Sharing is Caring Sunday ~ Spring Freebie!!

Thank you for visiting on Sharing is Caring Sunday!! I am enjoying this wonderful Spring-like weather here in NE Georgia, so I thought it only necessary to share a new item I made as this week's FREEBIE:

{Click on the image for the FREEBIE}

{#s 10 -20 in the FREEBIE}

Come back each Sunday for a different FREEBIE!! :)

Tech Signs for Managing BYOT

I am SUPER excited that myself, along with one other 5th grade colleague, are about to embark on the BYOT journey! Our HS and MS just began this year, and we are using a county-wide user agreement (so all of that tough paperwork is mostly taken care of - phew)! In the past few years, I have slowly integrated tech more and more... Now that we are the 'pilots' at our school, I am hoping that others will jump on board. A little team (5 folks) from our school visited a wonderful school system that has been implementing BYOT for a little while. If you have not looked through the resources at Forsyth County's website, you are missing out - take a look:

In preparation for the upcoming adventure, I have been thinking a lot about how to manage SO many devices. I will of course model, model, model procedures, as I do at the beginning of the year. One way I will manage the devices are by using signs/posters. The posters I created below immediately show students whether or not they will need their devices for instruction/etc. on any given day. They simply look for the sign and comply. The turtle sign is something that I tweaked a little from a response on the Cornerstone site. When I taught Kindergarten, I had students come in and have "Turtle Time" (invented by Bobbie Starcher - my wonderful mentor teacher), which they put their heads down for a bit while everyone had a turn for water. Well, it made me think of turning the devices over where I can only see their 'shells.' When the turtle time sign is presented with a "Turtle Time" from the teacher, students must turn devices over and give attention to the teacher (kind of like an attention getter saying - 1, 2, 3, eyes on me... ). Hope these work out for YOU!! 

You can get these here!

End of the Year Booklet

We have only 14 days of school left, so I figured my kiddos could do one of these pages each day (8 pages in total) during writing time. We finished our last unit a week ago, so we are just refining our writing skills right now. TRYING our best to follow ALL the star sentence parts... (O_o)

You can get these here!

How many days do you have????

Fave Classroom Spots

I am a little late joining this link up, but better late than never... right?

 

The topic this week is to show off my 3 favorite places in my classroom (my home away from home). I am bittersweet, as I am leaving this room to head to 5th grade next year. The BEST spot is my window (as I get to see the front entry of the school and know what is going on at all times). Other than that, here are my faves:

My self that stores ALL my read alouds, where students cannot dig into them. I have them categorized, so that it is simple to find what I need!!!

 

Next, I am IN LOVE with my easel. Many folks do not care for the larger easels, but this one has been great for storage AND I have a place to write on charts & on the white board section at the same time - GREAT for setting criteria and transferring the information quickly! In addition, I can keep literacy on one side, and my Number Talk (math) on the other! No need to switch everything out each day.

 

 

 

 

I will have to find some NEW favorite spots next year when I move to 5th! :)

Last days in Kindergarten... what are we up to?

Well, today is 18 more days left of school!! Yay! I sure will miss my kindergarten sweeties when I am in 5th next year, but I know I will make positive relationships with the older students as well:)

In honor of counting down the days, we are popping a balloon with a special activity:

18 - inside manipulative play time (instead of small group work in the AM)
17 - sidewalk chalk (afternoon)
16 - sit anywhere
15 - no shoes in class
14 - ice cream cones (yummy)
13 - listen to music during small group work time
12 - chew gum
11 - use markers instead of pencils to complete work (this is a BIG deal to them...lol)
10 - sidewalk chalk (during small group time)
9 - Tour 1st grade classroom & ask questions
8 - inside manipulative play time (instead of small group work in the AM)
7 - free drawing time (AM)
6 - game day (all day) - they enjoy games like: 4 corners, up & down game, heads up 7 up, doggie where's your bone?, etc.
5 - make paper airplane & have an airplane flying contest
4 - FIELD DAY - all day games outdoors
3 - movie & popcorn
2 - draw & listen to music
1 - play "minute to win it" games (see some here: Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits)
LAST DAY - Fun day at local state park!!!

 

 

We just finished our 'How to..' writing unit. We enjoyed some time flying kites and writing about the steps to fly a kite:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are looking forward to our upcoming field trip (downtown) to visit our local library, police station, and radio station!!

Sight Words with a Tech Twist

Some have asked about my Sight Word sheets, but I have taken them off and created a new sheet that connects with technology. There is one worksheet, but it can be used for the first 100 Fry Words using the Fry Words Alligator App.

You can get these here!