I'm excited that I have the first four week lesson plans complete! Here are some of the great ideas that I plan to do:

Week 1

The first week of school we have staggered days, which are great. This is a wonderful way for me to get to know the children and the children to become more comfortable with me and the classroom before all the children are together. This week is pretty laid back. We will be going over all the procedures and policies. Here are the art project that I plan to do:

Our course no first week of school would be complete without reading the Kissing Hand.

I plan to have the children to an activity similar to this one. SOURCE

Week 2

All About Me Week. This week we will get to know all about each other. I plan to have the children graph if they are a boy or girl, their hair color and how many letters are in their names. The children are going to make a book on the classroom rules (Listening bodies, helping hands, caring hearts, walking feet, quiet month, raised hands).  

The children are doing to complete an I'm Special book that I found HERE.

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We are going to play some name games too:

Sit the kids in a circle. Have them start a pattern of clapping hands, patting knee. Say the following poem to the beat of claps and pats:_____ (child's name) ______ (child's name)How do you do?Who's that sitting next to you? Child says name of person sitting beside them.  Chant new child's name:David, David how do you do?David would name the person beside him. Go around the circle until everyone has had a turn.

Play Roll the Ball Name Game- have the children sit in a circle. Get a ball to roll to the children. When the ball is rolled to a child, he/she will say his/her name and something he/she likes, favorite color, etc. After the class gets comfortable with that, you say someone’s name and roll the ball to them.

At our Parent Teacher Orinetation I am going to send how the children's first at home project: they have to decorate a piece scrapbook paper with pictures of their family. The children will bring them this week and share with the each others as well as their favorite toy.

Week 3

Meet the Letter People. In our 4K program we use the curriculm Letter People. It's a great program with adorable puppets. This week the children get to meet each puppet.

We will read the Alphabet House and discuss what what is the alphabet and why it's important.

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Around the room put sentence strips with the children’s name on them. They will go out and find them and return to the carpet. Then I will help them put them in the correct spot on the word wall.

We will play I Spy a Letter- Play I Spy a Letter, for ex: I spy with my little eyes a word that begins with the letter s in the Housekeeping center, what it is? 

Jobs for the Week:

Letter Collages. SOURCE

The children are going to finish a name puzzle like the one I found HERE.

Color Sorting. SOURCE

 Week 4

Mr. H, Heart and Feelings.

H Hippos, source unknown

h house, source unknown

We are going to read Lots of Feelings and talk about about the feelings that are described in the book.

Sorting Shapes, SOURCE

The children are going to make a heart sun catcher with contact paper and tissue paper.

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Play a Game- Give each child a piece of paper. On one side have them draw a happy face and the other side draw a sad face. Tell them a situation and have them hold up if they would be happy or sad.

Feeling Web – draw a circle in the center of three sheets of chart paper. Ask what feeling we just talked about. As each feeling is named, write it in the circle. For each one, have the children tell what makes them feel this way. Draw circles around the feeling word and draw lines

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Look For Shapes- spill a bag of shapes onto the floor. Ask the children what are these? Are they the same or different? Tell them that they are different and special in their own way. Hold up a shape and ask what it is and how can it be described. Then, read the book, look for shapes. On each page allow the children time to id and count the shapes. Ask questions along the way Humpty Dumpty- Have a paper humpty dumpty. Have the children one by one say a hurtful word to Humpty. As they do so rip off a piece of Humpty and give it to that child. Then have each child tell you what they could say to appoligize Humpty.  As they tell you tape their piece of paper back to Humpty. Explain that even when we apologize a person can still tell that we said mean things... just like Humpty Dumpty. Even though we said nice things and replaced all the torn parts, we could tell where the mean words tore away or hurt him. Ask the students to agree to work hard at not saying mean things to each other, even when they are angry. Words can hurt or heal, and sometimes the hurt lasts a long time.

Excited about the next four weeks!

Busy

There are so many things that I would love to sit at the computer and do all day long to get ready for the up coming school year. Unfortunately that is hard to do with a very active 2 year old. Therefore my only time to get things done is during nap time, which goes by way too fast. But today I was able to make a generic assessment sheet for my classroom jobs and make a few different sheets for the student's portfolio.

