Book Sale at the Library

You've got to love spontaneous, "we're getting ready of these" book sales at the library.  Especially when the hardback book are only 25 cents each.  Granted, it stands to reason if the library is giving books away, they are probably going to be worn or perhaps a little strange.

Regardless, I managed to find five good ones today that I brought home with me:

I will soon take off those crinkly plastic library covers that seem to befuddle the Little People and then put them with the other books that will go off to school soon.  

But before that I will label them with the proper Unit Number.  See, I've already virtually labeled them below:

The Giant Jam Sandwich gets a "120" for Food.
Black Dog Gets Dressed and Rrralph get "055" for Pets.
Round Trip gets an "075" for Day/Night.
Last but not least, The Red Book will most likely not get a label, but will instead go in with my Caldecott book collection.

Not bad for $1.25!

Buying, Gathering and Scavenging: The Collection Has Begun of Materials for Back to School

Well, the collection has begun.  While I might have perhaps gone a month this summer without collecting/buying/scavenging anything for preschool, that lull is now over.  At this point I'm keeping my eyes open at all times to see what's out there that my new incoming set of Little People can use.

Here are some of the things I've found in the past few weeks:

In the "Buy" category: While in Texas last week visiting my parents, my mom took me to the Lakeshore store in Austin.  Now that is a fun place.  Among the hundreds of fun things I wanted to bring home, I found these new bulletin board borders and a few other fun things.  I'm especially excited about the "Peel and Stick" magnet dots - no more cutting little pieces from magnet rolls.  Well, at least until these run out.

Also in the "Buy" category are these containers from the Dollar Tree.  I am working on collecting sets of various items for free sorting and counting for each theme we learn about, and I'm wondering if these containers might be a good size for those.  I like that they close well, and are smaller than the plastic shoe boxes that would most likely be too big.

In the "Gather" category are these plastic containers that my mom has been saving for me from some pre-made meals that she and my dad sometimes buy.  Despite the fact that I had brought a fairly small suitcase, these had to fly back to California with me. (Thanks, Mom).

These cardboard tubes fall into the "Scavenge" category.  What's the difference between the "Scavenge" and the "Gather" category, you ask?  Well, in my mind the "Scavenge" category are things that I would gladly pull out of the trash.  Which I did in this case.  These tubes came with some glow sticks that we used this summer at church camp.  We were opening about 50 of these packages to prepare for our "glow stick fireworks".  (Which is when you shoot hundreds of glow sticks into the air out of some sore of hydraulic "potato launcher" to create a spectacular rainfall of color for the happy campers.)  When I saw the tubes, I exclaimed, "Oooh, I need these for preschool," and went into the trashcan for those that had been already thrown away.  I don't know what we will do with them, but I'm sure we'll think of something.  

And so the Back to School Collection continues.  Because Back to School is getting very, very close.

Day #4 of "The Keeping of the Stuff" - Using a Camera to Stay Organized

Well, here I am (finally) to talk about another way to help keep your Teaching Stuff organized. So far I've talked about my Theme Unit Numbering System and my unit boxes.  However,  even with all that stuff fairly organized, there are other items that I have that I find troublesome to keep together.   Even worse, sometimes I find that even if I can keep them together, I sometimes go months before realizing that I'm not really utilizing any of them because they are "out of sight, out of mind".  Basically I forget that I even have them.

Because I think that it's a shame to have so many good resources and not utilize them, I have learned to use my digital camera to keep these teaching items more "in sight" and thus in better use.  Whether it be my actually "real" camera or the camera on my phone, I find that this can be an excellent tool to help a)organize my things, and b)utilize them the best way.

The primary way I use my camera is to help keep track of items that I have.  For example, I have several large clear plastic containers of general-themed teaching items.  One is filled with games and activities that deal with "Numbers and Counting", one is "Shapes and Colors", and one is "Alphabet".  Since these are things that can not really be filed in the number filing system, they live in their own container in the garage, and sometimes are forgotten.  Therefore, this summer I took pictures off all of these items.  Here are a few examples:

I then can paste these pictures onto a document using any word processing software and print it out:

I then file them in my planning notebook that I refer to when I am making lesson plans (more about that on another day).

If I have an item that I want to go with a specific unit or in a lesson plan, I can paste that picture directly into the lesson plan where it would be used, since I plan my lesson plans on my computer.  I can also insert the pictures into a document that I call "Items Available for (insert theme here)."  This is what I do most often with my big books.  Although I have a list of them in database that I can search by theme or unit number, sometimes I don't remember the actual book until I see the cover.  (This is especially true for preschool books, when you might have three or four books titled "Bugs", or "Apples".) Therefore, I will paste the pictures onto a page like this:

This is especially helpful if you have a big book with different charts or themes on each page.  For example, on the page above you can see an "Insects" poster on the bottom left corner.  This is one page of a book that has a different theme on each page, and I always forget I have it because a)it lives in the garage in a big container and b)it doesn't get filed in the "053/Insect section".  To solve this, I took a picture of each page of the book (it has about ten pages) and inserted each picture on a document listing materials with that theme.   If I needed to, I could type in that this chart was in such-and-such book to help me remember where it is.

