Podcast - Kindergarten Kiosk

How do you build a classroom community? Two of the things we do are "Friend of the Day" and "Star of the Week". In this episode we'll walk you through the procedures we use to celebrate each child in our classroom, to help the children learn each other's names, and to build a classroom "family".

If you enjoy the podcast and can review us on iTunes that would be amazing of you! We really appreciate your reviews as they help us continue to make the podcast and help other teachers to find us. 

Kindergarten Kiosk is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network, a network of podcasts for educators by educators. Check out the other great podcasts!

Also Available at Teachers Pay Teachers!

Product Description

Back to School

Friend of the Day Community Building Activity

Begin building a classroom community by having a daily "Friend of the Day." This is a great way for students to learn each other's names, build friendships and more.

You will want to build on this activity by allowing students to learn more about each other as you move from Friend of the Day to Star of the Week. *Note this product is included in the Name Unit.

© Kindergarten Kiosk

Related Products

Friend of the Day

Growth Mindset

Name Practice Back To School Writing Names of Self and Others

Back to School Chrysanthemum Name Thematic Unit

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Also available at Teachers Pay Teachers!

Star Student of the Week

Build classroom community and self esteem by featuring "Star Students" using these student of the week activities. 

This packet includes all of the instructions necessary to run a star student program. Contents include: 

• Step by step instructions

• Student booklet writing pages

• Star booklet cover (Pre k, K, 1st & 2nd)

• Certificates

• Dog tags

• Portfolio page

• Celebrate Me" book bag buddy.

© Kindergarten Kiosk

Related Products

Friend of the Day

Growth Mindset

Follow For Updates and Freebies!

Be alerted as products are updated and/or added to. Get Special Freebies.

• TPT Store

• Facebook

• Website

• Pinterest

• Podcast

We all know that an essential component of education is teaching with academic rigor, but what is rigor anyway? Today we will do a deep dive into that very question!

Thank you to bensound.com for our theme music. If you enjoy the podcast and can review us on iTunes that would be amazing of you! We really appreciate your reviews as they help us continue to make the podcast and help other teachers to find us. 

Kindergarten Kiosk is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network, a network of podcasts for educators by educators. Check out the other great podcasts!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know we're still here and working on episodes for you! Plus, a few announcements about some things coming up.

The end of the school year is filled with documentation, testing, and data. My days are like yours, filled with assessment, celebrations, and sadly anxiety and disappointment of missing that green score. I know the data is important, but I love to cast that aside for a few days and celebrate each and every child's individual growth.

To begin this mini-unit I love to begin with one of my favorite children's songs by Hap Palmer. This sweet song is also a great way to tie celebrating growth of self to other things that might be happening in your classroom such as plants,  butterflies, farm, jungle, etc. 

I ask my students to bring in pictures of themselves as babies. The kids LOVE this. Each day we look at the pictures brought in and talk about the changes. When I first hold up the picture, we sing from the Hap Palmer song... "_______ started out as a tiny little babe.  _____ grew a little more ..." The kids are so excited to sing about each other in this way.

As the pictures come in I put the baby picture and a current picture on a some sort of bulletin display. If by chance a student can't find a baby picture (and you know that will happen), I simply have them draw one. They seem to be just as happy!

Another song I love to use is "All I'm Meant To Be." 

This beautiful song celebrates growth at one's own rate. The poster can be found in our graduation packet below.

Today we have an awesome conversation about appropriate practice in Kindergarten with Christopher P. Brown of the University of Texas at Austin. Christopher is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education. He holds the Maxine Foreman Zarrow Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Education. He is a Faculty Fellow with The Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis and a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Health and Social Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He is also the Past-Chair for the Early Education/Child Development Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.

His research centers on how early childhood education stakeholders across a range of political and educational contexts make sense of and respond to policymakers' reforms. He has looked at this issue across a range of political and educational contexts using multiple theoretical and practitioner-based perspectives that span the fields of early childhood education, curriculum and instruction, teacher education, and policy analysis.

Such work has led to empirical, theoretical, and practitioner-oriented publications on such topics as: high-stakes standards-based accountability reform in early childhood, early learning standards, pre-kindergarten (Pre-k) assessment, Pre-k alignment with elementary school, school readiness, culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate teaching, the changed kindergarten, neoliberal reform, teacher education, professional development, and teaching a mandated curriculum. Among his publications, 25 have been co-authored with 13 current and former graduate students at UT-Austin.

His recent publications focus on three issues: 1) Examining how familial, education, research, and political stakeholders make sense of the changed kindergarten; 2) Understanding how practicing and pre-service early childhood educators in high-stakes public teaching contexts can engage in practices that support the cultural, individual, and developmental learning needs of children; 3) Examining the development of preservice teachers as they employ iPads in their teacher training program.

