Teacher Appreciation & Twitter

Once again I am humbled by the great place, I teach!  Thank you to these wonderful students and parents for their kind words!  It's great notes like this that makes teaching so rewarding!

Twitter:  I have been a facebook fan for a long time, and didn't really know much about Twitter.  For my graduate class, I created a classroom Twitter page.  I am loving it!  I can type a quick note about what we have done in class that day and also add a quick picture.  I can also give parents quick reminders of things to work on at home.  If you're not on Twitter, I highly suggest it!  Follow our classroom page: @kindergartenke

 

President's Day!

We began our week learning about American Symbols.  We learned about the American flag, bald eagle, white house, etc.  We discussed why we have a flag, what it means, and how to show respect to it.

We created this flag to resemble the real flag!

We created this project to resemble our current President, Barrack Obama.  It was really hard for us to say his full name, so we learned "President Obama" instead.  Some fun facts we learned about him are: He has a dog named Bo, He has two daughters and a wife, He LOVES to eat pizza, He likes to play basketball, He has his own airplane called Air Force One and He's our 44th President.

We learned that our first President was George Washington.  He can be found on the quarter and one dollar bill.  George had a cherry tree in his back yard.  He chopped the tree down.  When his father came home, and asked if he chopped the tree down, he said, "I cannot tell a lie."  He decided it was a much better idea to tell his father the truth  instead of lying to him!

The last president we learned about was Abraham Lincoln.  He can be found on the penny and five dollar bill.  He lived in a log cabin.  We made this log cabin project with a penny in the window to remember him. 

 

Thank You & Parent/Teacher Conferences

I am constantly reminded what a great place I teach at!  This week has been a very hard week, as I found out last Friday (Feb. 10th) that I have a pneumonia-YIKES!  Absolutely NO FUN!  When I get sick, I seem to get very sick.  

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to my teaching friend and partner, Heather Wendelin!  She has been such a great mentor to me in my last three years of teaching.  She was so great this week, helping me with my sub plans, preparing materials, making sure my kids were being somewhat successful learners, and overall just being a great friend!  I got to be at home and rest in order to try to get over this illness.  Also, a great thank you to my parents, sister, and boyfriend, who have been supportive, as I continue to recover!

In spite of the fact of being sick, the workaholic in me, went in for Parent/Teacher Conferences Monday and Thursday, and for the Valentine party on Tuesday.  I am constantly reminded what great families and support system we have at school.  The parents were so supportive and involved to know what we were are doing in Kindergarten and ways that they can help out at home.  It really helps me to understand my students' better when I am able to meet with families.  Thank you to all parents who came to conferences, and how grateful you are for education!  As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hopefully all of you had a fantastic Valentine's Day!  It was a wonderful celebration in KE!  We were busy preparing the whole week before and then had a very fun celebration on Tuesday.  Here are a few pictures from our eventful week!

BEFORE:  Each student was given a "can" to decorate to keep their Valentine's in!  We had a great time "Valentining" them up to look festive.  We learned how to make our own hearts by folding a piece of paper in half, drawing half of a heart and then cutting on the line you drew.  They really a great time with the fascination of being able to make their own hears in their own sizes. 

AFTER:  After decoring the cans, we labeled them with our names and put paper in them!  They are already for our party!

Students were asked to bring Valentine's for their friends, if they wished!  I asked students to write their friends names on the Valentines.  It was great practice for them to write their friends names, as well as, recognize their names when passing them out.

A "Heart" Person!

Thank you to our wonderful Doane Helper, Dani, we were able to paint hearts!  Painting is one of our favorite activities in Kindergarten!

We have been working hard to identify coin names and values.  In the spirit of Valentine's Day we made this vase with "coin flowers," and wrote the values of the coins on the leaves.  Continue to practice coin names and values at home: Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter! 

Groundhog's Day!

Last week we spent most of our days getting ready for the big anticipation of Groundhog's Day!  We began our adventure by first discussing what Groundhog's day is and how it relates to seasons (something we just finished learning about.)  

We started by making this Groundhog Project.  Students decided if they thought he was going to see his shadow and we would have six more weeks of Winter OR if they thought he would NOT see his shadow and we would have an early Spring!

This friend thought that he would see his shadow and go right back into his hibernation hole and we would will have six more weeks of winter.

This friend thought that he would NOT see his shadow and we would have an early Spring!  I was hoping for this outcome! :)

We created a class graph with our predictions of more Winter or an Early Spring.  We discussed the word "prediction" and how it means to make an educated guess.  14 friends thought we will have a early Spring while 6 friends thought we would have more Winter.  (Note-Next year I will expand the graph and make it bigger, so it would be so "squished.")

These are some of our favorite Groundhog books that we read!

On February 2nd we watched the National Broadcast of Groundhog's Day.  The students enjoyed the anticipation of seeing whether he would see his shadow or not.  Much to my dismay he did see his shadow ran back to his hole which means, we will be having six more weeks of Winter!  :(  

I guess we can't complain about the wonderful weather we have been having.  My students really enjoyed our 'BIG' snow last weekend!  They shared that they made snowmen, snow angels, snow forts, went sledding, and had snowball fights!  Oh the joys of being a 5/6 year old! :)

We made connections and did activities in Math, as well as, sequenced Groundhog Day pictures!  Needless to say our Groundhog's Day celebration was great fun!

New Blog!

Hello!  I am a Kindergarten Teacher and will be blogging about my Kindergarten classroom!  I am excited for the new adventures this will bring.  I am new at this and am trying to figure it out!