When I Grow Up...

Fun fact, when I was in third grade, I wrote a paper about how I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up! Dream come true! We had fun talking this week about different jobs, and hearing what each other wanted to be when we grew up. We created a class book about our dream jobs, and have had enjoyed reading through it this week. The most creative page is from a hilarious kindergartner who thinks it would be cool to be a bad guy one day!  

This week also started out our career days! I'm excited to have different parents come in and share about their jobs. I think that this gives the students a good view of real community helpers in our very own community. Plus, I love parent involvement in schools! On Thursday we had our first parent come in for career days, a librarian! It was great to learn more about what librarians do, and listen to a story. 

The first graders have begun learning about goods, services, producers, and consumers during discover time. We are in the process of planning, working towards, and creating a lemonade and snack stand at the end of the month. While discussing these concepts, we are planning a menu, making a grocery list, earning money in school to buy groceries, and creating a sign for our stand. Later, we're planning on taking a trip to the grocery story, and making our own products!

The first graders have also been busy with phonics and reading. We have been learning different consonant blends, such as "nd" and "nt", and have been incorporating them in our reading. Our reading books have been becoming more and more advanced. We even read a mini chapter book this week! Keep reading at home! I reminded the students this week that reading doesn't have to mean reading all the words. Rather, looking through a book, spotting words you recognize or can sound out, and understanding a story through pictures!

Kindergartners are also becoming little readers! We began sounding out words such as "sit", "it", and "in". We also have our first sight words, here and is. During reading times, we have been "reading" the pictures and role playing books. 

In math, first grade have been exploring more with subtraction. We also began reading bar graphs more. A funny story (probably more if you were there), I showed a picture of a bar graph and asked if anyone knew what it was (not expecting any answers). One first grade casually says, "Yeah, it's a bar graph."! I asked if she wanted to teach the lesson! 

In Kindergarten, we have been diving into numbers more. We also have been reviewing shapes, comparisons, and patterns. These concepts are truly the foundations for math later on. The students have a blast with patterns! The want to make patterns out of EVERYTHING! Counting bears, words, names, sounds; truly anything. They combined many pattern links together to make an amazing chain!

Well, I hope everyone enjoys the weekend! Just a reminder that Tuesday is Midterm, so I'll be sending progress reports home. Report cards will not be sent during midterms, rather at the end of semesters. 

WooHoo Week 2!

This was the second week with both grades, and things are running smoothly. The students are starting to get the routine, which makes for one happy teacher! I think my favorite thing to see this week is how the students are beginning to be more comfortable in interacting with each other!

The Kindergartners have been busy learning all about letters, their sounds, and how to sound them out in words! This week we learned about "i" and "t" and began to place them together to make the word "it"! We have also been working on finding the first letter in words and writing our names using lowercase letters.

In first grade, we have been reviewing letters and learning new word families. Reading time has been so fun! The students have been reading in the reader books, and are becoming more and more fluent readers! It's been so neat to see their progress. With each story, we have also been working with reading comprehension with questions and worksheets.

From what I've heard, math has been one of the Kindergartners favorite subject. We have been going over foundation concepts such a shapes, same/different, more/fewer, and one-to-one correspondence. Patterns has been a fun concept to go over, and the students are now seeing them everywhere!

First grades math has been moving fast as we starting with counting coins, subtraction, and place values this week! The students have been taking on the challenges though with confidence! To learn the order of first, second, third, etc; we head to the gym to have a race! We have some fast first graders!

During our Discover time, we have been talking about families and our community. The students worked on Monday and Thursday to make their own family album. During the project, we talked about our home, our family members, and what we like to do together.

On Wednesday the first graders talked about our community and the different places you can go in it. We then discussed our school, and made a map of the school.

On Friday we finished our All About Me unit by making a timeline of our past, present, and future self. We also surprised our amazing class assistant with a giant card!

On Tuesday we had a special treat by having a beekeeper come into the school and give a presentation. We were able to look at bees, see their hives, and try many different types of honey. It was a sweet experience!

                                  

Also, a big congrats to this week spellers with 100% on their test! Keep up the hard work!

One last note. The next two weeks are Career Days. It will be so neat for the student's to learn about different careers from their own parents!

A Brand New Year!

As we begin a new school year, I'm realizing we have lots of first! First year with flexible seating. First time at school for Kindergartners. And of course, First Graders! The first week of school went first graders went smooth (considering no one had no idea what to expect!). This class jumped right back into "school mode" and impressed me as always! After going through some basic rules about flexible seating, the first graders took on the challenge and did an amazing job! I was so impressed about how serious they took the different seats, and how much thought they put into the decisions. I think this is going to be a great addition to our classroom. 