By using my camera in this way, it helps me keep my teaching objects close to mind and well-utilized.

Day #3: My Themed Unit Boxes

In my last post I talked about the Unit Theme Numbering System that I inherited from my mother, and how much it helps me keep my teaching materials organized.  I file all of my papers and books with this system.

However, I have a number of teaching items that I do not file with the number system.  These are my larger items, such as all the puzzles, things to sort, props, etc. from each theme.  These I put into my Theme Unit Boxes.

My favorite type of boxes are the clear, plastic boxes that can actually hold hanging files.  However, they tend to be a little expensive.  A few Christmases ago when they were on sale I used some gift money to buy about 20 of them.  However, I always seem to be gaining stuff, so I quickly fall back on cardboard boxes for all of the overflow.

Here the clear plastic boxes are, all stacked up and ready to go in my garage:

As I mentioned above, I usually find myself accumulating more stuff than will go in one of these boxes.  So while I am waiting to buy more plastic boxes (or until I sort out enough stuff to make everything fit together in one box), I will put extra themed items in cardboard boxes.  While doing this, I find that these are two of my favorite tools: Post it label tape and a Sharpie.

Here are the tape labels in action:

What I most often do when I find that I need another box is to make the cardboard box a temporary one.  I add a label with the post-it tape, and then add a second label that tells me that this cardboard box is one of two boxes that I have for this theme (in this case, one of two farm boxes).

I then stick another label on the original theme box to remind myself that I have two farm boxes now:

If later I decide that I really am going to keep two or more boxes from one theme, I add the "1 of 2" or "2 of 2" markings to the actually "fancy" theme label, as shown here:

The theme labels are ones that I made  on the computer.  After I made this first set (shown in the photographs), I later went back and re-designed them. The redesigned ones I now sell in my teacher stores.  Here's how they look:

You can purchase these labels here and here, for only $2 for all 29 labels. 

Those are my unit boxes, which help me keep my bigger teaching items in order.  

Day #2: My Teaching Unit Numbering System for Preschool Units

I am one of those lucky preschool teachers who is still able to teach from unit themes - and themes that I as the teacher can choose.  We do "Back to School" and "Fall" and "Apples" and all kinds of other themes.  I think it's wonderful, because we can spend a week or two focusing on a subject that I know is relevant to the Little People, and then we move on to something else. If we really like something we might stick with it for a little longer, and if they kids seem to have some special interest we can switch and spend some time learning about that.

As a result, most of my teaching stuff is theme-related.  It's how I organize my teaching files, my books, and of course my unit boxes. To make this organization easier, I use a Teaching Unit Numbering System.  I got this from my mom - perhaps I should ask her where she got it from.

Basically it is a list of common preschool teaching themes or units assigned a number.  Then I use these numbers to organize my teaching paraphernalia.

Let me give you the list, and then I can talk more about how I use it.

My Teaching Unit Numbering System

Manners (002)

Science – General (010)

Colors (015)

Sound/Music (017)

Mechanical (020)

Math – General (028)

Math – Counting (030)

Math – Shapes (031)

Math – Patterns (032)

Math – Sorting (033)

Math – Comparing (034)

Math – Money (035)

Math – Position Words (036)

Math – Time (037)

Math – Fractions (038)

Plants - General (040)

Plants – Seeds (041)

Plants - Trees (042)

Plants – Flowers (043)

Animals (050)

Birds (051)

Insects (052)

Bears (053)

Dinosaurs (054)

Water Animals (055)

Pets (056)

Reptiles (057)

Spiders (058)

Stories about Animals (059)

Water (060)

Fish (061)

Jungle (062)

Zoo (063)

Ecology/Ecosystems (065)

Rocks and Minerals (070)

Moon/Stars/Space/Night (075)

Days/Months (078)

Seasons/Weather (080)

Autumn (081)

Winter (082)

Spring (093)

Summer (084)

Days/Sun/Sunny Weather (085)

Wind (086)

Rain/Storms (087)

All About Me (088)

Body/Bones (090)

Taste/Touch (091)

Ears/Hearing (092)

Eyes/Vision (093)

Growing (094)

Feelings (095)

Care for Bodies (096)

Feet (097)

Hands/Touch (098)

Mouth/Teeth (099)

Five Senses (100)

Stories (110)

Poetry/Rhyming (111)

Alphabet/Letters (112)

Mother Goose/Nursery Rhymes (113)

Fables/Folk Tales (114)

Songs (115)

Food (120)

Apples (121)

Clothes (130)

Quilts (132)

Castles/Knights (134)

Pirates (136)

