Spotting Santa

Merry Christmas from our classroom to yours. We decided to get into the holiday spirit today and make some santa's. I love this art activity because santa comes out differently for everyone. Santa has many facial expressions! We are all looking forward to Christmas and the break from school. I hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season and I can't wait to share more from my classroom once the new year begins. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jodi

Very Thankful

I will have to apologize that I haven't been posting much. It's been really busy and time seems to be flying by. Our classroom has been really busy learning many new things and trying to get some of our E.O.'s accomplished.
This past week, I have learned a new meaning of being thankful. My grandpa passed away on Saturday. My family and I were all there to see him take his last breath. I am thankful that I had him for a grandpa. He was the best and it's been hard realizing that he is gone. I am thankful for our many family and friends that have showed their kindness/generosity these past few days. Words can't express how much all of you mean to me. It's hard losing a loved one so close to the holidays but I know we have support from our family and friends that we will get through it. Now it's time to move on and get back to our daily routines. This year has had it's up and down moments but I'm looking forward to the holiday season. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you for all your support and friendship.

Halloween Came and Went

We survived Halloween day and the party. The kids had a great time and our room mother did a nice job of planning some very low key activities. Thank you Mrs. Linder and all the parents who helped out. It was greatly appreciated. Here are some pictures of what we did. Thanks for stopping by.

Our Trip to the Forest

Here in Bellevue, we are blessed to have a wonderful resource and attraction. Fontenelle Forest is a beautiful facility and is a must for any visitor or resident. The Bellevue Public Schools cooperates with the forest to have all elementary grades attend at least one field trip at their location and participate in one of there learning units. This year, we were able to visit the forest in the Fall and learn about animals and their 5 senses. We made the trip to the forest last Wednesday and we couldn't ask for a more beautiful day to go. The class was able to learn about how animals use their 5 senses, go on a hike through the forest and eat lunch outside on the patio. Here are a few photos to share with you the fun we had. Fall is my favorite time of year and being able to go to the forest during this time is a highlight. So if your ever in the area or have been meaning to go, please take the time and explore! Happy Fall Y'all

We are starting to read!!

Well we have started the reading process. Last week we learned our first word, a. It was an exciting moment in Kindergarten. They got to read their first book on their own. I just loved seeing all the smiles on their faces and their excitement of being able to read on their own. This week we learned the word, my. Again, they were able to read a book on their own and it's just amazing how excited they get when they feel they have accomplished that big step of beginning to read. One kiddo even said, "I love reading! This is fun." Next week we will be learning the word, the. I hope this excitement continues and I can't wait to see them succeed in the reading process.

Silent Teaching

It's that time of year when the seasons change and my allergies are not nice to me. I started losing my voice yesterday and by the end of the day, it was gone. Teaching was not fun today but I stuck it out like a trooper. It's hard having no voice at the beginning of the year especially when the some of my students are still learning to make good choices. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a little bit better and I'll have my voice back a little bit.
We have been busy working at building our stamina with Daily 5 and DIBELS testing is done. Next week our reading teacher and I will start pulling groups of students to work on skills that need to be addressed. In Science, we are discussing the season of summer. Next week, we will be getting into our Five Senses. Lots of things going on plus we will have a new student joining us on Monday. It's never a dual moment in Kindergarten.

Working on Our Writing

This week I introduced Work on Writing as part of the Daily 5. The students love it! They did an awesome job of building their stamina all the while doing Read to Self. It's amazing when it comes to them doing Daily 5 my room it is completely silent and they are doing what needs to be done. We will see how long it lasts. This coming week, we will be testing for DIBELS and they will be able to go book shopping for the first time. We will see how that all goes. Here are some of the students working on their writing.

Daily 5 in Kindergarten

Last week, we started the process of Daily 5. We explored Read to Self and got our stamina up to 15 minutes. The Daily 5 has become part of the Kindergarten daily routine for the past few years. I love how the students learn how to read and enjoy reading on their own. One of my students told me today that she loves doing read to self! I can't wait to update you as I introduce the other parts of Daily 5. Here are a few pictures of some of the Kindergartener's reading.

