I may teach kindergarten at my school, but I am also a faculty advisor for my school’s National Junior Honor Society. For several years, the NJHS has provided tutoring services to struggling students once a week after school. The program has evolved considerably with each passing year and this year we finally have the tutoring program down to a science. I’ll take you step-by-step through the process of setting up a student-run tutoring program for struggling students at your own school. I’ll also share anecdotes and examples of lessons I have learned along the way from launching our own student-run tutoring program.

This post contains some affiliate links, but it is not my intent to sell anything. I personally know how overwhelming it can be to assemble materials for a program like this and I want to share the tools and materials that worked for me in the hopes that they will ease help a fellow teacher to organize a similar program in her own school with ease.

Plan Who Will do the Tutoring

The success of your tutoring program will depend heavily upon the tutors you have available. You definitely want to make sure you have knowledgeable students that are helpful and demonstrate some leadership abilities to run the program. It works out perfectly that the NJHS students at my school fill this role. They are 7th and 8th graders, which makes them the oldest group in the student body. Their membership in NJHS is dependent on academic, leadership, service, character and citizenship. Those criteria make them excellent candidates to run a student tutoring program, but you could use any responsible older students at your school.

Create a Plan for How Often Tutors will Offer Services

Once you have an idea of which students will be volunteering in a student-run tutoring program, you will need to determine how often they will donate their time as tutors. Consistency is the key for the tutees (children being tutored). To serve them best, those students come to tutoring every single week. But that doesn’t mean that the tutors need to be present every week.

Last year, we had a very large group of NJHS students at my school. Tutoring was offered every Thursday after school, but we had enough NJHS members to create four teams, which we put on a four-week rotation, which meant that those tutors volunteered every 4 weeks. As a result, the children being tutored, had a rotation of 4 different people that they worked with on Thursday afternoons.

This year, our NJHS is much smaller and we don’t have enough tutors to adequately serve the needs of the tutees. So this year, we have two tutoring teams. This year’s tutors are on a two-week rotation and every child being tutored only has two tutors.

It’s also worth noting that a teacher is present at every tutoring session to supervise the activity. There are four teachers at my school that rotate supervising the NJHS tutoring program. The supervising teachers  have a schedule similar to the first example shown above.

Provide Training for Tutors

Regardless of how many tutors you have or how you rotate them, it is imperative that you take the time to train your tutors ahead of time. We spent a full hour after school one day going over every single detail of their responsibilities. As a kindergarten teacher, this was right in my wheelhouse. We covered all of these items in tutor training:

How to enter and exit the media center (quietly!)
Where to place coats/backpacks
Where tutees will place their coats/backpacks
Where to move supplies to and from for everyone to access
How to interact with tutees
How to care for supplies
What to do if a supply runs out
How to clean up at the end of tutoring
Where to store supplies between tutoring sessions

And of course, how to complete each of the tutoring tasks.
(While this is certainly an important topic, it is equally important to discuss all of the minute details as well for the tutoring program to operate smoothly and effectively.)

Determine Which Students Will Receive Tutoring Services

Once you have an idea of how many tutors are available, you can figure out which groups of students tutoring will be offered to. There is no clear cut answer for this question. It will depend upon the unique needs of the students at your school, but I can offer suggestions based upon what has worked (and what hasn’t worked) for my school.

In the past, any student that received pull-out support from our learning specialist was eligible for tutoring. The grade-levels this service was offered to has varied considerably since I became a faculty advisor. At our fullest capacity, we offered tutoring services to students in grades 1-8 in math and reading. This was the absolute worst year for tutoring. We didn’t have enough tutors to meet the needs of students receiving services, the tutees were responsible for bringing their own materials each day (I’m sure you can guess how many students came prepared), and the tutors didn’t receive any training ahead of time.

The tutoring arrangements have evolved considerably over the past few years. We now offer highly structured tutoring to much more limited scope of children, all resources are provided by the program and all tutors were trained ahead of time.

Consistency is the Key

Whatever criteria you consider for inviting students to receive student-run tutoring support, make a plan and stick to it. This year, we decided to focus on the basics in our tutoring program. As tutees get older, they didn’t enjoy staying after school for extra practice. This attitude made it very difficult for the tutors to make a positive impact. Since the youngest students were the most receptive to receiving extra help (and all the research shows that interventions are most effective in young students), we decided to scale way back this year and offer the program to first and second grade students only.

Any first and second grade students that receive services in the learning center during the school day are invited to receive after-school tutoring services. It’s an easy line in the sand and simple way to determine who will be offered additional support after school. Each time a new first or second grade referral is made for the learning center, that teacher passes the name along to me and I send a tutoring invitation home.

Obtain Parental Consent

Like all activities for young children, parental consent must be given for students to receive tutoring support. I send home a simple permission form with dismissal and parent contact information. Once I receive consent, supplies are prepared for the tutee and he/she is added to the roster.

Plan and Purchase Instructional Items

While the wheels are turning in anticipation of students joining the program to receive tutoring services, I simultaneously begin gathering materials for the tutoring program. The scope of the program will determine the amount of supplies needed. From a quantitative perspective, you will obviously need enough basic supplies (pencils, highlighters, folders, binders, etc) for each child receiving services. Additionally, you will need to provide grade level and content-specific resources for the range of children in your tutoring program.

Narrowing the scope of our tutoring program this year greatly helped to simplify the acquisition of materials. We are currently only offering reading support for first and second graders. There are many kinds of tools available to help students in this area, but I needed materials that would be easy for the tutors to understand and implement without relying on the supervising teacher for support or additional instruction.

For first graders, I decided to focus on the areas of fluency, sight word skills and leveled reading practice. The second graders would focus on fluency, sight word skills, leveled reading practice and comprehension. The activities are repetitive, but since tutoring only occurs once a week, the youngsters don’t complain and the tutors always know exactly what to do and how to help.

Sight Word Mastery

Here are the activities and supplies I purchased for the students to work on during tutoring. All students use flash cards to write and read sight words. I purchased multiple packs of Level A, B and C sight word flash cards on Amazon.

The children being tutored need just as many (if not more) experiences writing sight words as they do reading them. For this purpose, I purchased whiteboards and erasers from Lakeshore Learning as well as a supply of thin black dry erase markers.

The tutors “quiz” the youngsters by asking them to write a sight word without showing the word. After a child writes the word, the tutor reveals the flash card and the tutee looks at the word he/she wrote. If the word is spelled incorrectly, the tutor helps the child to fix the word. It feels like a game, but it’s great practice for the first and second graders. Plus, they love the novelty of using a whiteboard for sight word practice.

We don’t use a system for assessing which words a child knows within the tutoring program. Nor do we do any formal recording of sight word mastery. It’s just a game that is helpful practice. The seventh and eighth graders do a lovely job of providing support, but detailed record keeping is not their strength. Last year’s tutors were expected to do more record keeping and it simply did not work. This year, we are keeping things clean and simple. If a child masters all of the words they practice with their tutor, the tutor simply selects more challenging words.

Fluency Development

Of course, sight word mastery is only part of the equation for creating able readers. Developing reading fluency is another piece of the puzzle. For this task, we use a few different resources.

First up: the wonderful Reader’s Theater Fluency Plays from Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher. These simple little plays are a big hit in my kindergarten classroom. They’re short, appropriate, and every child loves reading a play.

Kristin has many different Reader’s Theater plays available in her TpT store. They vary by season and grade level, so you can easily find a set that will meet your individual needs. She even has a Valentine’s Day set available for FREE!

The Reader’s Theater plays are a fantastic, engaging resource. They also take approximately 1 minute for students to read. They’re a fantastic confidence booster (which serves a huge purpose for these students), but I also wanted to provide an opportunity for the tutees to be mindful of their growth and get a little metacognition going. For that, we use the Five Step Fluency pages from Jodi at Fun in First.

These pages are a gold mine. First of all, Jodi offers three different sets of fluency packs for students with different ability levels. The first grade and second grade students have different pages to work on. Here, you can see a first grader working on a set.

The basic premise of these pages is so easy and also so genius! Basically, a child reads the same text 5 times. The first time, the child times how many words they can read in one minute. Then for steps 2-4, the child reads the pages again and completes a simple word work activity. On the fifth and final time, the child again uses a 1-minute sand timer and tries to read more words than their initial read-through. There is a space on the page for the child to indicate whether or not he/she beat his first score.

I also love, love, LOVE that there are word work opportunities contained in these pages. Sometimes children look for short u words, sometimes they try to find a_e words, sometimes it’s compound words. There are so many great word work skills addressed in this set.

Jodi created great step-by-step instructions for this activity. I printed a color copy for each child, placed the pages in sheet protectors and added it to every tutoring binder. If (for some reason) a tutor forgets how the pages work or what to do, they can read the instructions! It’s so wonderful.

Comprehension Practice

Gaining fluency and sight word mastery are both important, but those skills don’t serve any real purpose if comprehension is not happening. Our student volunteers are great helpers, but they don’t intuitively know how to help young readers develop comprehension and we don’t have the time for in-depth training in this area. For this skill, it was imperative that we acquire tools that made it as easy as possible for the tutors to assist and support their tutees. For this purpose, we purchased an SRA Reading Laboratory kit from McGraw Hill.

The kit contains short stories and comprehension questions. A separate answer key for each story booklet is also included in the kit. To use the kit, a tutor grabs a story the child hasn’t read yet. The tutee reads the text independently, lays a clear sheet protector over the questions and answers them with a dry erase marker. The tutor helps if he/she is needed, then checks the child’s answers, and discusses incorrect responses with the tutee. The tutor then marks how many responses were correct on a recording sheet provided in the kit. This is the only record-keeping that our tutors do and it is very helpful.

We use the SRA Reading Laboratory for comprehension, but it also includes some word work practice, which is an added bonus.

Independent Reading

The final type of activity that happens in our student-run tutoring program is plain ol’ regular reading. The tutees are asked to bring a book that they can read to each tutoring session. The best source of these books are guided reading materials from their classroom teachers. Generally, the students read these books to their tutors, but occasionally, the tutor will read the book out loud if the child he/she is assisting needs a break.

Managing Supplies for the Tutoring Program

Once you have a plan for the activities in a student-run tutoring program, the next step is to manage all of the necessary supplies. All supplies are placed on a table. Each student being tutored has an individual binder with personal supplies, but several items are shared.

From left to right, you can see:

• a clear latch bin that is used to hold whiteboards and extra flashcards (not shown)
• an oversized bins (from Big Lots) that hold student binders
• an SRA Reading Laboratory set for grades 1-3
• a magazine holder (from Big Lots) that contains Readers Theater plays

The tutors handle all of the supplies. Students that are enrolled in the tutoring program wait patiently while their tutor gathers all necessary materials. The tutors each made several trips to the table over the course of the hour and it works out seamlessly.

I have learned from experience that all participants in the program (tutors and tutees) take better care of supplies if they have to use the same item week after week. Rather than establishing community supplies for small items (pencils, dry erase markers and erasers, timers, etc) we manage as many of these items as possible in individual student binders.

I found a great deal on binders at Costco this fall. You can also purchase them on Amazon. I color coded the covers that I inserted into the binders. Blue is or Grade 1 and Pink is for Grade 2. Why did I chose those colors? Easy. Because I already owned a giant pink pink bin and a giant blue bin. I color coordinated the covers to match the bins for easy storage. No matter the color scheme, I highly recommend using Astrobrights papers. The colors are so vibrant.

A small zipper pouch is the first thing you see when you open a student binder.

Here are all of the materials contained in the pouch and how we use them:

Sight Word Flashcards

Remember all of those sight word flashcards I bought on Amazon? I did not buy one set per child. I actually bought one set for every 3 children. No child needs to have that many flash cards at one time. So I took the sets and rubber banded them into smaller groups. Once a child knows every single word, the tutor trades the first set for a fresh set of words.

Highlighter

We use the highlighters during the Word Work section of the 5 Step Fluency pages. A yellow crayon would also suffice. So would a pencil. But a highlighter is much more fun.

Pencil and Crayon

The tutor uses the pencil to record the date on the SRA Reading Laboratory log and the crayon is used to color correct responses on the log. My preference is always to use Ticonderoga pencils. They sharpen great and erase cleanly. The pencil is also used on occasion to write notes to me (the tutoring coordinator). More on that in a minute.

1-Minute Sand Timer

The sand timer is used during the 5 Step Fluency pages. Children track how many words they read on their first attempt at the passage. Then, after completing steps 2-4, the final step is to time themselves reading for one minute again and see if their speed improved.

