Ohm...

<sigh> It's been one of those years. They were off the hook today so I let those who followed the rules paint after lunch while those who received several (thousand) reminders had to write and draw about the right way to do things at school. I had 14 painters and 13 ...um... writers. Yes, it was 50/50. Yes, I have 27 kids. Yes, I had wine when I got home.

I have been at this for 13 years.  I'm not a new K teacher.  It's just one of those groups that just can't listen to save their lives needs a lot of extra bribes reminders/support.  They can't control their impulses.  There is one child who pretty much drives the atmosphere and he is not identified as special needs so I get virtually no support with him.  It's exhausting.  To top it off, my district went to a 26 class size this year.  I got an extra one.  Swell.  We don't have aides so it's just me and nearly thirty little ones from 8 to 2:15.  Did I mention the wine?

I really never used to complain about my job.  I still love my job.  But this year....I surrender! 

My biggest challenge is making sure we are still focused on the positive.  That those who do follow the rules don't get overlooked or feel under-appreciated.  And that the others learn to look to them as an example.  It can be hard.  When you're reading a story and you're interrupted on nearly every page by a blurt or behavior that distracts everyone else.  It's hard to remember to say, "Thank you, Joey, for having your eyes on the page and your listening ears working." instead of, "Quit making that noise, Sam!"   But it does work better.  

So onward and forward!  No one ever died from being annoyed, right?

Cats and Hats

Did you celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday this week?  I usually have at least one entire day devoted to it, but I just couldn't find the time this year.  So we just did a couple simple things today and it was still a lot of fun.  Also, the group I have this year does not do well when things are too...shall we say...fun-based.  They do not see or comprehend the fine line between having fun and being completely crazy, know what I mean?  Yeah.  I know you do.

Today we read The Cat in the Hat and did a directed drawing of the cat.  I think they turned out cute.  When they finished, I told the kids to write some --at words.  Then, we made a hat to wear and on each stripe was an --at word.  I didn't take pictures of the hats, but they were super simple and the kids looked really cute walking around in them.

Later, we read and watched a DVD of Green Eggs and Ham.  It was a much simplified version of my past Seuss days, but sometimes you just can't squeeze everything in!  I had a sub yesterday so I could attend a Common Core training so today was a bit of a catch-up day as well.  And yet another reason I didn't want to do anything too crazy!

If you want the directions to do the drawing: CLICK HERE

TGIF!   Have a GREAT weekend!

Penguins, Snow, and Valentine Love

Whew!  I've been out of the loop for awhile!  I feel terrible to have neglected my blog but I've just been swamped.  We moved on Feb. 1st and that took every ounce of energy I had to spare-- and then some!  Moving is such a pain in the you know what great experience.  We are still getting settled and have a bazillion boxes left to go through are almost unpacked.  It is unreal how much stuff you can acquire, isn't it?

Of course, in the classroom, the show must go on, right?  We have had a great and fun-filled month so far!  We did a penguin directed drawing and they turned out really cute!  I did these in small groups.

Last week we had a visitor come from a local museum (Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose) and do a presentation called "Snow Day" to kick off our upcoming unit on weather.  The kids got to use microscopes to look at artificial snow.  They checked it out dry, then with water, then with salt and compared and contrasted how it looked and changed.  They loved it!

 The kids worked in pairs.

 They learned how to adjust the focus.

 This was also a great exercise in following directions.

This experience really gets them excited to learn about weather, and also gets them talking about snow which is something we don't see around here.  It snowed a little a couple of years ago, but normally "cold" is around 55 here in the Bay Area of CA.  (Unless you're my hubby.  Then "cold" is 74, and 55 is downright freezing!.)   My group this year tends to be a little, shall we say, chatty and they did have to be threatened reminded a few times to be good listeners but, all things considered, it was a great day!

