"Groundhog Day" and Name Mats

Well folks, I am here to tell you that I survived the first week of school!! Now granted the first week at my school is not really the "first week" and is more like the movie Groundhog Day come to life.

If you haven't seen the cinematic classic starring the legend Bill Murray, Groundhog Day the movie is about a news reporter who is sent to cover Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. While there, some sort of curse is somehow placed upon him and he relives Groundhog Day OVER AND OVER AGAIN. 

Well my first week of school always reminds me of this movie because we do what we call Staggered Start. For Staggered Start, a third of the class comes each day, essentially equating to 3 first days of school for the teacher.  I honestly love this way of starting school because it allows me to begin teaching routines to a smaller number of children and I think it also helps ease the first day jitters for the little ones when there is such a small group. BUT, it does walk against the fine line of insanity doing the same thing 3 days in a row, LOL. 

On Monday, my entire class will attend school for the first time together. Hopefully I will live to tell you the tale of how that day went. I'll keep you posted!

ON ANOTHER NOTE, I want to share with you one of the most useful things I use in my classroom-NAME MATS

A name mat includes the student's name and a small version of the ABC chart that we use in the classroom on a daily basis. To make, I tape the name plate and ABC chart to a piece of construction paper and then send them through the laminator. EASY PEASY!

Here's WHY I love these--

1. They are PORTABLE--Unlike your traditional name plate that is taped down to the desk, these can be easily picked up and moved should you need to reassign seats. 

2. They are EASY TO STORE--when my students are not using these to help them with spelling their name or referencing letters, these babies get tucked into their desk which frees up the table top and allows for a clean space. 

3. They are 1 ON 1 REFERENCE CHARTS--While I love reference charts and anchor charts as much as the next teacher, sometimes having just ONE of something isn't enough to be helpful for all of the students all of the time.  Name mats allow for each student to have the ABC chart as a reference whenever they need it, wherever they are in the room.  

4. They are VERSATILE--As the school year progresses, I will create new mats to add new reference charts OR I will keep the same mat and add another chart to the back and resend it through the laminator. For example, as we continue to learn new words and add them to our class word wall, I will attach a mini word wall to the back of the name mats and send it through the laminator again. OR when students are working to learn their last names, I will make an entire new mat that features the spelling of their last names. 

5. They are EASY TO MAKE--Lastly, I love these because they are so simple to make and always prove to be such a great resource for my students. I observe my students on a daily-basis pull these out on their own and use them to help themselves--TEACHER WIN!

How would you use name mats in your classroom? 

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Never So We Can Always Avoid INDOOR RECESS!

We've had a handful of dreary days here in my neck of the woods and it got me thinking about the dreaded *whispers* indoor recess! *whispers*

Every year during the first week of school, I cross my fingers each day that we avoid the FIRST DAY of indoor recess just for one more day! Eventually that luck runs out though and indoor recess becomes a reality. The day WILL COME when you hear over the announcements "Excuse the interruption. Recess will be indoors today. Thank you." 

Since indoor recess is ultimately unavoidable, it is good to have a plan in place for how you want to manage it. When I was a first year teacher, there were so many parts of teaching that I didn't know I needed to plan for and this was definitely one of them! I can still remember my first day of indoor recess during my first year of teaching---I sat out all the recess choices while the kids were at lunch and when they returned for recess, I let them freely move about and choose what to play with--I gave no introduction, no explanations, no expectations---so to sum this one up I HAD NO CONTROL! 

I can laugh about it now but seriously, what was I thinking?!?!!!!

I definitely had to go back and do damage control the next time we had indoor recess because my kindergarten classroom resembled a zoo with animals gone wild with my what we'll call "laid back" approach of the day prior. LOL!

Now that I've learned my lesson, I always plan for a day when we will "practice" indoor recess. I go over all the choices with the students and explain how to use them. I make the rule that they can freely move about the choices but no more than 5 students can be playing at each choice at a time. We also practice how to clean up indoor recess and what to do when we finish cleaning up. 

Now some of you may be reading this and thinking "Uhhh this is common sense??? Doesn't everyone do this???"  and I agree, it now seems like such an OBVIOUS thing to do. However during the stress of my first year and the MILLION other things racing through my mind, the logistics of indoor recess completely escaped me. 

Another difficult aspect of indoor recess is finding the materials to operate it. Let me tell you, my first few years of teaching left me BROKE AS A JOKE and purchasing materials for indoor recess was at the VERY BOTTOM of my "to-purchase" list.  So my indoor recess choices were less than thrilling to say the least for a very long time. 

I FINALLY have a decent collection of things for the kids to play with. I recommend the following places for building your indoor recess collection:

1. YARD SALES!-- Yard sales are the holy grail for finding cheap toys
2. Buy-Sell-Trade groups on Facebook-Join a local group and search for toys, I found  an ENTIRE rubbermaid of dinosaurs for just $10 last summer
3. Friends/Family--As my niece outgrew her toys, my sister kindly handed them off to me
4. Christmas Sales--During Christmas time, stores like Target and Walmart will have great deals on things like board games--they usually have Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders for $5 at this time
5. THE DOLLAR TREE- Let me tell you, the Dollar Tree is a teacher-on-a-budget's dream come true--I have picked up so many things at a great price from there

Here are some pictures of what I currently have as indoor recess choices

Games

Play-Doh

Baby Dolls and Play Food

Puzzles

Coloring Books

Castle and Barbies (not pictured)

I also rotate the choices of blocks, toy cars, dry-erase boards/markers, dinosaurs and action figures but I forgot to take pictures of those things.  I also do not put out all of these things at once. I usually put out 6 options at a time. 

