"Gray Squirrel, gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail!"

September is almost over! Wow, the beginning of school has flown!

One of our favorite songs, and has been for years, in K is "Gray Squirrel". You can find it on Dr. Jean's Happy Everything C.D. Again, this C.D. is a must have for any K classroom!

In honor of our "Gray Squirrel" song, we made a gray squirrel. :) This crazy teacher decided to paint 24 feet in glittery silver paint and put it on gray paper for the tail. The kids LOVED it!

I found a squirrel pattern that they had to follow directions to trace on the gray paper. They cut out several pieces and put them together.

After our tails dried, we cut around our toes to make a bushy tail. What a fun fall craft!

Fall is full of great craft ideas!

Happy fall!

Always teaching!!

Just had to share!! My 3 Nieces and I made Beach dessert at our slumber party. My K kiddos did this in an individual cup at school for Beach Day in Jan., but I had to show you how this one turned out! SO FUN!!







I did one package of vanilla jello pudding. After it set up, we sprinkled blue sprinkles for the ocean. The girls crushed up vanilla oreos for our sand. The beach chairs are gum. I had fun stripes for Beach Day, but couldn't find any this time, so we used pink gum. We put gummie lifesavers in the ocean with a few goldfish. To top it all off, three drink umbrellas! It was fun and yummy!!

Happy summer to all!!

Everybody needs their own spot!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!! It's been a great 3 weeks so far. ;) Of course, I'm already planning ahead for next year!
My co-teacher and I are always looking for space savers since we share our space! I found these in the Really Good Stuff catalog last year, and we are going to get them for this coming year!

I LOVE the Very Hungry Caterpillar rug in our room, but there isn't always room on it for everyone! So, I found these cute carpet circles in Really Good Stuff called "parking spots!" They will match the rug and be great if we need a "special place" for some students. :)





We have struggled with nametags on our tables for the last few years. Many kids and not enough room for names. I found these handy holders in Really Good Stuff as well!! We'll just have the kiddos change out their tags when it's there turn in the Learning Corral!!



Okay, enough school shopping for now!! Just had to share these great things!!
Happy summer!!

This is the month we say "goodbye"!

Wow, it must be spring because I haven't had time to blog in awhile!! Wow, April flew by, literally, and now it's May!!

I'm SO behind. ;)

In April we did one of my favorite book units, fairy tale, nursery rhymes, and fractured fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Our housekeeping center was The Little Red Hen bakery, if you don't work you don't eat. ;) Dress up had tons of fun fairy tale and nursery rhyme dress up possibilities. A mother, and good friend, bought our class a bunch of reduced priced costumes in Oct. The kids were SO excited to see so many fun new outfits! We read the fractured tale "The Little Red Hen makes a pizza" and after we read it, we made pizzas, with no eggplant. :) Such a fun unit!!






This month we've been studying one of my favorite things, dinosaurs! We've done it in our Bible class since dinosaurs are part of God's wonderful creation. A great movie for K and younger students is D is for Dinosaur. I believe it's put out by Creation Reasearch. We didn't get to everything this year, but some fun activities you can do with dinosaurs are, dino dig in sand table, make baby dinosaurs in eggs (jello eggs with plastic dino inside), trace and cut a long neck dino and paint him, and read "If the Dinosaurs came Back" and journal about it. I got some really fun dinosaur stamps from "Stamping Up" and we stamped the journal page. Dinosaurs are such a fun thing to learn about!

Our dress up center was actually transformed into a school room. I put up a chalk board and some small charts and calendars. It's so cute to hear the kiddos being Me and my Coteacher. They Love playing school and I love that they love school! ;) It's hard to believe it's almost time to say goodbye and get ready for a new group a kiddos next year!

