Sorry it's been so long

  I have been away from my blog for so long I'm going to have to refresh my memory to how to post things and all the in's & out's of it.  It was a crazy school year and I needed time away from the computer to get some things accomplished.  The school year has finished and I am currently on the last two days of teaching summer school.  It is a three weeks of fun learning that I get to be part of and the best thing is that I get to know the kids I'll have in the fall!  This summer we have been working on the letters of the alphabet and our names.  I'm finding that not many kids know how to spell or write their names.  Some don't even recognize their names or know all the letters.  I had many different activities that I had them do and one of the favorites is pin dotting.  See the picture below.

Hopefully they will work on their fine motor skills the rest of the summer.  Thank you for reading and I hope to post more often. Have a great rest of the summer!  

 

First Field Trip - Fontenelle Forest

Well I have to apologize for the lack of post the past few weeks. Time is going by to fast and there's so much to do. I thought I would do a quick update on what we have been doing in the classroom. We have been busy working on our letters, numbers, words and writing! The class went on their first field trip last week to Fontenelle Forest. It was such a beautiful day. Here are some pictures to share with you:

Also, this year our class was part of an Letter Exchange, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with other bloggers. We have enjoyed getting a letter or 2 in the mail the past month. They will soon be coming to an end but it's been exciting to see the wonderful creativity of others. Now, we are getting ready to be part of a postcard exchange. We will be receiving a postcard from each state. We are looking forward to this as well. Again more mail and it's great to learn about the United States! I bought our postcards this weekend. Now, I just have sit my students down and ask them what they think we should write. 

Well I hope everybody's school year is off to a great start. We have conferences next week so it's hard to believe that 1st Quarter will be in the books. I am looking to this week talking about Fire Prevention and our annual trip to Offutt Fire Station. That's my favorite! ;) Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Kindergarten Common Core

Have you heard of this book?  I saw it floating in the blogging world a few weeks ago and had to check it out and you can too!

This AWESOME 600 page Kindergarten Common Core  resource is dedicated to helping you meet the common core standards in your classroom!  The workbook includes worksheets, center activities and posters that are broken up by each standard for Language Arts and Math. Not only are there TONS of activities but the graphics are adorable!  I downloaded the preview and was quite impressed by what I saw. I loved the story element posters.  This will be great to review and anxious to introduce it to my students.  If you’re a Kindergarten teacher who has just started using common core standards or will be seeing them in your classroom soon, then this is a MUST HAVE! It’s currently $39.99 and well worth the money!  Jump over to their Kindergarten Common Core workbook page to check it out! Better yet, if you’re a blogger and you blog about this book, you can get one for FREE until tonight. Go here to read the details……..sooooo worth it!

Kindergarten & The Daily 5

I am exciting to share with you that my students are in full swing with the Daily 5. They have learned Read to Self and Work on Writing and are doing an AWESOME job. They are up to 15-20 minutes of each Daily 5. They were excited to learn what it was all about and they are very proud that they could read/write for that long. I have been doing Daily 5 in my classroom for 4 years now and I love it! Last year, my class was the exception so Daily 5 wasn't in full swing, but it's great to have it back and looking like it should be.

 Read to Self

She was acting like a teacher and reading to her students :)

 Work on Writing

I was a little worried about these 3 sitting together but they were quiet the WHOLE time doing what they needed to do! AMAZING!

 While students are doing The Daily 5, our Reading Teacher, my classroom para and I pull groups to work on reading skills. Here are the two in action, since I'm taking the pictures. :)

I can't wait to see what the ret of the year will bring with the The Daily 5. I know the kids are just excited to be part of this. I'll keep you all posted on how it all goes. We are off to a great start!

Reading Curriculum

Next year, our school district will be implementing Scott Foresman's Reading Street. I have heard a little about it and am anxious to see the Kindergarten curriculum and what it all has to offer for my students. I have been able to look at the 1st grade version and it looks awesome but there is so much! As of right now, Nebraska, has not adopted the Common Core standards but I know in a few short years we will be teaching them. I have enjoyed the many activities that I have gotten from other teachers are already aligned to the CC standards and will make the transition smoother. It's going to be a lot and so my hope is to see if someone out there can share what they do. So, here is my shout out to all of you...I want to know if you use Reading Street and please share me your thoughts about the curriculum. I would love to hear about it.

I survived the first week!

Well, the week has come to an end and I can officially say that I survived the first week of school. I started with 20 students on Tuesday and it looks like it's going to be a great year! Now, I'm not quite back in my routine of things and a schedule but I'm hoping that will come as each new day passes. I will have to spend some time at school this weekend to get things ready for next week. Our school opted to do Curriculum Night this coming Tuesday instead of a Back-to-School night, so I have to get things ready for that. Still a lot to do and get organized but again, that will come. I hope all of you had a great start to your school year. I know some of you are still on summer vacation and I hope your enjoying every minute of it. Have a great weekend everyone!

First Day of School Tomorrow!!

Well Kindergarten friends, it will my first day of school tomorrow with my new kiddos.  I'm looking forward to a new year but also not prepared for the new year ahead.  This year I will have only 21 students, between the ages 5 & 6, to start the school year.  That is low compared to the 25-27 students I usually have.  Nebraska raised the cut off date this year and I believe that has affected some of my numbers.  The old date was October 15th but now it's July 31st.  What a difference it will make not having any 4 year olds in my class.  I was fortunate also to have most of my new students during summer school.  So I'm looking forward to working with them again.  When do all of your kiddos start?  I hope all of you have  a great school year.  Wish me luck...:)