Glue sponges!!

Hello!!

So we've been busily working through our year, getting used to classroom norms and routines. I've been POSITIVELY SWAMPED! I logged on to my blog to check how things were going with my redesign...and I realized, I hadn't posted since mid-August!! I'm horrible! 

I wanted to give a little update on some fun things we've been working on in my classroom and the wonderful tools that have helped with making that possible! Now, a good portion of my report card focuses on motor skills...and I've been doing {these} wonderful guided art lessons by TLC Lessons that I purchased (they are AMAZING) but...they require A LOT of glue so the construction paper sticks. My solution? GLUE SPONGES!! 

Now, I can just about HEAR you all saying, "But Nichole...what about glue sticks!? They're less messy, and easier to use!" and I completely agree...they are less messy and easier to use, but the glue sticks we get from our supply closet seem to be construction paper repellent. It takes A LOT of glue stick to make the construction paper pieces stick. Back to my solution: glue sponges. Last year I was able to use glue bottles, but I found my kids still used  a ton of glue no matter how I tried to remind them not to. I taught them "dot, dot, not a lot" and I told them that "we don't want to make our papers cry." Yet still, every time I did an art project I was wiping up glue off the tile in my classroom.

This year, my kiddos are younger, and in need of more time to grow and mature with our materials. I didn't want to waste a lot of glue while trying to teach them the different methods I'd used. I did a lot of research and decided to try out glue sponges. I already had these cute little orange containers that I bought at the dollar store (2 to a pack) that I used for "piggy banks" a couple years back!

I numbered them for my kiddos so they could keep track of their lids.

I went to the store by my house and found sponges on clearance! CLEARANCE! A pack of 4 for $1.35! Did I mention these were massive sponges that I was able to cut into quarters?? Yeah. So one pack of 4 got me 16 sponges! I bought another pack of 4 (smaller) sponges that I cut in half and viola! I had 24 sponges cut to just the right size for my little containers. 

These were the last few left that I didn't cut up.

Now I have to put a disclaimer out there...I didn't actually READ a lot of how-to's on how to make glue sponges...I just assumed toss a sponge in a container and cover with glue. WRONG! After I made a complete mess of the first one, I went back and did my homework. I found out that I'd skipped not one - but two crucial steps to help make glue sponges work! *Sigh* This is why you do your homework kids! 

So day 2...this was how I made my glue sponges. I started by taking my sponge pieces and dropping them all into my sink in my classroom. I filled the sink with a little bit of water just to dampen the sponges and get out any chemicals that might be in the sponges. Then I went to the containers and put a thin layer of glue along the bottom. I grabbed a sponge and wrung it out. You do not want a ton of water in your sponge because it will not soak up the glue! You just want it damp. I placed the sponge in the puddle of glue and then put another thin layer of glue on top of the sponge. I placed the lid on it and then walked away. I'm so glad I walked away. The next morning there was no glue in the container! It had all soaked up into the sponge. I put another layer of glue on top of the sponge and left it. The glue settled around the sponge and viola! My handy-dandy glue sponges! Here is the finished product!

 I love them! The kiddos just have to press down on the sponge and it deposits just the right amount of glue on the paper. There is no spilled glue, no wiping glue off the tiles! I did a little happy dance after our first art assignment when I noticed there were no crying papers!! 

One draw back is, I do have to fill them once a week, but I typically pour a little glue on top of the sponge on Friday afternoon before I go home for the weekend and then by Monday the glue has settled properly. It's just amazing! I don't think I can ever go back to glue bottles again. 

Did I mention that they're the perfect size for students to share? I put one down between two students and they can each use it! It's just perfect. It teaches the kids about taking turns and sharing, while also teaching them the appropriate amount of glue to use. Did I mention perfect? (I did...oh. Ok.)

Anyway, I hope some of you find this helpful and maybe you can make your own glue sponges for your kiddos! Always remember that every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

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

Top 5 Teacher Hacks

As a teacher I am constantly trying to streamline my day and make things easier. Managing a class while working with limited space and only so many resources can be a bit over whelming. Today I am going to blog about my top 5 teacher hacks that have made my teaching experience so much easier. 