Whiteboard Marker and Whiteboard Eraser

The whiteboard marker and eraser are used for sight word practice on the whiteboard. They are also used by second grade students when they read passages from the SRA set.

Post-It Notes

Every binder also includes a few blank Post-It notes. If at any time, a particular supply runs out or there are any other issues that arise, the tutor uses the pencil to write a note to me, sticks the Post-It Note on the front of the binder and sets the entire binder on the table outside my classroom door so I see it right away the next morning and can easily remedy the problem. So far this year, I think I have had 2 students write Post-It Notes for me.

Additional Binder Items

As you would expect, the binder also includes papers inside. A short and long vowel chart is tucked into the front pocket. (The tutors are great readers, but they forgot all about short and long vowel sounds several years ago. The chart helps the tutors to help the students accurately highlight identify words in the 5 Step Fluency word work). Several bright pink reminders are also tucked into the front pocket that are reminders to bring reading materials. If a tutee forgets to bring a book, the tutor gives the a bright reminder note to take home so the child will be more prepared next week.

Other items are also included:

• the instructions for how to complete 5 Step Fluency
• a list of activities that the tutor should accomplish with the tutee
• copies of 5 Step Fluency reading passages
• an empty page protector for recording SRA answers with a dry erase marker
• SRA reading log

That’s it!

Tutoring Starter Kit

If you’re interested in starting a student-run tutoring program at your school and you want a place to start for assembling student binders, I have good news! You can download sample copies of the materials I have created for the program. It includes a parental consent form, binder cover, short and long vowel chart, and record keeping items. And its yours for FREE. Click the image below to download your free Tutoring Starter Kit.

The post How to Set Up a Student-Run Tutoring Program appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Valentine’s Day is coming! I am so excited for the upcoming holiday and you know who else is excited? My students! Few things are quite so thrilling to a young child as receiving dozens of little cards and friendship declarations from all of your friends. Oh wait. There is something more exciting. Receiving a Valentine card with a toy attached. Add a clever little pun and that is solid gold in the eyes of any child. I also know how valuable a free download is to a teacher, which is why I’m so excited to share this adorable “I Wheely Like You” Student Valentine Freebie on the blog today. I even included a few affiliate links for your shopping convenience.

This Valentine is an editable PDF that prints four to a page. Just type your name in to the text field and you’re all set! You can even use your a favorite font for your personalization.

For best results, print your valentines on white cardstock, cut them apart (I used a paper cutter), and attach a small toy car with double-sided tape. You can find these in the party favor aisle of your favorite store. I bought mine from Target.

Seriously, what student wouldn’t adore this fun Valentine? I especially love it because it’s non-edible, which means you don’t have to worry about any food allergies.

If you’re on a limited budget, you can even use these sweet cards without the little toy car. I also created a set with car graphics to meet your financial needs. I have to admit, the cards with the little graphics are pretty adorable.

If you looked carefully at some of the Valentines, you may have noticed that they have my maiden name printed on them. No need to worry. I’m still happily married, I just snapped these photos using last year’s cards. Ready for those free Valentines? Click the image below to download the freebie!

The post “I Wheely Like You” Student Valentine Freebie appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Friendship love is in the air and my students could not possibly be any more excited for Valentine’s Day. There is something so wonderfully thrilling about receiving a card from each of your friends at school. Such simple things hold so much magic for my kindergarten students. I am so excited to join forces with American Greetings to share a giveaway to add a little magic into your Valentine’s day too! We are giving away a $250 Staples gift card that you can use to purchase classroom supplies. So exciting, right?

Next week, my students have so much Valentine excitement, they just might burst. We are meeting with our 7th grade buddies early in the week to decorate Valentine mailboxes. My students love a chance to spend time with the older students they admire so much and I am always so grateful to have support from the “big kids” for more involved classroom projects. All that I do is ask each child to bring a shoebox to school and collect any art supply donations. I cut a hole in each shoebox to be the mail slot ahead of time and lay out the donated supplies. The 7th graders all bring a roll of tape. They use the tape and glue to completely transform the Valentine mailboxes. As you can see from these photos of last year’s event, the day is pure fun and creativity abounds!

When the boxes are decorated, we will line them up and eagerly wait for a chance to fill the mailboxes with Valentine cards at the end of the week.

I have decided to capitalize on my students’ holiday enthusiasm and use opportunity to work on their writing skills. Writing is way more fun when there is an authentic purpose for doing it. Especially if that authentic purpose is to write a note to your good friend.

I hopped onto AmericanGreetings.com and printed some of their Valentines for kids. I created a little writing station in my classroom by placing some of the freshly printed Valentines and a few pencils. The students loved visiting the writing center when they had free time and making cards for their friends and family members. This was the place to be in my classroom. These cards were cute, kid-friendly and FREE to print! How awesome is that?

I didn’t want to purchase traditional Valentine cards from the store for this little activity because I wanted to preserve the novelty of Valentine’s day. Earlier this week, we made traditional construction paper Valentines for our 7th grade buddies, I know that the children will be writing store-bought Valentines with their parents at home, and we did this different type of Valentine card in the classroom. By using different types and sizes of cards and papers, each activity felt unique and special to my kindergarteners and they didn’t have an opportunity to get tired of “doing the same thing again.”

It’s fun to make Valentines like this for a friend, but eventually the novelty wears off. Using an assortment of different Valentine cards and activities, the fun stays fresh. American Greetings’ free printable Valentine cards for kids were the perfect addition to our classroom Valentine activities.

$250 Staples Gift Card Valentine Giveaway

I know your students are going to have a blast on Valentine’s Day, but don’t you deserve a little Valentine magic too? American Greetings cares tremendously about the work that educators do in the classroom, which is why they are giving one lucky teacher a $250 Staples gift card to spend on Classroom Supplies. Are you ready for a chance to win? Use the Rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway and best of luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much to American Greetings for sponsoring this blog post and supporting classroom teachers!

This is a sponsored post. I received payment, trade and/or products from American Greetings in exchange for promoting.
However, all opinions stated are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.

The post $250 Staples Gift Card Valentine Giveaway from American Greetings appeared first on Kinder Craze.

I am SO excited to announce that I am returning for another year of color inspiration as a Bright Mind with the Astrobrights ambassador program. There is incredible power in color. It ignites the imagination and creativity in students. It also makes any lesson or classroom activity a whole lot more interesting!

You already know how much I LOVE incorporating color into my kindergarten classroom. Whether it’s lively decor, a brightly printed parent note that’s sure to grab their attention, or colorful materials for classroom activities, color is the backdrop of everything that happens in my kindergarten world – which is why I am so excited about my continued partnership with Astrobrights. I rely on paper so much for my classroom activities. My students and I are instantly more excited for an activity when it comes on bright paper. Just look at how much more exciting sight word flash cards are when they come in such vibrant colors. (You can grab a free download of these printable labels in this blog post.)

So what exactly does it mean to be a Bright Minds Ambassador? That a lot of color inspiration is coming your way! You may remember that I joined forces with Marsha from Differentiated Kindergarten and Reagan from Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits last year. The three of us shared creative ideas and free printables to help other teachers incorporate colors into their classrooms. We even flew to Atlanta to help Astrobrights prepare for the 2015 launch of the #ColorizeYourClassroom challenge.

Last year’s partnership with Astrobrights was amazing and I am certain that this year will be even better. More of my favorite teacher-bloggers have also been added to the Bright Minds team. You may already know Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies, Jodi from Fun in First, and April from A Modern Teacher. I told you this year was going to be better than ever!

So what can you expect from this year’s Bright Minds? Creative inspiration for the classroom all year long! The ambassadors will be sharing our favorite ways to use color to enhance classroom learning. We will also let you know how you can engage with Astrobrights and #ColorizeYourClassroom. The fun starts in a few short weeks! Be sure to follow @Astrobrights on Instagram the week of February 29 for a Bright Minds takeover. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes peek at who we are and why we love color!  To learn more about the Bright Minds, visit thepowerofpaper.com/ambassadors.

This is a sponsored post. I received payment, trade and/or products from Astrobrights in exchange for promoting.
However, all opinions stated are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.

The post The Bright Minds are Back (and Better than Ever) appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Do you have plans this Thursday night? I do and I want you to be a part of them! I am honored to be a part of a Master Teaching: Kindergarten Edition live webinar hosted by Malia from Playdough to Plato. I adore Malia and her amazing early childhood blog and I’m so honored to be included in this live event.

The fun goes down at 9pm EST on Thursday, February 25. You can show up in your pjs and we will never know! It’s an easy, fun way to engage with some of your favorite kindergarten bloggers. Did I mention that Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasbord and Alex from The Kindergarten Connection will also be on the panel?

Somebody pinch me! I am so excited!

The three of us will answer many of your questions and give insights into our classroom instruction, parent communication, how we manage our classrooms and more!

This is one webinar that you don’t want to miss! Register for the event today, then keep an eye on your email inbox for complete details. I will see you at 9pm EST on Thursday night!

The post Let’s Learn Together this Thursday Night appeared first on Kinder Craze.

I have a lot of sand timers in my classroom. I got them for free from the dentist and they sit on my technology table, beside my easel and on my desk. They also travel around the room as needed. This little piece of plastic with bits of sand is a remarkable training tool in my classroom for creating attentive listeners. Each one lasts two minutes, which I have discovered is the perfect amount of time to cause a kindergartener to reflect on impulsive talking without getting upset. I’ll tell you all about these sand timers and how I use them as a management tool in my kindergarten classroom.

But first, let’s back up a few steps.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

The Classroom Carpet

This is my classroom carpet. We meet here several times each day for a variety of activities. We listen to stories, discuss the calendar, practice our handwriting formation, learn new math skills, tell stories from our lives – this is such a significant space in our classroom.

The Classroom Rules

Beside the carpet, I intentionally display my classroom rules. During the first few weeks of school, my students learn all about the rules and procedures for our classroom. We discuss about how the rules tell us to act (and equally important – how they tell us not to act). The expectations are displayed down low, right at eye level and near the classroom carpet for a reason. My smooth-running classroom is completely dependent on how well the students know and follow these behavior expectations.

(Downloadable Classroom Rules Subway Art is available in my TpT store.)

Especially Rule #1.

Listen when someone is talking.

Listening is so important and often so difficult for my 5 and 6 year old friends to do. As teachers, we are charged with the task of developing students with strong communication skills – which means that they are able to speak and listen effectively. For some children, the speaking comes easily. We hear about those children’s plans for after dismissal, their pets, what happened to their little brother on the way to school, what they ate for breakfast – everything.

Children that are so comfortable speaking often need to sharpen their listening skills.

And the students that will happily listen to every word their peers have to say so they don’t have to worry about speaking aloud in class need quiet moments so they can summon the courage to talk.

Enter the sand timer …

Once it is a known fact that everyone in the class (including me) is to be a listener when someone else is talking, and the students have had many, many reminders and opportunities to practice listening without interruption – I bring out the sand timers. This usually happens around the third week of school.

When the manners start to wear down a little and a few interruptions become persistent, I gather the class for a very important meeting and let them know that we seem to have a problem in the classroom with Rule #1. (At this point every single child in the class can recite Rule #1 from memory.)

I introduce the sand timer as a tool that will help us solve the problem and explain that whenever someone forgets Rule #1 and interrupts the speaker, they will be handed a sand timer. At that time we go over the entire sand timer routine.

About how it’s not a punishment.

And you don’t have to be sad.

And you definitely don’t have to pout or get mad.

But you do need to take the timer and have a calm seat at your desk.

And you need to let all of the sand run through the timer while you calm your body and become a better listener.

And when time is up, you are invited to rejoin the group.

And you can just set the timer in the same place it came from without saying anything.

And afterward, you will try just a little bit harder to raise your hand and wait for your turn to talk so you don’t interrupt your friend or teacher when they are trying to talk because that is just the polite way to do it.

And if you forget again, it’s ok. You can use the sand timer again to help you remember to calmly wait your turn to talk.

And most importantly – you absolutely must remember Rule #6.

It’s ok to make mistakes.

We all make mistakes and sometimes we have to repeat the same mistake many times before we finally learn the right way to do something.

And you’re not in trouble.

And the teacher isn’t mad.

This is just how the sand timer works.

