New! New! New!

Hello lovelies!

So as the first week of the lovely #tptsellerchallenge {read all about it here} comes to the halfway mark, I am excited to say that the Makeover Madness has really gotten my creative juices flowing! It started with just revamping my Numbers Poster Pack to fit with themes I've seen in many other classrooms and the theme I wanted to put in my own room. {You can read all about the changes I made on my blog post found here or you can check out my TpT store here}

You see, I have fallen in love with the "chalkboard" style of decor and now I want to theme my room that way...but seeing as I just bought a new house, and I am a little short on funds {read: I have no money to buy all the decorations I wanted} I decided to make my own! I am far...FAR from done, but I wanted to share about the products I have created so far. 

First: My Numbers Poster Pack 

(which I know I've already mentioned, but it's going to be part of the huge bundle when everything is completed)

This pack contains numbers with guideline arrows to help students learn which way each stroke goes, as well as how many strokes it takes to form a number. There is also a ten-frame under each number to help students learn how to represent the number with a group or an image {which loosely corresponds to CCSS.K.CC.3.} Each number also has a little poem or saying on how to write the number {which helps students focus on penmanship!} You can print these out and place them side by side on a 12x18" piece of paper, laminate, and put up on the wall as a poster for the kids to see all year! {I did this with the former pack, and I plan on doing this again with the new pack.}

Second: My Weather and Season Poster

This product allows students to identify the season, the weather and the temperature each day. There are pieces that can be switched out as the season and weather change. Most of the weather tiles have little images so students can relate the word (or rather letters in my case) to the physical weather. The pieces help create full complete sentences that can be repeated to work on correct speech patterns.

Third: My Chalkboard Months of the Year

This is separate from the calendar pieces that will be coming soon. I use these so my students can see the months in order. I have included little pictures as well as the abbreviated versions of the months so that students can associate certain holidays or events with different months.

Fourth: My Chalkboard Number Chart Numbers

These are simple numbers made up in the chalkboard style. I have a hundreds chart that I have dyed black {to go with the chalkboard theme} that I will put these numbers into. These numbers go all the way up to 120 so whether or not your students are learning to count to 20, 30, 100 or 120, you can use these numbers to help with that. These numbers are also great for number recognition, and I put them in a rainbow pattern so they are easier to put in order.

There are still calendar pieces, a day of the week poster, as well as word wall letters and sight words that will be coming out in the chalkboard style. When those get completed I'll be doing a follow up blog post about them and making a huge bundle. Keep an eye out!

Always remember every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,
Nichole

TpT Seller Challenge Week 1: Makeover Madness

Hello! In an effort to revamp my image and get my creative juices flowing, I joined the TpT Seller challenge. Each week we focus on a different idea and complete a task. This week we are focusing on Makeover Madness!

I took a very popular product and totally revamped it! Ta da!

I redid the background from just the pretty borders to the chevrons and black chalkboard design. I also changed the fonts to my newest favorite! Also, to help align with common core (loosely anyway) I added ten frames at the bottom of the number pages. The number pages still feature movement arrows so students can see exactly which direction they should move as well as how many strokes each number really should take. 

The rhyme pages I touched up by keeping the original poems and changed their looks. I also added a few other poems as alternatives to my originals. I know my kindergarten team really liked this pack but they used different poems, so I added them for my friends at work because "sharing is caring!" 

If you want to pick up your copy of this product please feel free to stop by my TpT store {here}. Also, please leave feedback if you do pick up a copy. I can't grow as a teacher-author if I don't get feedback from others! 

Thank you so much, and always remember: every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

Homework set-up

Welcome back! So I'm a total of 8 days into class and boy has it been interesting. Trying to get all the curriculum taken care of, homework packets planned, long term planning and trainings and seminars. It's been busy. But I'm proud to announce I have finished my homework folders with homework helper and front cover. I'm super excited about them!

A good friend of mine, Lauren from A Teachable Teacher, gave me her homework helper files to play around with. You can find them at A Teachable Teacher. She is super sweet because they were a big help! I want to specify and clarify that I tweaked her homework folder front page. I added 10 frames and colors (since she is teaching first grade those weren't really necessary for her) and I have to say...I LOVE THEM!

 

This is my front cover. The background and clipart children are courtesy of Lauren and the ten frames and colors I put there myself. (I had to  make each ten frame myself piece by piece. Talk about time consuming.)

 The back of the homework helper. This is also courtesy of Lauren (THANKS LAUREN!!) I loved everything on here. Some of it I wont be able to use, but it's there just in case we get to go over it at the end of the year. (Dream big right?)

