We follow the Gingerbread man around the world as he shares all kinds of celebrations, festivals, and cultural traditions with us! Our students make a suitcase and keep all their artifacts inside they create when visiting and learning about each idea. We also read lots of different versions of the Gingerbread Man and practice retelling his story!

We just started using standards based grading this year and each students work receives a 1-4 and I keep a running list of their scores so at report card time, I can take the most current score and share that on their report card.
I also tell families that a 1 or 2 right now means that their child either needed lots of help or has not yet mastered the whole standard. Proficiency (3) is what we are working for at the END of the year.

We have a calm down corner in every single one of our classrooms that allows students to have the space, time, and tools to help them regulate their emotions. I also teach my students to wave at me or give me a thumbs up when they are ready to talk. Until then, I watch them so they are safe, but stay out of their space until THEY are ready.

I make sure to leave a label on everything that a substitute might need in a lesson so that it is less confusing!
If I am out for multiple days in a row, I will label everything with a different color sticky note so that the lesson flows smoothly.
My team will also get a heads up that I will be out and we will usually rotate our classroom assistants through so that the substitute always has extra hands in the room with them.

We take the data from staff selected assignments and use it at our PLC meetings to determine the path of instruction forward. There are times when we use the data as a reflection tool, to determine how students understood a concept or our effectiveness in teaching a concept, but we generally select an assessment based on the data points we can use from it, especially those tied to our standards, and plan when we will administer it.

I agree with everything that has been shared so far, and would just add that having students model the correct behavior and giving them positive praise and reinforcement for those behaviors is key in making those behaviors continue.

During the first few weeks of my kindergarten class each year, we model and then model again and then model again even very simple behaviors, like pushing chairs in and lining up correctly. All of those students get heaps of positive praise when they do those things. I usually have one or two students who can complete the behavior successfully and so I ask them to be the model and they show us the right way to do the skill and then the rest of us talk about what they saw that student or students doing And we point out all the good things that they did and how they made it look so great for the rest of us. That helps students understand visually also what they need to do

I use a warm fuzzy jar in my classroom to reinforce positive behaviors for the entire class. They are just little pom-poms with eyeballs glued on and when students successfully complete a behavior or task, individually or as a group, they receive a certain amount of warm fuzzies.
Students receive lots of warm fuzzies during the beginning nine weeks of the school year and I taper that down throughout the school year, so it becomes harder and harder for them to earn warm fuzzies. Every time we fill the warm fuzzy jar, which holds about 75 warm fuzzies we vote together as a class what our reward should be. I only offer rewards that tie into something we are already doing, and that does not cost me any extra money. Some of our past rewards have included pajama day, a few minutes of extra recess, a few minutes of extra indoor playtime, or sometimes I will ask if our third grade book buddies can come for a visit on a week we are not scheduled to meet with them. I want to encourage and still , good behaviors in them while they are younger so that as they grow into second, third, and beyond graders, they keep those same great behaviors and can model them for students who are new to our school.

In Indiana, teachers use a statewide system that captures all parts of an IEP. The thinking is that if a student should transfer within the state, their IEP can easily follow them.

In my school district , I am required to reach out when a student has missed two days of school. After the child has missed three days of school, then our school social worker will reach out to the family and find out if there is anything hindering them from getting their child to school each day. After 10 absences, by state law, the name of the family and the child gets escalated up to our county prosecutors office and parents receive a letter from them. After that, the county prosecutor takes over the process.

We just partnered with our third grade buddies today and participated in several round of “Would you Rather…” to get to know each other and then the buddy pairs were asked a few questions from the Spot of Belonging deck of Getting to Know Me questions (If you could create a new holiday, what would you call it and how would you celebrate it?).

We had a great time and it set us up to get to know each other and meet again soon!

We have a DEI/Culturally Responsive team, a Wellness team, an Inquiry team, and a Proactive Discipline team that meet once a quarter.
Each team discusses topics related to their committee and then brings them to the whole staff or school community.
The proactive discipline team works to develop a plan for when students need support that is cohesive and consistent across the school.
The Wellness team plans staff gatherings, contests, and snack days.
The CR team curates resources for the staff to implement in their teaching practices and also ensures that our practices are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
The Inquiry team develops big questions that need to be answered about our school community, such as, why is our absentee rate so high?, and develops solutions to share with the staff.

Can students name 1-2 ways that improvements could be made in a community?

Ensure that during your lessons about communities you are sharing ways that communities have been improved so that students can name 1-2 of them or could use those ideas to name an additional way their community has been improved.

Have you considered giving students a variety of items that could be sorted by color?
Students could also match items that are the same color as a designated item.

