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Feature Friday: Abigail from Kindergarten Chaos

Welcome friends!

Today is our first Feature Friday @ Kinder Tribe!


Every Friday we will be featuring a member of the Kinder Tribe group and they will be sharing their expertise with us! Our first feature member is Abigail from Kindergarten Chaos!
Take it away Abbie!


Hello Kinder Tribe and thank you for the warm welcome! So excited to be the Feature Friday today and share The 10 Best Books to Read the First Week of Kindergarten. But before I share these books, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Abigail {Abbie} and I teach Kindergarten in Las Vegas, Nevada. I have taught half-day and full-day Kindergarten, as well as 2nd grade. But by far, my passion and heart is in Kindergarten!

intro

I am married to my hunny of almost 17 years and have 3 kids, ages 14, 8, and 6. Along with the titles of wife, mom, and teacher, I am also a blogger. I have 2 blogs, Lovin' Our Chaos {a lifestyle blog} and Kindergarten Chaos, my educational content blog. Come on over and visit me sometime!

10 Best Books to Read the 1st Week of Kindergarten
 
As most of us know, Kindergarten is its own little enchanted world. While some students have had previous school experience, many have not and we get to be their first teacher and introduction to school. This can bring a wide range of emotions for these little people and especially during the first week. That is why I always bring out my favorite, 'warm & fuzzy' books to read. I have found that reading picture books in a whole group setting those first few days, takes away some of their fears and anxiety, plus gives me multiple teaching opportunities about feelings, emotions, making friends, rules, procedures, and just how great school and kindergarten is going to be!
Usually the very first book I read on the first day of school is Kindergarten Rocks.

Kindergarten Rocks

I love to be exuberant and tell them why I love Kindergarten so much, how much fun we are going to have, and that our brains are going to grow from all that awesome learning we are going to do! This positive book typically brings a feeling of excitement and then we dance and sing, because that's why Kindergarten Rocks, right?! ;-)

The Kissing Hand

Also on the first day, I do a mini-lesson about feelings and how we felt coming into the 1st day of school. We make an anchor chart and share our feelings with our shoulder partners. I then read The Kissing Hand and we make a 'Kissing Hand' hand-print keepsake to give to our families at the end of the day.
Other books that I read during the first week of Kindergarten include Pete the Cat books, I Love my White Shoes and Rockin' in my School Shoes. I mean who doesn't love Pete the Cat and his white shoes or when he rocks out in his school shoes?! And if you want to have some real fun, buy the Rockin' in My School Shoes CD or mp3! The kids love the music and we 'rock' out with our air guitars.

Pete the Cat Rockin' in my School Shoes Pete the Cat I Love my White Shoes  

How about incorporating First Day Jitters, Mouse's First Day of School, Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come, If You Take a Mouse to School, and/or The Rainbow Fish? These are great books that might relieve their fears about school and making friends.

First Day JittersMouses !st Day of SchoolLook Out Kindergarten, Here I Come

If You Take a Mouse To SchoolThe Rainbow Fish

 One of the last books I read during the first week of Kindergarten is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This is a fun book that allows me to easily transition into my alphabet centers and work stations.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Of course, if you read my post 35+ Books to Teach Rules and Procedures, then you know that I read a LOT of books during those first few weeks of Kindergarten!

Books to Teach Rules and Procedures

Well it's time to say goodbye and adios, but I hope you have been inspired to read one or more of these books this school year. But before I go, I would love for you to tell me YOUR favorite go-to books for the beginning of Kindergarten. Please mention them in the comments below. I look forward to reading what you all have to say. Have a fabulous school year and don't forget...Never Let Anyone Steal Your Happy! {My personal motto}

Never Let Anyone Steal Your Happy

Find me on FB, Instagram, Twitter, Bloglovin', or Periscope {lovinourchaos}.

Morning Work Buckets for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

Hey, everyone! 

This is Kelly from My Fabulous Class.

