Superheroes, Princesses, and PJs OH MY!!!

It's DR. SEUSS WEEK!!!! The first two days have been AWESOME!! Yesterday was Superhero/Princess day. Betcha can't guess who I went as...

Here are some of my superhero friends dancing to Mandisa's Good Morning Song!

We had Captain America!

and an Astronaut!!

We had other pretty princesses and superheroes too including a HULK with a light-up mask, Teenage-Mutant Ninja Turtles (Heroes in a half-shell) basically my kiddos are super cool.

We also made Cat-in-the-hat hats for story time.

Other big news of the day....

Tim read to the pre-school class!!!

I am so proud of all my little readers and I love that they are getting the confidence to read to other people! 

ONWARD TO TODAY'S FESTIVITIES!!!!

First the "Good Morning" Dance with Mandisa!! Seriously I love starting our mornings with this, even on my blah days it gets me going, especially when we rap with TobyMac.

Look at the excitement!! Also Jasa's got that sass thing down!!

Jace really was having a great time, apparently that stopped when the camera clicked.  

Andrew and Timothy doing the Hula Hoop!

Look at that hair flying out!! Now you know the real reason we do this, to try to wear them out before morning meeting. lol 

I got adventurous and tried to make a "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" snack. I say tried because it was an EPIC FAIL!!!  It didn't occur to me, in all my wisdom, that the Jello texture/consistency might cause the Swedish Fish to...er well decompose a little. The people on pinterest didn't tell me this would happen. Next year we will have Jello with fish on the side. Live and learn.

At least they looked cute.

A few brave souls attempted to eat them. 

During snack time I read One Fish, Two fish to them.

Then after all the excitement of normal daily activities and special FBI fingerprinting assemblies we finished they day in the only proper way, given our sleepwear.

I had never read this book before but it was everything I love about Dr. Suess books: silly, sassy, and super cute.

I am really excited for the rest of the week's festivities and stories, that is if the snow doesn't end up cancelling the rest of our week. 

Not only has this week been super fun but we just finished up our time unit and WOWZERS!! These kinders are supermegaawesome smart!! 

Next up is addition and I for one can not wait. I have so many ideas!!!!

On a personal note I am also really psyched because on Friday night I am heading out to see Mandisa, Brandon Heath, and Laura Story. 

"So I'll learn to love these days

life along the way 

in the middle of the crazy 

God Your love is so amazing

through the ups and downs

You're the only hope I found

Lord You meet me in the madness

I'll learn to love these days"

Time flies and Currently March

We have almost reached the end of our time unit!! I don't want to brag but my kids are pretty amazing time tellers!!! We have been focusing on telling time to the hour but that hasn't stopped a few of my friends from blowing my mind by announcing that we have snack from 10:00 to 10:15 that means we eat for 15 minutes and that morning recess is at 9:45. SO SMART!!!!!
This week we took on our greatest challenge yet in telling time, elapsed time, dun dun dun!!!!
It was hard for them to realize that one hour later does NOT mean the same as one o'clock. Abstract concepts like this are SO FRUSTRATING! So I did what any teacher would do, took them to recess.
In the gym we created our giant clock and began showing elapsed time.

We start with 5:00.

 Then we add another friend whose job is to take two steps to show two hours later.

Two hours after 5:00 is 7:00.

 When talking about elapsed time we talked briefly about clockwise and counter clockwise directions. Later means after so the numbers get bigger when we go clockwise, earlier means before so the numbers get smaller as we go counter clockwise.

This was a ton of fun!! I think next weeks chapter check-up will go very smoothly!

So now it's time for my first currently! 

The lovely Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade does this each month and I think it's great so here goes.

CURRENTLY MARCH!!!!!

Listening: Duck Dynasty, so glad this show is back I've re-watched the premiere 3 times so far. Si is killing me with his rules of the woods. Oh, and the X-men jokes. I wonder if Phil knows what a "Nerd" Si is?

Loving: My new hoodie, okay ya'll confession time, I am a giant nerd. Yep superhero loving, comic reading, book toting, Xbox/Wii key smashing, NERD. So thanks to my local comic store and my tax refunds coming in early I am now the happy, happy, happy owner of this gem.

Unfortunately wall climbing abilities are not included.

I can't wait for Monday's superhero day at school!!

Thinking: Yeah my mom made Lasagna for dinner at my aunt's tonight (see above picture) and it was stupendous.

Wanting: I have decided I need to change my eating habits and become more healthy and naturally all I want to eat is SUGAR!!!!! Pray for me I am going to need it.

