Recess Fun!

Recess Fun!

 We sure do have a lot of fun on our brand, new playground.  Here are some of our kids in action.

On the personal sit and spin!

Just climbed the rock wall!

Check out the cool spongy floor.  It is so bouncy!

Up the stairs to go down the slide.

Sometimes we just need to chill out on the benches!

King of the Bridge.

We love to swing!

Book Order

I almost forgot!!!!!  Here is our favorite book we read during our two week study of colors! 

It is called The Day The Crayons Quit-- we were literally crying laughing so hard at this book-- Peach is the best color in the book!  You still have time to order it with our book order!  It will be available in October as well.

 

My work is never done!

The day I found our I had been given the opportunity to teach kindergarten I hit the books, blogs, website and classes to make myself prepare to be the best that I could be.  Teaching kindergarten has been a dream of mine for as long as I could remember-- my dreams are finally coming true!  I was excited to say good bye to pre-school and HELLO to kindergarten!  I also knew it would be a lot of work to prepare myself both physically, mentally and educationally.  I was used to teaching only half days to my students that ranged in age from 3-5.  I now have 5-7 year olds and have them all day!  I attended my first kindergarten conference in February with some of my new co-workers.  I attended the KRA training in August and I researched from last November- pinterest, blogs, facebook, websites- books- the library-- you name it I probably looked at it this year.  I am sooooo excited to be teaching kindergarten and I want to make our year together the most successful.  I have learned through this that first, I love learning; second, my work is never done.  So how do I get it all done?  Well let me show you:

I work from anywhere-- I love spending time with my own children so when they want to do something-- I try not to say no and pack up and go-- here I worked at our pool (my parent's live next door to us and they have a pool- thanks Gaga and Papa).

See they wanted to be outside and I really wanted to keep working so again I packed up and headed out to watch them and play in between color sets! 

Well, on rainy days I could really let my office consume me but again I packed up and headed out to our living room to work while the kids had a movie day.

I usually come in early everyday 7:45 (we don't have to be to school until 8:15) and I stay late almost every night (some nights it is dark before I am leaving) I will have to show you a night time picture of the school all lit up it is soooo pretty!

And I am known to sit at my daughters soccer, basketball and softball games with my bag of tricks and treats.  My 3 year old son eats all the treats or shares them while I work on all of the new tricks for school. 

Needless to say, I find a way to get it done.  I love being organized and prepared.  Thank God, my own children understand and love spending time helping me with school projects and at our school!

Have a great weekend-- see you all tomorrow!



 

Color Week(s)

 

We just wrapped up our two week study of colors-- We started the kick off with Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr. and learned about a new color each day.  We even learned how to spell our color words and had some taste tests!  Such a fun and exciting time and we know all of our colors now (gasp)!  Here is some of the fun we had.

 

 

Our very own Clifford The Big Red Dog for Red Day

 Everyone working hard on our Brown Bear Books (they will be coming home this week in our R.E.D. folder for your child to read to you)

Green Day was a snack day!!!  We enjoyed these sweet gems (found them at Sam's Club and had to try them) They taste just like cotton candy!  YUMMY -- it was a "party in our mouth"- out of the mouths of babes.

Purple Day we read about Harold and the Purple Crayon and then made our very own purple crayon drawings.  Just like Harold ours had to include the moon and our self! We hung these in the hall along with our writing of where we went with the purple crayon!

PINK DAY!!!!!!  This was by far my most favorite day-- yes I know pink is my favorite color but seriously this is a wonderful book and I have even seen it on stage as a play with my daughter and it is sooo cute!  You can check it out on YouTube as I do not see that it is coming to Ohio anytime soon.  Pinkalicious on stage!  We then made a pink drink (strawberry lemonade) -- yes Pinkalicious has a lemonade stand too- in another!  We enjoyed our drink with our snack!

We learned how to play Candyland in centers this week.  Let's just say that is a hit and we will be playing it a lot more!  Such a great game to practice our colors and learning how to get along and share.

We finally wrapped up our week(s) with reading my kindergarten favorite (Thanks Mrs. Karl) It Looked Like Spilled Milk.  We then did our own version of spilled milk and created our own creations.  These kids crack me up (mine looked just like a rib cage and lungs and they thought that was sooo funny that I was a magician and could make an xray of my body so quick).  We finished by working on writing and telling what our creation looked like but wasn't.  These will be displayed until the end of the week be on the look out for them to come home on Friday. 

 



Our Brand, New Classroom

Our Brand, New Classroom

Holy Cow, I can not say thank you enough to the citizen of Willard for allowing up the opportunity to build this brand, new school!!!!!  I am so in love with our school and especially my classroom (I really think I could live here).  So again, thank you all!!!

(Picture taken in our Extended Learning Area ELA for short)

So here is a little picture tour....Enjoy!

(Entering our room-- we are Blooming in Kindergarten)

*yes I was here until 8 p.m. one night working away that is why it looks so dark- by the way this place is even more beautiful at night if you can imagine that!

(Our station where we check in every morning)

(Our cubbies with book bins for Daily 5 Reading and our awesome Book Bags from Mercy Hospital- Thank you!)

(This is the view as you enter our door- it is dark because our lights turn on with movement and I had not yet entered our room for them to turn on - soo cool)  

(View from the front of the room- the front section is for seat learning the back is where we do small groups and center work)

(Here you can see our computes and tablet area as well as the sink, tons of above storage for all of our crafts, the door that leads into our very own bathroom, our morning meeting area and where we read stories on the carpet)

(This is the front of our classroom-- we have our word wall on the sides of our interactive white board (it is soooo awesome to be able to teach from anywhere in the room with this and the kiddos still be able to see without me being in the way.  Our story chair and white board center with our book browsing bins)

(Finally, this is my area- yes I know my flag needs a holder it is coming- I love my area and all of the storage this room has! If you look close at my computer screen you can see my minions reading together - Thanks Megan Caudill with Shutterbug Photography for capturing this awesome moment in time)

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour.  I love this place and take a lot of pride in our new building and our district.  Also, the kiddos and I are enjoying learning in our air conditioned building since it is 90 outside! #foreveraflash

Our First Week!!!

We Made It!!!!

(Enjoying a Kissing Hand Snack)

A few tears were shed- including me- but we made it through our first successful week of kindergarten!  We really enjoyed learning about school and one of our new favorite books The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.  We had a great time trying to catch Chester as he left us clues around the school so we wouldn't get lost.  He even left us a treat back at our classroom (a bag full of kisses) THANKS CHESTER!  We wrapped up the week with our first math homework and a special snack!  Thanks Mrs. Adams for the snack, we loved every bite!!!

(Our Kissing Hand Snack)