Many teachers have been asking me how to create a QR code and many more teachers have been asking can you use QR codes with Chromebooks.   In this short video, I will show you how to create a QR code and remove adds and how to scan a QR code using a Chromebook.  There may be other ways but here I am showing you what I use and know.  

So this difficult situation of a classroom has stabilized or I have adjusted.  Let's just say we have met in the middle. I want to come back to address the rocky start of the year with an update.  I still have 3 Adults in the class and have learned to utilize the help I have when I can.  I have put more trust into my parent helpers and enlisted their help with Interventions.  We have worked extra hard to get kiddos up to speed due to a rocky start and over the last month I have learned to have fun with the kids! Hooray! 

I took a step back and through much reflection, I am Thankful to have been able to meet the two aides who help with 2 students. They go out of their way to help with others when they can.  I have learned to deal with the room arrangement and switched out some tables so I can have one of the aides sit at a table and help with other students  - if possible at that time.  This is how we are catching up! It all good - I GOT THIS!

I am back to finding what my kids need and addressing their needs. I ended up adding beginning sounds, same and different, and more games to a Thanksgiving unit from last year because I have a lot of English Language Learners this year and they need support in these areas as well as vocabulary building.

If you need vocabulary support but are short on time for integrated thematic type units and foundational skills these activities may help you get that accomplished.



I usually do Daily 3 or 4 or 5 but like I said - I have enlisted the help of parents so this coming up week I have a different parent come in every day for an hour at the same time so I will be having them help with the build a graph activities, and with the games. They wlll do 3 different graphs over 3 days. 


I'll be able to address the students who still need same and different and beginning sounds  with the same and different cards.  The kids will then go and show what they know on the independent activity sheets.  I think I'll have the children take turns putting clothespins on the cards for same and for different.   I am doing same one day and different on another day.  There are 10 cards total.  I can always add this to a center later.

I go back on the 17th with kids so I am in full swing of thinking about everything related to back to school!

In the midst of all that thinking I made a video. It's my first face to face video.   I talk about some activities I plan on using to help teach routine and procedures.  I'll just show you and stop talking now.  You can also download a clickable linked file below with routine and procedure tips.  The file is useful even if you don't want the activities.

I will be adding more detailing my planning and back to school activities in hopes of helping others.  I don't know about you but I love reading other teachers "Back to School Plans and Activities."      

HERE is a file you can download with clickable links for the routines an procedures mentioned in the video. It will take you to Google Docs. 

HERE is the unit in that video if you are wanting it to begin your school year.

On Monday I will be going into my classroom for the first time this summer. This is the absolute latest I have ever went in.  Wish me luck! 

Warm regards,
Tonya Leslie

Teacher friends, I hope I can be of help.  My last day was yesterday so this morning I put together what has been an end of the year life saver for me for 2 years in a row now.  It saves me money, time, and my sanity, Plus, it is still cute and meaningful.  

I threw this together this morning in case you are still in school and could use it.  I know how hectic those last weeks are and I was definitely in a frenzy for the last 6 days straight with field day, kindergarten performances, art portfolios, report cards, assessing, and on and on and on.  

I know many teachers like to send their kids off to summer with something and with good intentions we send summer review packets in hopes that they will do it and not forget what we taught them. Here is an easy, inexpensive, solution for using what you have instead of buying things and copying packets that many kids never look at.

and HERE are the matching Bookmarks that are FREE for you! 

If you need more end of the year easy to  implement activities, check out this Summer Activities Post.

Happy Summer My Teacher Friends! I hope you found something useful to help you out at this time of the year!

I have had this thing in my head that I wanted to make and I was so close and then BAM! Power Point limited me or maybe I limited myself.  I wanted to throw my computer OUT the window.  Maybe because I just spent several days being patient with a project only to find out I was so close YET so FAR AWAY.  The agony. 

I use the Fry words FIRST 100 (1-100) for word work (the second half of kindergarten).   That's a whole different blog post on it's own which I plan to do a blog series about word-work, sight words, differentiating, and tracking using the system I use. If you want to read about that and pull an idea or two from it you might want to subscribe to my email list or follow me on bloglovin. The system has worked wonders in my kinder classroom.

Okay, so I have the Fry words broken up into 5 words per ring in order from the list and they are put on rings.  Children take the color of ring they are on and use it for their word work-activities throughout the week (I'll take a picture of this too so you can see what I am taking about). 

If children can't read a word:
1.  Children go get an ipad and scan the word (you can also       
     have just one ipad next to the words).
2.  Children scan the QR Code.
3.  The children are taken to a video where the word appears 
     and the word is read to them.  
4.  Children are then asked to say the word and spell the word.




I cannot express to you how much this has HELPED  cut-back on the interruptions from, "MRS. LESLIE, what's this word?" Then you start putting up the talk to the hand sign and then you start doing the shoo the fly movement.  You know what I am talking about.  This eliminates a lot of that.

