Thank You Donors Choose for Our New iPad!!

I have recently had another Donors Choose project funded. This time my classroom received a new iPad 2 with a protective case. I already have two iPads for the classroom that I received through Donors Choose a year or so ago. My kinders love getting to use the iPad apps to "play" when they are actually learning at the same time. My iPads are also a part of my Daily 5 rotations for Listen to Reading because they are able to access TumbleBooks through our school subscription . They are also able to listen to leveled readers from our Journeys reading series online. My kinders also use the iPads for Word Work to practice their sight words. They just love using the iPads at anytime! 

Here are some of my kinders using the iPad during Daily 5 to do Word Work:

Dental Health Week - Taking Care of Our Teeth

This week we have been learning about dental health since it is Dental Health month. Our class will be going on a field trip to our local dentist office next Friday so we wanted to cover this unit early in the month. 

I found many ideas to help teach this unit on Pinterest. Just click on the picture below to go to my dental health board.

KinderKids Fun Dental Health Board on Pinterest

This week we made these minibooks from Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten called My Healthy Teeth. This is a freebie in her TpT store so head over and download it for yourself too! The kinders had to fill in the missing word which was "my". This was a good review of some sight words for them and they always love creating a new book to add to their book baskets that they can read easily during Read to Self (Daily 5).

My favorite activity we did this week was our tooth fairy craft and writing. This craft was a freebie from Angie Neal's TpT store - Tooth Fairy Art Activity. The kinders LOVED making these! They were so creative with the way they made theirs and each one was unique. Then they wrote about what they would do if they were the tooth fairy. These are by far one of my favorite things we have done this year!

I love how he turned his toothfairy into a boy with short pieces of hair!

This one is so neatly made!

Her writing is adorable: I would fly at night and I would give kids 5 dollars.

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday. I am hoping for a relaxing weekend with my little family. I feel like we all need it. I am definitely looking forward to having Presidents Day off in just a little over a week.

Thank you Donors Choose For Our Sweet Seats!!

I am so excited to say that I have had another Donors Choose grant fully funded and my classroom received the new materials this week! My kinders were so excited when we had 8 (yes EIGHT!!) big boxes wheeled into our classroom. They didn't know what was coming until I opened the first box and they saw the new beanbags that were ours for our classroom. I wrote the grant for 8 "little" beanbags to use during Daily 5. They match the colors in my classroom and are red, blue and green. The kinders LOVED them. They were even more excited than usual for Read to Self time. Here are some pictures of them using the new beanbags. 

I am completely amazed at the generosity of the donors who have given this money to complete my classroom project. I do not know these donors and yet they have chosen to support my students. It is an amazing feeling to know people care about our kiddos!

If you have not written a Donors Choose grant before, I encourage you to do it. The best advice I have is to keep the materials you are requesting under $350 dollars for the best rate of success. I have found that the more expensive projects tend not to be funded in the allowed amount of time. Also, when your grant is posted make sure to let everyone know via Facebook and email. You also need to come up with a cute, snazzy title for your project so it will attract donors' attention. My title for this project was: "Please Be Sweet and Buy Us Seats!" You will be surprised where the donations pour in from! 

The First Week of School

Well we have officially been in school for 7 days now. They have been some very busy but fun days so far. I have 20 lovable kinders that I am loving getting to know better. They are really a sweet group this year.

With the start of the new school year, I have been implementing the Daily 5 into my classroom routine. If you have not heard about it, it is a structure for ELA instruction. We have been working on introducing Read to Self and building our stamina. Today we made it up to 6 minutes. I was so excited! I know that isn't long but it has taken us 5 days to get there. Here are some pictures of them doing Daily 5.

I hope your first days back have been fun (and busy!) like ours! If you do Daily 5 in your classroom, I would love to know how it is going. I am nervous implementing a new program, but I think it will be great. Happy Thursday!