Community Helpers

Well…..I guess I am not the best at teaching and keeping up with blogging!  I just get so distracted looking at all the other fabulous blogs and ideas that I don’t get back to posting my stuff!  Plus we have been dealing with an empty  rental house that needed remodeling, a new school to get accustomed too, and so much more craziness. Hopefully I can start doing a little better…now that things are calming down…I think! 

     We have been very busy in the world of kindergarten!  Here are a few things we have been doing:

Community Helpers:

We learned all about the world of community helpers!  Because we must INTEGRATE everything to get it all in we created several math books!

·       The first one is pretty simple…its titled Fire Numbers.  They start by writing the number one and the word one. They draw one tally mark and then they put Fire house on the first page…then they do the same for pages 1-10, a different pic for each number.  They love it and we discuss why the fire fighters need each tool. We talk about fire fighters practicing on the page with the brick on fire

o   Click here for the word document…you have to print how many you need for each page one at a time!

·       FireTruck Numbers:  In this activity kids just cut out and put fire trucks in order 1-15. My kids love to put them on sentence strips and then wear them as hats!

Doctor Match: In this game the kids have to match the correct Doctor bag to the correct Letter Doctor. Each doctor has a different letter and they must sort the bags to match the right doctor. 

·       Community Helpers Teen numbers…

o   In order to help my kids better understand the teen numbers, I created this book with the chance to practice counting, drawing, writing, and understanding ten frames.

Click Here For Book

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Homemade Binoculars

About five months ago I welcomed a former student and her sister into our home.   Since their parents were unable to take care of them, my husband and I agreed to do it.  I loved them and so did my children.

My daughter Olivia became the best of friends with them, and never wanted them to leave, even though their presence had changed her life dramatically.  She now had to share her room with her brother, all her toys with the girls, and of course all the attention.  Then when my husband was deployed in the month following the addition she really clung to them.

 Well a month ago we were able to settle them into a more permanent situation with their grandmother who lives about four hours from us.  I kept Olivia busy all of July so that she wouldn’t miss them too much. Now that things are settling down she is lonely and often wishes they could come back. I asked her today, “what do you want me to do?”  She said, “bring another student home.”  Ahhh! That’s out of the question and highly unlikely so instead, she has become my assistant. She loves crafts, learning, and school and there fore is helping me come up with ideas and creating them.

Oops! You can see our mess...its a result of all day play and little cleaning!

Our project this week was these toilet paper binoculars.  We paint to toilet paper rolls black, glue them together, and hole punch the ends to tie string. 

I had a few of them from a great friend who gave them to me when I started kindergarten.  We decided we need a class set. I originally used them to go on a safari of school during the first days of kindergarten.  She and I thought up more ideas this week…and I am so proud of my girl!

·    Search out sight words

·    Play, “I spy”

·    Search for shapes

·    Search for numbers

·    Be super alert listeners.

·    Visualize far away lands for writing.

 We would love more ideas!   It will be interesting however tomorrow when we go to our neighbors and begin asking for toilet paper rolls. (I threw away my stash when I moved schools this summer)

Library and Class Dojo

   Since its still summer and I haven’t been able to do too much in my classroom, I have been spending time making cute and useful things for the year to come!  I found an old Mega Blocks wagon in my new classroom. The other teacher didn't want it, and since it was already labeled, library, I thought it would continue to make a great library cart for my room.  However it was faded and old looking. 

    We went to Lowes and bought plastic paint and painted it green and black. Next I added some polka dots with dot paint and now we have a very cute library cart for the new year!

 
  While I was doing my “art time,”  Olivia and Mathias also got creative.   Last week I picked up all kinds of little trays (from microwave meals) from the OnslowCounty Partnership for Children resource room that someone had donated.  Today my creative sweethearts decided they would decorate them.  Now my students will have art trays that have been beautifully decorated!                                                 

Class Dojo

 I am really excited about this new app I found on Google Chrome!  The kids each get an avatar with their name.  They are displayed on the white board and you can use your mobile phone or tablet to access throughout the day. The kids earn points for behaviors, both positive and negative.  At the end of the day or class period you can print and e-mail behavior reports. It’s a great way to track behavior and motivate students. I am super excited about trying it out this year in kindergarten.  I think it will solve a lot of the not remembering when things happened problem. I just have to get used to bringing my tablet with me when I go places with my class.

 Class Dojo Website

Welcome

      Well, I am finally starting a blog.  I just thought it might be a fun way to remember and share all the fun and exciting things we do in Kindergarten.  After following so many blogs about teaching its time to start my own!    

Our one day vacation to Tweetsie Railroad.

      I love teaching.  It is a calling, a hobby, and an addiction. I can't imagine doing anything else with my life.  I have the two most adorable kids in the world.  Mathias is 2 and Olivia is 5.  We have a beautiful boxer mix who was originally named, Bella, but Mathias has renamed her Bel Bel.  My husband is a US Marine and is currently serving on the USS New York.  I miss him, but I am so proud of him!  This seems the perfect year to start because my sweet girl will be going into kindergarten!  I am at a new school and I have yet to learn who her teacher will be....so I am a little nervous about that.  She once told me she was, "sneaky like Swiper the Fox."  This has continued to be true, so I hope her teacher is ready!