Needing: Now you can see why the sweets and lasagna are such a problem, nom nom nom.

Like: Baking mmmmmmm coookies!!! 

Love: Books need I say more? Reading is my favorite!!

Hate: Brussel Sprouts boo hiss, yuck, blech, no thanks.

So that's what's going on in my world right now. New things are coming to the classroom soon including some differentiated morning work packets for practice and challenge. We are at the point in the year where half the class has finished morning work in 5 minutes so by switching it up I can find work that either a) gives extra practice in a concept they are currently struggling in or b) provides a challenge to keep them from getting bored. 

I'm also working on some take home games and activities so my smarties can impress mommies and daddies with what they know. 

Maybe even a weekend visitor to journal about (don't worry parents he's of the stuffed variety no Messy Marvins) and practice writing.

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."  Psalm 90:12

It's about TIME!!!

Yep we're rockin' around the clock in Kindergarten! Each day we have worked on creating a clock using our number line. I even re-wrote the "Rock around the clock" and we sing it while we make the clock.

Today we got even more adventurous and WE BECAME THE CLOCK HANDS!!!

I'm not sure if they were as excited by this as I was but it was pretty fun. So first we called up 2 friends, the taller friend was the minute hand and the shorter friend was the hour hand.

Check out Matt and Jace showing us 10:00. 

Andrew and Emily showing 6:00. 

Timothy got so into it he even looks sleepy as he helps Simon show us what time he goes to bed.

We also keep these small clocks on our desks to remind the kids when the "important times" are this one shows SNACK TIME.

This is a really great thing that not only reinforces the skills for the students but it eliminates 324 questions like: "When is lunch? Recess? When is rest time over?" We synchronize our clocks for each major event of the day and they no longer need to ask me.

I'm sure you're all dying to know about my fantastic song re-writing skills. So here it is (please hold all applause until the end):

Rock Around the Clock (Bible Style)

One, two, three o’clock. Four o’clock Rock.

Five, six, seven o’clock. Eight o’clock rock.

Nine, ten, eleven o’clock. Twelve o’clock rock.

We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight.

Put your hands way up and join me hon’

We’ll worship God when the clock strikes one.

We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight. We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, and share His light. We’re gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

When the clock strikes two, three, and four,

We’ll lift our hands and praise some more.

We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight. We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, and share His light. We’re gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

When the chimes ring five, six, and seven,

We will thank our God in Heaven.

We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight. We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, and share His light. We’re gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

When it’s eight, nine, ten, and eleven too,

I’ll tell you how much God loves you.

We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight. We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, and share His light. We’re gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

When the clock strikes twelve the fun won’t end,

We’ll start praising Him again.

We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight. We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, and share His light. We’re gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight.

We’re gonna rock, gonna rock and share God’s love tonight!!!

 (Jazz hands)

We really have had a ton of fun with this too, we get in our clock shape and hold up the numbers when we hear them called and we do some twisty dancing too!

Today we took it one step further and  carried the "clock" to the gym with us to play a listening game. We put the numbers on the floor and then we had to move (clockwise of course) each time that we sang the word rock. 

It was...a mess but a fun mess. I'm thinking next time we do this we will pick a word that isn't said quite so many times in succession.

Time is really fun to teach so I hope the kids are having as much fun learning it. 

If you didn't already know this Kindergarten is the perfect place to get HILARIOUS jokes and stories to share. 

For example Timothy shared this knee-slapper with us  one day at snack: "Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?" 

"He didn't have the guts." 

Seriously, comedic genius. 

Timothy is also pretty great at being serious too for example here's his castle fortress. 

No one is going to storm that castle.

As far as the stories that I love to share this one (overheard after we learned about London and I shared some pictures I had taken of the Globe Theater) is one for the record books.

 "Oh maybe they're in love like Oreo and Juliet." 

I laughed for about five minutes after that one, the kids all think something is seriously wrong with me.

Then are the reminders of how often I over use figures of speech when talking to the kids. During reading group I said "Wow you guys are great readers, when you read with Mom and Dad tonight you are going to knock their socks off!" 

One of my readers quickly raised his hand and looked very nervous as he said "But my Mommy doesn't wear socks."

These are just a couple of the amazing things us teachers hear on a daily basis. I'm really glad I have the blog now as somewhere to right them down. 

Okay time for some independent working time art.

It's an alien and a U.F.O.!!

