BIG NEWS.....and a few Tips

Happy Monday!

Well, not really.  This was anything except a Happy Monday.

Come to think of it, is there such a thing as a Happy Monday?  If there is, please let me know what it looks like!

So anywho, crazzzzyyy day!  Full day with the kiddies then FIVE parent-conferences after.  Didn't leave work until 7......again!

I have another day and a half of conferences.  C'mon Thanksgiving break!

So which should I do first, the BIG news or the Tips?  Mmmmmhhhh....tapping my toes thinking.....

Well, since I'm NOT good at keeping secrets I can let you know this much.

1.  I have a secret.

2.  I'm DYING to tell you all!

3.  It has to do with me recently reaching 100 followers.

4.  It is going to happen on Wednesday and you DON'T WANT TO MISS IT!!!!  Trust me on this people!

So make sure you check back on Wednesday for the BIG SUPRISE!!!



Okay, so I just wanted to share a few tips here that make my days a little more sane....if that's possible!

I don't know about your kiddies but each year my entire group seems to have an annoying habit a strange focus.  It's one of those things where the whole class shares this goofy focus.  Well this year is tissues!  My kids are obsessed with blowing their nose (or picking it.)  I even have kids bringing in full-sized tissue boxes to leave on their table. 

Seriously, I never knew it was so exciting to blow your nose.  They L.O.V.E. it!  Have they never had their nose blown in five years?  Are they forbidden to blow their nose at home so it's a special treat to do it at school?

And it's not even just during work.  I would totally get that they're trying to get out of doing their work.  I can rationalize that.  But these kids do it during the elusive FREE PLAY time too.  A LOT!

Well, I make my kids use hand sanitizer after blowing their noses.  Since this is an every-minute occurence in my classroom, I have been going through LOTS of sanitizer!  This is a little trick I use to keep it to an absolute minimum.  Trust me, I'm not reinventing the wheel here.  I saw it somewhere along my life and somehow it staying in my memory.

This may not be a new concept to most of you but for those who have not seen this......it's a penny saver!  Most five-year-olds love to have oodles of sanitizer dripping through their little fingers.  It's like magic goo!  Well one simple, plain little rubber band zaps that problem.  By placing the rubber band on the pump it limits the amount of sanitzier my little jumbles of joy can use. 

Try it.  It's magical!

Next up, we use a lot of Math Bins in my room.  I have shelves full of them....seriously!  Well, it used to be so hard to keep track of who was allowed to pick the bin last.  So I came up with this high-tech monitoring device.......

I have four students at each rectangular table.  Each seat gets assigned a number 1 through 4.  I simply rotate the dial to the next number and everyone gets a turn.  The kids pick this up almost immediately.  I mean seriously, this is important to know in Kindergarten!

I know you are probably wondering where I found such a high-tech device.  I am not permitted to divulge such secrets at this time.  Patent Pending.



This next tip also goes along with the one above, although this is not Patent Pending.

My main goal when the kiddies walk in the door in September is to help them gain independence.  They spent the last five-years having most things done for them so this is a very difficult concept for most of them.  One thing I do to help in the process is to label things.  And by "things" I mean everything.  If it stands still and the kids will use it at some point in the year.....BAM, I slap a label on it.

No more...."Mrs. D, we're out of glue sticks!"  "Mrs. D. I can't find my scissors!"  Notice those two statements end with an exclamation mark......I did that on purpose.  These statements are emergencies in Kindergarten.  No joke!

My next tip is to create a Math Word Wall.  I know we typically only think of a "word wall" for sight words.  But I have one for Math words as well.  I refer to this often especially when we are learning new math vocabulary and concepts.

Now for this next tip there is a disclaimer.  After a full day with kids and five parent conferences I did not feel like hunting down the eraser to clean up this chart before taking the picture.

I have to say I LOVE this next tip.  This is part of my Daily Math Routines.  It's called the "Question of the Day."  My kids say that <- with spirit fingers.  Take a moment to picture that.  Okay, proceed.

Now the real reason I love it is because I can teach a variety of skills with one activity. 

See, I told you it was a mess!  But anyway, I typically ask a Math question but we had a weird schedule today so I was feeling silly.  It was also our only day of school this week.

With this one activity, I can teach tally marks, number formation (the kids count the tallys and tell me which digits to write,) and then we add the two numbers together.  Yes, Kindergarten students.....MY students are adding these numbers.  They don't realize they are adding so please don't tell them! 

Want to know my secret of how they are this brilliant?  Well, right before we do the Question of the Day, we take a count of how many students are present in class.  They know (because your's truly taught them) that the total number of votes is equal to the total number of kids in class that day. 

Brilliant, huh? I know!  We look at our number chart to check our answer.  All of those skills in a five-minute Daily Routine.  YES please!

Well that's it for me tonight.  I'm fried.  I'm cooked.  My bed is calling......do you hear it?

Don't forget to come back on Wednesday ~ you don't want to miss out on this!

Thanks for reading!