100 Tally Marks

These kids are so lovable.

Today, we were rolling dice and counting the dots with tally marks. 

I mentioned that people might use tally marks in games or or keep track of how many times something happens. Then one of my cuties chimes in with: "Or in jail!" Where? "Jail! like, to make tally marks on the wall!"

Yes, dear. That's right. I'm teaching you a skill that might come in handy if you are locked in jail for an extended period. Awesome.

These kids continue to amaze me with their sponge-like brains that soak up anything around them. We are going to have a big focus on counting and using numbers to 100 for the next couple of weeks as we prepare for our big 100th day of school party. I wonder if they have 100th day of jail parties? Yeah, probably not.

Here's a link to the tally mark practice page we used: 

http://www.mathwire.com/seasonal/100day.html

More Sweater Monsters

The Sweater monsters in my classroom were such a hit that I now have a monster factory in my dining room. They've been for sale at craft fairs and local shops, and now I have listed my first sweater monster on Etsy. I'm so excited to send these guys to their new homes! 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/120689943/wild-sweater-monster 

Kids' Favorites

I asked my students to help me blog this week by taking pictures of some of their favorite stuff in our classroom. One of the things I love about working with these kids is the opportunity to see the world through their eyes. Here are some of the things they chose. Aren't these kids the best? 

ABC Magnets on cookie sheets. Really? THAT'S your favorite thing in the whole room? Awesome.

I have no idea what these things are called. Just a great garage sale find this summer! They are like big pipe-cleaner-thingies and they have faces and feet the kids can attach. We had them out in the writing area and kids gave their critters names and wrote little stories about them. So cute. 

Measuring stuff is great fun. Our carpet is 217 cubes long, but sometimes we measure again.
 Just to double check.

Computer lab. I love the lab, too. The kids are really independent and there are so many great
activities for them to do here. When students need help, they usually ask each other :)
45 minutes every Wednesday. 45 awesome minutes.

I'm so glad they like this game. Students practice sight words and letters by parking little Matchbox cars in the spot that their partner calls. A cute game board created by my teaching partner. 

I was shocked someone wanted to take a picture of this shape poster.
Really? That's the best part of the room? K.

Wikki Sticks. Such cool little waxy sticky strings.  :)
Truth is, they like these because I almost never get them out. Too much time is required to put them back in the baggies and clean them up for the next group. They are fun, maybe I should let them play with these more often. 

"I want to take a picture of the flag. I love that flag."
Me too, little buddy!

So, there you go. My students' favorite parts of the classroom.

Polar Express Christmas Party

What a crazy, busy, wonderful time of the year to be in kindergarten!

After weeks of wonderful, magical (everybody believes!) anticipation...

Our Christmas party finally arrived!

We watched the movie in shorter segments for the 4 days leading up to the party. 

Everyone wore their pajamas on party day!

The students left for their regular gym time in the afternoon. Parents arrived while they we gone to help me arrange the chairs in the classroom into a Polar Express train.

The train "stopped" 5 different times

Stop 1: Singing. We danced the 12 days of Christmas dance and sang for the parents.

Stop 2: I read them the story of the Christmas Gingerbread Mouse and then gave everyone a copy of the story to keep.

Stop 3: Okeefenokee. Yeah, my class loves when I tell stories of the Okeefenokee Swamp, so we decided to go their during the Christmas Party!

Stop 4: Snacks! We had Christmas cookies and Hot Chocolate. mmmm.

Stop 5: Gifts. Santa came and gave everyone a bell, I gave them a little bookmark I crocheted, and we all sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas and hopped off the train. 

Woohoo! We had fun, but it was a great relief when it was done!

Workers in our Santa Shop helped make Christmas special for  all the students.

We made reindeer food with a great label I found  online.
You can find out more here:
http://ideacloset.blogspot.com/2011/12/day-12-reindeer-food.html

Our tree was decorated with ornaments they colored!
Merry, Merry!!

Monster Update

I started making sweater monsters for my class... Here's the original post:

http://learnplaydiscover.blogspot.com/2012/10/monsters.html 

I brought them to school for the reading tent in October and the kids and I fell in LOVE :)
After the sweater monsters took a break from my classroom, I went home and made MORE for a November craft fair. I brought 12 monsters to the craft fair and sold 10 of them.

A former student and her mother stopped by my booth at the fair and encouraged me to sell my monsters at a local store. In December, I sold another 12 monsters through 2 small local shops.

I also posted a few pictures online and sold some monsters that way. Call it my Monster empire :)

My monsters are $24 each, shipping included. Made from up-cycled sweaters, each one is unique. They come with adoption papers and a little baggy of snacks. Their mouths are made from the sweater sleeves, and kids can reach inside their mouths to feed them or store toys and notes. Their mouths will hold a medium sized apple (they don't really like apples. That's just a size comparison.)

Monsters are now shipped with an assortment
of monster snacks ! om nom nom

Here are some monsters that are available right now. I am having SOOO much fun making them. You can email me for more information: 1000valentines@gmail.com.

 I think the original monsters will be visiting my class again in the new year!

Santa's Workshop

Look at all the kindergarten elves, busy getting ready for Christmas in the role playing center!

My teaching partner set up the station, and kids (and their parents) brought in tools and a tool bench from home. 

 The great thing is that I didn't have to tell them how to use this center. They make up the rules, make up how to play, and love it. Sometimes they are getting ready to ship toys, sometimes they are feeding the reindeer. You know, elf stuff.

It's a merry merry time in kindergarten!

What we do

I had a very interesting meeting this week with the principal and a couple of other teachers. Our task was to look at our daily literacy instruction and outline what we do. All of it.

The other kindergarten teacher has been teaching kindergarten for-almost-ever and runs a very tight ship. I was excited to get a chance to listen to what she does all day and steal all the ideas I could! 

 I learned a couple of things: First of all, NO WONDER I'm tired at the end of the day! We are super busy and looking at our schedules only verified that. Kristie and I do so many of the exact same things, even thought we have different styles of teaching. There are some things we haven't ever talked about, but we are doing EXACTLY the same way. That was fun to compare.

And B: I went back to class the next day and realized how many things I didn't even mention in the meeting. I remembered all my favorite activities and all my least favorite activities. I skipped a lot of the mundane and routine - but important - stuff in kindergarten. I guess that makes sense, because how could we possibly list EVERYTHING we do?

And 3: There is so much room to improve. I've been teaching for 15 years, I have a doctorate in teacher leadership, and I'm National Board Certified in Early Literacy. I have so much more to learn. At the meeting, I learned little tips for early finishers and new resources that I'm not using on the iPads in my class. Woohoo!

Here is a sampling of the activities we discussed in the meeting.

Students love using dry erase makers in the writing center

Magnetic letters in the ABC center.
Notice that the student on the right decided to do the whole alphabet backwards.
That's how they are!

A lot of our puzzles now have words to read on them!

We love pop up books! Isn't this castle awesome?

They LOVE the word wall. We play here all day long!

Every day, students bring me notes that they wrote at home.
One of my favorite moments  is when I get to read their notes!

We are using a new word bank and I love their enthusiasm to learn all these words!

Another use for books: stabilizing a Lincoln Log structure.
Does that make this a literacy activity?