Happy Holidays! Here’s a free, original, printable created by meee! Works as an 8X10 or smaller. I saw this saying while out shopping this year and it really stuck with me. Just click on the link below to download. Add to a frame or hang up on a picture line with a clothespin!

Don’t forget to stop by my blog again/follow me as I will be posting more often & adding new products to my TPT store/ & possibly on Facebook. Not to mention, more freeeeeebies!

Like my Facebook page if you like my printable! I’ll be posting my next freebie when I get to 200 likes. TheKinderYears-FB orrrrr...follow me on instagram-http://instagram.com/thekinderyears/

P.S. The tree is finger painted by my one-year-old daughter, Scarlet! I’m pretty sure we can agree on her aspiring career as an artist. J

Christmas Tree Printable

Christmas Tree Printable - White Background

Printable of The Kinder Years

Catching enough ZZZZZzz's?

-Many children aren’t-

Are your students falling asleep on the circle rug? Snoring at their desk? Extremely irritable or distracted? Maybe they didn’t get a decent night’s sleep!

Teachers definitely deal with this factor throughout the year—if not daily! Last year a few of my students were actually falling asleep on the floor or at the table.  

Here we go back to Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, which I’m a big believer in. 

 If children’s physiological needs aren’t being met how can they focus on learning? I’ve heard of teachers keeping snacks for hungry kiddos but is there something helpful for sleepy ones? Check out some of my ideas!

At open house and for conferences I love sharing interesting articles and resources with parents. One thing I think I’ll start including is something about healthy sleep habits. Parent’s magazine just had a great article about just this topic! Plus, this great visual that depicts how many hours of sleep a child should be getting at certain ages.

 Another fun activity, that involves parents, might be to send home a questionnaire students can fill out with their parents about their bedtime routines. Students can bring it back and share their favorite part of their routine. Teachers can take what info they collected and create a section in their newsletter with helpful bedtime tips from parents in their own class!

Lastly, sometimes a full day of school can get repetitive and boring! Consider giving your class some brain breaks and time to get up and move…even if it’s only for 30 seconds at a time. A great resource for teachers to incorporate in their class is Brain Gym activities. I’m also a fan of all the brain break video clips on YouTube. Some teachers, on a particular on task day, will reward their students with a favorite song/activity or game.

As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to get your child to bed at a decent time! So if you have to contact a parent try your best to be polite and get them on your team.

** Share your experiences with sleepy students in the comments below! I’m interested to hear what works for both teachers and parents! **

March Madness!

Here are some pictures from my bulletin board this month. We chose to have a book battle for the month of March to celebrate Read Across America Day. Find out more about Read Across America Day by visiting the link below!

http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm

We created a bracket to showcase 16 famous authors. Now, throughout the month of March, we are introducing authors and then voting on which ones we like best based on their stories. To vote, each child comes up and whispers their vote in my ear. They know that they are not supposed to share their vote or ask anyone else about their vote. This prevents plenty of drama that could ensue! Plus, they love getting a chance to have a secret!!! 

An added bonus is our “People’s Choice Award!” Everyone in the building can vote for their favorite author. This provides an opportunity to talk about data collecting and tally marks! (I voted for Beverly Cleary, a childhood favorite!)

Lastly, I wanted to demonstrate to the students that anyone can be an author! So, I put myself in the book battle with a book I created in college about positional words. I hope they like it! Our class will also be creating and sharing stories all month and working on a secret joint story that will include ideas from all of my little authors. I can't wait to share that project in a future post! Stay tuned! 

Here is a freeeeeebie! I hope you can use this “People’s Choice Award” chart one day. J 

Happy Birthday Colin!

When you were in school did you ever feel like you didn't fit in? I think everyone feels out of place at different moments throughout their school years. Did you stay true to who you were/are or did you try to alter your appearance, behaviors, or interests to be accepted by classmates? 

The reason I’ve been thinking about all of this is because of one special young man, Colin!  Happy Birthday Colin! 
 https://www.facebook.com/Coliniseleven

I’m sure you have heard of him. His mom created a Facebook page to show how many people care about him and like him for who he is. The page went viral and instead of just family messaging him, people all over the world started checking out Colin’s page and leaving messages! People sent him encouraging words, cards, presents, and birthday wishes. I hope that Colin really gained a lot of self confidence and joy from the page his mom created! As a kindergarten teacher, I think it is important to start teaching children at a young age that it is ok to be different! Everyone is different and those differences make you shine! Who wants to be a boring clone? People should be valued for their quirks!