The first week was filled with lessons about being caring, respectful, and in-tuned with others feelings. I was really looking forward to seeing these students be positive role models to the upcoming Kindergartners, and they went above and beyond to welcome them!

My Firsties started ,and are still currently, reviewing letters, word families, and blending sounds together. They are also beginning to learn more about sentence structure and color words. In math there is also a lot of review, with addition, number writing, and number ordering. However, I'm sorry to say that there's been a breakout of Backwarditis going on in the classroom. My students have all been writing their numbers backwards! We are currently working on a cure, and will hopefully all be feeling well next week. 

Something new for the Firsties this week is spelling! Each Monday a spelling list will be sent home, and the students will work on memorizing spelling words in class. The first test was on Friday, and I'm so excited to say that every student received a 100%! 

 

This week the First Graders also took part in some science/social study lessons. On Wednesday we studies the body and learned about write some body parts. We then went outside to draw our body parts and place the appropriate labels on. It was a great, interactive way to learn about our bodies! 

On Friday we continues our "All About Me" them by discussing our likes and dislikes. Turns out every likes and dislikes different things (oh and everyone thinks I'm crazy for disliking green beans!). We made collages out of magazine pictures to show our likes. 

For our weekly service project on Friday, we helped the school by keeping it clean! We cleaned some windows, picked up the floor, and walked around the school to pick up trash. I'm amazed by the students good attitude, and see them growing their servant's hearts!

It was a fun week when Kindergarten came! No tears on the first day! WooHoo! This class adds so much positive energy to the classroom, and are doing so well getting to know one another. I can't wait to experience kindergarten with them! 

On the first day of school, we read a book called Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. At the end of the book, we found a note from Pete the Cat himself saying that he was exploring our school. Following a series of clues, we toured the whole school and met all the teachers. We sadly missed Pete the Cat, but he left us some tasty popsicles! 

In the afternoon, we did a team building exercise where the students got creative together to create something using only aluminum foil and pipe cleaners. The results were so fun! There were a headband, purse, house, and sling shot!

In phonics class we are reviewing letter names, and how to spell our names using lowercase letters. We also read many new books with our classroom helper! In math we discussed different shapes, and started to work with patterns. 

During our social studies/ science time (we call it Discover), we started to learn "All About Me". On Tuesday the students created self images using a variety of material. 

On Thursday we talked about keeping our bodies healthy. The students discussed exercise, eating healthy, and hygiene. We then played a fun game where we matched two body parts together. 

I'm looking to forward to another fun filled week!

Room Tour!

Classroom is complete! I had a lot of fun rearranging my classroom for the upcoming school year. Changes with having two grades led me to want to switch up my whole room! I am so happy with the results!

 I'm trying to incorporate some "flexible" seating this year. This gives children more freedom in choosing where to sit. There's so many benefits from this! It gives children more responsibility for their own learning. It also allows them to be comfortable, and add variety to the day. I was sold on the idea when I thought about my own life. When I'm working on paperwork, I am most focused sitting at my desk at home. But, when I'm reading a book, I would much rather curl up on a couch! By allowing children to choose where to sit (during some activities!), it helps them do their best work!

So.... (drum-roll please!)....here is the 2016-2017 classroom! I love the openness and the bright colors! I feel like it just screams kindergarten!

This is where we will do small group lessons. With having two grades, this is where most of the instructional learning will take place! A perk of small class size is definitely the dynamics of being up-close and personal with the students during lessons. 

This is our free-time area. After the students are finished with their independent work, they can come over and pick an extra activity to do. These will be switched up twice a quarter, but right now it includes reading with a partner, drawing, puzzles, magnet letters, and writing numbers. They can always observe our class gecko too! For those of you who haven't met our class pet, his name is Dude and has been going strong in kindergarten for one and half years now! If you look really close, I'm sure he's smiling for the picture. 

This is my favorite addition to the classroom! I turned our past rest-time cabinet into an adorable cubby! Doesn't it just make you want to cozy up with a book!

These are other places where students can do their independent work. I used crates to make stability balls for times when students need to move while working! I'm predicting that this will be a big hit with the boys, as they always seam to have extra energy to spare! Students can also kneel on rugs and work if that seems more comfortable to them. The center totes have classroom supplies that students can use, or they can carry their pencil boxes around. 

These mats are the area that we will have our whole group meetings (another one of my favorite additions). It'll kind of work as home-base in the classroom. The baskets behind are the student's individual places to store their stuff. They are responsible for keeping them neat and tidy. They'll also keep track of their own independent work, and what they need to do during spare time. 

Book area! I changed up my bookshelf for a better view of the picture books. Beside it is our favorite tote of reading buddies! And of course, the tent it making it's third year appearance!

