Back to School Bash with the Primary Pack!!!

Hey Friends! I don't know about you but back to school time has me exhausted!! I really hope this blog hop gives you all kinds of great ideas that keep you from being a little less exhausted during this exciting time of year!

Our hop is a 3…2…1… BACK TO SCHOOL BASH because each member of The Primary Pack will be giving you 3 teacher tips, 2 giveaways (one on each of our blogs and one BIG one on the Primary Pack), and 1 freebie!

To enter our BIG giveaway, you need to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK first! As you "hop" through each of our blogs, you will collect a letter from each of us… 28 total. Those letters spell out a secret code that you need to enter our BIG giveaway! You will use the secret code to enter the rafflecoptor on The Primary Pack at the end of the hop.

You need to collect the letters from us IN ORDER, so please make sure that you start from the beginning of our hop. Click on the button below to head over to THE PRIMARY PACK and start our BACK TO SCHOOL BASH!!

I LOVE THESE TRASH CANS! Seriously these are such a great tool to have at each table. It cuts down on the amount of students out of there seat as well as helps with recycling. In my opinion that is a win win for everyone!

I can't take full credit for this tip, my fellow Primary Pack friend Amy at Learning Lessons with Mrs. Labrasciano blogged about this system and it has changed my back to school hustle! This is called the  CISS system and I ordered it off Amazon. It's seriously like the color ink cartridge that never ends. I got it last summer and am just now running out of black! The refill bottles were only 15 dollars and the system itself was only $50! GAME CHANGER!!

Not only do I just love this beautiful bulletin board but it's so functional as well!! This is where I write all my objectives for the day. I bought the picture frames at the dollar store, inserted colored paper and added headings. I can easily write with an expo marker and erase. SO CONVENIENT!!

My favorite part of this blog hop is the grand prize!! I have a Cameo and I absolutely love it! I made several bulletin board headings with it this year and some vinyl too! All you need to do is collect all our letters at the bottom of our blog post IN ORDER (so make sure you start from The Primary Pack) and enter them into the giveaway!! 

In addition to that fabulous grand prize I have an additional giveaway for my Meet the Teacher Station Signs. These signs have made my Meet the Teacher night so much easier and I'm hoping to blog about it very soon!! Good Luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

These are VERY popular at my meet the teacher night. My parents LOVE that they have my information right on the fridge and I LOVE that it has a QR code to my Remind account! Click the picture to download your freebie!

Thanks for "hopping" by! Now it's time for you to get some fabulous ideas from KteacherTiff and don't forget to write down my letter!! Have a great year!!

Back 2 School Linky - Week 2 Assessment

I'm so excited to link up again this week with Miss. V's Busy Bees and Mrs. D's Corner for the Back 2 School Linky - Week 2. This week's topic is ASSESSMENT!

I don't know about you but I have a serious love-hate relationship with assessments. It could have a little something to do with the fact that I teach Kindergarten and assessments take forever. Like at least the first month of school. Seriously. However, I do believe the benefits of assessment out way the downfalls.

There are so many ways that we as teachers assess our students. From district assessments to informal observations the list can go on and on. But what about self assessment?

If you think about your experience in college I'm sure you were always given a rubric of how you would be graded on an assignment. It is very important that we provide these rubrics for all students no matter the age.

I've always provided my students with a rubric of what I expected from them in a verbal conversation. I'd say about 50 percent of my students actually complied and produce the expected level of work. Until my ridiculously talented friend Amy over at Learning Lesson's with Mrs. Labrasciano showed me an even better way to provide these rubrics for each lesson!

Each and every lesson. What?!? Yes it's true. Okay here's the scoop!

Basically our report card for students is broken into Above Level-On Level-Below Level with separate ratings of Excellent-Satisfactory-Needs Improvement-Unsatisfactory. Amy had a poster in her room with 4 sections labeled E,S,N and U. Then before students began on any assignment she would fill in the rubric poster with expectations for earning each grade. That's not even the best part...she didn't come up with the grading by herself! She coached her students to be able to give their own grading system!!

