You Know You're a Kindergarten Teacher when...

Abby at The Inspired Apple is hosting a blog carnival...

You Know You're a Kindergarten Teacher when...

• You wake up on rainy days and your first thought is, "oh no, indoor recess."
• You have marker on your hands
• A wet paper towel cures everything!
• You wish someone had invented something to unclog glue bottles.
• You get really excited about new, fun fonts for the computer!
• You've vowed that your own children will know their letters and how to tie a shoe before they enter Kindergarten.
• You find yourself getting teary when they are upset and telling you a sad story...like when their dog is being put to sleep :(
• You love office supply stores.
• You find stickers in your pockets when you get home from school.
• You're 100% sure that if you say "Ask 3 before me" one more time during centers, you may lose it
• You get a chill when they've finally mastered something they've been working on- writing their name, identify word wall words, reading a certain level, etc.
• You love a freshly, sharpened pencil
• You are looking forward to warmer weather so you can stop zipping up coats!
• Your day consists of being a: mom, nurse, counselor, referee, guide, friend, disciplinarian, therapist and teacher all at the same time!

Leprechaun Visit

Today is one of those days that I love my job.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for my job but St. Patrick's Day is one of the days where I adore teaching 5 and 6 year olds... because... the leprechauns come and visit the classroom before schools starts! 

Leprechauns are very mischievous; he came into our classroom and made a huge mess!  :)

He left a note on the classroom door...

And, this is what the students saw when they walked into the door...

He left leprechaun dust all over the floor and tables, messed up our share bins at our tables, made a huge mess by taking housekeeping out, stuffed animals out, left each student a piece of gold and then hid a pot of gold in the room.   He even ran all over their morning work and left little green footprints on it!

I love that they believe in magic!  Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Teacher Talk Thursday: My Schedule

I decided to link up to Abby's Teacher Talk Thursday!  This week's edition is schedules!

I'm a Kindergarten teacher in a major school district in Maryland, right outside of DC.  We have all day Kindergarten; I absolutely love my school, my teammates, and the rest of the staff!  I've been teaching for 8 years.  I taught 1st grade for 6 years and this is my second year teaching Kindergarten.  I've been at my school for all 8 years; I know how lucky I am!

5:40- Alarm goes off, hit snooze and roll back over to go back to sleep (I just do not understand people who do not use the snooze button!  But, I digress...)

(side note, does anyone have an alarm clock like this anymore?)

5:55- Shower, dress, blow dry hair, feed Sophie, make lunch, etc.

7:30ish- I arrive to school, mentally prepare myself for the day, get materials together for math in the afternoon or the upcoming days, catch up on blogs.  Unless I was out the day before, I try to make sure I have everything ready for the morning if not the whole day before I leave the building the day before.  There's nothing worse than running around in the morning when you have stuff that has to get done!

8:45- Students arrive, unpack, start their morning journals

9:15- Morning meeting.  We read the plans for the day, do calendar, weather, etc and have a movement break

 

9:40- Whole group lesson/modeling

9:55- Book clubs (reading groups) start and students work on follow-up work or go straight to their literacy centers

This is my most challenging part of the day... keeping students from interrupting me while I'm teaching small groups and trying to keep them relatively quiet!  If someone walked by my room, they would probably see a group of 4-5 students with me at our reading table and another student standing up showing me some sort of work and me holding up the number 3 with my fingers.  ASK 3 BEFORE ME!  Come on people, it's been 113 days of school already!

10:45- Writer's Workshop is supposed to happen here.  If I'm being really honest, I generally don't get to writer's workshop.  I'm usually wrapping up my 3rd reading group instead of my 4th and decide to meet with my last group instead of doing writer's workshop.

11:20-12:20- Lunch and Recess- I'm lucky here compared to many teachers, we don't have to cover lunch or recess duty!

12:30-1:05- Specials- PE, music, art and media every day except for Tuesday

1:05-1:20- Rest/Read/Drinks/Finish center work

1:20-2:10- Math.  Most of the time, I teach math in a format much like reading groups.  I work with 3 small groups of students.  Students are either working at their seats on independent work or working at math zones (otherwise known as math centers). 

2:10-2:45- Science/Social Studies/Free Choices- Three days a week I pull an intervention group of three students who are working on reading skills.  We're working on identifying word families, blending sounds and breaking words apart.

This is our housekeeping area- one of the favorites!

2:45-2:55- Pack up!

3:05- Dismissal- I take the Kindergarten walkers out so I'm done either by 3:07 or sometimes 3:20, if parents are running late. 

3:50- Our duty day is done.  I've gotten much better at leaving around 4 this year.  During my first few years, I stayed much later but I've gotten better at working smarter and really try to leave by 4 or 4:30.  It helps that I have to get home to make sure to let Sophie out!

Candy Sushi

During the last two weeks at school, we've been doing an author study on Rosemary Wells. She writes Max and Ruby stories, Rosie's Walk, Noisy Nora, etc. Some of you parents out there may know the Max and Ruby stories from Nick Jr.


At the end of each author study, we try to do some sort of culminating activity- something really fun to wrap up what we did with the students. Today, we made candy sushi! We read the book Yoko which is about a little girl whose mother made her sushi to take to school for lunch. Other students made fun of her different food and teased her until Yoko's teacher came up with an idea for International Day and the students all tried different foods. We talked about teasing, what it felt like when someone teased us and the importance of trying new foods.

