Lidia's Back-to-School Freebies (Swap and Hop)

Looking for me?  I'm not here.  I'm swappin' and hoppin' over at Going Nutty in Miss Squirrel's First Grade.  Please come see what I'm sharing about one of the things I love to put into my classroom library.  You can say hi to Miss Squirrels while you're there.

While I'm away, I've left my blog in the best of hands.  Please welcome Lidia, and thanks for making her feel at home.

Hello! My name is Lidia. I am the author of Kinder Alphabet and Kinder Latino. I am excited to be a guest blogger on this wonderful blog. I hope that you enjoy today's post.  I have a couple of resources to help you prepare for Back to School.

Lesson Plan Book:

The first thing that I think about is my lesson plan book. I need to get it organized and ready so that I can start adding my weekly lessons. If you have taught about 16 years, like I have, you might remember the huge, bulky lesson plan books. For many years, I had to use those big books. I had no other option. I am so glad that those are not around anymore. It was too hard taking work home and having to also carry that big thing around. I was happy when we finally got the letter size books.

Here is a picture of the two different sizes of lesson plan books so that you can see the big difference.

Even though the letter size books were easy to carry and a lot more convenient, they were not enough. We wanted a way to personalize our lesson plan templates. Wow! What a difference that made. We created our own template and typed in all the daily routines that always remained the same. That was such a time saver. So, needless to say, we began to use binders to store our lesson plans. And here is the best part of that story! Since teachers love to make things CUTE, I made this cover just for you. It's a binder cover for your lesson plan book. Just insert it in the binder sleeve. Do you like the colorful insect theme? Now, you can set your lesson plan book nicely on your desk or guided reading table. It is an attractive way to display your lesson plan book. Administrators and substitute teachers will also be able to locate your plans binder easily when they enter your classroom.

© www.KinderAlphabet.blogspot.com

Click here to get your free copy:)

Transportation form:

Next, you need to have a couple of transportation items ready for that first day/week of school.  These will help you stay organized during dismissal time. You need to make sure that everyone gets home on time. There is nothing worse than getting that phone call from a parent who is wondering why their child did not arrive home.

Use this form to fill in important information. Then, place it in a clear sleeve and onto a clipboard. You can use a vis-a-vis marker to check the form of transportation. This is a good method in the first couple of weeks of school. You will find that students' form of transportation might change in those first days of school. It will be easy to wipe off the marker and check off the correct column. After the students have an established way to get home, you can pencil it in on the form itself. 

Click on the picture to get it.

Dismissal Name Tags

Finally, I wanted to include these dismissal name tags that will come in handy the first few weeks of school. It makes it simple to sort students into the different dismissal groups without having to ask them "How do you get home?" Many of our students do not know how they are supposed to go home until it becomes an established routine. I also place a set of these (with student names on them) in the substitute folder. 

Thank you for having me. I hope that you are able to use these resources to prepare for the the Back to School madness. I would love to see you over at my Kinder Alphabet blog some day:)

Lidia R. Barbosa from:

Thanks to Lidia for sharing her helpful ideas here on Forever in First!  If anyone is interested in visiting other wonderful blogs that are swapping today, you're in luck.  Take a look below. 

Math Inventions Over at Casey's Place

Could I ask a big favor of you today?  Instead of hanging out here, could you visit me at Second Grade Math Maniac?  Casey's on vacation, so I'm guest blogging for her today.  Here's a little sneak peek of what I'll be talking about.  

I'd love for you to hear the story behind this picture.  I promise it's a good one.  I'm hoping it will inspire all math teachers out there.  See you at Casey's, and of course I'd love to know what you think.

(Oh, and while you're there, check out Casey's guest post from yesterday supplied by Jenny at Luckeyfrog's Lilypad.  I loved it.  Here's a pic to grab your interest.)

(Her guest post is called "Different Names for a Number.")

The Corner on Character

I got a sweet request recently to be a guest for Barbara at The Corner on Character.  If you have not visited with her, this will be a special treat.  I invite you to head over there to see what encouraging educational thoughts she's posting.  I'd love for you to see my post too, of course.  I'm sharing my favorite picture book ever about Wodney Wat and Camilla Capybara.  They help my kids figure out who they want to be in life.  Come see what I mean!

