Moooving Into Kindergarten

Moooo!!! Or should I say WHEEEEW!!!! We just finished our FIRST week of Kindergarten with our students. I think overall it was a WILD but good start to our school year. I say this every year- but God has GOT to give Kindergarten teachers a special brain that forgets the first week of school. No matter what I do or how many years I do it- I am NEVER EVER EVER mentally prepared for the first day of school. Is it just me???? I hope not!

Our school has 10 Kindergarten classes this year- the most we have ever had and we all have between 17 and 18 students. Our district has been WONDERFUL about capping our K classes at around 18. Ten classes may not seem like much to some of you- but our town probably only has a population of around 8 or 9,000. We are a small town, so 10 Kindergarten classes is A LOT for the size of our area. We are a city system and the county system has several rural schools- they all have above normal enrollment for Kindergarten as well. We traced it back and we THINK it was the year Hurricane Ivan came through and people had NOTHING else to do while their power was out. Ha!

We had a big award given to us by the USDA last year and we had to do a hall display. My wing did a farm type theme- so I decided to save the barn we put up and use it for our back to school theme. I have to admit- it was GREAT having half of the hallway decor ready before summer!!! I did a "Mooving Into Kindergarten" wall and the barn went back up between my room and my neighbor's room. Here is what it looked like:

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I thought it turned out great! This week we did a cow glyph to hang beside the wall display. I have seen several cow glyph ideas. I combined some ideas together and added a couple of my own. When we do this kind of project the first week of school, I keep it simple and easy. I cut the spots, cow heads, legs, horns, mouths, and bells out and put them in baggies. The students glued the items together (one at a time) while we went through each piece of information. I thought they turned out really cute!

I love glyphs! The Thursday before we started school was our orientation for parents. I did a PowerPoint slide show this year and it turned out great!!! I used the apple tag like I did last year.

This is actually the picture from last year. My picture from this year didn't turn out as cute! These are on another post- but the teacher tags are FREE. You can download them by clicking here and going to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. They are blank- you can add your name and print! If you want a personalized set of tags, it is $2.00. Let me know if you do and I will be glad to add your name.

I also made my "Giving Tree". I just draw the tree on my board and tape Cricut cut apples. The apples have things like- printer cartridges, Mr. Clean Sponges, ITunes gift cards... I even put a classroom digital camera on there this year. I had someone take it too!!!! Woo hoo!!! Parents can take an apple if they wish. Normally, the tree is almost empty after orientation.

I did these again this year too:

I had several questions about them last year. These are magnets. I designed them and had them printed (business card size) on magnets. Somewhere like Vistaprint.com has this type of product available. I will design some custom ones for you and have them printed. Prices vary by size and number- if you are interested- email me at shaepage@gmail.com

I'm sure you've noticed throughout my posts that I have polka dots on almost everything. I think that is my trademark. I LOVE polka dots. I even got teased a little at orientation last week. I made these festive tags for my red baskets...

Everyone thinks I'm a little OCD about things like that anyway. I showed up in polka dots at orientation. This is the picture of me my assistant principal insisted on taking...

I guess now you see what the teasing was about. My room is full of polka dots. I was wearing polka dots. My slide show was even polka dot themed. Ha!

This is a good time to mention the new product I am uploading to my TPT store- because it polka dot themed. We started Math In Focus last week. It's our new program to align with Common Core. We have always done Saxon and I am pretty pumped about doing something new!!! I made red/white and black/white polka dot vocabulary words to go on a math word wall. These words align with the lessons of Math in Focus- Book A. Book B isn't ready yet, but will be soon! There are 71 words in all. They are in order. My TPT store was being REALLY slow uploading it. If you need them before I get them posted, let me know and I will do it through Paypal and Email. It's $4.00 for the set.

I am going to take some pictures this week of some new things I am doing in the classroom this year. I love seeing what everyone else does in their Kindergarten classes!!!

I did get my Peace, Love, and Kindergarten up on my classroom wall...

It has been SOOOO busy at home as well as school because my little girl started 3-year-old preschool. She goes 3 days a week this year, so it has been hectic having clothes ready, backpack and snack packed, and getting out the door on time. Dance clothes have to be packed on dance days. I feel like a REAL mom! Ha! She LOVES school! Here she is on her first day...

It wouldn't be fair not to mention my other "helper". I can always rely on Finley to help with whatever project I spread out on the living room floor. He adds his TLC- doggie slobber and paw prints- to everything I do. :)

The last thing and I promise this really long post with be over: I started a Facebook store about a week ago. It is called Polka Dot Pages and I am selling a lot of really cute personalized items, like Ipad Covers, cartags, towels, notepads cutting boards- you name it!!! Everything is 100% custom designed for you and personalized. Here are some examples of my items, including the Ipad cover for my school Ipad...

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Click here to go directly to my Facebook site, or search for "Polka Dot Pages" on Facebook.

Well- I need to finish typing some pacing guides for next week. I will be back with some more classroom pictures next week! Hopefully it will be a smoother week and I am SOOOO excited about football season starting next weekend! Can't wait to yell ROOOOLLL TIDE! :)