New Year, New Projects!

My oldest started kindergarten this week, so my inner teacher was overly eager to volunteer to help in any way possible during meet the teacher last week. Her teacher asked if I would pull out and organize all the math workbook pages for the class, which I of course, jumped at the chance to help. So this has put me in the mood to start creating more teaching materials. I have a couple of freebies in the works, but was wondering if anyone had something they needed or wanted created for them. Respond to this post and I would be happy to help create what you need! :)

HUGE Teachers Pay Teachers Sale!

My Teachers Pay Teachers Shop is holding a back to school sale for the next two days! All of my items are 20% off and use the code BTS12 for additional savings! Don't miss out on these great items! In my shop you will find behavior management tools, classroom stationary sets, alphabet games, math practice, and much more. So check it out during the big TPT Back to School Sale!

School supplies make me giddy!

Oh, how I love school supply shopping! This weekend we went to pick up the last of school supplies my oldest daughter will need for Kindergarten. She is definitely my child! She was hopping with excitement over pencils and crayons.

I also love that Target's dollar spot has been loaded with teacher stuff! Last year I loaded up on bins for the classroom. My favorite Target Dollar Spot purchase was plastic magazine files (except they were larger) similar to these that Lakeshore Learning carries for $2.50 a piece. It took me most of the summer but I found enough blue ones to put one in each child's cubby to use a  mailbox, so their papers wouldn't get crumpled up.

What has been you best or favorite find on the back to school front?

Beginning of another school year!

As the beginning of another school year is looming, I know everyone is thinking about classroom setup and management tools. Today I would like to feature my behavior management plan that I created for my classroom many years ago.

I've always used a traffic light behavior management plan. It is simple for even my youngest students to understand. I've put together a packet of wonderful tools to go along with this plan. If you are interested, the packet can be found in my TPT and Teachers Notebook stores.

This packet includes the following letters and forms that I use in my kindergarten classroom:

Letter to the Parents:
This is a letter that I send home at the beginning of year to explain the classroom behavior system to the parents.

Weekly Behavior Chart:
I used this behavior chart in my student's Take Home Folder. In my classroom, I use a light system to monitor behavior throughout the day. At the end of the day the student's are responsible for coloring in the block for the day, either green, yellow, or red to reflect their behavior and then I initial the box to ensure the have correctly recorded their behavior for the day. I also require the parents to initial each night to let me know they have seen the behavior chart. I use the comment section to relay to the parents any issues or accomplishments that the child had throughout the day or the parent can comment in that section back to me about any follow-up they have. Later in the year I will often have the student write what their bad choices were for the day and what the consequences were for their action or what good choices they had made for the day.

Traffic Light Chart:
I print this out on card stock and laminate it to post by the "How are we doing today?" pocket chart as a reminder.

"Caught You Being Good" Slips:
I cut these out and keep them in a basket on my table. Anytime I see a student making exemplary choices, I fill out what I caught them doing as a way to celebrate good behavior. I send the slip home in the student's home folder so the parents can see what their child was doing well with at school that day.

Red Light Report:
I use this form when a student has a red light. At the beginning of the year, I transcribe what the student says on the form. As the year progresses, the student takes over the responsibility of filling out what choices they made and what actions they are going to take to fix the problem.

Oh the craziness that is my classroom!

I found out my room assignment yesterday and was told that I could start moving in and setting up, so I went to scope it out between training sessions. OMG!!! It is a mess and right now I have NO furniture! Oh and they have been using my room as a storage unit for anything that has been shipped to the school all summer so I have tons of boxes stacked in there of random stuff that doesn't belong in to my classroom. I'm totally freaking out! Meet the teacher is on 8/17 and I have to move all of my stuff in, clean, setup, learn a whole new curriculum, and hope and pray I get furniture soon. I have no idea how I'm going to be be ready for meet the teacher. I'm a nervous wreck!

This afternoon after my training was over my husband came and helped me move some of my stuff out of storage and into my classroom while I started cleaning. I found open containers of food in the cabinets. It was so gross! The few manipulatives that are in the classroom are colored all over and have gunk all over them. I have a ton of cleaning ahead of me. Hopefully I can get the cleaning done this week and next week I will work on unpacking and setting up. Fortunately, my husband is home watching our three kids this week since I have training every day, but next week I'm alone with the kids, so hopefully my oldest two enjoy playing with all the new toys as I start unpacking my stuff.

Back-to-School Number Fun!

I've made some Back-to-School Number Cards that can be used to play games like Memory and Go Fish. Or put them in a pocket chart to let your students practice matching the numerals to the number words to the picture cards. These are a great way to build number sense and make a great addition to any math center. The Back-to-School Number Cards can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.