Morgan's Blog

I was so sad to see the end of the year come. I feel like I needed more time with them! I did my normal bag of stuff: memory book, year of crafts, award, and a key chain! These are the bags I use. You can get them on Amazon, but make sure you get the size that is at least 9x12. I've made the mistake of getting the smaller ones before lol. This is the memory book I use. I've changed it over the years, but I just simplified it down. You can edit it in Canva, google slides, or PP! You could also use this, but it's more for one student. I used it as a moving away book, but if you started this early, you could make a book for each student. I did the key chains again.  I do not suggest doing a whole class picture because it's so small. The selfie works so much better! Click here for the tag and click here for the key chain photo frames . Every year I hold onto the crafts. I usually just stack them and then we spend some time at the end of the year passing them out. This year...

 Friday we made these little cereal boxes. I had it up on our front board and they were so shocked at how much it looked like a real cereal box lol. I printed it out in black and white so they could color it how they want. I try to do a mix of craftivities where they use colored cardstock and then some they can be creative and make it however they want!  I tried to tell them they didn't have to write a whole sentence because a. the pictures are small / they have big handwriting and b. I thought it would be easier lol, but because they rock - a lot of them were writing full blown sentences. Bless them! lol I had them write in pencil first then they were allowed to go over it in sharpie if they wanted to. In our classroom we have a bin of sharpies I keep behind my desk. I labeled them at the beginning of the year and we are still going strong!!! That was probably one of my top ten ideas ever as a Kindergarten teacher. It helps responsibility because no one wants to lose their ca...

Happy March! I am not a big fan of St. Patrick's day. I don't know why, but even since I was little. I just didn't get the hype. Probably because I'm not Irish lol. However, I LOVE all the lucky charms, cutie shamrocks, and ALL things RAINBOWS! 1. Easy Shamrock Craft 2. Pot of Gold Math Craft 3. March No Prep Printables 4. Sight Word Rainbow 5. Design a Pot of Gold 6. Raindrop Math Craft 7. Lucky Charms Writing Activity 8. Rainbow Math Craft 9. Lucky Charms Math Craft 10. Lucky Charms Pancakes

My favorite books for gingerbread week! Click on the pictures for links. :) I love The Gingerbread Girl. This one is by far my favorite. It's about a fierce and sassy gingerbread girl. I love this one because I dress up as her for our gingerbread day. I just ordered this book ...LOL First, I'm obsessed with twins, so I needed it, but also how cute. I just watched it on YouTube to see if I liked it or not. The fox is the one who makes the cookies lol. This little book is super cute ! The gingerbread cookie travels through the school, which the kids love because they are familiar with all the spots. If you love the 'how to catch' series, you have to get this one for your collection!

My most asked about Christmas gift! Here is the step by step on how to do it. First hang paper somewhere. I use the bulletin board and I only need this amount because they are small lol. I do yellow because when using remove tools sometimes they are wearing green or white because it's christmas themed and then it's a pain. Have the kids stand facing however your back drop photo is. The reindeer is to the left of ours so I have them face that way. I give them options like reach your arm out, look that way, gasp with your hands on your cheeks, etc. Here is the link to the background I purchased on Etsy. Then upload the pictures to your computer and either remove background in PowerPoint or if you have canva pro you can do it there too with the magic eraser tool! I will be using canva this year, but I have used PP for a long time and it's fine. If you need a video tutorial click here or click the picture above and it will take you to my Tik Tok. You can stick it in an ornamen...

10 years ago I was at Target and snagged the above outfit from the Target boy's section. I have not seen it since! Which is weird, since a lot of times you will see things again from Target, so it's definitely a gem. I was thinking about retiring it and getting something new, but I am still deciding. Here are some options I was thinking about getting. All items are linked by clicking on the picture. This is my top pick. However, I'm usually sweating on gingerbread day (rightfully so lol) so I don't know if I'll be able to handle a one piece...however, it is cute! Click the picture for link. I like this a lot, but I don't like the sleeve length. If I did this, I would definitely need a jean jacket, but if you don't care about sleeve length then this is for you! Click the picture for the link! Okay - this is SO cute! But again, cannot do this because I need my hands to help them with all the gingerbread stuff lol. This would be cute for a principal or someone ...

For November we have popcorn kernels, orange-dyed pasta shells, and number erasers. I used to go crazy cutting and laminating little numbers and copying recording sheets, but I found they were less productive with stuff like that. It may work great for some classrooms, but I find that this time at the sensory table is perfect for communication and creativity. I know it sounds like all those blogging pages that say to be gentle lol, but it's actually true. The kids are 5 and 6 so I have found it's okay to just let them 'play' in the sensory bins and guess what? They do their own academic stuff when I let them. I hear them talking about sorting numbers and addition back there. When I used to have a set activity like pull a snowball and record the number, all I was doing was redirecting because they were throwing snowballs. Plus, who wants to do the same thing every day? No judgment to people who make their kids do recording sheets, it just didn't seem to work out as a...

So Monday all the kids were here and Alex and I were together as well. Tuesday the kids didn't come and we got the room ready. Wednesday they were all here for their 'first day' knowing who their teacher was. Alex and I were both here Wednesday. Then Thursday started the job share. I am Thursday, Friday and Alex is Monday, Tuesday. Then we rotate Wednesdays! I used Thursday as what I would typically do on the first day- PIGEON! (click the picture for link to the book) First activity- graphing! We sat around the edge of the carpet for the first time (my fav thing to do). Everyone got a turn to put their name on the graph. The two choices were 'wanted to go to school' and 'didn't want to go to school'. I TOTALLY thought more of them would have put on 'didn't want to', but it was a full house for 'wanted to' lol.  Then we did the recording sheet. The ELMO will forever be my kindergarten bestie. If you don't have one, you should get a...