Christmas Craziness

I am TIRED!  Can I say that?  It has been a crazy week, with crazy fun, and crazy kids, and not enough time to do it all.

I am joining with other bloggers to share some of that fun on this last Friday of the year! ( Did I say tired?? )  Oops!, there is not a linky this week....but here are Five crazy things I have been up to in my classroom.  Enjoy and have some Christmas Break fun!

First up is Jingle our Classroom Elf.  He made his appearance late in the first week of December and has been having fun in our room ever since. 

He brought crayons and snow, he has put up a tree and paper chains, he hung out in the tree house with Jack and Annie, and he was the first thing everyone looked for each morning.  Today he was on top of the globe with the list of good boys and girls.

Jingle has kept us busy.  We wrote about him each morning, so along with tasks he brought from time to time, he has been a great asset to our journal writing.

Next is a shout out to my WONDERFUL husband....who suffers through itchy wigs to play Santa.

Our music program was this week.   Not only did our music teacher do a great job, but a fellow teacher gave up all her preps these last two weeks to play the piano for each class during their music class and got us organized with some backdrop decorations.  I work with awesome teachers!

I guess it is not Christmas without parent gifts....this year we made glittery candle holders with old jars, glue, glitter, and battery operated tea lights.  They were easy peasy and the glitter didn't scatter too much, but they did take a couple of days to completely dry.

We wrapped them up in Rudolf paper bags.

Today was party day.  We did a gingerbread house/Santa's workshop party.  I had several projects hanging around that we didn't have time to do, plenty of  paper, jewels, glue, markers and such, so my students got to choose and create while we helped them assemble their houses.  After lunch, when the houses had a chance to set, we added the candy.

All was finished just in time to head home.  Pack up was easy because we had paper bag "suitcases" that we started filling first thing in the morning.  As projects were finished into the bag they went.  The end of the day went....get your lunchbox and backpack, put on your coat, pick up your bag, hold on to your house and out to the bus you go!

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!  I am going to spend time with my crazy crew....

A little Elfin Magic

An elf came to our classroom this week!  Here is how he arrived:

Thanks to Cara Carroll from First Grade Parade and her wonderful free ELFis pages he came in style!  He was cold (from being in the freezer) when my room was called and told by the office staff we had a special delivery at the front office.  I sent my helper of the day, but my class was afraid it might be something heavy, so I sent along an extra student.  When they came back with the box my class of second graders were through the moon with excitement.  We careful unwrapped his snowy insulation.

(they made sure no one touched and after recess when he had jumped to a new location they grabbed up the tulle and ribbons to take home).  Oh My Goodness!!  I could not believe how excited they were!!!

After much discussion and voting we named him Jingle.  He brought us crayons on Day 2.

What else is in store??  Along with journaling there will be: Task Cards for magical learning, a little mischief, a book to read, a puzzle to complete, some jingle bells (isn't that appropriate because of his name) for hands on learning.  Stay tuned for more ........

You may want to get started with this book.  I made this book for our elf to bring when he came to Kindergarten.  You can get it here:

Add caption

It does come in both color and black and white.

This Jingle Bell game is good for Kindergarten, First, or Second.  They all need practice with missing addends and what better way than to have our classroom elf bring some nice jingle bells to "play" with??  This is free in my store and you can get it here:

This also comes in color and black and white.

I am excited about all that Jingle can help us do in the next two weeks, so I am sure that my students will be too!  One of my teaching philosophies is....if you can't beat them join them. 

Take their excitement and use it!  Have a WONDERFUL week!

Thankful for parent teacher conferences

November is a great time to teach  about Thankfulness.

This turkey is on a fellow Kindergarten teachers bulletin board.  Isn't he cute?

November is also parent/teacher conferences.  They terrify me....there I admitted it.  As much as I love meeting with the parents, the idea of parent/teacher conferences just scares the bejeezus out of me.

I want to start my conferences on a positive note, so one thing I do is have the parents write on a turkey feather three compliments about their student.  This accomplishes two things: first, it has us talking about good things regarding their child, and second, it gives me  feathers for our turkey bulletin board and a chance to compliment each student, making them feel wonderful.

This year I took those turkey feathers as a chance to introduce thankful journals.  We brainstormed things we were thankful for using this fun organizer from Jen Bradshaw at Teacher Karma

 

Then we picked four to use in our journals.  I just had my students fold their paper in four sections and in each section write and draw about something they are thankful for.  Just a simple 4-square graphic organizer for planning.  We revised our writing by adding the word because to what we had written the day before.  I wanted more than just I am thankful for statements.  I wanted thoughtful reasons.

