Growing Kinders

Our Teacher Store Closed

This past November our local teacher supply store closed. This was SUCH a bummer. It was SO convenient to just stop by this lovely store and pick up pencil grips, bulletin board pieces, nametags, games…what ever you needed, they generally had it. And if you didn’t need anything, you could always find something.

So, when this little shop closed a lot of teachers in my area were devastated. Even my 5 year olds heart is broken. (They had a lovely little BRIO train that she would play with every time we went – and it was a LOT.)

I was very excited when MPM School Supplies contacted me and asked if I would check out their school supply site. SURE! I need a new place to shop! This place has EVERYTHING. I didn’t know what I was going to buy!

The shopping process was fast and easy. Shipping was fast too. I ordered a large calendar, and it was nicely packaged in a flat box. I loved that they didn’t roll it up.

Check out my goodies:

I’ve been wanting those Frog Street Press CDs for a while now! I’m excited to open them up and listen! I’m thinking about an owl theme next year too, so thought the owl notepad would be cute. Since I don’t have a teacher store near me anymore, I was happy to stock up on some dot stickers. And I was SO excited when I saw Kim Adsit’s 2nd installment of her Reader’s Workshop units, Powerful Partnerships, uses Goldilocks as one of the lessons! I’ll be able to use these storytelling masks with the lessons.

So, why don’t you click over to MPM School Supplies and see if they have any goodies that you need or can’t live without!

Quick! As an added bonus, MPM is offering 15% off to the first 25 readers’ purchases! Go check ‘em out! Just click on the link below to apply your discount.

A is For America

In honor of Independence Day, here’s a fun little patriotic game that you can use to practice matching upper and lowercase letters.

Click the picture to download!

It’s Calendar Time!

Phew. It’s done. A Labor of Love :)

Here’s a sample of what the skill pages look like at the end of the year for all of my first grade friends Smile

and what they look like blank:

(On these pages, you’ll be able to type (or have the kids write) the month at the bubble on the top.)

Each month is a bit different to allow for student growth and new teaching. I designed it with Kindergarten in mind, but there are programmable pages at the end so first grade or even pre-k could use it.

While I was at it, I decided to create a calendar wall as well.

I decided to bundle them together too.

If you are interested, just click on each picture to take you to TpT.

If you have any questions, please comment below!

July Calendar Song

I really hope that no one is still in school, but in case you wanted the July song, here it is!

My calendar book is almoooosst ready! I hope to have it done by the end of the week! Fingers crossed!

In Pictures and In Words–Ch. 7 Ideas and Content

In Part 2, of this book, Katie Wood Ray begins to get into the “meat” of the illustrative techniques! This section is all about looking at illustrations with “new eyes.”

She will break the techniques into 5 different categories, and over the course of the next few weeks, we will explore techniques within those categories. The categories are:

1. Ideas and Content

2. Precision and Detail

3. Wholeness of Text

4. Tone

5. Layout and Design

Ray explains each technique in a predictable format each time. You can read in more detail how she does this over at Mrs. Wills blog. But, I will say that I love how she tells us exactly what kids need to look for (what we need to tell them), and how to say it. Sometimes it is difficult to figure out the write words to explain something.

Here are the techniques for ideas and content in chapter 7:

1. Crafting with Distance Perspective

2. Crafting with Positioning Perspective

3. Crafting the Background

4. Showing Two Sides of a Physical Space

5. Using Scenes to Show Different Actions

6. Using Scenes to Capture the Passage of Time

7. Using Scenes to Show Movement Through Different Places

8. Using Scenes as a List

9. Showing, Not Telling

10. Crafting a “backstory”

11. Manipulating Point of View for Effect

12. Seeing Through the the Eyes of a Narrator

Wow. That’s 12 mini-lessons just in 1 chapter! As I was reading I found myself thinking of books and their illustrations in such a new way! Now many of these techniques might be a little tricky for our little K babies – since many of them are still struggling to draw a house or a person. But, with enough modeling, and pointing out these techniques as we read books throughout the day (not just during writer’s workshop), when they are ready, they will start to try new techniques.

So, I’m just going to point out a few books that I thought about as I read. I really wish I had my classroom library at home, but for now, my home library will have to do!

Technique #9: Showing, Not Telling

My 5 year old daughter ADORES this book. I know she dreams of I day that I will say YES to everything!

The illustrations are bright and vibrant, and there are very little words – the illustrations really tell the story. She didn’t completely understand the book the first time we read it, and I had to guide her through the illustrations, but after a few times, she got it….and we have to read it every night.

Technique #2: Crafting with Positioning Perspective

I love how the illustrator shows the little entomologist going way down to the ground to peek at the insects.

Technique # 6: Using Scenes to Capture the Passage of Time

Yes! It’s okay to use one book over and over! This in essence creates a mentor text for your kiddos. They begin to know the book so well! This is a great example of passage over time.

and

Technique #1: Crafting with Distance Perspective

Can you see that the kitty is close up and the little white rabbit is far away?

Cheryl over at Primary Graffiti has created some fantastic posters to correspond with the techniques in Chapter 7. Be sure to stop by her blog to grab them!

Now, stop back on over to Mrs. Wills blog and link up your thoughts for chapter 7 and enter to win a $25 gift certificate to the Clever School Teacher!

ABC Come Learn With Me!

I am super excited to start this new series! There are SO many fun ways to learn the alphabet (and it IS important that it is fun!), that I have decided to devote an entire series to it. As I come across great ideas, whether they are from blogland, from colleagues, or my own ideas, I will showcase them right here! Be on the lookout for the icon above!

This week, I have a freebie for you! It’s a fun game called AlphaBears. You will just need to click on the image below to download!

All that you will need to do is print out the AlphaBears, laminate them, and glue or tape them onto popsicle sticks. You could glue them back to back or make sticks for both uppercase and lowercase letters.

There are 2 fun songs that you can sing with the AlphaBears

The first song is just to practice letter id. Simply pass out a letter bear to each student, sing the song and say the letter you are looking for. You could laminate this page and use a dry-erase marker to write the letter in the box, or you could use a magnetic letter and a cookie sheet.

For the second song, you are practicing letter sounds!

You can use the letter bears in a variety of ways – you can pass them out and use them for calling kids to the easel for Daily News, for lining up, dismissal and so on!

You could also have the kids line up in ABC order.