Visual Plans on Powerpoint

Hey everyone!! Cassie here from Mrs. Thomas's Class! 

Today I want to share with you my weekly plans and how easy it is for me to go in and change things I'm doing if for some reason we got behind/or ahead in my classes - then I'll include a freebie for you :) 

A lot of my teacher friends on social media have been creating their own visual lesson plans and I LOVE it. I first was inspired for the idea by Jessica over at Teacher Talk. 

Then I found that Mrs. Wills Kindergarten also gives a tutorial on how to make visual lesson plans! 

This is SUCH a fantastic tool. I love writing down what I am doing, but I find myself not able to keep up with how pretty everyone makes their lesson plans in a book. 

Last week I was out for 2 days in the hospital getting fluids for baby - all is okay - but that put us real far behind in two days. I had to go back in and alter my plans that I have prepared so far. 

The best part about visual/editable plans in Powerpoint is that you can preplan for as far as you want. I currently am planned up until Christmas break since I will be gone for 8 weeks on maternity leave. 

For the younger grades you can just add in the picture of what resource you are using from TPT too. Makes it so simple!! 

If your school won't purchase PlanBook.com - creating one in powerpoint is the best alternative (in my opinion.)

Here is a peek at my first few weeks. 

Our lesson frame is what our "I can" statements are now. We pulled from The Fundamental Five - which is a fantastic professional development teaching tool. 

Click the picture to order! 

So here is a peek in my first month of 4th grade writing! 

So here is a blank copy you can add into Powerpoint and work with!

Click and it will take you to Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BymTu_DhekCFQjhmYUptY2pCbm8/view?usp=sharing

Any questions?! Email me at miller.cmarie@gmail.com and I would love to help you create plans on Powerpoint!!

3..2..1 Back to School Giveaway!

3...2...1... it's Back to School time! Have you gone back to school yet? We have an amazing blog hop and tons of giveaways to help you celebrate Back to School season! We're calling it the 3...2...1 Back to School Bash because each member of The Primary Pack will be sharing 3 teacher tips, 2 giveaways, and 1 freebie! There's no better way than this to kick off Back to School season!

Before we get started, we are THRILLED to announce our four new Primary Pack members!

Please help us welcome Jessica from Mrs. Stanford's Class, Chad from Male Kindergarten Teacher, Elissa from Mrs. Jones' Creation Station, and Jennifer from Everything Just So. If you've never been to their blogs, make sure to follow them when you stop by during the blog hop! Let's get started!

Here's how it works: 

-Hop along the blog hop to visit 28 of The Primary Pack bloggers.

-At each blog, read 3 teacher tips, enter their very own giveaway, and snag your freebie!

-At the bottom of each blog post, there will be a letter. Collect all of the letters to spell a secret code. {It is very important that you follow along in the order of the hop so that you don't have to unscramble your letters!}

-By following the hop, you will end up back here at The Primary Pack. You can then use your secret code to enter our grand prize giveaway!

Sound like fun? I bet you want to know what we're giving away!

That's right, a Silhouette Cameo! These are the hot item right now, and you better believe they are amazing! You can cut out ANYTHING from bulletin board letters to 3D projects. It will make your teacher life SO much easier!

So, what are you waiting for?! Head on over to your first stop on the blog hop. We'll see you back here in a little while to enter the giveaway! Good luck!
{Click here for a printable list of the blog hop order to keep yourself organized!}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School Teacher Hacks!

Hi All!

It's Jenn from Crayons and Cuties In Kindergarten and I am here today with some 'DIY' goodies for your classroom that are not going to kill your very depleted wallet!  Grab your scissors, tape and ribbon...we are about to have some fun!

I know many of you are already in school and sweating out the 'beginning of the year' crazies...that will be me in one short week!

So I have been busy getting my classroom ready and new goodies prepped for a year of fun!

Teachers are NOTORIOUS for creating something new from something 'old' and/or out of ABSOLUTE necessity!

