Five for Friday

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again for my February 27th February 28th edition of Five for Friday!

 

I began implementing the first area of the Daily 5 this week; Read to Self.  The kids did great with some clarifications and rehearsing.  I had already introduced our classroom library and discussed how to take care of the books and pick them appropriately a few weeks ago, so I built on that to launch the I PICK acronym.  We had fun looking at each other's footwear and comparing how just like our shoes fit our purpose and interest, our books need to fit our purpose and interest too.  By the third day they were catching on and already asking "Are we doing that read to myself thing again today?" The most fun part was the modeling and teaching them how we build stamina and what that is all about. I have to be honest...I was skeptical as to whether a kindergartener would grasp this or not, but I think they do!

Survived two observations yesterday.  One during reading and another during math.  On a Friday.  After a snow day.  Shew. 

But they both went great! 

 

 



GoNoodle has new Indoor Recess mixes up!  I'm telling you, whoever came up with this is a genius, and if you haven't checked this out you need to.  I love not having to go over to my computer every 3ish minutes of recess time and pick a new video.  My kids especially love #9 "Slice N' Walk N' Pop."  It's fun to see how they gravitate towards certain videos.  We tried a couple of the new Brainercise with Mr. Catman too.  The humor was a little over their heads but they loved trying to circle their fingers in opposite directions!



 

4...as in the number of snow days we are up to.  Not too bad compared to some places.  We are finishing our unit on weather and all the wintery whiteness has provided a great real-life connection to our discussions.  On Thursday we had a bit more snow than expected in the morning.  I was sure we would at least have a delay, but no call came in so I headed to work.  I was 10 minutes from school before they called the closing.  So much for that.  At least I was able to fill my car up with gas and swing through the drive thru and get a big cup of coffee before I turned around and (very slowly) drove home.

 

 

 

 

Making "green eggs and ham" for Read Across America day...also known as Dr. Seuss's birthday!  I'm so excited to celebrate on Monday with my kiddies.  I know these are all over Pinterest, but just in case you want to make my version...

1.  You need "snaps" pretzels, white chocolate candy melts, and green M&M's.  I used dark chocolate mint M&M's, and you can get the melts at Michaels. 

2.  Spread out the pretzels on a plate, as many or little as you want.  Put a white chocolate melt on each one and microwave for 1 minute. 

3.  Press an M&M into the top of each melted wafer.  (They will hold their shape)  Put the plate in the freezer for 5 minutes and you're done! 

Oh, one more step.  Eat leftover M&M's.  :)

 

 

If you have any 'tried and true' Dr. Seuss ideas, let me know!

Book Review- Monster Musical Chairs

We have been working very hard on subtraction in our room.  Addition was so easy, but we seem to be 'stuck' on subtraction.  Just when I think most of them get the idea, someone will surprise me with an off-the-wall answer.  (9 minus 3 is 10????  Sigh...)

When I was recently sorting through some books left to me and working on my classroom library, I came across a book called Monster Musical Chairs by Stuart J. Murphy.  It looked like so much fun that I pulled it out this week since we are spending some time away from our regular math book lessons to work on subtracting in different ways.  We are practicing using objects to subtract, so I figured "objects" can be monsters too.  

Anyway, I have never seen all of my kids so hooked on a story this year.  The suspense to see which monster would be left by the end of the story was killing us!  I had them hold up fingers to represent the monsters and put them down as each on left the game.  Just before turning to the last page, I had them do a quick vote to guess which monster would be left.  They even cheered for the monster at the end of the book!  I'm telling you, they were SO into it.  I did however decline the request to play musical chairs afterwards instead of going to math groups.  :)

 

The illustrations are fun and helpful to explaining the math.  The text is delightful, predictable and rhyming.  I'm all for integrating subjects, so anytime we can combine reading and math, I'm all in.  In addition to this (no pun intended!) after the story we practiced hands-on subtraction using some of The Kindergarten Smorgasbord's ideas.  Smashing subtraction with play dough went over great.  Hopefully all the multimodal review will help them get the hang of it soon!

