We did it! We survived the first week of kindergarten! I am so lucky to be working with the best partner teacher on the planet 🙂 And we absolutely have the best class in the whole entire world!
We met our adorable class on Tuesday; they were so eager and ready to learn! I just love it! Here’s a look at what we did on our first week!
First Day of School Pictures
We took our first day pictures with the cute little “K” for kindergarten! {huge thanks to Michelle from Apples and ABCs for this adorable idea and tutorial!! As you can see, I pretty much copied her exactly ;)} Each student stood in front of the wall holding the K. We use these pictures for their first writing assignment and then put them in their memory books.
We read our first read-aloud, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten and then brainstormed some ideas on how we get ready for kindergarten! We completed this readers response and drew pictures to match. The students wrote {or attempted to write} their name on the line. While the kiddos were drawing their picture, my co-teacher and I walked around the room asking the students what they did to get ready for kindergarten. We wrote their response on their paper.
{download the reader’s response page here}
Brown Bear Craft
We read Brown Bear Brown Bear and made these super cute puppets. {Thanks Mrs. Ricca for the freebie!} We practiced identifying colors and following step-by-step directions. I would say “everyone point to the bird!” and all the students would touch the bird. Then I would ask “Do you remember what color the bird was in the story?” Some students were able to read the text under the picture too! Then I would say “everyone find a red crayon and hold it up in the sky!” Each student grabbed a red crayon and colored the bird red. We did this until we colored every animal from the story. We even sang our color songs while we colored! My class did such a fabulous job!
{download the brown bear freebie here}
Finally, we cut and glued our work onto a brown paper bag and used our puppets to retell the story to a partner. It was absolutely adorable!
Math Practice
During our math block we made our September calendars. Each student chose one color crayon and traced all the numbers on the calendar. We will use these calendar pages every month so it was a great introduction to our math routine.
We used our “4 corners, 8 corners” cutting strategy to make our apples {you can find more easy crafts here!} and glued them to the top of our calendar.
Working on Shapes
We also met some new friends! Each day we learned about two shapes, and on Friday we played the shape game! This was the perfect introduction to our shape unit for the second week of school.
My class absolutely loved these! We learned each poem and talked about the characteristic of each shape. We even learned that Sandy Square has a booooyfriend 😉 After we introduced each shape, we hung the posters in our classroom for students to reference throughout the year.
{Download the shape poems here and ignore the fact that I clearly need more ink 😉 I printed 2 to a page so that they printed out smaller than a regular sheet of paper.}
After we met our new friends and talked all about the shapes, we sat in a big circle {applying what we learned about circles!} and played this super fun shape game. I even made up a song to the tune of “Are You Sleeping” that goes like this:
“Make a circle, won’t you please, won’t you please, won’t you please. Make a circle, won’t you please. Sit in a circle!”
Then I walked around our circle with a bunch of plastic shapes in a bag and had each student pull out one shape. They told their neighbor what shape they pulled out {to practice identifying and to help their neighbor if they weren’t sure} and then we played the Shape Game! I sang this song and if they were holding the shape I called out, they stood up.
After everyone had a chance to stand up, we switched our shapes and played again. It was a lot of fun 🙂
This was definitely a long, but very fun-filled first week of school!
Now it’s time for some classroom pictures!
Classroom Photos
We are so lucky to have such a nice sized room! We spent a few weeks over the summer getting it set up. We used plastic tablecloths to back the bulletin boards and added some cute borders.
Setting up for the First Day
First Day Treats
Finally, I made these sweet treats for my teammates to celebrate our first day! A cute little tag tied to a bag of chocolate kisses. I’m so fortunate to work with such a wonderful team and we all need a little chocolate pick-me-up at the end of a long first day 😉
Looks great! Love the apples!
Jennifer
First Grade Blue SKies
I love that sorting supply idea! So smart! And the shape poems/game…looks so fun!!
Erin
Nice job, Hadar!!! As usual I love it! I actually have the same border in my second grade class this year. Great minds… 🙂
Love Love all of it! Thanks for sharing!
Your classroom is so cute. I love the base ten blocks. When we were counting days of school today, one of my students said "Aren't straws supposed to be for drinking?" ha! I had never really thought about how random they are.