Tomorrow is our end of the year program in K. We are going to be showing off many of the songs and poems we've learned this year. One of my favorites is "Leaving Kindergarten" sung to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies. "Come and listen to a story 'bout what we've learned this year. We've been working very hard and we think it's clear. We've learned a lot of stuff, and we've made some real good friends... Now we're leaving Kindergarten, but the learning doesn't end. (spoken)~ 1st grade, Bigger numbers, Bigger words, Busy day! That's all, Bye folks, see ya later!!"
Our kiddos LOVE this! They do such a cute job too. ;) Another thing we are doing is an idea from Dr. Jean, my hero, tweaked by us. On her "All Day Long" cd there is a "What did you learn today" song. We changed it to, "Hey, hey, what do you hear? What did you like about school this year? When the teacher points your way what will you say?" Then we'll call on the children on the stage to share a favorite K memory. Then we end it with, "Hey, hey what a great year. We learned a lot we think it's clear. We're so glad you came to hear what we did this year."

It has been a great year in K!! Today, when I told the kids we only had 5 more days, they were sad. That makes this teacher happy, they love school! That's what this is all about, teaching these kids and helping learn and grow and LOVE IT!!!

Enjoy your last days, the finish line is in sight!

M-A-R-C-H 1st month of the spring!

March is here! Spring is just around the corner.

Spring is springing in our classroom too! When we get back from spring break we'll be making blooming flowers and brids nest with candy eggs. Signs of spring are popping up everywhere!



Both these projects are easy and fun! Buy multicolored cupcake liners and Easter grass. The non-shiny type of grass works best! I have a copy of the stems and then the kids just glue the cupcake liners on as flowers and glue the grass on the bottom. To glam it up, you can buy yellow sugar crystals and glue in the middle of the flower. :)
The bird nest are easy too. I bought the cheaper malted milk ball eggs for the center. I found the pretty blue paper at Lakeshore. The brown "grass" is from dollar tree!



I found a CUTE flower, I guess it's a mask, at DTLK kids too. We may have to try that out as well!

For directions google DTLK kids and look under spring flowers! Lots of darling ideas on that site too! Enjoy!


We started singing spring songs and doing spring poems as soon as March started! Here's another plug for Dr. Jean's "Happy Everything" cd. My kiddos LOVE the songs on it! The spring section has a St. Patrick's day song, 5 Little Kites, and the all time favorite Birds song. If it's not in your collection of cds for the classroom, I highly encourage you to get it!

Another one of our favorite poems is called "March Winds"

"The March wind roars loudly, winter can't stay!! (yell that part)
Wind murmers through branches as sun warms the day.
Wind whips through treetops as branches sway.
Wind whispers this secret, springs not far away!" (whisper this part)

Enjoy the spring changes wherever you are!

Happy b-day Dr. Seuss!

Here is our dress up day!! It was full of "nonsense", imagination, and fun!!!

A Seussical Extravaganzaful March!!

Wow, we hope spring is right around the corner. February was hardly there due to all the snow days we had! We are looking forward to some fun and FULL weeks in March.

March begins our unit on Dr. Seuss. We begin our month dressing up as our favorite Seuss character and celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. Last year we made Pink ink drink that the Yink drinks. This year we are going to make "Fun is Good" Milk Cow drink. I found the recipe in the "Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook".




It has LOTS of fun ideas!! Too bad we don't have more time! For the drink: 1 large scoop of vanlla ice cream, 8 oz bottle of chocolate soda, whipped cream, and a cherry. If I can't find chocolate soda, I'm going to mix up seltzer in a pitcher and put in chocolate syurp. I'm going to look for some crazy straws to drink out of too. Fun times!! This summer, the target $ spot had lots of fun Dr. Seuss things. My co-teacher and I stocked up for this time of year. Our kiddos will get some fun party loot to celebrate this CRAZY author.

Our Housekeeping and dressup have also been transformed into Seussville! Housekeeping is the Green Eggs and Ham Cafe and dress up has lots of crazy outfits to act out Seuss books.




For math, we have a 1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish counting/sorting/patterning center. For our craft, we are going to make the cat in the hat.



Books is full of Seuss books, and our journal writing will be rhyming!

One of my favorite Seuss quotes is, "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells!" How true! Let's make learning fun, exciting, and full of imagination!!

Centers and How I do them + some other ideas!

Well since I'm sitting at home enjoying multiple snow days, I thought I'd write another blog. ;)



When I moved to K, I knew that centers would be an important part of our day. I looked through many books and web sites, but didn't find a way to manage centers that I truly like until this year. Dr. Jean to the rescue again! Her book "Wonderful Rooms Where Children Can Bloom", had an idea that I tweaked for my own use.

