New Year and Kinder Assessments

This is so very bizarre to me.  2015 is almost here!  I am ready.  Bring on the change!

I posted 2 new resources this break and I am excited to share them.  Well, technically I've posted more than that put I'm sharing these two.  (Click the pictures to go to TPT to shop)

Quick Assessments for Kindergarten!

 

 

One pack is Math and the other is ELA (Foundational Skills).  Both packs have multiple assessments for each standard listed at the beginning of the pack (or on the two pics above).  Some such as counting to 100 only have one assessment, I just use the same sheet through the year.

This pack saves paper! There are two assessments to a page.  I love that these are quick and they are not time consuming.  If we have a few extra minutes before Specials or Recess...I pass out one of these.  

If your school is like mine...you have to collect a lot of evidence.  These little quick check assessments are great for that.  It's an easy way to see how students are doing on a skill.  We have to collect 3 pieces for each standard/skill.  I had seen a similar idea but it only had one per standard for every standard...and I wanted more.  So I decided to make my own and share.  :)  The more the better for practice and for assessment.

Most of these students can do independently after you explain to the group what to do.  Some of these you may have to do one-on-one or in a small group.

I tried to provide multiple quick assessments for each standard.

I am going to be adding to these packs here very soon...I will put the revision notice on TPT and send out an email as well.

Here are some picture samples of what some of the quick assessments look like!

& some math....

Well, I need to go powder my opossum before a night on the town for NYE with friends.  I'm more of a board games and small group of friends person...but I am being dragged out this year.  I'm the driver of the crazy bunch, other wise known as mom for the night.

Have a safe and happy New Year!  

I'm leaving you with my scared selfie from Christmas when a chicken was seriously chasing me at my Aunt's farm.  You can see the little devil in the background.

#teacherslovefootball

I woke up not feeling so great at 6:30am, checking my NFL filled Twitter feed and got a great idea.  *I'm a morning person...my great ideas come super early*.

#teacherslovefootball

I'm not going to lie, one of my addictions is Instagram.  I check it ALL THE TIME.  Follow Me at @misskatesdesk.

So I know today the end of regular season NFL, but I want to start a hashtag on IG for teachers who love football like me!  I'll post one Instagram shot every week on Sunday with a question or something to share and comment on.  I'm posting this week's soon.

Hopefully next year I can start this at Preseason or before!  :)

Who is my team?  The Green Bay Packers!

Sayyy what?  A Missouri girl lovin' the Packers.  Why yes.  Yes I do.

Here's the story:
When my brother was a toddler he was fascinated with the cheeseheads.  Then we he started speaking it was Brett Favre nonstop.  In high school I started watching what little games are on tv.  Note: we love to show the Chiefs and Rams here in MO...with good reason.  I always wish the Chiefs well too.  But the Rams...I'm sorry.  Pitiful.  Back to the story...so in college I started watching the games the games not shown on my cable on my laptop.  I am a faithful Packers fan.  I watch every Sunday.  My friends know I'm not available Sunday afternoons in the fall and early winter.  I went to KC to Arrowhead Stadium in December 2011.  The Chiefs actually won.  It was sad.  Oh so sad.  Pile a bunch of drunk Missourians in one stadium with mostly Packers fans (the Chiefs were doing terrible that season)...and you had some very nice drunk Missourians while they were losing.  Once they got ahead...whew.  We left a few minutes towards the end just to get away from the obnoxious and completely wasted Chiefs fans.  Don't get me wrong, I love Missouri (lived here my entire life).  But any place with thousands of us and it's bound to get interesting.  I take that back, just go to Walmart on any given day or time.

Here's me in 2010 in Beijing China at the Temple of Heaven reppin' the Pack!

Favorite Player: Clay Matthews.  Now Aaron Rodgers is a given.  He's basically a saint in my opinion.
First GB game: December 2011
Favorite Apparel: I just got an awesome Matthews jersey.  But I do love my Aaron Freakin' Rodgers shirt.  ;)  I also have an AJ Hawk jersey.
Weirdest Packers Item I Own: hmm...a gnome, a tiny wooden gnome (no idea what is with the gnomes), a Clay Matthews Bleacher Creature (it's a plush doll).

Be looking on IG today for my #teacherslovefootball hashtag.  Upload fan photos, throwbacks of you at games, your game day setup, etc.  I know I'm not the only teacher who loves football!

Now for some photos!

 My brother Hank and I at Arrowhead in 2011.

I was in heaven.  12 rows from the Packers bench on the 35 yd line.

 If you know anything about Clay Matthews and his long hair...you know he wets it with a water bottle while he's bent over and then he flips the just wetted hair.  This is while wetting it.  He was about to flip his head back.  :)  I loved it!

Such an amazing experience.  There's my guy stand up at the end.  OLB but lately he's been playing inside.  

Happy Football Sunday friends!  Don't forget, #teacherslovefootball.  Find me on IG: @misskatesdesk.

