Kelly’s Kindergarten

 

 

 

 


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June 12, 2012: First of all...THANK YOU to DENICE and CHRISTIE in Cushing, Oklahoma for the wonderful popcorn tin! You have no idea how that made not only my day but my entire week! The treats inside were delicious! 

We have ended our school year here in Baltimore and it was a very bittersweet ending for me. I am very excited for summer break but sad to know that I am not returning to kindergarten (and my great team) in the fall. You would not believe the amount of stuff I packed up over the past few months. Some I took to third grade but there is A LOT in my basement. In fact I have an entire wall of boxes and supplies that are just for kindergarten. I couldn't part with them in case I decided to return to kindergarten after this year. I'm looking forward to trying something new--I've already been thinking about how to set up a third grade room and playing around with classroom design sites. As I promised before, I will leave this site up and running. Once I figure out what I'm doing in third grade I'll add a page about my new classroom. Thanks again to everyone who takes the time to let me know how the site has helped you. I can't always reply to every email (although I do try) but I certainly read them! Hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing summer!

April 1, 2012: I have some sad but exciting news (and this is NOT an April Fools Joke!): My administration has decided that I will move to third grade for the upcoming school year in an effort to raise test scores at our challenging school. I am heartbroken to leave kindergarten but as I mull over this news I am getting excited to try third grade (and teach some of my previous students again!). I will continue to keep Kelly's Kindergarten up and running (it has WAY too many visitors to take it down) so no worries there! I may even expand it to include a new Kelly's Third Grade..although it just doesn't have the same ring to it (lol).

My home is still quite a busy place...I still have a house full but there have been some changes. My adopted son is now 11 and growing fast. My godsons who are 17 and 18 are still living with me. And we now have a girl! My 18 year old godson welcomed a beautiful daughter into the world in December so now I have an adorable little girl to spoil!

March 2012: A big thank you to all of the visitors to this site. You have made Kelly's Kindergarten such a success that last month we managed to crash the servers of my hosting company with all of our traffic. We have bypassed national sites in terms of visitors and traffic! Since then I have upgraded to a larger hosting company so that we should not experience any more interruptions. Kudos to Viabit, LLC for all of their services and help over the past few years. I had no idea that we would outgrow you!

If you haven't visited in a while you might want to check out these new additions:

 

  • Homework has been updated for 2011-2012

  • Two new games have been added to the Dollar Store Delights Games page: Fishy Fun and Clean Out My Garden
  • One new game has been added to the Games to Make page: Wishy Washy Game

Thanks for stopping by!

 

NEW!!  Save time...use Google Search to find what you are looking for on the site:

 

 

Games to Make

Updated on 7/17/11

 

I recently started to organize all of the sight word games that I have found and/or created.  I realized that you may also find this listing helpful so I revised the directions to include how to make the games and have provided the black line masters for a few of the games.  My children really enjoy learning with these games. I use them for sight words, phonics skills (CVC words, etc), letters, numbers, addition/subtraction, etc. I have used many of these with students as old as 4th grade to practice story vocabulary and language skills (contractions, synonyms, etc.). These black line masters were created in Microsoft Word. To modify them for your own use, simply type in the text (sight words, numbers, etc) appropriate for your children. I hope that you find these useful.   

                                    

 

Dollar Store Delights and Big Lots Bargains

Updated on 7/17/11

 

These games are made using items (TREASURES) that I found at either Big Lots or The Dollar Tree. Most can be used for a variety of skills.

More Games

This section contains several more games that you may find useful. **I did NOT create these games or the black line masters** The black line masters for these games can be found by following the links to the websites where I found them.

Billy's Phonics Games

 

A wonderful teacher in Ireland contacted me with some phonics games that he has created. Billy Reid has generously offered to share his games with everyone. All directions and games pieces are included!