I am so excited to share something that Worked Well for me last year. If you follow my blog or Facebook, you know last year, I started using Morning Work Buckets. These are the BEST thing I implemented in my classroom last year. You can read all about it HERE.


Morning Work Buckets were a HUGE time saver for me. They gave kids the opportunity to have something meaningful to do when they walked in the door, while I took attendance, checked binders, kissed boo-boos, and listened to stories. I started using them in the spring and I WISH I had used them all year long. They worked so well, I am going to start the year out with them.

Morning Work Buckets are meant to be INDEPENDENT. For the first 2-3 days, I am planning on only using simple math manipulatives, such as unifix cubes and pattern blocks.  Even before I started using Morning Work Buckets, I have always started the year off with buckets of math manipulatives. It has always worked well, since I do not have expectations for how students use them, yet. It is about more about playing and discovering.


At the beginning of the year, I like to incorporate fine motor activities to help strengthen little fingers and clothes pins are perfect for that. This activity is simple enough that kids to do it independently, after I have modeled it. This is also a simple activity to make. The letters and numbers are die-cuts that I had and laminated. For the letter clothes pins, I added some washi tape before sticking foam letters on them.

Beading is always a class favorite. Kids LOVE it. Some kids may not have one to one correspondence at the beginning of the year and that is okay. You can just view this as a fine motor activity or you can have some kids work with a partner. To make these, I just hot glued the apple numbers to the pipe cleaner. You can the apples FREE HERE.


I am also a HUGE fan of sensory buckets. I am excited to incorporate sensory buckets into morning work buckets. This one won't come until week 2, when I feel comfortable that students understand the expectations of rice. It is still a simple activity. Kids pull out a magnet and see if it matches their mat. I would recommend doubling the number of magnets so students do not fight over them. You can see how I make colored rice HERE.  It is pretty simple. It just takes time to dry. You can get the mats I made FREE HERE.

Really, you can use any of your favorite activities for Morning Work Buckets. At the beginning of the year, keep it simple. 

Do you want more?

Do to popular demand, I created Kindergarten Morning Work Buckets for the year. This Growing bundle is heavily discounted for Summer 2018. The price will go up when the bundle is complete.



First Grade Friends, I have you covered too! Check out First Grade Morning Work Buckets.

All About This Kinder Teacher: First Kinder Tribe Linky Party!

Hi Kinder Tribe!

This is Yukari from A Pinch of Kinder.



I'm popping in to bring your our first linky party as promised!!

As we are a new group, the admin group thought it would be fun to do a linky where we can all get to know each other a little bit more.  Thus, the "All About This Kinder Teacher" linky was born!

Here is how to participate!

1. Grab the image below and place it on your blog post.
Link it to this blog post!



2. Grab this second image and put it on any program where you can add text on top of it.  I used PowerPoint! {If you do not want to use the image, you can just type the questions out and answer them too!}


Here is mine if you wanted to see a sample!



3. Save the file as an image and upload it to your blog!

>> You can write a little blurb about each question too under the image! That's what I did but I won't take put it here since I don't want to take up too much space and your time! If you want to see it you can come by my blog ;) <<

4. Come back and link up your post in the InLinkz below :) Just press the "Add your Link" button at the bottom!

Please make sure that the link you are adding is the link to your actual blog post! Not your store, not your products, not your generic blog address... it should be your "All About This Kinder Teacher" post url!! If your post does not go to your actual blog post it will be deleted from the linky... and nobody wants that!

Also since this is all about making new friends and finding your tribe, please leave a meaningful comment on the 2 blogs before you and 1 blog after you! If you want to comment on more that would be even better! Spread the love!!

We hope you enjoy this linky and that you will get to know your fellow Kinder Tribe members even better :)




Blog Launch & Giveaway: Welcome to Kinder Tribe!!!


We are so excited to launch Kinder Tribe, the blog, today!!


For those of you who do not know about teacher tribes they have been popping up everywhere recently.  Teacher Tribes are groups of teachers who help, support and inspire you in this crazy teaching world.  They understand your daily successes and struggles.  They are YOUR people!