I would look back at your standard to determine what students need to master about color, is it identifying colors, matching them, naming them (using ASL) or something else? That will help you know how to assess the standard.

I would begin by asking the kindergarten students if they have seen any needs in the community and go from there.
My kindergarten students once saw a need for more recycling locations in our area due to an excess of paper, glass, and plastic litter.
We wrote letters to our city leaders and we are able get a large recycling container on our school property to help our neighbors have a better place to recycle their trash.
It will depend on the needs that your students see in your community. Once that has been identified, you will need to do some research with your students to find potential solutions and who to contact to make changes happen.
Please reach out if you have more questions!

In Indiana, we have an Early Literacy Grant we can apply for by school each year from our state. The process is lengthy and any items ordered must align with rules and laws that the state has passed for literacy, but it is SO helpful for our K-2 teachers to have a place where we can turn to to get needed literacy materials and manipulatives.

We use the Kindergarten Heggerty book and during the beginning of the year, I will use the suggested hand motions and then transition to displaying words made with magnetic letters under my doc camera. Students use three cubes as they participate along with me. We use math cubes that are plastic with solid sides so that students can use dry erase markers to add the letters on each cube.

We LOVE the Which One Doesn’t Belong website! There are so many different pictures there in several categories that allow students to engage in math discourse as they decide which one of the four images or objects doesn’t belong.

I use furniture to create spaces in my classroom that help to minimize students moving to an area we aren’t currently working in.
This year, I have several students who have never been to school before and are very excited to touch and feel every single thing in the classroom all throughout the day, while the rest of us are doing whole or small group work. I let them explore the first few days just so they could have that opportunity, and then after about five days, I used big sheets and large plastic tablecloths to start covering some of the things up.

My students asked why all of their things were covered up, and I told them it was to help us all remember to focus on doing our very best learning and that we would take the covers off of the fun things when it was time to do that. It’s amazing how much just doing that has helped all of my students focused, not just the few that it was initially intended for. So even though it looks odd to have plastic tablecloth spread out in many areas of my classroom, it has helped many students keep things out of their mind and out of their sight temporarily so that they can focus a little bit better.

GEMS is awesome!!

I’ve also had incredible mentors in teachers who had been teaching 15+ years. I may not have done all they shared with me, but I listened to every word they shared and as I’m now in year 24, some of the tidbits that I didn’t use right away, have been tucked away in my head and I am using them now.

Older teachers may sometimes seem like they may not want to change or are doing things in an “old fashioned” way, but they’ve been teaching long enough to know that what’s old becomes new again, with improvements!

So find those veteran teachers, tuck away the wisdom they share with you as a mentor, and save them for when you’re a mentor too!

I always start with my standards. After that, I listen to the interests and questions that my students ask and try to design experiences and interactions for them that meet my standards and also allow my students to learn more about something that interests them.

Many times, I try to shy away from typical topics that may have been learned about in science education before, however, it doesn’t mean that those are not great things to learn about.

Dinosaurs used to be studied a lot, but they are not some thing that we can go out and readily experience on a day-to-day basis, so even though they are exciting for my students to learn about, I need to design an experience for them that meets my standards and that could also satisfy their need to know more about dinosaurs. In that case, I would look for opportunities to measure the length of some common dinosaurs and show my students in the hallway how long those dinosaurs were. I would also have different textures that my students could feel , what a dinosaur may have felt like. I also might create a sand or sensory box of some sort where bones or plastic dinosaurs were buried and students had to excavate them. It all would tie back to my state science standards would allow my students to explore more of what is available to us in Indiana.

When looking at my actual standards, I make sure to include at least one hands-on experience for each topic we study about. So when we study plants and animals, I make sure that I have soil and seeds that my students can plant and nurture, and I also have a variety of plastic animals that students can touch and feel and interact with and sort in different ways. Make animals more hands-on, we have taken field trips to local animal shelters, so that students can touch the animal there, or we have invited in, a local company that brings a variety of animals to schools. The students are then allowed to touch an even wider variety of animals. They may not have been able to before.

If you use the NGSS standards in your state, there are usually many resources on your state Department of Education website or your state science organization website that can guide you in thinking about more activities to do with your young learners.

I am also a big fan of the 5E method by Roger Bybee and I use his 5E framework when planning most of my science lessons so that I am engaging my students, exciting my students, and having my students elaborate and evaluate the topics we are studying about, and then I ask my students to extend their learning in someway.

I also set up an area in my classroom where students can further explore topics that might not be in our science standards so that they can do some exploring on their own and report back to the rest of us. But ultimately all my science lessons come down to what’s in the standards. I always check the NGSS website as there are so many great examples there of how each standard could be interpreted and look in a classroom setting. Also, a great resource is the NSTA website and their journal science and children. There are lots of great articles in that publication that are perfect for early learners .

