First Day of K certificate

Here's a fun little "First Day of K" certificate! Parents love it and kids get to write their name on it (some with assistance) and color it themselves!

Get it for FREE in my TPT store! CLICK!

Alright, alright! I made one for my First Grade teacher friends, too!

Get the First Grade one HERE

Beginning of the year STUFF

Alright, so now that I'm finally all moved in to my new place, I can FINALLY start thinking about school. Even though I'd much rather just sit around my new place and spend all my money (which I've nearly already done) decorating the place and getting more things I'm realizing I DON'T have-- I've been working on school stuff.


Here's what I learned last year [well, I learned a ton last year, but here's a smidgen of what I learned, okay?]:

You want to give the parents as much info as possible! Give them something to refer to! This will create less communication gaps and excuses. They can't pretend they didn't know anything because, well, you sent home a TON of information. Also, it will help YOU get more organized.

Think of EVERYTHING you want parents to know about how the school year is going to run. Even if you think it's mundane or common-sense, put it in writing anyway. I have been SO surprised by how little some parents know about school!

I will be giving y'all a link to MY beginning of the year packet that I will be making TONS of copies of to pass out at the beginning of the year and to keep some for later (you never know if parents might lose theirs, you may get new students [oh yeah! new student packets! Save that thought for a later post! MENTAL NOTE!], who knows!).

Obviously, you will not want to pass out packets with incorrect information on it, so be sure to really read through it and change it for what applies to you!

No, I cannot send it to you in Microsoft Word form... clip art copyright infringements would not be good. If you need to change things, re-type it, or before you copy (I do this all the time) either white out words you need to change and write over it, OR type it out and tape it over the incorrect parts. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom!

Here goes! It will all be in a crazy order, but you can put it together in a way that makes sense to you! I'm just going in the order the files are on my desktop!

This is my "Important Information" pages. Just random information about our daily schedule, behavior plan, supplies, etc.

Get it HERE.

This is the cover for my welcome/information packet!

Get it HERE.

This is my "Meet Ms. Temple" page. It's nice to let the families get to know you since you will be knowing so much about their children (and them).

Get it HERE.

This is my information packet for Meet the Teacher night.

Get it HERE.


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Alright, so here's how I set up my general information packet I'll send home the first day of school.

1. Welcome to Ms. Temple's class cover page
2. Meet Miss Temple get-to-know-me page
3. Simple page with my three class rules: Follow the teacher's directions, Keep your hands, feet, and objects to yourself, Be nice to everyone
4. An expectations page
5. My "Important Information" pages
6. Our district's school calendar for the year
7. Our school's quick facts page
8. My "Helping Hands" Volunteer page (LINK TO it in my TPT store)
9. Information on how to be an approved volunteer in our district
10. An informational sheet about transportation
11. Change of transportation sheet



In addition, I will send home a packet that needs to be returned.

It starts with a cover page saying "Return these papers to Ms. Temple as soon as possible so she can get to know her new students!"

Then, it has my Student Information sheet.

Get it HERE.


And a questionnaire of things I want to know about their child.



WHEW! I'm exhausted! I hope y'all find this helpful!

Let me know what you think!

Back To It!!!

I am officially all settled into my new place and I am in LOVE!!! Now that I'm all settled, I can get back into getting ready for this school year! I'll share some photos of my new place! (FYI, I did a lot of DIY projects and am quite proud of myself)

First was the living room... I LOVE the fireplace and mantle. It makes it feel so much more home-y. I scored that big rug from Homegoods for $49! And that floral chair in the corner was from the little old lady that used to live in my sister's house. Isn't it adorable??

Next was my bedroom... major work in progress... but I love where it's going! I love my purple Anthro take-off from Target comforter and my antique gray dresser and nightstand! That huge gray rug was $20 from IKEA and it's soft. WHAT?!

Next was my great grandmother's old dining table (we found it in a back room, my dad have never seen it before... soooo guess how old that thing must be?!) and I found those chairs at a garage sale for $70! Score! I painted all 5 of those pieces in the July heat and man, am I proud of my hard work!!!

Last was a photo of my sweet little punkin, Charlie. He is used to living at home with my parents (we adopted him about a year and a half ago) with two big dogs and a large backyard that I can just let him run free in. It's taking a bit of getting used to being just us, no backyard to run free in, and no other dogs to entertain him. He LOVES the patio, though!!

Halloween Roll and Cover, Math Centers, and Flip Chips!

Yes, I know it's not even close to Halloween. I'm not that crazy. (yet.) :)

Anyway, I found this on my desktop just now. I had created it about a month ago but never posted it anywhere! Silly me!

It's a roll and cover game, very easy and simple for kinderbabies to do on their own! Plus, they LOVE Halloween stuff!

You can get it in my TpT store HERE!


Happy Tuesday! Who knows! I may even have another FREE thing for ya today!


OH!

I'm trying to come up with some math stations for both Kinder and First... sort of like BUILD stations... BUILD might be a bit too much for Kinder...

I want to add in more "play time" for kinder because... well, they are still babies and need to just PLAY sometimes. So for kinder I need some sort of "play time" rotation and a math centers rotation...

For kinder math centers, I've been playing around with:

1. Playing with Patterns
2. Counting Kids
3. Knowing Numbers
4. Coloring Counts
5. Cut, Glue, and Grow

Each station would have activities that go along with it.

Playing with Patterns - pattern blocks and mats, unifix cubes, coins, etc. I could go on for days.

Counting Kids - any number of counting activities, sorting and counting, etc.

Knowing Numbers - number matching games, flash cards, etc.

Coloring Counts - Coloring pages having to do with math and counting, eventually getting to counting then coloring to match

Cut, Glue, and Grow - more of a "craftivity" station


If you have ANY ideas for NEW stations (with catchy, rhyming names) or activities to put it any of those centers, PLEASE leave a comment! I would LOVE feedback!



Here's a game I'm sure you've all played in your classrooms, but may do it slightly differently or call it something else...

FLIP CHIPS!

You put those red/yellow counting chips in a cup, have kids flip the cup over and count how many red and how many yellow... ahhh yes, we do recognize that game.

I'm making recording sheets to go along with it. They will start with just circles for the kids to color, then add addition sentences to go along with it. It will start with just 5 chips, then go up to 10.

Here's the first example!

Happy Tuesday!

LABELS!

I knew I forgot something!

Everyone needs more help getting organized, so here's a little something to help!

Click here to get them!

They fit perfectly on the Avery 25395 Name Badges!

Enjoy!

Getting back in the swing... behavior clip chart

Well, I am starting to get back in the swing of things (in between packing up everything I own, cleaning, figuring out which electric, cable, and internet providers, oh my!) with school stuff.

I use the color behavior clip chart in my classroom and someone on TpT was asking someone to create one, so I did. She never messaged me back, so her loss is your gain!

Happy Back-to-School season!

Click here to get it!

Enjoy!

I've been bad...

I have been SO bad!

I thought I wouldn't be so busy this summer, but I have been SO busy!



With moving next week, and trips to see the boyfriend, short little vacation, re-setting up my classroom.... WHEW! So little time for much else!

To make up for that, here's a little freebie for ya! It's the cover for my "Meet the Teacher" night info packet! Gotta make it cutesy!

Enjoy!