Amazing. Simply Amazing.

So I modified her idea for kindergarten and came up with a color coded system that also has non-verbal cues! Here's what the poster looks like:

You can click the picture to grab your freebie :)

Let's say you just gave your class a mini lesson on using transition words in their writing piece. Before they begin writing you could fill out this chart with the following:

This not only gives your students exactly what your looking for but those lazy "non-overachiever" students the push they need to show off their amazing capabilities. I also allow my students to write their self assessment color on their work!

If you like this idea you can find your free copy here! Once you download it all you need to do is print and laminate. I use an expo marker to fill it in and then a Magic Eraser to start over. 

See you next week for my favorite....Classroom DECORATION! Yay!!

Back to School Linky - Behavior Management

Another linky...I'm so excited! Even though it is a BIG wake up call that I have a lot to do before school starts in 4 weeks. I can't wait to read everyone's wonderful ideas for back to school!

This week's topic is behavior management. We sometimes have a love/hate relationship with this! My passion for management is because children THRIVE in a structured and positive learning environment. I've had my fair share of "behavior children" and honestly have learned so much! One student in particular started the year hissing and grunting under my guided reading table during a shared reading lesson. However ended the year making significant gains in behavior and some in academics as well. He did need an extra year to master the standards and we both agreed to share another year of fun and learning together. This is what we teach for right?!?! Making a difference in our students life's!!

My first tip involves popcorn! Who doesn't love popcorn?!?!

What you need:

Two popcorn bins from the dollar store.

A large ladle from the dollar store.

Some popcorn kernels from ANYWHERE!

How it works:

Anytime the class is working together or anything positive you can give them a scoop or two or kernels. The opposite goes for negative behaviors. You can dip the ladle in just to make some noise and BAM watch the class grow quiet! It's magical. When you fill up the empty bucket the class earns a popcorn party. MMMMM

Behavior Signs are another way to encourage positive praise in the classroom. Like most classrooms I do use the color clip system and LOVE it. My highest color is pink so I made these fun signs to put on the students desk for the day IF they reach the color pink. I love that it gives extra attention to that student for the day. My favorite is when a visitor enters the classroom and can easily praise the student for earning the pink! Here's what the sign looks like:

You can read more about these on this blog post. Even better... you can grab your freebie here!!

See you next week to talk about assessment!

Bright Tip Tuesday #4 & #5

Well apparently I forgot my Bright Tip last week....oops! I hope you will forgive me! I'm going to share 2 tips on this post as a way to make it up to you guys!

The first tip is all about STUDENT organization. In my class I have a few puzzles to use with my students for developmental centers and even as a reward. Sometimes my students would play with several puzzles at a time and when cleaning time arrived...well let's just say it was "puzzling"! All the pieces were mixed together. I decided to label my puzzles with a shape and put the matching shape on the back of each puzzle piece. WOW! This made quite the difference and it even got a little extra sorting practice in!!! The best part of this tip is it can be used for ANYTHING! I use it on my reading and math game pieces as well. Here is an example:

The next tip is all about TEACHER organization. I don't know about you but I use a lot of anchor charts and some of them are laminated so I can re-use them each year. Sometimes I even make a chart with my students and tell them I had to publish it overnight...then I bring out the pretty one. Clearly this is not every chart though. Kid made charts are a must!! 

Anyways onto the tip...all you need is a toilet paper roll! I roll the charts up and slide them into the toilet paper roll. It keeps them perfectly rolled and organized!! I then label the roll with the name of the chart. If we want to get super organized you can even color code your subjects!

Then you can throw them in a tall plastic laundry or trash bucket. Viola! Organized anchor charts!! Decorating my bucket is on my Monday Made It list this summer so stay tuned!!

Chat with you soon friends!!