I agree Brandie! I had a mentor like this my first few years of teaching, and that helped me so much in all my years after that know exactly what to do with my kindergarten students. Just having someone sit down to go over the human side of teaching makes all the difference!

That this job is easy, you don’t take it home with you, you get summers off, and your students will be “perfect”!

All of these things can happen—-to an extent IF you put time and effort into them.

Planning helps you think ahead and creating lists of things that need to be done to prep now or in the future can help your job be easier.

Planning ahead also helps you not take so much work home with you. Utilize the pockets of time you have and grade/score efficiently and use rubrics. I pick one night to stay until 5 and do all the extra things then and then I go home.

Summers are often filled with PD and meetings, so pick and choose what you want to focus on and attend (if you’re able), and go to those and let the rest go. You also have to recharge!!

You can have a smoothly running classroom if you pour time and effort into setting up specific routines and procedures that your students can follow easily and without room for deviation from them. Model and practice the routines over and over again so students know what you expect. Setting this up at the beginning of the year is like paying yourself forward the rest of the year!

Interestingly enough, my best mentor/mentorship experience took place through Zoom!

I was able to mentor a group of five first grade teachers who worked in the same school system, but in different schools within that school system. We worked on improving their math and science teaching over two years, and we met monthly or bi monthly online and I was able to assist them with writing their lessons and also give them resources to help them as they were planning to go forward. The joy that I got in return was seeing the exit tickets that they planned and how well their students did on them. I got so much out of being able to help them too! They also shared ideas with me that I could use in kindergarten to better prepare my students for when they went to first grade.

In kindergarten, it is often very difficult for me to send home any missed work because we do most everything in a hands-on way. When families ask for things for their students to do if they have been out sick or will be out sick, I will gather work pages that relate to the concept we are learning about and I will send those home with the child.

If the child is absent for a few days, I will collect some items and place them in their student mailbox and when they return to school, they are able to pick them up, take them home and have a week after returning to complete them.

We use second steps as our SEL curriculum, and the first year I taught it, I exclusively talked about the concepts we were learning during our morning meeting and reinforced them throughout the day. That worked well, but it felt like it was forced.

So now what I do is find opportunities throughout the day when I see something happening and I will stop the class and do a quick 2 to 3 minute teach on whatever I see happening and that way the children have context for what the skill is we are learning and how we put it into practice. Since doing it this way, it has felt less forced and more natural, and I think the children understand the skills I am trying to teach them better, because they are seeing the “thing” happen right in front of them rather than us role-playing it.

We start on the first day of kindergarten introducing students to the idea of graphing. We create graphs to tell all about us, which helps us introduce ourselves to our new peers. This year already, we have made an eye color graph, a graph to show the number of people in our family, a graph to show which month our birthday is in, a graph to show our favorite animals, and a graph to show our favorite colors.

Some of these graphs are horizontal and some are vertical. I label both the X and Y axis with names so that the students can get used to seeing labels even in kindergarten on graphs. We look at the data together and analyze it. We usually stick to which item has the most and which item has the least amount of X’s or pictures next to it and circle the one that has the most so we can pick it out easily.

We also create graphs to vote as a class on rewards and we use graphs to show when we like or dislike something as we try new things throughout the year. I try to keep graphs in front of my students all the time, and one other way I do this is by having a graph to show the weather conditions each day. We color in a box indicating what the weather was like at recess and on the last day, we are in school of each month, we look over the data for the weather and talk about what kind of weather we had the most of the least of and if we notice any patterns from the month before. Then we can talk about seasonal changes and the patterns in the weather as well.

I like to keep my tracking system very simple and I use 5 x 7 sized index cards. I keep one for literacy and one for math. When working with students and noticing where they are excelling or maybe having some trouble, I make a note on the note card to help me with future instruction. This way also allows me to see trends in the data because I can re-read previous notes and find out if a student is still having difficulty with a concept or if they are being more successful at it. I can also use different color highlighters to show how a student is progressing overtime. I often use a pink highlighter to highlight any words that I have written, indicating a student is struggling, a yellow highlighter to show that a student is making forward progress, and a green highlighter to show that they understand the concept. If I see lots of pink or yellow highlighter lines, I know that I need to design an activity or an intervention to help that student with that specific concept. When a note card gets full, I simply staple a new one to the back so that I have an entire years worth of growth written on those notecards.

I highly recommend notecards with lines on them both on front and back, and dating each of the entries that you make on the note card. This will help you see the growth overtime and not get your observations and notes jumbled up so that they do make sense to you, and you are able to use the data.

