Our First Hall Display of 2012-2013!!

We Kindergarten teachers know how exciting it is the first time you display your students' work for the world to see! The children light up and staff members delight at the wonderful skills of our little learners! Last week, we completed our first week together! We read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and talked about how we felt on the first day! I'm pleased to report that most students felt HAPPY! After the story, we made our own Rocky Raccoons! I recorded how they felt and the children colored and cut.

While I always display work the hallway and classroom, I was tired of making the good 'ol tape doughnuts! I searched pinterest (follow any of my 72 boards at Bree Williams)  and found some really cute (but time consuming) ideas. Then inspiration hit..in the classroom of my teammate, Miss Ashley Williamson, teacher in Yellow 1, and writer of the awesome blog The Kindergarten Garden! While visiting her classroom to chat (okay, okay, I was there to steal ideas), I saw her students' work hanging from colorful clothes pins. She simply spray painted wooden clothes pins with colors that coordinated. So, I stole her idea. It was a super quick idea too!

On Friday afternoon I visited the Dollar Tree and purchased a pack of 36 clothes pins. My 12 year old daughter Marley sprayed them for me Monday afternoon. They sat out drying and even got stuck outside in the remnant rain from the recent hurricane. Once the rain stopped, we gave them a good 'ol drying and they were fine. Just this morning in the classroom I hot glued thumb  tacs on the back of half. These would poke right into my bulletin strip in the hallway. The other half got 3M strips to post on the wall itself. They went into the hallway this morning and I only had to clip their work up. NO MORE TAPE DOUGHNUTS!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!! Thanks Ashley for inspiring me everyday! Enjoy the pictures of our first bulletin board! (And as I look at the pictures for the first time I know I'll be moving some of the clips to fix the spacing....yes, I'm a perfectionist, but at least it will be a quick fix!)

A New School Year!

Kindergarten in G1 is an exciting place! I cannot believe in 4 days I will meet 22 new faces!  The theme of our classroom this year is Polka Dots and Chevron! I am addicted to anything (and everything) Polka dot! Enjoy some of the images of our classroom. Keep in mind that our classroom is a work in progress and it will change as the year continues.


lockers

cubbies

smartboard

blocks

computer area
 

Tattle Phone

red table
 

blue table



purple table

 

green table

yellow table

 

Environmental Print Word Wall
 

Writing Wall

Curtains

kitchen

What My Teacher Did This Summer

Hello new students and welcome to Kindergarten!  My name is Mrs. Williams and I will be your Kindergarten teacher this year! I am very excited to meet all of you!

I am sure you have enjoyed this beautiful summer with your family! Since school ended in June, I also have been busy with my family. We had many adventures! I would like to share some of our adventures here with you. Take a stroll through some of the photographs of my summer. See if you and your family did some of the same things. We'll talk about your summer on the first day of school, August 27th! I cannot wait!

We visited the beach many times! These are my children at the beach.

Marley is 12 (soon to be 13), Rebecca is 7, Raymond is 6, and Lidia is 2.

Did you visit the beach this summer?

My children Rebecca and Raymond had a birthday.

Rebecca turned 7 and Raymond turned 6.

Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Rebecca climbed into Lidia's crib to be silly!

Being silly was a big part of our summer!

What sily thing did you do this summer?

Raymond is starting Kindergarten this year too!

He worked hard on learning the letters this summer.

Did you do fun activities to help you learn this summer?

I took a trip to New York City on a train with Marley and Rebecca!

It was a lot of fun!

Have you ever been on a train?

 This is my family at the Farm. We went peach picking.

That's my husband Mr. Williams next to me.

What do you think we made with all of our peaches?

 This summer we had many adventures.

However, our favorite thing to do was to be at home, together.

What was your favorite thing you did this summer?

I can't wait to hear all about your summer on the first day of school! Mom's and Dad's can comment here to tell us all about it!



Mother's Day Silhouettes!

I have always wanted silhouettes of my own children (hint, hint to my husband) so I decided to give it a try this year. I scoured my favorite site for all things crafty {pinterest.com, follow me here http://pinterest.com/bree_d_williams/} and found this really great activity making silhouettes. Visit the original tutorial here: http://www.thesitsgirls.com/food-lifestyle/do-it-yourself-make-your-own-silhouettes/

I tweaked the activity from "Women Get Social" to make it easier for me to complete for my entire class in just one afternoon. Here are the steps I took:

First, take pictures of the students up close against a neutral background. I choose our smart board. I covered of the child's face for anonymity. You get the idea. Kind of like a Kindergarten Mug Shot!

Then I printed all of the pictures in a 5X7 size on white paper from my classroom printer.

Next I copied those pictures (using the copier machine) onto black construction paper. Then I cut around each child's silhouette. You have to cut carefully and closely follow the lines of each child's picture. I have to admit they are so cute!

Last, I glued the reverse side (opposite where the picture is copied) onto the back of their Mother's Day Questionnaire. {Get the questionnaire for free from my post earlier today!}

All done and ready for the laminator! I will send this home as their final project for their Mother's Day Gifts! I am pleased with how they turned out and it only took one planning period (45 min) to print, cut-out, and glue.

I hope you've been inspired to try this with your students or your own children {Can anyone guess what I'm doing this weekend with my own kids? Check out the finished products on Sunday over at www.breewilliamsphotography@hotmail.com)

Mother's Day is coming!

Next Sunday we celebrate mama's everywhere! May 13th is Mother's Day! As a mother myself, it is a favorite day in my house. Every year in my classroom we complete a Mother's Day Questionnaire. I like to do activities with my students that I would keep myself if my children had made it. This acitvity is one that I would save and read again when the kids were grown.

In the classroom we sit in a small group and read each statement together. The students fill in the answers using inventive spelling. At this point in the school year, most students can write words with a beginning, middle, and ending sound. Then they color the border frame and back it with construction paper for a pop of color.The finished project is really special! I've included a sample but I blacked out the students name and nickname just in case mommy is reading this. We don't want to spoil the surprise!

If you'd like to use this document in your classroom or at home (hey, who wouldn't love to see this from their child?), click the document below to get it for FREE! Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day Questionnaire

Welcome to Kinder Kids!

Hello and welcome to the blogging world! I am super excited to start my own blog on all things Kindergarten! My goal is to let you in my classroom one sneak peek at a time. I have been teaching for 10 years (WOW! Where did the time go??). I taught Special Education Preschool for 4 years, Intensive Learning Center Kindergarten for 1 year, and have been a SAM (Single Approach to Mastery, a.k.a one dual certified teacher serving typical students and students with IEP's in one classroom) for 5 years. I love my job, my students, and their families! I also love learning! The group of gals, and guy, that I work with are so inspiring and I love learning from them! We all have various levels of teaching experiences so we never run out of fresh new ideas! As I update this blog, I invite you to share your ideas and passions for all things kindergarten! Please comment below to tell us a little about yourself and the kinds of things you'd like to see on this blog!