Danielle
Carolina Teacher
Love the ideas for shapes and the Bindergarten writing! I pinned a few goodies, including the base ten for the days on the calendar. I think I will switch to those from straws Monday!
The room is lookin' good! I especially like the beachy scrapbook paper.
Um, I use the same shape poems, but I didn't know Sandy had a boyfriend 🙂 and my Triangle is named Tillie {which is so random and Tommy makes a lot more sense!}
And yes, I would love to hang out soon! Let's find a date that works!
Christy
Crayons and Whimsy
I use base ten blocks as well, I put velcro on the back of my ones cubes and an index card so the kids can see the cubes upright…Love your classroom!
I can't believe I haven't seen the base ten idea! I am switching mine out Monday. I really like the black and white polka dot border. Can you tell me where you found it?
I can't believe I haven't seen the base ten idea! I am switching mine out Monday. I really like the black and white polka dot border. Can you tell me where you found it?
LOVE your adorable, LARGE room! Also love that you are back to school now with the rest of us! haha
Everything looks GREAT!
Love your classroom! Thanks for sharing your first week with us!
Your classroom looks great!! 🙂 Love all of your ideas!
Stinkin cute! And that word wall looks perfect.
Smiles, JG
Smart Kids
ABCs of Reading
I love the shape cards! Where did you find the smiley face shapes? Those are adorable!
I LOVE your room Hadar!!!! CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!
I want to be in your class!!!! Looks beautiful Hadar!!
Your classroom is so welcoming and inviting! I love all the bright happy colors!
Maribel
I love all of it!! I like that "100 days of school" chart… do you put something on each number as you count down?! Precious!
Such a fun week for your babies! Love it all! The base ten pocket chart idea is brilliant! Thank you for the label shout-out! Happy weekend!
Laura
Your room looks great!! Love the K.
April
Wolfelicious
Great post Hadar, it was a great first week.:)
What a fantastic idea to count with base-10 blocks – how have I never seen that done before? Thanks for sharing your fantastic classroom decor and ideas!
Love to Learn
Everything is super cute Hadar…hope your year is awesome!
xoxo,
Vicky
Where did you get your shapes poems?
I would like some.
Thanks,
Eileen Boyle
Eileenb3434@gmail.com
Love it all!!!!!! Hope your year is perfect! xo
Megan
Mrs. Wheeler’s First Grade
Mrs. Wheeler TpT
So cute! We played the Shape Game in my classroom today- thanks to you!
Hadar your classroom looks adorable!! 🙂
Sugar and Spice
Your classroom looks AMAZING!!! I so admire your work.
Cindy
Granny Goes to School
Love the new design! And envy your classroom. 🙂
Super cute and love love love the shape poems.
Melissa
You have really done a great job here and really inspired me!
hi. where did you get your base 10 poster for counting the days in school? I have been looking everywhere for one. please help me find one if you know. thanks so much. you can email me too.
miye22@gmail.com
Do you have the template for the cute bear face?
Also, how do you use your puppets exactly? Do you have cut our characters besides the ones on the bag that you use for retelling?
Hey Shelley! I'm pretty sure we just googled a bear template and we found that one on google images. So we just have our students literally retell the story. They use the puppet and say "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" and the other partner says "I see a …." Hope that helps!
LOVED stumbling over your site tonight!! You have some great ideas. And thank you sooooo much for sharing your shape poems and song for FREE! I can't wait to send your site's link to my teammates. They'll love it too.
Anna, you just made my day!!! I have been in a little blogging rut, so thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment and reminding me why I blog in the first place!!
Thanks for all of the awesome ideas and for so generously sharing! You help take the stress away from back to school planning!
First of all, THANK YOU so much for providing some much needed encouragement and ideas for back to school! Your class looks awesome, even though I am a few years too late!
Second, would you know how to find, be able to create, or tell me where to get clip art so I can make my own shape posters for a few other shapes my kinders need to know? We learn most of what you posted, but I know we will also need octagon for the 2d shapes, and I'd love to find/make some for our 3d shape manipulatives.
Again, thanks so much for all you've shared! I love that kindergarten teachers are great at looking out for each other!
Hi! I love your shape posters. Do you have posters for star, trapezoid, and heart? If not, do you know where I may be able to find some? My kids have requested the shape poems for all the shapes as they love them so much!