When students need more time, I turn to several strategies that can help them catch up or review previously taught material.

1. Meet with students in small groups to target specific concepts
2. Play review games
3. Adding in an additional 2-3 days of instruction (if possible) on the topic
4. Working key content into all areas of the day, for example, when my students are learning about 3 dimensional shapes, we are constantly pointing them out so they can see lots of examples and repeat the names of the shapes as often as they are able.
5. Finding songs or videos that cover the key concepts. Often putting ideas to music or rhythm helps students grasp or remember key concepts.

In my classroom, I have a special chair banner that gets tied to the birthday students chair and a sign sits on top of their table spot. They also get a birthday crown, birthday pencil, a new book, and we sing in the style of the birthday students choosing.

We’ve celebrated other events such as adoptions, beating cancer, donating bone marrow, and sports achievements as well and families usually send in pictures and we have the student share their story with other students.

Leadership roles

A statement about their favorite course and how it has impacted them

A timeline showing any jobs or positions they have held showing their commitment to each

A favorite quote that guides them

Any books by Stacy McAnulty. She’s written 7-8 books about the solar system and they are PERFECT for K-2 students to understand and learn from!

I always make sure to over plan for the first two days, knowing that much of what I’ve planned may get moved into days three and beyond if we don’t get to it on the first two days.
I’m plan to teach routines and procedures and time to practice them 3-4 times without feeling rushed. Since I teach Kindergarten, I try to make everything into a game or fun activity to keep the first days fun and exciting!
I add a stack of read alouds to my desk so that if we do have extra time, I can always share a new book with my students.
I also try to get students into our daily schedule as soon as I’m able to start building that routine right away so that students know what to expect at each time of the day.
On our first days, our students are delivered to our classroom a few at a time as they depart their bus or car, so a few come in the classroom at a time and get their things put away. I have a hands-on and highly engaging set of STEM tubs out on their tables and invite them to start exploring right away while we wait for more friends to join us.

I always start by checking my state standards page for science and the NGSS website to help further understand the standards.

Our 5th grade teachers read Wonder as a read aloud each year.

How I choose my dramatic play items!

How I choose my dramatic play items!

We usually start with the Engineering and Design standards using Mystery Science and Picture STEM to help our students gain and grow essential problem solving, observation and inferring, and sense making skills they will use the rest of the school year.

We have used Eureka Squared and have seen LOTS of improvement in our math scores over the last two years!

I always present the parent with a look at the total time their student has missed and what classwork the student has missed by being excessively absent or tardy so they can see the impact on their child’s education.
Indiana just passed a new law that says after ten absences or tardies, a letter is sent from the county prosecutor’s office informing the parent that future violations can result in jail time and their children being removed from their care.
After three absences, teachers are responsible for connecting with the family to determine what help might be needed and I use it as a time to build on the relationship I have established with the family, to let them know we missed their child and we are excited to have them back! After that, our social worker makes further contact with the families and provides more supports as needed.
Ultimately, the goal is to help the family get their child to school daily, however sometimes that is difficult for a variety of reasons and we work to help eliminate as many reasons as we can.

I collect as much data as I can on a particular student and spend time looking for trends that I notice over time. Once I have a good idea of where a difficulty may lie, I then refer the student to our MTSS team for further help, support, and to arrange support for the student at home as well.

During my entire observation and data collection time, I am trying different strategies with my student to determine if there are strategies that are more effective than others and help the student.

I like to keep things simple in kindergarten, and just introduce my students to the idea of voting and having their voice heard. We have an annual ice cream election, regardless of if it is an election year or not so that every class of students gets to experience it. They can vote for chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry, or they can write in their own option on the blank line on the ballot. Once all students have voted, we tabulate the results together, and the winning flavor is usually brought in, or we make our own ice cream to celebrate another successful election.
We do also learn about how our grown-ups go to the polls and vote to have their voices heard as well, and many students will often chime in who they think their parents will vote for. I keep those discussions very neutral, and do not let my own political views be known. We just talk about the process more than who is running for different offices.

I work to get them in my corner. I contact them often, even with not so good news, and tell them all the other positive things their student is doing to lay that groundwork of a relationship. Once that’s established enough, I start telling them little things that can be done at home and try to send home everything they will need to work with their child.

I also praise the parent/caregiver when they are successful at helping their child complete the tasks to encourage them to keep it going. It’s a slow start sometimes and I am careful to listen to the parent about their needs and try and take as many of those away as I can so they can engage with their child.
I will also let the following years teacher know what worked so there is some continuity when they move to first grade.

