New Year, New Things

So, I finally got a new camera! I purchased the Sony NEX-5N, and I absolutely love it! It is a smaller camera with a large lens, but you can buy a smaller lens for it. Right now I am loving the larger lens; it fits so well in my hands and I don't feel like I am going to drop it. The camera also takes great pictures, the quality is amazing!

Now that I have my new camera I able to start taking pictures of my classroom and the things I have been working on. I just finished recreating the word wall that I previously posted about, and I love how it turned out! I plan on using it for the sight words that students are to learn this year in Kindergarten. We will see how it goes!

Along with a new school year comes new students, new pencils, makers, crayons, notebooks, and of course new lesson ideas! With my new camera I plan on taking pictures of the many new ideas I have and blogging more about what is going on in my classroom!

Out for the summer!

School hasn't even been out for a month and I can't stop thinking about all of the new things I want to do next school year! My mind is just non stop! Right now I am trying to figure out how I am going to change my sight word wall. This last year I just put the sight words up on a small space of my bulletin board; they are not in any order, just randomly put up there as we learn them. I am wanting to change it next year. I am thinking of using the entire board (36 in long) and putting the sight words up alphabetically. I will definitely post a picture once I get it finished! Here is a site that has one I like: http://letsteachsomething.blogspot.com/2012/05/word-wall.html .

I miss my camera

So, I went on a ski trip a couple of weeks ago and I decided to put my camera in my pocket; my nice, expensive, Canon camera. Well, I wrecked a few times...and my camera did not like that. I ended up ruining the lens. Anyway...to get to my point. I really miss having my camera! I forgot how often I used it in the classroom to take pictures of the kids. AND I have created a lot of cute and fun small group activities that I wanted to share on here, but I can't because I can't get pictures of my class using them! I am just bummed. Hopefully I can find someone to fix my camera, or I can get a new one soon.

My Class Website

I created my class website as a tool for parents and families to stay connected with our classroom activities. It is a work in progress, but I think it is coming along nicely.

While in the process of making my website I tried several free website hosting sites. The one I liked the best was Weebly. It is a user friendly site that makes it really easy to create a multi-page site. The only problem I have with it, is that I can not make it my own; you have to choose from their design options which doesn't allow for creativity and personality. Other than that it offers a lot, you can add pictures, slide shows, you-tube videos, attach documents, and take polls and surveys.
You can also upgrade to the Pro site, which does have a yearly cost or monthly cost (which ever you choose), but it allows you to upload videos, upload an audio player, and embed a document.

Here is my site:

My Goals

1. To keep my website and blog updated!
2. To continue to create fun things for my Kinders.
3. To add more technology to my lessons.
4. To write a grant for an I-Pad for my classroom.

Miss Bindergarten

This is my second year teaching Kindergarten, and I decided I am going to read the Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten story on the first day this year. Last year I read the Kissing Hand. To go along with the story I created my own activity, each student will draw a picture of them getting ready for Kinder. Under the picture they will write their name. This is so I can evaluate how they draw their self and write their name. I know this has been used before, but I created my own worksheet the way I wanted it. Enjoy!

Nursery Rhyme activities

At the beginning of the year the other Kinder teachers and I do a nursery rhyme unit. We do six different nursery rhymes. I decided to create an activity for each nursery rhyme so the kinders can do it during one of their rotations. This particular activity would have the kinders drawing a picture of the nursery rhyme and highlighting a certain sight words or letter within the rhyme itself. I will put the letter or sight word inside of the star; I left it blank so whoever wants to use these can put in their own letters and words. Enjoy!