An "AHA!" Moment- Foam Magnet's

Today, while helping my friend Sharon try to get her classroom reorganized (she heard the dreaded words, "Your getting new carpet this summer") she discovered some neat little things she had bought and came up with an "Aha!" moment (you know the moments when you think of an eaiser or cheaper way to do something you've been doing a harder or more expensive way.) Sharon and I are shopping and planning buddies often, and we have these moments on a regular basis. Here was her "aha" moment for today.

She started with these foam circle she found in the dollar section at Target (a teacher favorite). She had used them in the pass for sorting or counters (they are small). Next, she had some sticker magnets. You could use hot glue ones, but she had these, so she used them.



These are just the magnets in case your wondering what they looked like ;)

Here is the finished product:

Now, what are some uses for these you might ask? Well, you can still sort or count with them like Sharon originally did. Or, you could go to an awesome site like www.makinglearningfun.com and loook up her magnet sheets- she has them for all kinds of themes, and letters. These are great sheets for one to one correspondence, because you have to put one magnet in each circle. I am sure there are other great ideas for them (and if you get some, please feel free to post it in the comments below so we can all try it!) I will post pictures of them in use once the school year starts.

:) Miss Amanda

The Beginning of the End

Well, here we are, at the beginning of the end. That's right, as much as we teacher's hate to admit it, the end of summer is here. Student's think it is only them that dread getting up early. Although I must admit, there is a part of me that longs for the consistency and normalcy of the school year. As my summer winds down, it means that it is time to re-do some things in my classroom. It's like Spring Cleaning. It is important for me to do these things so that I can start the year with a clean start. I want to use this blog to share some of the things that I have made, or things that have made my teaching time easier. I am going into year 8 teaching at a small, private preschool. I have taught K3 and K4. It has taken me all this time to finally get my room looking like I want. I want to share with you some of the things I have done.

My boss came to me at the end of last year and said those 7 dreaded words, "Your room is getting painted this summer." In my world, this meant everything coming down off the walls, the room getting painted, and then putting everything back up. I decided that since the room had to be painted, that I wanted it done in green and brown. My classroom name is "The Tadpoles" and I wanted to do something of a jungle or rain forest type theme. So the green and brown walls would help give me the atmosphere I was looking for. Then, it was time to buy some new things, and set up some new things. This is what we have so far.

This is my closet. Every summer, I re-organize this closet. I will admit, I tend to just hide things in here. This year, I put all of my books in boxes by month and theme so that I could easily get to what I wanted. I have also spent some time labeling and re-organizing my manipulatives and bulletin board supplies. I feel confident this is going to help me feel like I know what I have moving forward.

The Welcome back board! Each of the frogs have one of the kiddos names on it. Usually, I don't buy a bunch of sets. No offense, but I feel like kid's art work makes a better display....plus, the kids love looking at their things, or things with their pictures. However, parents will expect to see something up when they come to meet the teacher...and I thought this would fit perfect!

A new clock... a wonderful gift from a friend :)





This is my circle time rain forest tree. The tree is easy to make. There is two sheets of brown bulletin board paper on the inside of the tree. Then you take a third piece and wrap it...crinkling it to make it have a bark look. Hang leaves from the ceiling. Vines are made from packing paper. You cut of sheets of it, twist it and crinkle it. The monkeys were bough by a friend of mine who is no longer teaching. She says you can get them from dollar tree sometimes. I have a alligator puppet and I use it to sing 5 Little Monkeys. The kids love it when the monkeys are literally snapped out of the tree! I will be putting circle spots down later, after the carpet gets cleaned. You will also see my morning meeting board.

My other bulletin board. This one also usually host children's art work. However, it needs something for Meet Your Teacher Day. The kids will go with my assistant on Meet Your Teacher Day and decorate their own t-shirt while I talk to their parents. It will than say "Look Who's Hangin'" above the clothes line, a line will be added, and the kids art work will be posted before the first week of school. This will make them feel like they are coming to "THEIR CLASSROOM".

This is my helper and classroom management board. The helpers are pretty self- explanatory. I do a job a week, and not a day. For classroom management, I have a pocket with each child's name on it. Inside the pocket is 5 sticks. At this age, it is hard for kids to remember or understand completely when they lose "treasure box" at the end of the week. My system allows them to lose or gain sticks. If they make a bad choice, after a warning, they lose a stick. The next day, if they have a good day, they can gain the stick back. 3 sticks on Friday = treasure box! I up it after Spring break when we are getting ready for Kindergarten and make them have 4. (I like rule following!) This system worked awesome last year!

I added vines this year near my lights. I have the fishing line hanging from the roof with clothes pins, and we are going to hang birds from them so they look like they are flying in the air, hanging on to the children's art work. The following pictures are also of the vines, and the full effect. You will see we hot glued foam letters and numbers to the vines, to give it a little bit of a "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" effect - not the exact same, but a little bit like it.

Numbers

Letters

Kind of hard to get the full effect.... but thats the vine and part of the tree.

So, its the beginning of the end of my summer.... and that means cleaning projects and other odds and ends. Got the furniture ready for carpet cleaning. There is more to come as we welcome the new "Tadypoles" to school.

:) Miss Amanda