Parent Zip-In Jobs and a Surprise Guest Blogger!

Okay, so today I push it to the limit– this is a Five for Friday post, a post for my Start-of-School series, AND a Funny Kid Friday with a guest blogger to boot! Hang on to your seats!

I tell parents at the start of the year that my expectation is for EVERY parent to be involved in the classroom. Yes, I love parents who can come in on a regular weekly or bi-weekly basis to lead a learning center, but even if a parent can't come in for a whole hour somewhere in the day, I have a classroom job for them. I call these, "Zip-In Jobs."

There is still time to incorporate these ideas into your classroom this year if you choose, no matter when you start back. Here we go with a post to my series–

1.  One Zip-In Job is First Fifteen. This is for a parent who can drop their child off at school at least once every other week. As the name implies, this work time is for the first fifteen minutes of the day as soon as kids take off their coats. These quick fifteen minutes are spent doing "booster activities" with individual children or a small group of kids. The parent might listen to kids read from their book baggie. Or read/trace from an alphabet book. Or maybe the time is spent counting. Fifteen minutes, sometimes even less, can give a valuable boost to kids who need very targeted practice. A First Fifteen parent can do this with several kids before our day even begins with morning meeting.

2. Another Zip-In Job is D.E.A.R Parent. After my kidpeople come in and get their coats and backpacks taken care they do D.E.A.R.– you know, Drop Everything And Read time. I have many collections of books- informational, puzzle/search, word books, author collections, magazines, as well as leveled readers and individual book baggies, so there is plenty of reading material even before everyone in my kindergarten class is "reading." I choose the collection for the day and kids choose from those bins...

...except on DEAR Parent day. On this day of the week a parent comes in and goes right to the carpet to greet kids as they settle there. She or he starts into the story as soon as there is a majority of kids on the carpet– added bonus is kids hustle through the coat hall on DEAR Parent mornings.  She or he usually reads just one book and we are ready to begin our meeting at our usual time.

3.  I also have Playful Parent. I know, I know, all parents should be playful. Well, my Playful Parents are any parents who can come during one designated period of the week. They don't need to sign-up for regular weekly or monthly visits, they just need to give me a heads up beforehand. I probably don't need to list all the great things kids learn by playing games, no matter what the game. However, with all there is to DO now in each day, I found my game teaching availability dwindling down to nothing and kids not learning any new games. This is where Playful Parents come in. Playful Parents spend forty five minutes teaching games from our game collection– common games like checkers or Candyland– it's surprising that kids don't know these, but I always have some who have never played. Or I have other great games like Zingo, Set, and Tenzis, and they can teach and play these. We've even played Mancala with great success. After kids have been taught they can usually play the games again later on their own. The Playful Period is during our regular Free Choice/Intervention time, usually within the last hour of the day.

4.  One more job that sort of falls under Zip-In is Field Tripper. I don't know about you, but as the years go by we are having a harder and harder time finding parents who can go on field trips. Field trips are essential to learning, and parent chaperones are essential to field trips. I get parents to start thinking about this at the beginning of the year. If there are parents who really can't come in to school during the day, but can take a day or half day off for a field trip (when I give them plenty of notice) I ask them to sign up for the Field Tripper job. All parents are invited to sign up for any field trip they choose, but those regular field tripping parents are the ones I'm going to go to most when the time comes.

5.  Today TWO Funny Kid Stories.

Sometimes it's kids who stand in the way of parents coming in. I had one little person tell her mom that she couldn't help out the class because she didn't have a "teacher voice" and the kids wouldn't listen to her. And another child told their mom she couldn't come in because she didn't have "eyes in the back of her head" like Mrs. Wright did. When the mom assured the tiny tot that she did have eyes like Mrs. Wright, the quick response was, "Well, they don't spark like hers do." Funny, no one else had ever noticed my sparks before...

And now a special surprise! Deb Maxwell from over at Not Very Fancy in 1st is guest blogging her funny kid story! Take it away, Deb.

The kids were in bed. I was just settling on the couch with a glass of wine when my 6 yr. old came downstairs. He informed me that he was searching for paper and something to write with because he had big plans for getting a lot of exercise the next day. He needed a pencil and paper to chart it out. (Yes, this is how my 6 yr old talks.) 

What are the chances that a teacher-mom would say no to this idea? He found them, and went back upstairs. 

A few minutes later he came back down because he needed help spelling the word "eat." I told him I don't spell words for first graders, even if the first grader is doing what they are supposed to be doing, and he was definitely not! He cried and stomped up the stairs.