Of course, we also celebrated Valentine's Day this past week.  We are allowed to have 2 parties per year so I always do one on Valentine's Day.  No matter what, this always ends up being one of our best days ever!  I had parents sign up to bring cookies, fruit, and juice.  We passed out cards and did some fun coloring sheets.  For class parties I strongly adhere to the old K.I.S.S. method, if you catch my drift.  Especially with the energetic bunch I have this year!  Oh my.  It's an experience just opening the door each morning.  I am counting down the days til Summer finding ways to channel their energy, but it's one of those years I cannot be off my game for even a minute!

Anyway, I want them to find learning fun so I do try to incorporate lots of arts and crafts whenever possible.  We did this cute one from Miss Kindergarten and used it as our Valentine card.  For now, I only ran off the bear.  I think I am going to do the cute bunny for Easter/Spring!

It was a super cute, fun, and easy-to-prep craft!

And now....I am off for a whole week!  My district doesn't get any extended breaks before December, but after that we have some nice mental health breaks vacations sprinkled in!  It's so nice to have time to relax with my family, unpack and get my new house in order, sleep in, and hopefully work on some new items for my TpT Store!  

Do you get any time off this week for President's Day?

Alligators & Penguins & Skunks-- Oh My!

 

After break, we began our Animal unit.  It never ceases to amaze me how much kids love to learn about animals!  We kicked off this great topic with a visit from Wild Things, Inc. , out of Salinas, CA.  If you are in this area, you should check them out!  You can take a trip to their facility (which we used to do when there was money for buses) or they will come to you with a variety of fantastic live animals!  We did the "My Backyard" assembly, which features animals native to North America.  There are many facilities throughout the country that do programs like this, you just have to call around and ask! 

Our stage was still set from our Gingerbread Man play before vacation!  Love it. 

Baby alligator

Milk snake: "Red touches black, friend of Jack.  Red touches yellow, dangerous fellow."  That's how you can tell the difference between this friendly guy and his dangerous near-twin, the coral snake.

 

"Flower" the skunk.  She's been descented.  Thank goodness!

Furry ferret. 

Red-kneed tarantula! 

 

 

Needless to say, the kids really enjoyed this experience!  We followed up with some Animal Writing (FREE) using this template I found on TpT.  We have not completed the task-- I will have to upload some photos when we get there!

 

This week, we begin our penguin unit.  This is one of my favorites every year, too!  I have decided to give you my  Penguin Counting Pack FREE!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

 

 

 

Please leave me some love and follow my blog if you like the unit!  I would love to share more with you! 

 

 

 





 

Tablet For The Teacher & Snowman CVC Freebie

ACK!  Vacation is almost over!  Where I work, teachers go back this Monday, Jan.7 for an inservice and students return on Tuesday.  It has been a great break, though.  It's so nice to have time to relax, sleep in, and get things done that normally have to wait! 

We have spent a good deal of our break cleaning, packing, and purging our house for our move in February.  While it wasn't a fun way to spend our time, I am thankful we had the time to do that outside of work!  Now for the next several weekends we will continue to hopefully reduce our "stuff" and get packed up.  We are moving to a nice, big, beautiful house so it will be a wonderful change once we've accomplished the work that lies ahead.

I have been thinking about the return to school and what to do those first few groggy days back.  Our new theme is "Animals" so I usually cover forest animals as well as penguins.  And even though it doesn't snow here in the Bay Area (hardly ever), we will do some fun snowman activities to "Winter-ize" our classroom.  I made that word up, but it should be a real word, don't you think?!  ;-)

So here is a fun Snowman CVC Freebie for you.  I am going to do these on blue construction paper and give the kids white crayons when they're done to add snowy details.

If you download it, please follow me and leave me some snowy LOVE in the form of a comment!  Thanks!

Also, have you heard about the "Tablet for the Teacher Sweepstakes" going on at Teacher's Notebook?  Click on the banner at the top of my blog for more information.  You can enter once per day from Jan. 5-31!  Good luck!

And I will leave you on this note, a joke shared with me by my 7 year-old yesterday:  What does a frog like to drink with his hamburger?    CROAK-a-Cola!