Anytime I approach my admins with a problem, I ALWAYS bring a reasonable solution to the problem to show that I want to work with them to solve the problem.
I also try to invite them in my classroom often for special events, to be a guest reader, or just to hang out for awhile and that lets them know that I want them around and value their input, presence, and time.

My favorite strategy is to have students wear a pointer finger, which are the monster/witch fingers available in the fall. They can track where they are at when reading or tap along with their pointer finger.
It’s a silly little thing that helps students stay engaged in their task of reading, but helps so much!

I use Ozobots and they have TONS of activities on their website that make using them easy throughout the school year and in lots of different topics. The lessons are all written by classroom teachers and cover grades K-12.

I have families fill out a simple survey that asks questions about their child’s likes and dislikes so that I can bring those up in conversation or to help them should they get upset or sad. I also ask about siblings, preschool attended, and anything that may scare them so I can help them work through those things thru the school year.

It’s important to use this information to build a quick relationship with students so they know you care about them! Showing that you remembered something they like starts that relationship off on the right foot!

We have a daily morning meeting where we get to know each other, play fun games, and learn about what each others likes and dislikes are. I use a set of conversation starter cards that are called A Little Spot of…, and they are based off the children’s books by the same name. There are 101 cards in the deck and allow us to have thoughtful discussions that are quick and easy but also help us learn about each other and begin to build community!

Coming from an introvert, this can be hard to find your group!
Make sure you introduce yourself to your teammates, if you have them, and anyone else who is in your hallway.
As a veteran teacher, I make it my mission to seek out and find our new teachers, even if they are not on my team, and offer help and support. These are these teachers who you can connect with first and who can help connect you with others.
Attend any staff gatherings to get to know more of the staff, go ask other teachers for advice (even if you don’t use their responses), and offer to just team time/planning in your classroom to get to know other teachers.

I’ve been in my current building for 5 years and there is some staff I know well and some I hardly ever see because they are in another hall or teacher another grade level. By seeking out opportunities to connect with staff in other places, I’ve been able to connect with them more.
I see my own team daily and we have become a team over time, but it takes time and figuring out each others strengths and how we mesh with each other.
So if you don’t find you feel like you’re fitting in a group, stay the course, hang tight, it takes time and working together to figure out how you ALL fit in your new group.

It took me many years to realize that’s it’s okay to start the school year with what feels like an incomplete classroom space. The classroom will grow with you and your students and evolve into what it needs to be.

Take the time in the summer to organize spaces that you will store materials in, so they are easily found and accessible when you need them later. Do a tentative sketch of how you’d like your space laid out and begin to move furniture into those spaces. Don’t sweat bulletin boards, walls, or other display areas, wait to fill those with your students and make the space yours.

Also remember, just because you see it online and it looks magazine ready, doesn’t mean that space will work for YOU and YOUR students. Your students should be reflected in your space.

I invite families to fill out a survey with questions both for the adults and the child to answer. It engages families in working together and talking about their responses. As families fill out this survey, I circulate around the room and introduce myself and ask about one of their responses. I also make a phone call home to each family the first week of school to learn more about each child from their family and to share a positive thing about their child.

I also leave notes in colleagues mailboxes as a way to encourage and cheerlead them. It’s a simple thing that lifts them up!

We have a school wide weekly newsletter that our admins build and there are always shoutouts in it from things they see and notice and we are able to submit shoutouts as well.

In Indiana, we have similar requirements for those teaching grade 6 up through 12. For elementary teachers, there is a STEM certification that you are able to obtain after taking coursework that has been designed by the state of Indiana. Upon completion of the coursework, you have to take the Praxis STEM elementary certification test and once you pass that you are then considered to be STEM elementary certified.

We start right around August 1st each year and end the Friday before Memorial Day. We have a week off in October for Fall Break, a week for Thanksgiving, and then two weeks off for Winter Break. We have a few days off in January and February and our next break is Spring Break, usually the first week of April.
Each quarter has 9 weeks and our students attend 181 days of school.

We do! Each year our incoming kindergarten students are able to sign up for a 20 minute time slot where they and their parents can come see our classroom meet me and ask me any questions they may have before the first day of school. My principal allows us time in our teacher workdays to do this or she will also pay us to do this the week before we come back from summer break. It’s a great time to calm, nervous parents and incoming kindergarten students and to show them a few key things before school starts. It also allows students to bring in their school supplies before the year begins so that those are settled and put away and it is one less thing that I have to do on the first day of school.

In our resource room, our coaches have a sign in sign out log that we use when we borrow materials. It has a box that asks for your name, what you were borrowing, the date you borrowed it, and then when you return it you know that date there too. That way at the end of the year if materials have not been returned, the coaches know who to come to for each material and What you have specifically checked out.