Practice the Sand Timer Routine With Your Students

It is also very important to have a few volunteer students practice and demonstrate the sand timer procedure before it is put into effect. I hand the timer to a child and we all watch him/her take the timer to their desk without talking, complaining or getting mad. They don’t have to stay for the full two minutes. Just a few seconds is all it takes. Then someone else has a turn, and so on.

This type of practice feels very lighthearted and sort of fun for the children to practice the routine and I most definitely do not want this routine to become a source of drama in the classroom.

What To Say When You Give Someone the Sand Timer

It’s easy to become the classroom authoritarian and delivering the sand timer with a firm hand with a student that’s already a little worked up will most certainly not help the situation at all. There isn’t any reason to get angry or act like you’re delivering a punishment when you hand a child the sand timer.

I usually say something like this in my most sympathetic voice:

“Oh Johnny, I’m so sorry that you interrupted. I’m so sad to see you go, hurry back as soon as you can. I don’t want you to miss this!”

Because the truth is, I don’t want Johnny to miss the lesson. But I don’t want Gracie to miss it either and poor Gracie can’t concentrate on the lesson at hand when Johnny keeps chiming in and interjecting. And little Joey really needs to hear today’s math lesson and we won’t ever get to the math lesson if Johnny keeps shouting out to tell me about his birthday party, and his pet cat, and his grandma’s new car, and his trip to see the latest superhero movie while I’m trying to update our calendar.

After a few rounds of handing out the timer, I don’t usually need to say anything. I can pass the timer to the child without a word and they know to go right to their desk and return as soon as time is up.

Troubleshooting Any Problems

No classroom management tip is completely foolproof. Even the most perfectly executed plan can have it’s setbacks. Like when a particularly sensitive or emotional child is handed the sand timer and just can’t cope. Yes, this can happen (especially when this new procedure is first put into effect). Your best solution is to point to Rule #6 and remind the child that every single person makes mistakes – even the teacher! If that talk seems to be talking the child off the ledge, try and move with the child for two minutes (asking the rest of the class in your most polite voice to please whisper about a fun topic while you’re 15 feet away).

If you can’t get the child to calm down for the life of you, let it go and tell them you can have a chat about it later. Then, when the time is right and the child has regained the ability to reason, go sit by the Rule #6 sign and talk through the situation and how it should have gone. See if you can have the child practice what it would be like to take the timer and sit down with it for two minutes while the pressure is off so they can see that it really isn’t the most awful thing in the universe.

Don’t call it a time out! Seriously, seriously, seriously – I cannot stress this enough. I never make the timer sound like it is a punishment. I view it as a reset. An opportunity for a student to move away, compose themselves, then come right back. The fact that it the timer lasts two minutes makes it just annoying enough to bother the interrupter without it becoming actually painful for them to be away. My students often go home and tell their parents that they “had a time out” that day, but those words have never come from me. I literally call it the sand timer. Or I might say “I gave Sarah the sand timer.” It’s not a big deal. Don’t make it into one.

Keeping It Positive

My students actually kind of love my sand timers and do not have a negative view of them. They often ask to borrow my timers to help motivate themselves to complete their work faster or to time themselves during playtime. The fact that no-one in the class complains about the timers or views them as a punishment tool means that I am effectively doing my job.

And classroom interruptions are at a minimum these days. I expect that they will surge at some point before my students graduate (we get little surges a few times throughout the year). It usually takes about three days of using the sand timer more consistently to turn off the interruptions and bring the good manners back.

It’s not that I don’t want my students to talk. Rather, I think it’s important for the conversationalists to learn the valuable skill of letting others talk. And I think it’s equally important for my quiet students to have a chance to speak without being verbally steamrolled by a more confident speaker.

The post A Little Sand Timer and a Whole Lotta Listening appeared first on Kinder Craze.

I have the perfect resource for you to bring the true story of St. Patrick into your classroom. I love a good leprechaun shenanigan as much as the next person, but there is so much more to this Roman Catholic Holiday than just rainbows and leprechauns. That’s why I created my latest Interactive Sight Word Reader – to help children learn a few facts about St. Patrick and his life. The best part is that this St. Patrick’s Day Emergent Reader is absolutely FREE.

Interactive Sight Word Readers are the perfect books to put into the hands of young children because they teach sight words and have predictable text inside, which make them great “just right” books for little ones.

The featured sight word (in this case – WAS) is printed in big, bold letters right on the cover of the book. Children can color the word, which instantly begins to imprint the word on their brains while they work.

Each page of this St. Patrick’s Day emergent reader tells a true fact about St. Patrick’s life. A sweet image portraying each of these facts accompanies the text throughout the book. The graphics are perfect for coloring!

Once the coloring is complete, the real work begins! Each page of “St. Patrick was a Saint” is missing the word “was.” Children need to complete the book by cutting out the letters to spell “was” and gluing them in the correct order onto every page. It’s a very meaningful way to engage with the focus sight word and really learn how to spell the word “was.”

When this St. Patrick’s Day emergent reader is finally complete, it is ready to read!

Every page begins with the phrase “St. Patrick was,” which helps to build reading confidence. Some of the other words are a challenge, but they can be learned with a little bit of practice and modeling.

The very last page of the book reminds children that St. Patrick was a saint!

Download Your Free St. Patrick’s Day Emergent Reader

I love sharing free resources with you, especially when they help to foster faith development in young children. This Interactive Sight Word Reader about Saint Patrick is yours for free. Just click the image below to access your freebie, then check your email. The emergent reader will be delivered directly to your inbox.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

The post FREE St. Patrick’s Day Emergent Reader appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Today marks the four year anniversary of the day I started Kinder Craze. I am still so in awe of everything that this blog has become over the past four years and I keep finding myself reflecting back on the early days of this happy little place on the internet. I am currently living in the afterglow of the Teacher Blogger Retreat in French Lick, Indiana that nearly 200 teacher-bloggers attended this weekend.

Can you spot me in the front row?

The experience provided a timely reminder that teachers need to support and lift each other up. Teaching is exhausting and we are so much better when we work together to share ideas or brainstorm how to solve a classroom issue.

It is in the spirit of community that Kinder Craze is expanding to help all of us connect in a more personal way. I’m proud to announce the Kinder Craze Facebook Group – an online community for Kinder Craze readers that helps us to engage in more conversations, foster friendships across the country (and beyond) and lift each other up as we head into the classroom trenches. Our students rely on us every single day and the Kinder Craze Facebook Group will provide an opportunity to share and rejuvenate our passion for teaching with like-minded teachers as we bring the love of learning into our classrooms. It will also help me to connect with you more personally. We can chat and answer each other’s questions as we kick off our shoes, let our hair down and open up about the profession that we love so much.

I will, of course, continue to be on all of my existing social media accounts. My Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook page aren’t changing or going anywhere. This is just a new chance for us to connect in a more personal way. So, what are you waiting for? Come join the Kinder Craze Facebook Group today!

Thank you so much for visiting Kinder Craze, sharing posts, pinning your favorite images and leaving so many wonderful comments over the past four years. You are the heart and soul of Kinder Craze and I am so honored that you invite my ideas into your classroom each day. I can’t wait to see what next four years have in store!

The post Announcing: The Kinder Craze Facebook Group! appeared first on Kinder Craze.

I’ve been teaching skip counting in kindergarten for years. Each year I do it a little different, but use the Rainbow Skip Counting set from my TpT store during our study. This year I finally discovered the secret for harnessing my student’s motivation and transforming them into skip counting experts overnight. This trick is so simple, I cannot believe it took me this long to discover the secret.

Before I share the secret with you, let me back up a few steps…

Before we dove into our skip counting unit, I pulled my students aside and asked each child to skip count for me as a quick pre-assessment. First by 10s, then by 5s.

Nearly every student could skip count by 10s. (Awesome!)

Only one child in my class could skip count by 5.

Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed. We HAD been tallying our days of school and counting the tallies nearly every day. We were well past 100 tally marks and we had also been rocking out and skip counting with Dr. Jean.

I knew my students had been exposed to these numbers and even recited them with me on a regular basis so I was hoping they just needed a little jump start to ignite the skip counting expertise.

That day after school, I pulled out my “I Can Count by 5s Chart” (available in my Rainbow Skip Counting pack) and displayed it right beside the tally chart on my classroom easel.

(I’ve had lots of requests for the tally chart I use in my classroom. You can download a free copy by clicking the image below!)

Ok, back to my story…

When it was time for math the next morning, I gathered my students by the calendar and showed them our brand new skip counting chart. I also explained how it used rainbow colors to help us see the pattern when we skip count.

At this point, my students thought my skip counting chart was basically the coolest thing ever. So I asked if they wanted to try and skip count with me. And of course they said yes. So I pointed and we skip counted all the way up to 100.

And then the real fun began. I pulled out a set of worksheets that look a LOT like my special skip counting chart. There was just one problem. All of the count-by-5 numbers were missing from the worksheet charts. I explained that it was their job to add the missing numbers with their pencil and when they were done, they would need to make a rainbow of their numbers to match the ones on the chart.

That news was music to the ears of my kindergarten students, but I kept giving directions and explained that their regular markers wouldn’t be the best fit for the job because their Crayola 10 packs didn’t have teal or light green or even light purple. Instead, I let my students use my super-special teacher markers (aka Crayola Super Tip Markers). This 50-pack marker set was practically made for rainbow skip counting charts!

I wanted the charts to be accurate and without errors so I looked over each child’s chart before granting them permission to trace with marker. Once they finally had those markers in their hands, it was pure magic. My kids went to town!

I had each child use their newly-created chart to recite the count-by-5 numbers up to 100.

Then, the REAL excitement began. We created these charts for the students to take home and recite the numbers over and over again. The charts needed to be exciting to my kindergarteners, but they also needed to hold up for many uses.

So I decided to laminate the charts.

More importantly, I decided to let every child help me laminate their own chart. I plugged in my Scotch laminator and handed each child a plastic laminating sheet.

Oh my word. You would have thought I had given each student $100. They were BEYOND excited that their chart would be laminated just like my teacher chart. A few of them even decided to color the edges of their chart so it would be even more like mine.

I wasn’t going to take any chances with students getting burned by the laminator (even though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an actual hazard)  so I loaded their charts into the machine and carefully monitored the machine while it was in use. My kindergarteners watched in anticipation while each chart was slowly processed by the machine. Once the cycle was finally complete, I let each child remove their freshly laminated skip counting chart from the machine.

They excited talked about how “hot” their plastic charts were and I kept correcting them by saying, “No, it’s warm!” I had nightmares of my students telling their parents that Mrs. Gavin let them touch things that were so hot at school that day. Thankfully, there were no complaints.

I sent the charts home in each child’s folder with a sticky note attached encouraging parents have their child practice counting by 5s using the chart.

The next day, I asked volunteers to skip count by 5s for me. ALMOST EVERY SINGLE CHILD IN THE CLASS COULD DO IT! I had one friend that was so close, she just needed a tiny bit more practice because she skipped 2 numbers in the sequence.

And THAT is the secret to developing skip counting experts overnight.

Let your students laminate the charts! Who knew?

Our next challenge? Counting by 2s!

The Rainbow Skip Counting set is available for purchase in my TpT store. It’s differentiated and provides three levels of support for students as they skip count by 10s, 5s and 2s.

The post The Secret to Skip Counting in Kindergarten! appeared first on Kinder Craze.

With temperatures back down in the 30s this week in Southeast Michigan, we were in desperate need of Spring around here. I can’t control the weather, but we could bring a little springtime cheer indoors with a little kindergarten rainbow art in my classroom. We used the opportunity to refine our sentence writing conventions too and the finished project couldn’t be any more perfect!

Affiliate links are included here for your shopping convenience.

Here’s a quick look at the supplies I used to create this project:

Creating the Rainbows

I love this project because it’s large-scale makes a big decorative impact. And students love creating any artwork that’s larger than an 8.5×11″ sheet of paper. I used 12×18″ sheets of white construction paper and traced a giant rainbow on each one. From there, it was time to paint! When I did previous kindergarten rainbow art projects, I used traditional tempera paint, but this time around I tried something different. I recently received a 12-pack of Kwik Stix and was curious to give them a try. Why? Because each 4″ stick is packed with solid tempera paint. I know, I was skeptical too and really nervous about how much paint each stick could possibly contain.

When I was ready to begin, I called students up to see me two at a time and handed them a paint stick. Kwik Stix claim to be mess-free and dry in 90 seconds, but I didn’t want to take any chances… I had my students put on their paint shirts just in case. That turned out to be a waste of energy. We didn’t get one bit of pant anywhere except on the paper. it was so refreshing to have a completely mess-free painting experience !

