Phonics Dance and a Letter/Word/Sentence Sort Freebie

I just found out today that my request to go to a Phonics Dance Workshop in August was approved!  I am super excited!  I sort of used the Phonics Dance with my kiddos last year, and I really loved how much it seemed to help my really low students remember the letters and sounds.  Now I get to learn how to do it for real!

I made a letter/word/sentence sorting activity to share with you today.   All you have to do is print, laminate and cut, then it is ready to go.  Hope you can use it!

Click here to download.

Summer?

We have been on summer break for a little over a week, but I feel like I haven't been able to relax yet.  My new classroom for next year was a little (how do I say this nicely?) disgusting packed full of junk tons of furniture and thirty years of teaching materials.  I started working in there on our first day of summer, along with the help of a fabulous friend and some wonderful family members.  I am trying to get as much done now as I can, because we are not sure if we will be able to get into the building in July, and our building is the last on the schedule to be cleaned this summer - and it will happen in August.  I don't want to be scrambling to get everything finished last minute.  Many full trash cans and recycling bins later (not to mention the fact that the hallway outside my door is filled with the unwanted furniture and decent teaching materials that I am not going to use), I think we have gotten most of the unwanted stuff out.  We have also been cleaning all of the math manipulatives, magnetic letters, and all of the plastic storage containers.  This week we begin our first 2-week session of summer school, so I will be doing that until noon every day and then tackling the organization and storage of all the things I am keeping in the room.  Whew!

Anyway, I have found some fun beginning of the year ideas on Pinterest, and I thought I would share.  :)

Check out these adorable apples from Kindergarten Cupcake Crumbs:

Love this picture timeline idea from Science Notebooking:

 
I am loving this explanation of how she set up her math workstations - I have been thinking a lot about how I want to set them up for my K kiddos, and reading this last night really helped me to get a clearer picture of what I want to do.  This is from First Grade Garden:

I also love this post on classroom organization from First Grade Garden - love her labels!

ANOTHER thing I love from First Grade Garden (she has lots of awesome ideas - make sure you check out her blog!):

I also have to say that I love Kathleen from Growing Kinders.  I have bought a couple of her products from TPT for next year, and I can't wait to use them!

You can check out my Pinterest boards here.

What is your favorite beginning of the year find?

I Wonder...

A while back I read this book:

Click on the book to check out this book on Amazon.

Love it!!!  Now that I am thinking about setting up my Kindergarten classroom for next year, there are several ideas from the book that I am planning to implement. 

I created this paper this year when we were studying forest animals.

Click on the picture to download your copy.

 Here are some samples from my kiddos.

I wonder if opossums eat garbage.  I learned that opossums eat garbage.

I wonder if opossums have teeth. I learned opossums have teeth.

I wonder if skunks stab people.  I learned skunks do not stab people __ (?) spray people.

Click on the picture above to download your copy of this sheet.  Hope you can use it!

I really am still alive...

Hello!

I am so sorry for my long absence from my blog - this year has absolutely flown by!  I have still been blog stalking a bit here and there, but nothing like I was able to do last summer.
 
I was so excited to be able to go to the Cincinnati Blogger meet-up earlier this year and meet so many wonderful teachers!  To be completely honest, I felt kind of like I was meeting celebrities when I met Abby (The Inspired Apple), Michelle (Fabulous in First)  and Amanda (One Extra Degree) - these girls are just so amazing!

I recently found out that I will be teaching Kindergarten next year (I will be replacing my own Kindergarten teacher!), so I am very excited about that and I am already in planning mode for next year.  

I have so many things that I have thought about posting on here this school year - it may take me a little while to catch up!  Look for another post and some freebies soon!