I use the Lit Leveler app! You can scan barcodes with it or use several other ways of coding materials so you know who has what.

For example, this year we read a book titled Pumpkin Jack, and after reading it, we took the small pumpkin that we picked at the pumpkin patch and put it on some soil in a very large glass jar. We poured some water in for humidity and condensation to happen, And then we sealed the lid on and shut. The idea is that the pumpkin will decompose over time and the seeds inside will sprout in the soil that is located in the bottom of the jar and begin to grow new pumpkin plants.

We are able to return to this experiment each month and document how Pumpkin Jack has changed through the school year.

We have slides that we build together at the beginning of the year that include our expectations. One half of the slide shows what the students will look like when they are using math stations and the other half shows what students should sound like when doing math stations.

Our students are organized into “Gator Packs” (our mascot is an alligator) and we meet monthly with other K-5 students who are also in our pack and complete team building activities. We also have Gator Gold awards that students can earn daily when they are respectful, responsible, or safe in their day. The Gator Pack with the most at the end of each month gets a shout out! Students can also earn the Golden Fork for excellent cafeteria behavior and the Silent Slipper for a whole class demonstrating that they walk down the hallways silently each day.

Our 5th grade students visit our local Junior Achievement center and JA Biztown where they spend a day living and working in a mini economy. The 5th grade teachers also use their curricular materials in the months beforehand.
https://www.jaworldwide.org/experiences

We have played lots of games of Simon Says to take low tech brain breaks, read a book in front of our window, and we used some flashlights to read in the dark!

We have a STEM read aloud room where students can hear stories about a diverse group of individuals in different STEM careers.

We decorate the restroom mirrors with post it notes with positive and inspiring quotes so that the students who are testing see those messages all day long!

We have an elearning day tomorrow and sent eclipse themed packets home for students to complete. My students also received two pairs of eclipse glasses so they can safely view it.

My big win is that all my students made growth!! My favorite thing about this time of year in Kindergarten is seeing my students begin to more fluently use all the information I’ve been pouring into them for the last 7 months. They are becoming amazing readers and writers and mathematicians and scientists and so much more!! We have learned that slow and steady teaching helps them collect all they need to know so in March every year, the rubber hits the road and they are taking off!!

Thank you Clark! I was introduced to orthographic mapping this year and it has made such a difference in how so many more of my students can remember sight words. We have rich discussions about parts of each word, which parts we can hear and then which parts need a heart over them to help us remember parts we need to remember by heart. Orthographic has been a game changer!!

I have a prize wheel that I’ve converted into our “wonder wheel”. In each of the sections I add in a comprehension question that the students can answer. We have the basic 5W’s and then other questions that ask what a student’s favorite part is, if there is anything they still wonder about, and the part, if any, that they connected to their own life or another text.

We also do an ABC countdown.
As we also live in Indianapolis, we hold a Kindy 500 each year where we have raced themed stations for students to rotate thru.

We have them in September each year, however, parents are able to request an additional conference any time. I will pull together as many data points that I have about each child so I can show a complete picture of how the child is performing in class.

I subscribe to a service called Heidi Songs and she offers lots of brain breaks that are still educational. Other sites I’ve used in the past offered materials that were to mature for my K students, but Heidi Songs is always appropriate and full of great brain breaks that have students crossing the midline while taking a break from learning new content.

We have a slide that we are required to share at Back to School night that outlines our Title staff and how students are selected to use the Title services.

Have you checked with Vista Print? They are usually reasonable and often have coupons available.

I create a March Madness Book Bracket each March. I teach in Indiana, so it’s a natural tie in during this time of year.
I choose books that are SEL related, because we often need them this time of year, along with books that will continue to help me create a culturally responsive classroom.
This year’s bracket is below and will start tomorrow and continue on thru March and into April as needed until we decide on a winner. 20 books are included and ensures that I will read aloud two books a day for the next 35-40 days.

I think taking the time to reflect when you come up against these situations is important. Taking as much time as you can, even if it’s minutes, can help you think through possible outcomes and weigh different viewpoints.

I also try to find silver linings in each day or situation. There is nearly always something that went okay or worked out okay, even when we may think it wasn’t the right decision.

Reflection in this job is SO very important!! It can teach you so much and guide you in the future.

We also barter with textbook publishers for bulk rates, make modifications to existing materials so the align with updated standards and mandates and find lower cost or free versions of items when possible.

