Three Things on Thursday

Three things to help with your classroom at the beginning of the school year...

1.  Make nametags from plastic folders from the dollar store. Theses folders are available in LOTS of colors, and are very sturdy--they even hold up after being chewed on!  If you use a corner rounder, the kinder will not poke themselves!

 

 2. Put dice in small see-through containers.  When the kinder are using them, they just need to shake and flip the container like the bubble in  the "Trouble" game.  No more dice bouncing across the floor or "accidentally" going home in pockets.

 

 3.  To help teach the kinder the passwords that they  need to logon to computer programs use paper keyboards.  The students can color in the keys they will use, and practice tapping them.  This will save time in the computer lab at the beginning of the year.

 

Using Blogs to De-Clutter

Most of what I post is about how to use technology with Early Elementary students, but today I am going to write about a terrific blog that can help other teachers.  
You know that friend/colleague that we all have that has a super organized room and is always on top of everything?  
The Clutterfree Classroom is just like that friend.  She has started a project to help us become more organized, with a task and an assignment each week.  This week I needed to take [and post--eek] pictures of my classroom to show its "before" state.  Did you ever notice how things look worse in pictures than they do in real life?  anyway, here they are.  My room:

Even if I don't tidy up all the spaces that need it, I will (hopefully) become more proficient at posting pictures!  anyone want to come along for the ride?