My New Favorite Tool For Communicating With Parents + A Drawing

As you all know, I LOVE taking pictures of my students making their amazing creations. With ClassHubz, I now have a new favorite tool for sharing these pictures with their parents!

Click the image.

I met the ClassHubz team at the So Cal Kindergartenconference. I really liked the service that they created. It’s web-based for now, but the mobile app is coming out really soon. I am already using ClassHubz for my class and loving it!

Sharing Pictures and Updates

Sharing pictures and updates is super-easy. Everything is one click of a button:

Everybody can share pictures, and they stay PRIVATE within our class!

Click the image to read about their privacy policy.

It’s a great way to preserve memories with ALL of the pictures in one place. You can see all of them at a glance in a class timeline  

Managing Sign Ups

With ClassHubz, I can finally say GOOD-BYE to paper sign up sheets. I can use the tool to do electronic sign ups for parent-teacher conferences, volunteering in the classroom, chaperoning field trips, or bringing in special supplies. Phew!!

Here’s how EASY it is to create a sign up for parent-teacher conferences:

And it’s ready to go!

 

Creating Events and Calendars

I use ClassHubz to create a calendar and send invitations (and reminders) for events like the Spring Concert or the End of the Year Picnic. And soon after the events, pictures from excited parents start to pour in!

The tool is completely FREE. No ads, no “upgrades” to paid options. Just FREE.

Come to ClassHubz.com to register, create your hub and invite others to join in the fun – it only takes a couple of minutes and it will save you many, many hours!

The Drawing:

Friday is the last day to get in on our Free Giveaway.

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. follow this blog (link is at the top of this page), 

2. head on over to our Facebook Page and click on 

the blue "Giveaway" tab, and 

3. enter the drawing for our huge Beginning of the Year Bundle.

Good Luck!

 See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

HAPPY SHARING!!

Yes, I Confess.... I Teach Shopping.

But You Can Learn Sooo Much From Shopping!

In our class, we "shop 'til we drop" every month with a new store.

Those of you who have been to our workshops know that we LOVE to set up classroom stores where students can pretend to buy things with plastic coins.  Our newest store is the Garden Shop where students may "buy" seed packets, potted flowers, or even a palm tree!

Buying flowers.

Getting Started:

The Dollar Tree (and other dollar stores) have little potted silk plants, seed packets, and even little one-foot squares of pretend grass.  I even found the bulletin board trim there to decorate our shop.  

The plants came potted, but I potted the flowers with foam & moss.

The Lilies were not part of the store.  They were real. 

The watering can was donated by a parent.

Loved the little patches of grass.

The Kids Helped Too:

I put out scraps of colored construction paper, scissors, glue, and pictures of plants.  They got busy making props for our store.  It was a wonderful cooperative center where kids exchanged ideas and developed oral language skills.

Getting creative and talking about it too at our Creation Station.

Making signs and props for our garden shop.

Putting It All Together:

We set out the patch of grass, seed packets, and plants.  We decided on prices too.  I added the palm tree that I picked up at a garage sale.  I'll use it for our beach-themed graduation and again at the beginning of the year when I introduce the story Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom.

We priced the plants.

This little guy wanted to measure our palm tree.

We Also Planted An Outdoor Garden & Indoor Plants:

Planting corn.

Our outdoor garden was started a few years ago from a $1000 grant I received from The Southern CA Kindergarten Conference.  You can apply for next year's grant by CLICKING HERE for the application.  Our garden is organic and we plant edible plants every year.

Planting strawberries.

Inside, we will be planting beans in our FLOWER POTS after listening to the story of Jack & The Beanstalk.  We will place 5 beans into the zip-lock bag and the staples will keep the beans from falling to the very bottom where they might get soggy and moldy.  You can find the FLOWER POT template by CLICKING HERE.

Click the image

The download includes complete directions.

Attach the bag on the back with tape.

Spray the paper towel with clean water before the kids drop their 5 beans in.
Make sure the kids wash their hands before touching the beans and
soak the beans overnight before the kids drop them into the bag.  

We will also plant seeds in our eggshells.  These will all look great for Open House.

Saw these on Pinterest and pinned it to one of my boards.
Our eggs are filled with potting soil & are ready for planting.
Check out all of my Pinterest boards by clicking the image above. 

You can check out all of my Pinterest Boards HERE.

Stop by our Facebook Page this week and enter our drawing for our

Beginning of the Year Bundle.

Click the image to see our FB page.

