Five for Friday: SDE Conference!

This week I got to attend the Maryland SDE conference for kindergarten teachers!  This is the smaller version of the one that is held in Las Vegas every summer.  I came away so energized to implement some new ideas in my kindergarten classroom during the second half of the year! 

We arrived and checked into the hotel, where the conference was held AND it was connected to the mall!!!  Living in a rural area, it was such a novelty to get up in the morning and walk to Starbucks at 7am!  (Oh, and did you know that people actually walk malls in the early morning for exercise??  Like, they intentionally go there to walk early in the morning?  Maybe I'm the only one just discovering this...but...apparently it's an actual thing?!)

Attended a critical thinking workshop and made these little catapults!  It's amazing what you can do with Popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and a Play Doh lid!

Kathy Griffin was one of the keynote speakers and I have so many good ideas to engage my class.  If I could only remember what half the notes I scribbled and pictures I took actually meant...

On Wednesday I went back to my classroom and had parent teacher conference day.  It was nice to be able to have some time in between conferences to work on planning and creating upcoming lessons based on some of the strategies I learned.

One of the most game-changing workshops I attended was Angie Bonthuis' workshop on "Diving Deeper into Centers."  Wow...I don't have a single picture because I was so busy writing down "aha's" and "must do's."  I have been dying to reorganize my centers all year- they were driving me crazy, but since I am in a new school and new classroom I figured the reorganization would have to be a summer project.  Her methods make so much sense to me and I am thrilled I finally found a way to set up my centers to include both play and content learning that is going to be easy to keep up with.  And, my team is getting validated this year.  One of the components is choice centers.  I doubled the choices my students had for both math and literacy centers yesterday and they did great! 

I also attended one of Angie Bonthuis' math workshops.  We tried one of her problem of the day strategies on the board yesterday.  I called up three students to work out the problem, gave them each a different colored marker, and sat back and watched their thought process.  It was so cool to have them "be the teachers" and watch as my other students encouraged and gave them ideas.  This is the FIRST TIME my students have seen a problem like this, and they rocked it!!  We will definitely be doing these every day, following the types of word problems in progression that Angie shared in her talk.  Her website is www.ilovekindergarten.com and she has everything that she showed us on her website for FREE!

On a totally different note, it has been so rainy and snowy that the ducks are swimming at the gas stations!  We pulled up to get gas and I thought this was so funny that I had to take a picture!

Chinese fortune cookie for the win...

Finally, in science and math we have been working with bowling pins to observe motion.  For math in small groups, we took turns bowling while other students kept track of the score on 10-frames.  This was great to practice addition, discuss ways to make 10 and answer "how many more?"  They loved it and begged to play again the next day.  I found a table-top bowling set that I put in our newly redesigned science-center so the kids can continue exploring it! 

Have a great week!  Enjoy the rest of the Five for Friday posts over at Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Five for Friday- Winter Activities!

It seems like it's been forever since I've done a Five for Friday post!  Here's what we've been up to in kindergarten world during the month of January!

Snowflake shapes!  My students designed a six-sided snowflake and discussed the shapes they used to make their snowflake.  Their creativity was amazing!  If you'd like a copy of the little recording boxes I used in the lower right hand corner, click on the email button (ateachersheart15@gmail.com ) and I'd be happy to send you a copy!

 

It snowed in our classroom this week!  We were studying winter and here in Maryland it hasn't snowed a bit, so we brought the snow to our room!  

Here were my directions:

All set up ready to go:  (The ocean breeze flavor made our room smell so fresh!)

I poured ingredients into plastic containers while the students watched, and then I sent them to their tables to mix.  We mixed in three sets of plastic containers with lids so I could keep the "snow" fresh for the next few days:

After everyone had enough mixing time, we gathered back on the rug and filled in some words to describe our snow: (Sometime about the baking soda and conditioner mix actually does make the snow "cold!")

And here is the snow on day three.  I put one of the containers in the science center and added a handful of different sized and colors of gems.  Their job at this center was to find, sort and count the gems.  They could sort by size, shape or color.  They loved it!

I'm thinking we'll have some real snow soon.  But this held us over for a little while!