Wordless Wednesday

Well even though I'm on a fabulous mini vacation with my family I've decided to join a super fun linky party! It's my first time linking up with Miss Decarbo at Sugar and Spice. 

Vacation with a 2 year old and 5 month old is no joke. As exhausting as it can be it's actually in many ways better than vacationing just the 2 of us. Everything is way more exciting in the eyes of children.

For example: throwing a sticky hand toy from Dave & busters at the wall for 30 minutes desperately trying to delay bedtime!!! Who am I kidding...that was actually just as fun for me too! 

Anyways the point to this ramble (and there is a point) is that the one down fall of vacation with little ones is early bedtimes. We can stretch her to about 8:30 before the tantrum monster erupts...and we do not want that eruption around here. So my husband and I are stuck in a dark hotel room with nothing to do! Which is why I am forced (that's what I tell my husband) to join this Linky Party! See the ramble was justified...but this post is becoming very far from "wordless"! Oops!

Keeping on the vacation theme the picture I'm sharing with all of your is my little girls unpacked suitcase. This is also going to be a part of my Bright Tip Tuesday!!

In the picture you can see I put an entire outfit (bows, panties, socks included) into a ziplock. This is AMAZING! So amazing that even daddy could dress the girls and they didn't come out wearing mismatched clothes and no bow! 

So my question to all you wonderful teachers (and mommys) is "what's your Bright Tip for traveling with little ones?"

Bright Tip Tuesday #3

Whoa! Two posts in one day...it's getting crazy around here!

This weeks Bright Tip includes another freebie! As a Kindergarten teacher I always start the year off with students who can't write their name. This is a very important skill in the classroom & I wanted a simple way for all students to practice. I decided to make a student sign-in sheet and include this in my students morning routine.

I change this activity every nine weeks. The changes are as follows:

1st nine weeks: Students will only practice their first name. I start by allowing them to trace on top of their name that I have typed.

2nd nine weeks: Students will write their first name next to the name I typed.

3rd nine weeks: Students will write their first and last name after the name I typed.

4th nine weeks: Student will use a blank sheet to write their first and last name by themselves!!

I use the vertical sheet for the 1st and 2nd nine weeks.

I use the horizontal sheet for the 3rd and 4th nine weeks.

All you need to do is insert a text box to type in your class list! I copy these front to back to save on paper & attach them to a clipboard. I also choose a handwriting winner each day! You could even slide the copies into a clear plastic sleeve and use expo markers!


Enjoy :)

Bright Tip Tuesday #2

Hello again! I'm back with a super easy quick tip. This tip requires no money and very little time but comes with some hand slapping fun!! I'm talking about "high-fives".

I use these to help my students learn all kinds of things. I'd say we use them more often to help with sight words but since I'm teaching VPK this summer I've made them to help with name recognition first.

Once they master those "high fives" I will change them to our weekly letters and sounds. 

The idea of this trick is simple. On the way out the door all students must "high five" a hand and say what is written on it. Sometimes I ask them to slap them all, sometimes only one. It really just depends on how much time we have to get out the door!!

The reason I love this activity so very much is because I've seen it work. Children love high fives and they learn quick from repetition! 

Now for a little giveaway. All you have to do is enter below for your chance to win the Alphabet "High-Fives"!

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you can find at least one way to use these in your rooms! The possibilities are endless!!!

High-five friends! 

Bright Tip Tuesday

So my favorite thing to find on Pinterest and teacher blogs has always been clever tricks. I like things that make life a little less hectic in the classroom. I've decided to share some of the ideas I use in my own classroom. I mean doesn't everyone want to make life easier??

I'd say my favorite tip so far is actually the easiest. We as teachers are ALWAYS receiving things from others. Sometimes they are physical items and other times just nice gestures. I also know that I really like LOVE little notes from people. That's when I decided to create an easy go to thank you card that I can grab and send away.

The best part is you can use these too! This is my first freebie EVER so please leave feedback so I can learn from the best!

Click the picture below to download your own copy.