In the past years I have just put the children's work and in a file with the children's name on it. This of course was not the best way and was hard at conference time. This year I am working on making each child a portfolio, using a folder, to keep all their work in. I plan to make tabs for each month to help keep up with their progress throughout the year. Today I made an alphabet copy sheet, number copy sheet, and shape copy sheet. This is the start of many sheets that I plan to use to help me assess the children through out the year.

Every year I find myself doing a little more than the last to better myself as a teacher. Through friends, pinterest, and the Internet I have found so many teachers that are a great example of wonderful teachers with many great ideas. This will be my fifth year teaching 4K and it amazes me how many ideas their are out there. One of the best things that one of my professors told me in college is that when you are in a teacher's classroom and see something you like that works, steel it and don't reinvent the wheel. I love that teachers are so open to share their ideas with each other and help one other better service the children.

I can't wait to start another great year with great children, parents, and coworkers!

Head in the Game

Today I finish my first two weeks of lesson plans. Thanks to Pinterest I had TONS of ideas to pick from, which made it take longer but SO worth it.

The first week is just getting the children comfortable with the room, rules, and each other. The second week is All About Me. This week I'm planning on having the children make a class rule book, an I'm special book, a portrait using construction paper, 3 graphs with information about hair color, boy or girl, and how many letters in our name. I found two name games that we will play and will have a couple of show and tells so we can all get to know each other. I can't wait. It's going to be FUN!!!

New Idea

I use to put down name plates on the desk so the children knew where to sit. I would then move the children every month while trying to figure out which children would be best suited with others. Last school year I finally figured out that it doesn't really work that way. (Plus my children loved to sit with one another and would always inform me if they haven't sat with a certain person or a certain table.) Therefore I changed the way I did this. After the children have entered the room, hang up their back pack, checked their binders, and sign it, they would pick a "table square". Whatever color square they picked out that is what color table they would sit at for the day. The only probably I ran into was the children starting looking in the bin and picking what color table they wanted to sit at. So now I have a new idea...I saw this on pinterest and decided to put my own spin to it.

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I decided I'm going to make squares, of all the same color, and put numbers, shapes, and letters on them. (There will be matching numbers, shapes, and letters on the back of the chairs.) The children then will have to match the chair with the one they have picked. I hope that this works better and they are learning!

Ocean Theme

After looking at tons of classroom setups/themes, I believe I am going to go with an ocean theme classroom(at less to start the year off). I already have beach chairs in my classroom and purchased a child size beach umbrella and stand today at Lowes that I plan to use for my listening center. Then I'm going to transform my cardboard house into a cabana. I'm going to make tons of Palm trees and sand castles to put around the classroom.

This new themes changes my idea for my door, which I was going to do 4K is oh so sweet that I talked about HERE. Now I am think I'm going to either Dive into 4K or Welcome to a "fin"tastic year! and decorate it with sea creatures. Below is some inspirational pictures.

By the way...I so ready to get back into the classroom and start decorating.

I like the idea of using green butcher paper to make seaweed.

Love the big sea life.

Classroom Setup

I LOVE to move things around in my classroom so I have been looking for some new ideas. I found some great ideas that I would love to do this year.

Reading Cabana, I already have a cardboard box in my reading center and love the idea of making it into a cabana to go along with a beach theme.  SOURCE

I love the banners by the windows, just not sure if I could do something like this because of our fire marshal. SOURCE

LOVE this room. There are so many small details that make this room great. I really like the sand castle on the side of the shelf and all the palm trees. SOURCE

More transition Songs

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The First Thing On Your Paper Is Your Name!

{Tune: If You're Happy and You Know It!}

The first thing on your paper is your name,

The first thing on your paper is your name.

The teacher needs to know who did your work and so,

The first thing on your paper is your name!

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Transition Songs

I'm on the quest for fun new transition songs and wanted to share a few I found.