My mom used to always say, 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' 

I never really understood her phrase...now as a teacher and mom I do!

So today I am here to show you two teacher 'hacks' I will be using in my classroom this year!

I found the idea about cutting notebooks in half on Pinterest- but added a little twist- which I will get to in a bit!

First for 'how to' on the books:

Well I am happy to report that I am typing this post with ALL 10 FINGERS after this 'project!'

My hubby didn't mind breaking out all his 'man tools' to help me out with a few projects for this school year- one of which was chopping these 50 cent notebooks into 2 for me!

I had read Home Depot will cut them for you, but didn't want to 'deny' my hubby the chance to help!

We did find that the best way to cut them was with the 'open part' of the book facing toward you.  

I have also read that if you don't have access to power tools OR a Home Depot, you can open the books and use a heavy duty paper cutter to slice them in two.

So now I had 50 notebooks for the price of 25!

WHY cut them in half?

Because I find my kindergartners never use the whole page and I felt like so much of the notebooks were being wasted!

Now we will have a math journal (plenty of room for our simple & quick responses/entries) and a readers/writers notebook.  (I will still have a FULL notebook for each child to use as a writing journal).

The Readers/Writers notebook will be used for:

*responses to books we listened to/read on our own

*practicing letters/words

*responses to mini lessons

*recording in our notebook what the class is doing whole group during interactive writing

*small group reading group responses

We can even take it outside with us to record what we see during science!

Now to the 'twist' that I am so excited about!

Last year we lost our full-time teaching assistants due to budget cuts.

It was a HUGE adjustment for me since I have always had a full time aide.

One of the things that was hard was making sure EVERYONE was on the right page but without losing anyone to 'the sillies' as I walked around!

I would always say 'Go to the next blank page' BUT....it didn't always work out so well!

As I was reading a book with my sons this summer that had ribbons as place markers in the book, the idea came to me!  Add a ribbon 'place marker' to the notebooks!!

So here is how...

I bought a spool of thicker/heavier ribbon at the craft store and found that 10 inches will be perfect for the mini books (if you are doing this on a full size book, just double everything I have measured!)

To make sure the ribbon stays all year with all the tugging it will get, I used 'Gorilla Tape' duct tape!  I measured a 4 inch piece and put the ribbon about half way down.

Next- place the tape/ribbon combo onto the spine of the book making sure the tape lines up with the top of the book and then fold it around to secure it.

Because I am using 2 mini books, I wanted to color-code my books so the students can easily find the one we need ('Go get your yellow book.').  I added a piece of colored masking tape (found at Michaeals) on top of the black gorilla tape.

SO NOW.... 

The ribbon will help them find where they 'left off' in their book so that we are all ready for the next day!

Now if you are like me, you are going to pin one of the images and say 'oh I'll remember that' and then look back at your Pinterest board and say 'What was that again?'  So I made this quick reference image for you!  Simply pin this one and it'll automatically refresh your brain! 

So now where am I going to keep these notebooks...along with their journals, Fundations workbooks, writing folders, etc.?!

I had ALWAYS had buckets with all these things and my TA and I would hand them out...well...it was just me last year and I felt like I wasted more time than I should have just handing out materials.  So this year I was determined to come up with a system to make the kids more independent.

Earlier in the summer I saw a post about Dollar Tree having cardboard magazine file boxes..but since I didn't need them until August, I put off ordering them.

WELL...guess what...they are OUT OF STOCK now!

So I searched other retail office supply stores and they are REALLY expensive (upwards of $2-$5 each!!)...and my wallet is pretty drained from a summer of no paycheck and fun!

It got me thinking....and as I ate my cereal just the other day I was staring at the box and the light bulb came on!

I got to work...it literally only took me TOPS 5 minutes to make one...and that is with me 'figuring out' the measurements!

You are going to need to make sure you have a box that holds at least 17oz of cereal...the smaller 11.5oz box wasn't tall or wide enough!