Each Kwik Stix tube looked like a glue stick and was sort of a cross between a bingo dotter and an oil pastel. The paints went on smoothly and easily.

My students loved using the Kwik Stix too and used them so responsibly.

Once the “painting” process was complete, it was time to cut the rainbows out. This wasn’t an issue because every bit of paint from those little Kwik Stix dried in 90 seconds! I’ve never seen a painting project dry so fast in my whole life!

The children carefully cut to remove the white trim from their rainbow paintings.

The painted rainbows were a work of art all by themselves, but we still had more work to do.

I traced the outline of a cloud onto sheets 9×12″ sheets of white construction paper and had each child “paint” the lines black, then use scissors to cut the clouds out.

Once the clouds were complete, we glued them onto the bottom of each end of the rainbow.

Rainbow Sentence Writing

The art project was finally complete, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to work on sentence writing. I gave each child a sentence strip and the writing prompt “My favorite color is …”.

Each child used a pencil to write the sentence and add the name of their favorite color.

The spaceman tool from Really Good Stuff is so helpful for helping children put spaces between their words! I looked over each sentence to check for proper capitalization, spaces, punctuation and sight word spellings. Then each child traced their words with a black marker (the color word was traced in the corresponding marker color).

Once the sentences were complete, I mounted each one on a 4″ tall strip of black construction paper. I used a little scotch tape and fishing line to suspend the sentence under the two clouds of each child’s rainbow.

The finished kindergarten rainbow art project was perfect and oh-so-sweet.

I even had one child that could not decide on just one favorite color, which was ok with me. It was extra writing practice!

Download FREE Rainbow Painting Templates and Instructions

I created free cloud and rainbow templates that you can use to easily duplicate this activity in your own classroom.  Click the image below to download your free Rainbow Painting template and printable instructions.

The post Kindergarten Rainbow Art and Sentence Writing appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Need an Earth Day craft to do with your students? Look no further! I’ve teamed up with Astrobrights Papers to bring you a simple project and writing activity that is so sweetly perfect for young children. This paper plate mosaic is simple to prep, looks so vibrant and the FREE Earth Day Promise writing page easily integrates science (or social studies) with language arts. And the fact that it looks so stinkin’ cute is just the icing on the cake!

Gather and Prepare Materials

Before you begin this craft with your students, you will want to gather a few basic materials. This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience.

black paper dinner plates
Martian Green Astrobrights paper
Lunar Blue Astrobrights paper
glue sticks
scissors
ribbon
crayons
pencils
Martian Green Astrobrights cardstock (optional)

The bulk of the prep involves cutting the green and blue paper into squares for the mosaic. I used .75″ paper squares for this kindergarten project, but it could easily be differentiated for other age groups. Preschool students could use 1″ paper squares and .5″ squares would make a suitable challenge for first graders.

You will also want to copy the “Earth Day Promise” cards onto Martian Green paper or cardstock. (I prefer the durability of cardstock.) You can find a link to download the “Earth Day Promise” cards for free at the end of this post.

Paper Plate Mosaic Earth Day Craft

Once the project is prepped, the fun can begin! Provide each student with a black paper plate, the pre-cut paper squares, and a glue stick. A little bit of glue is all it takes on each square, then the squares can be placed onto the paper plate.

The nice thing about this project is that there is no right or wrong way to place the mosaic tiles. I gave my young friend, Zoe, a little guidance and explained that it might look nice if the pieces of paper were really close together without actually touching. I also had her visualize the globe in her classroom and how there were big areas of land (continents) with water around them so it might be cool if she put big areas of land on her plate and just put water all around all of those green land areas. But ultimately, it was her project.

Every child learns at their own rate and if someone isn’t developmentally about to recreate a “perfect” Earth mosaic, that’s just fine!

Gradually, Zoe was able to fill her paper plate with paper mosaic tiles. She even trimmed a few of the squares so they would fit better. You can see the scraps from the trimmings on the table around her plate.

“My Earth Day Promise” Writing Response

As much as I love an excuse to make a cute craft with my students, I realize the importance of Earth Day and my responsibility to educate them about ecology. After reading some favorite Earth Day books, it’s important to ask students to reflect on what they can do right now to care for the Earth. After brainstorming some ways that everyone can make a difference, have each child write their own Earth Day promise.

Zoe’s promise: to pick up litter.

Zoe’s “Earth Day Promise” sign featured an image of a little girl holding the world in her hands. The free download for this resource contains a boy version and a girl version. (You can find the freebie at the bottom of this post.)

Students can personalize the promise by coloring in the graphic on their writing sheet.

Completing the Earth Day Craft

Once the writing response and Earth Day mosaic are complete, punch a hole in the the plate and at the top of the “Earth Day Promise” page and attach the two items with a ribbon.

The completed project so vibrant. I love how the colors of the Martian Green and Lunar Blue papers just POP against the black paper plate. Astrobrights does it again!

Free “Earth Day Promise” Writing Page

I’m thrilled to share the “Earth Day Promise” writing page with you for FREE. It’s the perfect, simple writing activity for your Earth Day studies. Just click the image below and both versions of the printable will be delivered to your inbox.

Have a WONDERFUL Earth Day with your students.
Together, I know we really can save the Earth.

This is a sponsored post. I received payment, trade and/or products from Astrobrights in exchange for promoting.
However, all opinions stated are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.

Discover More Earth Day Crafts

I have made several Earth Day crafts in my kindergarten classroom over the years. If you’re looking for even more Earth Day project ideas, click any of the images below to read more.

The post Free Earth Day Craft and Writing Activity appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Like all elementary teachers, I have a not-so-slight addiction to quality school supplies. You know what I’m talking about. If you’re anything like me, your first great love was a brand-new box of Crayola crayons, which was probably followed by a perfectly sharpened set of Ticonderoga pencils, a couple of quality pencil grips, and a pack of Sharpies and Flair Pens. I thought I had all of my school supply needs covered – and then this 12-pack of Kwik Stix came into my life and instantly stole my classroom supply-loving heart. I am unbelievably excited to introduce you to my new favorite paints and bring you an awesome giveaway, courtesy of Kwik Stix!

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience.

So what exactly are Kwik Stix? Well, you may not believe this, but they are solid tempera paints that come in a tube and look and act kind of like a glue stick. Except, they don’t leave sticky stuff on paper when you use them. Rather, they leave a smooth coat of tempera paint. If it sounds unbelievable and too good to be true, I can empathize. I was intrigued and doubtful at first, too. But then I decided to dive in and give Kwik Stix a try on the Rainbow Art and Writing Project I did with my students last week.

The paints were smooth, easy to apply and completely mess-free. I had students put on paint shirts (just in case), but the protective clothing were not necessary at all. Kwik Stix are not only easy to apply, but they also dry in 90 seconds, which makes me unbelievably happy as a teacher. It also made my students happy because the colors didn’t mix and smear accidentally while they filled in their rainbows. They just went from one color to the next without even batting an eye. They instantly became everyone’s favorite paints.

I can tell you’re already pretty impressed by Kwik Stix. And I have one more photo to share with you. If this doesn’t convince you that these are the paints that dreams are made of, I’m not sure what will.

While one of my little cutie pies was painting, she realized she dropped something on the floor and of course, she just HAD to pick it up right at that very moment. So with paint in hand, she pushed out her chair, leaned over and dove head-first to retrieve the fallen item. Granted, she had the sense to hold the paint stick up, but you and I both know that her impulsive move is the norm in kindergarten and most students won’t be quite so graceful with their paints. This could have been a traditional painting experience. And it also could have been a loaded paintbrush. Which meant it also could have been a huge mess.

Thanks to Kwik Stix, I had a beautiful class set of rainbows that were completed in record time and with zero mess. My kindergarteners didn’t even have to wash their hands when they were done.

 (You can find complete directions for the rainbow craft and download a printable template in this blog post.)

Enter to Win My New Favorite Paints for your Classroom

I reached out to the good people at Kwik Stix to tell them about my new school supply obsession, thank them for creating a fantastic product and ask if they would be willing to sponsor a giveaway. The graciously offered to send one 12-pack of Kwik Stix AND two 6-packs to a Kinder Craze reader. This is one giveaway you do not want to miss!

Use the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win and kindly remember to enter with integrity. The winning entry will be verified before the prize is awarded.  This giveaway is open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Say Hello to Kwik Stix: My New Favorite Paints appeared first on Kinder Craze.

I truly do believe I have the best job in the world. I don’t have to tell you: being a teacher is amazing. But being a teacher-blogger is a whole new world of awesome. I get to enjoy all of the little miracles that happen in my classroom each day as I watch my students grow, but that is just the beginning. When I step out of the classroom and sit at my computer to work on the blog, a whole new kind of magic happens. I have the privilege of improving the experiences of other teachers in the trenches. And sometimes, I get to help thank an educator for their dedication. This is the story of one such teacher. I would like to you meet Kathy Rimmel.

The story of how I met Kathy actually goes back a few months. If you read the blog often, you know that I am a faithful Stitch Fix customer. Many Stitch Fix customers are fashionable teachers who are short on time and love the convenience of the service. Stitch Fix wanted to recognize a local teacher for her dedication and surprise her with a gift basket to show their appreciation. They reached out to me and I jumped at the opportunity to recognize a fellow educator. It took a little detective work, but I soon learned all about Kathy – a kindergarten teacher at Erie Elementary School in Chippewa Valley Schools. She reads the blog often, LOVES Stitch Fix as much as I do and only teaches a few miles from my school.

I emailed with Kathy’s principal, Dr. Jerry Evanski a few weeks before the surprise. I sent one of the more awkward emails of my life. It went something like this

“Hi, my name is Maria and you don’t know me, but your kindergarten teacher Kathy knows who I am because I have a blog called Kinder Craze. Sometimes I write about clothes and I really want to surprise Kathy with a gift basket from a clothing service that she loves. I know it sounds crazy, but I’m pretty sure it will be a happy surprise….

Ok, maybe it didn’t go exactly like that but you get the idea.

Fortunately, Dr. Evanski didn’t even bat an eye and he graciously invited me into his school so I could deliver my Stitch Fix surprise to Kathy.

I’m not sure why, but I was so nervous!

As we walked down the hall to the kindergarten wing, Dr. Evanski informed me that Kathy really values structure in her classroom and he couldn’t completely blindside her. (I completely understood and I’m sure you’re nodding your head in agreement right now too.) He told Kathy that there was a surprise in store for her at 2:45, but he didn’t tell her what it was. He stepped into the classroom ahead of me to talk to the students (and Kathy) and explain that she had a special guest.

The surprised look on Kathy’s face when I finally stepped into the classroom was absolutely priceless!

And when I handed Kathy the special gift basket that Stitch Fix curated for her… well, the photo sort of speaks for itself!

(And PS – there really needs to be a principal appreciation week because Dr. Evanski then led this class of kindergarteners in a cheer for their teacher. Our profession needs more administrators like him!)

I think for a few seconds, everyone in the room was sort of overwhelmed by the moment and didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves.

There’s no such thing as a break for a kindergarten teacher. Kathy quickly admired the lovely basket and grabbed a sweet smelling lotion to show the class.

She rejoined the class and held out the lotion for everyone to smell. She even offered a little dab of lotion to anyone who wanted to give it a try. One of her students pointed out that “sharing is caring” and it was obvious that Kathy truly is a caring teacher.

I stayed to enjoy story time with the class. It was such a treat to sit down and listen to a story from the perspective of a student in the class. As teachers, we’re always the ones turned on and making sure everything stays on schedule. It was an honor to sit and learn by observation.

After the story it was time for the students to pack up and go home. I lingered so I could talk to Kathy and visit for a bit. We also took some time to admire all of the treasures in her gift basket from Stitch Fix.

Of course, no Stitch Fix surprise would be complete without a gift card and a tote because well… teachers.

I truly had the best time chatting with Kathy about all things kindergarten.

I was just getting ready to wind things down and say my goodbyes when Kathy’s principal, Dr. Evanski, returned saying that word had gotten out that I was in the building. I knew that Kathy knew who I was, but I wasn’t expecting a troop of teachers to stop by and say “hi!” To say that I was surprised was an understatement!

As you might expect, Kathy’s colleagues were equally wonderful and passionate about education.