I used a canvas and cut out multi colored triangles on the cricut. Then I put sticky hooks on it and used the center tags from the book I got at a Dr. Jean conference. Each day I change them.



The kids stay in the same groups for many weeks or I change them if there is a problem. ;) They are getting responsible and are able to "read" for themselves which center they are going to that day. We do 4 days of centers, so they usually get to all. If not, I carry them over into the next week. It's made my life much easier and it gives the kiddos ownership of what they are doing. I'm all about giving them responsibility!!

I don't know about you, but boy, Kindergarten takes a lot of stuff!! I found some other great ways to organize on Dr. Jean's website and in her conference book. I'll put in a plug here, if you've never been to one of her conferences you must try to go!! They are wonderful! :)

I use clothes hangers to hang songs and poems on a hook. Then I hang them on a wreath hanger in the closet. Keeps them nice and neat!!

Another idea from Dr. Jean, a days of the week tub which I turned into drawers with labels for each day. You could even put teaching materials in it. We have another one for weekly crafts.

Every little bit helps when you have TONS of stuff!! :)



Well, Happy Groundhog Day to all! Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow, so I guess spring is on the way! Since we weren't in school on Groundhog day, we'll do some things when we get back. On Dr. Jean's c.d., "Happy Everything" there is a fun Groundhog's day song! Looking forward to teaching it to the kiddos!

Next time I'll update Valentine's day things.

Have a happy heart!

100th day coming~ postponed due to snow for the 2nd year in a row!

CRAZY! This is the 2nd year we've had to postpone our 100th day celebration due to a snow storm. It was going to be Friday, Feb. 4, but now we have to wait and see how long we'll be out. That makes for some sad kinder kids! :(



Here is our 100 day plan, when we have it!

~ Have a 100 day treat! A waffer cookie with two donut holes to make a 100. :)



~ Wear 100 things

My jean jacket that I bedazzled with 100 jewels! ;)


My sweet niece, last year. Her Nonna put 100 flowers on her hat and her Mama did the 100 on her top!


~ Make 100 day snack mix



I made the sign and glued the actual food with the number of things next to it. The kids had a lunch sized sack to put their things it. Really the sack was too big, so this year we are doing a sandwhich sized zip lock baggie.

~ Make a 100 day necklace out of Frootie Tooties



~ Put 100 pieces of pasta on a large 100 (made out of 2 paper plates and a large 1)




~ Draw a picture of yourself as a 100 year old

~ Put 100 stickers on a 100 counting page

My co-teacher thought up a great way last year to help the kiddos count 100 of all their things. ;) They put 10 of each thing in a 10 circle to count to 100. It was a great help to the kiddos!!



It's always a fun and exciting day to celebrate. I found a very cute 100 day bulletin board set 1/2 off last year. I also found some cute 100 cut outs that we are going to glue a craft stick to for some "glasses". I'll post pics of this year once we have it!

Stay warm wherever you are!

BEACH DAY!!

Beach day is here!! We have a lot of fun things planned for our special day.

Here are some of the things we do to make this day special for the kiddos and brighten up a dreary winter day!

Have some beach boy music playing as the kids enter the room. We decorate our room with some beach things I borrow from a friend who did a beach themed Bible school at her church. Check out the styrofoam surf board!! We also hang blue crepe paper from the ceiling tiles to give the illusion of under the sea!





Next, here is our day at a glance.
1. Dancing and using bean bags to beach type music.
2. Putting beach balls in the middle of a parachute and doing some parachute play.




3. Having a relay race with flippers, goggles, and a snorkle.




4. Eating octopus, hot dog cut in 1/2 with legs.







5. Making an edible beach~ vanilla pudding cups, crushed vanilla oreos on top, beach umbrella, and fun strips gum.



6. Painting an ocean picture.
7. Sink and Float center~ large tub filled with water and objects that sink and float.





8. Finishing our hand and foot lobster.







9. Having tons of fun!!!

Beach day is always fun in the winter. We just had a snow day, so sort of fun to think about wearing our shorts and flip flops on a cold winter day!