Peek at the Week(s)

Hi beautiful friends! Welcome back to Peek at the Week! I totally slacked last week and couldn’t get it together in time to write the second post, so I’m combining the last two weeks into one. I didn’t want to leave anything out but life is crazy and Kindergarten exhausts every fiber of my being so…that’s my excuse :) I’m going to try my best to keep up with it going forward now that I have a better schedule worked out and things are slowly ( I mean slowly) falling into place in my classroom.

The past two weeks have been 4,000 times better than the first two weeks of Kindergarten. Most of my kids are learning the routines, what’s expected of them and how to function in a school setting. I still have a few students exhibiting significant behaviors in my class which to be totally honest, really overwhelms me most days but I’m trying my best. I won’t give up and even if it means trying something new every single day…that’s what I’ll do. It’s really important to me that ALL of my students are in a comfortable learning environment and as much as I want to meet the needs of my students who are exhibiting these behaviors, I also have to keep my other students at the front of my mind as well. They all deserve to learn and have the best kindergarten experience possible, so that’s what I’m working towards!

We have not started reading groups or math groups yet, but I’m hoping to finally launch both of those this upcoming week (pray for me). I bought reading and math editable slides from TPT and inputted all my kiddos names in groups. As a starting point, I used the class Dojo toolkit group maker to organize my kids into groups for math and reading. I will obviously change those groups once I get more data on my kids but for now, it works!

Last week we made our names with torn pieces of paper and it was so fun! They did a really great job and loved doing it. I had my TA write each their names on a large piece of paper and cut strips of different colored construction paper. All they had to do was wear the strips into squares and glue it on their name. Such a great name recognition activity!

Another super fun activity we did was read “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and eat mini muffins! We have been learning the letter M, so this was a great activity to add in to make it more fun! We made a moose craft that honestly was too difficult for my kids to cut and I didn’t know if we were going to make it through… but we did. #reallife You know I always will keep it 100% real on here (as real as I can anyways) and this craft stressed me OUT lol. The antlers were super hard for them to cut. Note to self, next time: just pre cut them. WHEW problem solved!

We changed up our pack up routine and it’s working SO much better than before. I talked about it a lot on Instagram so go follow me there if you aren’t already! @teachersgonestrong. We still do pink panther pack up but I just changed the order of our routine now to make it easier for them and it helped SO much! After I send home a social media release form I will video them packing up and post it because it’s seriously the cutest thing ever!!

Today I went in to work for 4.5 hours to get some stuff done and I was super productive! I was able to get my new dry erase circles on my small group table, my Alphabet (from @thegreenelementaryteacher on IG) hung up, reading and math groups created, apple copies made and etc. However, I did not lesson plan for the week which is one of the main reasons I went in, so it looks like i’ll be doing that tomorrow morning. I want to stop waiting until Sunday to plan because it gives me anxiety- but sometimes things just don’t go as planned and thats OK. It’s still the beginning of the year so I’m still doing a lot of “extra’s”. I want to dedicate Saturdays to school related things until I can get super ahead and prep for the week during the week before, and Sunday’s to Teachers Gone Strong AKA my clients/challenges/blogs/podcasts!

I made my dry erase circles with my Cricut using Oracle 651 vinyl. It is removable and leaves no residue at all! I made 11.5 in circles and they are the perfect size. I’ve previously bought them on Amazon but it is so easy to make them yourself, and WAY cheaper! I wish I would have done this sooner!

In other news we have also been LOVING our stem bins!! I put them together last weekend and it was definitely worth it. My kids have been using them after breakfast when they finish eating early and they are loving them! Their favorites are the Leggos, Playdough, and magnets.

Overall, things are getting better and I’m hanging in there. Each day is a new day and I want to remind you that it’s okay (and normal) if you have to take it day by day or even hour by hour sometimes :)

My husband left for the month so I’m currently single dog momming’ it and I’m so ready for him to come home. He will only be here for a few weeks before he leaves again but I can’t wait to soak up that time with him! It is too precious. I can’t believe we have already been in Alaska for 2.5 months! SO much has happened in such a short time and it’s honestly been such a whirlwind. It’s starting to get a lot colder making my 4:30am wake ups WAY more difficult but it’s making me so excited for the snow and all the memories we will make this winter!

We went to the fair last weekend and it was so much fun! We got to see Luke Combs in concert and he was AMAZING! We also ate SO much fair food (donut burgers, funnel cakes, corn and the list goes on lol)

Follow me on IG if you aren’t already! I post a ton of teaching/fitness content on there! @teachersgonestrong

and lets be Facebook bff’s! Teachers Gone Strong.

With lots of love,

Brooklyn