SUMMER FUN!

Hi! It's Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding  Hands and Sticking Together.  I've been having a wonderful summer so far, but it can slow down a bit, if that's OK.

I haven't done anything "schooly," yet at the same time, everything I've done has been "schooly."

First of all, my new favorite thing is painting rocks with my sister.  This will be known as the summer of rock painting for me.  I posted about it HERE.

These are some rocks my sister and I have painted so far.

We have the best time painting and hiding rocks for people to find.  I want to bring this idea to school as a Kindness Rocks project.  This isn't my original idea, because I've seen other places do fabulous things with it.

The wonderful part about ideas is that you can make them fit exactly what you need or want.  I love the idea of this rock path from Sharon Elementary School in Newburgh, IN.  They painted rocks inspired by the book Only One You, by Linda Kranz, and made a beautiful stone pathway outside the school entrance.  I just love this.

I also love the idea of having my students paint a special rock and sending it home with them with a note explaining to parents that they have a mission to make someone's day, by hiding the special rock for someone else to find.  I know the joy I have had when I find a rock.  It's just plain FUN.

The other part of my summer, so far, has been getting ready to go to Las Vegas!  Dr. Jean and I  have been working this past year on a FABULOUS project that we are going to share next Monday in Las Vegas at the ESGI booth!

These packets will be available July 10th- and I cannot wait to share them with you!  We're doing a Facebook Live from Las Vegas.  I'm scared.  I am NOT a presenter...  I like blogging, because if people read what I write and get ideas, that's perfect.  If they don't want to, I'll never know!

I think I have way too thin skin to present.  This would have to be my name tag...


Anyway- I'm so excited and I'll share our adventures when I get back!  I'd love you to watch the Facebook Live!  It's on ESGI's Facebook Page-  LIVE from I Teach K with Chris Pombonyo.  If you watch, send some smiles and hearts!   Do you ever watch those LIVE Facebook events and see those mean faces go by and just cringe?  Oh my, oh my.  Can you tell I'm a bit nervous?

Last year, Dr. Jean and I were talking about how much we enjoy sharing ideas with teachers, and how much we want the JOY of teaching and learning to never be lost.  With all the trends and changes and standards out there, sometimes teachers get so caught up in having to keep up, they forget  to enjoy the journey.

Dr. Jean wanted to put all of her best teaching songs together with practical, helpful ideas and activities, so they were all in one place for teachers.  We decided it would be most helpful to divide these ideas into monthly packets- full of one useful idea after another!  So - that's what we did.

Each month we have ELA, math, science, social studies, character education, and seasonal ideas to go with 15+ of Dr. Jean's songs!  We've also included different cheers, handshakes, and attention grabbers for each month.  Jean made a little video for each month showing how to do all the new cheers, handshakes, and attention grabbers, with her granddaughter.  I know it's so much easier for me to learn new things when I see them, so I love these little videos.

Each month you will also receive 2 Prezis with LOTS of videos, songs, activities, online games, and anchor charts, that go along with that month.  I love Prezis.  They are a perfect way to organize your favorite online activities so they are all right there for you, in one place, ready to use whenever you have a free moment.  Never again will you waste those extra minutes before specials or before lunch.
I use the Prezis to introduce new subjects, to reinforce what I've taught, to leave up an anchor chart on my Smart TV during a lesson because I don't have a lot of extra wall space, and to play review games on the Smartboard or Smart TV.

So- all of these "favorites" are all set up for you to use and the links to these Prezis are included in these packets!  Here are a couple pictures of Prezis so you can see how they are set up.  Each part is a link you can click on.

We had so much fun putting these packets together.  One of the best things about these activities, is that they can be made to fit any and all curriculum.   This overall packet has math, reading, writing, science, health, social studies, character education, and seasonal activities - all you could need.  But- it fits beautifully with any curriculum.  For example, we have many sight word games and activities. If you need to teach 100 sight words or 25 sight words, they will work perfectly for you- just fit your words into the activities.

Then, to make this even BETTER- we have partnered with ESGI to include assessments in each packet for each subject area!  Every month, you will receive assessments for ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies available through ESGI.

These assessments give you all the data your district could want!  Having the assessments to show your administration also helps to show them how hands-on learning, songs, and movement really WORK to help children learn and remember information.  We know that they will remember it so much better because they had FUN learning it.

These packets can also be purchased through school districts with curriculum money.  The assessments provide the data piece so many districts look for when purchasing curriculum.  But in the "teacher world,"  the data really helps us to see what the children learn and help us to guide our instruction as we move forward with our teaching! That's why I love ESGI... Educational Software for Guiding Instruction.  That's exactly what it does for teachers.


I posted ALL about the benefits, bells and whistles,  and some examples of what ESGI offers HERE.  When you use the special PROMO CODE HAPPIES , you can try ESGI FREE for 60 days and when you see how valuable it is, you will receive $40 off your purchase for the first year using the HAPPIES code.  The price is usually $199 a year, but with the promo code, it will be $159 for the first year.  Check with your administration because they may be able to purchase it for you. They can use the code and get it for $159 for the first year, too- for your whole grade level!  It's a great time of the year to try it out in the beginning of the year- when you are assessing so many different things.  ESGI saves you HOURS of time assessing.  The children love it.  It's fun!  There is no paperwork to get lost- and your data is available anytime for you because it's all online! All answers are Y (yes) and N (no).  You click the button right on the iPad as the student answers, whether he was able to answer it or not. The data is all saved for you and can be displayed so many different ways to help you create groups and see progress.  You can read more about ESGI's features HERE.     