A few minutes later he came down with a huge smile to tell me his schedule was made. I did my very best to keep a straight face and told him we could talk about it in the morning. He came over and read it to me anyway. Then he asked if it sounded good. I repeated that we would talk about it in the morning. He hung it on the refrigerator and went to bed.

As my sister said, what in the world I do without these kids to keep me entertained all the time. Life would be so dull.

Thanks so much for giving me a place to share my little anecdote.

Isn't it funny how kids can get so creative at BEDtime- snort. Thanks, Deb!

Look for my next Back-to-School Post. Find more under the "Start of Year" label on the right sidebar. This one will give suggestions for great Stay-at-Home Jobs for parents who really CAN'T come in to school at all.  Stay tuned.

Now off you go, back to Five for Friday. Thanks, Kacey!

Simple, Nutritious, AND Delicious?

Yep, this any season fresh fruit salad is the BEST. It takes only a few minutes to make with things you probably have around the kitchen, and everybody will love it. Its basic ingredients are available in the grocery store all year long. Guests always want to know how to make it with it's secret ingredient dressing... heh, heh, heh.

Today I link with Deb at Not Very Fancy in First to share.

Here's a picture of everything you need. Well, you don't really need my overstuffed cookbook or the duck masher...

Do you see the secret ingredients?

Start with common fruits– apple, grapes, banana and orange or clementine. You can use any fruits you have, but these are our favorites. You actually only need one apple, banana and orange, and small bunch of grapes to serve four people. This gives everyone a serving that's the equivalent of a single serving of fruit. Slice them all into bite size pieces. Throw them in a bowl.

Chop up some walnuts, or pecans, and throw them in. Add a handful of raisins.

Now here's the surprise dressing– take a full, rounded tablespoon of frozen orange juice concentrate, and a  very generous shake of cinnamon. You can mix these two together in a separate bowl, or if you are easy like me, just add them separately to the bowl. You can adjust for taste.

It was my good friend, Jayne, who told me to try orange juice concentrate as a dressing, and honest to pete, it tastes delicious. Some added sugar, but no added fat. And a tablespoon isn't much. You just want all the fruit to be moist.

I add cinnamon to everything because we like the taste, and experts now say that it's really good for your heart and circulation. I shake it on Cheerios, oatmeal, and my Nutella and banana toast in the mornings. I shake it into my skim latte in the afternoon. And I put it in lots of fruit dishes like this one all the time.

Here's how it looks when it all goes in...

And here's how it looks after you mix it and it's ready to eat...

Voila! Ten minutes start to finish. There are rarely leftovers, but in my family if there are, they get eaten the next day, even if they are a bit mushy. 

What do you do with fresh fruit? Let me know in the comments. 

Now scooch on back to find other good recipes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Made It for Parent Communication!

Happy Monday Made-It! I am sharing TWO things I created with parents in mind- an idea and a form. I shared them last week and I got good feedback, so I think Monday Made It cruisers might want to know, too. One is a free download. Thanks to Tara and Fourth Grade Frolics for this wonderful weekly linky party.

1.  There is a LOT to do to get the classroom ready at the beginning of the year, right? Assembling folders and notebooks, cutting laminate, putting up stuff in the room... Whew!

But you can get help. And that help will probably be happy to help because they are getting something out of it, too.  That's what I was thinking when I started Work and Mingle Night.  I hand this to parents or send it via email or snail mail, depending on the year. Read below and it's pretty self explanatory.

It's a win-win!  It cuts my prep way down and I get a feel for the families coming into my room. Parents have really come to enjoy it because they make friends with the parents of kids their kids are going to be playing for a long time to come, and they get to know me.

Two small cautions, though... you do need to put in a LOT of prep to have everything in a state where people can actually help you. You'd have to do it anyway, so for me having the meeting as a deadline is a good thing, even as it is another push on me. And, you might find yourself in the hot seat that night. Parents ask all sorts of questions and your responses will be heard by many, so you need to be able to think on your feet and know your own mind... or be able to gracefully say "I'll think about that."

I didn't make this one downloadable because you really need to make it your own. Just Pin it and you can go back to it to see my wording if you like. I highly recommend  the last few lines!


2.  And my second Made It is a student information form... but not just any info form. I have tweaked it and tweaked it to ask just the right questions to paint a good picture of my incoming kiddos. For example, I ask for the student's full name, the name the student is to write, and the name the student goes by. I learned this by having a Robert James, who was to write James, but went by Jamie... and I learned that after I had written Robert on everything. sigh.