Teachers can create a classroom environment where everyone feels accepted and valued. It takes dedication, modeling, and time to plan activities & different ways students can practice these values. Some ideas to incorporate:

1.    Bibliotherapy! Read books that demonstrate different values that you want to instill in your class. One of my favorites to read when school starts is Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon.    

2.    Catch kids being good! I have seen several teachers this year giving out awards to students that are demonstrating kindness to others. Some schools have assemblies for these types of awards. Teachers can create their own awards, ribbons, certificates, etc.

3.    Involve the students in catching others being good. When I student taught these students caught being good were called bell ringers. Students can place a note in a jar about someone being good and they can be read at the end of the day or week.

4.    Change up partners. Are you letting students pick their partners each time? It is amazing the friendships that can be formed when students have the opportunity to get to know someone new. I think it is important to have opportunities for children to work in small groups with different students on a regular basis. Build a community!

5.    There is so much to teach on the academic level but it is important to take time to do a few activities here and there to teach about different values. One of my favorites is Star Student of the Week. The student fills out an info sheet about themselves so the class can get to know them. Then the class creates a writing sample for that child. Each child’s picture goes into a book and is given to the star student to take home. Children write things they like about that student. It is such an awesome way to build self confidence and helps students see the good in people. 

I could go on and on. These are just a few ideas I have done before. Let me know what has worked for your class or child! 

And here is one of my all time favorite quotes…
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Full Day Kindergarten vs. Half Day Kindergarten

I’m a full day kindergarten teacher and at the end of the day there are still so many more things that I wish I could try to shove into their tiny little brains!

I wonder, often, how half day teachers find enough time to teach all the standards with a full class. I know they get the job done! Kudos to them! Personally, I think half day kindergarten is a good transition into formal schooling. The class I have this year is so tired during the second half of the day. (Literally, I spend so much time asking children to sit up because they are sprawled out on the carpet drooling and possibly asleep.) It is a big adjustment going from playing the majority of the day to subject after subject that needs their attention/energy.  My baby, Scarlet, will just be turning 5 the beginning of the school year when she is ready for kindergarten. So, it will be interesting to see if she is ready socially, emotionally, cognitively, etc. She can take her time growing up and stay small for awhile! :)

Also, I didn’t know that many public schools charge for full day kindergarten?! It is a monthly price and only so many children get chosen for full day. Everyone else has to do half day. In my home town they switched kindergarten to full day for everyone. Even though it makes for a long day for those little guys, it’s a great opportunity to start off school with more time to soak everything in and get use to a school routine. So, which is better? What would you want for your child? What do you want as a teacher? 

Loving my time to blog! Such a nice way to end my day. Hope your week has started out Fabulous!

~Garnet Shumaker 

Signature coming soon ;)

Teaching by Day, Bloggin by Night

Teaching by Day, Bloggin by Night

My first post! Finally, I got to this point, but there is still so much I am learning about blog design and code. Thanks to my wonderful hubby and some inspiring female entrepreneurs, here I am!   So, there will likely be changes to my blog for the next several months as I perfect everything. There should be “caution” tape or “under construction” options for people that want to start posting on their blogs but are still working on their design. 

Let’s backup…

I started on my path to teaching in 2005, when I graduated from high school. I immediately started working at a child development center and was in my first quarter of college. Initially, I wanted to be a graphic designer. Long story short—despite my desire to create and design, I decided to become a teacher because working with children felt like my true calling. Plus, as a teacher, you have so many opportunities to create! It is the best of both worlds. 

Many, many, months later I obtained my early childhood education degree. Then it was a whirlwind of major life changes! I got married, moved an hour away from my home town, started teaching kindergarten and best of all…had my beautiful baby girl! I have a lot to be thankful for.

 

Suddenly, the New Year hit. Of course, this is a very inspiring time of the year! I felt like doing big things! Yet, I have so many passions.  I thought about all of the things I liked and decided it would be fun to create some products for Teachers Pay Teachers. After researching how to do that I discovered to be successful on TPT many people start a blog! Soooo, I spent several nights reading popular teacher blogs & researching how to start a blog. I couldn’t wrap my head around actually paying someone to design my blog when I love to design. The next couple weeks I enjoyed playing around with different ideas in my head.  I created a header with scrapbook paper and Picmonkey, (LOVE me some Picmonkey!) and decided on a name. I have a lot of tweaking to do, (not twerking…sorry Miley) but I’m determined that this is something that will really be an enjoyable hobby for myself. Not to mention, all of the collaborating with amazing teachers that I’m hoping to do!

I wanted to make my first post short and sweet and that didn’t happen.  ;) If you seriously just read all of this, leave me a comment! Come back and visit! Would love to chat with some fellow teacher blog ladies! :D