To my surprise, many of my students eat sushi on a somewhat regular basis. Of course, I do need to keep in mind that they are 5 and you can only believe half of what they say! :)

One of my teammates found a recipe for candy sushi and I decided to give it a try. I made the rice crispy treats last night and brought them in today so all we needed to do was assemble and roll the "sushi."

Rice crispy treats, gummy worms, swedish fish, and fruit roll-ups

Put the fruit roll-up on a greased piece of wax paper

Spread the rice crispy treats on the fruit roll up

Put the gummy worm or swedish fish onto the "rice"

Begin to roll

And, roll

Cut

Viola!  Candy sushi!

They loved it! 

100th Day Celebration

I'm a little late with this post since our official 100th day of school was last Friday.  However, we were celebrating Valentine's Day on Friday in Kindergarten so more families would more likely be able to attend the party on Friday afternoon as opposed to Monday afternoon.  We celebrated our 100th day on Monday- we flip flopped the days, talk about confusing our little ones!

I don't remember the 100th day of school being a big deal when I was in elementary school; of course, that was 20 some years ago so maybe I just forgot!

We created our 100 year old portraits in the morning, I'm so impressed with how they turned out!  They did a great job and were so creative with them!  I got the idea from various blogs, including Abby's Inspired Apple. 

 

     (I love how her hair is crooked!)

In the afternoon, students went to 5 different stations all pertaining to the number 100. 

1. 100 day crowns- I put out sequins I had and they had a great time decorating their crowns with little "jewels."  I wish I had a picture but we got them from the $1 bins at Target!

2. 100 legos- they built towers together using 100 legos

3. Skip counting by 10s to 100 (The picture is difficult to see but each bus has a number on it, 10, 20, etc. and students were to color in the buses, cut them out and glue them onto the construction paper).

4. 100 pattern blocks, they created patterns and designs using 100 pattern blocks

5. 100 chart mystery pictures

We had a great 100th day!  Only 74 more to go!

All You Need is Love- Day 2

It's Day 2 of the Valentine's Challenge... when I'm feeling down, to cheer myself up I {LOVE} to...


 

I'm pretty lucky- since I'm a Kindergarten teacher, I have lots of pictures, notes and letters that I like to keep in a box.  So, when I'm having a bad day, I just open my little box and I have a ton of built in love!

Grant it, sometimes the reason I'm having a hard day is because one of these little muchkins but I do love the letters, pictures and unconditional love they give me!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving... that is Wednesday and I have today and tomorrow left to teach.  I can't wait for vacation to start!

I'm loving... all the Christmas cards we're getting the mail.  I love getting mail!

I'm loving... that I'm having a few of my high school friends over for brunch on Friday.  I'm not loving that I'm missing one of their baby showers on Sunday since we'll be out of town but at least I get to see them!

I'm loving... the fact that I overheard two of my kindergarten girls singing "All the Single Ladies." TOO funny, I just about died laughing.

I'm loving... that I'm going to see the National Christmas Tree with Blake, my sister, my brother-in-law and brother tonight and then we're going out for dinner!  Yumm!  

I'm loving... that Christmas is in 3 days!

Before starting kindergarten

,,,our future children will be able to:

• Identify all letters
• Identify numbers up to 20
• Write all letters
• Write numbers up to 20
• Write their name
• Count up to 20
• Tie their shoes
• Button and snap their pants

I hope they will also be able to:

• Identify numbers up to 31 and higher
• Count up to 31 and beyond
• Identify letters AND letter sounds
• Some idea of number sense and be able to use words like "more" or "less" with an idea of what they mean

The beginning of the year in Kindergarten is the hardest part for both the students but especially the teacher! :)  I hope I will be able to give my future children a head's start by having them do at least the above list if not a lot more!  If you have children and they are going to be going to school in the next couple of years, be sure to start working with them on those things!

And, see they have so many toys and things to help make learning fun! 

First Three Days

I have survived the first three days of school.  This week has been a really good week.  I'm exhausted but it's 9:29 and I'm still awake and typing.  Compared to last year, this is very impressive. 

Despite my two criers and one little boy, "Z," I have a great class.  I could still be in the honeymoon phase but I'll take what I can get.   "Z" is definitely going to be my challenge this year; I think he's going to be great in a one-on-one or small group situation but in a whole group setting, it's a whole different story.  I also think I have a great group of parents- they are appreciative but not too crazy.  Last year, I had a couple of crazy parents.  I also had some great parents last year but the crazy ones really made my life difficult in the first couple of months of school.  All those teachers out there know what I mean. 

My criers are still crying.  BUT, they aren't crying all day anymore.  And, I must admit, my patience with the crying is absolutely gone.  I just don't have it in me to give them the attention they want.  Yesterday was a better day than today in terms of crying but I'm hoping that tomorrow and Friday will be even better.  

 

On a different note, here's how a conversation went with a little girl yesterday.

Me: "K, what language do you speak at home with Mommy and Daddy?"

Long pause.

K: "This."

I just smiled and wondered if "this" meant English.  But I'm still not sure.

First Day

Today was the first day of school!  And, I survived!  I'm certainly ready for a nap mostly because I had two students who cried.  One cried The. Whole. Day. Well, minus a combined 30 minutes including part of lunch but I wasn't with her.  Another cried until about 10:00 and then started again around 1:00 and cried until about 2:00.  Whew.
 

I started off feeling badly for both but after 4 hours of crying, I was exhausted and I wasn't even the one crying!  I can only imagine that they will both sleep well tonight!  Hopefully, tomorrow will be much  better for them and they won't be too upset!