In math we focused on 3D shapes recently, so we built 3D structures in one of our math centers.  Again, my students amazed me with the structures they could create after just a day or two of exploring the marshmallows and toothpicks!  It's my goal to try to get more hands on activities into my lessons.  They are five and six years old; they NEED hands on learning.  And, it is just plain fun to teach this way.  When I'm excited about teaching, I know the kids get excited about learning!

Totally addicted to the iteachtvnetwork these days, people.  If you haven't checked it out on Periscope, Twitter, or the website, DO IT!  It's like Oprah for teachers.  A recent scope by Amy Harris on how to stop students who blurt caught my attention.  I love this "stop and think" reminder sign that you can hold up to show students it is thinking time.  Then, when you want them to answer, you give another signal like a green "go."  Such a great visual to help emphasize the importance of wait time.  And wait time is so essential for our English language learners!  Even after four years of teaching ESOL, I still need to remind myself to slow down and give them time to think!

Random, but this tea diffuser was my sister's Christmas gift to me.  His name is Fred and it makes me laugh every time I use it!

Five for Friday- Finally!

Okay, so no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or forgotten about my blog!  But the past two months have had a lot of important family events, getting started at a new school, and lots of weekends away, which needed to take precedence for a little while.  Here's what has been going on in my little kindergarten world! 

 

I am in LOVE with my class this year!  They are so well behaved and sweet, and I am definitely counting my blessings being at a new school and having them this year.  One of my favorite things about the new school is the science curriculum and having a little playground right outside our classroom door.  I have plenty of time allotted for our social studies or science lessons every single day and I am getting the kids outside as much as I can while it is still warm-ish.  They love our excursions, even if for the simplest things.  Here we are looking for signs of living things.  Look closely...can you see the ant?  They could- especially with those magnifying glasses, which make everyone a scientist!   

 A couple of pictures from our fire safety week...the fire crowns were a free download here  I stapled them to sentence strips and wrote their names on the back.

  

And I found this cute little fire truck shape activity here

My students LOVED this!  I had the shapes organized in piles and had them follow a model, pick out what they needed and tell me the shape before gluing it down. 

This month I was lucky enough to spend two weekends at two different beaches.  Beaches in the fall are gorgeous.  :) One weekend was my state's teacher conference.  I attended workshops on working with ELL's, a make and take foldable workshop, and one on questioning.  

But this was the most relaxing part of the weekend by far...

I spent Friday afternoon after school prepping these adorable little gifts for my students next week.  (No, I do not have only 7 students...these are only some of them!)  We have been singing the "Five Little Pumpkins" song every morning and when my teammate found these cute printables I knew we had to do them!  I also bought Pete the Cat's Five Little Pumpkins and we have read it in class to practice rhyming.  I found the pumpkins at Dollar Tree and printed the labels on orange cardstock.  They are stapled over snack size baggies. 

A Hallmark series about a teacher...what could be better?  Season 2 is out on DVD...so excited!!  Episode 1 is up tonight!

Have a fun Halloweeny week!

Five For Friday- Ready or Not!

It is Thursday night as I am writing this, and thinking back over the week Monday seems like months ago!  Most of my week was spent pulling my room together, and I am happy to say it is ready for our Open House tomorrow!  (Just don't look in the closets...) :) 

But first, before school stuff, it's been a pretty rainy and humid week.  I think this rainbow ended right in our field.  Can you see the double one behind it??? 

Do the trips to Walmart ever end???  My new school is 10 minutes from one, and that has already proved to be pretty dangerous.  

Here are some of my favorite little details in the room...

My ribbon curtain project was successful!  Although, I am not sure it was cost-effective.  It took about 6 or 7 rolls of ribbon in different sizes. 

My classroom library survived the move nicely.  Here are the first few bins I put out, along with my Laura Numeroff book friends purchased over the summer from Kohls!

My desk at the front entrance of the classroom.  I know it is kind of ridiculous to spend this much time on the teacher desk, but I figured if I was keeping it I might as well dress it up.  It added so much character to the room! (I played around with the idea of getting rid of the desk, but I'm going to work off of it this year and maybe take the plunge next year.) 

Thank you Kinder Craze for this cute idea!  They were so easy and are ready for Open House.  The glow sticks are from Dollar Tree...four in a pack and the ribbon comes with it! 

Snack of choice the past few days.  I am happy to report that chocolate is readily available in my new school.  :)  It has been showing up on my desk in one form or another all week!

I am so excited to meet my students tomorrow and get the school year started on Monday!