I haven't Left!

Hello, my blogging friends!

This has been a wonderful experience of getting to know you and learn from you, and I'm thankful for all of your input and suggestions!

I am a blogger at heart, and wanted to let you know where you can find me after this week.

http://teachingtoolbox.blogspot.com/  is connected to my personal blogs so that I don't have to sign in as a different user.  If you click the link, you'll find it looks very familiar :-)  That blog is also older, so has some of my past writings as well.

  Please contact me if you are also going to continue blogging about your classroom experiences!  I've loved reading it all :-)

Love,
Bethany

Using Magna Doodles

In the mornings, after my kinders finish their journal writing, I let them sit quietly on the carpet and practice their spelling words on a Magna Doodle while they wait for the rest of the class to finish their work.  It works really well, because they get to work on their handwriting and spelling at once, and enjoy it more than they would if they were writing it out on paper (plus, I don't have to buy dry erase markers for them!)

Today, after everyone had moved from journaling at their tables to spelling on the carpet, I had them keep their Magna Doodles so that we could do another activity.

We learned about seasons yesterday, and since we don't really have seasons in California, I knew they would need some reinforcement.

I had the kids sit in a circle, and asked them each to use their Magna Doodles to draw a picture about Winter.  I gave them 1-2 minutes to draw their pictures, and then we went around in a circle sharing what they drew.  The kinders were proud to show their drawings, and they really had some great ideas for representing the seasons.  (My favorite one for the day was a drawing of Fall where "the sun is zapping all the leaves off the trees."  !!!)

It helped them cement a rather vague concept in their minds, and they really enjoyed sharing their work and thoughts with each other.

Knick Knack Paddy Whack

I used a new book today,  Ellen Booth Church's "Best Ever Circle Time Activities" from Scholastic.  It's written for PreK-1st and packed full of activities and games that build phonemic awareness, expand vocabulary, and strengthen listening skills.

There is a fun activity called "Tell Me A Drawing" where you draw a picture as the children direct you step by step.  We drew a dog.  The fun thing is, that after you draw each body part, you sing Knick Knack Paddy Whack.  Ours went like this:

This old dog, here's his ______ (head)
(children fill in body part)
He played knick knack on my ________(bed)
(add rhyming word)
With a knick knack paddy whack, draw another part,
This old dog is really smart!

The kids loved choosing the part I drew next, and coming up with words to rhyme with the body part.  They enjoyed it a lot, it encouraged them to think of rhyming words, and I consider it a success!

Field Trip Funnies

Kindergarten through Third grade went on a field trip today to see a local community college production of Miss Nelson is Missing.  They loved it!  The play was very well done, very funny, brightly colored, and entertaining.  I would totally do that again :)

We had a rather funny communication mixup, though.  The bus arrived at 8:30, so basically as soon as the children got to school, I had them lining up and ready at the classroom door.  One of the dads came into the class with his son, and when I asked where his sack lunch was, the dad said that Lucas didn't need one because he wasn't going on the field trip.  Surprised, I asked why.

"Oh, you know...I don't think he'd sit still and enjoy it very much," Dad said, "He will just stay here instead with the other kids."

"Other kids?  What other kids?  Everyone who is here is going with us."

I don't know why he thought it was an optional field trip!  I had been certain that I had it marked down that he had turned in his permission slip and paid the $16 admission ticket.  It turns out that when the classroom aide puts a check next to someone's name, it means "check on this," instead of that the permission slip had been turned in! 

Also, the permission slip that was passed out to all K-3 students has a place to sign that your child will be attending, but says nothing about assuming responsibility of your child should you choose not to send him on the trip.  Pretty funny, huh?  I'm sure that we will be rewording the form next year!

I assured Lucas' dad that it was fine if Lucas came, since I had assumed he was anyway.  Dad went out the door, called Mom, and then came back in the room.  He decided to give Lucas the choice:  "Lucas, would you like to go to the field trip, or would you rather go home and spend the day with Mommy?"

No brainer!!!

Oh well, one less head to keep an eye on...

Counting Coins

We have spent the last week learning how to count money, but the kindergarteners are still struggling with it.  We've done worksheets together, we've counted out play money, we've learned what the head and tails of each coin looks like, but they still aren't getting it.

