Tips for Using Interactive Notebooks with Primary Kids

Hey everyone! It's Karen from Mrs. Jones's Class. 

Raise your hand if you are using Interactive Notebooks this year!  

If you're a primary teacher (although, some of the tips would work with any grade), then head over and check out this post!  I'm sharing lots of helpful tips and tricks that will help you seamlessly implement INB's into your classroom this year! 

Bulletin Boards Made EASY!

Hey everyone! It's Karen from Mrs. Jones's Class and I am here with a quick and easy idea for you!

This was created in my last minute desperation last summer as I struggled with changing grade levels from Kindergarten to 5th grade, setting up a new classroom, learning the new curriculum, figuring out WHAT I was doing, buying a bajillion new things for the room (because I guessed that 5th graders wouldn't all love rainbows and polka dots), and needing to put together some kind of bulletin board that would be cute AND functional.... this easy anchor chart bulletin board was just the trick!

So. Do you create anchor charts? Of course you do!  There you go, you are already half way done.

I put up different color paper and a boarder to separate the subject areas, then printed out some big letters to make a focus for each of the sections. Suuuuuper easy!  I would display the anchor charts from our current units, just stapling each one on top of the next so that we could flip back to old ones if need be. 

Easy AND functional!

If you would like to use my letter headers for the different subject areas,

  you can download them here.

Enjoy!

<3 Karen

BTS Routines & Procedures!

     Hey there! It's Karen from Mrs. Jones's Class, and I am here to share some tips and goodies that you can use to help make your classroom run like a well-oiled machine this school year. No, you don't need any WD-40 (although that does come in handy when cleaning your dry erase boards, but that's another post)...we are talking routines and procedures here, folks!

So. 

You are getting ready to go back to school, eh?  A new class. Crisp materials. Clean floors (for the first 10 minutes, at least). A whole new year of fun and memories. A fresh, new group of kids that need to "learn the ropes" before you can get down to business and teach!

Ok.
I'm going to start with the big kids first.

I taught 5th grade this year, and one thing that I've learned after moving from Kindergarten is-- 

the big kids need to learn classroom routines and procedures as much as the little ones do!

1. Have a system (for everything!)

(click image to download from Google drive)

2. Teach, model, and practice routines daily for the first couple of weeks!

We all know that repeated modeling and practice will help the procedures stick and become second nature. Show them, have them show each other, and have them practice. If a procedure is getting loose, then reteach it. Before breaks and vacations are great times to practice and reteach rules and procedures, too!

Now. 

The littles. A whole different beast in some ways. 

I have an extensive list of routines and procedures to teach in the beginning of the year Kindergarten and 1st grade over on my blog, Mrs. Jones's Class. 

Click the image below to take you over there and download the list!

I hope that these resources come in handy this BTS season!  

Have a great year, everyone!

-Karen

Earth Day!

Hey friends! It's Karen from Mrs. Jones's Class.  

So...I'm one of those "Earth Day every day" people. I am a stickler for reusing, recycling, and trying to live as green as I can. Needless to day, I {heart} Earth Day!

Are you interested in becoming a little more "green" too? It is really not that hard, and just a few little changes to your daily routine can help.

One bigger change I made last year was that I joined an organic CSA. A CSA is an acronym for Crop Sharing agriculture. Basically, we buy a "share" of a local organic farm. Ours is small and family owned. We pay a yearly fee and each week in the summer season (May-October) we get a big ole' box of organic produce that is grown and harvested right at our farm. We also visited a few times last year to pick. We are eating healthier, and feel good that we aren't contributing to unnecessary chemicals being added to our food and our earth. Here are some pictures of our weekly goods, as well as from our trips to the farm. What is better than pulling your own carrot from the ground, wiping it off, and eating it! :)

I would highly recommend googling "CSAs" in your area and looking in to it!

Back in the classroom, I like to show my kids how we can be green a little "greener" to help the Earth too!

I created this Earth Day mini-unit to show my little ones the importance of Earth Day, every day! 

Included is this super cute Mosaic Earth Day craftivity, which you can use some some of those scraps of construction paper up with. 

You can find it here in my TpT shop. 

You can also grab this little Earth Day mini-book 

FREE in my TpT Shop.

Peace, love, and green!

xoxo

Karen 

Day 21 of PC's Advent Calendar!

Hi there. It's Karen from Mrs. Jones's Class!  I am here for Day 21 of Primary Chalkboard's Advent Calendar with a little goodie that you can use with your class (if, like me, you still have Monday and Tuesday left to go before break!) ...OR... with your own kidlets at home!

A Letter to Santa!

In color and black and white!

One of my readers mentioned she is using this letter writing template as a station during her party this week. I loved that idea!

And as a sidenote, I have to tell you why this freebie has a special place in my heart-- last year, a blogging friend posted this picture that was featured in her local newspaper. 

Ummmm.... OMG! There it is!  

I had a 15 seconds of fame moment.... well, more like 1 second, but I loved it still. :)

Have a great holiday everyone!

xoxo

Back to School Routines!

Hey everyone! Karen here from Mrs. Jones's Kindergarten and I am here to talk about one of the most,

 if not THE most important piece of Back to School planning....

ROUTINES!

We all know,  both big and little kids alike need to be taught routines. Need routines modeled for them. Spelled out if you will. R-O-U-T-I-N-E-S.

Every step, every thing.

One of the best pieces of advice I remember getting way back when I first started teaching was ASSUME they know NOTHING. Good stuff right there, write that down.

But, if you don't want to write that down, that's okay, I've got you covered! Just hop on over to my blog, Mrs. Jones's Kindergarten, where you can print out my MASSIVE list of Back to School Routines to help keep you assuming nothing and creating law and order in the land of your classroom.  

It is geared towards Kindergarten, but can definitely be used in any elementary grade.

Have fun teaching! :)

Karen