I also tweaked and tweaked to get it to fit on just half a sheet with room to write. I copy it on bright green cardstock, front and back, and then cut it in half. I carry and refer to them all. year. long. I even keep them from year to year because sometimes you need to know things again, like when you get siblings, or when you are invited to their HIGH SCHOOL graduation parties... I date myself :) The form has morphed over the years to become my most useful version.

Yep, I have hundreds of them now.
One year I used yellow...

This  ultimate student info card is available for download. It is completely editable, and free. Just click on the form below. I do ask one thing though– please Pin both forms for me, okay?

Hope these two ideas help your communication with parents and your connection with kids. Hope you'll let me know what you think. Hope you have a great year. AND I hope you'll come back for another post or two as I continue my mini-series with lots of B2S ideas to try.

Click on back to Tara and get in on some more Monday Made Its!

  See you soon... the best way to do that is to follow... hint, hint :)

August Pick 3 Pins

Whoot! Whoot! I'm on a blogging roll and now I'm linking with the Pick 3 Pins linky to show three good ideas that you might like, too.  Thanks Inspired Owl's Corner and Pawsitively Teaching! Love it!

1. I chose this pin to help ME remember! This video shows a getting-to-know-you game that I hope to do in the first weeks of school. I love rhythm and chants and this looks so fun. It's called Up the Ladder. Do you know it?

2. I am pinning like crazy to get more, easily doable, art activities to incorporate into our centers, and of course I want them tied to the curriculum in a million ways. This idea is SO simple- which makes it doable- and we do a Collections in Nature unit and this will be the perfect wrap up activity to put those collected leaves to good use– so tied to science and math as kids explore and use the shapes. The completed projects won't last long as the leaves will dry up, but sometimes that's the beauty of art.

I'm showing this as a double pin as they are similar ideas– one is leaves only, and one is with added drawing– both good.

3.  Why, why, why can't I get this in my head and heart??? Lord, help me not only want to do this, but actually DO this through this upcoming HECTIC time of year!

Hope you found some Pin-spiration! Click to find more... Golly I love this linky!

Thanks for stopping by! Leave some love!

An InLinkz Link-up

Currently August and Start of School

Currently it is AUGUST! Summertime... and the living is easy... HA! Not for us teachers. Whether we're already back, or not back for weeks, all of us are thinking SCHOOL. I join up with Farley to share what else I'm thinking currently.

LISTENING to the kids out in the neighbors' yard. I think they're having a sleepover. Flashlights, pjs, and the zipline at night are making it extra fun.

LOVING that it is a perfect night. Lucky kids to get it for their party. Hope a storytelling campfire I'm hosting in a couple weeks has as nice a night.

THINKING we've had terrific weather. Only a few days here and there of hot and humid. Wondering who will be the fool who says when we get back to school that it's been too cold... I've spent the summer imagining being on the coast of England with holiday weather. Perfect!

WANTING to get all of this week's posts written so I  have been writing like a fool today! I just posted another in my Start of School series. I have a Monday Made It ready and a cooking adventure for Not Very Fancy in First for Tuesday, AND yet one more for SOMEtime... For me blogging is feast or famine...

NEEDING you to please, please, please click on this button to see Saturday's post on jobs for parents who can't come in to school.

B2S RAK  Okay. I'm hoping that the colleagues didn't read this far... I think I might give them a scented gel pen if I can find them. So many colors, so many scents! hee hee hee! And if I can't find them... well, it will be chocolate, of course.

Link on back to Farley's Currently and see what else is up as we slip into August... AFTER you first click on that button up there (with the pic of my two on their first day at their new school that I still teach at... those flowers were for me because I had to be in my own classroom and miss  their big send off... they were so little... sniff) and read my post about parents working for you from home.

Thanks for stopping by. See you later!

Parents Who Can't Come in– No Problem!

Hello Teachers! Well, the kiddos come back soon, so this is another post in my Start of School series.  Sort of like a Five for Friday, but my own Six for Saturday, so to speak.

Today I am sharing ideas for do-at-home jobs for parents who cannot come into school. It is my expectation that parents are involved in our classroom in some way, so if they can't come into school to help out, I encourage them to do something for us at home.

Every year I have a handful of ELL parents who would like to help out, but find it difficult to work with students in the classroom due to language challenges. Several of these jobs have proven to be welcome ways for ELL parents to participate without direct student interaction.

I describe each job at curriculum night and ask parents to sign up for as many tasks as they could do. The more parents who are available for a job the more flexibility I have in making sure everyone is happy. Most of the tasks can be shared by more than one person. Usually everyone ends up as involved as they like to be.

Also, all of these jobs are done from home. Although it may be handy to touch base at school, parents can do this without coming in, sometimes by using students as couriers.

