Line Crowns

Two weeks ago in art class we used lines as a base to draw something new. Then we made crowns out of them. I love how it encouraged students to be creative while providing great review of the different types of lines (wavy, straight, etc.)

Here are my students modeling their crown creations.

Game: Short Vowels

I found this great game online to practice short vowels sounds, and I want to share it with you. There are three games total on the "Main" page - one for letters, short vowels, and long vowels. This works great on a SMART board too!

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/picturematch/

4th of July

This is the first year our school has had classes on the 4th of July. Normally we go on our mid-year break, but our schedule was changed this year. We had fun celebrating in kindergarten. Everyone came dressed in red, white, and blue. Since I am teaching English immersion, I went the easiest route and told them today is a holiday to celebrate America's birthday.

First we read a short book to find out how people celebrate the 4th of July. Then, we made these adorable paper flags with fingerpaint (idea found here) and waved them while listening to the  U.S. national anthem. Finally we had a class parade and shouted, "U.S.A" as we marched around school. What a fun day!

Door Design: Gumballs

My classroom doesn't have any bulletin boards outside, so I use my doors. I found this idea here and decided to replicate it with a little tweaking. My assistant is way more artistically gifted than I am, so I recruited him to help me out (he is also less prone to detail which is why the words on the left aren't centered with the gumball machine ... drives the perfectionist in me a little crazy.)

I love the way it turned out, and the kids always love to walk by and find their names. Cute decor and learning reinforcement, perfect!

D is for Dinosaur

As we worked on learning the letter D last week, we made these cute dinosaurs. I love to see their creativity in the way they put it together and drew the faces.

Cows and Sheep

We have been learning about farm animals this week. I love the cute craft ideas I found online. I forgot to take actual pictures of how my students' art turned out, but here are the pictures and links to the original source.

Source

Currently...May

I am linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this month's "Currently" post.

Math Game

In math we are working on the concept of more, less, or equal.

I found this great online game to practice this concept. My students had fun playing it today on the Smartboard. The boy especially enjoyed flushing the toilet. :)

http://www.ictgames.com/mucky.html

Do you know any other online games to reinforce this concept?

Five Senses

We are working on the five senses right now in science. I love teaching this topic because there are so many fun, hands-on activities you can do with it.

For taste, we had a taste-testing party. We focused on three flavors (sweet, sour, salty). I loved the faces they made when trying the limes.

For touch, we passed around socks with hidden objects inside. The students drew a picture of what they thought was inside the sock. They were so excited when I revealed the object and they had it right.

I found some great resources and ideas online from Little Giraffes and a free mini-unit from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten.

I would love to hear what your favorite activities are for teaching the five senses!

Currently...April

I am linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her monthly "Currently" post.

Spring Eggs

On Friday we had a spring celebration with my students. We made rabbit puppets and these cute eggs with little chicks popping out (thanks to Kristin for the inspiration! Check out her cute chick eggs here.)

On the egg, I had my students draw patterns to incorporate into what we're studying in math. It was a super easy project - especially since I had everything cut before we started. I love the way they turned out.

More close-ups...

Happy spring!

Free Tangram Puzzles

I want to share one of the free resources that my students just love.

Tangram puzzles from Make Learning Fun. You can find them here. They are great for use in centers or when students finish early.

Here are my students working on some animal puzzles.

Letter Videos: T

My students begged to watch this again and again this week. It is a short and silly video to help learn the letter T.

One Fish, Two Fish

When I saw this idea for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, I knew I wanted to use it in my classroom.

After reading the book (and skipping some many pages since my kinder immersion students can't quite sit still that long), we reviewed the primary colors. That is our art theme right now so it was a great way to tie it in.

Then they set to work. I gave each student a yellow background and 2 pre-cut fish. I had pre-cut tissue paper at each station, and I also gave each student a pre-cut title to glue on. (Do you see the theme here?)

Here are some pictures of them working...

The finished product (on her desk)...

Valentine's Day Card

Our class made special secret Valentine's cards for their parents.

