Letter Search Fun!

And once again, I'm back! Things have been just a tad busy in my life- selling our townhouse, moving our things into storage, living with my parents, house hunting, starting school, etc. Hopefully buying a house will be in our near future and I'll have a fun home office to work on things!

In the meantime, I've been working on some fun letter searches:

They work great as morning work/extra practice for my Kinder kiddos and a great way to practice uppercase/lowercase letter matching. PLUS when you find all the letters, they form a large version of the letter on the page! Hidden fun!

Get the A-C set here on my TpT store. Hopefully the next few will be up soon! Be sure to check out the rest of my shop, including a fun counting freebie I recently added!

April Fools!!

Today is April 1 aka April Fools Day aka a day teachers dread. Seriously, there's only so many times I can hear a kid say "you have a bug on your head...April Fools!" or "your shoe's untied" (that one was especially awesome today because I was wearing sandals- no laces!)

But instead of hating the craziness, this year I embraced it. And played a pretty awesome prank on my Kindergarteners.

I told them I made brownies...except that I had made brown E's!!!

Thankfully, nobody cried and they all thought this was the best prank ever! Especially because I let them take an "E" home in a bag to prank their families.

Did anyone else play a prank today? What did you do?

My favorite holiday!

My favorite holiday is fast approaching...Thanksgiving! I just love everything about it, and I love teaching it in Kindergarten. There are so many fun and cute activities- handprint turkeys, how-to writing, so many fun stories, I could go on and on.

I've been doing a lot of work with my TpT store lately, so naturally I had to come up with a few turkey-themed activities. I think they turned out super cute! I've already tested them out on my own kinder babies, and they were a hit! See a few preview pics below and then check out my TpT store to get your own! 

Enjoy! 

Pete the Cat!

Well, I've jumped right back into the swing of things with my 21 new babies. It's hard to believe school has already started and at the same time, I feel like I never left. I've got a great group of kids this year and they're already doing some awesome work!

One of the first thing we do at our school is start learning the color words. How can you do that and not read Pete the Cat? The kids LOVE that book and it's such a cute way to introduce color words.

We focus on one color word a day, and our first word was "red". After reading the book, I gave the kids a baggie with a sentence cut up. They had to put the words in order and illustrate their picture. Here's what they did:

Are you amazed? I was!! We drew the cats together, step by step. I really liked doing this with my kids and intend to do more of it. No more "I can't draw a cat!" comments. So happy with how this activity turned out, and can't wait to do the rest of the color words! 

First day of school!

Can you believe school has already started? It's crazy, but true. We had a half day on Thursday, and it was great! Crowded, but great. I had 21 out of 22 kids show up- which is my best first day attendance ever. They are all super sweet and I can tell it's going to be a great year!

We didn't have much time for any fun crafts, since half days tend to fly by. We read "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten" and then drew what we did to get ready. Looks like many of my kids got new shoes. One was even so specific as to say he went to WalMart to get ready. So precious!

While they were working on their pictures, I took a few minutes to get a picture of each using my new frame courtesy of Pinterest. It turned out really cute and I can't wait to use it again on the 100th day of school!

Aren't they precious? We half another half day on Monday and then jump right into full days. It'll be a long and tiring week, but I look forward to getting to know my sweet babies and starting the year off right.

The day we had a fire

**I started this post a few months ago, but for whatever reason didn't publish it. Here it is a little late!



Well, so here I am again. Sorry I've been an absent blogger. I got a little busy with this small thing called GETTING MARRIED! I went from being Ms. H to Mrs. A :) Things in my personal life have just calmed down in time for things at school to get crazy. We're in the middle of state-mandated testing for grades 3-4 this week, and K-2 has their test next week. Yes, that's right. My kinder babies will take a standarized "bubble-in" test next week. The crazy thing? They're excited for it!

So anyways, this week 3rd and 4th grade are taking their tests. Wednesday morning my class was in the middle of doing our PALS lesson when "BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!" Fire alarm. Did I mention 3rd and 4th were in the middle of testing? Did I mention it was pouring down rain and 45 degrees outside? We weren't sure if this was real or not, but headed outside just to be sure. We were getting into our spot (in the rain) when I heard the sirens. It was real!

Luckily, it was a very small fire that was contained to an emergency light in the library. However, it was still a scary thing and definitely a huge distraction for the kids. It was all they could talk about. So what did I do? Turned it into a journal prompt. Here's what some of them had to say:

"My adventure: We were doing PALS this morning and the fire drill went off. There was a fire. We got wet. It was scary for me and it was tiny."

