Made it Monday!

I have been quietly working away on things for my classroom and thought I would start sharing some of the things I have made or will be making. I have been a big blog stalker for years and Made it Monday has always been one of my favorites. I have to say that most of what I make I find on Pinterest so it won't be an original idea. 

Every year I take a picture of my students on the 1st day of school. Last year I made a prop for them to hold. I went with a K for Kindergarten but also for my last name. In fact, my husband was mad when I took it from home. He thought I had made it for the house. 

It's cute but, I wasn't thrilled with how the pictures turned out. So I decided to make a picture frame for my cubs to hold. Simple and easy. I bought the "frame" at Hobby Lobby. It really isn't a frame. It's a mat that goes inside the frame. But I felt it would be easier for my cubs to hold. I already had the letters. I keep them in a 3x5 photo album with top loading pockets (Walmart - $1.50)

Frame $2.50

Letters (I already had from another project)

Total Cost: $2.50

 Finished product! I think it is really cute.

So that's my first Made it Monday! 

Made it Monday! (Click here to find other great ideas)

Letter a day

Summer school has been a blast. I hate to say goodbye in 5 days. It has been a great way to reset and get ready for August. At first I wanted to go to the office and tell them, "I want this student, I don't want this student!" However, I would be thrilled to get any of them. They are such a good bunch of kids and have adjusted to my expectations very well. I only have these guys for 3 hours. I spend an hour on learning about one letter, an hour on math, and then an enrichment hour. One of the favorite letter of the day activities so far has been silly hats. Every day my students can't wait to find out what they are going to make. But what I didn't expect is how much everyone else enjoys seeing them also. Everyday a staff member or parent comments on how cute they are. Well, I didn't create these hats. I found them about three years ago and fell in love.

 Alphabet Hats

I mean, how cute is HE!!!!! 

I don't know if Simply Kinder has plans to do it again, but I know she has offered these hats as a freebie at least twice. I was lucky to get them one of those times. However, I would have paid for them if they hadn't been free. I provided a link to her TPT page. It is right above the picture of her cover. Hope you enjoy this easy-peasy letter activity. 

California Dreamin'

When I said I'd post a freebie, I forgot I was leaving for California. Had an amazing time! Went to the beach, shopped 'til I dropped, and celebrated Father's Day. Well, I'm back and that is a good thing. I was able to edit my freebie and I added a few extra letters. Here's the freebie:

Blast off With ABC's A-H

 I am giving the letter's a-h away. I am making a-z. My student's love this activity. We have done a-c so far. We are at the point where it is now an independent activity. I use it as word work BEFORE I send my kids to centers, small groups, or computers. Hope you like it and use it. IF, you find an error, please let me know, I will fix it and resend to those who like the product. I will eventually have the entire pack on TPT when it is complete. 

Pre-K to Kinder Day 2

So today was day 2 of summer school. Not so stressful. We are settling in to a nice routine. In fact, we even made it to lunch. OK, so we were 5 minutes early. Better than the 15 minutes late we were yesterday. 

Today was all about learning the letters in our names, letter Aa, sorting by color and shape. For our enrichment hour we are doing Space. Today was all about the sun and we did an AWESOME sun art project. 

We made these adorable name rockets. I have two examples, one done the right way and then there is R's. He had it done correctly, next time I looked he had peeled off all but one of his letters and decided he wanted an astronaut in his rocket. We've all been there. So, I shared a good one and one that's not so perfect. 

I think they turned out super cute. Even the one that is not done correctly, it says a lot about his personality. After they finished their rockets, we brought them to the carpet and compared rockets and had a great discussion about why some were so much bigger than others. Love mixing math and language arts. 

Our enrichment time has been a lot of fun. We did these awesome sun paintings. When I was trolling Pinterest, I found some cute sun painting. They were pretty much the same as the one I did with this one little difference. I used colored sweetened condensed milk instead of paint. Why the change, well when it dries, it dries shiny! Doing the same project with paint is fine and cute, it just isn't shiny. And shiny is awesome and makes the suns look very realistic! 

When my son saw this, he made the comment, "That's great mom, but won't it stink?" NOPE! It dries and doesn't smell at all. Here are the steps to making these realistic suns.

Step 1: Color Sweetened Condensed Milk with food coloring - One bowl yellow, one bowl red

Step 2: Drizzle SCM over a pre-cut circle that is glued on black construction paper

Step 3: Cover paper with plastic wrap

Step 4: Spread the "paint" over the circle. We just used our fingers and spread like crazy

Step 5: Pull the plastic wrap off and throw away. If a little gets on your fingers, no big deal, just lick it off. YUMMY! The picture in step 5 is after is dried. Nice and shiny. I think they look like the sun. 

