Kindergarten Kindness

I have had this little project in the back of my mind since the end of the school year.  I really want to do a better job promoting social skills and kindness in my classroom.  I found this set from Tara West.  They are short and sweet lessons on social skills based on two kitten characters, Tom Cat and Tabby Cat.  I love this set because it covers everything from "saying you're sorry" to "how to walk down the hall."  That's real world kindergarten life right there! LOL!

Click HERE to check these out in Tara's TPT store.

I happened to be in Toys R Us before they closed and found these guys for around $5 each!!  What could possibly be more perfect??  You can find some similar ones on Amazon.

I also put together a Donors Choose project to for some new books about social skills, kindness, empathy, etc.  I already have a couple of donations on this project, and I am super excited.  Donors Choose is an amazing thing.  If you have never posted a project, go through this link to get started, and you will get a code that will MATCH all of your donations for the first 7 days!!! 

http://share.donorschoose.org/lVfFv

Here are some of the books I requested in this project.  If you know a title that I should add, please leave it in the comments!  I would love to hear your suggestions!

Teach It! Conference and Donors Choose

Wow!  What an amazing week I've had.  Earlier this week, I was able to attend the Teach It! Conference in Nashville, TN!  It was by far the BEST professional development that I have ever attended.  I can't say enough about it!  Teach It! Conference  Kim Adsit, Deedee Wills, and Adam Peterson were AMAZING!!!  

I was able to attend this conference thanks to Donors Choose.  I've had a couple of other projects funded, but this was my first professional development project.  It was funded in less than 2 weeks!  I had a couple of small donations made from family or friends, and then the Bill Gates Foundation began MATCHING all donations on PD projects!  Thanks to an anonymous donor, 3M, and Sonic, the rest is history.  I was able to get the entire cost of tuition covered, plus $200 towards my hotel stay.  I am already planning on creating a project to go to I Teach K next summer in Las Vegas!

I literally have a notebook full of notes...and I feel like I could be ready to go back to school tomorrow.  That's how good this conference was!  I decided to go back through my notes and really think about what I want to implement right away in my classroom.

Here are my favorite aha moments...

• Don't try to read the book as part of the mini-lesson during writer's workshop!  Guilty.
• 90% of the lesson is about illustrations at the beginning of the year!
• Let students "sound it out" on chart paper...teacher writing can go underneath.
• SeeSaw is an awesome digital portfolio tool!  I plan on trying it!
• I'm going to try having "instructional groups" and "family groups" next year!
• "Flexible seating is not a shopping list!"
• Use punch cards for station work and post "all-star" papers for each child
• BUMP games are EVERYTHING!!  I can't wait to start making these for my centers!
• HUGE changes coming for "buddy reading/read to self" time...LOL!!! HUGE.  
• Create a "favorite box" of books to read over and over to develop prosody...
• If good readers can sequence the characters in a story, they can retell the story.  SO many great ideas for characters and setting!

I can't wait to implement some great new ideas...more blog posts to come!

To top it all off, I WON a free year of ESGI! (Worth about $199!!)   I never win anything.  YAY!!!

I have so much to do before August 15th...but I am so excited to get started on it and share it with you along the way.  In the meantime, check out these amazing kindergarten rock stars in the links below...and if you get the chance to see them in person, DO IT!!  

Dee Dee Wills blog

Kim Adsit blog

Adam Peterson YouTube channel

The Best Part of Me

This has to be one of my FAVORITE writing projects that we have done this year.  Just before Spring Break, we talked about our "favorite parts" - what we liked best about ourselves.  Since we've been learning that magic word BECAUSE, we turned it into an opinion piece!  They told what part they liked, and why.  PRECIOUS.  I can't wait to put these in their end-of-the-year scrapbooks.  

Be still my heart.  

We displayed these for parents on parent/teacher conference night, and they were a hit.  We were inspired by this book - The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald.  You can order it here!

From the kindergarten bus stop to the blog world...

Welcome to my blog!  Since kindergarten, I have had one dream - becoming a kindergarten teacher.  Since college, I have always had the dream of starting my own blog.  Today, it happened.

For the past 14 years, I have lived my dream of being a teacher - 12 of those have been in kindergarten!  I live in the country with my husband and two boys.  I love crafting, cooking, and going on adventures with my boys.  I.  Love.  Kindergarten.  My hope is to share my "teachermom" life with you!