Weekend Wind-Down: More Than A Teacher

Happy Friday, teachers! You are more than just a teacher.

The Frugal Teacher: Whiteboards

Looking for another creative way to save money? Did you know that clear report covers double as a white board? The best thing is: you can even put worksheets inside the report covers for the students to complete with a dry erase marker. At my school, The Sara Marie School, we emphasize the importance of recycling and being eco-friendly. Instead of printing 20 tracing sheets for each student to use, I print only 4 and slip them inside a report cover for the students to complete using a dry erase marker. The kids really enjoy using dry erase markers and it has really cut down on the amount of paper I'm printing. Thanks to my co-worker and friend, Michelle for a brilliant idea :)

Another tip: Laminate a blank piece of white paper. Draw numbers, shapes, or letters on the laminated paper with a dry erase marker and slip it inside the report cover. Now you don't even have to print a tracing sheet! Take a peek at my student tracing the letter A. He even wrote more on the side!

 

Never lose erasers again! Glue a pom pom to the cap of the marker for students to use as an eraser!

 

Name Recognition

Greetings from The College of Saint Rose. I am sitting in the library waiting to go to my 7:15PM-10:00PM class. Bummer :( I am finishing up my M.S. in Special Education Birth-Grade 2 and I love it! The line between Gen. Ed and Special Ed is becoming quite thin. Inclusion is on the rise due to extensive research that proves students with special needs thrive in environments that contain students without special needs. I feel that EACH child is special and since no two children are alike, how are teachers not implementing strategies used for children with special needs? Sorry for ranting....here are examples of how I get my kiddos to recognize and spell their names, as well as the names of their peers!:

Crack The Code: Students must "high-five" their name or the name of their classmates' before coming into the room. Can be used with sight words later down the road. My BFF Tara uses letters and sight words with her K students right now.

 

Student Playing Cards: The students can play memory or a matching game using the faces and names of their peers. The kiddos LOVE finding their own picture and name :)

Messy Letters: In the very beginning of the year I used painter's tape to tape the first letter of their name to neon paper. I gave them finger paint to smear all over the paper. When it dried, we peeled the tape. They had fun recognizing their letters.

Oops! Going to be late for class..............................

Homework in Pre-K?

Happy Sunday! For me, Sundays are a day to lay in bed with your laptop and organize your lesson plans for the following week. Here are the themes for my Pre-K class for the week of 10/21/2012

• Language Arts: Letter T- identifying, writing, and letter sound
• Math: Identifying and counting to 5 and shapes review.
• Science: Woodland animals: nocturnal animals. On Fun Friday we will do an "exploding pumpkin" experiment!
• Social Studies: Community helpers: bakers & firefighters

The idea of homework in Pre-K is quite controversial. Personally, I feel that giving a 4 year old paper and pencil homework is inappropriate and a waste of time. I developed a "homework" program for my young students that encourages hands-on, meaningful experiences that reinforce what we learned that day. The Homework Caterpillar is composed of four sections (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) containing hands on activities for the student to complete at home. Once the  student completes the activity, they color in that day's section of the caterpillar so I know they completed it. On occasion, I will send home a tracing "worksheet" or coloring activity that closely ties to what we learned that day. The students LOVE the caterpillar and look forward to coloring it in each day. Some students really get into the coloring and decorate each part of the body. It is so cute!

Click the above link for a Homework Caterpillar that you can customize. I left my homework examples on the caterpillar for you to use as a reference. Feel free to download, customize, and use how you wish. :)

Weekend Wind-Down

Happy Friday, Teachers! We made it another week! Every Friday I will post an inspirational, funny, uplifting video, quote, picture, or story to take you into the weekend.

Cheers!

PS- I want to meet Taylor Mali so bad!

aDOORable: October

I have been recently obsessed with decorating my classroom door in creative ways. My inspiration comes from Pinterest. I sleep, eat, and breath that addicting website. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with my Kindle on my chest after a late night Pinterest binge. 

Check out my latest aDOORable creations! Happy Halloween :)

The Frugal Teacher: Bookcases

Introducing the first "The Frugal Teacher" post! Close friends and family know about my 6th sense: the sense of sale. Wherever I go, I manage to sniff out a good deal and am all about saving. My classroom is entirely made up of my own personal purchases or hand-me-downs from marvelous teacher colleagues and this year especially I have been on a hunt to make the most of a penny. 

Check out my bookcases. They are made from rain gutters. When I went to Home Depot and asked one of the employees to cut the gutter in half, he looked at me like I had 6 heads. I explained to him my plan to turn them into bookcases and before I knew it, he was paging his boss and 3 other employees to come hear my great idea. Have a look:

Supplies needed: 

• 1 plastic rain gutter (the book cases above are made from 1 gutter cut in half)
• 4 L brackets 
• 4 screws

Cost: ~$10

Check back later for more thrifty ideas for your classroom!