Yep.  I love vacation!

Winter Puzzle Freebie

Happy New Year!

I just finished some number order puzzles.  They are free if you click here.

I made options for 1-10 or 11-20.  You can print in color or B&W.

We will be working on numbers 11-20 this month, so I am going to make several copies of the color ones and laminate for centers.  I hope you can use them, too!

New Year's Penguin Writing Freebie!

I love vacation!  But I am (almost) looking forward to going back to school simply because we begin one of my favorite themes.  Animals!  And, more specifically, PENGUINS!  I am a huge sucker for these adorable black and white birds.

In their honor I am offering my Penguin Writing Activity Pack free until January 2, 2013.  All you have to do is:

1) Follow my blog by clicking "Join This Site" to the right --->
2) Follow me on Facebook by clicking here and clicking LIKE.
3) Leave me a comment letting me know you did these two things and include your email!

I will email the pack to you.  It includes words and vocabulary for a tree chart for Penguins have/can/are, writing paper,  and a penguin shape craft. 

This offer has expired, but you can find this cute writing pack HERE.

 

Happy New Year!

New Facebook Page

I just set up a new Facebook page-- Come find me on Facebook!  Like my page and we can chat there, too, about day-to-day teaching stuff...and whatever else we feel like talking about!

Happy New Year!

Wrapping Up 2012 With A Calendar Freebie

Before I get into what we were up to last week, I want to let you know about a project for Sandy Hook.  In case you haven't heard, the CT PTSA is collecting decorated snowflakes from children around the country to decorate the temporary school for the Sandy Hook survivors.  Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the families of the victims and the community as a whole.

Click on this link for more information.

Well, we were busy little elves last week.  We wrapped up our gingerbread unit with cookie decorating and our "Gingerbread Man" play.  This is the play by Heidi Butkus of Heidisongs.  If you've never done a play with your class, this is a great one to start with.  It's adorable!

I purposely posted a dark pic so as not to show faces, but it was beyond cute!

We painted pine cone Christmas trees.  I collected the pine cones in Lake Tahoe last summer, but you could certainly do this project with the smaller cones you find at Michael's.  

Just have them paint the cones in a paper bowl and sprinkle with glitter while wet.  Allow to dry overnight.  The way I did the display was put tacky glue in the bottom of the bowl, crumple a half sheet of tissue paper and stick to the bowl.  Coat the top of the tissue paper with more tacky glue and attach the pine cone.  I used Solo red plastic bowls.  Next year,  I will remember to take pictures of all the steps!  

We also made bead pattern candy canes.  I got the kits from Oriental Trading Co. but you could certainly just use pony beads from any craft store.

It was a great final week before the holidays, filled with fun projects, lots of hugs, and a renewed appreciation for the privilege it is to do the job I do.

I had a wonderful holiday with my family and have even created a couple of new items for my TpT Store.

Click here for your FREE January calendar numbers!

HaPpY NeW YeAr!!!

Spread Love

Batman is Watching!

Well...this has been the longest week ever an interesting week! 

So our Elf on the Shelf arrived  on Monday.  I have never done this before and was really looking forward to doing something fun that also keeps behavior in check.  However, my class sometimes reacts a little on the extreme side to the introduction of anything "fun."  ie: When we started the spider unit in October I put some webbing across the front door-- you would have thought they'd stepped onto the magic school bus or something!

So needless to say, the first day with the elf was less than stellar. 
Here's where we found him:

Just hanging out on the white board with a good view of the room.

Here's what happened:  It had rained all night and I spent most of the morning recess shooing kids away from a lake-sized puddle that had formed at the edge of the playground.  Now I know playing in a puddle is good healthy fun, but I have many children who would literally soak themselves and who would soak others who may not want to get soaked. Then they will spend the rest of the day complaining about wet shoes, socks, pants, etc and I just don't have that kind of patience anymore.

