Back To School

Alright ! The procrastinating phase to get myself to write a post has come to an end and i am back with a bang. It wasn't too cool on my part to ignore my little blog but it was also becoming increasingly urgent to overcome my languid demeanor for exercise and adopting a healthy life style. Hence the disappearing act ! Ya , I know.....work on my new year resolution has started just now. But i am being really true to myself and have been making a sincere effort to exercise though portions of sweets and breads are still not under control. But i am in no hurry and will take baby steps in making this change permanent.

Moving on, i am happy that i finally completed my 'Back To School Books' pack. Kids came in two weeks ago after a two month long vacation and even though it wasn't really a start of a new school year, technically speaking it had all the crazy elements of one. I can see fellow educators who are gearing up for this time nodding their heads in agreement for the crazy times ahead. Really, i don't understand the logic of starting a new year for one month and then closing off for two months. Obviously the kids come back with amnesia and forget all the important things/routines they had learnt before the break. But anyways, when has whining helped anyone ? 

I was happy to have the kids back and i made a little 'Back To School' take away for them. 

It is a paper pouch in the shape of a pencil. I added two pencils and a lollipop for each child and wrote them a little note.

The note and the template for the pencil can be found here: Back To School Freebie

It also has an activity sheet asking them to describe how they spent their summer.

I also made activities for the popular back to school books like The Kissing Hand, David Goes To School, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Chrysanthemum and Pete The Cat.

The pack has craft templates, retelling cards and name recognition activities.

Books Galore !

                                            

The pack is available on my TPT Store.

Enjoy and see you soon !

Back to school books and crafts

Survived 7 days of school and managed to accomplish quite a bit with the kiddos.I am a happy teacher though there is much left to do before i can actually take a sigh of relief. :)

To help children settle down, i love to read them lots of books. Its fun for them and helpful for me as i get to convey many important things without sounding boring !

I can go on and on about my favorite books but i am going to be calm and composed and will try not to sound overly excited.

These are the just a few books among the many that i love

I'll start with 'Kissing Hand' by Audrey Penn. This is an ideal book for the first day of school. My children always relate to the racoon and i normally get few kids who feel mousy and shy on the first day. This book definitely helps sooth jittery nerves. 

After reading the book, i let the children make a kissing hand for their mom's and dad's. They trace heir hand and add a heart and then stick a poem .

 I found the poem  at Kinder Alphabet. blogspot

You can download it here: kissing-hand

The next book is' Pete the Cat, rocking in my school shoes'. A must read if you want the children to feel excited about the various places in school.

Children love singing the chant in the book and my kids jumped with joy when i told them we will do a Pete craft. They had a blast choosing the color of Pete's shoes. Many kids requested me to read the story again even though we had read it a few times.

An amazing video that goes well with the book.

'David goes to school' is my favorite book ! OK, i am saying that for all the books i am mentioning but the character of David is so real , i think every kindergarten teacher relates to it. I personally love David and honestly enjoy having sweet and playful kids like David. All right ! nobody READ that :)

It is a super fantastic book to talk about good and poor choices.

The idea for the craft and the rule chart came from 'The first grade parade blog spot' and 'teaching,loving and learning. blog spot'. However i made a few changes and this is how our chart looked .

If you would like to download the craft template and the content of our rule charts please visit my TPT store by clicking on the link below:

David-goes-to-school

'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' is a sure hit with the kids because of its catchy name and the way it is written.

We read the book and then practiced reading our names. We sort the letters in our names and then count the number of letters.

The last book that will feature on this post is 'I like me'. Its a hilarious book and i love the fact that the piggy talks about her round tummy and curly tail with much aplomb in the book, telling us that we must appreciate what we have and feel proud of it.

I love singing the 'I am special song' with this book. The lyrics go like this:

I am special, I am special

Look at me, Look at me

Someone very special, Someone very special

That is me, That is me

 Children look in the mirror and draw themselves. We also do a discussion of why we think we are special.

Hope you enjoy reading these books to your kids as much as i did.

I would like to end this post by applauding all the people in the education sector who work so hard to make a difference in the lives of children. One such organisation is Jodo Gyan. They help develop the math curriculum in our school. But their real work is so great and inspiring that i can't put it simply in words. They work with the underprivileged children and honestly there is no dearth of poor in my country.They have not only opened a school but work towards providing education which would actually produce thinkers and creative people in the years to come.

I loved the logo of their school and had to post it here:

It says that when you learn you don't just mug it up but true learning happens only when you understand it !

Need of the hour in our education system !

Giving their view point to the teacher.

 Multiplication was never this fun !

3 cheers to all the people who work at the grass root level and provide quality education to all !