1. Clear containers for construction paper

I know they're file containers but I use them for my construction paper. I can see exactly what I have!

Ok, so I don't know if this is so much a hack, as I discovered these awesome containers and I love them because I can store my 9x12 sheets of construction paper in them perfectly. I can see inside and know what colors I have, what I don't have, how much of each color etc. These babies have saved me so many times when I needed to quickly pull out some construction paper for a co-worker, project, or what ever I have planned. 

2. Salt/Pepper shakers for glitter

I filled them up about 1/3 of the way with a color of glitter. I have about 1 set of 8 per table. 

Now, I may be crazy for this one, but it actually works for me and my kiddos. Use at your own discretion! I found a bunch of small clear salt and pepper shakers at the dollar tree one visit and I snagged up as many as I could get my hands on. I bust these bad boys out on VERY special occasions so the kids can experience shaking and aiming their glitter on their glue. They have to share a color (I wasn't rich enough to get one set of 8 for each kid) between about 2-

3 kids. Now, I want to put out a disclaimer. I HAVE VERY RESPONSIBLE KIDDOS THIS YEAR! They have really gone above and beyond to show me they know how to take care of my things, their things, their supplies and the classroom. They know better than to waste glitter by dumping it on the floor, or dumping a whole lot onto their paper and then throwing the majority away. I trust them to use the glitter properly, and we use it so rarely that they know it is a treat. I have not had a problem with my kids this year...ask me again next year and it might be a completely different story.

3. Indoor drying rack

I use clothes pins to "attach" student work to the rack. SAVES SO MUCH COUNTER SPACE!

I cannot gush about this product enough. My sister-in-law bought me an inexpensive indoor clothes drying rack for Christmas and I have used it almost every single day in the classroom. It is a super easy way to have kids dry their work when working with paint or glue. Mine is collapsible, so I can easily collapse it and tuck it away in a cabinet or under a counter and then just as easily pull it out and set it up. It holds 22 8.5x11 pages easily with clothes pins, and depending on the size of the project can hold as many as 44 student work samples. It is light weight and I just love it. I no longer have to lose counter space (of which I have precious little). I have been working with my kiddos on how to use liquid glue properly and this has been a great tool. Before they didn't understand WHY a puddle wasn't ok, other than it was just a waste, now they can see that when they use too much glue their paper "cries" and some of the pieces fall off. It has really cut down on glue puddles and wasting glue. Also, I've had less messy hands because they are using the appropriate amount of glue instead of glopping it on all over the place. 

4. Gallon ziplocs

I label mine for the classroom Monday-Friday and then put my papers inside!

My team lead, and good friend, taught me this trick at the beginning of the year. She has little baskets that are about 9"x12" big (perfect for laying paper down flat in) and she uses one each week. I started out with a basket a day, but when you're planning 2+ weeks into the future it can get space consuming. To help get me prepped and ready for future lessons I turned to my friend and what she said CHANGED MY PREPPING LIFE! She takes a gallon ziploc bag and writes the day on it. One for each day and then stuffs all her prepped materials for the day into each bag. She then stacks the bags (Friday on bottom) into the basket. She can get 6 weeks of planning and prepping down to 6 baskets which takes up half of a cubby top for her! It is genius. I have been stock piling gallon ziplocs because I use them so much. She also showed me that I can prep out my guided art lessons and make a bag specifically for those that can be used year after year after year. Fill the bag with all your pieces and then restock as needed, the bag holds the extras so eventually you wont need to prep for that year/activity. Maybe I'm just behind on this trick but it really has changed my life. Because of this trick I was actually able to plan AND prep almost 6 weeks into the future, allowing me to focus on other things like my intervention groups. 

5. Colored stickers

I used smiley faces, stars, push pin and plain dot stickers to code my library.