I found this idea from Pinterest and decided it would be a nice and easy thing for my kids to do. It is hard to tell from the picture, but one hand is pink and the other is red. After they dried, I cut them into the heart shape and the kids glued them onto a piece of construction paper.

The kids loved it, and they turned out really nice.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brown bear, Brown bear

My little kindergarteners worked hard on the story, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" this week. This was a great story to follow up our "Colors Week" here at school. It was especially great for my immersion students since the English language structure is very repetitive.

Here is a peek at some of our work stations this week...

Retelling the story with stick puppets - animal pictures found here

Working on animal tangram puzzles - templates found here

We also used the clipart from DLTK to sequence the animals in the story. I made this worksheet for the students to color, cut out, and glue in order. Feel free to download if it is helpful for you.

For the grand finale, my students did an impromptu oral reading of the story to their fifth grade reading buddies. They were so proud of themselves, and so was I!

February Calendar

I love how my February calendar turned out. A huge thanks to Doodle Bugs teaching for the cute calendar card freebie.

Shape Puppets

During the first week of school, I worked with my kinders hardcore on rules and routines. In addition, I wanted to get a feel for their scissor and glue abilites.

I found this cute project through Mrs. Brown's art class. I adapted it a bit to fit the needs of my class, but it was a perfect project to work on following directions and gluing (I pre-cut the shapes.)

Now I have them hanging out on display.

Moving Picture Books

I stumbled upon a great resource last week when I was looking for a video version of the book, "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?"

I present you to Moving Picture Books.*

So far I have downloaded two books from their site, and I was pleased both times. The books are colorful, and the voice reading is nice-paced and clear (which is so important for my immersion students). I also like how the books are available with read-along text so that my students can practice reading along. Some of the books are available in Spanish too.

My students have watched the cookie jar one several times and they always say, "Otra vez!"

Has anyone else used Moving Picture Books?

*I was not endorsed nor am receiving anything for sharing this - I just want to share a resource with you!

Busy Week

What a week!

I ended up missing the first day of school since I was up sick at night. What a terrible day to miss! I think it really threw my students for a loop. Luckily I recovered quickly and made it back on Tuesday. I feel like I am playing catch up all week though. There is just so much to do each day. My room always looks like a tornado went through it by the end of the day. Is that normal?

I snapped a few pictures yesterday, but I will try to upload more soon.

Our door design - the other door says "Whooos in our class?"

This is the classroom library. I am hoping a parent will donate a rug.

Classroom Overhaul

For my classroom set-up this year, I read through the book, "Spaces and Places" by Debbie Diller. Per her advice, I first sat down and surveyed my room and made a list of the areas I wanted to be sure to include.

• Large-group teaching area (carpet)
• Small-group teaching area
• Classroom library/book nook
• Teachers desk area (for computer)

Then, I looked at what furniture I had to work with. My classroom isn't big, but it is a nicely-shaped rectangle giving me four corners and a wall of windows. I drew out a layout I was pleased with and moved everything.

But on Thursday they delivered the SMARTboard, and it threw everything off. So, I had to do a complete classroom overhaul (which I was not so happy about in the moment).

With the help of my assistant teacher, we moved the desk, small-group area, the heavy supply cabinet, the rug, etc. We pulled things back off the walls and reglued them in new places.

And the result?

I like it even better now.

(Pictures coming soon!)

Classroom Pictures Postponed

I was planning to take pictures of my classroom today, and I finally remembered the camera, only to find out that the camera has no batteries. Shame. I will try and remember to bring both the camera and batteries tomorrow.

School's Back in Session

Today was my first day back to school. Our school runs on the Guatemalan school year, which is January to October. I was so busy with meetings and teacher training that I didn't even step foot into my classroom though! I am hoping to go in tomorrow and get a fresh look at the place before I start setting up and decorating. I have also been reading and writing down my teaching goals for this year. Here are a few: 1. Be more intentional about differentiated instruction. 2. Begin using literacy and math work stations. 3. Use guided discovery to introduce new materials. I have a few cute projects to share and classroom pictures once it all takes shape (which better be soon because I only have 8 days!)