Tomorrow look for a freebie. My plan was for today, but when I had my editors take a look there is a mistake (got to love 5 year old editors, they are NOT afraid to tell you something is boring or wrong). 

Summer School

Today was the first day of Summer School. I don't know what I was thinking!!!! First off, I have the little ones going into Kindergarten. Hello, I just said goodbye to the highest group I've ever had and NOW I have kids who can't sit still, write their names, match letters, or use scissors/glue. Secondly, my mind, body, and soul think I need to be on summer vacation. Getting up at 5:30 in the morning is CRAZY! However, the good news is, I get to push the reset in my brain and get ready for the beginning of the school year. 

After I pick up my new batch of kids, we got right to work. I needed to see what they could do and not do. So, I gave them a sentence strip with their name on it and a tub of foam alphabet stickers. The assignment; find the letters of your name and place them on top of the letters on your sentences strip. Sound pretty simple right?! NOPE! It was so hard for them. So, now you have a sense of where we are starting. Next, we started math. I have been given permission by my administrator to use:

Guiding Kinders: Math Workshop Unit 1

I am so excited to  do this unit with my summer school kids. But even more excited to teach these units with my Cubs next year. One of the activities we did today was to sort their shoes. Well, I don't know how the kids are where you teach, but my littles did NOT want to take off their shoes and put them in the circle. Not sure why? Maybe they didn't think they'd get them back. I did decide I better take a picture of them with their shoes so everyone would leave with the same shoes they came with. 

I am happy to report, we all left with the shoes we came with! 

After math we do an enrichment hour. We are doing all kinds of things with space this week. After reading a book about space we did a fun art project. Wish I would have taken a picture. We placed space foam stickers on black paper then used silver and gold paint to marble paint. They turned out really cute. 

Tomorrow, we are painting with Sweetened Condensed Milk...

Woo Hoo!!!!!

Woo Hoo! Summer has begun... Well, almost! I said my goodbyes to my little cubs on Wednesday. To say that was a tough day is an understatement. We laughed, we cried, we ate donuts! So many donuts. I am not kidding when I say we had at least 15 dozen donuts. I loved this group of kids more than I can say. I said some big ups and some really big lows. In fact, today is the funeral of one of my little ones mother. In my 21 years, I have never had a student lose a parent. It was so sudden and unexpected. One day she picked up her daughter, the next she was in a coma awaiting family from Mexico before they turned off life support. Tough to say the least. But enough of that...

Here are my little cubs on the last day just before our program. I love how they are all dressed up. They were so sweet. The program went off without a hitch. They sang, they danced, they laughed at the movie. One of the highlights was after the program before I started handing out the awards, my parents gave ME a standing ovation. ME, I've never had a stand ovation in my life. To say I was touched is an understatement. This was a very special group. 

As I stated in my opening statement, summer has begun.. ALMOST! I signed up to teach summer school and for the next 3 weeks I will be teaching Pre-K going into Kindergarten kiddos. I have to say, I am excited! It will be nice to get a little head start on my kiddos for next year. YAY! Although, I may not get all of them in my class, I will get a few and they will help with the transition. 

So, what are my plans for the summer? Work on opening a shop on TPT, lots of freebies, and maybe a give away or two. Plus, CAMPING, CAMPING, CAMPING!!!!!! Hope you all have a great summer and check back to see what is going on with Mrs. Katzman's Kinder Cubs!! 

No Idea

So, when I wrote my last post, I didn't realize it would be almost 8 months between that post and this one. To say I have been busy is an understatement. This has been such an amazing year of growth for both me and my students. I can't believe how much my Cubs have taught me. This group has been astounding. I have the highest students I have ever had and the lowest. I have seen such amazing growth in this group of students.

When I tested them at the beginning of the year, NOT A SINGLE student knew all their letters and sounds. In fact, I only had 2 students that knew any letter sounds at all. I am pleased to say that by November, all but 1 of my original Cubs knew ALL of their letter names AND sounds! Yep, in less than 3 months we had reached our first class goal. I have to say, my little low one is still struggling with her letter names and sounds. She is very close, but still has a few to learn. Now, how did I do it? I didn't. My Cubs, my parents, and I ALL worked together. Without this trifecta, we would not be experiencing the success we are.

I am very excited to share with you the things I have learned this year. So please stay tuned. The journey is just beginning.