It's Been Awhile...

Well, hello there!  It's been a good, long while since I've blogged.  Trust me, it's not because I haven't wanted to.  Life is so, so chaotic, and with a to-do list a million miles long, blogging almost always takes a back seat.  Or sits in the trunk.  Let's face it... Sometimes it's not even in the vehicle.

While I've been away, I've been busy being Mommy, Wife, Friend, Teacher, Leader, you name it... I've done it.

Anyway, enough about all of that... Let me explain what's been going on in my little piece of the kindergarten world!


Winter is in full-swing in my part of the world!  We were out two days last week due to snow, and have delays several days since we returned from Christmas break.  Last night, a pretty significant amount of snow was dumped in my city, and we are going on day two of snow days this week!

While on snow break, my kiddos and I have been staying warm by using GoNoodle to keep our bodies moving!

We started the morning with some Fresh Start Fitness!

This evening, we had a Cat Party on the big screen! :)

Based on the forecast for Friday, we probably won't be in school the rest of the week.  I'm thankful we can use GoNoodle at home to keep our bodies moving!

While on break, I also worked on plans for the French Lick Blogger Meet Up.  We have some big things planned for this year, and we hope you will join us for a weekend of fun and friendship.

Here are the details:

WHO:  YOU are invited!

WHAT:  Spring Blogger/Follower Meet-Up Retreat!

WHEN: March 11, 12 & 13, 2016

WHERE:  French Lick Resort & Casino - French Lick, IN

WHY:   To meet new friends, share blogging & TPT tricks & tips, 

and just have fun! {LOTS and LOTS of FUN!}

For even more information, be sure to check out Holly's blog!  You don't want to miss this fun-filled weekend!

Simply click HERE to get more information about this event! 

Teachers LOVE GoNoodle!

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know that I couldn't function in my classroom without GoNoodle!  

We start our year off with our favorite champs, and we use it all day long at specific times.  

While KooKoo Kangaroo is my sentimental favorite, my kiddos and I LOVE MooseTube!  We also use cool down brain breaks like Maximo, Flow, and Think About It often.  

I also love that you can add your own videos to the YouTube channel!  It's fun to get points for the content-specific songs that we have always used in math and literacy time!  

This helps our champ visit the  transmogrifier much more often! :)

Did you know GoNoodle has a shop?  Right now, you can get 15% off with the code BTSwithGoNoodle.  This is good until September 11th! 

My little guy LOVES wearing his Champ shirt to school! 

Grab my favorite, the MY CLASS IS A DANCE PARTY shirt, while you can! :)

Make sure to check my INSTAGRAM (@mrsbanisterskindergartenkids) and FACEBOOK pages Saturday morning for some fun giveaways! :)

Music, Poetry, and Fun... Oh My!

Show of hands...  How many of you use music or songs to build skills?  I know I use songs regularly, even if they are not actual songs, to teach my little learners skills.

It is no secret that I am pretty much obsessed with EVERYTHING my good friend Deedee Wills creates for the classroom.  I am pretty sure I own all of her products, and trust me when I say, they are worth the investment!  

I have used Deedee's poetry packs for four years.  We use them in whole group as well as during literacy station time.  In a word, they ROCK!

When I found out Deedee was creating a product that would put her poems to music, I was THRILLED!  Knowing how much we sing these poems, and the fact that I wouldn't have to do my best Broadway renditions anymore, I snatched those packs up as fast as I could!

There are endless ways you could use the music to enhance your poetry instruction.  In a whole group setting, you could, of course, burn the files to a CD.  To do that, it does take some technical skill, but this video explains the process beautifully!

Courtesy BestLaoSong's YouTube channel

I do not prefer to use the CD in my classroom; instead, I play them directly from iTunes on either my computer or iPad.  

I also use the music file to supplement my literacy work stations.  Each week, my students visit the poetry station.  While at this station, students have always read the poem, completed the word work activity that accompanies it, and read the poem again.  This is all great, but I was so excited to use the music to really beef up this station!

Here is how I do it:

Our school district uses an LMS called Canvas.  Canvas is used in all grade levels in our district, so naturally, I have chosen to use this with my students.  If your school does not have an adopted LMS, I would recommend using Showbie to push files out to your students.  Showbie is free to use, and pretty easy!

In Canvas, my students download the file to their iPads.  After the file is downloaded, students can listen to the poetry songs right on their device!  I love taking it a step further and having students create a ChatterPix of them reciting or singing the poem of the week!  

Make sure to check out this fantastic resource ASAP!  It's a must-have, for sure!

Peek At My Week: All About Our Friends

Real talk, people...

The first few weeks of kindergarten are very similar to having a newborn baby.

You don't remember how hard it is because it quickly becomes the most wonderful thing.

But dang... Last week was a reminder of how the beginning of the year really is, and how far these babies will come in the next 170 some days.

So, we got through a lot of what I had planned for last week, but I'm going to be honest:  We are doing a re-do of last week's stations.  The kids need more practice on those skills, and we need more practice on the procedures, so why prep anything new???

This week is all about our friends, so we will be starting on a digital book using Book Creator which is, you guessed it, all about our friends.  I will partner kids up, and the kids will author a book about one of their classmates.  They will use a template (that I haven't gotten around to making yet... more real talk) that I will push out to them using Canvas (our LMS) and add pictures, drawings, and kindergarten-appropriate text to write all about their new friend.  On Friday, we will share what I'm sure will be the most darling books you've ever seen. :)

We are truckin' right along in reading, writing, and math.  This week's book is Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.  Pretty appropriate for our theme of the week, if you ask me!

Here are my visual plans.

Now, link up with Deedee for a Peek at YOUR Week!