Someone Stop Me!!!

Okay, I think I am in serious need of a holiday......

I have been having such a blast creating new things for my class!!

  The latest adventure in my great JK Adventure is opening a TPT store and posting some of the things I have made.  For those of you who haven't heard of TPT, it stands for "Teachers Pay Teachers."  

I thought since I'm making these things for myself, I might as well share them, and maybe someone else will be interested in them enough to even pay a buck or two for the digital download.  

If not, that's okay......I'm using the stuff and having a lot of fun making them!

Here's a taste of what I've been up to:

These are the coathook/nametags

Coathook Nametags

This is an autumn Write the Room activity:

Jolly Phonics Autumn Write the Room

This Write the Room activity goes with our Fire Safety unit.

Fire Safety Write the Room

Someone please stop me......I'm riding the creativity train and I'm not sure if I can get off!

A Few Nice Finds

I found some wonderful "containers"  at the garden centre.

They will be great for our school tools.  

I bought two smaller ones for pencils and erasers, and a few

larger ones for glue-sticks and scissors.

All the pails have cute little labels, and just in case you can't read,

there are pictures on the back of the labels.

(After this pic was taken, the pails were given a few stickers for decoration.)

The best part about these containers is they aren't made of plastic, 

so they won't crack when dropped!

 I thought these containers were just the perfect size for book bins:

I found these "dry-erase" books for $1 at Staples...

Last but not least, I bought some name tag clips to add to the cute little name tags that I made.

I think they'll be VERY helpful for the first few days of school while I learn their names!

I plan to keep them on hand for supply teachers.  

If there's one thing I had always wished

I had while I was supply teaching, it was name tags for the kids.

(Needless to say, I'm hoping I won't be sick and in need of someone to take my place!)

Techno-Kid to the Rescue

I called upon my wonderful eldest daughter this afternoon, to do some computer work for me while I saw to the house-cleaning that I have so seriously neglected.  I gave her a template to start with, we decided what we didn't like about it, she removed several things, added the capital letter alphabet, changed some graphics, and then I added the tracing letters.  They will be printed & laminated, and then the children will be able to trace their names on them with dry-erase markers.  I think they're rather cute AND very functional.

The other thing I worked on this afternoon was to make labels for our "Classroom Helpers" Bulletin Board.  I bought this cute set from Scholar's Choice. 

This evening I decided to make my own number/number-dots game for the numbers 1-10.  All you need is some string and a few clothes pins and you can do the laundry with your class. 

I found a nice t-shirt template with 6 different coloured t-shirts, 

and I added my own numbers and dots. 

  

A big thanks goes to Amber for her patience today!  (It's amazing what you can learn from your kids if you're willing.)  She taught me a lot of great tricks in the paint program. I'm hoping to use these cute shirts in a "number" of different ways.

(On the down side, I now have another item to print, laminate, & cut out...)

(When I uploaded this file to Google Drive, I think it changed the size of the shirts, but you can always edit them and make them whatever size you want!)

My to-do list is getting shorter!!!! Yipee!!!!  That's a very wonderful thing, because I want to enjoy our anniversary without having a dark cloud of unfinished tasks hanging over my head.  

Now I think it's time to go watch some Olympics......I'm almost over that nasty football loss to the Americans...well, almost... 

Organization: The Name of the Game

Organization is one of the keys to a "less-stressed" life.  In my opinion, this applies to the classroom as well.  I've got several things on the go to help me stay organized for the upcoming school year.  From my yearly overview, monthly plans and daily schedule, to the labels I've made for the literacy activity centres.  On top of that, I also purchased something that I have come to love...my laminator.  When I found out about my new job, it was one of the first things I acquired.  Needless to say, it has been put to great use.  I found it on the Costco website, ordered it, and it was here in just a few days.  (Check it out.) It works GREAT!  It was reasonably priced, has a great warranty, (Costco really stands behind their stuff), and it laminates materials up to 12 inches wide.

Here are just a few of the fun things that I've been working on:

Just a couple of the (several) name items:
This comes from http://www.teaching4real.com/

Tags for organizing Literacy activity centres:

You can find these labels here.

Owls for my Word Wall:
Bought the digital file on TPT (Teachers Paying Teachers)...awesome place!
You can find it here.

Alphabet to post in the classroom, 

or I might just cut them apart and make a matching game:
I found these here.

We focus on a different colour every month, 

so we will slowly add scoops of ice-cream as the year goes on:
(Can't remember where I found this resource.)

Getting to Know You aka "Person of the Day!"

I've gathered a number of different teaching and activity ideas to help the children learn their names and the names of their classmates. I totally loved the GTKY ideas from Anita Bremer that you can find here.  She has a great description of her routine with the kids. Since this was such a hit in the class I worked in last year, I've made my own materials, copying Anita's idea, of course, and this is what I came up with.  I hope the kids in my class have as much fun with it as we had in her class this past year!  (Just for the record: I can't wait to meet the little cuties!)

               

New Adventure

I am starting a new adventure in September, and it is so very exciting that I thought it deserves a blog.  And so it begins...Mrs. Schenk's JK Adventures!

Why is it such an "Adventure?"  Well, it is the first time I am teaching JK in a formal school setting.  That being said, I taught (home-schooled) all four of my kids for preschool, JK and SK..(that's 11 years of great fun).  It was AMAZING to have the opportunity to teach them all to read and give them a strong foundation and head start to build on.  I can't wait to do the same thing for my new students!

My hubby is a principal, so we have moved a few times over the years.  All that moving gave me an opportunity to be a part of several different schools, and make some amazing connections and friends along the way.  Every school has it's own uniqueness, and we have loved every one of them!

Back to the adventure.....I have taught almost every grade of elementary school.  When I graduated from university, my first class was 2nd grade, then I taught SK, then 3rd, then a 6th-8th grade class (that was a tad insane and out of my comfort zone), then a 1st&2nd grade class, and this past year I was an EA in an SK class with Mrs. Anita Bremer...LOVED IT!!  She is an awesome teacher and has an amazing blog.  (Yup...an inspiration to me!)

I honestly can't believe the wealth of information available to teachers on the intenet.  (It certainly wasn't that way when I started teaching so many years ago.)  The list of amazing teaching blogs in my "favourite bookmarks" list is rather lengthy.  I have been blessed by many of them, so I thought that when I have some time I would try to bless others by sharing some of the things I have done for my own JK class.

I've been spending sooooooooo much time preparing for this new job...it is great fun!  I've made a bunch of things that I have found on pinterest and on several kindergarten blogs that I have happened upon.

So here it goes...my first share!  It's a self-portrait page to do on the first day of school.  I'm not sure how many of my JK children will be able to write their names, but it will be a great keepsake and a nice opportunity for me to see where they are at.