Here are some samples assessment questions and how they will look on your iPad as you assess the students:

You can click on this link to see a little preview of the Back to School Packet. Each month has an extensive preview packet at my TpT store, so you can see just what is included.
                

We have also bundled the whole year of packets together at a discounted price- so it's like you get 2 months free! This complete packet includes all 9 monthly packets with 1275 pages of activities, learning games, and worksheets for all subject areas; over 135 of Dr. Jean's songs to download (many with books to go with them!); 20 Prezis; new handshakes, cheers, attention grabbers, and finger plays each month; QR codes for many of the songs; plus assessments available on ESGI for each subject area each month!

Please come to Las Vegas via Facebook if you can- or if you are there in real life, I hope I get to see you!  We will be on ESGI's Facebook Live on Monday at 5:50 Eastern Time/ 2:50 Pacific Time! Thank you so much for stopping by.

Sunflowers for Spring

Hi! It's Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together.  We need a little sunshine here in Upstate NY, so I thought today I would share some sunflower ideas for the end of the year.

As my sweet class is getting ready to think ahead to first grade, I like to plant sunflower seeds with them.  We talk about the fact that when their flower is grown and blooming, they will be ready for first grade and a brand new year of school.

This is a cute story we read to go along with our planting. 





I wrote this poem to go along with their plantings.  Feel free to use it if you'd like to!

I could read and reread this book. It's beautifully written and so sweet.  Every time I read it, I find another little gem and detail in the book.  It takes you to such a wonderful, peaceful place. When my children were little, we did lots of the activities in this book. 

Sunflower House is another sweet book that gives children other fun ideas for planting at their own house!

Plants are magical for children of any age.  When you can combine activities with planting, it's just a bonus. 

Wishing you all a fun, sunny spring!







Reading at Home

Hi! It's Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together.  This time of year the children are really starting to take off with reading.  

They're using their reading strategies and growing each day!  I want to be sure they continue to grow as much as they can at home as well as at school. We don't send homework home with children (thank goodness), but we do send  books home with them to practice reading at home. I wanted to send home some ideas to help parents while they read at home with their children. Reading at home with children is such a huge benefit and important part of a child's reading success, but sometimes we forget that parents don't always know what we're focusing on or looking for as they read with their child. I labeled the praise points, "Wonderful," and the questions for parents to ask, "Wondering."

These ideas help parents remember to praise, praise, praise and encourage their child as they read together at home, as well as provide questions to help parents take their child deeper into the text and beyond the text. 

I thought you might like to use it with your students' parents, too.  Just click the picture below if you would like a copy!  Enjoy!

Here are some good graphics you could share with families, as well, to show the benefits of reading with their child each night at home.  This graphic is from Makayla Schenkelberg. 

This is from Perry Public Schools:

Have a wonderful week!  Thank you for stopping by!

More QR Codes for the Classroom

Hi!  It's Carolyn from Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together.  I am so excited to have finished my packet of MORE QR Codes to use for listening centers. I wanted to show it to you and explain how I use it with my class.

My children LOVE to use QR codes.  I use them all the time for a literacy center.  This packet features stories from eight authors.  Here are the stories included in the packet.

We do lots of author studies throughout the year.  I like to introduce the children to these authors and their different styles.  The children feel so smart and ARE so smart to know about these great authors. We often refer to different techniques that the different authors use as we write our own books.

So, since the children love the stories so much when we read them, I wanted them to be able to hear the stories over and over again- which gave me the idea to make Author Study QR Code Books.

I have scanned all of the videos through ViewPure to remove any advertisements or distractions. Please check the sample QR Codes to be sure ViewPure isn't blocked at your school.  If it is, many times the IT person at your school can easily unblock the site for you if you ask (or give them cookies or donuts...).  

I print the QR Codes out with the author cover page, and the children can choose an author packet to use for center time.

I have also included a biography page for each author in the packet.  We talk about the authors and learn about their lives, and then I send this page home with  each child so parents know who we are learning about in class.

 

My Author Prezi is also a huge part of our studies.  I have included a link to that in this packet as well.  As we study a particular author, I show the videos of that author throughout the week on the Smart TV.

It is so rewarding when the children hear a story and connect it to an author we have studied!  I am pretty sure I hear angels singing.  "That picture looks like an Eric Carle drew it!"  And I love when the children write a story along the same lines as a particular author.  My children LOVE Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and  I get lots of variations of this book after we read it and they hear it a few times.  I get The Question Mark Book, The Period Book, and Quotation Mark books with lots of talking going on in the story and quotation marks everywhere!

The last section in this QR Code Packet is Favorite Familiar Stories.  I included lots of nursery rhymes and stories that SHOULD be familiar to children.  Unfortunately, these stories are not so familiar anymore.  Having the QR Center allows the children to listen to the stories many times and be able to retell them, since many don't have stories read to them over and over like children used to.

  

I hope you enjoy this packet as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

I also have these QR Codes with Writing Prompts.

Sometimes I use the prompts as a quick little activity or assessment after a center- or as a whole group activity.  They also are fabulous activities to leave as sub plans!  This packet has the QR Codes for making into books, as well as the QR Code on the writing prompt so you can send the story right home with the children!  They LOVE that. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Have a great week!