 

 

Directions for Traditional Games

Songs Packet

 

 Phonics Materials

 

We use Open Court for our phonics instruction. However, the materials that come with the program are rather boring. Since we are required to have a “paper/pencil” assessment for our phonics lessons, I often create “project” type worksheets for the skills I teach (which often extend beyond the kindergarten OC program). Usually I create one “project” and just change the skill to meet the needs of each group. While the projects take longer to complete than a simple worksheet, they are more engaging and keep the children on task for seatwork while I meet with other groups.

 

Other Goodies

 

KDG Handbook: We update this handbook each year and share it with parents during Kindergarten Orientation.

Kindergarten Assessment (Reading): We use this packet 4 times a year to assess student progress. The items on the assessment correlate directly to our progress report.

Skill Stickers: In the past I have made a set for each student and presented the stickers as the child mastered the skill.

Star Writers: We posted a copy of this chart on each table to remind students of what is expected when writing. (Second half of the year)

Spelling Strategies: Fellow T-net teacher Barb created these to help her students become independent writers.

 

Classroom Pictures

 

2004-2005

 

Diagram of Classroom setup 04-05

 

2005-2006

 

2007-2008

 

Classroom Organization

Includes:

  • classroom labels

  • book basket labels

  • schedule cards

  • tips and tricks for name tags, desk tags, lunch money

  • Large Center Signs

  • Links to Online Classroom Design Programs

 

Behavior Management Tools

Includes:

  • explanation of behavior management system

  • individual behavior charts

  • rule charts (with pictures/icons)

  • behavior prompt cards

 

Picture Cards 

Use these picture cards to create skill games. They are designed to correspond to the activities in Getting Ready to Read (CTP) but can be used for any game. All picture sets were created in MS Word using clipart. All are in COLOR!

 

Calendar Materials  

Includes:

  • printable calendar pieces

  • printable weekly graphing questions/pictures

 

Ready Readers Resources

Open Court Resources

 

Music Power Points

I created these power points to accompany the songs I use in the classroom. You will need to own/purchase the songs in order to use these. Most are Dr. Jean and Jack Hartmann songs.

 

 

 Monthly Homework

*2011-2012 calendars are now ready!

Monthly homework calendars (generic for any year) with accompanying work packet. Each day has a written activity (half sheet of paper) to do.

 

Monthly Centers

 

*New Centers Explanation Page

*New Long Range Shared Reading Planner

Ideas for monthly centers that correlate with themes and shared reading books. Additionally, there are work tasks (non-theme related) for ABC Center, Math Center, Writing Center, and Science Center.

 

Dramatic Play

Use these printable pages to add literacy opportunities to your dramatic play area. Some of the pages are designed to be used as reading opportunities (word cards, recipes, etc) while others provide students with authentic writing experiences (grocery lists, checks, etc). I am just beginning this page and will add more as I create the pages.

 

Online Kindergarten Games

 

This is a child-friendly collection of websites with online games designed for kindergarten children. I created this page so that I could set it as my homepage on my student computers. This allows my students to easily access appropriate websites. This is an ad-free page.

 

 

  Math Activities

 

Science Center Activities

   Christmas Crafts 

Paulie offered to share these wonderful ornament ideas with us. Photos and directions for both easy and more difficult projects are included. She has also written an adorable poem to send home with the ornaments. Enjoy!

Newsletter Templates

 

After several requests for sample newsletters, I decided to create templates for each month. These are MS Word documents that allow you to enter your own text and print. You can use the existing headlines or create your own.

Watch my 08-09 class in action on Purple Fridays: http://www.wbaltv.com/video/18499021/index.html

 Contact Me

 

Please feel free to email me with any comments, questions, or ideas for new games.

 

*I sometimes get emails from users who are having trouble with all of the links (keep returning to this home page). If that happens to you, try hitting the refresh button on your browser. Some browsers store the page so that it loads faster on future visits. However, that also means that it doesn't recognize the site when I update it!

 


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