Ok...this isn't so much a teacher hack as I just use these darn things for EVERYTHING. In particular, this year I have been having a hard time with my kiddos putting library books away in the correct areas. I'm mildly OCD and my library was the biggest expense to me to put together so I want my books to be taken care of and treated nicely. They also need to be put back rather than just tossed on a shelf. I started with the idea of just putting a colored dot inside the front cover, but that wasn't a visual enough cue for me to see without opening the book, whether or not it was in the correct place. I created color coded labels for my baskets (maybe one of my five should have been little dollar tree baskets) and then placed matching colored stickers on EVERY book that belonged in that basket. Now I have and organized library and I don't have to worry about going and rearranging every week. It's a beautiful thing. My kids kind of think of it as a game. They love to match the stickers to the color label and then show me what a good job they've done being responsible. This is especially helpful during our reader buddy time. Imagine 50 kids all trying to pick out and put books back...before my colored stickers it was a nightmare! Now, I have those 4th graders as well as my little TKs matching the stickers and taking care of our materials. It's a beautiful thing. I do still have the occasional student who doesn't care and just tosses a book where ever they feel like it, but between others "reminding" them about the stickers or others correcting the mistake on their own, I rarely have to do any super big reorganization of our library. 

These are my top 5 hacks so far. They have really worked for me to make my classroom function better or to help keep me more organized. I'm constantly looking for new hacks and creative ways to use products. Leave me a comment below to let me know if you have a hack that wasn't featured. I'd love to hear about them!

I hope everyone has been having a great time in your classrooms and homes. Always remember, every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

White boards DIY style!!

So, I requested whiteboards from my district, and they said they would order me a set but it would take a while for them to be processed and brought to me...and I wanted them NOW (I'm impatient) because I want to use them with my kids to really teach them number sense and ten frames.

Anywho, I decided to hit up my local hardware store (I am a die-hard Lowes girl personally) and I found a sheet of whiteboard material 32inx4ft for likee $12. (There was a larger sheet of 8ftx4ft for like $14 but it was recommended to me to get the smaller ones instead. To each their own.) 

This is the large sheet that I took a picture of

I bought 2 sheets of the whiteboard (the smaller sheets) and the lovely Lowes person, who stayed with me through the waffling and switching materials only to switch it back, carefully cut it down to the size I wanted. I went with 12inx10in squares and I got 24 our of the two sheets. If I had been thinking clearly I would have gotten the bigger sheet and gotten 12x12 squares but it was after a long day of teaching (and subbing during my prep hour for another teacher who was at a training) with very little coffee...and I was hungry, so I didn't go that route. 

Once cut the stuff collects dust like nobody's business so I used some swiffer dry cloths to collect the dust before I taped up the edges. I bought blue duct tape for the edges. You don't HAVE to tape the edges. I did because I thought it looked cuter and the edges of mine were a little frayed and dusty (and we all know how much of a perfectionist I am.) Duct tape now has neat patterns and colors and even TRIM ROLLS! Little rolls that are about half the thickness of regular duct tape that you can use for trim on decorative projects! Who would have guess?? I did not realize this was a thing...so don't laugh at my out-of-the-loop-ness.

I went with a nice solid blue of the regular thickness and, because of the quantity of my boards, went with the 20yd roll. I cut strips long enough for each side and then ripped it down the middle to "thin" it out. Twice the yardage for the same price! I'm all about saving the $$.

 

 

I worked on a TV tray for this project because I got to watch my favorite show with my husband and "craft"/diy at the same time. Plus the tray made a convenient place to stick my strips so I could quickly do a couple boards before I needed to cut and rip anymore. After I prepped the tape it was just a matter of sticking it to each side and folding it over the back. They're not 100% even, but they're going to a 4 year old...I think I can live with it (at least until Christmas when I can take them all home and do them again with a cuter tape and making the strips even.)

 

What I started with...

The final result.

This was a super easy, rather quick (aside from my indecisiveness it really only took me about an hour to an hour and a half to tape all of these up) and REALLY inexpensive project. I now have a class set of whiteboards for $25! Best part is: You can totally customize it how ever you want! Change the tape color, change the size. Make it work for you! 

P.S. This board will "ghost" so some windex or a magic eraser is perfect for cleaning it when it gets grungy. 

All in all I love the way they came out and I couldn't be happier about how easy it was on the wallet. I hope some of you find this helpful!

Always remember: Every moment can be A Learning Moment.

Sincerely,

Your TK teacher

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