STEM! I love doing hands on activities with the students! Always have. Just ask the husband who has made, carried, or bought tons over the years. He’s a keeper! Anyway – I was a little nervous at first when Carson Dellosa sent me their new Stem Challenge cards. The box said Grades 2-5. L I teach kindergarten.   But guess what??? They will be fine for us! They will not be independent cards, but we can still use them! The CCS have upped the rigor for science, so my teaching BFF’s and I have been working through what we need to add and change. These will be great! There are two different versions – STEM Challenges and STEM Challenges Seasonal. So I opened up the seasonal first. Three tabs in the box – Spring/Summer, Winter, Autumn. I was thrown off when there was nothing behind the Autumn tab. Then I realized that the cards are in FRONT of the tabs. (I may have been sitting outside in the sun too long! LOL) The Challenge box is set up the same with Earth & Space, Life

Storage. Organization. Important! Let’s make it pretty too!   These two pieces from carson Dellosa are all of that!   I love having a schedule chart for the students to see. I have kindergarteners. They like to know when recess, lunch and snack are. OK so do I! LOL The pocket chart does not take up much room. I can put the cards in the pockets, adding a pop of color. I can write on the cards or I can write on the pockets. How clever is that! We know that schedules change, especially as the year progresses with the students. So wipe and redo. Simple! You could use it for other things though too. It has 12 pockets. You could use it for center chart. You could use it to keep track of where everyone is – nurse, bathroom, speech, etc. You could use it for words/vocabulary. You could use it for a pocket chart center – put the poem in order. This one goes pretty much with all decors.   This will also help keep us on that schedule – correct? haha The file folder is great

Well, I wasn’t going to make a new door d é cor but then Carson Dellosa sent me some treats! There are so many cute cutouts! I have a polka dot theme in my classroom, so the confetti and the fans are perfect for that! I have seen all the cute door ideas on Instagram and decided to use my cricut maker and the cutouts! I went with the saying “You’ll always have a SPOT in my heart!” Then I’m going to add the names of my kinders to the spots and decorate the door. I like both the confetti ones and the fans – might do a combination of both. The left over ones I think I will use to label spots in the room for centers. Now, my biggest issue will be putting the background paper on the door. Anyone have any easy solutions for that? Or is it just cause I'm so clumsy and awkward? I was thinking of trying a plastic tablecloth. Not sure. Can't take stuff of of that without ripping it. I'll keep you posted!               There are so many ideas for the cutouts! 

OMG! What fun is this book – InvestigatingKindergarten ! So, there is a story to read to the child with a problem to figure out at the end. Then there are skill pages that review CCS and “ clues ” to help solve the mystery! There are top secret files. There are clues on pages. There are questions to answer. There is also an answer key – for those adults who like to look ahead and read the last page of the novel before finishing the book! Oh, wait- that ’s me! LOL Any one else?? Back to this book… each top secret file has learning goals. It tells where the evidence can be found and gives clues. The activities are grouped in the secret files by topics – Langauge Arts: Letters and Sounds; Math: Numbers, Counting, Adding,& Subtracting; LA: Grammar, Sight Words & Vocab; Math: Greater/Less, Measurement & Shapes. There is a Detective Notebook to keep track of all the DATA. The kids will love making sure they are filling in all the clues!   This would be such a fun, awes