Change

I have been reassigned to a different school and different grade. I am not quite sure what will happen with this blog, but I hope to be back in kindergarten soon!

Fire Drills and Tornadoes

It has been quite an interesting day.

Tomorrow is our Kindergarten Awards ceremony, so we spent a large part of our day finding our places on stage and rehearsing our songs. Corralling 80+ almost-first graders is quite a feat in itself, let alone two choreographed numbers. How ever, it went well, and I am so excited to see my not-so-little kids  make themselves and their parents proud.

If performing on stage is not enough to rile up a class, today's class activity also involved painting. We read Little Cloud by Eric Carle and created our very own "little clouds" with blue construction paper, cotton balls, and white paint. They turned out fabulously. However, while creating the aforementioned clouds, we had an unexpected fire drill. Apparently, the heat from the cotton candy maker (PTA) next to our classroom was enough to set of the alarms for the entire school. While there was no actual fire, it was enough to get everyone's blood pumping. Although not perfect, we did a pretty good job getting everyone out and accounted for.

Today is also an "extreme weather" day in our state. I had recess duty, so I made it a point to keep my eye on the weather reports all day. As expected, we had indoor recess, and now I sit working on the awards ceremony slide show under a tornado watch (soon to be warning), for the second time in a two week period. Granted severe weather affords me time to hang out with friends at my old stomping grounds, but I'd rather not have had this happen the night before awards. Oh well, c'est la vie.

More Names

In an earlier post, I introduced a few of my munchkins and the nicknames that I have for them. Meet a few more:

The Professor- This little guy can tell you all about the life sciences. His specialty is aquatic life, specifically sharks, but he knows all about dinosaurs, bugs, and the like as well. He has a superhero alter-ego named Shark Boy.

The Supremes- I have four fabulous divas-in-training. These girls have got spunk, moxie and attitude to spare, but have hearts of gold.

The Banshee- This is little girl is the newest member of our learning community. She can be quite excitable, and will let out a head-splitting, ear-shattering shriek whenever she is overcome with mirth and joy.Which happens quite often.

Appreciation

Last week was National Teacher Appreciation Week. Our PTA was wonderful in giving us little treats, and a tasty baked potato lunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the art my class created for me as well. But. what I treasure the most are the kind words from parents of my sprouts. I've had a few parents tell me that they appreciate how I work with their children, and how they have watched their child bloom before their eyes. I've even had one or two request me as their child's teacher for next year.Conversations like these with parents do wonders for my heart. It helps me know that  I am where I need to be doing what I need to do- teach and love children.

Perception

It has been an interesting week so far. Monday night brought hail and tornadoes to our part of the world, which was quite a thrilling, yet horrifying experience. The majority of my class loves tornadoes, so it was a very energetic morning meeting the next day. Many of my kids had very interesting stories to tell , so I made the executive decision to bypass our morning reading lesson to create a class book centered on tornadoes. All of my students , except one, did a fantastic job writing their rough draft, revising & editing, and then publishing  & illustrating their stories. ( I will post pictures very soon)

We have also been working on our kindergarten memory books. Three particular pages pique my interest the most; the self-portrait page, the teacher page and the friends page. It is very interesting to observe how my student's perception of themselves has changed, as well as how they perceive the others around  them. While Bad Robot was creating a picture of me, he remarked "You are tall Ms. S. I am going to make you tall." I chuckled inside, thinking to myself "at 5'2" I am pretty tall to these wee ones. The must think our principal and gym teacher are huge!"

Another student remarked she would draw me with a smile, so I wouldn't have to holler so much. Boy, did I feel mean. However, it did lead to another discussion on why Ms. S has to yell sometimes, and that I don't like doing it anymore than she does. I don't think I yell often, but I do have to use quite a forceful voice when we get a bit too boisterous, which has been happening quite frequently as the last day draws near. I think I detected a glimmer of understanding in her eyes after our conversation (she is one of my most boisterous darlings).

We have eight more days left, and still so much I would like to do! We will make the most of it, laughing and learning to the end!

Smartboard Saturday: Wordbuilding

One of my favorite items in the gallery of the SMART Notebook software is the refrigerator magnets. Paired with student magnetic whiteboards and their own bucket of letters, my students have a blast with word building. I even set it up as an activity in the ABC center, and it is amazing the words they can build!

Recap

The end of the year is upon us, and it has gotten crazy. So here is a quick recap of the happenings of our week.

Monday was...well, a Monday. Lack of sleep over the weekend made it a hard day for many of my sprouts.

Tuesday was Transition Day. In the afternoon, all of kindergarten visited a 1st grade class, while we kindergarten teachers met with incoming Pre-K parents to introduce ourselves and give them a little preview of  what to expect in kindergarten. It was pretty cool to meet some of our "new" parents, and my kids LOVED first grade. They were captivated by Mrs. P, the 1st grade teacher they visited, and have asked me every day if they can go back to first grade.

Wednesday was the EHES Teacher Appreciation Day. Our awesome PTA put on a baked potato lunch for all teachers and staff. I received lots of "treasures" from my darling class.

Thursday we started work on our Mother's Day cards. Instead of doing the watercolor cards this year, my kids were given total creative freedom. The only rules were A) Only the outside was to be decorated today, and B) they had to sound out and spell "Happy Mother's Day." They did a fantastic job, and even wrote a few lines of poetry to their lucky mamas.

Friday(Today) we finished up our Mother's Day cards, and made our bath salts. My kids had a blast mixing everything together in the bag, and they loved the scent we used (peppermint). We also (reluctantly) released our butterfly friends into the wild.

It has been a crazy, wonderful week, and I am ready for the weekend!

Friday Feature: Kites

I found this awesome website that shows you step-by-step how to make a kite. Best of all, they actually work!
Check it out!    Kites

Smartboard Saturday: Kidspiration

In the past few weeks, we have been learning all about life cycles. An awesome software to use when creating life cycles, or any other kind of graphic organizers, is Kidspiration, a K-5 version of the Inspiration software.

This software can be used for much more than graphic organizers, however. Students use the graphic organizers to expand on their thoughts in the Writing View. In the Math View, students use manipulatives to explore concepts such as counting, place and value, and fractions.

When paired with the Smartboard, Kidspiration becomes an awesome tool for whole group lessons. It is also great for a center-time activity, giving children the opportunity to explore a ready-made activity, or elaborate more on an idea that was discussed in an earlier lesson.

My favorite part however, is the free trial. There is nothing like checking something out for yourself, so check it out!