Challenge Cups

I am a firm believer in having goals for my students. I LOVE setting up goals with them and having that conversation about what they think they need to work on. The first time I tried this, I was shocked at how thoughtfully my students decided what they needed to work on. As a result, we had goal anchor charts all over our classroom for reading and writing and each child had their own goal folder for math. This year, I've decided to keep all of those goal setting ideas in place and add in something a little different! Last year I noticed that some of my students ran out of steam working on the same goal for reading and so on and tended to get a little frustrated. So, this year I am going to try something new! I've seen these all over the place, these brain break sticks, I am going to adapt the idea just a tad to spice things up! I made these 2 challenge cups, that I plan on keeping on a "challenge" table with all the materials they will need to complete each one. One cup will be literacy based, the other will be math based. The sticks have basic challenges to start (because it is the beginning of the year in kindergarten) but as the year goes on, I will add new challenges and make them more difficult! As, you can see, these are nothing fancy, but I think they will certainly serve their purpose!


~Ms. Christy

Reading Seats

So, I've seen these all over Pinterest, and decided I needed to jump on board! My school is in the process of changing the schedule of the school day to allow more time for silent reading, which is GREAT, because we didn't have much time for that previously! So, I am revamping my reading center to incorporate more space for the kids to spread out and really get comfortable while reading. So....I made these great seats, thanks to everyone on Pinterest posting them!! I got 4 milk crates from the container store (which I love), some spray paint, some fabric ( I needed about a yard in each pattern) some batting and a 1 by 1 piece of plywood to fit on top of each crate.
 I started by spray painting each of the crates, then I got started on the seat tops. I needed to drill holes in the ply wood to attach it the tops of the crates. I slid zip ties in between the holes so that I could just zip tie the seat tops on. Then I used some batting for cushion and wrapped the fabric over it. I used a staple gun to secure it and then fastened my zip tie seat tops to the dry (of course) crates and viola! They are super cute and with any luck, I will get a lot of mileage out these and my kids will love their new space!   ~ Ms. Christy

Mod Podge and a little free time!

It has been miserably hot here in North Carolina, so I thought I would spend some time inside with the air conditioning! I decided to make these clip-boards for the little ones! I found packs of the generic clipboards on sale at the office depot by my house. All I needed was some colorful scrapbook paper and a little mod -podge! I decided that this year it would be nice to let all of my students have their own board that they could use to write down predictions, observations etc, during read alouds. I think these will do the trick!

~Ms. Christy

Tar Beach Quilt

After reading Faith Ringold's "Tar Beach", we were inspired! We made our own "quilt" themed story. My kids worked together to make a continuum story. We recited the story aloud to make sure we all had our parts down. Then my kiddos wrote their parts on paper and then decorated the boarder in a quilted fashion. The end result was super cute, and so much fun for them to see!

~Ms. Christy

End of Year Countdown

Tomorrow we begin the countdown to the last day of school. I have 17 students and tomorrow there will be 17 days left. I will be choosing a child's name at random each day and each child will be able to pick a special activity for the class. Some of the activities include, taking a kite outside to fly, putting on student written puppet shows and playing a kickball game! The kids are super excited about the special activities, I had them help me choose! They were thrilled to be able to participate!

~Ms. Christy

Spring Fever

In the spirit of spring, I thought I would let me kids test their "green thumbs!" We started a mini-unit on plants and their needs. We read "My Garden" by Kevin Henkes, a super cute story about a girl who plants anything she wants in her garden and watches it grow! After reading and reviewing plant needs, our class planted grass heads. We decorated our cups with wiggly eyes and smiley faces, then filled our cups and planted grass seed. Within a few days our "hair" had sprouted. This was a really fun activity and the kids loved their little chia pets!

~Ms. Christy