 So, at the end of our morning recess, I blew my whistle for the kids to line up.  They all did.  We were settling down and getting ready to walk in for Reading groups when suddenly, one of my crazy   energetic boys (I have 18 boys this year, by the way) points toward the puddle and yells, "SQUIRREL!!!"  He takes off to chase the squirrel, through the puddle, around the big tree, and is promptly followed by SEVEN MORE of my little friends!!!  The rest of the children remaining in line are in complete fear of the look on my face!  I quietly usher them in the door while the 8 escapees proceed to return to the playground for an extended recess!  They were unbelievable!  Swinging on their stomachs, running up the slide-- it was like the movie Kindergarten Cop!  I did not call to them.  I watched them.  I watched them become utterly possessed by their own impulsiveness.

Finally, after nearly 5 whole minutes of this, they notice everyone has gone inside.  They come to the line and look at me like nothing has happened.  They did not even get what a crazy thing they had just done!  Well, I read them the riot act in the most serious, stern teacher voice I can ever remember using.  I've been teaching K for 13 years now.  I'm no newbie.  This was insanity.  Oh, did I mention this was my  BIRTHDAY?  Yep.  Fun.

These 8 friends got notes home, I conferenced with as many of the parents as I could that afternoon, and our elf left for the North Pole before day's end to have a big meeting with Santa.  This resulted in Santa installing a secret camera so he could help our elf monitor certain children.  I don't know that Santa has ever had to go to such lengths for one Kindergarten classroom, but he did what he had to do.  And our elf took the next day off deciding if he wanted to come back or not.  The children who followed the rules and stayed in line were rewarded with a trip to the prize box.

Another lesson I learned: when you have 18 boys in a class, do not make selecting the elf's name open-ended.  Here is what they came up with:

Yes.  Batman the Elf.

I could not fathom telling them every day that "Batman" was watching them (LOL!), so in one of Santa's notes (the one regarding the squirrel fiasco) he referred to our elf as "Batty."  A little easier to live with!

Since then, things have improved and we've had a little fun with Batty.  When he returned, he wanted the kids to focus on Rule #4:

We "Elfed" Ourselves: I bought this pattern on TpT RIGHT HERE.

Today, Batty was found on Rule #5 with a  slight change:

and he brought some special stickers for well-behaved friends.

For tomorrow, Friday, he has changed our letter of the week:

and left us a special project to do:

I found the elf parts on Pinterest. Click here for the pin.

You can download the scrambled sentence by clicking here.

 

If you made it through this long post, you are a trooper!

Leave me a comment if you like the elf download and please follow me!

Cheers!  (Literally!)

Elf on the Shelf Freebie

Are you doing Elf on the Shelf with your class?  I am trying it for the first time this year!  I'll post pics when I start it next week, but I wanted to share my free unit with you in case you need it!

Click HERE to get your FREE Elf on the Shelf Unit.

It's really good for focusing on desired behaviors.  I don't know about you, 

but I need all the sanity help I can get! 

Please let me know if you like it!

Just Wow!

I am so excited  to announce that my new little blog was nominated for A Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated and to help spread the word about new blogs.

Thank you so much to Kimberly Ann over at Live, Laugh, I LOVE Kindergarten for the nomination!

The rules:

- You must post 11 random things about yourself.

- Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

- Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

- Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.

- No tag back (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you)!

Random facts about ME:

1. I am going to be 40 next week!!!

2. I have 3 kids and they have all gone to my school. :)

3. I love coffee.

4. When I was a kid I was a great tap dancer!

5. I love penguins.

6. I have always wanted to be a teacher.

7.  In school I was always very quiet and almost never raised my hand to answer questions.

8.  I don't like seafood.

9. I have taught at the same school since I started teaching 13 years ago-- 12 of those in Kindergarten!

10. I love the holidays and Christmas music.

11. I am a night owl and NOT a morning person!

 Questions asked by Kimberly Ann:
1.  If you didn't teach the grade you do now, which grade would you want to teach?  

