First Project: FUNDED!!!

Last Tuesday, I got a very exciting e-mail.  It looked like this:

Needless to say, my day was made! The Herb Kohl Philanthropies funded all Wisconsin Donors choose projects, and I couldn't be more thankful.  And, then two days ago I got my first package.

I am so excited to begin this alternative seating adventure tomorrow!  Wish my class luck!

New School Year!

Tonight is the last official night of summer.  It is a little bittersweet.  Summer for teachers truly is a blessing.  Now, I won't lie.  I do spend a big portion of my summer planning, prepping, shopping both Target and the Dollar Tree, and decorating my classroom for the up coming school year.  It is so nice to not have a tight deadline!  And, I do really enjoy drinking coffee in my pajamas- not as I rush out the door during the rest of the year.  
But, as nice as it is to have summer, I truly love meeting all the new sweet, sweet kiddos who come to my classroom.  Their faces are full of excitement, anticipation, and a little fear for this new adventure.  It is such an honor to be a part of this experience with them.  I will also not complain about the many kiddos from years past who come to visit- many often greet me with HUGE hugs.  

Here is to a brand new school year for everyone.  I hope and pray for many blessings for everyone who is heading back this week and for those who are finishing up the first couple weeks of their new year!

This picture makes me chuckle a little bit.  My gift to students during Open House include super cute foam glasses (found at Hobby Lobby) with letters to spell out their names.

Here is my classroom reveal for the year!  I am absolutely in LOVE with my huge windows!

My new classroom has a little nook.  This is probably my favorite part of my classroom!

I love my new cute little "toad stools" from Ikea.  They are perfect for our listening center.

Thanks for checking in!

Saying "Goodbye" to chairs

Click the above picture to be taken to my Donors Choose Project!

I am trying something new this year: alternative seating.  Flexible seating seems to be the new trend in education according to my Pinterest board and pop up articles that appear on my Facebook page.  But, I am so supportive of it being a new trend!  How many adults choose to complete their work sitting in a hard chair?  As adults, we know what works best for us. Whether it be sprawling out on the floor, sitting on a couch, or standing along a kitchen counter we can choose the best way to complete our tasks.  Shouldn't children also be able to begin figuring out what helps them to learn more and be more successful?  

Alternative seating scares me quite a bit because I currently don't know how it will look exactly in my classroom.  But, I am more than excited to work with my kiddos to put this into practice.  

To help my students develop core strength and to help with wiggles, I have created a Donors Choose project specific to alternative seating that allows movement.  Check it out here. 

I moved into a new room this year!  It is much bigger and has windows!!

School is starting up on September 1st.  I have been in my classroom pretty much every day.  Does anyone else's classroom look like mine still?  MESSY!

I have been working on a new project for my classroom library.  My cat, Alvin, decided he should probably supervise.  Love him!

Kindergarten Summer Camp

Where did this summer go?  It just flew by!

This past week we wrapped up our 3 weeks of summer school.  I always have the privilege of teaching our incoming kindergartners.  It is an absolute joy to get to know many of the faces I will see regularly during the school year.  

My theme for summer school this year was Kindergarten Summer Camp!  We made tissue paper fires, played math games with white puff balls (we called them marshmallows), had tents set up, and went "fishing."  The kids had a blast and they were able to be the first ones to try out my new Kindergarten Summer Camp unit.  Here are a few of the highlights you can find in the unit:

Alphabet S'mores

My kiddos enjoyed finding and matching the uppercase and lowercase letters.  They also had the additional challenge of finding the beginning sound picture.

Which Fish Did You Catch?

We practiced lowercase letters by placing letter fish in a pocket chart.  The kiddos took turns hiding the fishing pole behind a letter.  The others took turns pointing to and then naming a letter to see if they caught a fish!

Emergent Story Books

We worked through 2 emergent story books.  "How Many Fish?" asks students to count and write the numbers 2-5.  "Time for Camping" has students write the sight word I or We to complete the story.

Check out Kindergarten Summer Camp by clicking here!

Colds, Construction, and End of Year Gifts

Teacher tip: Make sure to take Non-Drowsy cold medicine before a day of teaching.  Anything else, will most definitely make it very difficult to teach 19 kindergartners!

Why is it that every time the weather begins to get nicer, colds tend to become more prevalent?  My entire class, myself included, should probably be quarantined- coughing, sneezing, you name it, my class has it.  Currently, I am personally keeping Airborne in business.

Okay-now on to happier notes!

