Selfie Portraits

One of my first jobs as a teacher was in a district that celebrated learning at the end of the year with a Portfolio Day. We as teachers collected pieces of work throughout the year to pull together in their end of year Kindergarten portfolio. It was a little piece of pride and joy for the kiddos as well as the teachers!

After that experience, I always find myself looking for ways to show tangible growth across the school year. I loved having pieces of the portfolio to pull out in IEP meetings, parent teacher conferences, or just to show students how much they've improved since September! My favorite piece of growth has always been self portraits. I LOVE seeing how the fine motor skills grow and how much detail students start to add into their self portraits each month. I couldn't help myself, but to embrace the children's love of selfies with, Selfie Portraits!

Each month has themed clip art and a cell phone for students to draw their selfie! Instead of the usual mirror we've used in the past to look at to make a self portrait, I also allowed students to use the classroom ipads to look at their own selfie to help them draw! 

Plus, it includes monthly name writing practice on the line at the top! Another great piece of growth to show parents throughout the year. Check out some more samples below! You can purchase Selfie Portraits from my TPT store, here.

Keep your head in the clouds!

First Day Series: First Day in K!

Hi Friends! Can you believe it's August 1st? Or in my world, the *OFFICIAL* start of Back to School readiness! I always think of August 1st as the pinnacle day in beginning my prep for next year! I'd love to say I've already gotten into my classroom, but there is literally, NO FLOOR in there yet. Trying to stay glass half full and remember, I'm getting a brand new *tile* floor (no more rugs to makeshift clean up spills, drips, and drops anymore!) even if that means getting into my room at the tail end of summer!

In the mean time, I'll continue to prep some of the materials I may need for the start of the year. Back to School is what got me my start in the TPT world and blogosphere. By far, my most popular product has been First Days in First Grade- the very first product I ever made!

You can read some more about it in my early days here! Can you believe how dated that old cover looks from just a few years ago? I like to think I've stepped my blogging game up since then!

However, as I know far too well, grade assignments are constantly changing, and I'd love to get resources out to teachers of as many grade levels as I can! As you may have seen before, Seconds into Second Grade debuted this past spring!

You can read about the details of the product in my previous post here.

This summer, I decided to add another to the series. Introducing, First Day in K!

Come take a peek at some of the activities you'll find for your sweet kinders to do during the first week of school!

I love to discuss First Day Feelings on the first day of school regardless of grade level. It's important to acknowledge the plethora of emotions students may feel as they embark on a new adventure with many new faces- including their teacher's!

There's also they very adorable Put the Kind in Kindergarten! A great way for the littlest learners to think about how to be kind to one another. This is an excellent extension activity for the very popular Bucket Fillers theme. It also flows well from talking about feelings on the first day to general feelings of students everyday.

Coloring pages in Kindergarten are an excellent warm up. Most students have positive experiences with crayons and coloring and it helps ease tensions on the first day. Plus- it's a great Pre-Assessment and wonderful to save for portfolios to compare to the last day of school art masterpieces!

 How simple is this color word K sheet? You could do this whole class or individually!

Finally, the First Day in K flip book! SO simple to make, even for the littlest learners! Plus, it's an adorable way to share All About Me facts and another opportunity for students to get to know each other and make connections. Plus- it's another great portfolio keepsake! I love this one! I can't wait to use it!

Remember, you can purchase the entire pack here in my TPT store!

What are some of your go-to activities for the first week of school?!

Keep your head in the clouds!

xo

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Cooking Up a Great Year in Kindergarten! - {A Back to School, All About Me Unit!}

I know, I know. Summer vacation should be about rest and relaxation, but I'm already getting inspiration for beginning of the year activities! I have had a Cooking Themed classroom for the last few years, so this only seemed fitting for me to create:

Cooking Up a Great Year in Kindergarten!

Check out the major craftivity of the unit below: A Menu of Me Lap Book!

The Menu of Me is a lift the flap craftivity that allows kiddos to share about themselves: What makes them special, Their house, Their teacher, Their Family, What they want to be when they grow up, What they do outside of school, and their favorite subject!

How fun are those "Favorites" flaps?! 

There's also this adorable Hopes and Dreams craftivity. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Responsive Classroom, students start the year documenting their hopes and dreams for the school year, sharing, and displaying them in the classroom. Keeping with the theme, the lift the flap plate cover allows for an adorable way to display your student's hopes and dreams around the classroom! These are so sweet, I may keep them up all year!

There's also Chef Self Portraits! There is a boy and girl version with the face already done- just needs to be colored as well as a boy and girl version with a blank face for students to draw their own. As an integrated teacher, it's always important to me to try to develop ways for all students to participate in the activities despite their learning styles. (There's differentiated options for the hopes and dreams as well!)

And of course, how do you end the first day without creating your own chef hat to wear while holding this first day of school sign?! I cannot wait to hang them up and compare them to our future last day of school pics! Cute factor overload!

Check out your own copy of Cooking Up a Great Year in Kindergarten!

As for me, I'll be at the pool! (I can't create ALL Summer Vacation, can I?!)

PS. This also goes great with my

Keep your head in the clouds!

xo