You can tell them until you are blue in the face but some kids just forget or want the attention and when you are working with kids nothing can be more frustrating than an interruption.  They are just little and having these talking QR Codes does help.  I am sure I will have more on QR codes in the near future because I am LOVING them and so are the kids.   

If you want to read more about the units mentioned above or get them,  CLICK on the pictures below.   


                                                                 Try it out FREE.

If you want to see the pictures of the set-up in my classroom click on Bloglovin on the sidebar and sign up for email updates.
Otherwise, my blog might get lost in the land of blogosphere and
when you go to find it . . . well you just might not be able to.  It has happened to me before  - SAD but TRUE.

Warm regards and cheers to my new teacher assistant,
Tonya Leslie

Okay, as I wrote that title I know what you're thinking.  Pull your head out of the gutter!  That's not what I am asking for heavens sake.   I have been revising some of my earlier phonics units to match my more recent ones and the units became much larger. Now I realize size doesn't matter (stop laughing) but I am curious to know what you teachers prefer.

I am seeing a trend of teachers being tired of piecing everything together. Search here, search there, buy this, buy that, and then still they do not have a comprehensive unit that helps they do everything they need it to do in the classroom.  Time is something teachers don't have enough of so to spend TIME piecing lessons together can be SO TIME C-O-N-S-U-M-I-N-G!!!!!

                            So here is my question to you again.  
       Do you prefer my smaller or bigger Unit?   
                      I'll give you a rundown and a few pictures. 

Okay,  So you see.  This unit is much larger than the original one.  I really try to make sure the units I make include differentiation, learning styles, small group, independent, and partner work.  The pictures I showed for the larger unit didn't show the games included in the unit (there are 3).   I know teaching styles and teaching needs are different so that's why I have the huge variety.  You wouldn't possibly be able to use it all but what parts would you use the most and why?   Please leave a comment if you would telling me.  I would live to know. 

For now this Unit is on sale for $4.00.  I was also thinking of doing a bundle with all the units that have this format.   What are your thoughts on that?  I have 15 or 17 so far with approx. 6-7 needing revised to look like this one.   If you want to see this unit or more like it you can go HERE or click on the any of the pictures above.

As I was writing this post I was thinking, "This should be tied to birds (bird adaptations) and making a birdhouse in the classroom from recycled materials." My brain NEVER stops - SORRYNOTSORRY.

Warm regards and I look forward to your thoughts.  

Color words are probably one of the funnest units to teach in kindergarten!  However, finding resources that enable you to differentiate and reach your English language learners with vocabulary support is not always the easiest to find. Kids will be building vocabulary, sight words, and writing simple sentences while they practice color words and reading with these color word resources!

I stopped teaching whole group some time back.  Now I don't mean I stopped teaching whole group on everything because some things everyone needs and sometimes it just may be impossible to just NOT teach a lesson whole group. Anyhow, below you can read about how I scaffolded and differentiated instruction for my WIDE RANGE of learners I have this year. I usually do a variety of different type of activities to reach different learning styles (it just isn't differentiation in the type of sheet I give them).  There are also a handful of FREEBIES for you to grab along the way!

COLOR WORDS FREEBIE


This year we worked on color words using Dr. Jean's Color Farm song.  You can purchase her song HERE (and it is worth EVERY PENNY)! The kids love singing the song and reading their song book.   Read further to grab the song book for FREE. Most my kids can read and spell their color words now. YIPPEE!   
We always sang the song after the color words activities for the day.  I gave different color word activities to different groups of kids and these color word units made it really easy to do that! 

I had 4 separate levels going because in kindergarten, especially at the beginning of the year and especially when you have kids from TK and kids that have never been in school . . . you have a WIDE RANGE of ability and there is NO WAY they can or should be doing the same thing!  You'll drive yourself crazy and you might even get some kids crying if you do that! There is another FREEBIE to check out since you stayed with me this long.  It is the RED color Unit just so you can see how it can make your life easier with differentiation in KINDER and hopefully it will save you a lot of time too.

First,
I read the "flip books" to the entire class and modeled how to track the words and flip the pictures.  They all needed this and the vocabulary building was useful for all my kids.  I needed ALL the kids to see how the words repeated too.  This helped with sight word recognition and fluency.  These were put in the writing center for kids to practice reading and to write sentences using color words.  I also used the flip books with my lowest performing kids 1 on 1.  They loved it but partly I think because they are bright (the books) and they (the kids) were moving when they flipped the pages and touched the circles on the books. It''s not a worksheet and it's like a toy to them.  Make anything resemble a toy and you've got their attention.

This is one of my favorite units to date.  The kids were hooked and loved the whole thing.  They often reference ing words and my lowest disengaged students were engaged and can still recall how to spell and read ing words.   There are so plenty of activities to pull from to meet your student needs.  Here are some activities from the unit but not all.