Happy First Day of Fall!

It’s the most wonderfall time of the year…

Happy fall!

It is time for cozy sweaters (well, not so much here in Las Vegas, but a girl can dream), crisp air, pumpkin picking, and my personal favorite… apple season!

Grab It here

 

In honor of the first day of fall, here is a little kindergarten freebie!  I hope you can use it to help get your kiddos excited for fall!

 

Where Did the Time Go...

Wow, I’ve been busy and time has flown!  I’m currently teaching a dual position between Kinder and first this year.  I have half day kinder in the afternoon, and I will be pulling First grade students in the morning for testing and RTI to help the first grade team out.  Crazy, but fulfilling!   Six days with the kinder kids so far, and they sure are a cute bunch this year!

I want to get pictures up of my room, but every time I go to take pictures, I notice something that is not picture worthy yet… Maybe later this week.  Pinterest fever has caught hold of our campus this year, and there are so many cute rooms and bulletin boards, I’m tempted to wander the campus with my camera and just post pictures of everyone’s hard work!  Pictures will come soon.

I found a web site that I Love Love Love… Just had to share it!  It’s called Have Fun Teaching, and they have so many free resources that make great center activities!  There are some pay to use resources on there as well, but honestly, I haven’t even looked at them.  If you are looking for supplemental activities to support your literacy program, check it out!  I’ve found a few fun activities to add to my word work and math stations for the fall. Check it out!
 

My TpT items have been selling well, when I reach 100 items sold, I will have a sale (and may give some freebies), so keep checking back!  

More to come later this week!

Staysha  

More Labels!

I worked out a new set of labels today, and I like these ones even better! 

This set has a blue and red frame and fits on smaller labels (ten per sheet instead of six).  The colors remind me of Thing One and Thing Two, so I am calling them my "Seuss Set."  I think I’m going to try to work more of this blue color into my room! 

Hopefully I can get enough work done in my room to up load a new picture with the labels in use!

Click here for Labels!

Organization Labels

Ok, it took some tweaking, but I’m close to these being where they need to be!

These classroom labels are designed for the primary classroom.  Kid friendly labels include pictures and words for classroom materials for items like pencils, glue, math materials, and then some!  These easy print labels can be printed on large shipping labels (think Avery 8164), or can be cut apart and laminated.  The full set includes labels for…

Primary centers materials: Legos, blocks, gears, logs, dramatic play, games, play-doh, puzzles

Math materials: counters, teddy bear counters, dice, dominos, pattern blocks, color tiles, unifix cubes, pattern beads, flash cards, math centers materials

Literacy materials: magnetic letters, letter stamps, literacy center materials

Generals supplies: white boards, markers, white board markers, pencils, crayons, scissors, erasers, glue, glue sticks

Craft supplies: Paint, paint brushes, water colors, glue gun, felt, wiggle eyes, glitter, pipe cleaner, craft foam, stickers, daubers, miscellaneous craft supplies

All together you get 48 pre made labels, and six blank labels!

Click here for Labels!

Time to get Organized!

Planning in Limbo

That is the only way to describe my teacher status at the moment!  Sadly, due to low kindergarten enrollment, we still don’t know if I’m going to stay in Kinderland this year, or work my way up to first grade.   While I am up for either, I’m having a hard time getting the up the gumption to plan for both!

Never the less, attending I Teach K and meeting so many wonderful and passionate teachers has motivated me to get my rear end into back to school gear!

As a result of our growing school population (all but the little guys for the time being!) it looks as though the school will need to split the room I have occupied the past two years in half for special programs, which has me moving into a standard classroom.

Standing in my new room this morning I was struck with two questions:

One: Could I possibly be a hoarder?  Good grief, look at that clutter!


Two: How will I make it all fit in a room this small?


Now, I know some people will look and this before picture and the size of my new room and snort “Small… You call that small sister?  Let me show you small.”  Yes, I am very spoiled.  I have been for five years.  The room I lived in the past two years was meant to be two rooms.  The three years before that I had a large room at an older school.  


Consider these a “before” shot.  I know that sharing them will motivate me to include an “after”!


Taking both of my questions into consideration, I decided that the best course of action for the moment would be to get organized!  While my class set up may vary slightly depending upon what I end up teaching, I figured that at the very least I should get started on finding a place and identifying what I have in a clear and concise fashion.


While I had many of my supplies and materials labeled in my previous classroom, I found that the words alone meant very little to my incoming five year olds.  In an effort to make my room a truly child centered environment, I have decided to include picture on each on my labels.  A possible side effect: more environmental print, how can that be a bad thing?!


I like the peel and stick type Avery labels.  Check out my free class label down load while it is still free.  If you can think of things I should add, please tell me!  They are most certainly a work in progress, that's why they are free!

Click here for easy print labels

Check back to see my progress!  I’m open to comments!

Long time no see...

Wow!

Well, it is obvious how well I kept up on my previous blogging attempt, seeing as my last post was in August of 2010!  I’m willing to admit, being a first time kindergarten teacher got the best of me these last two years, and all my grand blogging intentions fell by the wayside.  Who knew teaching little people could take so much energy!  

Not that my blog stalking slowed down one single bit! 

Just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be any more education blogs out there for me to check daily/weekly/hourly, I had a mother in my class ask me “You do a lot of cute things, do you find them on Pinterest?” 

I blame her… My name is Staysha, and I have been a Blog Stalker/Pinterest addict for two years… it has been 22 minutes since my last pin… This morning I broke down and scored some scrapbook paper and mod podge at Hobby Lobby…   

All kidding aside, it is wonderful to be able to open my lap top on any given day and be able to see so many amazing educators that are dedicated to their craft.  The blogging community inspires me every day.  And now they are in my own back yard for the I Teach K conference!

I can’t wait to meet so many of the teachers that I have been blog stalking the past two years.  Welcome to Vegas!

What a day! What a week!

Wow, what a crazy week this has been, and to think, today was only Thursday!

Ms. Wolin and I really enjoyed meeting everyone today, thank you all for being so understanding during this busy time.  It looks like we are in for a great year! 

I hope that many of your questions were answered, but please feel free to let me know if you have any more in the next few days.Even if we can't tell you an answer right away, we can at least help you find one.

All the help that we have received in the past few days has truly been amazing.  I know that many of you have donated your time and much more to help set up the school and make everyone feel welcome. A simple "thank you" could never be enough.

I look forward to next week!