Great Books

http://www.studiojjk.com/I had the pleasure of meeting a great author at the "Dublin Literacy Conference."  Jarrett J. Krosoczka  is a wonderful person who succeeded in reaching his dreams of being an author and illustrator despite the difficulties he experienced in his life.  Here are some of his wonderful books.

My mind is racing with great ideas to use with these books with my kinder kiddos. Stay tuned!

Fall Fun

With fall in the air, we practiced ordering numbers 0 to 5 with fall leaves.  This helped to solidify the visual representations of each number in increasing order.

 This pumpkin center was a real hit. The kids enjoyed this twist on "decorating" pumpkins. After playing the game, they drew the pumpkin they created and described it in a sentence. This center was a favorite!

Scarecrow friends

A few weeks ago we built class scarecrows. We had a great time stuffing the parts with straw and putting our straw stuffed friends together. It gave us the opportunity to discuss and retell the order of steps taken to construct him. It allowed us to use the ordinal numbers in a real and relevant way.  As we were taking pictures of each child with our new friends, the wind turned crazy and threatened to blow our scarecrows off their perches.  We had just completed a week of learning about and discussing scarecrows.

It only cost four dollars to purchase the whole outfit for each scarecrow from Ohio Thrift. Not bad!!

Pete the Cat

Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes

Click on the title to go to the official Pete the Cat site. You can download the song free. There are some awesome resources as well.

My kiddos LOVED the Pete the Cat book I Love My White Shoes.  I made this file folder type retelling prop. to use with them.  I did find that it works much better when I used a large piece of construction paper instead of a file folder. The paper is folded not quite in half to create the folder.  The shoes are cut out before laminating. Then it is laminated open flat. Sides are taped with wide clear tape.  Details are added to shoes at the end. White, red, blue, brown and damp looking white paper is added to the formed pocket. As the story is told, remove each sheet of paper which changes to shoe color.

teacher gifts

 This is what is inside the "First-day" box.

Here are two COOL "first day" gifts I received from great students and their families this year! How generous and thoughtful! Great ideas too!

Open House

Here is my "giving Tree" from open house. Unfortunately, I did not remember to take pictures until most of the coconuts were already removed. I displayed it with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book and a few monkeys.

Getting Ready

Here is a tour of some of my favorite places in our classroom! Last week, we were testing Kindergarten kiddos. Monday and Tuesday this week, half of the class attended each day. Tomorrow is the first full day with all of the kiddos.