LE Studio

I'm Back, Baby! Plus a Giveaway!

I know, I know. It's literally been almost 4 years since I've blogged, but I've got my reasons. I'll spare you the story and just let you know that I now teach kindergarten and I LOVE it! It's helped me get my teaching mojo back! Yeah, baby! Okay, enough of the Austin Powers and on to the giveaway! A few years ago, I experienced every (Kindergarten) teacher's worst nightmare and had a student get on a school bus instead of going to the car rider area at dismissal on the 3rd day of school. Luckily, the bus driver didn't recognize the student and brought them back to the school. This traumatic event (for mostly me and not the student) inspired me to create transportation bracelets so this wouldn't happen again.

I have included several types of transportation: bus rider, car rider, walker, after school care, YCare (YMCA), biker, and daycare. The BEST thing about these bracelets is that they are editable. Yep! You read that right - they are editable so you can personalize the bracelets to the kinds of transportation you have available at your school! Or heck, maybe you don't like what font I used - feel free to change it!

All you need when you download this file is PowerPoint and a few free fonts from KG Fonts. When you're ready, simply copy each type of transportation bracelet that you need (I use different colors for each type) and then cut them with the paper cutter. Simply wrap around students wrist and staple. When we line up, it's super easy to visually see if everyone is in the right line!

Before the first day of school, I send out an email to the school staff explaining how the bracelets work. That way, if they find a roaming kinder, they can point them in the right direction. We use these bracelets for at least the first week of school and possibly the second week if I feel that some kiddos are having trouble remembering their ride home.

Here's the fun part: I'm giving away a set of transportation bracelets to the first 5 people that comment below that they follow me on Instagram at theteachingnest. Be sure to leave me your Instagram username and an email address where I can send your transportation bracelets!

If you're not lucky enough to be one of the first 5 winners, you can find my transportation bracelets on Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook.

Has it really been this long?! Plus a few projects...

WOW! I can't believe it has been since May 19th since I've blogged! I wanted to share a few things I've been up to since school got out.

First, I decided that my office needed a makeover. I found this desk and chair at a store called Trendz Market in KC. Trendz is like a flea market with booths that small business owners can rent and sell their products. I found this chair and desk from reDeux and had to have it!
What do you guys think? I know I don't have a whole lot of room to work on my desk, but I really wanted to scale down. Before I had a huge desk and it became a catch-all for tons of junk!

Second, I began working on organizing all of my resources (ideas, curriculum, etc.) for teaching. I used to keep everything in 3-ring binders organized by subject and then by topic inside, but I quickly ran out of room - I needed something a little different! I decided to organize by color and then by topic inside each color. I used file folders that I bought from Pendaflex and mailing & shipping labels from Avery.
Next, I assigned a subject to each color: reading - red, writing/grammar - yellow, math - green, science - blue, and social studies - purple. *Note: The purple folders didn't come with the box of folders. I had them already and I needed 5 different colors.

Then, I labeled the topic on the tab at the top (addition, subtraction, time, money, etc.) and then typed the corresponding grade-level expectation (GLE) on a label and attached it to the front. I used mailing labels for topics that only had 1 GLE that applied, and shipping labels for topics that had several GLEs that applied.
Okay, what do you guys think? Is this a good idea for organizing? I plan on putting the folders in my filing cabinet at school. I also plan on organizing other topics (holidays, parent communication, etc.) next. I'm also in the process of creating a spelling/vocabulary program that is based on a program created by Beth Newingham. I'll post more on the spelling program as I get further into it!

Thanks for stopping by!