We initially started a Kinder Tribe Facebook page and had such an overwhelming response that we decided to extend it into a collaborative blog! To learn more about the admin click on the "Meet the Teacher" button above!

But of course, we are not the only ones that are part of the Kinder Tribe.. we just keep things running around here! So every Friday we will be doing a Feature Friday where you are all invited to sign-up to send a blog post in that will appear on this blog! More information about Feature Friday and how to sign-up is coming shortly... so stay tuned on the Facebook page! The first one will be July 31st!

We will also be having a linky party every Wednesday called "What Went Well Wednesday!"  One of the admin's will be posting a successful lesson, activity etc. from their classroom and you are all invited to link up as well! 
The first one will be on July 29th!

And now for the big blog launch giveaway!



You do not want to miss this!!

We had so many generous donations to the giveaway!

First up is the "Clip Art Bundle"!



$10 Gift Certificate from Mel @ Graphics from the Pond
3 Colored Clipart Sets from Nikki @ Melonheadz Illustrating
School Schedule Kids Bundle from Sarah from EduClips and
Bus Stop Kids Clip Art Set from Emily @ Polka Dots Please!

Enter below to win all of the goodies above!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Next is the Kinder "teacherbrities" bundle!
These teachers have had huge successes with their blog and TPT stores and for good reason! They're resources and blog posts are amazing! They are our role models and we were so happy that so many of them were willing to donate their fabulous products to the giveaway!



Color Word Writing Practice by Hadar @ Miss Kindargarten
Search and Color - Sight Word Edition by Tara @ Little Minds at Work
Pencils, Glue and Centers too - Back to School Centers for Kindergarten by Melissa @ The Printable Princess
Magnetic Letters Word Work - CVC Words by Caitlin @ Kindergarten Smiles
K Back Pack by Elizabeth @ Kickin' it in Kindergarten
Literacy Circle Time Charts - Bundle Pack by Elissa @ Mrs. Jones' Creation Station !

Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Next up... you could win a personalized pal from Lauren @ Polka Dots & Pals!! You can learn more about her pals here.


Who wouldn't want to win a $75TPT gift card!?
The answer is nobody!! :P



Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Is your classroom techy? Or are you looking to get started with iPads in your room? How about entering to win a 1 year subscription to Showbie!


Showbie makes the paperless classroom simple. Students can edit documents right on their iPads, comment, send messages to you, app smash, integrate QRs and more! Check it out for free, or win your subscription for Showbie Pro below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The Kinder Tribe admins have also each donated a product from their store! One winner will win all of these units! Just in time for back to school!!



Sight Word Games for the Year (Pre-Primer) from Amanda @ Mrs. Pauley's Class
Ten-Frame Flash Cards (0-20) from Molly @ Miss Ks Little Rays
All About 2D Shapes: A Kindergarten 2D Shape Unit by Yukari @ A Pinch of Kinder
Read the Room - Year Long Resource by Cori @ Mrs. B's Beehive
Reading Strategy & Word Helper Posters by Breanna @ A Pinch of Primary
Phonics Picture Pages & Picture Cards: Initial Sounds & Writing, Word Wall by Palma @ KFundamentals
Scoop It Up - Kindergarten Math and Literacy Centers by Kelly @ My Fabulous Class
Kindergarten Quick Assessments by Katie @ Miss Kate's Class
Community Helpers Unit by Jill @ Chevron & Centers
Goal Met Lanyard Tags by Emily @ Carnes' Corner
Manners Posters by Heather @ Learning with Mrs. Langley
Beginning Sound Clips by Megan @ Megan's Pad
Count On It - A Math Centre by Lindsey @ Chalkboard Charm
Apples - Literacy & Math Centers by Kirstin @ Hip Hooray in K
Sight Word Lists and Letters by Deirdre @ Mrs. Garcias Super Scholars

Enter below to win all of the above!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
We hope you are excited about Kinder Tribe as much as we are!!
Come back tomorrow for our first linky party!

Love, the Admin Team