We snapped a group photo before I had to go.
Jim, Erica, Danielle, Melissa, Laci and Patricia… it was a pleasure meeting all of you. Thank you so much for popping in to say hi. You made my day!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to Kathy and every other educator that reads this post. The work you do is truly appreciated and you make a difference in the lives of your students every single day!

Thank you so much to Stitch Fix for collaborating with me on this very special Teacher Appreciation surprise. It was an experience I will never forget!  Thank you also to Dr. Evanski and Erie Elementary School for your hospitality and for inviting me to drop in during the school day.  Finally, thank you to E’Lisa from EC Campbell Photography for capturing these lovely images.

You can read more about Stitch Fix, my fashion obsession, and complete details for my outfit in this blog post. 

The post Stitch Fix Teacher Appreciation Surprise appeared first on Kinder Craze.

With kindergarten graduation just around the corner and spring fever in full force, I have to find creative ways to keep my students motivated to do their best work and continue following our classroom rules. This year I decided to try something entirely new and I gave each child a “First Grader in Training” badge. I actually created free badges for all elementary grade levels. You’ll find a link to download the badges at the end of this post. But first, let me tell you how I use these as a motivational tool for my kindergarten students during our craziest month of the year.

This post contains affiliate links.

A Classroom Management Solution for the Spring

I created these labels in a moment of inspiration after a long, restless morning with my kindergarteners. All of those little nuisance behaviors were starting to take over. You know what I mean … whining, tattling, interrupting, horseplay, even a few emotional outbursts.

Rather than punish my students, we had a little heart-to-heart chat before they went home about how the day went. I reminded the class that they would be first grade students soon and that those kinds of behaviors are not acceptable in first grade. Everyone agreed that they would try to do better the next day.

That afternoon, after my students were picked up by their parents, I hurried out of school, sat down and my laptop and created my secret weapon against undesirable behavior: the “First Grader in Training” badge.

I snapped a quick photo and shared it on Instagram. Apparently I wasn’t the only frustrated teacher that evening because it was one of the most popular photos I have ever shared and it got dozens of comments, questions and multiple requests to make badges for other grade levels.

Creating the Badges

I printed, laminated, and trimmed each badge; then slid the badges into the plastic nametag lanyards that I received as a classroom reward from Highlights magazine a few years back. These nametags are amazingly durable. My students haven’t used the nametags since December when we stopped wearing them to our specials classes.

Launching the “First Grader in Training” Badges

Any classroom tool is only as good as procedures centered around it. So I didn’t just hand my kids a badge and hope for the best.

Instead, we gathered for a meeting and had a great big chat all about First Grade. We talked about what First Grade will be like and made a concept map all about First Grade expectations. I opened up my laptop, connected it to the projector and typed all of their responses. These thoughts came entirely from my students.

I created the concept map on Text2Mindmap.com. It’s a free site that creates clean and simple concept maps. I really liked the clean visual details and how easy it was to format and move each element on the map.

Once the expectations were clearly laid out, I handed each student their very own “First Grader in Training” badge. I made a really big deal about how special the badges are and how they are a visual symbol to everyone in the school that they are working on something really important. All teachers members at my school wear staff badges on lanyards each day. I compared their badges to mine and then my students’ eyes really lit up.

Enlisting the Help of School Faculty

These badges held a lot of magic for my students. They trust me and they know that if I say something is special, then it really must be something special. I wanted my kindergarteners to feel extra special when they were wearing their badges because I want to keep them motivated for as long as possible. So I sent a quick email to all of the other staff members at my school:

We started something new in my classroom today! My students are officially in training for First Grade. If you see them around school wearing a nametag that says “First Grader in Training”, feel free to comment on what you see them doing!

Their little badges say “How am I doing?” and they would love a compliment if they are seen acting the right way. Their teacher would equally love a gentle reminder if you see someone that may have forgotten how first graders act at school.

Free Downloadable Badges for Grades K-5

As promised, I created FREE badges to help your students train for multiple grade levels. Preschool through 4th Grade teachers can all launch a “training” course in their classroom to leverage all that year-end student excitement and help it work in favor of classroom management.

Three different sizes are available in the download. Inserts for red lanyard nametags from Highlights magazine rewards, blue lanyard nametags from Lakeshore Learning and Avery 5163 shipping labels that you can print and stick onto your students’ shirts if you don’t have any of the lanyard-style nametags.

Click the image below to download your FREE student training badges.

How Long Will the Magic Last?

It has been three weeks since I first launched the “First Grader in Training” badges in my kindergarten classroom. As you might expect, the novelty of the badges has worn off. Every single student wore their badges for the better part of two weeks. After two full weeks of wearing badges, the excitement began to wear down. During the third week, only half of the class wore a badge most of the time and by that Friday, nobody in the class wore their badge.

Today is the beginning of the 4th week of school since we had our big classroom talk about how First Graders act. My students may not be wearing badges, but I can tell you that their behavior is still notably better than it was before we had the talk. It was worth every moment of my time and energy. I know that even though our last few weeks of school will feel a little crazy and put my classroom management to the test, it will be far better than the path we were heading on before I got creative.

Encourage “First Grade Quality” Word from Your Students

Using the “First Grader in Training” badges in only half of the year-end motivation plan for my students. This tool helps to manage student behavior but it doesn’t do a whole lot for their work quality. You may have noticed that the concept map we completed in class had a whole section describing “First Grade Quality Work”. I have another trick up my sleeve that I use to encourage quality work from my students during the last week of school and they never lose interest in this one. Read all about it in this blog post.

The post Free “First Grader in Training” Badges appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Can I just tell you how much I love Kinder Craze readers? This little ol’ blog is visited daily by the most wonderful, thoughtful, caring educators. I’ve learned over time that there are several local teachers that love Kinder Craze just as much as I do and I have had a chance to connect with many teachers on Instagram and Facebook. I had never met most of them in real life, but I had come to know a little about them. After a series of separate comments on social media, I decided it was time for us to finally connect and I organized the first-ever Kinder Craze social event for teachers.

For our very first meetup, I kept things pretty simple and organized a Saturday morning painting party at Painting with a Twist. If you’re not familiar, Painting with a Twist hosts painting parties. The participants can bring their own food and beverages (even beer or wine!) and sit down for a personalize two-hour painting class.

At first, we just sort of gathered, drank coffee and munched on a little breakfast. It was so nice to finally meet some of these amazingly sweet women!

You may recognize Kathy from the Teacher Appreciation surprise I arranged with Stitch Fix. She had already signed up for the event when I surprised her at her classroom and the painting party was just a few days after. It was so fun to go from being virtual friends to seeing each other twice in one week.

A little more conversation, and then it was time to paint. We were instructed to grab an apron and let the creativity flow.

Our instructor, Lori, was a gem. She didn’t mind teaching to a room full of kindergarten teachers, even though we may have been the most social group of people she ever had to corral.

Somehow, we were eventually able to put our conversations on “pause” and start painting! There were a few “Painting with a Twist” veterans in the group, but it was my first time. I loved how therapeutic it was to have a paintbrush in my hand. Each step was clearly described and demonstrated by Lori, so we didn’t have to worry about messing up and “ruining” our painting. It was much easier than I imagined.

Each time we painted a layer, we took a break so let the paint dry and resumed our conversations.

Then it was back to work …

During the final drying state, our instructor, Lori played a game that required us to stay seated. Like any good teacher, I think she figured out that the best way to manage us was to keep us from moving around the classroom. Clearly, we didn’t mind. Lori was a great entertainer.

We played Pictionary and Amanda won a prize. It’s funny because I was the organizer of the party and even I had no idea there would be prizes. The games and the prizes were a really sweet touch.

Fun fact about Amanda: her mom was my seventh grade teacher! The longer I blog, the more I am convinced that the internet makes this giant world seem really, really small.

While all of us were hanging on the instructor’s every word and praying that we didn’t mess up our paintings, Kelly followed her own spark of creativity and made an original painting. I have no idea how she did that, but isn’t it beautiful?

When it was time for all of us to add lettering onto our paintings, you could have heard a pin drop. Every single person admitted to being nervous about making the lettering look nice, which was funny because we voted on the painting ahead of time and this particular design was the winner by a landslide  We were all pleasantly surprised to learn that the lettering wasn’t too difficult if you knew a few tricks of the trade.

Like writing the letters with chalk before adding paint. Seriously, genius idea.

You may have spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd. I was overjoyed to see that several of my “local” teacher-blogger friends made the trip to join us.

From left to right: Marsha, Ashley, Kristen, me, and Kelly

At last, our masterpieces were complete!

The timing was purely coincidental, but our little painting party just happened to be on the same day that Teachers Pay Teachers was celebrating their 10th Anniversary. So, naturally, we had to bring a little of the celebration into Southeast Michigan.

This little painting party truly was a fantastic experience. It was great to unwind, relax and have a little fun with some local teachers. I couldn’t have had a better time and I’m so thankful for the new teacher friends I made that day.

Join Us for the Next Kinder Craze Event

I’m already working out a few details for the next Kinder Craze event. I’m not quite ready to share all of the details yet, but I can assure you that it is going to be a one-of-a-kind opportunity!

If you teach in the Detroit area (or if you live a little further away but you love a good road trip), you can find details about upcoming events here on the blog or sign up for the email list to get the latest information as soon as it becomes available.

Special thanks to my friend Brian from BTW Photography
for capturing such great photos from our day.

The post A Meetup with a Twist: The First-Ever Kinder Craze Event appeared first on Kinder Craze.

In kindergarten, literacy is one of the most important aspects of the content I teach. It’s my job to instill a love of reading in my students and to help them discover new books that ignite their interests and fill their hearts with joy. It’s also essential that I put books in their hands that are on-level for their reading abilities so they can build confidence as young readers. My classroom library is, hands-down, my favorite corner of the classroom. I love the vibrant colors, the neatly lined up bins, and the organization? Well, that’s just the icing on the cake!

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I receive a small income each time someone makes a purchase using my links, which helps to support the blog.

As you prepare your own classroom for back to school, I’m excited to take you on a little tour and share my classroom library with you. I’m also partnering with some of my favorite elementary bloggers to bring you a very special giveaway just in time for back to school. Each of us are going to take you on a tour of our favorite spaces in the classroom and giveaway some special prizes to help you transform those same parts of your own classroom. We’ll get to the giveaway soon. First, let me show you a little bit more about my classroom library.

Getting Started and Gathering Materials

If you’re just getting started organizing your classroom library, you need four simple things:

1. books
2. bins to hold the books
3. shelving
4. labels to help your library stay organized

If you are ready to start building your classroom library today, I’ll take you through the four essential items to help you create a library space for your students.

#1 – Books

If you’re building a classroom library, you need to start collecting books. Fortunately, there are a few cost-effective options available to help you get started.

Scholastic Reading Club

These days, I purchase most of my library books from Scholastic Reading Club. They’re affordable and there are always a few leveled sets available in the monthly flyers. I especially love purchasing books through Scholastic Reading Club because I get bonus points each time a parent buys books. Those points add up fast!  Last year, I “purchased” all of these books for my library using bonus points.

The packs of books are always an exceptional value and these particular books were great choices that were on-level for my students. You can read more about the book sets in this blog post.

If the parents in your class don’t purchase many books from the flyers when you send them home, you probably just need to educate them. I always mention the Scholastic book orders during my Parent Night presentation. I talk about the importance of “just right” books and hold up a few Scholastic books from my own classroom library. Then I mention how incredibly difficult it can be to find easy to read books at the local book store or even the book fair. As soon as I point out that Scholastic book orders are the best (and often only) place to purchase books that are easy enough for Kindergarteners to read, I have their attention. I even throw the Scholastic Book Fair under the bus because those books are too hard for my kids to read too. By the time I mention the incredible bargain that these books are, I’ve already guaranteed that a few parents will purchase books from the Book Order.

Then I just teach the parents how to find reading level information online and in the flyer. I post this exact image on my classroom blog when the first book order goes home.  You are welcome to do the same!

Scholastic Online Store

If you are looking for specific books that you know Scholastic publishes, but aren’t in your current Scholastic Reading Club flyer, you can buy most of their resources at any time from the Scholastic Online Store. The prices are a little higher, but the stock is much more consistent.

Used Book Sales

Used book sales are another amazing place to get fantastic books for classroom library. I have purchased hundreds of books for my own library over the years from local used book sales. Sometimes I’ve even been lucky enough to find leveled books from a former teacher’s library in the used book bins.