2015 Resolutions & Goals Linky!

Tada!  There it is folks!  Today I'm linking up with Second Grade Nest to share my resolutions and my goals for this upcoming year.  Go link up!

My goal last year was to start writing conferences in my classroom.  I was never consistent before.  That's still continuing into 2015.  But for a new goal, I would say I want to come up with math tubs for my students do work on after finishing.  Some days our math lessons are super short and quick.  Other times it takes up almost our whole math block.  So having tubs to extend learning and keep them busy other than just a SmartBoard game would be great!  Anyone know any good resources or books on that let me know!  :)  I'd love you forever!

As far as my blog and TPT:

I want to at least do one blog post a week.  I also want to continue to make quality items in my store.  I started TPTing on July 1st, 2014 and started with a bunch of decor items like number and ABC posters.  I've been creating more academic files.  That's been so much fun.  I want to add to some of the items I already have in my store and update them.

So corny because everyone picks this for their goal for a new year...but I seriously need to get back on track with exercise.  When I am consistently exercising I see results...my problem is I get sick or get a really busy week at work and stop.  I'm at my heaviest I've ever been.  Thank goodness I have great confidence and LOVE my curves.  But I do want to tone up and get back where I was a few years ago.  Hey, I'm on a roll with working out 3 days in a row since break started.  

Make more time for friends.  My 2 best friends and I decided to devote at least one evening (or day) together a week.  One of my friends just moved back to town because she is getting a divorce (he was crazy and extremely mean to her) and is obviously going through a lot.  My other friend has a soon to be 4 year old (holy moly how'd Madi get to be 4!?!) and a new full time job.  I of course teach all day.  But we are going to make time for one another.  We have been best friends since we were 17 (we're 25 and 26 now) and we want to keep it up!

If you know me you know I'm an avid world traveler.  Ideally I would love to go back to England.  But the tiredness in me wants the beach!  So let's go with any warm beach!

Hmm...I'm not too out of the box when it comes to trying food.  I guess a different cuisine.  Maybe Indian?

I'd love to learn/figure out how to make clipart.  I think that's a summer project.

Pop.  Oh lordy friends...I got on the drinking pop kick about a month ago.  I am currently powering through this horrible caffeine headache right now as I type.  I use to rarely drink it, but started buying one a day at work from the machine.  GRRR.  Coke, you are super delicious but awful on my metabolism.

Read.  I love to read and read a few pages before bed and crash.  I just need to make more time for it.  Anyone else a closet romance novel reader?  :)  I will read anything though.  I read teen books, WW2 books, British monarchy books, and Game of Thrones.  Darn Joffery.

Finding a decent man.  No, but maybe.  :)  I just honestly want to be happy this year and do what's best for me and just have fun and be carefree.  I went through a totally unexpected breakup back in September that left me a mess (left me for a 20 year old with a kid and worked at a fast food chain...seriously...couldn't make that up!). So I've been doing TONS better and just being me and focusing on being happy!  My friends and family have been amazing.  TPT has been awesome to create and keep my mind off of things.  I also want to just be positive and upbeat with this school year.  It's one of those years if you know what I mean.  

Here's to a better year and a happy year in and out of the classroom!

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Snowflake and Writing Chart/Conferences

Happy Saturday!  I don't know about you but I was completely ready for a boring weekend at home.  I am enjoying it to the fullest.  Currently crossing my fingers and watching Mizzou play Bama for the SEC title.

This week our elf came to Room K2.  One day this week he made friends with Pete.  So Pete and Snowflake took a selfie.  The kids LOVED it.  

Not only did they take a selfie, but they put it as my background.  So when I turned the SmartBoard on....

the crowd went WILD.  They loved it.  I think I'll keep it as our background till break.  :)

Now...yes I did take a picture of my newest writing clip chart that I use daily in my classroom.  It hangs by my small group table.  Please disregard the nasty old cabinets.  

As you can see it is smaller than my other charts.  I love this though.  Many of my friends are working on stretching sounds to write words.  

Our school and district are really focusing on students making goals for writing and doing self-assessment.  So this is what I made and use.  I have had several people asking about it so I finally posted it last week to TPT.  You can find the resource by clicking on the picture below.  

Also I posted last week my writing conferences pack that I use in my classroom daily along with this writing clip chart.  

As you see from the resource cover...this pack comes with a lot of great resources to use during your kindergarten writing conferences.  Here's a few pictures of my active binder from this pack.

The above picture is what I use for each student.  The sheet is for the month of November.  The pack includes all months (for those who go year round or from other countries with different start times than myself).  

I have 22 students and I call up 4 or 5 a day.  The pack has a page with a little chart to keep track of what students you meet with and on what day.

Like I said in my last post...I was so nervous to start doing writing conferences.  I always have high expectations for my kiddos but I was nervous to be at my small group table the majority of our writing time but surprisingly my kids are working very well at their tables.  I have a few chronic leave their seat kids but they're working on it.  ;)

Let me know if you have a specific color scheme you'd like different for the chart.  Over Christmas Break I will be updating the chart to have multiple color and background options.  