Look for the blue tab at the top of our Facebook page, click it, and 

follow the directions in the Rafflecoptor.

Find this blue tab on our FB page, click on it, & enter the drawing.

This is the bundle you can win:

You get all 5 products in this bundle.  Click the image to read more about it.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma  :)

Open House, A Give-Away, AND The BIG QUESTION...

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow UP?

I ask my students that every year and then, I take their photograph dressed up as if they are working at that profession!  It makes the best bulletin board for Open House!

She wants to be a farmer.

A police officer.

A dentist

An ice cream truck driver!

Getting Started:

I present a unit on Community Helpers.  We learn about the different jobs around our community AND our school.  I used images I found on the Internet to talk about each job and what they do.  You might even want to have parents come in a talk about their jobs too.  I also taught them the song from Sesame Street called "Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?" You can find the book on Amazon:

Click the image.

The 1st Bulletin Board:

At the beginning of the year, I take my students on a tour of the school and they get to meet the principal, assistant principal, office workers, health clerk (or nurse), librarian, cafeteria workers, and the custodians.  

We also meet the special teachers in our specialty classes like in the computer lab, music room, science lab, and the playground where we meet the safety specialists and the P.E. teachers.  

I take photographs of all of these people and create a little bulletin board in my classroom.  It helps the parents to get to know everyone who works with their child too.

The 2nd Bulletin Board:

This is the one that includes the photograph of the child dressed up like what they want to be when they grow up and their writing.   

Writing Part:

My students told me what they wanted to be when they grow up and one thing they will do if they had that job.  I wrote it for them on lined paper and all they had to do was copy it onto the writing template and color the frame.  

I gave them their photographs and they glued them onto the top section of the page.  This makes the cutes bulletin board and a great addition to their memory books too.  

Yes, that's a REAL FISH in the bowl!

Here Is A Tip:

This year, I Googled a background setting for many of my students so they looked like they were actually on stage, in a dentist office or a hair salon.  I just displayed the Googled image onto my SMART board and took the photograph of the child in front of the screen.

A rock star

   

A hair dresser

An eye doctor

Here Are A Few More...

A software engineer

A veterinarian

A pilot

Resources:

I already had a lot of "dress up" outfits in my home center, but you can create outfits with just a few props.  A man's white shirt can double as a lab coat for a doctor, dentist, veterinarian, or a scientist.  A dark blue shirt can be a police officer.  Props like stuffed animals and a doctor kit enhance the veterinarian's outfit and a tricycle can be the perfect prop for a motorcycle racer if he/she can bring a helmet to school.  I gave a pilot a police shirt, a globe, and a plastic airplane.  The globe covered the police badge.  Get creative and seek the help of your parents.  

Here is where you can find the writing templates too.  You can find it by clicking on the image below.  

Click the image.

This is an opinion piece and you get 2 templates.  Use the simple one for Pre-K or T.K. and they can just copy the name of their future job or you can write it in for them.  The 2nd template gives them a place to write about why they want that job or what they will do when they have that job.  

So, when is your Open House?  Ours is in 12 more days.  Leave a comment about an Open House idea you do with your class.

And... check out our Facebook where over 2000 teachers are following us!  We are almost seeing 20-20 "likes", so I am giving away our 5 Senses Pack to the 2020th "like".  It could be YOU!  

Click the image.

If you made it all the way down here...

Happy Mother's Day to you!!!

I'll see you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

The Cutest Tool EVER To Teach Sequencing From These Famous Books...

There Was An Old Lady Who...

We all have one, or several, of these "There Was An Old Lady..." books.  But how do you bring them to life?

You turn the clothespin bag into an old lady!

Well I picked up one of these clothes pin holders.  (I'm so old that I actually used these when I was a kid when I hung the wash out for my mom.)

The opening becomes her mouth and you can decorate her with anything you have on hand.

I have used this "well-loved" old lady for years!

You can even create hands and feet from construction paper and just laminate them for durability.

Remember, she is old, so give her some gray or white (cotton balls?) hair, maybe some glasses, and just go crazy with your glue gun.

Make colored copies of the things she ate on white card stock, laminate the pieces, and let your kids put them into her mouth as you read the story!  Number the back of each piece for a sequencing activity.   Store each set in its own Zip-lock bag.

You can find loads of other cool, no-cost or $5.00 or less, ideas on our Pinterest Boards.

Click the image to see ALL of our boards.  

Remember to "keep the FUN in the FUNdamentals" and 

I'll See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)