"Mrs. Scrivner, what can I do now?"

You've heard it over and over and over again, "(Insert your designated classroom teaching title that echos in your mind both day and night), I'm done, what can I do now?" or "What do we do next?" or "I'm finished...I'm bored."  Have you ever heard any of these?  No, of course not!  You are the picture of teaching perfection keeping your students unquestionably engaged for every second of every 420 minute school day.  Buuuut, if you are like me, and have recently found yourself in a moment where your genius students have exhausted all of your challenging and captivating activities and found themselves wondering what they should do next, I have some suggestions.  While searching through classroom ideas on Pinterest and scrolling through some amazing teachers' news feeds on Facebook, I came across and was inspired by this picture:

You can buy the labels and activities here:

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-Done-Now-What-activities-for-fast-finishers-858156 .

So, I created my own version:

 I just need to spruce mine up with some cute labels!

I used the book "Teacher, I'm done! Now what do I do?" to find some enrichment activities perfect for my kindergartners.  I also made a drawer for cutting practice pages and handwriting practice.

Find the book here at Amazon.

The middle drawer has Highlights Visual Puzzle Cards and magnifying glasses to keep kids stimulated and challenged.  This new Enrichment "What Next?" center goes into action first thing tomorrow morning.  I will update this post soon to let you know how much easier my life has become and how much happier and smarter my students are because of it.

Here are some other great ideas for early finishers:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-to-DO-when-Im-DONE-Display-Cards-FREE-793204 (This one is FREE!)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Im-Done-Now-What-Task-Cards-FREEBIE-737071 (also FREE!!!)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Im-Done-Now-What-Early-Finishers-Jar-454385

Our Mayor Loves Kindergarten!

Each year our school throws a huge community wide event called the Fine Arts Festival.  Kids and adults were rocking through the decades with different decade themed activities.  We had an 80's Magnum P.I Mustache station, 70's Disco Karaoke, Tie-Dyeing, 60's Hippie Hair Bands, 50's Food Diner, and more!  One of the favorite events for adults was the silent auction.  Lucky for me, one of my class parents bid on and won a lunch visit from the Mayor!!!  Since this family has two daughters in our school, the Mayor generously came to visit both classrooms.  Mayor Tommy Battle came to visit our classroom on April 4, 2014.  He sat on the carpet and chatted with us.

We learned about our wonderful city and he answered any questions we had about him and his job.  He even read his favorite book, "Green Eggs and Ham," and let the students give him an extra BIG group hug!  It was a fantastic learning experience for me and all of my little kinders!

Learn more about my amazing school at The Academy for Academics and Arts website.