Jitter Glitter: Meet the Teacher Poem for the First Day of School!

Click HERE to download Jitter Glitter Poem for FREE!

As I prepare for Meet the Teacher tomorrow, I'm printing & cutting my Jitter Glitter poem as I do each year. This is one of my favorite kindergarten traditions! The students use the 'magic;' glitter and sprinkle it under their pillow the night before the first day of school. This helps alleviate those first day jitters! 

I usually use small plastic bags to package the glitter for my binders, but I couldn't find any. I did find these cute boxes at Walmart in the wedding craft section. 

Because I'm not using plastic bags, I picked a larger glitter for clean-up purposes! 97 cents a bag at Walmart!

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My Kindergarten Classroom Set-Up

I started setting up my classroom today. My cooperating teacher and I got a lot done, but we still have a ton to do and only one more day to do it! Yikes! We took some bulletin board inspiration from Kinder Craze and played our boarder. It took forever, but I think it was well worth it! i made my own word wall and posted it on TPT store to go along with the rainbow theme. I used dolce pre-primer words as well as our Journey's Reading Program sight words. You can download the word wall for FREE HERE!

 Download Rainbow Word Wall HERE

I found this calendar on Creative Resources. We also got matching birthday posters. We sued black Velcro to attach everything. 

Our bulletin boards for student work were the most fun. It's hard to see int he picture, but the squares are actually glitter. I always say you can never have enough glitter in kindergarten, although I'm sure my custodian may disagree. 

My stepdaughter made glitter clothes pins and I used a hot glue gun to glue push pins to the back. We'll use this to hang student work. 

Giggles, Glitter, & All Things Kinder: Back to School Fun with Happy Little Kindergarten!

Usually I can trust that Staples will be the first retailer advertising the dreaded 'Back-to-School' sales, but this year I was actually getting catalogs in JUNE for back-to-school sales... JUNE PEOPLE! I love back-to-school, but I usually given myself a few weeks of summer r&r before starting my shopping. This year, I'm trying out some new back-to-school centers to help with letter identification and number recognition. Here are a few of my favorite centers from my new Back-to-School Bundle!

In this center, students use tweezers to match numbers and their quantities. They pick up seeds with their tweezers and place the same number of seeds as the number on the watermelon. I use this with my guided math groups for fast finishers as well as my RTI groups. 

 

Camp Kindergarten: Ocean Week!

This week in my summer camp, my class discussed the ocean (for additional ocean resources click HERE). Camp Google was a very valuable resource for the students. We completed an experiment on echolocation by discussing how dolphins see underwater. The Camp Google website explains how to do this, but I added the directions below as well!

Echolocation Experiment

Materials: Paper towel rolls, tin pan, tape.

Students demonstrate echolocation by whispering into a paper towel roll that is pointed toward the tin. A partner points the other paper towel toward the tin and places his/her ear on the roll. Students take turns. You can use wrapping paper rolls as well!

My class LOVED this experiment. We even turned it into a literacy center by placing sight word cards at the center. One partner spelled a word while the other listened and tried to name the sight word.

Camp Google

Whether you are teaching over the summer or if you have little ones at home, this new website created by Google is  amazing! The perfect resource to find interesting activities to do over the summer. New activities are uploaded weekly and follow several themes. I used Camp Google this week during my summer camp. Check it out!

Sight Word Fishing Game

This is easily a favorite in my classroom! Students simply pull fish using a magnetic fishing rod and read the sight words. If they can read the word on the card they can keep the fish! Download it HERE! 

Other Camp Ideas!

Jitter Glitter: Back to School FREEBIE

     Kindergarten is an incredible adventure filled with exciting activities and experiences. I assume that some of our students (and parents) are a bit nervous about the first day of kindergarten. Honestly, I am too. Every year, I have butterflies when I wake up for the first day of school! 

    I found this poem online a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect 'favor' to hand out at my Meet the Teacher event. 

The poem goes as follows:

The night before school is exciting and fun,

with so many things that just have to be done.

Your clothes are all ready, your backpack is, too.

And your classroom is waiting with fun things to do.

There are so many questions that go through your mind,

All types of thoughts, some of every kind.

The day before school, we all get the jitters down deep,

making it really hard for us to fall sleep.

So here is some jitter glitter; It’s really quite cool.

It’s something to help you be rested and ready for school.

Just sprinkle the glitter under your pillow in bed,

the night before school starts, when you lay down your head.

The  glitter will help you sleep through the night,

letting you wake up feeling fresh and bright.

I’ll sprinkle the glitter under my pillow, too.

And remember I can’t wait for school, so I can see you!

I attached my poem to a plastic bag filled with glitter, this way the student can simply put the bag under his pillow and avoid a mess (and angry parents). 

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CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!

Congratulations to Kristin Lythgoe, Erica Rice, Andrea Mertens, Anna Siebert, and Erin SImmons! I will be emailing your packets out today. Please message me if you do not receive your packet by the end of the day.



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