I am thankful....

for these great learning videos from Have Fun Teaching. Does anyone else use these songs or videos in their classroom? My kiddos just LOVE them! If you have never heard of this company before, please click on the link and see what all the hype is about! They are currently having a 50% off sale on all items. The coupon code is SUPERSALE. Have Fun Teaching Shop

What's popping? Circus Theme Class Photos

One of my favorite things about teaching is deciding what theme I want to decorate my room in. My mom came up with the idea of using a circus theme this year. I loved it as soon as I heard it! My mom has been busy all summer sewing things for my room and I have been busy creating things on my computer. We have been in the classroom since Monday and we are dead tired! Here are pictures of my new Big Top Kindergarten Class!

This is my little alcove. The table is used as a sign in table for my little Kinder Klowns!

This is my work display out in the hallway. Each student has a circus performer with their name on it. Under their picture, they have a little clip that I can hang their work/projects on.

I love this bulletin board! My mom made the 3-D box of popcorn.

This little monkey displays work inside our classroom. I used him last year in my jungle room. This year, we dressed him up as a clown!

My new and improved rocking chair. I never really liked it because it is so big, but now it is very comfortable! The lion is a bath mat that my Aunt found.

My favorite part of my classroom! This is my reading library.

This area is used to display the children's writing. Each author has their own display area.

My new job board that I made on the Cricut!

Circus Nameplate Freebie

I tried to make some circus nameplates. Not sure about them yet. They are very bright and colorful, but I need to see how they print. I'm all out of card stock so I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Circus Nameplates

Friday Freebie!

I'm so excited for my new circus theme! I made some circus themed number cards modeled after the current numbers that I have up in my classroom. A quick slice down the middle, laminate, add a magnet, and VIOLA! I hope some other teachers can use these! Leave me a comment if you download and tell me what you think.

Circus Numbers 0-10

Surviving VPK Freebie

I have been MIA recently! I am teaching 4 weeks of VPK. I took over another teacher's class and will be finishing their year. All I can say is, "Golly..am I exhausted!" 13 more days of VPK fun and then I can get back to planning for Kindergarten! The worst part of this new experience is that I'm not too fond with the planned curriculum. My teaching stuff is in my classroom and I don't have enough to work with. What is a creative teacher to do? You guessed it...make your own stuff! I have been messing around with Power Point and have found that I can make really cute stuff and it is so simple. Stay tuned because I will be posting all of the things I have made so far. Here is something I made today. We are studying the Rain forest. I hope you enjoy it!

Snake Sort

My new favorite thing....

I LOVE Vistaprint. I just want to shout it out to the world!! I placed a few orders yesterday using the great deals I found on the proteacher forum website. They have a group for Vistaprint addicts and share all of the great online deals/coupons they receive. Click here to check it out.

Here are some of the things that I made yesterday. Many of them were free, but I had to pay a bit for shopping. (Still totally worth it)

25 Followers...Giveaway thoughts?

I'm so excited that I have received 25 followers. I really want to do a giveaway, but not sure what I want to do. I have been working really hard on creating a calendar flipchart to use with a Promethean Board. It is filled with songs, calendar pages up to December (as of right now), days of the week, months of the year, birthday graph, lost tooth graph, 100 days of school chart, weather graph, a changeable question of the day/attendance chart. I will be using this along with a calendar notebook.

Would anyone be interested in winning this for their room? If you don't have a Promethean, but know someone that would like to have this...please spread the word around!

Communication Coupons

I made these communication coupons last year. I saw them on a website and can't remember where I got them from. I loved them and so did my parents. They would let me know if they were running low on any and I would send them some replacements. Follow these simple steps to create your very own communication coupon books.
#1-Print each coupon on different colored paper. (Office Max has colored paper you can use at no extra charge).
#2-Cut out the coupons.
#3-Put several of each coupon together, add the cover, and staple on the left.
#4-Write the student's name on the front cover and Viola!

Getting my feet wet.....

I really want to start making things to share with teachers in the blog world. My ultimate goal is to create a TPT store. Here I am! Just starting out! I only have 10 followers, but my dreams are big!

Here is my first, and might I say, very small and simple project.......

What do Kindergarten teachers do on the first day of school?