Kinder Laptops

We are getting a head start on technology this year. With a new year comes updated computers so that means more challenges for the teachers and students. This year, each student has to type in their whole first name. whole last name and a password in order to log on to their computer. What a nightmare for Kindergarten teachers. Kids have a hard time recognizing and writing their name or letters let alone trying to type it on the computer. So...I wondered what would make it an easier process for my students to learn their logins. I thought I would pull out an idea that I have worked with before but hadn't used in awhile. I believe it was Dr. Jean that created these and my students love them! They were really excited to get their own 'laptop' and they did an awesome job looking for the letters in their name. We won't venture to the lab too soon but these laptops will be great to pull out and practice for the real thing. Once logins are practiced and known, I'm hoping to use these for our Daily 5 Word Work in practicing our high frequency words. The opportunities are endless. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes once we venture to the lab.

The First Week of Kindergarten

Well...we survived the first week. It was fun getting to see all of my new friends again. I was fortunate to have all but one of them this summer for summer school so that help ease some of the emotions on the first day of school. We had a long, busy week and so we were all looking forward to the weekend. For our first week, we focused on colors and nursery rhymes. The class did such a nice job working/playing together on some color activities. I think it's going to be a great learning year and I can't wait to share with you all our experiences.

My Kindergarten Classroom

Here is my classroom at Bertha Barber Elementary in Bellevue, NE.

Getting Ready for the New School Year

I haven't posted for awhile because I have been really busy getting my room ready for the new school year. I am hoping to post pictures of my classroom really soon. It's exciting to see and hear about other teachers getting their Kindergarten classrooms ready and sharing some wonderful teaching ideas. This summer has been a learning experience and have found so many resources that I am anxious to implement them into the classroom. Here's to a great new school year and keep checking back to see what my class will be up to this year.

What I learned...

I have learned so much from taking this class. I got a blog started! That was a goal of mine that I wanted to do this summer. By taking Blogging, it has taught me how to go about setting up a blog and adding the different components to it. My hope is to keep this up and going throughout the school year along with my website. I think this will be a great tool to keep my parents informed on what we are doing in the classroom by posting up projects and pictures. It's just another way for parents to stay connected and to see what their child is learning in the classroom.

Dr. Jean

Dr. Jean is one of my favorite teachers that use songs to help students learn new things.  I found this video on a blog that I am following and the song has been stuck in my head!  I can't wait to share this with my students this fall.

Nebraska Kindergarten Conference

This past week, I had the honor of attending the Nebraska Kindergarten Conference in Kearney, Nebraska.  This year, I took a brave leap forward and was a presenter for one of the mini sessions.  It was a great experience.  I learned some wonderful ideas from the keynote speakers and others.   My head is spinning with all that I would like to try in my classroom this coming year.  My session that I presented on was about The Daily 5.  I have done the Daily 5 in my classroom for two years now and I love it.  I wanted to share what I knew with others so I thought I would give presenting a try.  There were about 50 teachers that attended my session that either knew about Daily 5 or had no clue.  I got some great comments and wonderful feedback.  I even got some good ideas from teachers that had been teaching it in their classroom.  It was a great experience and I was glad I was able to share my love of it to others.  I love when teachers share ideas and things they are passionate about and can encourage others.

Classroom Expectations

For me,  I have three expectations that I teach my Kindergarten students to not only have in our classroom but to demonstrate throughout the school:

1. Be Respectful
2. Be Responsible
3. Be Safe

If all of these expectations are shown, they are worthy of being a Bertha Barber Kindergarten Bobcat!

10 Picture Tour

Welcome to Bertha Barber Elementary in Bellevue, NE.  

We are the Bertha Barber Bobcats.  This banner greets students daily.

Our wonderful office staff.  Mrs. Fjelstad is our principal and Mrs. Kemp is our secretary.

This is my classroom looking to the southeast.  I am very lucky to have one of the largest Kindergarten rooms in the district.

This is looking to the southwest in my classroom.  As you can see I have limited wall space but LOTS of windows!

Our lunch room where we eat lunch and is also serves as our gym for P.E

The computer lab.  I'm looking forward to re-decorating it for the new school year.

Our library where lots of reading is done.

This is one part of playground.  As you can see we have a very large pad of concrete for students to play on.

This is the other part of the playground.  You can see my classroom windows in this picture.