Have a fantastic Saturday afternoon!  

GO MIZZOU!  

MIZ-

My Writing Goal Clip Chart

So I am obviously new to being a teacher blogger and TPTer.  I have totally slacked on the blogging.  This will be my New Year's Resolution this year!

So for my first post since school started...

Here is my writing conferencing and student goal setting life saver!  It is my "My Writing Goal" Clip Chart (small).  I use this daily with students when we have individual writing conferences.  I call four kids up a day during writing to see where they are going, how they are doing, what they can improve on, they look at some writing progressions and choose their star level (more on that in a later post), and they make their new goal.  I am going to talk more about writing conferences coming up in the very near future.

This chart has been a lifesaver.  I was worried about starting conferencing for writing.  But this has really helped students remember their goal.

I put the chart on binder rings (hole punched each laminated box...or goal) and hung it right next to my small group table.  So when I conference with students it is right next to us, we don't have to leave our seats.

I would get nervous if someone came in and asked a few kids what they were writing or what their goal was...but this year I hear my kids telling the visitors (whomever they may be) what their goal is with ease!

I may update this soon with other color backgrounds.  I will also take requests if anyone has a certain color they are looking for or patterns as well (like chevron, quatrefoil, stripes, etc.).

On Monday I'll take a picture of what it looks like hanging up in my room by my small group table and I will update this post and put it under here.

Have a fantastic and safe Thanksgiving everyone!

Oh and remember, the site-wide TPT sale for Cyber Monday is December 1st-2nd.  I'll extend mine to the 3rd.  My cart is FULL and patiently waiting for Monday!

My Classroom Tour 2014-2015

Whew!  What a busy couple of weeks.  My first day with the kids was last Monday.  If you teach kindergarten like me, you know what that week is like.  You wonder if you are going to get there...and by get there I mean walking in a line, not shouting out, sitting nicely, playing safely at recess, etc.  You also come home and take a "not planned" nap on the couch only to realize when you wake up that you've been asleep for an hour and a half.  Or that you missed dinner.  

Ahhh the good ol' first week of school.

Mine went very well.  I was exhausted of course but this year I actually stayed awake until 9:00pm (GASP!).  

I'm ready for this short 4 day week ahead.

So...I promised a room reveal and then I got swamped with back to school.  So finally...here it is folks.

Miss Kate's Classroom 2014-2015

 This bench in my classroom library was inspired by Maria Manore's (Kindercraze) bench.  I used a shelf from Walmart, 3 fabric drawers, a Target bench cushion, and ribbon to hold it.  I also used little kitchen shelf grippers to put under the cushion to also help hold it in place.

I am itching to change my calendar.  I bought it my first year of teaching at a teacher supply store.  The rules posters are in my TPT store.

 My main teaching area.  I love this huge Lakeshore carpet.  I also don't know what I'd do without that big dry erase cart.  It is my command central.  We use it for EVERYTHING!  On the right you can see my little black and metal desk.  I tossed the HUGE desk I had before that took up a boat load of space.

This little bulletin board by my door houses our lunch calendar, line leaders (I use index cards cut in half on binder rings, not pictured).  I put the book order and also newsletter on this board.

 This is my biggest change this year...my classroom library area!  This use to house my small group table in this corner but that table needed to be moved to help with space.  I am loving this new spot.  It's red, it's blue, white, and pattern crazy!  My reading strategy posters are featured on the board.  Find them in my store!

 Here is the zoomed out version of my classroom library.

 I made that ribbon chandelier my first year of teaching.  I also inherited the reading area from a first grade teacher who realized her kids were too big for it.  The cart by the trash can was a big book cart but is currently housing our writing station on top of it.  That's where I store the pencils, crayons, paper, and more for Work on Writing.  I like this year that this little reading nook is right next to my small group table. I'll be able to see and hear it better.

 At the back of the room my small group table has it's new home.  The board behind will start filling up with student name cards, and other items.  The shelf behind the table houses all my small group and RTI materials.  Also, you can see in the closet all of "my" books...the ones that the kids leave alone.

Here is the long window side of my room.  I'm blessed with lots of storage.  Most of our Daily 5 things are stored here.  

Work on Writing area.  I purchased the tables and stools from Target a couple of years ago.  They are starting to get a little dinged up but still work.  Yes, that is a tiny fan.  If you are in an old building with original windows like me...the beginning of the year can be toasty in the classroom.  This year my word wall is right in front of the writing area.  :)  I'm excited about this.  The overflow area for the other 2 kids who will be writing is at the table where I took the picture from.

So that was the main parts of my classroom.  Here soon I will do a "details" post.  I didn't change a ton except for my library area in a new spot and had a makeover and I got a tiny desk and got rid of my extremely large metal desk.