Open house etc

It has been so much fun working with my kindergarten kiddos individually this week. They each have such a unique personality. Their excitement is contagious! We are giving our reading diagnostic as well as the KRAL test. I am looking forward to working with my kiddos on a regular basis. We have a staggered start agin this year. Half of the kinder kiddos come on Monday, the others on Tuesday. Then all come on Wednesday. What fun that will be.
     After meeting with each child they received this special gift Baggie.

The note inside explains the meaning behind each thing in the Baggie. 

Here is the inside note:

Beginning of the year

Two of my kiddos brought me special beginning of the school year gifts. It was so nice of their families to think of me. We will have a great start to our year.

This cute pot of dry erase marker "flowers" is so creative. It says, " Mark my words! This will be a great year! The kiddo even painted and decorated each individual flower. 

A family after my own heart. Caffeine and chocolate, perfect!!!!!!!

I love it! Thanks!

Open house

It was so fun this evening to meet my new kindergarten kiddos. The are all so full of energy and excitement.  Here is a picture of our "giving tree" that was part of our open house.

Generous parents took many coconuts off the coconut tree to make donations to our classroom. Thank you parents.

Silly Sally

After reading Silly Sally to the class, 

This is a child's page in a class book. I take a picture of each child doing something he or she enjoys at school and the picture is attached upside down to the page. Each child programs the page to match the upside down picture.

They love reading this book over and over again.

Milkshake boogie

The letters we are using to build words are put on paper ice cream scoops. The vowels are all the same "flavor". Three students hold cvc letters in front of the class. We sing this song and blend the word together.

At the end of the song, we shake our whole body and say the blended word.

Umbrella Poem

This is a really cute poem for spring. It also goes along well with the book Disappearing Desmond

My students have made walking umbrellas in two different ways. One year each child water color painted on a large sheet of paper. I traced a large umbrella on the back of each painting after it dried. 

During a year when we had less time due to a schedule change, students traced a large umbrella on a patterned piece of paper.  Then kids cut out their umbrella and cut legs from construction paper and glued them together. They look great as a display in the hallway.

This sample is from patterned paper. I do not have a picture of the painted example.

5 Little Ducks retelling

This retelling for the finger play 5 Little Ducks Went Out to Play.

This is made for whole class use by the teacher.
The background is just drawn and colored on card stock.  The five little ducklings are taped with wide clear tape on the back of a clear transparency. Then a cover piece of card stock is put on top. The two pieces of card stock with the transparency sandwiched between them, then gets bound on the binding machine. The last step is to cut the transparency between each duckling.

The foam puppet is Mother Duck. When mother duck says, "QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!" The teacher flips over one of the duckies, until there are none left.

The puppet is very simple to make. After cutting out all three pieces and adding details, I stapled the small ponytail holders to the back of each. (This is where your fingers go to control the puppet.)
The bill can be sewn or stapled to the head piece.

Each child can make a retelling to use by coloring and cutting out 5 duckies. Each child can fold a 9x12 piece of blue construction paper the hotdog fold. Then line up the ducklings on the top flap and cut between one making 5 flaps.