The leprechauns are coming!

Do you ever get so excited about what is happening in your class that you just have to tell someone?   I do!  And today was one of those days.  I was grabbing people out of the hall....come check out my class....come see what my kids are doing.  Look at them work....aren't they doing great!

Our schedule today got a bit switched around because many of our staff went to a funereal for the dad of a fellow staff member, and others covered our classes or took a class into theirs (that's what happened to mine).  My fellow team member said that my kids were awesome!  So I was praising them like crazy after lunch, thinking of course I bet this doesn't last (doubting Thomas that I am).

Our afternoon started out with our math stations (I really wanted to get them in so that we could focus on Dr. Seuss activities next week).  They did a great job staying on task and working together.  I looked in the hall...no one to tell.

Then we worked on our calendars.  I have my kiddos do a calendar  about the first of each month.  Today being the first, of course we needed to get this done.  I use a great little calendar with numbers to trace.  I use the calendar generously provided by Ms. Gonzalez on her class website.  You can find it here.   But what to put on the top?  After much debate between lambs and lions, shamrocks, leprechaun I decided, at the last minute, to have a pot of gold and a rainbow.  I like when kids of any age can be given freedom to be creative on their own, so with just a wee bit of leprechaun story telling  and a sample rainbow I turned them loose.  What wonderful work, focus, and engagement!  I was so excited at what they were creating I did finally find someone who would come in and look (and give extra praise).  Here is a sampling of what we were creating:

They were working so hard...checking to make sure their colors were in the right order.  So fun to watch them come up to my sample and check the colors.  There was the occasional why don't we have indigo?  Some of them are just too smart.

Then I love when they start adding their own touches.  Someone thought two pots of gold would be good.  Others wanted to be sure the leprechaun was guarding his gold.  Others needed some gold in their pots. 

This little guy told  me that, "pots have holes in them....you know that."  (I am assuming that is how you put the stuff in, like the gold).  I guess I did know that....don't you?

It's all about Plan B

What do you do when what you want to do and create with your Kinders doesn't work out?  Do you just say "Oh Skip It!"  I just won't do that...even though it would be really fun and you could relate it to common core and to the things a Kinder needs to know.  NOPE!!  You go old school and find a way to make it work.

I want my kiddos to make a calendar the first school day of each month.  It helps them understand time (stuff they need to know), write their numbers (common core), and parents get a calendar that looks like their kids are learning and they can hang it on the fridge (good PR...parent relations).

First I can't find a calendar with dotted numbers for this year.  The one I used last year was WONDERFUL!  It was from Mrs. Solis' website.  I loved it!  It was already created for me and I just printed it off each month.  She didn't have one with the dotted numbers for 2012-2013. {sigh}.  I am not smart enough to make my own digitally, soooo I went the cut and paste route.  Yup...I printed a blank calendar and one with numbers, cut out each number, glued it to the blank, did the same for the year.  Copied it, then used a ruler to re-line any I covered up and tried to pull it together and look like I might have made it on my computer (which I just got back from my friend who fixes these things when they get sick...different story).

Voila.....Looks pretty good.

Next, I want to glue it on a large blue piece of paper so we can put a picture on top.  Check.   No problem there.


The picture I want to put on top is a school and bus.  We have the die cuts, so it should be a piece of cake.  Wrong....can't find the school.  I could have sworn we had a school.  Bus....yes, school....no.

What can I do?  At this point I am committed, so it is back to plan B.  Let's make a school from a square and a triangle.  Yay!  Even better, more common core...now I can talk about squares and triangles.  But can you tell it's a school?  I found some flag stickers, so we practiced drawing a nice straight line starting at the top.  Each little red schoolhouse has a flagpole and a flag sticker.

I think they turned out pretty cute!  Even better than what I wanted to do first.  Plan B is often like that.

Terri