"We had a fire. I was scared. We got wet."



Walk to School Day!

In my district (and it many other places), we have "Walk to School Day." It's a day where students walk to school to promote safe walking paths, healthy habits, etc. At my old school, only a few kids did it and they just walked about 2 short blocks. Not at my new school! Pretty much EVERYONE participates and our "route" is about 0.5 miles. Pretty impressive for Kindergarteners!

I started out by meeting my Kinders (Starbucks in hand) at the church half a mile from school. They were so excited!

Then we started walking. And walking. And walking. Half a mile is hard when you have 15 5-year-olds to keep up with! Thankfully I had several parents who joined us to help wrangle my "herd".

Here they are walking down the street, holding up our sign so people could find our class:

How cute?!?! For the most part, they had fun on the walk. Unfortunately, we had several meltdowns when we got to school. Nothing like a crazy start to the day! Luckily, this teacher pulled it all together and we ended up with some great memories!

Things I'm Loving

I wish I had some cute pictures of the things I've been doing with my kinders for the past 11 days (can you believe we've been in school 11 days already?? crazy!) But I don't. But I can give you a list of the things I'm loving about my new school.

Here it is, in no particular order:
1. there's a supply closet!!! sharpies, sentence strips, index cards, pencils, you name it. It's heaven.
2. an active PTO- makes all the difference in the world
3. involved parents- I email them, and they email me back! I'm already on a first name basis with most, and I love that.
4. my kids are SUPER sweet
5. my new K team is amazing
6. the classrooms are really big but they go back, so they're actually really close together (read- I can run next door for something and still hear my kids)
7. the faculty has been really welcoming
8. my principal has been in my room at least 4 times to make sure I have everything I need
9. my principal has been in twice to check lesson plans. I love the accountability.
10. I get out of school at 3:00 instead of 3:45. I have a life again!

There are lots others, but there's my top 10. I am so happy where I am, and I can tell this is going to be a great school year!!

New job!

I am so happy to officially say that I have a new job! I'm staying in the same district I'm already in, just transferring schools. The best part? It's still a kindergarten position!

I know I  already blogged about this, but that job fell through :( I would have moved to another district, but unfortunately that district is under a hiring freeze. I got the call yesterday that the job I thought I had, I didn't. It was a "no good horrible very bad day".

Luckily, I didn't let it get me down and immediately hopped on the computer and searched around for jobs. My sweet fiance did the same and kept emailing me with positions he found online :) I got a call this morning from one of those emails and went immediately for an interview.

The interview went pretty well, and the principal said she'd call by the end of the week. Well, apparently I knocked her socks off because she called right as I got home! I've already officially accepted the position and can start moving into my new room tomorrow. You better believe there'll be lots of pictures!

Symbols and Celebrations!

Lately in my Kindergarten class we have been studying "symbols and celebrations". It's our latest science/social studies unit that is mainly about US and Tennessee state symbols. But, I love the title because there are symbols all over! And since punctuation is a HUGE K standard, I came up with a cute way of getting my kids to understand the 3 main punctuation symbols- period, exclamation mark and question mark. Here it is!


I really wish I had taken a picture of the kids' work instead of my example, but you get the idea. It's a super cute flip book that turned out great! They got to draw their understanding of the symbol and add some writing to it. It has really helped them understand the 3 punctuation symbols that we use.

If you would like to do this in your classroom, feel free! Just take a piece of paper (I used construction paper bc it's a little thicker than plain copy paper) and do a "hot dog" fold. Then draw 2 lines to separate it into 3 areas. Open the fold and cut to the middle of the paper. Re-fold and there you go! I use these kind of flip books ALL the time and my kids love them! The best part is that now they can make them by themselves so I don't have to go and fold and cut 16 pieces of paper. The joys of independence!!

Bloom's Taxonomy

If you're not in the education world, you may not be super familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy. I know what it is, I understand it, and yet I have a hard time explaining it to others (which the teacher in me tells me that means I don't really understand it, but I really think I do). As such, here's a brief explanation:

It refers to a classification of the different objectives that educators set for students (learning objectives). Bloom's Taxonomy divides educational objectives into three "domains": Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor (sometimes loosely described as knowing/head, feeling/heart anddoing/hands respectively). Within the domains, learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels.^[4] A goal of Bloom's Taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education.^[1]

While on Pinterest over the winter break, I found a link to this poster:

How awesome?!? One of my teaching goals is to have better questioning, i.e. more "higher order" questions and less memory and recall. I've already emailed a PDF of this poster to the curriculum instructor at my school since she has access to a poster maker. I can't wait to get it blown-up into a poster size and put it up in my room! Hopefully it will remind me of my goal and get me thinking of some better questions (and hopefully those come while I'm being observed so I can get a good grade! lol).