There are always sooooo many things to deal with.....
#1 Getting the kids into the room
#2 Getting the parents out in a timely manner
#3 Trying to stop the criers from crying
#4 Getting the kids organized
#5 Finding out how they will go home at the end of the day
#6 Finding out how they will eat lunch

Wow....this list could go on for days........

I have found that the easiest thing to do is give each child a can of (wait for it) Play-Doh!!!!!

Why is this stuff so great? The kids walk in and see that little yellow can and get instantly excited! They just want to tear it open and don't even notice their parents are there. The kids are happy, which in turn, makes me happy because it makes our 1st week transition a smooth one. They are busy creating, building fine motor skills and making new friends. On the other hand, I am free to get important information from parents and they see that their little ones are excited and ready for school. It is a win-win for everyone!

Here is my freebie! I created a simple play-doh mat that I will print out on colored paper. Thinking about gluing a cute mat around the edges with scrapbook paper and then laminating them. This will give the kids a cute place to play with their dough and not make a big mess on our tables.


Welcome to Kindergarten

Calendar Math Traditional vs. Promethean Board

I am linking up with Oceans of First Grade Fun to talk about this topic. I was thrilled when I saw this because this is one of my summer dilemmas. Our principal bought us this great Calendar Activity Chart to use in Kindergarten. I used it this year but was quickly bored with it, not to mention it was HUGE!!!! It took up half of one of my whiteboards.

I have been leaning towards using my Promethean for calendar. I've been looking around different blogs and saw that many teachers are having students use calendar books to keep them engaged during calendar time. I think that is a great idea and I think I will be trying that this year.

I'm off to watch some YouTube tutorials on using ActivInspire. I can make basic things on it, but I want to do so much more. Pictures, movies, and songs...oh my!

What does your calendar time look like? Leave a comment here or link up with Oceans of First grade Fun.

If anyone needs help or would like a copy of my flipchart when I'm done....please leave me a comment!

End of Year Unit..A walk through my Rainforest

Our theme during the last marking period is learning about the Rainforest. There is so much stuff that we do it takes us weeks to get through it all. It is so much fun to do and the kids just love it! When it gets close to the end of the year, we have a Rainforest Day. We invite the whole school to come into our classrooms during the day and then the parents come in at night. At the end of the night, the kids & parents take all of their projects home. This idea came from Kimberly Jordano. I just love her theme books! Has anyone else done something like this?

My old theme "Jungle Safari"

This is my birthday bulletin board. It is located right by the new technology we got, so I didn't want to make it interactive and have the kiddos near and around that area.

 My mom bought me a Cricut about 3 years ago. It had been in the closet for 2 years unopened. I was unfamiliar with it and and never took it out. Last summer I took it out and started to mess around with it. My jungle job board was the first thing I ever made with it. Needless to say, I LOVE my Cricut! I don't know what I would do without it.

 This is a view of my sink area. This year, the left area of the counter top is going to be my creation station area.

 This is my reading hut. The kids absolutely LOVED this. They loved to go in here and read books.

 This is the left of my classroom. On the counter is where I have four student computers. My school was rebuilt and I hadn't received the computers when this was taken. This is a view of my housekeeping area that changes monthly. It starts out as housekeeping in August.

 This is my writing station. I have hooks and baskets that I attach to the back of my math manipulative furniture.

 This is a view of where I have the student desks, circle time carpet, calendar, and my Promethean board.

 This is what you see when you first enter my classroom.

 The front entrance of the classroom.

 This table has a folder and the students sign in every morning when they arrive.

My rolling cart helps organize materials that I use for my small groups.

A new blogger

I have been sitting at the computer for a week now reading some fantastic blogs from Kindergarten teachers around the country. I have found such great information and ideas that I will be using for my class next year. In fact, I have been so inspired that I am deciding to start my own blog. 

My name is Jennifer and I currently live in Orlando, Florida. I have taught Kindergarten for four years and will be starting my fifth this August. I can't see myself teaching any other grade level, but you never know!

One of the most wonderful things about teaching is getting my classroom ready for a new set of little people. My brain has been turning trying to come up with new ideas for my latest theme. I am going to be turning my classroom into the Kindergarten Big Top Circus! I'm so excited that I can hardly contain myself. 

This past school year, my classroom theme was Jungle Safari. I will post some pictures of what my classroom looked like. 

I would love to meet some fellow teachers that have the same passion for teaching as I do!