Staying Organized!

Trying to stay organized as a teacher is a difficult task as you are teaching, creating lessons, creating journals and artwork with your students and using different materials as you teach. Figuring out where to store everything that you need in a classroom and having to deal with the storage that is available in the class is not easy task, in this post I will share with you some tips I have for staying organized! 

Below is an image of how I store portfolios that the students create all year long. At my school the for student portfolios are divided into six sections with three pieces of student work throughout the year to show the students progress. I use hanging folders that have been re-used year after year. I use a label marker to create a folder for every student in my class and as we create a portfolio piece I store the student's work in their assigned folder. 

Materials Needed

• Hanging folders
• Label Marker 

Below is an image of my "teacher" supplies including special markers, chalk, colored pencils and crayons. I keep these in my teacher cabinet for special projects that require fine motor skills and to ensure that the pencils are always sharpened, the markers are not dried out and the crayons and chalk and are not broken. I found these smaller caddy at Target in the dollar section! The dollar section in any store in a teachers best friend!

Below is a picture of the student caddies. We have four tables in my classroom and each caddy has an assigned table that the students are aware of and when we go a class project one student will get a caddy for their table. In each caddy there are markers, pencils, crayons and sometimes scissors. These caddies can be found on Amazon.  These caddies were passed down to me from the previous teacher, and they are perfect because they are plastic which makes them durable and easy to clean!

Below is an image of the students' markers that they use for coloring during free choice in the mornings and afternoons. My students are four years old and in the afternoons three year olds also come into my classroom, which makes putting caps on markers still a difficult task. The students have their own container of markers, which gives them a sense of responsibility, because they know that the teachers will not give me new markers if all of their markers are dried up. I started this at the beginning of the school year and thus far have only had to give them new markers twice! I recycle the markers from the student caddies shown above to the students' free choice markers below. 

 In the two below images this is how I organized all of the books used for different lessons. Before the books were in these same cabinets, but everywhere! I change the books in the students' library based on the theme of that week, so finding the right books before was not easy! I purchased these standing folders at Amazon though IKEA.  The containers are cheap, easy to assemble and the perfect size to fit into the cabinet with the doors shut! I used my favorite tool, the label marker, and organized the books based on their theme. Books that are too big to fit into the standing folder I put them next to the correct folder to help stay organized! Now changing out the books weekly is easy and it saves me time to do other things in the classroom.

As you can see we have a lot of books in my classroom and I wanted to make sure all of the books were being seen and used in my classroom. My students look forward to the new books that I put out every week. Just by organizing the books I am fostering life long readers!

How do you stay organized in your classroom?

Earth Day

                                               
To celebrate Earth Day we first discussed the meaning behind the holiday and the importance of treating the Earth with respect by using less water, recycling, picking up trash and planting trees and plants. We spent the week reading books such as the Lorax, Earth Day, Birthday!, The Three R's: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. 

We also conducted a science experiment that I found on Pinterest that demonstrates first hand how plants give clean water and plants help the Earth while garbage and dirt gives us dirty water.

The following items are needed for the experiment:

• seeds
• 3 milk jugs or cartons
• dirt
• 3 small water bottles
• garbage
• scissors 

Below are images of the students helping plant the carrots seeds. My students love science experiments and anything that involves getting dirty!

                                           

 In the three milk cartons different solutions go into each. One carton contains dirt and the seeds, the other just dirt and the third dirt with garbage and leaves.

Planting the carrots is also a great conversation starter to discuss what plants need to grow and the parts of the plants. My co-teacher and I turn Earth Day into two weeks of lessons by learning about Earth and conversation one week and then plants and seeds the next week. 

The below picture is the picture from Pinterest shows how the experiment after a few weeks of watering the plants. The students are able to see the difference in the color of the water and see that the water from the plant is clear, the leaf water is slightly brown and the water from the dirt is brown.

Wish me good luck that the experiment we started today turns out to be a Pinterest success like the image below and not a Pinterest fail!  

What activity, book or lesson did you teach to have your students learn about Earth Day? 

Baking For A Cause

My Pre-K students participated in a bake sale where they created fliers to advertise, baked the treats and sold the treats to raise money for children at Edwards Children's Hospital and the organization Helping Hands, which creates birthday bags for children that are in need. 

The money that was raised will buy toys for the children at Edwards Children's Hospital and the students will take a field trip the Helping Hands where they will help create the birthday bags. 

Below is a video documenting Baking For A Cause:

What community service projects have you done in your classroom?

Spring Books and Activities

For the teacher that cannot teach about Easter, myself included, this post is for you. The preschool I work at is private, however, the school is not affiliated with a religion so we do not teach about Easter. Many of my students are Christian or Catholic, so instead I focus on spring and egg activities. 

