I was looking back at my plans from the beginning of the year last year and realized I didn't actually save my plans from the first week!!! AHHHH!! SO- starting over from scratch, but that's ok, it's good to mix things up.
Here are all the books I grabbed from school that I am looking at for the first couple of weeks:
Last year I read The Kissing Hand on the first day, and want to continue with that. The problem is that 50% of my kids last year were ELLs (English Language Learners), a couple of them just learning English, and the story was difficult for them. So this year I am going to reword the story so it will work for us a little better. I'll share this when I'm done.
To go along with The Kissing Hand I found a wonderful freebie by Kinderbabies FULL of easy centers for early kindergarten skills and perfect for my population because a lot of my kids don't go to preschool. You can find the freebie here. I can't seem to find her blog- it says it was removed... But if you know anything about her let me know so I can link it up! Thanks!
Lastly, this year I am SUPER excited for the Back to School Math Stations Galore and Back to School Word Work Galore by Marsha McGuire over at A Differentiated Kindergarten. All of her stuff is amazing and I am just waiting for the TPT Back to School sale- does anyone know when that is?!
Leave a comment if you have a book you absolutely love at the beginning of the year so I can add it to my list! Hope your back to school planning is going well!
Hi Heather!!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the world of blogging!!
I truly miss the beginning of the school year preparation....and meeting the new students...I think every teacher plans in the summer...hahaha
I love the Kissing Hand and I have used that book in the past for the first day of school when I taught Kinder. I taught Advanced Kindergarten, but I am curious how you will differentiate the text for your ELL's...
When I taught Kinder, I always created a little brochure and included a poem and a letter for each student the week before school started. I wanted them to feel excited about school - and it always worked.. haha
One year, I included a paper airplane from Oriental Trading within the letter and told them that they would "soar" to do great things this year... I had a fairly small class, so this was affordable..hahaha
One book that I LOVED reading on the first day was, The Night Before Kindergarten, by Natasha Wing. It makes for a great discussion and allows students to feel at ease with their peers as they begin to openly talk about how they prepared for Kindergarten, what they thought it would be like, what they thought I would be like, and whether or not they had any fears before walking through the door.
I look forward to reading your blog!!
Michelle
The 3AM Teacher
Thanks for the support Michelle! I love that you sent home something for the kids before school started! Hopefully we get our lists soon enough this year so I can send something similar because I have always wanted to.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book recommendation- I will check it out for sure!