So there you have it---my run down of how to make lemonade when life gives you lemons (i.e. how to deal with indoor recess). 

How do you organize indoor recess? What choices do you set out for the kids? Any tips on how to build your collection on a budget?

Meet the Teacher Night Gifts--Gift Tag FREEBIE at the end of post!

WOW! This summer is just flying by! With it moving so quickly, my mind is gearing up to get ready for my school's annual Meet the Teacher Night. One of things that I do at every Meet the Teacher Night is a leave a little gift out for my brand new Kindergarteners to find when they arrive to the classroom! I love to see the smile on their face when they find their seat and name plate but watching them find their own special gift is icing on the cake!

Each year I tend to change it up and give out something different--there are just so many cute ideas out there and I'm always anxious to try something new!

This year I am jumping on board the cactus trend and giving out these cute little gifts!

The tag says "In this class we STICK together!" and inside the bag are 3 sticky hands.

I purchased the sticky hands from Amazon and they came in a pack of 75 for just $7.95!! Click the link below to check out the product! (this is not an affiliate link, just me sharing a great deal!)

Sticky Hands!

ALSO, I have listed these cute little gift tags for FREE in my TpT store! Click the link below to snag this freebie!

Cactus Gift Tags

A Mini Etch-a-Sketch?! and a FREEBIE at the end of This Post!

Have you all been to the Dollar Tree lately?? If not, let me tell you, they are KILLIN' IT with some awesome products right now! Yesterday I found SO MANY goodies to put to use in my classroom this upcoming school year and I can't wait to tell you about them ALL! I had to share this AWESOME find first!

A Mini Etch-a-Sketch!!!

You can bet your bottom dollar (that tomorrow..!!) that I picked up 5 of these babies for my word work center. I can't believe these are just a dollar! 

I am so excited to use these that I whipped up some alphabet cards to use along with them. 

I've noticed that cacti are all the rage right now so these alphabet cards feature the cutest little cactus friends.

My plan is to have my students choose a card from the pile and then practice writing the letter on the mini Etch-a-Sketch. The cards include both upper case and lower case letters.

I am so excited about this AWESOME FIND that I have decided to list Cactus Letter Cards for FREE in my TpT Store! Click the link below to snag this FREEBIE!

Cactus Letter Cards

Lunch Tags and Learning Lunch Numbers--FREEBIE below!

Today I worked on another yearly back to school project. Each year I bring these bad boys home to give them the good cleaning that they clearly deserve. These are used as lunch tags for my students as they work to learn their lunch number.

These lunch tags are made from a lanyard and an ID badge. The ID badge has a heavy duty zip seal that protects food and drinks from getting inside the badge. This to me is AMAZING! I have tried other lunch tags before and either the lanyard fell apart or the food/drink would get into the plastic casing and ruin their lunch number print-out inside.
I am currently entering year 3 of use with these lanyards/badges so these are incredibly durable.

If you would like to try out these in your classroom, I have provided links below to purchase on Amazon. These are NOT affiliate links, just simply link to the products. :) 

ID Badges   Lanyards

While the lunch tags are a great way to make sure your students always have their lunch number with them when they need it, the ultimate goal is for them to memorize it by heart.

To help your students memorize their lunch numbers, I created a lunch pin pad handout to help your students practice "entering" their number on the pad.  Click on the link below to snag this freebie!
                                                         Lunch Key Pad FREEBIE!

Happy World Emoji Day!!

HOORAY!! Today is World Emoji Day! 
Emojis have definitely changed the way we communicate with the world. Whether you are a fan or not, it appears emojis are here to stay.
These cute little characters have always been a hit in Kindergarten that's for sure so when I came across these adorable emoji drink stirrers, a light bulb went off in my head!

These emoji stirrers make great POINTERS for little readers! We all know that 1 to 1 while reading is such an important beginning reading skill and these pointers will make learning the skill all the more fun! I can't wait to put these to use this upcoming school year!

What tips and tricks do you have for teaching beginning readers?

You Know You're Married to a Teacher When....

Tomorrow I'm headed into my classroom for the first time since school ended (*cries*  Is summer really over?!?!) so I spent some of the evening gathering up the things I want to take in with me. One of the things that I do each summer is bring home my crayon cup caddies that I use, give em' a good wash and refill them all with glorious new crayons. Behold the beauty!

I purchased these crayon cups or as they are formally called "Classroom Carry-Alls" from Lakeshore 3 years ago and they are still holding up wonderfully. They are definitely in the running for my favorite all-time school supply purchase. I love how organized they make the crayons for my kinders and how easily portable they are. Having the cups filled with many crayons in each shade also helps to cut down on the "He/She's NOT SHARING!!!!" cries that we teachers are all too familiar with! ;) 

I love these crayon cups or excuse me "classroom carry-alls" so much that I even went and found em' for you all on their website in case you are interested too! Click the link below to head to Lakeshore's website and check em' out for yourself. Also, I am in no way being paid to endorse this product I just genuinely love it. :) 

Classroom Carry All

But before you go off to check out those wonderful crayon cups, I must give credit when credit is due. My awesome husband is the one responsible for sorting most of the crayons into their appropriate color-matching cups. I told him "You know you're married to a teacher when you spend your Sunday nights sprawled out on the living room floor sorting crayons!" Haha! I sure am thankful for him.