Below is a window that I created from activities from the students. The theme of the window is based around the book, "Whose Egg?" written by Lynette Evans and illustrated by Guy Troughton.  Each student created one of the animals that hatches from an egg in the book and wrote a journal about a fact about that animal. The students also measured the "animals" (plastic animals and Beanie Babies) from the story using small paper eggs. 

The animals from "Whose Egg?" that are in the below image are the following:

• A butterfly
• A platypus 
• An emu
• A plover
• A turtle 
• A snake 
• An alligator 
• A penguin 

The images above and below are a closer image of the either side of the window to see the eggs, animals and journals more closely. 

 Another book that I use around the spring/Easter season is "Whose Nest?" by the same author and illustrator that was described above. "Whose Nest" focuses on animals that build nests in different habitats. We discuss the habitats that the animals live in and the students work in partners for this board. One student creates the nest and the other students creates the animal that lives in the nest. Both students write a journal describing the nest or animals that they created.

Below is an image of the board that I created using the students' work.

The animals that are featured in the book, "Whose Nest" are as following: 

• A bumblebee
• A clownfish
• A rabbit
• A dormouse
• A humming bird
• A tree frog
• A gecko 
• An eagle 

The bird in the below image was created in our Technology class using the website Tagxedo.com. Tagxedo.com allows you to turn words into a world cloud. The technology teacher had the students think of any words that they know that are related to nests and eggs and she created a word cloud of a bird with all of the words that they thought. 

What Spring book(s) or activities do you use with your students?

Classroom Door Decorations

Every month or so the students create a piece or art work for the classroom door. Sometimes the door is themed for the season, lesson plan or what the students' interests are. My current class loves the song "Blue Bird, Blue Bird," which is a children's song that many teachers sing during circle time. However, my co-teacher changed the words slightly to the following:

Blue bird, blue bird, through my window

high diddle diddle day day day 

(Child's Name) pick a little partner

Tap them on the shoulder 

high diddle diddle day day day 

We sing the song every day during free choice when the students are allowed to pick the center that they want to go to in the afternoons. We pick the student that has been behaving the best that day to first pick a partner and then pick their center. We sing the song over and over until all of the students are at a center. My current class loves the song and asks to sing it multiple times during the day. So this month we decided to create blue bird for classroom door, which is shown below. 

Each student cut out their own blue bird and glued on the bird's feet, mouth and drew on its eyes. The students also wrote their last names on the birds. During the first half of the year the students write their first names to practice writing their first name in proper case. After winter break the students start writing their last names to learn how to write their full name in proper case. 

Below is an image of another door artwork where the students voted on their favorite character in a story and created the character to be displayed on the door. Some of the characters that the students chose were the following:

• Arthur from the popular series Arthur
• The cat from Cat and the Hat
• Pete from Pete the Cat 
• Olivia the pig from Olivia
• The man with the yellow hat from Curious George. 

The students wrote the name of the character and then their first and last name to practice writing most of the letters in the alphabet in proper case.

How do you integrate your students' interests into your classroom?

ParentShare

A great communication tool that we use at the preschool I work at is a new form of technology called ParentShare. ParentShare is a paperless solution to communicate with parents. At the preschool we use it to send pictures of the students daily in different activities for the parents to see first hand what their child or children are doing as school. Many parents have told me that they forward the emails to grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends! I have heard nothing by positive feedback about ParentShare. 

ParentShare is sent though an iPod that we are fortunate to have at the school and it is sent directly to the parents' email addresses that are on file. The teachers take the pictures that use an app on the iPod and create a message to send to all of the students or you can select certain students to send it to. 

Below is an example of a ParentShare that I sent of my co-teacher doing Character Education with the students where they are practicing using their atten-o-scopes that help them focus their attention. 

We use two puppets that are used in the whole school names Lola and Lenny that help the teacher act out different situations for the students.

How do you incorporate technology in your classroom?

Mother's Day and Father's Day Gifts

In the past I have done several different Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts; however, the gift that my class did last year was my favorite. The students were asked why they love their Mom and what they said word for word is what you see in the pictures. I did this for Mother's Day but you could easily do it for Father's Day. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest for Mother's Day and Father's Day. The letters are magnet letters and what the students are holding up is a dry erase board. The background is paper that are in huge rolls and the letters I cut out and glued to the paper. I asked the student why he or she loved his or her mom and then the student used inventive spelling to help spell the words. The students also used their knowledge of sight words to help them. Then I took pictures of each student and had the pictures developed at Walgreens.  Then the students decorated frames for their moms and we put magnets on the back of the frames. We gave the Moms their gifts at our annual Mother's Day Breakfast held at our school. The Moms loved them!

What have you given as Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts in your class?