I did a portion of my student teaching in a kindergarten class, and the teacher there taught her class the coins using the tune "Frere Jacques."  It's pretty simple :)

Penny, Nickel, Dime

Penny, Nickel, Dime

Quarter, Half Dollar,

Quarter, Half Dollar,

One, Five, Ten,

One, Five, Ten,

Twenty-five, Fifty

Twenty-five, Fifty

My class here learned it relatively easily, and I printed large model coins off the computer and posted them on the white board with name labels and how much each one is worth.  It's helping slowly :)

I cleared the morning today so that we could spend more time focusing on money.  Their test is on Tuesday, and I want to make sure they understand before then! 

I split the class into two groups, gave half of them a two page worksheet that had them identify pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, and then brought the other half to the kidney table with me where we played store.  I used post-it notes to put prices on various toys from around the classroom, gave each child pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, and let them one by one make purchases to show that they understood how to use the money.  They really enjoyed the "game" (I love it when learning is fun!).

When we finished our group centers, we gathered on the carpet and practiced buying things together. I drew pictures of a pencil, a book, a lunchbox, and an alphabet block.  Next to each one, I put a price tag.  Then I chose students to come up and buy the items.  They chose coins from a money box and decided how to pay for things.  I drew the coins they chose to pay with under the item they "bought," and then invited other students to come up and show different ways to pay the same amount of money.  It was very successful, and now I feel better about their understanding of money! 

We will be doing more of this on Monday to prepare for that test :)

Oh, Say...Can We Say?

Special Friends Day is coming up in two weeks.  It's a day where every student can bring someone special, be it a grandparent, a special aunt, an older cousin, or good ol' Mom or Dad.  There's an entire sports-themed program planned, and K-3 is singing a song, 4-5 are doing one, and 6-8 are singing one, too.

I just found out that the 1st and 2nd grade teachers decided to change ours from "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to "Star Spangled Banner."  Interesting, since "Take Me Out" has such easier lyrics, but no, apparently it has too many verses (skip some--who even cares!?) so it's on to "o'er the ramparts" and "gallantly streaming."

In two weeks, I need to teach 5 year olds words to a song they can't read.  As soon as I learned of the switch today, I sat down with my kinders and had them repeat, line by line, the lyrics to the song before we tried to sing them.  When we finished, one of the girls looked at me and said, "Teacher?  These words are too big for five year olds."

My thought exactly!!!

But we'll make it.  :)   I'm going to write the words on our flip board and do my best to add some rebuses, but it will take some creativity!  Maybe some hand motions, too... hmm.  Time to put on my thinking cap!

It's frustrating to be the odd man out.  The other primary teachers are so tight that it's easy to feel like a nobody.  Especially when they make decisions that they forget to inform you about.  They've been doing this all for so long that it's more of a bother to clue the new teacher in than just to do it all themselves.  How am I supposed to be part of a team when I keep getting left out?  Sigh.

I'm always promising myself that I will never forget what it felt like to be a student teacher, or a substitute teacher, or a first year teacher.  Is it really that easy to forget what an uncomfortable, unappreciated time it can be?

Why I love Kindergarten

We focused on directional language for English today.  It always amazes me how many Kindergarteners can't tell left from right.  We talked about how you can make an L with your left hand for "Left," and tied a piece of blue yarn around their left wrists to help remind them.  We played Hokey Pokey, and "Directional Tic-Tac-Toe" (I made it up on the spot...but they had to decide if they would put their mark on the bottom-right, top-left, middle-middle...they loved it!)

We also drew a group picture where I had one student come up at a time and follow my directions.  I had one come up and draw a tree on the left side of the picture, and one come up and draw a hill on the right side.  Here's my smile for the day:

Me: Lucas, on the right side of the picture, in front of the hill, will you please draw a dog?  Very good!
Now, Jeffrey, on the left side of the picture, at the top, will you please draw a sun?
Lucas: Aw, man!  He's gonna burn my poor little dog!

:)

On another note, I'm scouring the internet for a fun Dr. Suess birthday project we can do during our art period on Friday..any suggestions?