Diggin' Into Next Year- Classroom Organization

  

Organize my files (activities and copies). I have been teaching for three years, and all of those three years  have been in different rooms. That's right! Three years in a row of moving (in the summer). I have no choice but to have some sort of system and find a way  to not collect paper I don't need. This is what I use:

1.Skill Boxes: 

I asked the school secretary to order "skill boxes". Since our grade level  (kinder)  has a theme every week (for Social Studies mostly),  I decided to create a folder for each theme and store the original copies. I have a different color for every subject. 

2.File cabinets:

I use them for the letter of the week, each letter has a folder where I store originals and extra copies. I also store samples to show the students.

3.Computer files:

With all those online resources I find and it order to save paper, I need to have the activities in digital form. This is a picture of all my Social Studies folders:

Create an" At a glance" document. I want to have the digital and hard copies into a place where I can retrieve them easily. A way to remember great lessons I used the year before,  and things I could do without. This is something I started to create. The theme is at the top, the color indicates the subject and I can also incorporate the books I have in my classroom library.

My social studies skill boxes (if I stay in the same grade level). I am so thankful I decided to do this my first year in kinder, when the time comes, and I need to know what I did for Memorial Day, I go there and find the folder and pick and choose which activities to use, sometimes we don't have the digital copy for everything.  

At the beginning of the year, my little kinder students had a hard time finishing their work on time. Sometimes,  I have to send incomplete work home (who doesn't?). I was writing many notes, also had a stamp, but nothing really worked like these labels:

       

This is what they look like, simply staple to the incomplete activity. They are available in English and Spanish and many options (bring back the next day, Monday, Friday, create your own)...The best part, the students sign at the bottom. Click here to see them. 

 Find more ideas by clicking on the following button. You will also be able to see what other teachers have to say about this topic. Just scroll down to the comments section. 

Diggin' Into Next Year Linky Party

My dear friend Laura Graham from Where the Magic Happens created this great idea to reflect on our teaching. What a great idea to share what we do and what we want to change! You will find great ideas that are organized in one place! 
You will get to see what other teachers are doing in classrooms that look like yours and with so many teachers participating, you will find really good tips that work for you and your class. Over 50 teachers from different grade levels and subjects will be participating! 

After discussing and collaborating, we all came up with these topics. We will have a different topic each week for the months of June, July and August.

This is how it works:

1. Go to Where the Magic Happens  on the selected dates. Laura will have a linky party, or a place where you can see all of the teacher's posts via links. 

2. I will be participating in most of the topics and will have some giveaways and prizes! To make sure you don't miss it, follow me on Bloglovin' or Facebook page.

Did I mention that there is a grand giveaway at the end? That's right, we well conlude our linky party with a grand giveaway!

I hope you find this useful, I would love to know what you want to change for next year, don't forget to leave a comment. 

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is here! So, how do you teach your students about this holiday and why we honor it? How about your bilingual kindergarten students? I usually find holiday activities on TPT and Pinterest, but finding Spanish material for Memorial Day was a little different. 

I decided to create a simple activity to introduce vocabulary before watching a video on BrainPop Jr. 

It is a "write the room" activity in Spanish or as I call it, "El que busca encuentra" (He who seeks, finds). Free for this Memorial Day blog hop only!

I like this activity because it is a great way to introduce vocabulary that you can later turn into a writing activity. Click on the pictures to get this activity. Some teachers that have used this product have said:

What if you don't teach in Spanish or need the bilingual version?

 No problem, you can still use this activity. There are blank cards where you can write your own words, you can add more vocabulary words, add your high frequency words, or create your own option. 

I recently dicovered Maestra Barret on Teachers Pay Teachers and I love her products. She recently created a great activity in Spanish for Memorial Day, check it out here. She is also having a great free activity just for you! All you have to do is....

click on this picture. 

I hope you visit me again!