Did anyone buy these letter coasters at the dollar spot? I did and made a matching activiy for my kids.
Check it out at Adventures in Kindergarten where I'm Mary's guest blogger for today! How exciting :)
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Organizing Home Communication Info.
I'm sure many of you have your own way of collecting information from parents and organizing it, but I thought I'd share mine. It has served me well the last couple of years and it's fairly simple.
The first time important papers go home I send home this Home Communication Questionnaire. I would love to send it home with the welcome letter before school starts, but since the rest of my team doesn't do this and I do receive my class list until right before school starts, I don't. I asks parents to fill in the basics: names, occupations (useful for guests during community workers unit), numbers, addresses, e-mails. But it also asks about student allergies (VERY IMPORTANT), any other information parents want me to know, and how they would like to volunteer. I work at a charter school and we require parents to complete 20 volunteer hours per student per year. Now if only everyone actually did it . . . . that's another story.
I copy it onto the brightest most colorful copy paper I have so that parents see it and I can see it at a glance in student files throughout the year. You can get much of the contact information from the emergency cards but believe it or not many parents don't tell the truth about their info. At least where I work. They are much more likely to provide truthful numbers and addresses to myself than the office. Take some time the first month to verify this information with a positive phone call home . . . just to make sure.
As students return their questionnaires I begin inputting the most important contact info into this Home Communication Spreadsheet. I don't like how it came out in google docs, so if you would like the PDF or editable word format just e-mail me. I simply type in the student's and parents' names in the first column. I also type in RED any allergies/health information as well as any other red flags (such as parents are separated: court order only mom can pick up - no dad). Unfortunately this was one of my cases this year. Sad but true. Then I fill out each successive column. I just print it out when I have them all and place one in my teacher binder, one in my emergency backpack, one in my sub folder, and one near (but hidden) near my classroom phone. That way I have easy access to all of their info!
If you use any of these I'd love to hear from you! I'd also love to hear how you obtain and organize your parent/student contact information :) Drop me a note.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
1st Vistaprint shipment received!!!
Thank you bloggy world for introducing me to VISTAPRINT BABY! I'm soooo excited to use the stuff I ordered. I received my first shipment this week and have already begun my 2nd order. Here is what I got . . .
Unfinished work labels
Information magnets (maybe I'll get less of the "I lost your number" this year)
Car door magnet to place outside my door (Do I need help? Yes or No. Thank you.)
Birthday postcards (I thought I'd placed the special Spanish characters, but I didn't, so now I have to go back and add them with a marker. If you speak Spanish you know what it means without the accent on the "n" :)
Information business cards to pass out to parents
Since I'm on a roll here is what I've prepared for the next order so far . . .
Blank magnets to write students' names and use for attendance.
Bag for best behaved student to take Bono el Mono home each day.
Welcome classroom small banner
Conference confirmation postcards (front)
Conference confirmation postcards (back)
Do not disturb - testing small car door magnet (for classroom door - let's see if they respect it this year :/
That's what I've got for now. My plan is to go to school tomorrow and take my book bins. I can't finish them because I can't laminate the labels until our lamination center reopens and I still need the individual matching stickers on each book. But something is better than nothing. Time for bed. Finally.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Free Book Bin Labels!
I'm almost done organizing my books . . . almost. I'm planning on going to school tomorrow (again, 40 miles away) to drop the baskets off so that my baby isn't continually being tempted to empty the bins :) I decided that the best way to simplify the baskets was to classify them based on our Houghton Mifflin themes. That way I can easily display the books from the current theme in the standing book shelf and when I need a theme related book it is easily accessible.
Of course I found lots of books that I just couldn't find a spot for in the LA themes, so I'm going to have to go and buy some more baskets tomorrow :( Sooooo don't have any money left. But this is one of my goals this year, so . . . we'll just eat less :)
I thought I would share the labels I have so far. The font and many of the cliparts are DJ Inkers. I did them an oval kind of shape (was meant to be a circle) just because I felt like it. The baskets have circles and I think I also had Kristen's, from Ladybug's Teacher Files, supply bin labels in my head, so here they are. I'm going to place them on orange cardstock (because that's what I have at home) and laminate them when I can.
As you'll see they are ONLY in SPANISH. But, if you like them just drop me a comment or e-mail and I will be more than willing to translate them for you.
BTW, I am having issues with google docs. It's new to me. I convert my files to PDF then upload them to docs, but then it looks ok, but then the text repeats itself beneath, without formatting. I delete it, but I end up with blank pages. What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Free Alphabet Stamps!!!
I can't pass up free alphabet stamps! What kinder teacher can? So join the giveaway at Can Do Kinders as a celebration for her awesome followers.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
My humble classroom library
Here is the state of my current classroom library:
It is currently all (minus a few I forgot at work that are in need of repair) in my living room. This might not look like a lot, but it's totally a lot more than I thought I had. Spanish kinder interest level books are hard to come by at a reasonable price. This is where they were all hiding. In the little white bookshelf in the corner behind those black chairs and the standing book rack of which you can only see the corner in front of the tv. Tv and chairs are not even mine by the way. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them all strewn around before I towed them all into the trunk of my car.
My goal is to have them organized in the blue and green baskets (from the Dollar Tree) by the end of the week. Wish me luck!
p.s. I've never organized my library books before so this is a daunting task for me. The fear of the kids RUINING my week's work drives me crazy. Any tips on managing the organization without just closing it off to them?
It is currently all (minus a few I forgot at work that are in need of repair) in my living room. This might not look like a lot, but it's totally a lot more than I thought I had. Spanish kinder interest level books are hard to come by at a reasonable price. This is where they were all hiding. In the little white bookshelf in the corner behind those black chairs and the standing book rack of which you can only see the corner in front of the tv. Tv and chairs are not even mine by the way. I wish I could have gotten a picture of them all strewn around before I towed them all into the trunk of my car.
My goal is to have them organized in the blue and green baskets (from the Dollar Tree) by the end of the week. Wish me luck!
p.s. I've never organized my library books before so this is a daunting task for me. The fear of the kids RUINING my week's work drives me crazy. Any tips on managing the organization without just closing it off to them?
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Back to school giveaway!
This blog is very special to me because it is the very 1st blog I ever started reading . . . over a year ago! I was searching for ideas for my classroom and came upon the original blog: Littlest Learners. I was hooked.
I actually have one of the prizes already: The Ultimate Teacher Organizer Tool. I purchased it last summer and it was a life saver when I went on maternity leave in October. I have never been so organized in my life and my subs really appreciated it.
I looooove that she is sooooooo organized. She actually reminds me of my first student teaching mentor teacher who was also awesome and had the organizational skills of an eagle. Very similar.
If you haven't checked out this blog (although I highly doubt you haven't) go NOW!!
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