Here is my 'how to':

4.5 inches gives a good base so that nothing falls out or 'tips' the box!

Starting at the mark you made at 4.5 inches, use a ruler to make a diagonal line across to the opposite top corner of the box.

 

Next is to trim off the 'flaps' on top BUT don't forget to save your box tops!

AND look at this FABULOUS box top container I have thanks to Primary Pack's own Mrs. Payton!

This was probably the trickiest part...cut down from the top of the box to the 4.5 inch marking on both sides.  Trim a bit off  but keep some so that you can fold the excess into the box.  This will help keep it sturdy and give it more power to combat the abuse it will endure during the year! 

Next, score the diagonal lines you made using a scissor- this will make them easier to fold!

You cut just cut those parts off, but by folding them in you are giving the box more strength!

And then secure all the folded parts inside the box using packing tape. 

To personalize the box, simply peel/stick a 2x4 shipping label to the front!  It will fit perfect!  You can even first personalize them on your computer (just remember to change the text sideways) if you want a more 'professional' look!

Now the once cereal box is ready to... 

OR...

ONE problem...how am I going to eat 20+ boxes of cereal?

So I am going to send this note home the first week of school: 

(click to download a copy)

We won't need the boxes the first week, so I can gather them from parents and work on getting them all ready for the next few weeks as I introduce how to use the books and how to care for our supplies!

Wishing everyone as wonderful 2015-2016 school year!

Until next post,

Open House Ready

Hey y'all! It's Kourtney blogging from Mrs. Payton's Precious Kindergarteners.  This was my first week back and we had open house tonight! Just like most of you, I've spent the week in lots meeting and somehow managed to get my room ready for parents and Open House tonight and have been running on about 4-5 hours of sleep each night! I remembered to snap a few pictures of my room in case you guys needed a few ideas!

Here's a new Classroom Job Chart I whipped up last night! My assistant wants to try jobs this year and this was a way I thought we could manage it :) 

Our new center boards! I love bright colors and polka dots! I have to add student names, but I need to assess to make groups.

This is how I posted my wish list this year.  Parents grabbed a hand if they were interested :)

Here's my room from the back! 

Here's our bulletin board! I used my Cameo to cut out cute letters this year! We always have the kids names on something outside the room so they feel special.  We love it! 

Going in to our room.  We like to have our names on the wall so they can find us!

We put this outside our room this year.  A little scavenger hunt I found for free from The Kindergarten Connection!

On each desk....some necessary things I had to send and also a student info sheet and my brochure!

This brochure includes all the necessary info they need to know to get started in my class! If you need something to get started, grab it for free on TpT! 

Have you gone back to school yet?  

Tomorrow I need to get some plans done!! :) 

Amazon School Supply Lists

Did you know you can create a school supply list on Amazon??!!

It's Elyse from A is for Apples, and I'm here to show you how you can make one!

First, head to Amazon and make sure you are logged in. When you hover over "Wish List" you'll see an option for "School Lists" at the bottom. Click it!

Next, click on "Start a new list."

You can come back to this screen later and click on "View/edit existing lists" to find your list and add more items to it.

Then, start adding things to your list! You can search for items, click on categories, and search by grade level suggestions. Just click on "Add to list" and it will get added to your supply list.

 Last, when you are done adding items, click on "Publish & Share." (Don't worry, you can still add more items to your list even after you publish it.)

 Click on "Share" to see ways that you can view and share your list - email, post a link, print, etc!

I'll be putting the link to my Amazon supply list in the back to school brochure [from my wonderful friend and fellow Pack member Katie of Simply Creative in KY] that I'll be handing out at parent orientation. I'll also email it to my room mom so she can help out with getting some supplies/wish list items!!

Have fun with this!! It can't hurt to add something to your list. Lots of people order on Amazon, so it may be an easy way to get some things for your classroom! If you have any questions, just leave it in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them!!