What other read alouds work well during kindergarten math time?

Acts of Kindness

This month in my classroom we have been working on acts of kindness.  Maybe it is the cold, lack of sunshine and outside recess, who knows, but I have been noticing a lot of bickering, name calling, pinching, poking, snatching, etc. amongst my kiddies.  One afternoon I stopped a math lesson and said "That's. It."  I had a pack of red heart doilies handy and a window that needed redecorating anyway (gingerbread men in February, anyone?) so I called everyone to the rug and told them it made me sad to hear some people being unkind to their friends.  I told them I would be looking for kind words and kind actions in our classroom so that I could write it down and post it on our "Acts of Kindness" window.  I told them we could see how many we could fill our window with before our class Valentine party.  No prize, no rewards, just a little recognition of some of the nice things going on in our classroom.

Enter the scene where kids fall all over each other to pick something up or walk over ten other kids on the carpet to tie someone's shoe and look up and ask if I see them.  Or fill me in on all the nice things they did for one another at lunch or gym.  

Sigh.  Time for a whole-class clarification: I had to "catch" them doing something good.  That they couldn't just do it because they wanted me to see. 

We did get a few hearts on our window and I've decided to keep it going throughout the month of February.  I love being able to watch and surprise kids with "So and so just helped so and so sign up for lunch.  It was so nice I think I am going to have to put a heart on our window."  It's allowed us to at least have lots of conversations about the difference between angry and kind voices, how to appropriately handle conflicts, and has allowed me lots of opportunities to recognize what they SHOULD be doing instead of what they SHOULD NOT be doing.  Sometimes we teachers need to remember to stay positive, too, especially when we, like our kids, are cold and tired of indoor recess and snow. :)

My first Five for Friday!

This week flew by and we weren't even in school that much!  Here's my first five for Friday post...hopefully the first of more to come!

Last weekend I finished my first run of 2015.  I was super happy with my time, and even happier that it was a Valentine run with a chocolate buffet afterwards!  It gave a whole new meaning to the expression "Will run for chocolate!"  I'm looking forward to my March run for St. Patrick's Day...now if the weather would just cooperate a little better....

Speaking of the weather, thanks to President's Day, snow and single digit temperatures, we've had approximately 1.5 days of school this week.  I'm not complaining, but it will be nice to hopefully get back into a normal routine next week!  We managed to get in some President's Day activities and keep working on subtraction in math.  I used some of the pages from Ship Shape First Grade's free download (below) and put together a little packet for my students to work on.  It was perfect because the week was so short and unpredictable that we were able to work on it a little bit at a time.  Their Abraham Lincoln writing turned out so cute!  I was really pleased with how they responded to my picture book read alouds and put together a few sentences of their own! 

 

 

Really not liking the whole canned template thing of this blog right now.  Maybe that will change soon...just sayin.'

Ash Wednesday was this week.  This year for Lent, I'm following Matthew Kelly's Best Lent Ever.  Basically, you are emailed a short reflection, quote, or video to reflect upon every day.  I'm trying to get into a better habit of starting my day off right before heading off to work and the kiddos, so hopefully this will help.  I really like it so far.

(I also made broccoli cheddar soup on Wednesday following a "Panera knock-off" recipe, and it is delicious!  I did not make the bread bowls however.  Maybe another time!)

I'm reading the book The Daily 5 and hoping to start implementing it soon...maybe next week if we actually get back to school!  I've known about the Daily 5 for quite some time, read about it a lot and known that I want to take my classroom in this direction for awhile now, but with being new to the grade level there were just other things on my plate that took precedence.  I know I am late in the year starting this, but we're going to give it a try.  I really appreciate the time that is taken to build in the classroom management piece.  It looks like it will take some time to get going, but once it is implemented successfully it will be worth it...especially for planning and management!  Do you use the Daily 5?  What would be some advice you would have for someone just starting out like me? 

Happy Weekend, and check out the other Five for Friday posts here!

