August 2014

Kindergarten (I'm going back to KINDER) Classroom Rules!

25 August 2014

I have an official announcement to make.... I am going back to KINDERGARTEN this year!!!! :) Notice the cheesy picture of me below! :)

I am actually working at a new school this year, which happens to be the very first school I ever worked at! I am BEYOND excited and can't wait to get back to teaching the little ones!

I wanted to make some new classroom rules posters just for kinder. Melonheadz actually made this pack by my request (which I am over the moon about!!!) and now I will be able to have these adorable posters hanging in the front of my room. I couldn't decide if I wanted to make them rectangle or circle shaped, so I made them both!

At the beginning of the year it is SO important to explicitly teach the classroom rules and how you expect them to behave. This is done through modeling, practice, repetition, praising them, and more PRACTICE! These posters are great visuals to display in the room to teach the rules, remind the rules, and to improve behavior. :)

Print the rectangle OR circles, whichever you want!

I also want to make a little decodable over the first week of school, review the classroom rules, so I included that in the pack as well! The students illustrate a picture for each classroom rule!

For more details, check out my TpT Store!

Back to School, Colors, Craftivity

All About Colors!

18 August 2014

In the beginning of the year, I always start with teaching about the colors! It is a great way to start on a familiar theme that everyone understands and is familiar with. Along with practicing different color recognition and sorting skills, we are learning about reading through learning the color words. I was able to make a Color Unit to use with my kids right when school starts!

My FAVORITE part of the Color Unit is the crayon craftivity that comes with it! I like to teach a color a week, so each week we will add a different crayon to our crayon box! I will staple the crayon boxes up on the bulletin board, and fill the little box as we go! :)

Since I teach a color a week, I wanted to have 5 different printables for each color. I will use these for centers, homework, whole group practice, or for assessments!

I love centers that are hands on where their little fingers can move and manipulate the pieces. For this center the kids match the picture with the correct color word. I also made a different word mat that has the words printed in the actual color, for those that are having trouble reading. :)

My most FAVORITE activity to do with my students (well, one of them) is a Read the Room activity. This is the same concept, but they are "coloring the room." You place the colored cards around the room, and they go on a hunt to find the pictures. Once they find a picture card, they color their sheet the same color.

A basic skill is sorting colors. I made little cards for you to practice sorting whole group or at a center.

I am going to be hanging these color posters in the front of my room so the kids can see the color words daily!

The kids can use these color puzzles to practice arranging them in the correct order to spell the word. They can use the color posters to spell the word, or follow the pattern of the crayon to spell the word.

I want to show you my little helper, Hercules, when I was taking pictures of the crayon craft....

His ears are down so that mean he is ANNOYED at mommy for making him pose with a craft! But he still is my favorite!!!

Dr. Seuss Recycled Book Crafts

12 August 2014

Today I am partnering up with Michaels Craft Store on Instagram! I am running their Instagram all day long, sharing my Dr. Seuss inspired crafts for their #Create2Educate crafting competition! For more information on the crafting contest, read HERE!

All of the crafts I am sharing today are using old Dr. Seuss books. When I was cleaning out and organizing my classroom library, I recognized that several of my Dr. Seuss books were torn, colored in, or missing pages. Each year, I go over how to take care of books, but after several years of "TLC" many of them were worn out. I wasn't surprised, because the kids LOVE reading these books! Instead of throwing them away, I decided to make come crafts using the pages.

Last week, I shared my Dr. Seuss Decor on my blog. For all of the details on how I made these thin canvases, you can check out this blog post.

Do you ever make a little back to school gift for your team teachers? I thought magnets would be the perfect little gift for my teammates!

To make the magnets, I found small images and traced them around the glass stone. I cut them out and Mod Podged them to the stone. Once they dried, I hot glued a magnet to the back. I bundled them with cellophane to give to my team teachers when I go back to school!

I really wanted a cute banner to hang above my class library! At Michaels I found some pre-cut stationary and used them for my banner shapes! I found some colorful Dr. Seuss illustrations, and cut them in a rectangle shape to fit inside cards. Using Mod Podge, I glued the illustrations down to the paper, then I added glitter sticker letters to the cards. I hole punched the cards and added some ribbon so I could hang them in my room!

