FIrst week back- stations and organization!

Hey all- just wanted to share some pictures of what I've been up to these past few days!!! 

I changed my station tub labels finally so they match each station label on the rotation chart! Now I don't have to run around the room looking for each activity and where the kids put it! (I was originally using these tubs to differentiate seatwork station- but that  will come later!)

New tub labels!

Here are my centers for our first week back....

Work work center: rhyming words

Big book center (FREE response page found HERE)

Writing center (I still need to print off the picture cards!) I'm going to have them make a list of things they need to build a snowman! (page from packet found HERE)

Our ABC station- stamping word family words

 These are their anchor tubs- activities to do for the early finishers!

Opposites game

Color word songs and matching colors to color word activiity

Puzzles

Fine motor skills

Classification puzzles

Pocket Chart Station

Recording sheet for pocket chart center
can be found in packet HERE (TPT)

Where we keep their library books and check-out folders! This helps me see who has library books to return throughout the day!

New mailbox system!!! =)

After a hard morning- I opened up my planner to discover this scripture I had written for the New Year a while back!.... talk about a God moment =)

Finally posted the dramatic play center words I bought this summer from Growing Kinders!

And funny story- as I was cleaning and putting all their dramatic play toys into bins, I noticed the baby dolls that have been in the room since i started 4  years ago and never realized how OLD they are! hahaha- I think it's about time to get some new ones... ;)

My room - all ready for my kiddos!

New week we are beginning our unit on shapes! I made this chart (inspired by the one found on Kindergarten, Kindergarten!) to fill out as we learn about each shape! 

Here are pictures of our math stations this week:

Trace each shape with stickers

pattern block puzzles

shape puzzles- i love how these have real life objects to match!

Kids will use playdoh to make shapes (We were going to use wiki-stix, but I'm out!)

And I washed the chair pockets my mom made over break and put new name tags in them! 

 Inside their chair pocket- they keep their writing folders, math journals, poetry journals and crayon pouch!

 And on their tables, the little caddy holds extra pencils, glue bottles, and glue sticks.

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2013!!!!

Christmas fun- Wrap up!

Hey friends! So it's back to the daily grind today! (The alarm is going to go off way to early this morning, and all the sleeping in over break is going to catch up with me!) Thankfully, it's just an in-service, so I won't have to be too energetic with the kiddos just yet! They'll be back on Monday. But I wanted to share a few pictures of some more Christmas things we did! They are all pinterest-inspired!!! =)

First is our name trees! One of my colleagues found this idea on Miss Kindergarten's blog

 Here's the kiddos working hard...

I loved how these 2 added some more details... too cute!!!

We also made these ADORABLE elves... but they took us way too long, so I probably won't make them enxt year! 

On one of our last days before break, we had a lot of fun doing all the Pete the Cat Saves Christmas activities foudn on Heidisong's blog! =) One activity we did was draw their favorite part of the story after I taught them how to draw Pete! They LOOOOVED it!

And last but not least! Here is a few pics from our Polar Express Day! We had SO much fun and it was the same day as our Holiday party!!!

The room all set up the night before!

They were so excited!!! I kept it a surprise for them until that morning!!!

Hot chocolate time! Look at all of those happy faces! =)

I was bummed because I had 6 kids out that entire week. (The flu spread like wildfire in my class! So I hope the kids who had it, have kicked it to the curb so we can have a great start to our year!)

OH! And I can't forget their cute little baggies we made for the party. It's nothing fancy, but they were so excited to use a little bit of paint! I called them over during the movie one at a time to come make them! They are supposed to look like Christmas lights! hehe

And here's a HILARIOUS group pic of us wearing their Rudolph hats- one of the boys told me "Ms. G- I can't wait to wear our party hats!" (while waiting for them to dry.) It was so precious!