In Indiana, we are also required to have a 90 minute literacy block. See photo below. We have to adopt curricular materials as vetted by the state to meet this requirement. The mandate below shows what we have to include in that 90 minutes, so we cover each of the areas using the curriculum materials that are adopted.
Adoption for new materials will happen before May this year for next school year and due to cuts in textbook funding (long story!), we are working to cobble items together that are both affordable and meet the state requirements. It’s a rock and a hard place.

My admins are amazing at building morale! From the Woot Woot wagon filled with treats when we have perfect staff attendance to snacks at every single staff meeting, they do lots of little things in between to raise and keep morale up!

They also leave notes in your mailbox telling you something awesome you did while teaching, give shoutouts in our weekly newsletter, facilitate school awards (golden fork for great class behavior in the cafeteria, silent slipper for classes walking quietly in the hallways, and the staff golden apple that is passed from staff member to staff member each month), and they raise funds to gift us with school themed gear twice a year.

I also use student chosen rewards. We use a warm fuzzy jar in my kindergarten classroom, and when we fill the warm fuzzy jar, students share out different ideas about how we can celebrate. In the past, those ideas have included more recess time, extra playtime at the end of the day, watching a short movie or TV episode (all appropriate for five and six year olds), reading in the dark with flashlights, having their teacher or a special guest reader read five or six books back to back, wearing pajamas to school for a pajama day, and our favorite has been drawing on paper that has been taped to the underside of the tables.

When my students are able to choose the reward, that makes them even more excited about filling up the warm fuzzy jar next time! After all of the suggestions have been shared, each child gets to vote for their favorite and the choice that ends up with the most tally marks, is chosen.

Sometimes, if we have a bit of extra time, I am able to squeeze in two of the choices. For example, the last time we filled the warm fuzzy jar my students voted for a pajama day, however, reading books in the dark with flashlights only lost by one point, so we were able to do both in one day.

I try to find out what interests my student has, and then incorporate what interests them into the work that they are doing. For example, one of my kindergarten students this year, who is struggling a bit with their learning, loves Paw Patrol! I did a quick online search and found lots of things I could use to get them excited about wanting to complete their work that tied back to Paw Patrol

I also use lots of motivational token boards to get my students who might be struggling, motivated again. I usually set an easy goal for them, for example, if they work for 5 to 10 minutes straight, then they can earn the first of their three tokens. When they earn all three tokens, then they get to enjoy whatever their chosen reward is. For my student I shared about above, that is having a chance to play in the kinetic sandbox for 15 minutes.

I think building a strong relationship with students who may struggle with learning in someway, is the key to helping them want to work, and to finish their work.

We are headed to the bowling alley tomorrow, and taking all 125 of our Kindergarten students along, to practice our force and motion standards. We will be exploring how various strengths of pushes affect how many pins are knocked down and the use of ramps at differing heights.

Thank you!! I’ve read Cultivating Genius, but I was not aware of Cultivating Joy! I will definitely need to read it!

I’ve really enjoyed the Shifting the Balance (K-2) book. It’s full of practical and easy to implement shifts that you can make to what you all are already doing to move more towards science of reading. They also have a book geared for third through fifth grade too.

Love this idea Linda! I was just doing this with a small group of my Kinder students this week and it really helps them visually see where letter placement is.

We have a team who benchmark test most of our students. However, in Kindergarten, we do most of that ourselves. The benchmark team mainly keeps track of those students who will be taking state tests during the year.

I also join professional organizations related to my field so that I can connect with more colleagues who are located further away.
Many times these organizations have journals that they publish so I read professionally that way to help me keep learning.

I like to visit colleagues classrooms and learn from them as they teach. This happens across our district where teachers visit other schools to watch and learn.
I also attend conferences when I am able. Locally, if I volunteer in some way to help with the conference, I am usually able to get free or reduced registration, which is always a bonus!

When I am able, I try to pull students in small groups to work on differentiating tasks. This helps me find where each student may be having difficulty and know how best to help them.

I am finding the same thing is happening in my classroom Clark. I have no explanation as to why it is happening, however, we are revisiting routines and procedures daily. I am also trying a variety of tracking methods to determine when and why these behaviors are arising now.
We are hopeful that once our weather warms up that we can do more learning outside and give more movement breaks until then to see if that helps.

I have used Donors Choose in the past, but we also supplement with fundraisers in our own building. We’ve had garage sales with donated items and all proceeds fund our field trip fund. Also, many of our local parks and libraries will pay the cost of buses through a grant of their own and then do not charge us a fee to attend the trip.

I like to make a video of my students working each month so that the next month I can see and hear the growth that they are making!