Community Helpers (140)

Farm (141)

Ranch/Cowhands (142)

Dentist (143)

Police Officer (144)

Grocery Store (145)

Houses/Building/Tools (146)

Firefighters (148)

Doctors/Hospitals (149)

Safety (150)

Cities (155)

Mail/Post Office (156)

Transportation (160)

Families (170)

Back to School (174)

School (175)

End of the School Year (176)

Friends (181)

Helping (182)

Sharing (183)

Sports (184)

Special Days (190)

Birthdays (191)

Circus/Fairs (192)

Halloween (193)

Thanksgiving (194)

Christmas (195)

Valentines (196)

Easter (197)

African American (198)

Hispanic/Cinco de Mayo (199)

Multicultural (200)

Disabilities (201)

Maps (202)

Wordless Books (300)

Everyday Words (318)

How I use this system:

Filing Papers:  I will copy and paste these units and numbers into a Label template in Word and then print them off on label sheets.  Then I add the labels to file folders so I have a folder for each theme (although some themes end up with more than one folder).  These are organized in my filing cabinet in numerical order, making it easy to find which unit I need.

Books: I also label all of my books with these numbers.  My mom used to just write the number right on the book, but I put the numbers on small white labels and put the label on the front left corner of the book.  I used to put the on the top right corner, until I realized that when I pulled a book out of the bookshelf, I couldn't see the number until the book was almost all the way pulled out.  So then I switched to putting the on the top left corner.  Now I can see them right away when I thumb through the books in the bookshelf.

Here you can see a book with labels on both corners.  I need to take that top left one off.

Book Database: I also use these numbers as a field in my book database, as well.  I enter in that theme number along with the title, author,  and format (regular-sized or big book).  Therefore, whenever I am at the computer and want to know which books I have that have to do with Farm, I just do a search for 141 books, and there they all are!

Big Books: My big books are also labeled with numbers, as well.  As you can see on the book below, I finally settled on the top right corner of the big books as the location for the number sticker.  

That's because I store my big books in a large Rubbermaid-type container, and most of them lie on their spine.   So when they're in the container, I can see the numbers easily when I flip through them:

Multi-Subject Books:  Sometimes it is easy to assign a book to a category, and sometimes it's not.  Sometimes books have more than one category.  Take "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", for example.  It's not only about insects (052), but also about days of the week (037).  What I do for books like these is to put both themes on the label, but to write the theme that I'm most likely to use the book for first.  Therefore, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" would say 052/037, and I would file it in the (052) section.   

This is often an issue for ABC and counting books.  I almost always file these by their theme subject (if they have one).  For example, if I have a book of A-Z Transportation vehicles, I will label it 160/112, and file it with the Transportation books (160).  That's because I like to have A-Z books for as many themes as I can, and will use that book with that theme.

You have my permission to copy this list and make it your own.  Perhaps you have some themes that I don't have, or the other way around.  Hopefully it will help you organize your materials and make all that Teacher Stuff a little less overwhelming.

Oh, all the Teacher Stuff...

I've been spending a some time in my garage lately...working with the teacher stuff.  Not too much time, mind you, because it's very hot right now where I live and the garage becomes officially uninhabitable after, say, 7:05 every morning.  Well, actually it's okay after that if you have several fans on out there, but eventually I just find myself standing one spot to absorb as much air as possible, which is not terribly productive....

But I digress.  I'm sure I'm not the only teacher who gets overwhelmed by all of that Teacher Stuff.   Especially at the end of the school year, when I find myself loading up my van with all the odds and ends that I've carried up the classroom over the months.

However, I've come to believe Teacher Stuff if pretty much necessary if you want to be a good preschool teacher.  Even if you have a school district that stocks your classroom well (which I do), there is still extra stuff for sorting and for counting, and for dressing up in...

Therefore, I think that a lot of the issue behind the Teacher Stuff is how to manage it - not whether we should have it at all.

So over the next few days I'm going to talk about organizing the Teacher Stuff - what I find works and what I find does not.

Here's my plan for the next few days:
Day #1: My Teaching Unit Numbering System, which I inherited from my mom (Thanks mom)
Day #2:  My Unit Boxes
Day #3: How to make lesson plans to maximize the use of the Stuff you have
Day #4:  Suggestions for sharing a classroom with another teacher

Hope you'll stop by the next few days!

New on the Store Shelves: How to Make a Classroom Tree out Paper

Well, the tree tutorials are completed and are on the store shelves.  The first part is "Making a Classroom Tree":

The second is "How to Decorate a Classroom Tree":

Both are full of very detailed instructions and lots and lots of pictures.

You can find ‘Making a Classroom Tree” here  and here, and “Decorating a Classroom Tree” here and here.  Thanks for looking!

As I mentioned before, I will have a Tree Kit Giveaway soon - the plans are to begin the entries on July 23.  Stay tuned for details!