We have been super busy in my classroom.  Between our Alphabet Countdown to Summer, guest speakers, walking field trips, assessments, and more assessments there is not much time for anything else. But, we're hanging in there!

Last week our Reading series had us reading Old MacDonald had a Woodshop.  (I so enjoy books that have a well known tune!)  In addition, we read many other fiction and nonfiction books about construction and tools needed to build "stuff."  Our mini construction unit got carried over into math.  The kiddos were challenged not only with demonstrating subtraction in this way, but to design their pictures only using rectangles, circles, and triangles.  They did such a nice job, and they turned out so cute!  I will have to add more later, but my computer is being stubborn with some of the images.!

I do not know a single teacher who is not a fan of the Dollar Tree.  If it wasn't for that store, my classroom would definitely not look the way it does!  As an end of the year gift this year, I found adorable water bottles at the Dollar Tree- filled them with sidewalk chalk and Smarties, and now I am good to go!  Hopefully these water bottles will last through the summer and I will see some of them come back with their new first grader!

Thanks for checking in- I believe it is time for me to sleep this cold away!

Earth Day Shenanigans!

Take a close look...

Does anything seem out of place?

Our Earth Day celebration took a fun and exciting turn when the red tail hawk, brought by one of our presenters, decided she wanted to be free!  She was gorgeous.  I think I could have stayed all day just watching her sit up there on her make-shift perch!

I absolutely love our Earth Day celebrations.  The kids have a full day of learning from presenters, they have some time to give back by cleaning up trash around our school, and we sometimes get some "downtime" to do a fun activity in our classroom!

In writing, the kiddos have been working hard on opinion and persuasive pieces that would make the world a better place.  They did a nice job writing about recycling, not littering, and why we shouldn't cut down trees.  During a portion of this unit we explored how to recycle school supplies.  A colleague of mine introduced us to Crazy Crayons out of Minnesota.  They take old, broken crayons and re-melt them into fun shapes.  Seeing the fun shapes and crazy colors really got the kiddos excited.  So, we decided to re-purpose some of our old crayons on Earth Day!  Take a look:

Step 1: Fill silicon molds with broken crayons

Step 2: Put in oven and watch the transformation.  Solid-to liquid

Step 3:  Cooled to a solid again and so incredibly cool!

Now this is what teaching is about! The excitement from the kids over the transformation was so fun!  They each got to bring home their own crayon- it was all they could talk about (and show to whoever would look and listen) as we were walking out to the buses that day.  What an impact!

In addition to recycling our old crayons, the students made promises to the earth.  They took this so seriously!  I just love how this display brightened up our hallway!

One month to go!  Happy Monday!

Word Families

Meet Super POW!  He has been helping my kiddos discover and explore word families the last couple of weeks.  POW stands for Power of Words.  Let's face it, words can be powerful- in many different ways, but, for right now, in my room, knowing word chunks and how to add or change an onset has been very powerful for many! (Besides, it is super cute to be reading or making new words and hearing POW whispered every time someone finds a word family word.)

We spent several classes just exploring different word chunks. I would spend 5 minutes introducing the new chunk and modeling how to change the onset to make a new word, then it was their turn. With partners, they used magnets to make as many "real" words that they could using the new word chunk.  AH!  They learned so much- and they had so much fun!  A few kiddos even began experimenting with digraphs and blends to create words like chat and slit.  We have many word families left to explore, but I am so excited to lead them on this POWerful adventure!  

My kiddos enjoyed practicing word families by playing Super Change-O.  This game requires that students make new words by changing the onset of a familiar word.  By the end of the game, several of my students weren't even using the letter cards to physically change the word.  They were able to create the new word in their heads!  Yay!

Clipart: Clipart Queen; Mycutegraphics
Font: Rowdy In Room 300; KG Fonts

The children in my class also practiced recognizing word family words by following word mazes. They worked so hard on these activities!

Click the image above to get this activity as a freebie!

Last week my students had a "Boo Hoo" day.  Our student teacher's last day was on Thursday.  She has been so amazing for these students- they learned a ton from her!  We needed to send her off in style.  I purchased a Thirty-One bag for her new teaching job.  We each, then, used fabric paint to place our thumbprint and sign our name on the back of her new bag.  It turned out so adorable!  Take a look:  (I apologize for the crossed out names.  I do not put my students' names on my blog.  But, I think you get the idea!)

Before she left in the afternoon, each student helped to fill her bag with school supplies for her own future classroom.  They were so excited to have a part in this special event!

Thanks for checking in!