**if you click on the picture, it will take you to the original link. There is also another super cute butterfly Bloom's poster that I think might be even better for Kindergarten, because it's very simple. I'll probably eventually put that one up in my room too :)

DIBELS practice

In my school district, all of the students are assessed using DIBELs. One of the biggest (and most important) test for Kindergarteners is the Letter Naming Fluency test (LNF for short- we're big on abbreviations in education). I'm not normally a huge fan of "teaching to the test"...HOWEVER, now part of my teacher evaluation is how my kids score on this test.

That being said, I decided we needed some practice. Less for the actual content and more for just getting my kids used to taking a "test." That is something they'll have to do for the next 12 years, so we might as well start now, right?

Here's what I came up with:
All they have to do is see how many letters they can correctly name in 1 minute. I figure I'll test the kids and then send the paper home, so parents can see how their child does and (hopefully) help them get better at home. If you want a copy, you can get it HERE.

Reward Store

At my school, we have a positive behavior system called Bear Bucks. When a kid does something good, they get a buck. There are a few parties during the year where they can go if they've earned enough money. But I needed something to serve as an incentive between parties. This, my Bear Buck store!

I got a shoe organizer from Walmart and put it on the back door to my closet. It's filled with little trinkets and various things the kids can "buy". Hopefully it will help them start working towards earning those bucks!

Thanksgiving

So many Kindergarten teachers get to to do super cute themes all year long. Because my school is a themed magnet school, we're somewhat limited by what we can do. I have 4 themes that I have to follow- one for each quarter. They are very time consuming (and very fun!) but don't leave a lot of time for outside themes.

However, this year I'm determined to squeeze a mini Thanksgiving unit in there. I was searching on Pinterest and found some super cute activities:

Source: mrsnelsonsclass.com via Clare on Pinterest

I thought they could write (or me write for them) "I am thankful for _____" instead of the poem. That way this keepsake has their own writing on it.

Source: mrsnelsonsclass.com via Clare on Pinterest

We did the letter T a few weeks ago, but this one is just too cute! They could add the writing "T is for turkey." Maybe as a center activity or something?

I'm also planning on doing a writing lesson on writing the steps to something. Of course we'll have to do the popular "How to cook a turkey" writing activity. Once these are finished, I'll be sure to post pictures of how they turn out!

So thankful for my 16 wonderful, energetic, enthusiastic, loud, sweet, loving Kindergarteners :)

Pumpkin Patch!

The week before Halloween, my class (and all the K classes at my school) made the traditional fall trip to our local pumpkin patch. We are learning about how plants, seasons, the weather, etc. move in cycles so this was perfect. This farm does a great job of really teaching the kids how the pumpkins start as seeds, then grow and then the seeds inside grow more pumpkins. They even learned why bees are important! Such a great trip. Can't wait for next year.

Here we all are. It's impossible to get 17 kids looking in the same direction, but this is the best shot. Check out little miss poser on the right :)

In the corn maze. They had places to do crayon rubbings of animal prints to see which animal had "stolen the pie". We never did figure out who done it, but I was just glad nobody got lost!!

In the pumpkin field, picking out their pumpkins.

And back in the classroom. It's hard to tell, but I'm weighing our class pumpkin. We also measured it to see how tall it was (7 inches) and made a "can, have, are" chart about pumpkins (sorry, no pic of that. but it turned out cute!)

And finally, carving the pumpkin and scooping the guts out! We started counting the seeds, but I cut them off at 100. Great moment to introduce the concept "more than." Our pumpkin has MORE THAN 100 seeds! It most likely 300-400.

I took the seeds home, washed them off and roasted them in the oven. The next day we did a little taste test. We made a graph and and analyzed our data. Turns out 12 kids like pumpkin seeds, 4 do not (1 was absent that day).

All in all, a great trip/series of lessons. There are so many fun things to do with pumpkins. Can't wait until next year!!

p.s. since I was roasting the pumpkin seeds, I figured I'd roast the pumpkin as well. Smash in the food processor for a while = homemade pumpkin puree! yum

S is for...

