Kindergarten Catch-up

Sorry I haven't posted anything since Valentine's Day. Life somehow got in the way and my "free-time" was rendered more useful elsewhere.

However, we have been having classes regularly and we have been learning quite a lot. I've been focusing the majority of my attention on preparing them for the spring IRI and making sure they are confident with their abilities to be able to survive first grade.

I will be posting some pictures of our Easter party and any other fun activities that we do this spring.

Valentine's Day

We've accomplished the celebration of our first Valentine's Day at school. I had forgotten that Valentine's Day was never a big day for this little guys until this year. It was a lot of fun to see them open their valentine cards and gasp at the candy that came with practically every card (who started that tradition?) - anyways it was a fun afternoon full of candy, cards and games.

Questions!

So - I'm starting a unit called "By the Sea" and I introduced this unit by asking them what they already know about the ocean. That went pretty well. Then I asked them if they had any questions about the ocean or anything that they wanted to know. When they asked their questions I was into "the teaching moment" and didn't really react one way or another to their question I just simply wrote it down on the board. Well, after school I as I was copying them onto little "fish" to put on the bulletin board I realized that some of their questions were very cute so I decided to post a few.

1) How long is the ocean?

2) Do fish get sick?

3) Can squid stretch their arms?

4) Do humpback whales have spouts?

5) Can sharks get as big as a boat?

6) Are the sea creatures cold-blooded?

7) Can you go under saltwater?

Oh the Things They Say

We were getting ready to play a game for birthday parties and Ryan saw that someone was moving chairs around. He got so excited and exclaimed, "Hurray, are we going to play High School Musical chairs?"

"Mrs. Franklin, your breath smells like Ramen Noodles." - Dawson

Ryan's joke:

"Why did the pencil cross the road?"
"Because he was dumb"

Letter Celebration!

On Monday we had our first party celebrating the first 5 letters that we have extensively studied and hopefully mastered. We celebrated learning the M, P, D, S and A. It was an activity involving centers which is one of my students favorite things to do. I was lucky enough to have a couple moms join in the fun and help us out - thank you Mrs. Hunter and Mrs. Christensen. I was also lucky to have my mom come out to help as well and she brought my daughter Addison who will be in kindergarten next year. She had a lot of fun doing the centers with the kids. I also had help from Mrs. Friddle. We had so much fun celebrating the letters that we've learned. At each center the students had a book read to them, they did a craft and had a snack all of which correlated with a letter than we had studied. I look forward to our next letter celebration party!

The Letter Mm:

making Marshmellow "M"s

snack: M&Ms

The Letter Aa:

craft: Alligators

snack: ants on a log

The Letter Pp:

craft: pyramids with sugar cubes

snack: popcorn

The Letter Dd:

craft: ducks

snack: donuts (sorry I guess I didn't get a picture of them eating their donuts)

The Letter Ss:

craft: snakes

snack: sugar cookies

Thanks to "No Time For Flashcards" blog for all of the great ideas for the letters. I did learn that I will need to incorporate a drink of some kind next time as well as try and make sure that all of the books are about the same length. Other than that it worked out great and I was very pleased with the result.

The Things They Say!!!

Before Chandler and Jeff went to recess they approached me with these pretty alarming facts:

Chandler: "Guess what teacher? My dad was born in 2001"

Jeff: "Oh yeah - my dad was born in 1891" - totally serious!

Apparently I hold the record for the youngest and oldest parents in my classroom.

Today in a discussion about lightning:

Dawson: "Lightning never hits our house because NO ONE can even find our house. Only Jesus can find us."

This lead into a discussion about Jesus at a certain table during transition time in which Jeff said:

"Oh yeah - I have a bible about him."

These kids are just too cute!

Christmas Program

I tell ya - it is tough working part-time and trying to keep up with this blog. I wish there was more time in each day.

On Monday, December 21st my kindergarteners participated in their first Christmas program. They were all dressed so extremely cute and they sang their little hearts out. I wish I could've gotten better pictures of them but my camera was not cooperating.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you the best of luck in the year 2010. I know that I'm looking forward to my continued journey working with my kindergarteners and am excited for the things we will learn in the coming months.

Waiting patiently for their turn to sing.

Singing so sweetly

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!