Primary Flynn

This year parents bought the school supplies and brought them in the first day of school.  It was very chaotic and I had a lot of bags to go through to that night.  I was at school until 11:30pm that first day.  I was going to let the students keep their scissors at their desks but I had a few students the first day cut anything in sight.  So I made sure every pair of scissors were labelled.  Many of the parents did label the supplies but some still needed to be labelled so I took some tape and labelled the rest and then put them in a big bucket.  But the first activity that they needed their scissors I found it took forever to hand them out.  So I wanted to come up with a solution where the scissors were still by me but the students could get them easily.  Then I remembered the foam you can use with plants.  I had used the foam a few years back for a mother's day craft with my grade 5/6s and I wanted to see if this idea would work.   ...

So last year around this time when my students were trying to find numbers in flyers, it was a HUGE mess in my class.  The flyers were just too big for their desks and the students had such a hard time and opening the flyers and trying to fold the flyers.  So I figured out half way through the year that maybe I could cut the flyers into little squares and it would be easier for the primary students to handle.  So today I did the same activity and it went sooooo much better.  I had the flyers already cut up and in a bin.  The kids were able to find the numbers and the mess was minimal.  Last year this activity left me exhausted, this year I loved the activity!!! Enjoy! Kemble :-)

Just wanted to share what my pringles can looks like with all my tape on it.  I always know where my tape is AND the caretaker was commenting on the can and remarked how I could put pins, elastics, rulers, etc in the middle of the can.  I didn't even think of that!!!  So I think my tape can will be turned into my tape and elastic can as I always find it hard to find my elastics when I need them.   Enjoy!! Kemble :-)

Any teacher that teaches primary/kindergarten know that you have to have loads of activities ready for the beginning of the year because being in big school can be a shock to some of the little ones and their attention span is not the greatest at the begin of the year.  I love playing bingo but sometimes the bingo games can just go on and you loose the kids attention very quickly.  I find 3x3 bingo cards are just right and the games can go at a pace the will keep the little ones attention.  I have 2 bingo games I play at the beginning of the year.  I play alphabet bingo and school supply bingo.  I also have large and medium sized alphabet cards so show the students so they get used to seeing those letters.  I also use these as alphabet mats the kids can use when sorting objects.  The supply bingo cards help the students recognize the different supplies we have in our classroom.   You can find these 2 different bingo games i...

Well, school has begun and Friday was day 8!!  I have 28 little primaries and on the first day of school it rained so it was very hectic!!!  Things are just starting to settle down and we are getting into the routines.  One of the routines my students complete every morning is their Morning Calendar work.  I have taken some pictures so you can see how it works in my class.  I have a blank calendar that I put my little calendar accents up and I try to have calendar accents that will create a pattern, especially with colour.  I use these apple calendar accents because it gives me an ABC pattern and a red, green and yellow pattern the kids can see. So I always have the calendar accents up for the kids before they come in that morning.  So this was Thursday and I had the 13th up and the kids knew to look for the last apple and the number 13.  Then they open up their Calendar Work duotangs (which are already on their desks) and trace the number ...

The school where I teach is a dual track school which means there are both English and French Immersion programs.  The French Immersion teachers really liked my portable themed word walls so I decided to make French portable themed word walls.  I use my word walls in my mini offices but if you don't use mini offices in your French Immersion class, you could still print these themed word walls and laminate them (so they will last) and have them at a writing center or just in a common area where the kids can go get them and take them to their desks.  Examples of what the word walls look like are below: There are 18 word walls with the following themes: -           les nombres -           une année -           la sale de classe (2 word walls) -           les mots d’actions -...

I have two chalkboards in my classroom.  The teacher before me had put up tape that had left tape marks so last year I covered one of the boards with the white laminate to use for my word wall.  This year I covered the other chalkboard where I put up my weather graph and calendar work pictures for my students. So on this board I put up a calendar with a pattern on it.  I have apples for the month of September.  The apples create an A, B, C pattern.   I put the same morning calendar sheets up that my students have in their morning calendar work duotang.  I enlarge them on the photocopier (129%) and I always have the pattern done before the students come in so they can check their work.   I will post more pictures next week when I actually have the colour in each picture.  The first few days, I do the calendar with the students so I don't have the patterns in yet.