I've already been informed by one student that she will ALWAYS work in a desk (we'll see about that!). But, it is always an option. Sitting upright at a desk is a wonderful way that many student's focus. There is also two standing desk for students who are tired of sitting (don't we all get like that!). The fluffy purple circle chair is also a new addition, straight  out of my middle school days and stored in parent's basement! I see turn taking in this comfy chair's future! Way in the corner is my desk with a nice empty board! Why is an empty board nice? Because I can't wait to fill it with my student's artwork! 

That pretty much sums up the room! Now it's just missing one thing, students who are eager to learn!

It's Summer!

Maybe everyone forgets this blog once it's summer, and that's ok you are allowed to just relax this summer! But, I absolutely have grown to love the process of organizing what I've been doing in the classroom onto this blog, so I may still post periodically through the summer. After all, a teacher's job doesn't just stop in the summer! You can get some ideas on what to do with your children this summer, or for upcoming parents, get a sneak peak at what's going on in the classroom preparation!

The last week of school went down in a whirlwind! It was crazy, busy, and just a ton of fun! On Monday we went to a farm with sheep, dogs, and ginnies (kind of reminds me of a quail). The children got to lend a hand on the farm by feeding sheep, filling water buckets, and hauling hay. It was a fun little trip!

Throughout the rest of the week we did very typical last week of school activities; clean out lockers, shaving cream desk clean, and a year review writing project. Of course we kept practicing for the Kindergarten Graduation!

The student's did a great job Thursday night at their graduation. It was so sweet to watch them walk in their graduation hats and sing their songs. They did a great job memorizing their verses and saying them clearing, even though we never practiced with the mic. (EEK!). I was so proud of them when they did their skit. They had worked so hard to get it, and did a wonderful job!

ahh so adorable!

I am truly going to miss having this class! They were such an independent, hardworking class, but were also a lot of fun! While I'll miss them in kindergarten, I know that they are ready to tackle first grade! So to my students, have a super duper summer!

100 Days Brighter!

Can you believe that there is only one week left of school! I know that lately I've been starting every post like this, but this year has gone crazy fast! I'm going to miss these little kindergartners, but absolutely love the feeling of knowing that they are ready to take on 1st grade!

This week in phonics we have been doing a lot of review of vowels and letter blends. We have also been working on sounding out sounds in writing. I think that this is a fun way to go over handwriting AND phonic sounds. Plus, this class just loves making their own stories!  In reading we have begun reading through some poems.

In math we have been going over very early concepts of fractions (so fun!) and reviewing some major ideas this year. An update for anyone wondering how I like this new math curriculum, I LOVE it! It's so hand on, slowly introduces concepts, yet the children get a really good grasp on a lot of early foundations. Plus it's Bob Jones like my phonics, so the timings correspond!

Thursday was out official 100th day of school! I am so unbelievably proud of my students (can you tell I get sentimental at the end of the year!) so I thought the they enjoys a really fun rewarding day! In the morning we made 100 day crown with 100 items on them. We put 10 different things on ten different strips. They are hilarious!

We then made 100 shaped pretzels. The dough was a mess to deal with! But ,the ending was some cute and tasty pretzels!

 The students really enjoyed a 100's game where they flipped a coin 100 times and kept track if it was heads or tails. We also wrote about what we would buy with $100. A few hopeful items are a dirt bike, Legos, and a Hot Rod! Most of the students agreed that they would save their money first. Good job teaching finance skills parents!

In the afternoon the students showed what set of 100 things they brought in. I was so impressed by their creativity!

100 rocks

99 army men and 1 remote control car to destroy them

100 pieces of candy (yum!)

100 Legos

100 pieces of paper (and creativity!)

May 19th is the Kindergarten graduation at 7:00. Can't wait to see everyone there! As a side note, I am in need to some stick horses for the skit that night! If anyone has any, I would love to borrow them!

Wilaby Walaby Woo, I Went to the Animal Zoo

If you are confused by the title of this post, ask one of the six kindergartners in my class...but prepared to be sat on by an elephant ;)

So, I school is winding down incredibly fast! Only two more weeks till Kindergarten Graduation! On Monday and Tuesday the students have been making crafts. singing songs, planning a skit all in preparation for the big night! The theme is officially Love Your Neighbor! So I hope to see lots of family there!

The last few weeks of phonics and math is reviewing important concepts. In phonics we are reviewing common grammar rules and practicing recognizing them in reading. We have also been focusing on silently reading to ourselves, and some students are really becoming little book worms! In math we are expanding a bit in fractions, while going over addition and subtraction.

On Thursday was Zoo day! We were blessed with a dry beautiful day! It was a blast!