Clean Those Containers

I spent a day rearranging my room and getting it ready for the summer cleaning crew.  They literally dump everything outside, and re-wax the floors.  One the floors are dry the put everything back-inside sort of where it was before.  If you are lucky they don't wait for the floors to be dry and all your stuff sticks to the floor.  You need the Hulk to move your tables that are waxed tot he floor.

I packed a small box of things to bring home one was my table caddies.  They get abused during the year and need some cleaning.  I ran the scissors through the dishwasher to get rid of yuck and germs. I also brought home these...

I use empty frosting containers to hold crayons, pencils and such inside my caddies.  At the end of the year they look like they should be tossed, but with a little elbow grease and help from the big bald cleaning dude, they look really good, and I don't need to eat 24 cans of frosting either.

 After a few swipes with the magic eraser

Hard to believe isn't it?

The Teacher Plan Book

When I first started teaching I used those spiral bound store bought lesson pan books.  As time went on I began creating my own.  They have morphed over the years to include more than just my weekly lesson plans.  In it I keep student contact information, schedules, staff meeting notes, email address, IEP's and so much more.  Here is my newest book.

 Or if you don't need all the extras, you can check this one out It doesn't come with all the programmable pages, just a cover and plan pages.

I Have Who Has Math Games Review

My kids love playing I Have, Who Has games.  When EIA Education contacted me and asked me to review their game set, I was thrilled.  Usually I make my own sets, but these sets are cute, fun and already made for me.   I introduced the game to my entire class, walking them step-by-step on how to play.  The pictures on the cards made participating accessible to all of my students.  Once my class knew what to do, I put them in small groups to play the different games.  Each box contains 6-color coded game sets.

When they finished they exchanged cards with a neighbor and played again until game-time was over.  These cards are self checking- as each card is read they are placed face down side-by-side notice the small shapes made.  This tells the kids their answer is correct.

These games are great for small groups and easy enough for struggling students to play along.  They also are geared for Common Core. The only drawback is that there are only 6 playing cards per set.  This means only 6 or fewer students can play.  However, being that there are 6 games in a box, multiple games can be playing in your classroom at one time.  Be sure to visit EIA's website, they have so many great products.

Summer Vacation Mean Creativity for Me

I have finished my first week of summer vacation, although it hasn't gelt like vacation just yet.  So far I've had a training, clean-up made a huge mess in my classroom, helped some fellow teachers create a blog and had a two day migraine.  In the wee hours of the night I also managed to finish some things I've been working on for next year.  I'm sticking with my red, black and white polka dot theme and thought my room could use some new posters. I've made sets in both colors- You can also buy all four as a classroom pack

Other things I've been working on are my Calendar and Weather Cards and Classroom Helper Cards

My Calendar Notebooks

I am so excited about these, I will finally be able to have all my kids participate during calendar time .  They will be held accountable instead of day dreaming or  picking at the carpet.

Please tell me I'm not the only teacher who has already started planning for the fall.  I've been rethinking my room design, my daily schedule and have been scouring Pinterest for cute new things to make.

If You Give a Teacher an iPhone

I'm not sure how this all started.  I usually just give my kids a book at the end of the year.  This year however I think I can blame this on my iPhone.

If you give a teacher an iPhone she will want to take thousands of photos of her cute kindergarten class..  When she starts transferring the photos to her iMac she will want to make a movie for Open House.

While making the movie she will want to listen to iTunes and then she will want to add some music to her movie.

After Open House she will take more photos and add them to the movie she already made.  While making the new movie, the teacher will want to make 24 copies of the DVD- one for each of her students.

While burning the DVD's she realizes she needs to buy DVD Sleeves to protect them. So, she will ask her husband to take her to Walmart.  Once she is at Walmart, she forgets about the DVD sleeves and buys jewel cases instead.

When she gets home, she sees how ugly the jewel cases look and will want to create a fancy cover.

 After creating the fancy cover, she will decide that each students' name should appear on the cover as well. Once the personalized covers are made, she will want to create a sticker to be placed on the DVD in case it gets lost.

While creating the sticker, the teacher decides to personalize it too.  Once all 24 personalized kindergarten DVD's are made, the teacher uses her iPhone to take a few pictures.  And chances are if she takes a few pictures she will want to write a blog post all about it.

Helping Moore, OK

Dry Erase Pockets- AMAZING

I was asked by MyBinding.com to use and review their  C-Line Dry Erase Pockets.  These are FABULOUS!!! 

They are made of super thick clear plastic with colorful trim in assorted colors.  I used several different types of dry-erase markers with these and everyone wiped clean easily.  My kids think these are the best.  They work hard to finish their work so they can be the first to use them. Little do they know that I have inserted skills sheets into these for practice and review.

These sheets are eco-friendly by helping to save paper.  Instead of making a class set, I can make a few copies for a center. The kids still get to practice they skills they need.

Having a class set in multiple colors would allow for differentiation.  Students could be told which color they were to use based on the skill they needed and their ability. Here are some picture o my kids using these, notice they can be used on the carpet or the table.

They are available in sets of 5 for just $16.07

You can click on the image below to take you to their website product page.

A Skype Performance with Debbie Clement

Have you seen or heard of Debbie Clement? If you haven't, you should She is AMAZING! She can be found over at her fabulous blog Rainbows WIthin Reach.

Unfortunately, Debbie is on the East Coast and I am on the West Coast.  Bringing her here just isn't feasible.  But, with Skype, I was able to have Debbie visit my classroom virtually.  Our only glitch was that she couldn't see us.  Our school's bandwidth is just couldn't handle it.  Debbie could hear us and we could see and hear her.  My kids were mesmerized by her funny songs and antics.  Blogger and YouTube are not being nice so I'm unable to share my video at this time.   but if you read to the bottom I have a link your you to see Debbie's other Skype visit.

I will finally get to meet Debbie in person July 15th at the I Teach K conference in Las Vegas.

She is the opening Keynote Speaker.

You can find her wonderful books and mp3 downloads at TeachersPayTeachers

AND if you still want to see more head over to Maggie's Kinder Corner to ee a little bit more.