart of my big book center.  Students are able to read/recite the chart and find the letter that the chart represents.  Students can also find new sight words and use wikki stix to circle around them. 

 This sight word center was just introduced this week to help practice reading and writing our sight words.  

 Although our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme is long over, I believe this is an important skill to master.  So I haven't been able to part ways with this particular center. 

 Remember this play dough mat?  Well, now it has become a part of our write the room center!

Here are some of my kiddos reading the booklet of the week on our pocket chart!

 Here are some friends reading the booklet of the week from their book basket!

I hope you enjoyed this "window into our classroom!"  

Live, Laugh, Love 2 Teach