1. Communication Parents  

In my class we have fresh fruits and vegetables for snack almost everyday. Parents supply these nutritious snacks. I have done snacks in my classroom this way for years and it works very well. You can read this post to learn details and how to make it work for you by clicking here.

One of the key components to the fresh fruit and veggie snack system is having a parent reminder system. The way we have our list divided, parents only need to send in every six to eight weeks. Because parents have this responsibility so seldom, it is easy to forget, so I have a parent who sends out a standard email on Friday afternoons to the two or three parents who are bringing in the following week. This timely email usually makes it into parent inboxes just in time to be part of the weekly trip to the grocery store. Sending out the email is an easy but valuable job for a parent who can't otherwise come into the classroom. They have to be very organized though, so they don't forget themselves!  I call this parent the "Communication Parent" because although their primary job is to send the weekly snack reminders, there are occasions when I ask them to send out to the parent list for other things. 

2. Book Doctors  

I teach kids how to handle and care for books, but even so, rips happen. I teach kids to put the book into the "Boo Boo Bin" which I send home every other week or as needed. At the beginning of the year I also send home a roll of clear packing tape to the parent so they have the right supply– I find it works as well as book tape and is a lot cheaper when I find it on sale at back to school time.

3. Play Dough Makers  

Ah, the old scented playdough... what kindergarten classroom would be complete without it. It needs to be kept in fresh supply though– all those little grimy fingers– so I have playdough makers who make it at home on a monthly basis. If I end up with more than one– and we really could use a couple of batches a month– then I have one send it in the first week of the month, and one the third week. I send home the recipe that calls for Kool-aid because it smells absolutely maaarvelous! Drop me a comment if you'd like it and if enough of you do, I'll make it downloadable. I've tried several and think I've found the best.

4. Party Parents 

Everyone likes to party, but we need the stuff. These parents send in party items three or four times a year. When I know the date and items, I send out a sign-up sheet to this group of parents via email and they each let me know what item they can send in, be it napkins, cookies, jug of juice, etc. Then I look in the backpacks for the supplies to arrive. 

5.  Boxtop/Labels Coordinators  

Our school participates in both the Labels for Education and Boxtops for Education programs– what school doesn't want free money and free equipment! My classroom coordinator gets the bags of labels that come in with students and counts and bundles them as needed. This is a job that happens about three times per year.  

6. Material Makers  

This parent job is mostly about cutting laminated materials, although sometimes assembly and stapling is involved. I send home materials as the need arises. The biggest factor that determines if stuff goes to a parent is how soon I need it. If I have my act together I know a week out which is enough turn around time. I have a fat cardboard tube and several very large envelopes that carry materials home and back by student courier. I always contact the parent ahead of time to give a heads up that stuff is coming.

Well, there you go! Six stay at home that classroom's can't do without. Less work for you and more connection with parents. Remember it is SO important for all kids to see their parent involved and supportive of school. I take the charge of helping this happen very seriously. Hope this post expanded your own list. See you soon for more in the Start of School Series!

LOTS of Ideas for Start of School

This is the next post in my Start of School series. I use Doodle Bugs'  Five for Friday linky to share a BUNCH of back to school stuff. You'll find various freebies sprinkled throughout. I think there's a new idea or two in this meaty post, so let's get going.

1. Are you overwhelmed with all the STUFF that has to be prepped for the start of school? Student folders labeled, bulletin boards put up, laminate cut, and the list goes on. Well, for years I was overwhelmed, too. Until I started Work and Mingle Night. Each year I send out this notice to parents.

As well as cutting the work I have to do to a fraction of what it would be, it has become very popular with parents... maybe not because they like cutting so much :) but because they get to know both me and the other parents. True friendships have started this way. As I say on the flyer, these parents are going to know each other for a long time to come.

And parents really like to get a sense of me, too. I like parents, and I like getting to know parents, so this is a two way street.

Two small cautions, though... you do need to put in a LOT of prep to have everything in a state where people can actually help you. You'd have to do it anyway, so for me having a deadline of the meeting time is a good thing, even as it is another push on me. And, you might find yourself in the hot seat that night. Parents ask all sorts of questions and your responses will be heard by many, so you need to be able to think on your feet and know your own mind... or be able to gracefully say "I'll think about that."

My favorite time to hold this gathering is the Thursday before school starts, but some years I have to do it the first or second week of school, which is still helpful, but not quite as much. I hope you'll give it a try. It has a LOT of good features. I didn't make the flyer downloadable as you'll need to change it for yourself. But if you Pin it, you can come back to it and type up your own if you like my wording... note those last little lines... I highly recommend that part!


