Quick Photos

Traffic Signal TLC project

Pete the Cat

Baa Baa Black Sheep

 The children actually worked for three days on these sheep to go with the Baa Baa Black Sheep rhyme.  They don't look much like sheep but they will make you smile. 

Line Art done with Mrs. Jones in art class

Pete the Cat

I absolutely love, love, love Pete the Cat.  My husband and other adult family members think I am slightly crazy when I walk around singing "I love my red shoes, I love my red shoes."  My Kinders get it!  We made Pete this week.  He was a TLC project and the children can now make circles from squares, ovals from rectangles and triangles from squares - that would require the have slightly more difficult diagonal cut.  We are also learning about holding our papers horizontally or vertically to make certain cuts.  Our Petes are wearing red shoes and are decorating the hall outside our classroom.  I can't believe I forgot to make pictures.  I will next week.  We have one Pete book in our book boxes already and will start working on another one next week.  The children are up to 6 minutes in reading stamina with almost everyone staying on task.   

We practiced drills today for lockdown, fire, tornado, and earthquake.  Just unofficial drills that involved our class.  Next week we will have real, whole school practices.  It will not any problem for my Smarties!!

Look Out World.........Here We Come!

Free photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

We've finished the second full week of school.  One of the things we started working on this week was reading color words.  The children completed two TLC projects: a traffic light and a bunch of balloons.  TLC stands for Teaching Little Children.  These are projects where the children take precut pieces and follow directions on cutting and placement to create a picture.  The children now know how to make circles from squares!  You can find out more about TLC lessons at www.tlclessons.com. A colorful bunch of balloons! The children also made a mural of Living Things.  They were very creative.  Their living things ranged from lobsters to trees to zebras. In math, we continued to do some sorting and also some measurement.  We measured using terms like heavier and lighter, shorter and longer. The teddy bear counters were sorted during Learning Centers time. Another thing that the children worked hard on was "Read To Self " time.  Every day the children read by themselves from their book boxes.  They sit in one spot and read quietly for the whole time.  Each day they build their reading stamina and they are already up to five minutes.  Mrs B and I are able to read with individual students during this time. Here are some students showing us how to do Read to Self the right way! Mya is reading at her table seat. Lane finds a quiet spot on the floor. Will reads from his book box. Kirsten tracks the print as she reads.

Photos

Here are some photos of things we did last week.

Kadyn's picture of herself

Bryn's interview

Some of our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees

The First Full Week

Well, the first full week has come and gone.  It flew by!  I am amazed by how well everyone is doing learning rules and routines.  This is a very well-behaved class.  When the whole class does a good job at any activity, they have a chance to earn a link (paper strip that is used to make a chain).  I cannot give my own class a link but they can earn links from other teachers.  They earned three links this past week!  Way to go guys!  Give yourselves a trucker cheer!  One of those links was earned for great behavior in the lunchroom.  Very impressive for the first week.  When a certain number of links are earned, the whole class receives a reward.

The theme was ABC's and we read many alphabet books including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  The children made the cutest coconut trees with their names in foam letters with Mrs. B.  We displayed these on the cabinets over the sinks.  I wrote the children's names and then cut apart the letters and had the children reassemble them in the correct order, glue them in place and then draw themselves.  They also had to count how many letters they had in their names.  We hung these out in the hallway.

Bad news for the week is that my camera died so we have no photos of those projects but the good news is that my new camera arrived in the mail today.  So hopefully we will soon have some pictures to accompany this blog.  

Thanks parents for all the extra supplies you have generously sent.  Germ X, Kleenex, paper plates, baggies - they will all come in handy.  Especially those Kleenex.  I am already noticing some drippy noses.  

Looking forward to next week!  Smiles!

Welcome to our Room

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to get to visit the school/daycare where my precious granddaughter spends her days while mom and dad are at work.  I got to meet her teachers, see where her crib is and check out all the colorful, bright things and  adorable little classmates that make up a big part of her day.  So it occurred to me that maybe the families of my students would like to visit in our classroom.  Of course you are always welcome to actually come to the classroom, but I know many of you can't physically come in, so I am going to post some pictures of the room now and pictures of our work and activities during the year.  So, come on in and check us out!

Turtle and fish tanks, puzzles, games, manipulatives

 

Student tables, smart board, some of our cubbies

Housekeeping area

Meeting area, listening/reading center

Outside our windows, we have a bird feeder and it is wonderful to watch the birds all year long.  We have a great view.   There is a place just outside our hall door where each child's work is displayed during the year.  We have a back door that goes out into a small fenced in yard that is good for games or a quick bit of exercise. More to come later!

Pete the Cat

I just discovered a book, Pete the Cat, that I love.  I can't wait for school to start so I can use it with my kinders.  I am putting the video of the author reading the book on my blog.  I think it is especially cool that both the author and illustrator are from Atlanta.  I find myself singing Pete's song at odd times during the day.  Like Pete says.........it's all good!