Probably 1st grade-- I would love to see how far they can go in just one more year!
2.  What is your favorite holiday?     Christmas!
3.  Where would you want live if you didn't live where you currently live?  I currently live in Northern CA.  I would love to live in New York City!
4.  What is your favorite hobby, besides blogging?   I love to do crafty things-- Michael's is my favorite!
5.  What is your favorite sports team?  The SF Giants
6.  Are you a risk taker?  Hmmm...in life, yes.  But as far as activities, no.  I won't do anything where I might physically get hurt, like bungee jumping or sky diving!
7.  Are you a Black Friday shopper?  YES-- but every year I swear I will never do it again!
8.  Favorite place to visit?  Lake Tahoe
9.  Favorite season and why?  I love Fall because where I live it's still a little warm but not sweltering hot.  I love "sweater weather!"
10.  What was your first ever job?  I worked in a grocery store bakery when I was 16 years old.
11.  What is your favorite teaching memory?  The first year I taught Kindergarten I was lesson planning with my new teaching partner.  We were both new teachers and we thought we would try and do "me dolls"-- life size tracings of the students-- the first weeks of school!  haha  After school started and we saw what the first weeks of kinder are really like-- we quickly changed our plans!!!  (Incidentally, I have NEVER done "me dolls" with my class! )

Questions for my nominees:

1. What grade do you currently teach?

2. Where did you grow up?

3. What is your favorite color?

4. What is your dream vacation?

5. What is your favorite school break?

6. Who is someone you look up to?

7. What did you do before you started teaching?

8. What do you like to do in your "spare" time?

9. Where is your favorite place to shop?

10. Do you drink coffee?

11. Are you a morning person or night owl? 

Blogs I am Nominating:

1. Kindergarten Celebration

2. A Rainbow of Teaching

3.  Kindergarten Teacher Tales

4. The Kindergarten Teacher 

5. You and I 

6. Hoppy Kindergarten

7. Teaching Kindergarten Kiddos 

8.   Teacher Laura

9. Kindergarten Klassroom

10. Kinder Learning Garden 

11.  Krazy in Kinder

I can't wait to see what these bloggers write about themselves! 

AND tomorrow is the start of TpT's big 

Cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday Sale!

  

Everything in my store will be 28% off!  

 It's also back to work for me after a whole week off!  And conferences to boot!  I will post more on that later.....

Have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving! (& a Holiday Freebie)

Thanks for stopping by!  I would love to have you follow me-- just scroll down to the right and click on "Join This Site."  See you soon!

Wow-- Thanksgiving is almost here already!  As it is, the holiday is early this year.  On top of that, my district has the WHOLE WEEK OFF so that means I had to wrap up this holiday at warp speed this year!  (No, this is NOT a complaint!!!)

We celebrated with several mini lessons on Pilgrims and Native Americans and, of course, turkeys.  My kids loved drawing the Turkey in Disguise by Deanna Jump to go with the book Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano.

Here are some of their cute disguises:

 Turkey disguised as an apple!

 Turkeys disguised as rock stars!

 Turkey disguised as a jack-o-lantern!

More jack-o-lantern turkeys.

We also did a fun and colorful turkey craft.  I just love how engaged the kids are when they work on things like this.  I feel it is so good for them, developmentally, to cut out and put shapes together to create something!  And it makes us all SO HAPPY!

They turned out really cute!

We wrapped up our week with a Thanksgiving feast.  I had parents sign up to bring popcorn, applesauce cups, plates, spoons, napkins, and juice and I provided a pumpkin pie.  The kids loved sharing their feast together!  

I have a few Thanksgiving Freebies in my TpT Store if you want to grab them:

T is for Turkey Mini Book

Thankful Writing

And to kick off the Holiday Season you can grab  my

FREE Christmas Number Puzzles here!

There are several options for color, b&w, 1-10, 11-20, count by 2's or 5's.  Print the ones you need!

Happy Thanksgiving!