You can see my Dr. Seuss banner says, "We can read!" I think it is the perfect slogan for my little ones!

For my last craft I made some bookmarks! I think as a primary teacher, it is our job to get children excited about reading. One simple thing that can help with the process is the reward of a bookmark! I found these pre-cut bookmarks at Michaels and thought they would be PERFECT for me to add some Dr. Seuss illustrations to!

To make the bookmarks, I found and cut illustrations that would fit inside the rectangle shape. I used Mod Podge to glue the images down. Once they were dry, I added cute ribbon and they were DONE! They were super simple and quick to make!

Come join me on Instagram today (@ApplesAndABCs) to see my Michaels posts!

Back to School, Classroom Organization, Classroom Supplies

Breezing Through Back To School Blog Hop

10 August 2014

Has anyone else been making trips to Target bi-weekly (maybe tri....)?!?!? I want to share my kindergarten back to school supply list! I know all school districts are different. Some pay for all the supplies, some parents pay for the supplies and some teachers pay for all of the supplies! I have some ideas of what are the "must haves" for kindergarten.

If you are looking for a minimal supply list... Here is what I would suggest that is MANDATORY to have in the classroom:

Mandatory Class Supplies:

Large pencils

crayons

glue

scissors

Some schools, you can't ask for parent donations or a supply list. That leaves some of us purchasing the supplies! When that has been the case for me, these are the items that I start out with, and then purchase more once I get to know my group of kids and what they might need. :)

If you are at a school in which your parents are given a supply list, and they bring in truck loads of supplies the first day of school (I am not kidding) then this is a more "generous" list of items that I would "wish" to have.

I categorized my supplies, so is the first set:

Drawing Supplies:

12 colored pencils

24 regular crayons

16 large crayons (to have them use the first couple months of school)

10 thin markers

10 thick/large markers

Writing Supplies:

large pencils (for the beginning of the year)

regular pencils

erasers

highlighters

Art Supplies:

glue sticks (the MORE THE MERRIER)

pencil box (just a rectangle box like the one below)

glue bottle

scissors

paint set

Extra Supplies:

index cards

post it notes

folders (homework and desk)

Expo markers

Sharpies

ruler

Ziplock bags

More ideas that aren't included in the pictures that I either end up needing or purchase myself:

paper plates

hand sanitizer

napkins

I hope this list helps if you are new to kinder or needing some new ideas!!

Head over to A Day in First Grade to see what Kristen has to share! :)

Letters of the Week A-Z and a SALE!!!

04 August 2014

The back to school sale is officially here! I don't know about you, but I have my TpT shopping cart FULL of goodies that I am ready to buy! When you go shopping don't forget to use the code {BTS14} to get 28% off!!!

{Thank you Traci for the button!}

I want to introduce to you my Letter of the Week: Growing Bundle! This is my first growing bundle, and I am really excited about it! I have had several requests to bundle my Letter of the Week packs, but I haven't finished them yet! I decided to bundle them BEFORE they are all finished so you can get the discount upfront if you want to purchase all of them. I will update the pack once a new letter is done, and you can download the newest editions!

For each letter there are 5 printables, a letter poster, and a decodable. The style of the each letter printables are the same, they just change for the particular letter the kids are focusing on.

The students circle and trace the letter.

This is a lower- and uppercase, cut and paste sort. I used fun fonts so the students can be exposed to different fonts that they will encounter in real life!

The students color (or circle) the pictures that begin with the letter sound.

I included a 5 page decodable where the students trace the letter and word. The pattern repeats on each page, "___ is for _____."

On this page the students can trace the letters and the two words at the bottom of the page.

Here is a sample of the letter picture card that can be displayed around your room or at your writing center.

For the last printable, the students write the letter, color it, and draw a picture of something that begins with that letter sound.

These are the letters that are completed so far:

Here is a sample of the Letter D pack:

I wanted to share with you another new back that I made:

Fall: Learning to Write Sentences and Words

These could be used in kindergarten or first grade, depending on where your kids are at when they come back from summer break. ;)

These follow my themed sentence packs, but for the fall one, I decided to differentiate within the pack. For each fall topic, there is a sheet for them to write a sentence OR a word. That way if you have diverse learners, they can do either sheet depending on their learning needs.

Look at the sample below...