I love dice games! Games can be as simple as rolling one or more die to get a sum or more roll and record type games where students roll a die and then record something that correlates to the number rolled (example: if a student rolled a 3, they might need to color in the answer to a math problem that was 18). I create these with blank black and white images and place math problems, minus the answers, in each space needing to be colored. A student would solve the problem and then roll the die to find out what color is needed to color it in.
This can work for all subject areas, but always makes it feel less like work and more like fun, and is engaging!

I have a tab for each of my students and keep any information or data gathered on each child behind their name. This includes any formal assessments or my informal observations on post-its or index cards. I also keep information such as student likes and dislikes on a page in my data binder so if there is ever a time when a student needs support or enrichment, I can be sure to incorporate their likes into activities to try and engage the student.

Find a buddy teacher who can be your mentor and who you can use as a sounding board and venting partner.

I have a parent survey that families fill out at the beginning of each year to tell me about their child’s interests and anything I should know about them. I also have a kid friendly version that I use to capture information as each student shares with me. I store all this information away and use it when talking to students and helping them through things. Knowing their likes and dislikes helps me engage in conversations and make sure I tailor some lessons to their interests.

Puzzles are most definitely underrated! There are so many skills that can be developed by putting them together and working to find where each piece belongs.
I also love the tiny building blocks! I’m glad you shared them! I should get those out for my students to use!

I have a variety of STEM related bins that my students can choose from each morning when they enter the classroom. I have paper cups for stacking, MagnaTiles, Legos, connecting tubes, brain flakes, magnetic marble runs, blocks, play dough with extruders, and much more. I try to switch them out monthly so they are new and fresh, but I am looking for some new ideas!

We use videos online that help put sight words to music and motions. This helps my children with all kinds of learning styles remember words in the way in which they learn best. We also have our sight words in a pocket chart and play games, such as “I spy” to help us constantly review sight words. Finally, with orthographically map each word as a class, adding a heart above parts of words that we just have to know by heart, such as the “e” in like.

That’s a great tip!! I use duct tape and tape a length of ribbon to the inside of the back cover and we use that as a bookmark. In Kindergarten is saves us from also finding a random page and sticking new information in. At least this way, we can find where we worked last and then we all flip to a new page TOGETHER! Sometimes the page skipping still happens, but this helps A LOT!

I like to include data, evidence, objects, drawings, artifacts, diagrams, reading material that relate, and foldables.

I make sure to stick to our routine as much as possible. That includes having my assistant teach the class in my absence, so that the day flows as normally and as smoothly as possible. I do also add in more desirable tasks that we don’t always get to do, so if I can’t be there, my students can still have a special day!

I have also started asking our math and literacy coaches if they would like to come in and teach when I’m out. They use this time to try out new lessons or curriculum in a classroom and to give me feedback on how I can structure my day for maximum success. Sometimes it helps to be back in a classroom to try out things they are sharing with us in PD and when I’m out gives them the space and freedom to do that, with the added bonus of my students receiving a quality lesson while I’m out.

I love reading the book Jabari Jumps. Jabari really wants to jump off the highest diving board into the swimming pool, but keeps feeling nervous until a change in his mindset (and a few encouraging words) help him tackle this challenge! We can relate his experience to so many things in our classroom.

We have Canvas as an option, but in K-1, we prefer to send home a paper packet. We tie it all back to snow as much as we can and include time to play in the snow (when seasonally appropriate). They write about what they did in the snow, sight words they wrote in the snow, animals observed in the snow (tracks too), how much time they spent in the snow.
Sometimes they are not able to go out physically in the snow, so we ask the children to make observations about these things from a window or porch. We want them to have some magic of a snow day, but know they still have to do some learning!

We send home quarterly report cards and I send a weekly newsletter which includes the standards we worked on that week. I check in with parents as often as needed, sometimes daily even, to let them know their child’s progress and how they can help at home.

We have a math pledge that we say together at the beginning of each math lesson that helps us reframe our thinking into mathematicians each day.
I am smart!
I can do hard things!
I can try and use different strategies!
I can persevere!
I can use math everywhere!
I am a mathematician!

We love to try out different kinds of breathing in my Kdg classroom. Our favorite so far is Rainbow breathing. We found a great video on YouTube that leads us. https://youtu.be/IIbBI-BT9c4?si=fwu0fwXsHKphI5SF

I make sure to model with my entire class each independent activity that they could encounter when they are working while I am in a group. I often will have students model the appropriate behavior and conversation I would like to see so that it is coming from peers and not always me. My students will then rehearse how it will look and sound when they work on the activities. This has cut down on students losing focus or not being able to complete an activity, since they will all know what is expected.

In TK- K the transition begins with scribbles, then moves on to squiggles, symbols that look like letters, letters that are recognizable, and finally phonetically spelled words and phrases.