You can read more about why the change in kindergarten matters in his article for The Conversation and more of his ideas on how to fix kindergarten in his article for Business Insider. You can also preorder his book through this affiliate Amazon link:

Thank you to bensound.com for our theme music. If you enjoy the podcast and can review us on iTunes that would be amazing of you! We really appreciate your reviews as they help us continue to make the podcast and help other teachers to find us. 

Kindergarten Kiosk is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network, a network of podcasts for educators by educators. Check out the other great podcasts!

In today's episode we discuss some ways that you can manage behavior in your classroom (including some of our own nonexamples). Plus, Mom makes a big confession about her past... We hope you find some useful and practical ideas you can put to use right away!

Thank you to bensound.com for our theme music. If you enjoy the podcast and can review us on iTunes that would be amazing of you! We really appreciate your reviews as they help us continue to make the podcast and help other teachers to find us. 

Kindergarten Kiosk is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network, a network of podcasts for educators by educators. Check out the other great podcasts!

You might also enjoy these blog posts on behavior.

Behavior and the Trauma Lens

Today we have a great discussion with Maureen Reilly and Dr. Jenny Nash of Lego Education about how Lego can be used to create a great school maker space and to support integrated and powerful learning opportunities.

Maureen Reilly is an educational consultant specializing in LEGO, robotics, and Maker Education. She is passionate about encouraging students and teachers to take risks, expand their creativity, and make their inventive ideas come to life. Maureen worked in public and independent schools as a homeroom teacher, robotics coach, Maker Space facilitator, and as a STEAM specialist. For over fifteen years, Maureen has developed creative educational content and community engagement experiences for the LEGO Company. Prior to her work in education, Maureen was a TV commercial producer, a producer for CartoonNetwork.com, and a Senior Producer for the LEGO Company.

Outside of her professional work, Maureen founded the NYC STEAM Think Tank, a monthly meet-up for STEAM educators to network and share ideas. She is the Youth LEGO Ambassador of Fun for LEGO MINDSTORMS, the Master of Ceremonies for FIRST LEGO League robotics competitions, and co-founder of the Jr. Explorers Club, a summer adventure program for children. Maureen holds a dual Masters of Science in Education with a specialization in Literacy from the Bank Street College of Education.

You can follow her on twitter: @maureenrreilly

Dr. Jenny Nash serves as the Senior Educational Manager for LEGO® Education North America, where she provides direction and leadership in delivering meaningful education opportunities for districts. She works closely with administrators to design implementation plans and support teachers in using inquiry-based teaching through hands-on experiences. Previously, Jenny was the Director of Clinical Experiences and Director of Professional Development Schools at Marshall University, where she conducted STEM outreach and programming for K-12 schools in addition to working with student teacher candidates.  She was also a general science teacher for a middle and high school in West Virginia, where she focused on provided blended learning and project-based learning experiences for her students. 

Jenny is a long-time member of the National Science Teachers Association. She has a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Marshall University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Marshall University, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Florida, specifically in the area of curriculum and teaching.

Thank you to bensound.com for our theme music. If you enjoy the podcast and can review us on iTunes that would be amazing of you! We really appreciate your reviews as they help us continue to make the podcast and help other teachers to find us. 

Kindergarten Kiosk is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network, a network of podcasts for educators by educators. Check out the other great podcasts!

On today's podcast we are so lucky to be able to hear from Patti Clark, the Vice President of Product Development at Lakeshore Learning Materials! Patti's team has been hard at work researching how they can support teachers who want to use flexible seating in the classroom!

Patti began her career at Lakeshore as a Product Developer in 2000. As a former elementary educator with ten years of hands-on classroom experience, Patti’s passion for helping children learn was second to none. In 2007, she took on the role of Elementary Product Development Manager, overseeing the creation of hundreds of innovative products for school-age children. In 2010, Patti became Director of Research and Development, followed by a well-earned promotion to Vice President of Product Development in 2015. In both of these pivotal roles, Patti has led the company’s efforts to create top-quality, standards-based materials for early childhood programs, elementary classrooms and homes nationwide. Wholehearted in her dedication to meeting the needs of an ever-changing educational environment, Patti and her team visit regularly with teachers around the country to discuss their real-world classroom needs—educator to educator. Patti’s active involvement with professional groups such as NCTM, NAEYC, IRA and ASCD is further testament to her ongoing commitment to the education community.

If you enjoy the podcast and can review us on iTunes that would be amazing of you! We really appreciate your reviews as they help us continue to make the podcast and help other teachers to find us. 

Kindergarten Kiosk is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network, a network of podcasts for educators by educators. Check out the other great podcasts!