Each year, my Kindergarten team hosts a Stepping Up to Kindergarten meeting for upcoming Kindergartener's parents and every year parents ask for a Kindergarten Readiness Checklist. Many times Kindergarten is a learner's first experience with school. This is a time we dedicate to our upcoming parents so they can better prepare their own students for Kindergarten. Plus, the jump to Kindergarten … [Read more...]
Tips & Tricks for an Amazing End of the Year Slideshow
Who is searching for fun ways to make an easy and amazing end of the year slideshow to share with your students and families? Every year this topic is brought up so lets break it down to make it easy for you. More Than One Way There are many ways you can create an amazing end of the year slideshow. I am going to share with you a few ways I can do this on a PC. I do not own a mac, but I know … [Read more...]
Treasured Year Long Scrapbook for Kindergarten
Each year, we collect work examples and art projects to create our year long scrapbook for Kindergarten. It is something that takes time and effort BUT it is so worth it in the end. Many of you have asked to see the inside of our Kindergarten scrapbook. I got permission to show my one child. I hide her name and the class pictures, but I labeled what is behind the picture to keep the rest of my … [Read more...]
Must Dos for the Last Week of School
Let's break down the MUST DOs to get through this last week of school... together. The end of the school year is so hard. The to-do list grows and grows and many teachers are often overwhelmed with all the tasks they must complete. Make a List of the Last Week The first thing you need to do is start of list of all the tasks you have ahead of you. This make sure you don't let deadlines and … [Read more...]
Freebie Printable for Traveling with Kids
How many of you are traveling with kids and are looking for help with the trip? Local trip or long distance trip. By plane, boat, car... however you are going, we want to help! I wanted to create a freebie, printable pack of activities anyone and everyone can use on their adventures. Maybe you have a field trip coming up? Or maybe you are looking for something to send home with your students … [Read more...]
End of The Year Tears or Cheers?
Does the end of the school year bring you to tears? Does the end of the school year bring you to get up and cheer? Chances are, as an educator who gives your all to your students, your classroom, and your second home of your school, you feel a little of both of these emotions. Teachers have cheers for their students. You cheer because that student learned how to read... but they really … [Read more...]
How to Make a DVD Free Class Movie
One of favorite things to make my class each year is an end of the year slideshow or class movie. It is a fun way to wrap up the year, celebrating all of our learning activities and events. One of my least favorite things to do is to burn 20-25 DVDs. I hate doing to the store to buy them, then staying up all night burning copy after copy. A few copies won't work so I create a few extra. Even … [Read more...]
Moving Your Classroom
Anyone moving their classrooms this summer? School getting renovated or the floors getting waxed? Changing classrooms? Or changing schools? A few years ago my whole classroom had to be moved and placed in the gym for storage while our school was renovated. But my "stuff" was in a section along with 40 other teacher's stuff. Materials did get mixed up. Problems occurred. I … [Read more...]
End of the Year Exhaustion
My countdown to the end of school is sitting at 5. My countdown to our big graduation play and program is 2. You know what that means? I am officially in the epitome of the End of the Year Exhaustion Zone. The to do list is ever growing. I get at a minimum 10 emails a day of things that need to be done by a particular deadline. And all those deadlines are before post planning. I no … [Read more...]
School Prep is NO Monkey Business
Schools out for Summer... and I can't wait to show you exactly how I leave my classroom each and every year. First I should say that we do not have carpet, so I do not have to push everything off to the side of the room... we don't have to strip and wax floors! I stack my beloved, old fashion COLOR CODED chairs. Here is my room from the entry door to my classroom. And if I look … [Read more...]
End of the Year Ideas
I am a believer that you can end the year well and set yourself up for success for the upcoming school year. How??? Well, I am so glad you asked! Let me show you how I end each and every school year. I do 4 things at the end of each year to set myself up for success... First... I stack all those items that will need students names. In K, we write names on EVERYTHING and it takes forever... … [Read more...]
Digtal Scrapbook Slideshow
I know many of you are winding up your school years soon. I have a GREAT idea I want to share with you and hope you decide to try it out. Each year, I make my students a paper scrapbook AND a digital scrapbook! Each kid gets a copy of a DVD full of the memories from the entire school year to keep forever. And if I can do it... so can YOU! {And I make a tutorial to help you out as well!} I made … [Read more...]
