Indiana Goes Back to School!

We are so thrilled to be participating in the "Indiana Goes Back to School" blog hop with all our our Hoosier blogging friends!  We are each sharing a freebie that you can enjoy as we all get ready to head back to school!  I still get excited for back to school time even though this is my 8th year teaching... so if you also count all the years I went to school this will be my 25th first day of school.  I still think the first day smell, sounds, nervous jitters and seeing how the kids have grown is exciting.  It's also exciting to try new things and add more to your curriculum to challenge your students even more than the year before.

Stephanie and I both plan on implementing Daily Math Journals into our classroom for this new school year.  However we do plan on doing it a little differently.  Stephanie's math journals for Kindergarten will be by month with each day covering a different standard.  To prep for her math journals, all you do is copy the whole month, staple and then cut in half to make half page booklets.  She has her August journal up as a freebie so that you can get a sample of how she has her journals set up.  She currently has September and October all finished and will have the rest of the months up soon!  Click on the picture below to go grab up the August Journal for free.

 I decided to go the cut and paste route.  Each page in my packets have 6 copies of the same prompt with 5 prompts per Common Core Standard.   So if you have 18 kiddos you just make 3 copies of the standard you want to practice and cut them apart.  I have a little math prompt basket and when they come in from lunch recess they will know to go to the basket grab a prompt and then glue it into their math journals.  I plan on using composition notebooks for their math journals.  They are very easy to find and super cheap at back to school time.  There is little prep and you can choose what standard is best for you and when you want to teach or review it. You can download a free sample of my math journals by clicking here.  You can find the complete set over in my TpT store by clicking on the image below.

I plan to include this little form inside of the math journals.  Every 6 weeks, I will have the kiddos glue this page into the next blank page in their journal.  They will take it home and mom and dad will review the pages listed for the 6 week time period, sign it, make a comment, and then send it back to school.  It's nice for the kids to know that they will be held accountable for their work and for the parents to see all the hard work their child is doing at school.  Click on the picture below to go to the Google Doc to grab up this freebie!

We hope you all have a great back to school!  Now head on over to check out what Linda at Kindergarten Doodles is sharing for Back to School! (Oh and don't forget that there is an awesome giveaway at the end of this blog hop!)