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!!

What's the problem?

Sometimes I wish I could say more on this blog than I can. But for privacy purposes, I never reveal students' names, my school name, etc. That being said, I have a situation I want to share with you.

"M" is a student who is extremely hyper-active. Not just, "wow, that kid has a lot of energy." But "WOW, that kid NEVER stops!" He's super cute, adorable and very bright, but has a very hard time getting any work done because he is so wound up.

I would never wish a problem upon a student. However, if knowing about that problem leads to a solution, then I'm all about identifying the problem. I'm sharing this because I'd love for you to just think about this student and if you are a prayerful person, keep him in your thoughts. No kid should have to live with a "label", but labeling this kid could get him the help that he (and I) so desperately need for him to succeed. I want the best for all of my students, no matter what it takes to get the best.

That being said, I got some test scores back on my kiddos today and they are doing GREAT! Several of them have already surpassed the end-of-year benchmarks for Kindergarten and the others are not far behind. Looks like I'm doing something right!!

How is that fun?

Today during indoor recess, my kids were doing this. Why is that fun? Crawling and sliding on the floor? Oh to be a kindergartener!

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 :)

Happy 2012!!

Happy New Year! I joined the masses last night and went out for a night on the town with my boyfriend and several of our friends. Here we are all dressed up:

It was definitely a fun night and I'm very excited to start the new year! 2011 was quite a year- mainly full of either pre or post surgery worries, complications, outcomes, etc. I'm feeling really good and just ready for a normal year.

So of course I have to make a few resolutions. Hopefully I'll keep at least some of them!

- Be more organized- I'm usually SUPER organized but have slipped a little recently. Hoping to get back on track.

- Eat healthier- I realize everyone under the sun makes this resolution, but that's because it's a good one!

- Eat less take-out- not only is it healthier, it will save money $$

- Be financially responsible- I'm not getting any younger, time to stop squandering away those millions of dollars I'm earning as a Kindergarten teacher (can you detect the sarcasm?)

- Do more for myself- I'm always doing things for other people. I need to remember to take time for myself.

What about you? Are you making New Year's Resolutions? I'd love to know what your goals are for 2012! I'm off to enjoy my last 36 hours of freedom before I have to go back to school (and yes, I did count!).

"Picture" this

Back at the beginning of the school year, I had a project funded through Donor's Choose. If you are unfamiliar, this is a website where teachers can go and select items and supplies that they can use in their classrooms. People can then go on the site and either search for a friend's or loved one's project or select a project at random to donate to (yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition. So kill me). It is GREAT! I have gotten some great stuff through here, things that either I wouldn't or couldn't afford to buy myself.

This project included some dry erase boards, markers, writing paper and the best part...picture dictionaries! My kids LOVE them and I love how excited they are to look through them. They're discovering new words, how words are spelled, expanding their vocabulary, etc. The only down side is that I only ordered 6, thinking the kids could share them. Not so much. Now we have to take turns, which in Kindergarten can be problematic. I'm thinking of creating a "dictionary center" to incorporate into my language centers. Any ideas on how to make a center out of these??

Check out how cute they are:

(ok, I have to admit these pictures are staged. Part of the whole Donors Choose thing is that as the recipient, I have to submit photos of the supplies being used and make a thank-you package. I had forgotten about the photos until the last day of school, so had to quickly "pose" some kids with the dictionaries. But you get the idea! They really do look through these like they are the most exciting books ever!)

MIA

I know, I know, I have been missing lately. I'm sure all of my readers in Saudi Arabia and Russia have really been missing me (p.s. how cool is it that I have readers over there? who are you? I would love to know who you are and how you found my blog!)

Things have been busy...to say the least. School is crazy busy, I've been prepping and stressing for my first formal observation (that basically determines if I still have a job), I'm feeling a little overcommitted with church and Junior League and to top it all off I have a new boyfriend. yay! So to say that I've been busy is an understatement.

Two weeks ago I was sick- nothing horrible, just really dizzy and had some sinus congestion and pressure. Enter Prince Charming to come and make me some chicken noodle soup and make it all better. Except that then I had about 158390 assessments to administer to my kids- individually!- and presents to buy for the custodians since I'm chair of our Sunshine Committee, plus the food schedule to create for our 3rd annual potluck, plus getting all 7 kindergarten classes organized for the school-wide sing along, plus tutoring after school and babysitting/housesitting for 3 days and leading a craft at my church's family craft night. And now I'm sick again.

Now that school is out I have time to slow down and reflect on things. Sort of take the time to reorganize and prioritize my life. I need to start taking better care of myself. I need to start working out more and eating healthy (doesn't everyone say that this time of year?). Most importantly, I need to learn how to say no and how to ask for help when I need it. Let's face it, teachers are not the best at asking for help. At least in my opinion. We're teachers because we like the control we have over our classroom and our students. And we don't like giving up that control.

But this Friday, I had to do just that- give up the control. I was up all night Thursday night with the stomach flu and knew at about 1:32am that there was no way I was going to make it to school for our last half day. So I put in for a sub. I did wake up at 6:35 and called my team teacher and told her I wasn't going to be there, but that's all I did.

I didn't stress about not having plans, I knew the sub would be fine. I didn't stress about not being there for our faculty Christmas potluck, I knew my committee members would handle it. I didn't stress about not giving my Secret Santa her last gift, she'll get it in the new year. And guess what? The world didn't stop! Everything was fine. So maybe getting sick was my body's way of saying, slow down Clare. You'll be fine.

I do want to continue this blog because I love it and I love sharing my love of Kindergarten with you (that's a lot of love). But just know that if you don't see or hear from me, it's because I'm trying to focus on what's really important. I challenge you to do the same.