Holiday Gifts for Parents

In my class this year for a holiday gift my co-teacher and I are having the students create paintings on a canvas to give to their parents. Luckily a family donated over 20 canvas for we have enough canvas for each student; however, if you are not as fortunate a good place to go for canvas is Michaels. Right now there is a sale going on 50% off canvas, 2 canvas for $4.49!  The canvas that are on sale are the same canvas that I am using in my own classroom. The students are given the choice of what painting they want to create for their parents. They are given the following 5 choices to pick from:

1. Christmas tree
2. Snowflake
3. Angel
4. Snowman
5. Gingerbread man 

Micheals even has its own blog that discusses various topics such as project ideas, tips, how to, and much more. 

The following images are ideas that I am using in my own class as well as other ideas that you could use for holiday gifts. The following images were all found on Pinterest. 

For my students I created stencils by tracing the image of a snowflake, angel, snowman, and gingerbread man all on their own piece of cardboard and then cut out the image. That way I can lay the stencil on top of the student's canvas and the student will paint inside the stencil so the child is painting independently with little help from the teacher! I want this gift to be child-done instead of the teacher creating a present for the child to give to their parent. If you do not want to create your own stencils any dollar story usually have holiday stencils around this time a year. My favorite dollar store is The Dollar Tree . Martha Steward also makes excellent stencils with different patterns, which can be purchased at Michaels, Walmart, and Jo-Ann Fabrics just to name a few.

What holiday gifts have you done in your classroom?

Star of the Week

During the first week of school we send home a letter, poster and schedule for "The Star of the Week." Star of the Week is something I do in my class which allows one student every week to be the "star." The child completes and decorated a poster that is all about him or her. Each day during the week that he or she is the star he or she brings in something about him or herself that allows the class to learn more about him or her. The schedule for what they bring is the following: 

• Monday: Family pictures 
• Tuesday: Favorite music 
• Wednesday: Favorite toy 
• Thursday: Favorite book 
• Friday: Favorite snack to share with the class

The below image shows the poster and how their poster is displayed in my classroom. His or her poster is returned during the second week of school and stored in the classroom until her or she is star of the week, and then returned to him or her to take home once he or she is no longer the star. 

Below is another image of a student's poster. As you can see the child is able to make the poster his or her own by how it is decorated. Completing the poster is encouraged to be a family project. 

 This image is a close-up of Ellamae's poster that is above. My favorite part is what Ellamae said she wanted to be when she grew up!

There are many different ideas for Star of the Week. In the past other teachers in my building have done Rockstar of the Week, Player of the Week and Special Person of the Week. My student love being Star of the Week and look forward to it until it is their turn.

After all of the students are the star my co-teacher and I are also the stars of the week. Then it is the parents turn! We have a sign up sheet for any parent that wants to be the star. The parent is given a poster in secret and fills out the poster without their child knowing. The parent fills out the poster and puts a picture of him or her when he or she was 4 years old. Each day the parent brings in the same items the children are suppose to and the children guess who's parent they think it is. The Star of the Week become the Mystery Star of the Week. On Friday, or whenever the parent is able to, he or she comes in and reveals him or herself to the class. The children love it and view it as a game! The children talk about it to their parents and then more parents sign up.

How have you extended your Star of the Week?

U.S. Presidents

Teaching students about current and past U.S. Presidents, even as young as Pre-K, is important for students to learn about U.S history, voting, roles, culture, and diversity. However, in my experience too many teachers, activities, and lesson plans focus on three Presidents, and three Presidents only: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the current president, which is Barrack Obama.  All three Presidents are extremely important to our history, but so are other presidents. I created the video below using iMovie to show be able to show students the face to the name. The video can be adapted for Pre-K classes as well as older students. 

The above images are from the official White House website. 

The following video along with other materials can be used to teach Pre-K students the following:

• How people have changed over time by comparing and contrasting the first president to the current president 
• Learning important events in U.S. history and the role the president played 
• Different leaderships roles that people play, such as student, principal, president, etc. 
• Voting as a means of making choices and the different ways in which one votes 
• U.S symbols and the meaning behind the American flag and Pledge of Allegiance  
• Coin identification 

Below are images of different resources to use when teaching about U.S. Presidents with links to each 

Above is an image of The New Big Book of U.S. Presidents: Fascinating Facts and Each and Every President 

Above is a bulletin board using silhouettes of the students and former U.S. Presidents. I found this idea on Pinterest. 

Above is an image of a Time for Kids Presidents of the United States in print and there are also resources online that teachers can use for flashcards and other resources. 

 Above is an image of an art activity that students could create based off of U.S. Presidents that could be used in dramatic play and other activities. This art activity is from Pinterest. 

 The above image could be used for coin identification by discussing the different Presidents that are on each coin and by making the coins into finger puppets the coins could also be used in dramatic play. A great technology resource to use to help with coin identification is the following: ABC Learning Coins

The above image could be used as a writing activity for students to write about what they would do if they were President. This writing activity could be adapted for different ages by changing the length of the writing. This worksheet is from another teachers blog, A Cupcake for the Teacher. 

What activities and resources have you used to teach about U.S. Presidents?