Back to School Books Linky Party

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin for the Back to School Books Linky Party.

I love back to school books!  Below are a few of my favorites that I look forward to each year.  All book links take you to The Clever School Teacher website.

Jake Starts School by Michael Wright: Jake is a bit nervous to start kindergarten.  He does not want to his parents to leave...until his teacher finds something he can relate to.  The illustrations make this book humorous, and many children can relate to being nervous about starting school.

The New Girl...and Me by Jacqui Robbins: I love the illustrations in this book!  When a new girl starts school, making a connection and becoming friends can be difficult.  Find out how Shakeeta, the new girl, finds a friend in Mia.

Pete the Cat (Pete the Cat: Rocking My School Shoes) by Eric Litwin: Pete will, of course, be making an appearance at the beginning of my school year. I use the original "Pete the Cat" book in the first day or 2 of school to introduce my students to Pete.  They beg for him daily for the first few weeks (and beyond).   I love "Rocking My School Shoes" to discuss different places in our building (goes well with your building tour).

What are some of your favorite back to school books?  I'm always looking for new books to add to my collection!

Where I Teach Wednesday

Today we had "entry conferences" where we meet with each new kindergarten child and his/her parents.  Conferences last 20 minutes and went from 8:00am-7:00pm (with a couple breaks).  While we meet with parents, children are being screened and having hearing/vision tested.  The kids start tomorrow!

I'm continuing Teacher Week and linking up with Blog Hoppin for "Where I Teach Wednesday".

I teach in a preschool and kindergarten building.  We have 7 half day preschool classes (14 kids per room per session) and 12 kindergarten classes (averaging 20-22 kids per room).  It is a busy place!  I snapped a few pictures of my classroom before I hurried out at 7:00 tonight!

This is near my classroom door looking into the room.  You can see the bulletin board, writing and art tables, library,  and SMARTboard/large group area.

My classroom door is to the left.  Please excuse the supplies on the tables; I was sorting them as they came in.  

This is looking back to the side of the room with the door.  You can see my dramatic play center, small group table and word wall.

I hope to have more pictures of my classroom soon.  Tomorrow is our first day with students.  Looking forward to getting the year started and getting into a routine.  We are starting a new curriculum this year, so many changes are happening!  

What kind of building do you teach in?

Tech Tip Tuesday {Teacher Week}

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Tech Tip Tuesday, part of Teacher Week.  Last year, our building received a set of iPads through a grant with a local university.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on those iPads!  I had 2 gifted readers, so as enrichment, we used the app "Zapd".  You can easily create a website using this app.  My boys did research on penguins using some nonfiction books I had in our room.  They wrote out their penguin facts on paper for me to review.  After writing the facts out on paper, they typed them into Zapd, and with my supervision and guidance, found images on Google images to go with their research.  They LOVED it!  Here is a link to one of their Zapd sites.

Another app we love is Bugs and Buttons.  I paid $2.99 for it, but it is well worth it!  Awesome graphics, games that work on fine motor as well as academic skills and a little something to interest everyone.

My students also each maintained their own blog.  We used Weebly to accomplish this.  As you can imagine, this is not something that was done independently for quite some time in kindergarten!  When beginning in October, students dictated what they wanted to write to a college student volunteer as the volunteer typed it on the iPad.  In January, I began writing out (on a white board) what students dictated, and they independently typed it into their blogs.  By the end of April, they typed completely independently.  I did help with spelling if it was something that their audience wouldn't be able to figure out.  This was done in groups of no more than 5, depending on how many iPads I had in my room that day.  We blogged about 2 times per week.  Parents enjoyed accessing their child's blog, and the kids loved sharing.

What is your favorite tech tip?

Must Have Monday (Teacher Week)

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin'  Teacher Week!  

Here are my must-haves for this year:

I reorganized my classroom library and used A LOT of this!

This is one of my new favorite craft materials!

I love my Macbook.  A must in my world!

My SMARTboard...we use this amazing piece of equipment most of the day!

HeidiSongs DVDs...if you teach Kindergarten and have never seen these, YOU ARE MISSING OUT!  My students (and I) love these.  We have the sight words, numbers and sounds DVDs.  They are worth every penny I spent on them!

Lakeshore CD-Rom games.  I have many of these, and they are awesome.  The newer ones even keep data for you.  We use them on the SMARTboard, but you can also load them on individual comptuers.

This isn't my actual car (no palm trees here) but it looks like it.  I am commuting 64 miles one way this year, so my car (in good working order) will be a necessity!  

Back to School Sale

Two of my wonderful friends surprised me for an awesome birthday day today :)  Shopping, lunch and pedicures.  New fun items for school purchased during a trip to Lakeshore, Joann Fabrics and the Container Store.  Another post to come on that.

Tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday TpT is having a Back to School sale!  My store will be 20% off with an addition 8% thanks to TpT using the code BTS12.  You can view my store by clicking here.  Have a great Sunday!

Pete the Cat

Are you familiar with Pete the Cat?  We LOVE Pete the Cat books in my classroom.  While doing my weekly blog stalking on Monday Made It (thanks Tara at 4th Grade Folics!), I found this awesome Pete the Cat packet at Krazee 4 Kindergarten!  I plan to use the School Shoes book during the first week of school, so I am excited to have this packet to go along with that book.  If you don't have Pete the Cat, check out this You Tube link to see the author read the story to a group of kids!

Lab Journals

Our new curriculum, Success for All (SFA), calls centers "labs".  Each day before lab time, students are to write about what they are going to do during lab time; they need to make a written plan.  It was suggested that we give children a 1/2 sheet of paper to complete the writing, and that we collect them periodically to track progress in writing.

I don't know about you, but keeping paperwork organized is not necessarily a strength of mine, and I didn't think having 1/2 sheets of paper floating around was going to help that!  Then I saw an idea...on another blog of course!  It was a "Monday Made It" on EmilyStuff.

You begin with a composition book and cut it in half.  I took mine to Office Max and they cut 12 for $4 (making 24 journals).  I then took my new favorite craft material, colored duck tape, and got to work.  I LOVE my finished product.

Because I teach kindergarten, it isn't likely that the kids will write on the lines, but this is not the expectation, just to give them an organized place to write. If you are up close, you can see a little bit of the composition book pattern through the white circles, but not from a distance.  I just need to add a little label and they are ready to go.