The prices of children’s books at Used Book Sales are particularly amazing. They often charge by the inch, which means they stack the books up and you pay based on how tall the stack of books are. In my area, most used book sales charge $1 per inch; which means that I could get a collection like this for only $3.

I’ve also found that if I’m purchasing dozens of books and I mention that I’m a teacher, the volunteers who run the cash register are often pretty generous with their measurements.

Classroom Donations

Another excellent source of classroom books is from donations. Reach out to former parents or put a note in your school newsletter stating that you are trying to expand your classroom library and are seeking any gently used book donations. You’d be amazed at how many picture books families have at home that their children have outgrown.

#2 – Bins

Once you’ve begun to collect books for your classroom library, you’ll find yourself sorting them so that your library can be organized. There’s no right or wrong way to sort and organize your books. Many lower elementary teachers sort their books by theme (such as apples, holidays, or favorite book characters). Many upper elementary teachers sort by genre (fiction, biography, fantasy, etc). Some teachers, like myself, have books sorted by level in addition to categories.

No matter how you sort your books, you are going to need a way to store them and keep your categories separated. Here’s where book bins come in. My best advice is to stock up on rectangular bins. Avoid round containers or boxes with irregular shapes. Rectangular boxes fit the best on shelves and help you to maximize your storage space. There are a few great places to stock up on bins for your classroom library.

Really Good Stuff

Really Good Stuff is one of my favorite places to purchase bins for my library. Their Durable Book and Binder Holders are very high quality and can handle tremendous rough handling from students. They also come in a variety of colors and are available year-round. (Bonus tip – turn the bins around on your shelf so the tall part faces out. That’s what I did for the green and yellow boxes you see in the above photo. It makes an extra-bold statement in your library).

Medium Rectangle Book Baskets are another favorite of mine from Really Good Stuff. These little baskets are available in the same range of colors as the Book and Binder Holders and they are the perfect size to hold the small square-shaped leveled readers that I stock up on from Scholastic.

Big Lots

During the summer months, I begin stalking all of my local Big Lots stores. They carry a line of plastic bins and boxes in their dorm decor that are amazing. I especially love their Magazine Storage Boxes. You can see the blue and pink bins in the photo from my previous classroom library. These bins are the perfect size to hold slightly oversized hardcover picture books that sometimes don’t fit in the bins from Really Good Stuff. And you can’t go wrong with a price tag of $3 per box. I also really love the bins that have the dots in the for storing books that I have an abundance of (like my Dr. Seuss books). Those boxes are extra durable and can really stand the test of time.

As amazing as these bins are, there’s just one catch. You can only buy them in-store during the summer months. They don’t sell the bins online. And the colors rotate from year to year. A few years back, they had the most beautiful pink, blue, lime green and purple selection. This year the colors are coral, bright blue, black and gray. If you’re in need of boxes for your classroom, RUN to Big Lots now and grab these while you still can.

Dollar Tree

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to store your books, make a trip to your local Dollar Tree. Jill from First Grade Made used a mix of Dollar Tree bins and Really Good Stuff bins to store the books in her classroom library and it looks so beautiful. I’ll talk about those labels in a minute.

And did you know you can actually purchase items for the Dollar Tree online? YES! You can! Often, you have to buy a case of items (which is usually 24 pieces), but I guarantee that 24 plastic bins is just about the right size for a “starter” library. You can find the complete offering of Dollar Tree’s plastic bins here. Just remember that rectangular boxes will be your best friend and round ones will be a nightmare for your storage system.

Oriental Trading

Oriental Trading has also been making a huge splash in the education sector this summer and I was surprised to discover that they sell many storage bins online. It’s another great option to check out if you are getting ready to stock up on bins for your classroom library. 

#3 – Shelving

Once your books are organized and sorted into bins, you’re going to need to store those bins somewhere in your classroom and make them accessible to your students. Many teachers purchase additional shelving to store those books. I use these bookshelves from Wal-Mart in my own library. They aren’t the absolute best quality, but with a price tag under $16, I wouldn’t expect them to be. They hold up pretty well as long as they can stay stationary in the room without being dragged around while loaded with books. The shelves sometimes bow, but I just flip them over when that happens and they eventually straighten back out.

The Wal-Mart shelves sometimes sell out (probably because of the crazy low price). A coworker has many of these similar shelves from Amazon in her classroom and they work great too!

#4 – Labels to Stay Organized

So you’ve finally collected the books, sorted them and tucked them neatly on the shelf in bins that are ready for students to use and love. Now how exactly do you keep those books organized so that all of your hard work wasn’t in vain?

All you need now is the right labeling system to keep your classroom library organized and staying top-notch. My classroom library labels are perfect for the job!

Child-friendly illustrations and a simple font are used on all of the box labels. Just print the labels you need, laminate and hot glue them onto plastic bins. Yes, I said hot glue. It creates a firm bond but pops easily off when you want to remove the label.

The book bins are fantastic and look amazing, but the real magic is in the coordinating book labels that are also included in the set. Just print the labels onto Avery 5160 sticker sheets and place a matching label onto every book in the bin. That way, your students will always know exactly where to return the books when they are done reading.

Classroom Library Labels are available in the bold Black Series or an ink-friendly White Series. Both sets will help your library space look absolutely stunning.

How to Use Classroom Library Labels

If you want to see more about the library labels and aren’t exactly sure how they work, this video is for you. I explain the whole process for how I use them to label my own classroom library.

Classroom Library Flashback

As nice is it is to have a really beautiful space, it’s perfectly ok to start with an area that’s purely functional and grow from there. This is how my classroom library looked in 2012. As you can see, things were a little bit different back then. And that is OK! I had books, bins, shelves and labels in place. My students used the library and loved it and we all start somewhere!

My Current Classroom Library

My library has changed (and expanded) considerably since those early days. Here are a few photos from this space in my classroom last year. Is it any wonder why I love this area in my kindergarten room the most?  You can read more about my classroom here. 

Back to School Giveaway

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn a little about my classroom library, it’s time for the real fun to start! I’m joining with some of my favorite early elementary teachers to provide a little classroom inspiration and giveaway a special prize pack to help sprinkle a little magic from each of our favorite classroom areas into one lucky teacher’s classroom.

Use the rafflecopter below for your chance to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Discover More Classroom Inspiration

I’m not the only teacher with a favorite corner of my classroom. Each of the other bloggers hosting the giveaway are taking you on a tour of their favorite spaces. Just wait until you see where they organize supplies, teach guided reading, store math materials, and more! Click on any of the images below to complete the classroom tours!

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The post How to Build a Classroom Library (and a Back to School Giveaway) appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Thank you to Avery for sponsoring this blog post. I received payment, trade and/or products from Avery in exchange for promoting. However, all opinions stated are my own. I only promote brands and products that I love and I truly adore Avery peel and stick labels in the classroom. This post also contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I receive a small commission whenever someone makes a purchase through one of these links, which helps to support the blog.

After a crazy and delightfully hectic month of moving and helping to set up multiple classrooms for back to school, last night I focused my attention back to my own classroom and the kindergarten students who will be learning with me this year. My school holds an annual “Sneak Peek” event in which students and families are invited into the classroom before the first day of school. They bring all of their school supplies, meet the teacher, and get acclimated for the new school year. It is a wonderful, but busy night at school.

I planned for 16 families to drop by the classroom last night and the room was buzzing with excitement. Kindergarten parents have a lot of questions because everything is new to them. Drop off, dismissal, homework, our schedule, etc. In the midst of answering all those questions, it’s my job to help all of the students unpack their school supplies.

The Problem: Hard-to-Read Writing

Many parents write their child’s name on everything with a permanent marker. Which is great for me, but often not-so-great for the children in the class who find a stray glue stick on the floor and haven’t figured out how to read the print/cursive mix of parent penmanship.

It’s a waste of time for the children to bring every lost-and-found school supply to me just because they can’t discern the handwriting (and it doesn’t really foster independence either). Fortunately, Avery labels are the perfect tool for solving this problem!

Avery 8160 Labels to the Rescue

As I prep for Sneak Peek, I print a column of labels bearing each students name on Avery 8160 labels and cut to separate each name column into strips. I place a strip of the appropriate name labels on each student’s desk and then I wait. When the students arrive in the classroom and find their desks, they have a great time peeling and sticking their name labels onto all of their supplies. And I take peace in knowing that the large, kid-friendly font will help all of the students to recognize each other’s name throughout the school year.

I created my labels using the Avery 8160 template in Microsoft Word, using the font KG Miss Kindergarten. You can also create your own labels using Avery Design and Print.

Storing and Managing School Supplies

My classroom school supply lists requests that all families supply four boxes of crayons and four large glue sticks. These items usually get us through the duration of the school year. I tuck one of the glue sticks and one box of crayons into each child’s pencil case and the rest get stored for later in the year.

In addition to the strip of printed 8160 labels, each child also receives a quart-size zipper bag bearing their name in the same kid-friendly font. I create these bags ahead of time and use Avery 5163 labels. (These are my all-time favorite labels. I use them all the time in my classroom.) The extra three glue sticks and boxes of crayons fit perfectly into the quart-size bag. Once filled, all of the bags get tucked under my classroom easel for easy access during the school year.

For the first few months of school, I personally hand out new supplies as they are needed. As the year progresses, the children learn to responsibly help themselves to supplies when something runs out. The Avery labels make everything so easy for them to read!

Some supplies go into student desks, others get tucked away under the easel, or placed into table boxes, and still others go into separate corners of the classroom. We stick Avery 8160 labels onto just about everything (except paint shirts and scissors).

Avery Organizational Giveaway

Avery makes so much more than just amazing labels. Their product line also offers and assortment of binders and accessories, page protectors, highlighters, dry erase markers and more. I’m so excited to give away a very generous gift pack from Avery to one Kinder Craze reader. Use the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s been an exciting summer with lots of fun projects and some interesting changes to my classroom. I can’t wait to fill you in on all of the details in the coming weeks!

The post Managing Student Supplies on Back to School Night appeared first on Kinder Craze.

I spent last week teaching my students how to be a kindergartener and next week I will meet with all of their moms and dads to teach them how to be a kindergarten parent. There is just SO much information that I have to squeeze into a 25 minute presentation. Those poor moms and dads tend to walk away with their heads spinning, so I give them a convenient and colorful parent flip book to take home that will help them to reference the most important information from the evening. It’s their go-to-guide for all things kindergarten.

I know your days are jam-packed right now, so I’ll show you how I set up my parent flip book, share a free editable template with you, AND give you a chance to win a box full of Astrobrights paper for your classroom. Settle in and get ready to have a great resource for your classroom parents.

Thank you to Astrobrights for sponsoring this post. I also included affiliate links in this post and I receive a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links. However, all opinions stated are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.

How to Create a Colorful Parent Flip Book

It’s simple to prepare the materials for the parent flip book. You’ll want to start by customizing the text on each page to suit your classroom needs and expectations. The template is set up for you to share 8 pages of information. I choose to highlight the following areas:

1. my contact information
2. calendar of important kindergarten dates
3. start and end times, as well as our specials schedule
4. my kindergarten class rules
5. birthday celebration guidelines
6. information about learning to read in kindergarten
7. reminder about the kindergarten dress code
8. my classroom homework policy

Once the content for each page is edited in the template, copy each page onto a different color of Astrobrights paper. The pages are formatted to be cut vertically in half so you only need to make half as many copies of each pages as you have student in the class.

Colored paper is fun, but it’s even better when you can conserve resources and have more paper to use later on!

I used all of my favorite Astrobrights colors to create my parent flip books:

Lift-Off Lemon™
Cosmic Orange™
Rocket Red™
Pulsar Pink™
Outrageous Orchid™
Lunar Blue™
Vulcan Green™
Solar Yellow™

You can also find many of these colors in the Cheerful and Neon paper assortments on Amazon.

Once my copies were made, I trimmed the pages on my paper cutter using the cutting guide lines that are printed onto the pages. This creates a series of pages with varying heights for the flip book.

Once the pages are trimmed, it’s time to assemble! Layer each page with the shortest on top and the longest on the bottom. I add a sheet of Astrobrights Eclipse Black cardstock that’s been cut vertically in half to the back of the book for a little added durability.

Have you ever seen such a colorful display of information?

Once the pages for the parent flip book are arranged, the final step is to attach the pages into booklet form. I used my school’s comb binding machine (you can find a similar model here) to add a nice finish to my books. I also just discovered this sleek like coil binding machine that creates more permanent books on Amazon and I am completely intrigued.