2.  We all know that teaching routines is VERY important. One of the most important is the routine of lining up to get from place to place. Let's face it, our pride is on the line here because everyone can see how it's going when we're out in the hall. Here are some little tips to how I teach hallway behavior.  I think there is no one good way to do this, but many, and I like to mix it up a bit. Once kids know the expectations, you can use different sayings and techniques to spice it up and keep it engaging.

Slinky dog is our model of how to move down the hall as a group. Each week on our rotating job board we have an assigned Head, who is the line leader, Paws who holds  the door, and Tail, who makes sure no one falls behind as he brings up the rear. We might spread out a little as we walk, but we always "slinky up" back together again as we stop at our stopping spots in the hall... oh, official stopping points that everybody knows are good to have, too. Usually at corners, but sometimes at other hall landmarks, just in case I'm not at the front of the line at every moment.

There are several ways we talk about keeping our hands to ourselves and keeping quiet so others can learn... that whole reason of WHY we stay quiet is something we talk about a lot. Rules are better learned when the reason is in the forefront at all times.

I keep a multi-bubble wand near the door. I wave it and the kids know to "catch" an imaginary bubble in their mouths and hold it without letting it get away. They have to hold their lips closed and make a funny face like they have a big bubble in their mouth.

I made up this little saying as we rest our hands at our hips and say,

Hands off friends and wall, 

On ourselves, that's all.

A Freebie from Sweet Kindergarten- click

This Freebie is a real goodie. I printed and laminated the cards and keep them on a hook near our door. As we line up we say choose one to say. The kids know lots of them by the end of the year. You can go to Rachelle's TPT store to get them by clicking on the picture above.

And one common but effective models for walking down the hall is the old "Hands on your hips, and fingers to your lips." The nice thing about this one is that after the kids use it, you can simply do the motion and they know just what to do. I think I first heard about it on Little Minds at Work. You can click on Tara's photo to go there. We use this little chant, too.

We put a hand on our hip,
and a finger to our lip,

So we won't get in trouble,
as we take our little trip.

One last hallway tip I leave you with is that we talk about going in "stealth mode" so no one hears us or even sees us. The kids love it. It looks something like this... hee hee hee.

3.  Does your classroom have words to live by? Over the years I've honed mine to one simple sentence that fits EVERY thing we do in class. I had this sign custom made on Etsy and it stays at the top of our white board where we refer to it all. the. time. It is very much a living statement.

Someone makes fun of someone else– uh oh, remember we are a CARING community. Someone is talking during listening time– uh oh, we can't learn and our friend can't learn if we are talking. Someone is being rough and breaking crayons– uh oh, we are a caring community that takes care of our things. Some kids are not letting other kids play– uh oh, we are a community, which means we all interact in ways that effect each other so we need to be kind to everyone. Caring. Learning. Community. Key words that cover it all.

Starting on the very first day of class we discuss our words to live by and what it means to us. It really is our class behavior plan in a nutshell. No matter what words you live by, I recommend you, too, start it the first day and live it until it becomes second nature in your classroom.


4.  There are few things so valuable to me that years after a class moves on I still have for every student. It's my student information card. The aren't just any student info card, these are ones I've put together to get exactly the information I need to best meet the needs of my students all year long.

First of all, I make sure parents know that this card, unlike all the other paperwork they've filled out for the school office, will be just for me. And I tell them I carry the cards with me, and refer to them all year long. If they want me to know it, they need to get it on the card.

Stuff like who may and who may NOT pick up their child, the names and ages of siblings, religious practices that may effect their child's interactions at school, schedules for kids living in two households, toileting issues, and much more.

And it fits on one half sheet of paper. I run it front to back on bright green card stock, then cut it in half for two cards.

You can get a copy, completely editable, by clicking on it above. It took some finagling to fit in on there, and allow room for writing, but I did it. If nothing else, it may give you ideas of things you want to ask your parents, too. If you're like me, years later you'll still have cause to look up some little bit of info on one of your kids who is now big.


5. And if you're thinking about back to school, you won't want to miss yesterday's installment in the Start of School series. It was about the crucial first minutes of the first day of school. Go to it by clicking below.

Whew! If you've made it this far, you deserve a medal :) I hope you found some new ideas and they got your wheels a'turning as you anticipate the Big Start! 

Click on Kacey's link now to find all sorts of ideas on all sorts of things.

Enjoy your final weeks or days of summer break. For those of you who are already back, I hope your launch went well. More posts ahead in my Start of School series are coming up, including ideas to get EVERY parent involved in your classroom. See you soon.