Bulletin Board - Diving Into Kindergarten

A new school year begins in a few days! I have left my old school and moved to a newer one. And by the looks of it, it seems absolutely fantastic! The administration is wonderful, my team is great, and my ECE partner is amazing! I went in everyday last week to clean and set-up my classroom. I will be doing another post on my set-up for this year. But I spent around an hour making the bulletin board and putting it together before the first day of school begins. I am teaching Kindergarten again this year and this is what the board looks like. And yes, the fish are 3-D!!!

Free Coloring Pages for Ramadan

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If you have not yet had a chance to read my posts about Ramadan, please click here. To find out more about Eid-ul-Fitr, please click here.

Ramadan is coming to an end and it will be celebrated with Eid-ul-Fitr. Use these free coloring pages to keep children and their artsy mind healthy. They have been provided by Crayola. You can print them off or you can color them online. Here is the link to all the coloring pages: http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/holidays/ramadan-at-sundown-coloring-pages/?page=1&count=48

Here are the pages if you would like to print them right away:

"Teacher's Hefty Salaries..."

I found this amazing post circling around few months ago and have no idea why I didn't share it. It is totally worth a read!

"Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That...would be $19.20 a day (7:45 to.....3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan -- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE...That's $585 x 180 = $105, 300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries). What about those special education teachers and the ones with the Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 x 6 1/2 hours x 30 children x 180 days = $280, 800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students = $9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student -- a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!

Heaven forbid we take into account highly qualified teachers or NCLB...

Make a teacher smile; re-post this to show appreciation!"

Online Reading Links

As teachnology is on a constant rise, children are spending more and more time with it. I am taking courses in my Masters about incorporaring technology not just in the classroom but also at home. Here are some links that children and families can access on their computers. I have yet to try them on tablets or iPads but they definitely work on the computer.

Tumble Books

Tumble Books has an online collection of e-books for children and families (focus on elementary schools).

Clifford Interactive Storybooks

Children have choices in parts of Clifford stories making it interactive and fun for kids.

Little Critter

Little Critter stories online.

Storyline Online

Screen Actors Guild Foundation (SAG) is  an online streaming video program featuring SAG members reading children’s books aloud.

Kids Yoga Adventures

I was covering planning time for another teacher this week and in her Kindergarten class, the children did Yoga watching these videos. I can't believe I didn't know about them earlier! There are many episodes that you can do on different days or even for the whole week if it matches your theme. They are great for indoor physical activity time (as they are about 15 minutes long) and keep the children busy! Here are some links with the themes for a quick search!

Ocean Adventure



Circus Adventure

An Australian Adventure

Arctic/Penguin Adventure

Polar Bear Adventure

Bee Adventure

Space Adventure

Faritytale Adventure

19 Storytelling Techniques

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I have been meaning to write a post about storytelling techniques for quite sometime. I have finally gotten a few minutes in my super busy schedule to come up with one! Here is a list of a few techniques I have used and some I haven't (but learned about them when I was doing my undergrad). Enjoy! Oh, and please post some other ideas that you know of or use in your classroom!

Felt Stories

Tell a story using felt! It allows for great visuals especially for books that may have patterns. An example of how I did a felt story can be found here: Silly Sally - Felt Storytelling Technique

Finger Puppets

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Using finger puppets are so engaging! Use them while you are reading or tell a story without the book. Works wonders each way! A fun story that I always like to do is The Three Little Pigs. 

Puppet Show

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Oh my! What a fantastic idea to create your own puppet theatre! Use one of those 3-panel presentation boards (they cost around 8 dollars from Staples)! Got this picture from Google images and has now inspired me to create my own puppet theatre!

Stick Puppets

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Tell a story with stick puppets. Just as much fun as any other technique! Remember, any of these techniques work with poems and songs as well!

Cut a Story

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As you read the story, cut out a shape that may represent the shape. For example, "The girl was waiting for a valentine to arrive"; You can cut the shape of a valentine as you tell the story.

Draw a Story

and

Create a Class Story

Okay, I LOVE using this technique. That is a story that I drew in my classroom this year on the whiteboard. It can also be done on chart paper and then posted in the room. I chose to do it on the whiteboard. My students actually came up with this whole story on their own. Each child was given the opportunity to create the story. We started in a circle. One student gave one sentence. And the next student gave the next sentence of the story. We came up with this class story. Then they went to the desks and drew a picture of what their creation of the story was. It also became a class storybook! 

Real Props

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This is one my most favourite stories! I have used this technique many times during my teaching experience. I used the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. I bought all the props (from the dollar store) needed from the story and put them in order of the story in the basket. As I read the story, I pulled out the item/prop and laid it in front of me. The kids love it and so do I!

Role Play

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Role play the story! You can add students as you go along. I did it with my students and they loved it! Caps for Sale is awesome to read! Grab a bunch of hats as props and you're good to go!!! Here we can build role playing and theatre skills!

Storybox Technique

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Fun way to have a few props in the box. An easy carry-with-you-anywhere box with all the things you need for the story. Check out my post Moosetache to find out how I did mine!

Musical Instruments

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Simple! Use musical instruments while you tell your story. Mortimer is a great one to use. Check out my post to learn more about how I used Mortimer in my classroom. 

Clothesline

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Get a strong clothesline. Buy some clothespins. Get pictures for the story (make from felt or photocopy the pages of the book and laminate them for forever-use). As you read the book, ask a child to put the corresponding item on the clothesline. This book is fantastic for it! 

Flashlight Fun

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Reading a story is SO much fun with the lights turned off and blinds shut. Make the room dark and turn on a flashlight!!! I love this technique. So much fun to do at any time of the day. Gives children a change and lets them know that reading can be done during the night as long as you have a flash light!!

Large Books

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Large books are great because the kids can see the pictures and words in a much bigger size! Awesome to listen to!

Other techniques can include: Singing chants during a story/song (We're going on a bear hunt), Physically participating (stamping feet, clapping hands), Use stuffed animals to tell a story, Word Cards/Pictures (when they hear a part of the story, they hold up their card/picture), and Hear and Respond (every time they hear a certain word, they must respond with an action/chant. Ex., "little frog" say ribbit ribbit or jump 3 times). 

Math Songs for Kindergarten, Preschool and Toddlers

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Using songs on the computer are great for children as they are both auditory and visual. It allows for children to see and hear at the same time and it helps build concept skills as they are given the opportunity to put two and two together. For example, if they only hear the song with numbers, they will learn them as rote and won't know what it means. With visuals, and with time and practise, they will learn one-to-one correspondence. Here are some math songs I use in my classroom daily as they are fun and very educational. You will find shapes, Numbers, Colors, and Patterns, all part of Math!

Also, check out my Phonics Song For Kindergarten post here.

Shapes Song

Shapes Song 2

Number Song (1-10)

Number Song 2 (1-10)

Big Number Song (1-100; Bigger Numbers)

5 Little Ducks

10 in the Bed

Butterfly Colors Song

Butterfly Colors Song 2

Train Colors Song

AAB Pattern Song