I WIGGLE MY FINGERS(A Movement Rhyme)
I wiggle my fingers,
I wiggle my toes,
I wiggle my shoulders,
I wiggle my nose.
Now no more wiggles
Are left in me,
So I can sit as still as can be.
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Adapted traditional IF YOU’RE READY FOR A STORY Tune: “If You’re Happy And You Know It” If you’re ready for a story, come sit down. If you’re ready for a story, come sit down. Let’s all gather near, so everyone can hear. If you’re ready for a story, come sit down. Jean Warren Open Them, Close Them Open them, close them; Open them, close them; Give a little clap. Open them, close them; Open them; close them; Now fold them in your lap. Ready to Listen Let your hands go clap, clap, clap: Let your fingers go snap snap, snap. Let your lips go very round; But do not make a sound. Fold your hands and close your eyes; Take a breath.....and softly sigh.... Ah.... Good-Bye, Good Friends(“Down by the Bay.”) See you later, alligator! After while, crocodile! In an hour, sunflower! Maybe two, kangaroo! Gotta go, buffalo! Adios, hippos! Chow, chow, brown cow! See you soon, baboon! Adieu, cockatoo! Better swish, jellyfish. Chop, chop, lollipop. Gotta run, skeleton! Bye-bye, butterfly! Better shake, rattlesnake. Good-bye, my good friends!

I want to make!

A reading teepee made out of PVC pipe. How cute is this. The children would have TONS of fun reading in here. SOURCE

An adorable READ sign. All you need is the letters from Hobby Lobby or Michael's cover in scrapbook paper with pennants glued to ribbon. SOURCE

Dramatic Center Fun

This year I want to find small things to do that will spruce up my dramatic play center and make it more fun for the children. I found two great websites that have tons of great items with free printable and wanted to share.

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Door Ideas

I have been thinking what to do on my door for back to school. I'm found a few ideas. Here there are...

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SOURCE, I think this is my favorite.

Turned TWO

My little man turned two this past Saturday and we had a construction themed party. Calen had a great time playing with all the children that came.

The day was VERY stressful. The party was planned to be in our backyard but it rained off and on all day and according to the weather channel there was more to come. Then we lost power for about an hour. During this whole time I didn't know what to do and couldn't get everything ready outside. I was SO stressed. My husband and I went back and forth about if we should move the party to our facility that we use for wedding and other events. I really didn't want to because almost of the decorations were set up inside and I hated to move them. Therefore we decided that the party would be on at our house and hope that it doesn't rain.

About an hour before the party was to start my husband and I were able to go outside and set up as much as we could in the short time. Unfortunately not every was done that I had planned and was bummed about it but Calen didn't know and had fun.

The party started and everyone had fun. It only sprinkled for a second and stopped so I was very happy about that. The children had a blast playing in sand, jumping on the trampoline, playing with tools, and on the play set. Here are some pictures from the day.

The front door!

The cake table!

Food: Paint Chips=bags of chips, Rocks=grapes, Nuts and Bolts=Chex Mix, Carpenter Pencils= Carrots, Wrecking Balls= Cheese Balls. We had a build your own sandwich bar with Lumber=Bread, Spackle= Jelly, and Wood Putty= Peanut Butter.

Calen having fun!

YUMMMM...CAKE!!!

Back to School

I found a few more things on pinterest, yes I said pinterest and I know it's shocking, to add to my Teacher Parent Orientation.

This is an adorable poem to send home. SOURCE

Cute printables to inform parents of how important it is to read to your child. I will be adding this in my packet. SOURCE

I have a good bit of my stuff together for orientation, which makes me feel a little better because this is a BIG night. I decided to have four stations(SOURCE) for the parents to go to when they enter the classroom. Then they can have a sit and read over the material that I have provided for them in a folder.

It's Been Awhile

I'm still here!!! This summer has been a very relaxing, fun, and busy one. We went to the beach for a week and had a blast. Then this past Saturday my little man turned two, so I was going nonstop to get everything together for his birthday. I feel like now I can just sit back and finishing relaxing, specially with only 3 shorts week left till in service starts. It seems like the summer just started but instead it's wrapping up. I going to miss spending everyday with my sweet boy but ready to start a new year with a new bunch of children (it's bitter sweet).

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and getting in gear to start back!