Faculty Kickball Game!

We had an amazing time playing kickball against another school! Ramona Elementary challenged us to a game, which we readily accepted. You see, our old principal is the new principal at Ramona Elementary...so we had to win...which, we didn't :(

Ramona was really on their game! They beat us 6-4. But next time, we will get them!!

We had a wonderful time playing, and have already set up another game. It's really great to see a bunch of teachers get together and celebrate the success of their students!

Literacy Centers Chart

While attending a literacy workshop through my district, I found out about literacy stations. While I had (what I thought were great) centers in my room already, what I learned blew my mind. I immediately picked up a copy of the book we used entitled "Literacy Work Stations, Making Centers Work" by Debbie Diller. You can grab a copy of the book here. This lady is a genius! And I immediately wanted to copy her style of a year long centers chart. I can hear your gasps already. That is right, I do not change my centers chart everyday, or every week, or frankly, ever. Here is what the chart looks like:

I know, I know, it looks crazy. And you are asking yourself how in the world kindergartners could possibly read such a thing, trust me...they can. And by the way, don't limit your kids ability :)

So, my students read the chart everyday. Here is how it breaks down. At the top are the groups. The top name is the captain, they are responsible for the materials. Each group is a different color. They read the chart going down. We visit 2 centers each day.

Monday 1 is the first center we visit, followed by Monday 2. Each day follows just like that. There are 9 centers total. They are: sight words(fluency),

independent reading(comprehension), listening station, ABC center(phonics), read the room(vocabulary), poetry, writing, big books, and computers(phonemic awareness). *Notice the Fab 5 of reading*

I will note, that when using a centers chart like this, while easy for me and the students, it can create some problems in the classroom. If your classroom management skills are not top-notch (not to toot my own horn, but...honk honk ;) ) this chart will most definitely not work in your classroom.

Your students need to be incredibly independent thinkers for this centers chart to work. Students need to be able to figure out where they are suppose to be and when all by themselves. There is no point in having a center's chart like this if you have to stop and tell the students where to go.

And don't worry, the students did not come into a centers chart like this the first day of school. We start off with one center under every students name. All of the students go to the same center for as long as it takes for them to understand it. Some centers may be a day or two, some may be a week or two. But I promise it is all worth it in the end. As different centers are introduced, they are added to the chart. By Thanksgiving, my centers chart is full and the students can use it independently. Truly a gift to myself :)

Flower Update

I can't believe how quick the flowers have started growing! The students planted their seeds on Friday, and this morning (Monday) when I came in to the classroom, I could already see little sprouts! Three different flowers have started sprouting, leaving just one type of flower behind as the non-bloomer. Naturally, those students aren't too happy about their flowers not growing, but so far, there have been no tears :)

Take a peek at how great our flowers are doing!

Here is the flower journal I promised I would post. My students will start filling their journal in this week. I can't wait to see how this project turns out!!

Spring has Sprung!

The Farm theme has ended, and we are on to our next theme...SPRING

What a fun theme! We learn about weather and flowers and baby animals and even life cycles. This is a great theme because all of the subjects can get incorporated into it (like kindergarten should be). When I teach the Spring theme in reading, we can teach Spring in EVERY subject...the kids never stop learning about it.

So, I haven't officially started the Spring theme yet; I start it on Monday. I did, however, start planting flowers with my students! This is a long project, so I thought it best to start as early as possible, hoping the flowers bloom by the end of the school year.

I purchased 4 different types of flower seeds, some soil, and 8 flower buckets from Target ( I think my total came to about $12.00!!)  Each student got to choose the flower they wanted to grow and plant their own seeds. I wrote their name on the flower pot and attached a picture of what we hope the flowers will look like.

The students are so excited to watch the flowers grow. I told them "You are responsible for your flowers growing. You are responsible for watching your flower, watering your flower and recording what happens to your flower". To which one of my students says, "Yea! That is why it has our names on the flowers and not yours". *Good Point hahah*

I also created a flower journal for my students to keep track of their flowers progress, which I will attach soon!

So...here are the pictures of the students picking their flowers and planting them. They also watched their flowers for at least 5 minutes thinking they would just sprout up, it was cute :) Enjoy!

April Bulletin Board

I can honestly say...I LOVE bulletin boards. While most teachers see them as a hassle and a waste of their time. I absolutely enjoy thinking of new ideas for them and searching for creative ways to display my students work, because, honestly, their work deserved to be displayed (and not in something that took me 37 seconds to decorate either). When I put time and energy into my bulletin board, my students know that I treasure their work, and it makes them happy to see it so close to the front office :)

So...here is my April bulletin board

My students got to choose the middle of their flower. They could choose any word family (at, an, it, ig, ed, en, op, un, and ug) we have learned, or any 2consonant blend (ch, th, sh, cr, dr, and tr). After they choose their middle, the students wrote words that belong to that family or blend on petals. They attached them all together with a stem to make a beautiful flower.  *This would have been great in my Spring reading theme, maybe next year lol*

Seeing as how I could not just put flowers on my bulletin board, I added some brown butcher paper to resemble dirt and then twisted green butcher paper to look like roots or vines. Next came the title, easy enough, it is always "Spring into" (you fill in the blank) and this time it was "great work!"The finishing touch was a yellow sun added to the top corner of the board.

And as always, I added the task and standard. And yes, that standard is a 1st grade standard, because my kids are that wonderful :)

The Farm Book

We have officially ended Theme 8 in our reading series  - "Down on the Farm". The kids LOVE this theme, which is why it is always one of my favorites!

For this theme, the students each made their own farm books!  The students became the author's of a great book that was all theirs. Everyday, the students created a new page, they cut and pasted their farm animals, and wrote a sentence. Check it out...

Day 1 - the cover page

 

Day 2 - the sheep

Day 3 - the rooster

Day 4 - the cow

Day 5 - the horse

Day 6 - the pig



I can honestly say - My students adore this activity. To create their own book, be able to take it home, and have ownership of it is really special. They became authors and illustrators, story tellers and narrators, and most importantly - they had fun.

It is possible to have fun and learn all at the same time, that is what we are doing everyday here :)

Playdough meets Dolch

There is nothing my student's love more in this world than Playdough...yes...Playdough. The substance we all ate played with as children is still just as popular today as it ever has been.

During skills this morning (where my students work on phonics, phonemic awareness, and fluency) I busted out the playdough. If I could have taken a picture of my students' faces, it would have won an award. You see, normally, Playdough only comes out at the very end of the day when there is extra time (and only for my well behaved students). So when those little tubs of colored goodness came out of the bucket, my student's had no idea what to expect.

I decided while working on our high frequency words (Dolch words) we need to do more than just read flashcards. My students practice their Dolch words in context at the poetry centers, and write them in the writing center, but that just wasn't enough. So...here comes the Playdough!

The student's used the Playdough to form their Dolch words. They had to create each letter and put them in the correct order. I have NEVER had my students work so hard on Dolch words EVER before. We went through all of List 1, and tomorrow, we will work on List 2.

It is nice to see my students so happy about learning. And all of my students were into it, they got to work with their hands and actually build things! *P.S.* I attempt to bring kindergarten back to the way it was when I was in kindergarten :)

That's it for now! But I suggest you go play with some Playdough and remember the little things in life that make you smile...you never out-grow Playdough :)