Math Stations

I run math stations in my classroom every day except for Late Start Wednesdays.  I have a total of six math stations that use the acronym BUILDS.  I found this idea on Pinterest and adapted it to fit kindergarten.  Here is what the letters stand for in my classroom:

B - Blocks
U - Using Manipulatives
I - Independent Work
L - Learning About Numbers
D - Doing Math
S - Solving Puzzles

Each student does every tub twice, to reinforce skills that we are working on.  They are in mixed ability groups to allow for questioning and help within each group, so they don't have to rely on me while I am doing Guided Math groups.

Here is a picture of my math station tubs, which are housed in an easily accessible shelf above my Literacy Station tubs:

Here are the activities for the first set of math stations.  They are pretty easy this rotation, so that I can monitor the students and explain expectations.

I - Looking at counting books.

L - Shapes with Geoboards 

U - Links

B - Foam Blocks

 D - Puzzles

I started the S tub with our second rotations, which we are doing now. Thanks for stopping by!

Literacy Stations

I run literacy workstations in my classroom starting on the first full week of school.  I use the first week to train the students on what is expected of them in each station.  I change out the materials every three weeks, to allow each student to do the workstation twice before the task changes in that station.  I run an 11 station rotation, with 2 students at each station.  My stations are:  Writing, Games, Browsing Box, ABC, Play-Doh, Computer, Pocket Chart, Work Work, I Pads, Library, and Listening.  I use Poetry as my 12th station if I need one.  The students visit 2 stations a day during my guided reading time.  I expect them to work quietly and cooperatively with their partner.  Here is a look at what our first set of rotations were:

This is my rotation board.  I move the student names down one rotation each day that we do stations.  I am currently using those green papers until I get the students placed into their guided reading groups.  Then I will use something a little nicer looking! If you would like my Literacy Station labels click here!

This is where my materials are housed for this rotation.  The students go get the bucket that corresponds with their station and then they take it to their designated area.

This first set of rotations was based off of activities that go with Chrysanthemum and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

This letter tile activity was my Writing Station for this rotation.  The other cards also had the student's picture beside it, but this student was absent the day we took picture.

 This activity was in the ABC workstation.  The lowercase letter is written on the white spoon and the uppercase letter on the clear spoon.  Their task was to match up all of the spoons.  Pinterest idea!

This was in the Pocket Chart Station.  They had to match up the picture to the name.  I realized after taking this that this is NOT the correct picture and name match-up ;)

This was in Play-Doh station.  I had alphabet cookie cutters in the station and they cut out and matched up the names.

The other stations don't really change the tasks.  Library, browsing box, and computer all stay the same.  I usually have Starfall.com on the computers for them to use.  Listening is the same with the exception that the stories change every three weeks when stations change.  I pick a different app every 3 weeks for the I Pad station. Games this rotation was an animal domino game.  Work work was sorting magnetic letters on an oil drip pan from Wal-Mart that I have Command stripped onto the big shelf in my room.

Thanks for reading!

Classroom Tour 2013-2014

Welcome to another school year! My new kinders have already been in school for 3 whole weeks. I decided to post pictures of my classroom to give ideas and insight into my OCDness when it comes to my classroom. I am a super organized person and expect my classroom to be as well. I have high expectations of my students and expect them to help keep the room organized and clean, so that it is functional to all that use it. This is especially important this year as I have the medically fragile students this year (two of which are highly allergic to a lot of things), so we disinfect multiple times a day! Hopefully this will help keep the germs to a minimum this year ;) All of the posters and things on my wall are all posted in my TPT store. I have to have everything matching, so it is just easier to create them myself.


Studen coat hooks.  The book boxes hold my books that I use for read-a-loud and also the seasonal books that I change out in my library.  The Sterilite containers hold files and station materials by month.  You can also see my FOSS science boxes and some of my snack storage.



General view from the middle of my room.  The colorful boxes are for the browing box station.  The empty slots in the shelves are their cubbies.  The cabinets to the right hold my reading, math, fine motor, and sensory supplies.  The letter circles on the bulletin board is the start to my word wall.



General look from the front left of my room.  Ignore my messy desk.  The small table is my writing station.



General view looking from the back left of my classroom by my recess door.



Pink tubs are math stations.  Green tubs are literacy stations.  The green baskets on top are for homework folders and class books.



Guided reading area.  The shelf to the left holds the blocks for math stations.  The shelf to the right holds all of my literacy and math station materials for the week.  Pink tubs are for math and green are for reading.  The tubs on top of the AC unit are for the materials that I use with each guided reading group.



Computer and listening stations

  


This is my reading/whole group area.  To the left are my puzzles that are used during math stations and the bookshelves hold my classroom library books.

