A few days after the 100th day of school we had a really fun math activity. It involved tootsie roll pops and tally marks! First, we had to make sure we had enough for every student (12 total). Then, we discussed if 12 was an Even Steven number or an Odd Todd number. Afterwards, I asked if anyone could sort these tootsie roll pops into equal groups. Their minds started racing! Once we figured out one way of sorting them then another kid would raise their hand & let us know there was yet another way to sort them into equal groups! This went on until we exhausted all of our options. I was very impressed with the crew! Now, it was time to eat our tasty lollipops. The challenge was to see how many licks it took to get to the center of the tootsie roll pop. Every time they took one lick they then had to document it on their chart using a tally mark for every lick. They knew that each square stood for 5 tally marks because that is how we group our tally marks. We even got to watch the old tootsie roll commercial with the owl (they had no idea what I was talking about when I first mentioned it)! Dillan even informed us that if your wrapper had a guy shooting a bow & arrow on it then that meant you were going to receive good luck. I had no idea! So... that lead us into another lesson where we figured out how many kids had wrappers with the arrow & how many had them without the arrow. We used tally marks to figure out our answer. I love teachable moments like those!
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Allie & Dillan were very excited to get the chance to read books from their very own book bins to Mrs. Naples. She was amazed at their progress!
Two weeks ago it snowed (yes, you read that correctly, SNOWED) while we were at school. The kids were putting away their snack containers and water bottles when one kiddo said, "Ms. Little!! It's snowing outside! For real! I just saw! The lunch lady is bringing in the lunches for the day & I saw when she opened the door!!" My immediate thought - "Ok, it is probably just a snowflake or two, as per usual." NOPE! It was coming down hard. I told them to drop everything, get their jackets and mittens, etc on as fast as they possibly could (because snow in Georgia is a rare sight AND it never lasts long) & let's go play in it! It is the most magical experience ever watching my favorite 12 kiddos experience snow falling in Georgia. You forget what that feeling is like when you are an adult - until you see it happening in all of the faces around you. Pure winter bliss. They were ecstatic. It was the best to capture that and to watch it on all of their happy faces. Lucky for us, it snowed AGAIN later on in the day so that was TWO times of playing in the snow together! :) I cannot believe these are the same kiddos that came to my classroom on the first day of school. They have grown up so much! I love all of the toothless smiles lately!
For the past few weeks we have been working on our 'How To.." unit in Writer's Workshop. The kids have been LOVING this unit & really enjoy being 'experts' on a certain topic. They get to decide what makes them an expert & what topic they'd like to teach about. They've written books about How To Feed a Cat, How To Train a Puppy, How To Walk a Dog, How To Do Gymnastics, How To Unpack our Book Bags in the Morning, How To Read a Book, How To Plant a Seed, etc...
Well, I decided that Friday was going to be a DONUT DAY. Luckily, I know how to tie food into any & all educational lessons ;) We made a class book about How To Eat a Yummy Donut. The kids decided that in order to eat a donut you would need these things first: Napkin, Donut, Mouth (teeth included), hands, car (to make your mom drive you to the donut shop). After we wrote our class book we got to test out our writing skills & see if it made sense. The end results were delicious!! 12 little groundhogs... will they see their shadow?!?! We recently read a book titled 'Miss Nelson is Missing!' It is one of my favorite books to read EVER. The kids always love it & it is a great book to help reinforce how important it is to use our detective eyes while reading. It is also a great book to facilitate the skill of inferring. Well, a lot of us predicted that maybe Miss Nelson was just sick or maybe she quit because she was so sad about her class being disrespectful. We had to look really, really closely at the last page to figure out who Ms. Viola Swamp was & where Miss Nelson had been this entire time. In the text it has Miss Nelson saying, "I'll never tell..." We noticed that she had a black dress (similar to Ms. Viola Swamp's dress - but maybe that was just a coincidence). We also noticed the black makeup & eyelashes like Mrs. Viola Swamp's makeup. How could we really figure it out though?!?! Well, Allie noticed in the closet there was a box that had some words written upside down on it. We used our detective eyes & voila! We noticed it read 'WIG' on it. So... it turns out Miss Nelson was in disguise! The kids burst into laughter.
Allie has shown so much progress in her math skills this year. I love watching her eyes light up when she realizes something for the first time ever. We were recently lining up for music class when she paused & said, "Ms. Little, these shelves go 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5...BUT if it was just going in number order then there would be 10 total." I mean... WOW! Allie girl is killing it! She has been SO excited for her upcoming birthday (February 10th) & every morning when she comes into school she informs me of the new countdown. I loved watching her face when she opened up her lunchbox to find her mom's note inside. AND... she read it all by herself!!! Proud teacher right here. Allie's mom was our Mystery Reader so I thought it only appropriate to read a book about a birthday! It was titled 'Happy Birthday, Davy!' & his surprise was his grandparents showing up to surprise him. Too cute.
Kindergarten will always be the most amazing grade to teach. I get to see so much growth in these children on a daily basis. They not only grow academically, but also emotionally and socially. It is the most amazing thing to see. What is even more amazing is when THEY see their growth & become proud of themselves. I love watching that part. Three Star Coloring is a HUGE deal in kindergarten. We made ourselves an anchor chart at the beginning of the year & taught ourselves what the 3 Stars stood for (staying inside the lines, using the right colors, & filling in all of the white). My dad always taught me "Spend time and take pride in your work. Do it right the first time. ..Because, if you don't - you're going to have to do it again!" Haha! So proud of Quinn & Cullen for 3 Star Coloring without having to be told! Good job boys! We had so much fun predicting if the groundhog would see his shadow or not. After that, we watched a BrainpopJR on hibernation & then discussed other animals that might hibernate. Then, we read our groundhog poem together & made our very own groundhog puppets. I love all of the background details in their work! We have been working hard on making sure our characters aren't just floating in a white room ;)
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AuthorKindergarten teacher to 12 incredible students. I love photography, traveling, coffee, & board games. Archives
February 2016
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