(Her blog is a click away.)

Are Algorithms Evil?

Kelli from Tales From a Traveling Teacher asked me to be her blogging guest.  She's a brave soul.  She's letting me share my thoughts about algorithms.  Would anyone actually like to know what I think about borrowing and carrying and all that?  Even if you don't, I'd love for you to take a few minutes to head over to Kelli's blog, and then let me know what you think.  You don't even have to agree.  What a deal.  Oh, and it's a slightly interactive post...kind of. 

P.S.  I really enjoy following Kelli.  She's over in England and allows her followers to live vicariously through her.  You'd definitely enjoy following her and hearing her thoughts about what it's like to be a teacher across the pond.

Off to Kindergarten and It's Rigged!

I'm very thankful that Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle has graciously let me hang out on her blog today.  I've left a little post there about how to help struggling readers read without inhibitions.  I hope that you drop by and read it, and let Jeannie know you were there as well.  Thanks!  (Click on the graphic to see what it's all about, but please do return as soon as you can.)

On a different note, I have a great group of parent volunteers, and they'll tell you that I keep them busy.  Unless they happen to be around when the kids are at a special, you won't find them copying papers, cutting, stapling, laminating, or any other menial task.  Instead, they'll be working with kids, because there's simply not enough of me to go around.  In fact, I believe that's the best way to use them.  I'll manage to get that other stuff done, but I won't always be able to pull off giving kids the heavier dose of one-on-one that some of them must have.  

Janice Sullivan, my Reading Recovery instructor/mentor fifteen years ago, introduced me to My Pile, Your Pile.  It's one of those games that my parent volunteers play with kids who need some extra help.  Create a pile of sight words.  If the child knows the word, it goes into their pile.  If not, it goes into the adult's pile.  At the end of the game, the child and the adult count their piles.  The player with the most in their pile wins, and it's always the young-in.  I like to stack the odds against the parent by making sure the child knows most of the words.  I suppose you could say it's rigged.  There are always words in the pile that the child doesn't know though, so I always ask my parent volunteers to play a second time with the child after first reviewing the words that were unknown.  

My Pile, Your Pile is also great with letters, numbers, and numerous other skills.  You might try it.  I can tell you one thing for sure.  The kids will not only walk away with some needed extra practice, but they'll also walk away with big smiles after singlehandedly beating someone's dear, sweet parent.

Poetry with the Tammys!

Have you visited Tammy at First Grade at Klinger Cafe?  Besides her wonderful name, she's got a wonderful blog.  I sincerely enjoy leaving her comments about her great posts.  I know she'd love for you to drop by and stay awhile.  In fact, so would I.  I'm guest blogging for her right now.  If you don't mind, take a few minutes to check out what I've got to say about writing poetry with little ones.  I've included a plethora of pictures and some poems straight from the young poets themselves.  See you there?

My Guest Blogging Gig and An Elephant Sat on Me

(Forgive me.  This will be my second post today.  Technically it was supposed to show up on Saturday, but there's a bit of a time difference in Japan.  No worries right?)

Even though my spring break is slipping through my little fingers, I'm thrilled about this day.  For the first time ever, I'm a guest blogger!  (And there was much rejoicing.)  Natalie from Teacher Tidbits is traipsing through Japan and was sweet enough to let me say a few words on her blog while she's gone.  I would absolutely love for you to read those thoughts.  Click on the picture below to visit, and then please do come back to find out what this elephant business is all about.

I love to use music as a management tool.  There's this little song, which I did not invent, that we sing.  It's perfect for just that purpose.  (It's also perfect for phonemic awareness reasons.)  It goes like this...

It helps with management because I like to change the words to the song and sing about the kids who are doing what I've asked of them.  It's a great motivator, because I don't particularly enjoy singing about kids who are off-task.  The song might then go something like this:  "Willoughby Walloughby Wailey. An elephant sat on Hailey."  You get the idea, and kids do eat it up when their name ends up in the song. 

We have also turned it into a book, which is a rather typical move for us.

Here's a copy of the paper we use in case you were hoping I'd share.

Whether you're new to my blog or are a faithful reader, thanks for dropping by.  I relish every visit.