We are in the process now of writing our foldout pages to add to this book created by Jennifer at 4mulaFun

I have so many things to be thankful for, I could fill a hundred journals.  Model for your students true gratitude by making your own journal.  Happy Thanksgiving! 

Thankful for Bright Ideas

November is a month to look over our blessings and remember to be thankful for things large and small.

I am thankful that one Saturday each month some of the best bloggers out there share their wonderful ideas, tips, and classroom experiences during the Bright Ideas Link-up.  I am thankful that I have been able to participate in these events. 

November's event is a Roundup of Bright Ideas, where we are re-capping the best of the Bright Ideas.  So here goes....some of my favorites.

My personal favorite has to be raising butterflies.  Best thing I do all year and here is the post to tell you how I do it.

I have really been obsessed with making little magnets out of the clear stones you can get in the dollar store and in the floral department of any craft store.  Here is the post where I explain the many ways I use them.  My student's favorite way is as reading magnifying glasses.

I like getting kids outside.  In February it is for tracing shadows.

In May it was for field day.

Some ideas are short and sweet.  In August I blogged about this single little tip to make your life easier.

These are some of my bright ideas, but just take a look at all the bloggers that have shared their ideas.  Check out the link up below for a Round Up of wonderful Bright Ideas.

Also consider following me on Facebook, at my TpT store, or here on this blog.

Have a GREAT day!

An InLinkz Link-up

Halloween is Noisy

Whoooooo went the wind

And out went the light

Halloween is the perfect time to teach about 

Onomatopoeia

And 5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

 Ghosts go BOO!  Doors squeak, chains rattle, leaves rustle and crunch.

The season is full of sounds.  None more than the ones in this book:  

I love this story.  It is a great retell....you can add all your own sound effects.  You can do it as a classroom reader's theater and spread the fright around (other classrooms are generally always up for a little presentation and short distraction).  You can make a foldable or attach the pieces to a tall paint stick for retelling.  You can make stick puppets.

And you can show students what a big word like onomatopoeia means.....don't you just love saying that word?  I do!  My kinders do too.  Between Halloween and our unit in the spring about farm animals, my kindergarteners learn about this at least twice.  Do they remember?  YES!!  Well, some do...some will remember when they hear it again...others will begin to recognize it in stories, even if they don't remember the big long grown-up word. Some will begin to use it in their writing, and SOME will tell you all about it when they are back in your class as 8 year old second graders! 

I have put this together to help you do just that.  It's free on my facebook fan page.  There are stick puppets and an open the flaps book in two different sizes to help you retell the story.

Onomatopoeia

Try it!

It is great language development for ELL, for young ones, for those with speech and learning disabilities.  It is good for oral language and comprehension.  Heck....it is good fun for everyone!

Getting My Feet Back

I think I am finally getting my feet back under me. So it is time for a Five for Friday post.  I love linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what is happening.

I was asked to go back to second for a year.  I have taught second for most of my teaching career so, I wasn't surprised when they asked.  Now I have been trying to remember how I used to teach second grade....except this time, no desks and no grades, using rubrics and standards and my too small cubbies.  I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

But I have learned a few things....second graders are not that different from Kindergarteners.  They like to move, they like to be silly and use their imaginations, they like hands on, and they LOVE to read.  I don't think I have a single student, when given free reign of the library, doesn't love it.  This breaks out in my classroom often.

When we were exploring the math manipulatives, what was their favorite??  The counting Bears.  I was surprised.  They really loved all my kindergarten maipulatives and I plan on using them often. 

There have been challenges (tables and no real place to keep books and all our interactive journals), but there have been wonderful surprises too (along with reading, they LOVE to write).

There are lessons I loved to teach, but gave up when I moved to Kindergarten.  Lessons, like how fossils are made, and our field trip to Fossil Hill.

There are lessons I taught in 2nd, took to Kindergarten with me, and now I have brought them back to 2nd.  A bonus....students I had in Kindergarten and now are in my second grade classroom, they are  excited about doing them again.

Seasons spinner....in 2nd and 3rd I have them label with the months for each season (it always surprises me how many do not know this.)

I am still working on putting routines in place.  It is taking longer than I wanted, but we have begun both Writers Workshop and Reading Workshop.  I am using the Kindergarten programs I loved so much to set the routines and procedures.  The work I am expecting from my second graders is, of course, much, much more....but the routines are the same and many of the skills are as well (just on a second grade reading level).

I think I have a couple of new ideas for keeping these kiddos (and myself) organized....so I am off on this beautiful Saturday morning to work in my room.