Classroom Library- Part 1

Here are a few pictures from the beginnings of my classroom library...I was incredibly lucky to inherit many books from the former occupant of the room, but they were not organized or accessible to the children. I had a shelf functioning as the math and puzzles center, but it was not getting used, collecting dust, and was frankly an eyesore in the room. Yuck.

I happen to be taking a Children's Literature course online as I work towards my master's degree.  One of the major projects is to implement a reading and writing center.  Perfect.  I can work on a project for my class that ALSO benefits my classroom in a very needed way. 

So Thursday I announced that the puzzle center was closed, and on Friday I stayed after and transformed it to this:

I agonized for a while over the best labels and bins to use.  I mean, they can make a huge difference, right?  I am happy to say that I am so, so so pleased over how these turned out.  (Pay no attention to the random old puzzle rack thingy in the corner that I haven't found a home for yet, or the dividers that I need to figure out how to remove.  Thanks.) 

I looked around for free labels to print.  I finally decided on this collection and I am very happy with them.  Thank you Keen on Kindergarten for sharing!  They are clear and easy to read, did not require a lot of ink, and covered the major types of books I wanted to have out.   This is by no means the complete collection.  I just put a very small sampling out so that I can teach my kinders to use our library appropriately this week.  (More on that little lesson later!)  

I printed and laminated the labels, but decided to attach them to the bins with Velcro circles.  That way, if I decide to use the bins for something else or rearrange one day, I can easily switch out the labels without losing them.  I think I will do the same with my upcoming math manipulative organization project...we'll see. 

I found the perfect sized bins in Dollar Tree, but I was sad because there were only 5 in purple.  I got them anyway and decided to keep searching Dollar Trees to add to my collection.  I was so excited when I went back this week to pick up some Valentine goodies and saw 25 matching blue bins!  Yes, I got them all.  They seem very sturdy and are a nice size for the shelf and for most books.

This was our old "library."  There was pretty much just room to display some current seasonal and themed favorites and I switched them out every month or so.  I decided to keep this area seasonal.  One of my kiddos broke the bottom shelf, but we decided that was okay because now we have space to put our big books, too.  :)  I will be switching these out as we read new ones. 

So here's our entire space as it is now.  Still lots of work to do, but it's a start!  I can't wait to introduce it to my class! 

DIY Dry Erase Boards

I can't take credit for this great idea...I attended a PD where they were shared by Kathy Baumgartner, who is one of the contributing authors to our reading curriculum.  A trip to the Dollar Tree, $8, and less than an hour later, I have 20 "single serve" dry erase boards for my class! 

1. Punch a hole in the top of a plastic plate. Mine came 8 in a pack for $1. I have to confess I was skeptical as to whether these would wipe clean, but they do!

**Update:  Use name-brand markers.  The cheap ones do NOT wipe off so well.  :)  I would also recommend putting two plates together, or purchase heavier ones to make them sturdier on the kiddos' laps.  Our plates often bend, which does not make for pretty writing.  :) All in all, after several weeks of almost daily use, they are still working well!

2. Cut a small hole on the top of a sock. I purchased kids athletic socks, 4 in a pack. 

3. Tie a piece of yarn to the plate and sock.  (This was the most tedious part!)  

The marker goes inside the sock when students are finished. So (hopefully) there's no more lost lids all over the room!

My kids love them and they are now able to use them as response boards as we are working on the carpet with letter sounds, writing words, and practicing our math facts. They like having everything right there and it has made our lessons so much more interactive!

Welcome!

Hello there!  This is my fifth year of teaching and first year as a kindergarten teacher.  I previously taught elementary and high school ESOL, but have decided to reflect upon my current focus on kindergarten, as well as all things teaching.

I do not have my own TpT store, but love to use other teachers' awesome materials.  I hope that my entries reflect a combination of my "borrowed" ideas in practice, in addition to my own unique classroom creations, as well as reflections on and humorous stories from teaching in general. I also hope it is a source of inspiration and motivation for you, as I have been inspired and motivated by other teacher bloggers.  Check out the "Meet the Teacher" page to learn more about me! 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fantastic day!