 


The shelf with the sheet covers all of my classroom supplies ( Kleenex, wipes, paper, pencils, crayons, etc).  The baskets that aren't covered hold things we use often (dry erase markers, glue, and watercolors).  The rolling book cart in the middle holds all of my guided read books that go with our Lead 21 curriculum.  The cabinets with the birthdays on the back wall hold my art supplies and paper goods.

 I share 1/4 of my classroom with a self-contained special education room for our high needs kinders. That is what the big supply shelf and the dividers are separating. It is super helpful have SPED staff just on the other side of the room. Thanks for visiting.

Polka Dot Classroom Decor

It has been too long!!!  The birth of my son has been wonderful and has made my life vey busy, therefore, my blog has not seen any action.  But the time has come to change that!  I am going to try very hard to blog at least twice a week the happenings in my new kindergarten classroom.

As a teacher, one of the greatest sights is seeing things that I have created being printed, cut out, and laminated!  It is one of my obsessions.  Everything that I want to keep or have the kids use gets laminated.  Our laminator at school is very temperamental, so on the advice of one of my co-workers, I purchased my own and it has been WONDERFUL!  It actually laminates things a little thicker than the one at school, which makes flash cards and other things sturdier.  Here is a picture of the laminator that I purchased, along with the box of laminating film. The laminator was bought at Wal-Mart for under $30 and the pouches I got at Sam's Club for $20 .  Wal-Mart sells a 50 pack of these for $10, but since we have a Sam's Club membership it is more economical to get them there.

Here are some of the products that I have created this summer that coordinate with my Bright Polka Dot classroom décor.  I am a little OCD when it comes to school décor and like all of my things to match, so I started making my own things.  You can get any of my products by clicking on the pictures, which will take you to my TPT store.  I will post pictures this week of these things hanging up in my classroom, with my classroom tour once I can get back into my room this week.

These are color word posters for my kinders to learn their color words.  I chose not to put these on the polka dot backgrounds, in order to not confuse them.

These are number cards from 1-20 that I also hang up in my room.  There is pictorial representation using 10 Frames.



These are the cards that I use for my literacy station rotations.  I print off two sets of these, as the
students go to two stations a day.




I use these numbers to label my student cubbies.  You could use these for numerous things though...and since you made it to this post they are FREE!!!!

 

These are my alphabet posters which I will put on the table side of my room to help with ABC order, letter sound association, and spelling.



Be sure to check back next week to see these products in action in my classroom!

Dr. Seuss Weekly Activities

It's been another month and I apologize.  I am now 34 weeks pregnant and it is taking its toll.  I am trying to prep for a sub and a new baby all at the same time.  Here is what I am looking like now-a-days:

 

I wanted to give you all a peek into what we did over Dr. Seuss week last week.  As his birthday was Saturday, we celebrated all week long in preparation for this great author's birthday.  Some activities included: 

A special snack each day to go with a book. 
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish - colored goldfish
If I Ran the Zoo - animal crackers
Green Eggs and Ham - scrambled green eggs and ham cubes (of course ;)
The Cat in the Hat - Jello and whipped cream Thing 1 and Thing 2 cups that I made.  Here is a pic:

We also made 2 class books, one related to The Cat in the Hat where they wrote about what they would do on a rainy day and another one related to If I Ran the Zoo where they wrote about what animal they would be and why.  I compile these into class books that I rotate through until everyone has had it, then it goes into the classroom library.

We also made colored people with liquid watercolors to go with My Many Colored Days.  We then wrote a sentence stating which color we would be and how it makes us feel.  Here is how they turned out:

 

We also made Thing 1 or Thing 2 paintings.  These turned out sooo cute!

100th Day Fun!

On Monday we celebrated our 100th day of school.  It is hard to believe that we are already in February.  As my baby bump grows, it is amazing how my students respond to me with being helpful and better behavior (for the most part).  Here are some of the fun things we did for our 100th day celebration:

I asked each student to bring in 100 edible items to add to our special snack mix for the day.  It was an interesting mix of things for sure!  Here are 2 of my kiddos adding their baggie to the mix.   They loved this special snack and asked if we could do something like this again.

Eating our snack...

 I bought these 100th day posters that the students got to personalize.  They had a counting by 2's connect-the-dots, a list of things they have 100 or more of in their house, I wish I had 100 ...., and a 100 balloon pattern of their choosing.  They loved having free rein on this project and the posters turned out great, with every one being different.

Another thing that I always do is ask the students to bring in 100 small items to glue down onto a grid.  I then hung these collections up in the hallway (sorry, forgot to take a pic of this).

Some other things that we did were putting 100 small stickers onto a gumball machine to practice fine motor skills, a "If I had 100 dollars I would buy..." writing activities, and a number grid fill in to 100.  I always enjoy this special day of school and I think my firsties had a good time this year too!