I Like Being Me by Judy Lalli, is a fantastic book to read for your poetry unit. Not only is it great to teach about poetry, but the contents are also wonderful for social emotional learning. If being used for a poetry unit, you could do a deep dive into a poem a day. I prefer to use it to focus on the social emotional learning and sprinkle in the poetry throughout the year. This way I can keep the social emotional topics at the forefront.

1- Does your room have a natural flow?

2- Are student and teaching materials easily accessible?

3- Do students have a space to call their own?

4- Do you have learning centers?

5- Is your classroom visually pleasing to the eye and feeling homey?

This book is about a little girl in pre-k that sneaks into her brother’s kindergarten classroom. She spends the day watching all the things that the big kids do. The kids have circle time, story time, write on the chalkboard, play with blocks, dice games, puzzles, rice, they paint, sing, dance, have snack and much more. The book ends with the little girl hoping she gets to go back soon.

This is a great book to read in the beginning of the school year. It’s a good way to introduce a typical day in kindergarten and help calm some of the nerves.

This is a wonderful book to read for so many reasons. It’s a great way to introduce students to the classroom library, the school’s library, your neighborhood library or even just to get them excited about reading. It let’s the kids know that there is a book about every topic they can imagine and there is a ‘best book’ for them. If you are looking to teach about the different genres, it’s also the perfect book for that.

In the blink of an eye, the school year will be here. Enjoy every moment of your summer! But if you're anything like me, you will feel better once your classroom is up and running.

Organizing and setting up the classroom can feel overwhelming, especially for new teachers. Don't stress about having everything perfect, just focus on a few things that matter.

I like to picture the class from the view of my students and think about the general flow of the room. This is a huge … See more

Kindergarten Rocks by Katie Davis is a great read that supports kindergartener’s big emotions pertaining to the start of school. Lesson plan is aligned with CC State Standards, includes discussion questions, whole group and small group activities, tips and ideas for early finishers. Happy Reading!