Of course, if you don’t have access to a binding machine, that is OK!
Just add a few staples to the top and it works just fine

Download a FREE Parent Flip Book Template

Now that you’ve seen how simple it is to create a colorful flip book for parent night, I’m going to make the process even easier for you. You can grab my flip book template for FREE! Just click the image below to get your free flip book template. It’s completely editable so you can change the page title to suit your own classroom needs. I pre-filled the template with the text I include in my own classroom to give you a peek at some of my classroom expectations.

How to Download and Install the Font

NOTE: I used the font KG Why You Gotta Be So Mean for my page titles. You will need to download and install this font on your computer for the flip book to match mine. You can download the font for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

If you’ve never installed a font on your computer before, I promise it’s super-easy. I created a video that walks you through the process on a PC and another video that demonstrates how to install fonts on a Mac. Click to watch the video that suits your needs. I mention my Classroom Library Labels in each video, but the font and instructions are the same for the template.

WIN Astrobrights for Your Classroom

Now for the really fun part! You already know how much I adore using color in my kindergarten classroom and you’ve seen how easy it is to bring vibrant color to your classroom documents with Astrobrights paper. One lucky reader will win a whole box of Astrobrights paper for their classroom this year, which is a lot of paper. Astrobrights is even going to throw in extra amounts of your three favorite paper colors. I am so excited because this contest is a chance for you to show off how you use color in your classroom.

The contest begins today: Sunday, September 4, 2016 and ends Saturday, September 10, 2016. One winner will be chosen and announced on Sunday, September 11, 2016 by 8:00pm Eastern time on my Facebook page and Instagram account.

How to Enter the Contest

All you have to do is follow these super easy instructions for your chance to win!

I can’t wait to see what you share!  It’s always a treat to sneak a peek at other classrooms. So get out there, start snapping photos and be sure to share them on Facebook. I’ll be on the lookout!

More Chances to ENTER

My contest will close on Saturday, September 10, 2016; but that’s not the end of the fun. There will still be two additional chances for you to win Astrobrights paper for your classroom.  Keep an eye out for the my Bright Minds friends Jodi and Reagan in the next few weeks.  They will have other great ideas for getting a bright start to your year and they will each host a contest too!

Sept. 11th–Fun In First
Sept. 18th–Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits

Inspiration to Colorize Your Classroom

For more colorful ideas, check out what Differentiated Kindergarten, A Modern Teacher and First and Kinder Blue Skies have been up to. Click any image to read more.

I’m looking forward to a very COLORFUL year in Kindergarten!

The post FREE Parent Flip Book Template + Astrobrights Colorize Your Classroom Contest appeared first on Kinder Craze.

Last month, I was given the honor of traveling to Alexandria, Virginia to help Astrobrights give one very bright teacher a classroom makeover. You may remember that Astrobrights launched their Brightest Teacher contest in the spring. Parents, teachers, students,and administrators from across the country were invited to nominate a very bright and deserving classroom teacher for a classroom makeover. Markeda Brown was selected as the 2016 winner of the Astrobrights’ Brightest Teacher contest and I am so excited to finally share Markeda’s classroom makeover with you on the blog today!

Get ready for lots of classroom inspiration! This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I receive a small commission when someone purchases an item through one of my links, which helps to support the blog so I can continue to share more content like this with you in the future. Astrobrights did not sponsor this blog post, but they graciously shared all of their photos from the classroom makeover with me. Thank you, Astrobrights!

I am so excited to take you on a tour of the classroom, but first you need to know a little bit about Ms. Markeda Brown.

Meet Markeda Brown

When it comes to passionate educators, Markeda Brown is the real deal. She truly shines as an outstanding first grade teacher and I quickly learned that she is one of the most colorful teachers I have ever met. Markeda arrived at school for each of our work days wearing bright pops of color; she even accessorized by wearing a bright flower in her hair to match her outfit! Markeda is warm, loving and such a beacon of inspiration. This contest was extra-special because all of the entrants had to be nominated by someone. This was one of three nominations that Markeda received and it perfectly describes the kind of teacher she is.

This when you walk into Markeda’s classroom, brightness hits you in the face. Not only is her classroom a work of art due to her painstaking effort to cover every inch of wall with color, but her love of children and teaching shouts loud and clear. Markeda is the type of teacher that parents request by name. She’s the type of teacher that her principal calls whenever she needs something special, or an idea, or an ambassador. Markeda rolls up her sleeves and plays in the dirt with her students. On any random day, you’d walk in her classroom and find her on the floor drawing with students, or dancing with them, or helping her 1st graders recite MLK’s “I have a dream” speech verbatim. She was born to teach and lives her purpose out loud and in bright colors. Ask anyone at Patrick Henry Elementary which teacher lights up a room, and you’d here a unanimous “Ms. Brown.”

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn a little bit about Markeda and the wonderfully bright teacher that she is, let me take you on a tour of her freshly Colorized classroom. I’ll start by giving you a quick overview, then share a few “before” photos with you and some of the logistics (and challenges!) of the transformation. I am sure you will have lots of questions about where we purchased certain items, so I will follow up with a closer look at all of the wonderful spaces in Markeda’s classroom and give you an in-depth look with a deeper explanation and even more photos.

Are you ready?

The Classroom Makeover Quick Tour

When you first enter Markeda’s classroom, your get a straight view across her community area and straight into her classroom library. We wanted to keep this view as clean, bright and functional as possible so students could move freely around these high-traffic areas.

As your eyes take in the scenery, a look to the right reveals Markeda’s desk and guided reading table in the corner. This gave Markeda a straight view of the classroom door so she is always aware of students entering and exiting the classroom, as well as the arrival of visitors.

The back portion of the classroom is a collaborative work space for Markeda’s students. Their tables are arranged in the center of this area and all seats have a view of Markeda’s smartboard.

Instructional materials and math manipulatives are neatly tucked away inside of the cube storage. A shelf of student book boxes are kept in the back corner for easy and convenient access to students when their work is finished, and art materials are stored in the large blue cabinet in the back of the classroom.

Seriously, how fun is this space?

Markeda is such a bright, shining educator, she just radiates love for her students. I was so happy to help create a classroom with bright pops of color to match her vibrant personality.

The Team

I promise, I’m going to give more details on the various spaces in Markeda’s classroom, but first I want to show you a little glimpse into the work we had cut out for us and the resources we had available for this little decorating adventure. Markeda’s school had a pretty full summer maintenance schedule, complete with lots of floor waxing. And, as you know, the floor wax schedule dictates all other events at school during the summer months. School administrators were able to offer three days from their busy summer maintenance schedule that we could use to make over Markeda’s classroom.

Knowing how precious our time would be, a massive collaborative discussion took place all summer long between the team at Astrobrights, Markeda and the Bright Minds.  I’m sure you already know and love Jennifer, Marsha, Reagan, April and Jodi. We had a blast brainstorming how to bring an exciting twist to Markeda’s first grade classroom. We planned, talked, shopped, and had all of the materials shipped to the school ahead of time.

At last the day finally arrived! I represented the Bright Minds and joined the Astrobrights team of Jeremy, Dannah (front left) and Jessica (back left) for our three-day adventure.

The Transition

Markeda’s classroom transformation began with a view that elementary teachers know all too well: a heap of her classroom belongings piled up on tables and off the freshly waxed floor.

The first thing we did was empty all of the small, manageable items into the hall so that only furniture remained in the classroom. Then, bit by bit, we let the smaller items reenter the classroom. We also brought in some new furniture items and cleared out some extra tables and storage pieces that Markeda no longer needed.

It was important that the space work to enhance Markeda’s teaching style. She and I spent a lot of time brainstorming the best way to arrange furniture and store her materials.

Little by little, we made progress.
It was so exciting to see all of our planning and hard work come to life!

The Community Area

A smartboard serves as the instructional focal point of the entire classroom. Markeda uses the smartboard for instruction in a variety of ways. Sometimes she uses it to teach while students are seated at their tables. At other times, she gathers her students onto the floor in front of the smartboard. We wanted to make this space as welcoming as possible for her students, without causing a hinderance in how she delivers new content.

We found this fabulous black and white rug at Target. I love the bold impact it makes on her bright white tile floors.  The black cube shelf and purple fabric bins are from Walmart. The black shelf was priced under $50 and was such a great bargain! The fabric storage bins are also from Wal-Mart. The solid purple color option doesn’t seem to be available online right now, but they purple chevron and solid pink bins, which we also used in the classroom. Markeda already owned the purple milk crate (similar) and it was the perfect size to hold all of her clipboards.

We added a pop of bright color with two teal stackable drawers from Michaels. We also placed a teal plastic basket from Really Good Stuff. I posted a photo of these bins on Instagram and got so many questions about them! The color is called “Shoreline” and they are a little bit buried on the Really Good Stuff website, but you can find them here. A size medium is shown in the photo.

The black Alphabet Picture Cards are from my TpT store. Markeda already owned the purple number line and it was such a perfect fit for her classroom’s new look. I have searched online for the same version and all I could find is a blue set that is similar. The round items you see displayed on the board near the door are ten frame numbers. They can be found in Reagan Tunstall’s Bright and Black Classroom Label pack on TpT.

The Classroom Library

Just past the smartboard and community area lies Markeda’s library. You already know how much this space in the classroom melts my teacher heart. Something about the children’s books … and the bright bins and … the organization. This is my version of teacher heaven.

We used the same cube shelving model in her classroom library with purple chevron fabric bins. Black, pink and turquoise pillows are all from Target.

Markeda and I knocked out a plan for organizing her library and she worked so hard to sort all of her books during those three days. Once the categories were established, we sorted the books into plastic bins. The pink, black, and turquoise bins are from Really Good Stuff. Purple boxes are from Steps to Literacy.

The Listening Center

Markeda really wanted to have a listening center in her classroom, so we designated a small area beside her library to serve this purpose. Markeda already had a few DIY crate seats in her classroom that matched her decor perfectly and were just the right size for her little listening center.

We also purchased two iPod Nano devices for her classroom and two headphone splitters, which will allow multiple students to tune in and listen to the same iPod. Markeda will have access to her school’s iPads later this year so we purchased a black storage and charging base for the iPads. We also outfitted Markeda with some Kidz gear headphones in a cool purple color that I am certain her students will love.

All of those items are completely awesome, but my favorite gadget is the Ion Tape Converter that transfers old-school cassette tapes into mp3 files. This handy little device will help Markeda to digitize her old cassette tapes and make use of more modern technology.

The Teacher Desk Area

Since Markeda gives so much of herself to her students and her school, we wanted to establish a corner of the classroom that would be a special place for her to enjoy. In our conversations, it became apparent that Markeda did not spend a great deal of time sitting at her desk during the school day. Rather, she preferred to tuck her desk out of the way and use it as a table top with functional storage. Markeda also mentioned that when she did sit down during the school day, it was often with a group of students for guided reading instruction. With that in mind, we merged her teacher desk area and her guided reading center. This way, she would have easy access to all of her files and instructional materials.

Markeda has a beautiful set of windows in her classroom that let in a lot of natural sunlight. This was an ideal space for her teacher desk area so that she could enjoy a little sunlight while teaching her students or prepping for upcoming lessons.

Let’s break down some of the furnishings in this area. We treated Markeda to two new file cabinets. These are from Home Depot, but Walmart also has a similar style available for a great price. We also tucked two IRIS 6-drawer carts under her desk for school and office supplies and placed a coordinating IRIS 10-drawer cart to hold her guided reading books. Finally, two black magazine storage boxes sit on top of Markeda’s desk to hold teaching manuals and other professional books.

The drawers of the IRIS 6-drawer carts were labeled using my Visual Supply Labels so she will know exactly what is inside for quick and easy access.

Of course, no teacher desk would be complete without a system for organizing her materials for the week. We found a simple white rolling organizer from Really Good Stuff and traded the rainbow baskets inside for black paper baskets to match her classroom.

The beautiful stapler, tape dispenser and pens are all from Poppin.

If you’ve been paying careful attention to the photos, you may have noticed a bit of a switcheroo with the chair positioned at Markeda’s guided reading table. We ordered a fun purple chair for Markeda’s classroom makeover and it didn’t arrive with the rest of her supplies. We anxiously awaited its arrival while we worked and hoped that it would make an appearance before we had to go home.

After the makeover was complete, while we were taking a final round of photos, the purple chair was delivered as the final accessory for Markeda’s beautiful classroom! Markeda also kept her existing blue chair and plans to use it while her students are learning on the rug.

