Language Arts Centers

So, I have been so busy creating and researching new center ideas for Language Arts.  I've never done centers, so I was very nervous about starting them this year.  I tried it for a week last year and I decided that whole group instruction was better at that time.  I had all last year to think about centers and this year I am so glad that I started!  I am loving centers and so are the students!  I feel that the students are getting so many more opportunities to practice new skills than any other instructional strategy would allow for.

I will post more pictures in a few but here are two centers that I just love!  The first one is our listening, I wasn't sure how I was going to get this center going since I didn't even have a CD player!  A few of my parents made generous donations which allowed me to make a purchase from Lakeshore.  I bought the CD player and the holder.  Then, on Pinterest I saw this idea to make a bench.  I am in LOVE with how it came out!  The students love it as well!!!

My next center was made from an oil drip pan!  I found this alphabet fabric in Seattle last year and it's just been sitting in my closet.  I had the brilliant idea to cover the drip pan with the fabric and students would use my magnetic letters and match them to the letters on the fabric.  So awesome!!!  

Walking Field Trip

On Friday, we had our walking Field Trip around town!  We look for all the shapes and colors that we have learned during the month of August and this field trip is a great reinforcer and a fun way to end our unit.  We walk a half a mile down to a park and once we get there we cool off with some juice and practice making shapes with our hands and bodies and then walk back up to school.  The students get so excited seeing the shapes, especially when I point out unusual ones to them!

Oscar Octagon and Arron Arrow

Tracey Trapozoid

Squire Square, Danny Diamond and Cera Circle

Ricky Rectangle

Helen Hexagon

Opal Oval

Danny Diamond

Arron Arrow

Chris Cross

Back to School Night

A month into school already and now it's Back to School Night, even though it only last for half an hour.  I had found some wonderful and very creative ideas on Pinterest this summer and I wanted to implment them into my Back to School Night this year.  The first idea I saw was this "When we Grow Up" collage, which I though was beyond adorable.  The original post was used with older students but I figured there was no reason why I couldn't implement the same idea with my Kindergartener's.  Especially, at this age they are so creative!  I was thrilled with the result, so I printed a 24x36 engineering poster (only $3.95!) down at Kinko's and I've hung the poster up, which will stay up for the rest of the year.

Another super cute idea I saw was when the student's had to draw a portrait of themselves and then the parents had to guess which illustration was their child's!

Parents had a chance to view their child's work that we have been working on all year!  We have been working on Brown Bear, Monster Colors, Shapes. and our Language Arts packet (which reinforces the color of the day that we learned).  At the end of the day, students draw the shape of the day in their journal.  They love making the shapes' silly faces!

As you can see, these are all of the shapes the student's learn during the month of August.  Each shapes comes with a rhyming poem and we learn the color that the shape is.  Students also dress in the color that we are learning.  

The last thing we did for open house, was our tissue paper art.  We will always make a project every month and hang it up on our Student Work Wall.  The art project the students do will always relate to the month, It's usually related to a holiday!  The pizza's are my rubric.  Since we don't give grades in Kindergarten, the pizza's are a great way to show the student's what quality work is and what is expected of them!

Shape and Color Flash Cards

Since August is almost over, so are our shape and color month long study.  I have these adorable shape and color printable flash cards that I found on mrprintables.com!  Super cute for review, I will be using them as an exit pass or when we stand in line for lunch I always quiz my kiddies and I will be using these flash cards :).  Download here:  Color Flashcards and Shape Flashcards

Color Wheel

Ok, we just finished our color wheels!  They were a little bit harder than I expected but, that's Kindergarten!  I found that using paint brushes was making the mixing process harder, so we switched to using our fingers!  They LOVED it!!!  Instead of making yellow red and red yellow, I just had the students mix the secondary colors in those boxes, which made the mixing process easier.  The students had so much fun and I will be hanging these up on the clothes line once they dry.  Here is the color wheel template freebie: Block Color Wheel Freebie or Flower Color Wheel Freebie

Parenting Your Strong Willed Child - Positive Discipline

I was on FB and saw this great article about how to parent strong willed children through the use of positive disciplince.  Even though I don't have any children there are some great tips in here that can help you manage some of those strong minded children that are in your classroom!  Positive Discipline 

Geoboard Shape Fun!

In the month of August, students learn the shape and color of the day.  Since some of the shapes are difficult for the students to draw, like a octagon or hexagon, I gave students geobaords to practice with. Some of the other shapes, like a rectangle or a triangle are much easier to master and they enjoyed making these shapes together.  I wish I had enough sets for each student to have their own, but they enjoyed working in small group, helping each other.  Tomorrow, we are making the color wheel, so that post should be up during the weekend!