SNAKE!!!How cute is this? A few weeks ago we studied the letter S and this was our "fun Friday" activity. (We did "M is for macaroni before this.) Look at the detail in this picture. The snake is eating a rat. Very realistic for a 5 year old.

Here's a group shot:
So proud of my sweet kinders! Can't wait to do more cute projects for our Letter of the Week.

My little scientists

Have you been wondering where I went? Well, let's see...in the past few weeks, I have had to enter 11 grades per child per subject (11 grades x 6 subjects x 17 kids!) into a new computer grading system, I've been to Providence, RI to visit my sister and I've been to Jamaica for a much needed vacation!

But before all of that, I took my kids on a "learning expedition" to our local nature center. It is a great place that really does a fantastic job of introducing kids to nature. It's especially great for my little inner-city babies. They loved it!!

Here they are examining the frog pond:
I of course spent the entire time saying "don't lean so far! move back! not so close!" I was just convinced that someone would fall in. Luckily, we all stayed dry and even spotted a few frogs! We took a class picture in front of a huge sycamore tree that we'll visit again soon to see how it has changed with the season.

I am loving getting out and about and seeing what little scientists my kids are becoming! They are really exploring and discovering our world and I'm just so glad I can be a part of that.

What's in my bag?

I saw a cute post recently on another teacher blog about teacher bags. I can't remember where the post was from, but I agree completely with the statement that teachers love tote bags. I have an entire closet full of tote bags. Seriously, I have a problem. But, I use all of them and they all have a purpose.

I have used several different tote bags in my short teaching career. When I was an assistant, I used my backpack because I was also in grad school at the time. Then while I was student teaching, I used a medium long-handeled tote from L.L. Bean. It was great, but a little small for what I needed.

When I started my real job, my realtor gave me a super cute tote bag as a "happy new house and happy new job" present. It is bright green and pink (my favorite colors!) but the sides are soft so it didn't hold its shape. This year I've been using a variety of old totes...until now

Enter, this beauty:

A large, long-handeled tote from L.L. Bean. A tote devoted solely to teaching. Thus, the "Ms. H" monogram. I am in love! This tote is awesome. It stays open and upright, the straps go over my shoulders for easy carrying, and it holds everything I need. What's in it? Well, since you asked...

the "orange basket" (turn in paper place) from my classroom, full of papers to be graded. The pink box holds my Mr. Sketch markers, great for grading papers because the kids love the smells!

A package of sentence strips. I've been using sentence strips a lot more this year, but usually only have time to make them when I'm at home. So I figured I needed to just keep a pack at home so when the mood strikes me I'm ready.

My lunch container (this day it was leftovers) and my water bottle. I go through about 2-3 bottlefulls a day.

Random laminated things that need to be cut out. These have been in my bag since the beginning of the year. I just hate cutting stuff out! But they're here if I'm ever in the mood.

A small notebook (holds my to-do lists), an umbrella and my personal clutch. All important things to have.

The only reason there isn't any more random crap in my bag is because it's new. Check back with me in a few weeks (heck, a few days) and there's sure to be some post-its, a few check stubs, a ruler, some pens, a hair clip and even more random things.

So there you have it! The secrets of my teacher bag revealed. What's in your bag?

My class

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures from my camera, including this one from yesterday. We were about to go outside for recess when I realized I had all 17 kids present AND I had my camera with me. Perfect photo op! I took individual pictures that I'll use throughout the year for various things, then of course had to get a group shot.

Here's our "crazy" picture:
For privacy purposes, I had to blur out their faces, but they are still pretty cute! This type of picture definitely shows their little personalities. Check out little man in the red shirt in the middle :)

Posting Standards

Have I mentioned already that I'm having to submit super detailed lesson plans? Ok, I know I have and I know I probably sound like I'm complaining about them. I'm sure in a few weeks, they won't seem so tedious and I'll get the hang of it.

One of the parts of this new lesson plan template requires me to list the standards that I am covering. As a way to remind myself what we're working on, as well as inform anyone who walks into the room what we're doing, I decided to devote an area of my whiteboard to the standards.

Voila!

I decided to just post the English/Language Arts and Math standards, since they make up the "meat" of our day. Not that science and social studies aren't important, but at the Kindergarten level they are more about the process than the content. However, there is a little bit of extra room to the right (where the class rules are posted, those can be moved) so if I decide to add them I can.

So far, I really like it. I have the Common Core Standards we are addressing that week listed, as well as just a short list that helps me focus on what we're doing. I already feel like it's making me a better teacher. Time will tell!