The Writing Area

Markeda also needed a space for students to manage their papers and gain access to writing materials. The back of her classroom was an ideal location for the writing center. Her student mailboxes sit above the writing center and a white scrapbook cart is the perfect place to store student writing papers. Additional items can easily be stored in the stackable clear purple boxes from The Land of Nod. We also added an inspirational art print to remind Markeda and her students that they are all pretty special and amazing. Purple book bins are from Steps to Literacy.

Sharp and dull pencil signs are from Reagan Tunstall’s Bright and Black Classroom Label pack on TpT.

The Math Station

Markeda uses a lot of manipulatives to deliver math instruction, which is so wonderful! The downside of having so many hands-on materials is figuring out an effective storage solution. All of those clocks, counters, balances, bears, dominoes and everything else have to be stored somewhere and they take up a lot of space. Fortunately, Markeda’s district provided her with a very nice wood storage shelf with cubbies to hold all of the smaller materials. The shelf came with primary colored bins, which didn’t exactly coordinate with her Markeda’s new classroom color scheme. We bought her a new set of purple bins from Lakeshore Learning and they were a perfect match! We also laminated and attached labels from my Visual Supply Label pack on TpT so Markeda and her students could easily find their desired materials.

The purple bins solved the storage problem for Markeda’s smaller materials, but she still owned a number of bulky instructional manipulatives. Two black cube storage shelves from WalMart and coordinating pink and purple chevron fabric bins easily solved that problem. Markeda’s materials were tucked away, easy to access, and had a polished look.

The Classroom Walls

Like most teachers, Markeda uses every inch of her classroom wall space to display reference information. She often creates several anchor charts with her students and displays the completed charts around the classroom. Markeda has a beautiful whiteboard that spans the entire back wall of the room and is an ideal location to display her current anchor charts. We divided the whiteboard into five sections that correspond to her content areas.

Markeda loves to color coordinate her subjects, so we printed each set of pennants onto a different color of Astrobrights cardstock. For Markeda’s classroom, we used the following Astrobrights colors:

Fireball Fuchsia™
Pulsar Pink™
Gravity Grape™
Terrestrial Teal™
Celestial Blue™

The black ink made a bold statement and I love the pop of peekaboo color from the Astrobrights cardstock.

We also tied in the same cardstock colors to add a fun focal point to Markeda’s classroom library.

The wall space above Markeda’s whiteboard will be used a a word wall. We printed the alphabet labels from Reagan’s Bright and Black Classroom Label pack. They were a perfect match with her classroom’s new look.

The Student Workspace

The only remaining detail of the classroom was creating an effective workspace for Markeda’s first grade students to learn. We arranged the student tables in a central area and made sure that all of the chairs were arranged to give students a view of the smartboard. The students have easy access to all of the classroom learning areas, which is so important.

Wouldn’t you love to be a student in Ms. Brown’s classroom?

The Reveal to Administration

After three very busy days of transforming Markeda’s classroom, we invited her principal and assistant principal to come see the finished result.

We followed all of the district guidelines for classroom setup, which are very common for classroom teachers across the country. Note that nothing was hanging from the ceiling, we used minimal paper on her walls, and we didn’t paint any of her existing furniture. I think it’s safe to say that her administration approved of the makeover.

Markeda Brown has proven herself to be a truly extraordinary educator and I am so honored to have been a part of her classroom transformation. I’m also so thankful to Astrobrights for recognizing teachers and the tireless work they do. I can’t think of a more rejuvenating way to begin the school year than to help celebrate a truly deserving teacher.

I wish all of you an amazing 2016-2017 school year and I know for certain that Astrobrights will be cheering you on from the sidelines! Join the fun on Facebook and Instagram and keep an eye out for the latest Colorize Your Classroom contest from Fun In First on September 11 and Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits on September 18 for a chance to win Astrobrights paper!

The post Astrobrights Brightest Teacher Classroom Makeover Reveal appeared first on Kinder Craze.

My classroom looks and feels a lot different this year than it has in the past. For one thing, there are 17 students in my class this year. Ten of those students are full-day students in what had been a solely half day kindergarten classroom.

There’s also another teacher in the room.

And there’s a brand new flat panel Smartboard.

Between the extra students, the change in my instructional format, the additional teacher and the new technology; this year feels like it was the most chaotic start ever and I’ve been struggling to get my feet firmly planted on the ground. Every single change has been a blessing, and yet even the most wonderful experiences are often accompanied by growing pains.

I’ve sat down to write this blog post so many times and always managed to talk myself out of it. Mostly because I wonder why any other teacher would have the time to read about this type of change in my classroom. I know you’re busy and it always amazes me that other educators with way too much on their plate would take the time to read about the ins and outs of my classroom.

So I always manage to talk myself out of sharing the story of this year’s changes.

But then I want to share something from my classroom.
And I know that someone will notice the extra desks or a detail in a photograph and there won’t be a short answer to that person’s question.
And I definitely don’t want to hide the fact that there is another fully-qualified teacher in the classroom teaching right alongside me.

And then the not telling of the changes feels dishonest, and the very last thing I want to do is misrepresent myself or what happens in my classroom on this blog.

And it’s too big of a can of worms to just tag onto the start of a different blog post.

So I’m finally ready to share all of the changes with you. Not so much for my benefit. Rather, I’m ready to share because I know many of you are truly interested in what happens in my classroom and I love to be honest with you.

And I feel like the blog has been at a standstill waiting for me to finally sit down and say something about my year so far.

So here goes …

The Smartboard

I knew early in the summer that my classroom would be furnished with a brand new flat panel Smartboard this year. And I was thrilled. No more projector that had to be situated 10 feet in front of the screen. But I did need to have some type of computer workstation within 15 feet of the board so I could connect my laptop to the Smartboard. Fortunately, my classroom wasn’t set up yet for the new school year. Which meant it was the perfect time to flip my classroom library and teacher work space so I could have all of my teaching tools in one area.

The Growing Pains

We are four weeks into the school year and I am still adjusting to the Smartboard and my new configuration. We had some internet problems at school this year and it took a while to figure out how to make my older model Elmo communicate with my top-of-the-line Smartboard. The situation was less than ideal.

I also really, really miss having full access to my magnetic whiteboard.

And then there’s my newly flipped teacher work area. I am just not settling into a groove with the new layout. The space feels crowded and nothing is as easy grab when I’m in a hurry.

And the extra cords? Well, they’re kinda killing me.

The Good News

Despite the growing pains, having a beautiful piece of technology in my classroom is certainly a blessing. I am slowly discovering a more functional way to use and organize the teacher workspace. And you better believe my students are completely engaged during any lesson that includes a giant tv screen that you can touch.

The Full-Day Students

The biggest change in my classroom this year truly is the addition of full-day students to my former half-day kindergarten program. Prior to this year, I had a tidy little schedule. Yes, it was a race against the clock, but it was a race that I loved and it just worked.

I was all set and ready for another whirlwind year of half day kindergarten, when we had several full-day kindergarten tours late in the summer. So many, in fact, that it was too many students to fit into a single classroom. With so many full-day students enrolling, the only solution was to place some of the full-day students in my half-day classroom.

The Growing Pains

Faced with a much larger batch of students and a whole new schedule was certainly an unexpected curveball! All of my core content still had to fit into the morning so that none of my half-day students will miss out on any instruction. In the afternoon, the full-day students eat lunch, have recess, rest and do centers.

Juggling the two groups of children and their needs has been an interesting challenge. It’s not because there are more students in my class this year – just the fact that there are two groups of students with different schedules and needs. As their teacher, it’s my job to protect the instructional interests of both groups of students and make sure both groups of students (and parents) are at ease with their role in the classroom.

The Good News

After having several years with less than a dozen students in my classroom, it feels refreshing to have a larger group this year. I actually have four tables of student desks again. The children have more opportunities to socialize with each other and the learning environment feels more dynamic because there are more students participating in the the classroom.

The full-day students also have a little more room to spread out and breathe in the afternoon, which is nice since our mornings are so rigorous from the instructional time constraints.

The Extra Teacher

A few years ago I discovered that managing two blogs and working full-time at school was too much of a workload for me to manage. I was burning out fast and I needed a chance to rest and take time for myself so I decided to work part time last year. It was a perfect fit since my students were only at school for the mornings. I handed off the tech-related responsibilities I had taken on during the afternoons at school and used that time to manage blogs and share my passion with others outside of the classroom. It was a great system and I finally found time to relax and enjoy life.

When I found out that full-day students would be coming my way, I had no idea how to handle that situation. I knew there wasn’t enough of me to adequately serve the needs of my students, readers of the blog, and maintain my relationships with my husband, family and friends. It took a little creativity, but my school administration and I worked together and invited another full-time teacher into the classroom to teach alongside me. And just like that Ms. S entered my kindergarten classroom.

The situation is certainly unique. Our students have not one, but two qualified teachers in the classroom each day. I take the lead instructional role for all children in the morning and Ms. S (that’s how I plan to refer to her on the blog) takes over after lunch.

Neither one of us is a teacher’s aide. While I’m leading instruction in the mornings, Ms. S. works one on one by the side of any children who are struggling. She rotates around the room and helps children work on pencil grip, or cutting skills, or does intervention activities who are working on letter recognition.

After lunch, lead instruction transfers to Ms. S. I often stay for an hour or two after the half-day students leave. During those afternoons, I fade into the background of the classroom and Ms. S is completely at the wheel.

The Growing Pains

When Ms. S was hired, I was consumed with relief. She was (and is) the answer to so many of my prayers. All of this happened in a whirlwind of activity less than two weeks before the first day of school, just as I was preparing to fly out to to Virginia to assist with the Astrobrights classroom makeover. Ms. S and I only had a few opportunities to meet, plan, and prepare for the year before meeting our students and their families at our school’s annual Sneak Peek event before the first day of school.

One of our biggest challenges thus far is that Ms. S and I mutually struggle with being too polite with each other. When the school year started, I spent about two weeks deliberately avoiding my traditional “teacher’s chair” behind what had been my teacher desk because I didn’t want to establish it as mine. When we needed to sit and meet, I often motioned to the chair and invited her to sit in it. We also spent the first two weeks of school awkwardly dancing around each other because we didn’t want to get into each other’s way.

It also happens to be Ms. S’ first teaching job and I am so blessed for the opportunity to be a resource and a support for her. I remember the unrelenting feeling of being overwhelmed at school every single day during my first year of teaching and I’m thankful that I can help soften that burden a bit for Ms. S.

I also walk a very fine line each day between being a resource for Ms. S and desperately trying to avoid becoming an accidental authority figure. Which can be a little weird at times because there are so many school and kindergarten traditions that keep surfacing. After 8 years in kindergarten, I have a lot of experience to share and pass along. As you might expect, I spend a great deal of time filling her in on how all of these events work and what our responsibilities are. But as much as I take the lead in our kindergarten events and classroom activities, we are ultimately teaching partners. Like I said, it’s a fine line. It’s also a weird line.

She and I both try to take it all in stride.

News of our new classroom structure was also a surprise to the students and families. When they enrolled for the school year, they expected their students to be placed in my half day classroom or in the full-day classroom next door. The full-day students were surprised to be placed in an entirely different classroom with two new-to-them teachers. And the half day students? Well, they were prepared for a significantly smaller learning community this year.

We fielded lots of questions during the first week of school. Mostly because parents didn’t quite understand how all of the pieces would fit together. And who could blame them? Thankfully, the parents trusted that the school administration and the kindergarten teachers ultimately had their child’s best interest at heart and embraced our unusual classroom structure.

The Good News

As rare and unusual as my current teaching situation may be, it is also an incredible blessing. Yes, it provides me with the time that I need to juggle all of my passions and responsibilities. And yes, it is a highly supportive first-time teaching position for Ms. S.

But the real winners in this situation are the students in our classroom. Our class of 17 students reap the benefits of having two fully-qualified, certified teachers in their classroom on a daily basis. While most kindergarten classrooms in our country have anywhere from 24 to 32 students, our class of 17 is quite small. Combine that with the fact that our students have support every single day to two fully qualified kindergarten teachers, and that the ten full-day students in our class have the benefit of small learning community with Ms. S and I would say it’s a wonderful situation all around.

Here’s to an unexpected 2016-2017 school year. I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for our classroom this year.

The post Changes In My Classroom This Year appeared first on Kinder Craze.