Pete the Cat

If you have not read the Pete the Cat books yet- you HAVE to put it on your to do list!  It is super cute and so much fun! The author of these great books is Eric Litwin and he has a wonderful website.  You can download Pete "walking along and singing his song" here.  I love these books because Pete takes whatever comes his way and does he complain?  "Goodness no!"  It is a great lesson for my little ones to learn early on :)

We made a cute craft to go along with our stories today.  I will say that it was very time consuming, but we sure had fun creating it.  Everyone chose their favorite color for Pete's shoes and put the sentence together with the color word to match. 

Also pictured is one of Pete's very own "Rocking School Shoes!"  They were so impressed!  I found this pencil pouch at Staples for $5- well worth it for the reaction I got :)

New Beginnings

We are about to start a brand new school year and we will be making lots of exciting changes in kindergarten.  Our room has a new look to accommodate our shift to facilitating a more independent learning environment.  Yes-I will be actively working toward making 5 year olds independent in THEIR classroom.  While this is not a HUGE shift for our kindergarten team, given that we are very child-focused in the first place; we are placing much more emphasis on it through two new programs- Investigations and The Daily 5.  I am really looking forward to seeing my students take ownership of their learning and learn as much from the thinking of their classmates as they learn from me :)

In order for my students to be independent, my room has to be organized and labeled.  We also have to practice our routines to establish muscle memory, so everything has to be opened up to create lots of space for learning.  Below are some pictures of my classroom this year.  It looks so bare- I can't wait to fill it up with lots of great student work :)

Math Center

Community Circle

Book Boxes and Reading Area

Loft and Home Living



Behavior Management

 Classroom Shots