Classroom Reveal and a Freebie!

I am so excited to be sharing my kindergarten classroom with all of you!  My classroom is a home away from home and I want it to be an inviting place for me and my students.  I made some changes this year and am excited about the "newness" the room has this year.  I have been in this room for 8 years now and so walking in with some changes makes it feel fresh.

Tomorrow will be Day 9 of school for us.  We are having a great start to our year and I am have a sweet group this year.  I hope you are having a wonderful start to your year as well.

This is the view of my door from outside in the hall.  I love my apple flag and have many flags that I rotate seasonally throughout the year.

I put my Happy Birthday board on my door.  I cut the letters on my Silhouette Cameo and bought the cupcakes from Lakeshore.  I am going to take pictures of my students and put them on the cupcakes for their birthdays.  The fabric is my window protection and rolls down easily in case of lockdown drills.

This is the view of my classroom from my door.  I love my large windows that let in a lot of natural light.  I also have a door that leads straight out to the playground which is very nice!

This is one of my bulletin boards.  I do a random drawing for a Star Student every week.  The children fill out a paper and we learn more about them.  They get a special chair and slip cover for the week.  This year I also decided to simplify and make the Star Student my jobs person.  I always had rotating jobs in the past and I could never remember who was in charge of things (like the door holder) when we were out of the room.  I can remember one student for everything though!  I am looking forward to this starting next week. 

The fish straws are birthday gifts!  Students can pick the straw color of their choice on their special day.  They came from Oriental Trading Company.

We had a recess rodeo on the third day of school where we taught the children how to safely play recess games.  After, we made these adorable art projects with children swinging on a swing, or going down the slide.  Underneath it says "I promise to be safe at recess."  They are so cute!  This packet comes with a book and activity cards.  It is by D Conway called Recess Rules! Emergent Reader and Creativity Pack and you can find it here.

This is my word wall - to be!  I made the letters and words and want to post it on TpT soon.  I used a chevron background and just love how it looks.  I also put up black fabric this year.  This is a brand new board to me.  I wasn't sure how I would like the black.  At first it seemed very dark, but I am liking it a lot now that I have the border and parts put together.

This is my writing center.  The kiddos are liking this area of the classroom so much.  I got the colorful wall hanger on Amazon and am going to put in different writing papers as the year goes on.

The Writing Center image is from Teaching Superkids and the small posters talking about different writing strategies are from A Class of Kinders.

This is my little library.  The colored tubs on top are my table books.  The word READ is a freebie in my TpT store.  You can find that here.

My playhouse!  This is a favorite during activity time.  I think it is adorable!

The view of my small group area from the library.

A view of the front of my classroom!  The math bulletin board is actually two bulletin boards put together, hence the silver bar down the middle.  I put burlap on the bulletin board and I am excited to start adding to it as the year goes on.

I like my new math wall. I made the letters for MATH and got the plates at the Dollar Store.  The number posters are in my TpT store.  You can find those here.  The Days in School is adorable and that is from Wild About Firsties for her Facebook fans.

This is my literacy Focus Wall.  We use the Reading Street program and this board is a good way to draw their attention to the targeted skills for the week.

This is a view of my vast personal book collection.  I also keep things on the counter like my Math Journals, and papers for the week.  The two tubs against the wall are things I have bought from TpT.  I have a bit of a buying problem!  But, they are all organized and ready to go for activities for my students.

The colorful tubs are where I store my word work activities.  I got most of these materials from Lakeshore through a Donors Choose grant.  The wooden shelf shows the plastic tubs I spray painted and I love how the green looks.  I am putting together my All Done! Now What? by Miss Kindergarten Love in these tubs.  However, our copy machine has been broken the majority of the school year and I can't quite get the copies made.  I also have some whiteboards and clipboards for easy student access.

This is a view of my room standing by the small group table against the windows. You can also see my SMARTBoard.  I love using this teaching tool in the classroom.  

This a view of my desk and filing cabinet.  The desks are huge!  They were donated by a company and so this is not the traditional teacher desk.  Above my desk is my number of the week bulletin board (oops! I cut off the top!).  That is in my TpT store and you can find that here.  Next to that, where the long pocket charts are, is where I will post my goals (CCSS) for my lessons.