I had to print these out and glue these babies down to each side of the folder...and  yes, I slaved away on this for about an hour because I'm a perfectionist and each one HAD to be centered! (And I didn't notice until after I'd laminated that the numbers got cut off at the bottom. I just about cried when I saw that!)

Anyway, once I'd glued everything down I laminated the whole folder and split the pockets open using a razor blade. I can feel some of you staring at me with a glazed over look, but I promise! It works! The pockets are still usable as you'll see in coming photos. After I laminated everything I stapled our monthly behavior chart to the inside of the folder and put the behavior policy in one of the pockets. I missed back to school night since I started my year late, but I still wanted to give all my parents all the information I could.

 This was a full sized document that I just shrunk on our school copier to be a half sheet. I did two months on one page. Each day gets a color based on their color on our clip chart. I replace the chart each month and hold on to the log so I can see the students over all conduct and use it to figure out their conduct grade.

 Once I stuffed with the behavior policy I started on our first homework packet. Next week we are focusing exclusively on the letter Aa. I included my weekly newsletter (Peek at the Week), a memorization poem/song from Alphafriends that will help them with the short "a" sound, an Aa homework page, an Aa tracer page and some math pages provided through our math program's at-home workbook. It works out to about a page a night.

I've actually got all these files done and ready to be printed/copied for all 26 letters AND the four H brothers digraphs. Yay go me! I don't have to worry about homework for most of the year. I'll add and subtract from the packet as themes and ideas are covered in class or based on the season and/or holidays that are happening at any given time.

Welp now that all the prep for next week's homework is done, I'm off to search through my files for fun Aa crafts and writings for next week.

Hope to see you back!
Your TK teacher,
Nichole

Classroom Setup and Prep

Welp, it's a new year with a new classroom and a new set of expectations. With two years of kindergarten experience, the task of setting up a classroom and designing lessons for a TK (that's transitional kindergarten) class seems a bit daunting. TK, for those that aren't that familiar with the concept, is the first year of a two year kindergarten program that has been adopted and implemented here  in CA. There aren't really any standards and there is only a VAGUE idea of what should be covered since my kids will be going through a second year of kindergarten. Figuring  out what is developmentally appropriate for my kids, since they will be four, is a bit of a trick. 

I always start with a theme for my classroom, and this year I decided to play off the theme that the front office has going. They did a big bulletin board with the yellow brick road, emerald city, and complete with little Dorothy, Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow. A glittery red lettering reads: "There's no place like Preston."  Naturally, my little mind floated straight to my favorite song from that movie "Somewhere Over the Rainbow..." and BOOM...a theme was born.

"Our TK Place Over the Rainbow."

The design of my room was a bit tricky since I have so many cabinets built in (not complaining about that in the slightest!) but when I sat down and really thought about it, the layout and design happened fairly quickly. 

 The resource teacher was moving out of my room when I first showed up.

 The computer area, I call that my technology corner.

 ALL THE PAPER!!! Bulletin board wall pt 1

 Bulletin board wall pt 2

Front board

Having all the extra stuff in the room was a little disorienting but the RSP teacher was really sweet and was quick to get everything out as fast as possible. First thing first I needed to rip down all the paper. And there was A LOT of paper. 4 layers of paper. Three trashcans of paper...did I mention all the paper? Anywho...starting with a clean slate was the first step so I cleaned everything off the walls and took down everything hanging from the ceiling (I don't know if you can tell but there were some area labels hanging from the ceiling at random spaces in the classroom.)

Rainbows became a big thing for me. I figure the kids have to learn the colors anyway, why not have them ALL OVER THE ROOM! The boards were the first thing to go up. I made my word wall, and then started with my "teacher corner" and moved on to math, writing, art, science, sequencing and shapes.  

I found the CUTEST borders ever at CM school supply to accent all the colors going on in my room.

(I think it's adorable...but it's really plain to most people)

It took me 4 straight days of hanging paper, cutting paper, hanging borders and fiddling with everything before I liked JUST THE WALLS! Not to mention the desks and library area. I had a week to prep and set up my class and I'm pretty proud of how it came out. 

 Full classroom shot.

 Word wall and technology corner.

 Bulletin boards pt 1

 Bulletin boards pt 2 and library/calendar area

Classroom entrance.

I'm still missing some things that the district has on order  (like my kidney table and rug) but all in all I love the way it came out. Can't wait for my kiddos to come in and start learning. 

Off for another adventure,

Your TK Teacher