David Craftivity Freebie and Funny Kid Friday

PHEEEEEEEEW! I've made it through the month of August!! Not only has this month been beginning-of-the-year-exhausting (I feel like I've been herding kittens with those cutey-pie baby kindergartners), but this August the hubby and I bought our first house!

 

Wahoo!!!! We are so excited and have stayed SUPER BUSY. We put up a fence, bought a new fridge, and have spent a bazillion hours trying to get our Comcast service up and running.

 

 

After packing and moving, going to school has been almost like taking a break! Almost. Not really. Anyway. We just finished up our 3rd week of school, and I finally feel like my kiddos are getting the hang of kindergarten.

 

We used good ol' David to help us talk about school rules and then made this adorable craft!

 

I want this freebie!

The sort came from First Grade WOW and the craft template is one that I made when I decided I didn't want to trace and cut out pieces and would rather have something I could copy and let the kids decorate. Click here to get it from my Google Docs.

Let me leave you with my funny kid moment from the week (check out Kathleen's hilarious linky!). I have a student who is absolutely precious, but has apparently not had a lot of experiences with time-outs. After throwing a few tantrums, I gave her the visual timer to get a grasp on how long she had to sit out (which was only 1 minute...I mean, sheesh!). She threw an even BIGGER fit! Why?

Student: I don't WANT a one minute time-out!!! I want a FIVE minute time-out!!!!!!

I don't usually give into the tantrums, but in this case, I let her have what she wanted.

Oh, kindergarten!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!! Hope it's great!

First Day...check!

I survived the first day of school!!!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!! I have 23 darling little kindergartners, and they were super excited and full of energy today! (Wasn't that a nice way of saying that?) I planned a lot of activities. We did basically none of them. How does that happen??

We did take a tour of the school. After we read The Kissing Hand, we used this TPT scavenger hunt freebie to find different places in our school.

Click Here for the Details!

I liked the activity, but I might move it to the second day of school next year. Walking in line all over the school was a big job for some of my little cupcakes...especially since our school is a quarter of a mile from one side to the other!

After PE and lunch, we read No, David and started talking about school rules. What kid doesn't love the page where David is running naked as a blue jay down the street?! Hilarious! I also used Dr. Jean's "Rules Rap" to help the kiddos remember the rules. Tomorrow I have some plans for David Goes to School. I hope we get to them! Stay tuned for pictures of this fun craftivity (and a freebie!)

After a fun time at recess, we got out the math manipulatives. The kids had some "exploration time" as they played with the unifix cubes and the pattern blocks. It's so interesting to see what they come up with when given some tools and time to use their imagination!

I hate that I don't have any pics from the day, but the first day craziness just didn't allow it  =)  I'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

Open House?? More like ROCK the house!

Tomorrow is Open House!! I don't know whether to cheer or to run and hide! So many new babies are about to walk through my door!!!!

 

In the past, I've never been quite sure what to have at Open House. This year, after mercilessly stealing all of the ideas from everyone on my grade level, I'm presenting what I hope will be a fool-proof Open House!

 

1. The Welcome Chart: This tells parents what to do once they come in. Especially useful if I'm talking with another family.

 

2. The Sign-In Sheet: I'm almost embarrassed to put this picture on here because my sign in sheets are not cute-cutesy. BUT they are effective. They tell me what I need to know, like the all important question: How is your child getting home?!?!

 

3. Information Packet: Does anyone else have a lot of paper work that goes home at the beginning of the year? Anyone?? Everyone?? Well, I put all of that info into a very high-tech, folded-in-half piece of construction paper with the student's name on the front. Parents will take their child's folder home, leaving me the folders of the students that didn't come to Open House. I easily know who didn't get their folder and can send it home on the first day.

 

4. Scavenger Hunt: This is my new thing I'm trying out this year. I like the idea because sometimes parents come in while I'm talking to someone else. This will give them something to do while they wait. We'll see how it goes!

 

Here are a couple of scavenger hunt freebies I found on TPT:

Click Here

 

Click Here

5. Classroom Wish List: I taught for 7 years before I was introduced to this concept! I put things that I want on post-its, the parents take the post-it, the parents buy we what I want. It's like Christmas in August!

6. Supply Table: I've always found it useful to show parents what supplies I want them to buy. So that's what this table is for.

 

7. Supply Baskets: This is for those go-getter parents who have already bought supplies and bring them to Open House. They can help me sort the supplies by putting them in the correct bucket. I'll keep this for the first day of school, too.

 

So we'll see how things go tomorrow. I can't wait to meet my 19+ new kindergartners!