Here is another view of my classroom from my desk.  I love the colorful lanterns hanging in my room.  They add so much charm.  I got those at Oriental Trading Company.

This is my bathroom pass.  The children take the clothespin and put that on their clothes.  I made this graphic with clip art from Krista Wallden at Creative Clips and Graphics from the Pond.

I adore the way the students are getting home turned out.  I got the images from Wild About Firsties and am using clothespins underneath.  I used to type names but then had to keep typing up new lists as students came and went, or changed their mode of transportation.  This is way easier!  The tooth graph is also so cute and it is from Erica Bohrer, but I don't see it in her TpT store anymore.  The fairy is from Clementine Digitals and it so stinking cute!  The wand if from The Dollar Store!  I cut out the letters on my Silhouette Cameo. 

My husband came to school last year and painted my shelf.  Here I store my table caddies, crayons and markers, and some math materials.

At the end of my cubbies I store my glue sponges and my tidy tubs.  Do you use Tidy Tubs?  They are so amazing and it keeps my kiddos at their seats, rather than waking around the room non-stop to the recycling bin.  I wanted to share a Tidy Tub freebie with you in case you use them.  I made these to label my bins and I just love them! Find your freebie below!

Here are just a few more pics of my classroom!  It is a place that makes me happy :)

Don't mind the missing Uu on the bulletin board.  I accidentally printed two Tt's, so I need to replace that.  I also love the large shapes along the top of my wall.  The 2D ones I made, the 3D ones I bought - but I don't recall where.

Click here, or the image below for your Tidy Tub Freebie :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a great rest of your school year :)

Go Noodle Back to School Fun!

It is back to school time in Oregon (as well as other areas of the country) and one of the things I am most excited about this school year is introducing my new class to Go Noodle!  I discovered Go Noodle last year and was intrigued.  I decided to find out what this Go Noodle thing was all about, and it quickly became a favorite brain break in my classroom.

Go Noodle is a FREE website that has myriad opportunities for brain breaks.  All students need to be able to move in the classroom, and sometimes a quick brain break is all it takes to get wiggly students back on track.  Go Noodle can be used before, during, or at the end of a lesson!

There are many different types of brain breaks that your students can do with Go Noodle.  They can do calming activities like yoga, get active with some running, or dance and sing with Zumba or Koo Koo Kangaroo.  Go Noodle even started an indoor recess station.  The activities range from about 7 - 19 minutes and it compiles many Go Noodle favorites to get the kids moving.

Go Noodle even has a You Tube station which has academic songs for math and reading!

When starting Go Noodle your class pics a "champ" and after 10 Go Noodle brain breaks, your champ goes in the Transmorgifier and grows.  After 3 more times, you max out that champ and then pick a new one.  The children LOVE when their champ grows.  This is also a great math lesson.  After completing a Go Noodle, a bar will show 7/10 and I will ask my students, "How many more do we need to get to 10?"

I can't wait to use it this year for brain breaks, calming activities during transitions, and fun academic movement.  However, my favorite way to use Go Noodle is to end our day watching a video on the SMARTBoard.  The children are very motivated to clean up, get their backpacks, head back to the carpet, and get ready for a fun closing activity.

Here is an example of my students at the end of the day with their backpacks on.  We are doing "Roller Coaster" by Koo Koo Kangaroo.  If you haven't watched this yet, DO IT!!!!  It is a blast!

Here we are taking a brain break to "Dino Stomp" by Koo Koo Kangaroo.  

Clearly, Koo Koo Kangaroo is our favorite!  Here is a video of us doing Pop See Ko - another favorite.  The kiddos couldn't get enough of this one.  We need to work on our timing a little bit, but you can see how engaged they are.

To celebrate being back in school, you can shop for swag at the Go Noodle shop for a 15% discount.  Just use the code BTSwithGoNoodle (valid September 5-11).

However, I am so excited because I also get to GIVEAWAY a tumbler from Go Noodle!  Wouldn't this be fun to bring to school and drink your morning coffee or tea?

If you'd like to win this tumbler, head on over to my Kindergarten Planet Facebook page and comment on the Go Noodle picture.  Let me know if you use Go Noodle in your classroom and if so, what is your favorite one to do with your class?

Do you Go Noodle?  If not, you should!