Emily hard at work using her super smart brain!! The pencil she's using is her "brain" pencil, I gave it to her when she was using that "can't" word a lot. I told here she absolutely could and I had the pencil to prove it. She's a really great worker.

Jace's airplane, look at those details!!

Big thanks to Simon's mommy for sending in this amazing addition to our class library.

Cue movie announcer voice: Marvin Gets Mad is the riveting tale of a sheep who only wants an apple. Vertically challenged Marvin is unable to reach his apple and must instead wait for the apple to fall. As you might expect nothing is ever that easy, when the apple finally does fall it is eaten by Marvin's best friend Molly. Betrayed by his only ally, Marvin is consumed by anger. Trust me you wouldn't like him when he's angry. Will Marvin be forever angry? You'll have to read it to find out.

This book is perfect for Kindergarten where every minor instance is the end of the world. It taught us that getting filled with anger can turn us into Mad Marvins and we would much rather be friendly and loving.

New ideas are on the horizon for how to get the kids really involved on the blog so be on the look out for that very soon. =)

"A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." Proverbs 29:11

 

Would you could you read a book?

If you aren't as reading/Seuss obsessed as I am you may not know that Dr. Seuss' birthday is coming up very soon. So I thought what better way to encourage my emerging readers than with some Seuss inspired "art" I use that term loosely as I'm less of a Davinci and more a "hey who spilled the paint all over this thing" anyWHO I created this guy to encourage my friends to pick a book to explore:

If you aren't sure, that is supposed to be the Lorax and a Truffula tree. I took some creative license with his talking bubble which says "Unless some like you will crack open a book, you'll miss all the adventure I dare you...JUST LOOK!" Then I included the dust jackets from some of our favorites books and some we haven't yet read.

Then today I added our very own "critic's corner" I created a form that the students can use to rate and review books that they have read. When they bring them back we will hang them up on the wall and as they read more and more books they can rate them as well.

This is where we will hang the completed reviews: 

I have a problem and it's called I love terrible puns.

 Yes that wonky little guy is supposed to be Horton the Elephant. 

The kids were impressed so I have that going for me.

My goal with our critic's corner is that this will become a way for the students to find new books that will interest them, which we will then do our best to find in the school's library for them to read.

Some of my friends are very eager readers in fact Timothy read a whole book to our class today before we started our math lesson.

Kira, who is a little more shy, read to just me during her free time.

Of course we did have to do some actual work today too.

This is our new approach to phonics, rather than just writing the words we WERE the words.

Here are 3 of my lovely assistants helping us make the word Cap. Jasa had a very important job to do, she had to decide which vowel sound should be in our word.

Here A makes the short sound because it's alone.

Here A says it's name because "when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking".

We did this several times with different vowels and including our special sounds (sh, fr, st, ck, e as in me. y as in fly) and each student got to be a part of the word making experience. This is such a fun way to practice reading because we get to move around instead of all that sitting and writing. 

I am so proud of all these guys and gals for all their hard work. I can't wait to see what the future holds!!

"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Psalms 119:18

Valentine's Day!! Also known as the day I almost cried three times.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! I hope your day was blessed with love and kindness, I know mine was.
So let's begin at the beginning, actually let's go back a little further. Yesterday I gave my kids playdoh to keep at their desk for some extra "quiet play time" activities. These were some of the creations (sorry for the terrible quality pictures my camera was dead so I had to use my phone to capture the moment):
                                                Kira's messages to some of her friends.

Chas's moon rock!

Emily's penguin, this girl knows the way to her teacher's heart (penguins are the greatest!) you can't really tell here but she made eyes, a beak, and little feet. 

Andrew's Angry Birds. 

Now back to today's festivities. First thing through the door I was greeted by this little guy:

First round of almost tears, I think it was the combination of the Angry Birds tie he was wearing and the fact that I had been hugged roughly 37 times by his friends already that did it.  

After our Bible lesson we read this book:

Did you guess this was the second time I almost cried? Wrong, it was the second and third. I have a lot of feelings and this book hits them all. If you haven't read it the main character is a wooden puppet who lives in a village where people give each other gold stars for good things (having nice paint, doing tricks, singing well) and gray dots for bad things (falling, not being able to sing, having chipped paint). Punchinello has A TON of gray dots, he's just not good at ANYTHING, but then he meets Lucia, a girl who has no stickers or dots, and she tells him that Eli (the puppet maker) will help him get rid of them. 

This book is just amazing and we had a really great discussion about how God gives each of us special talents and He watches over us all the time. All of my students are so caring and selfless but unfortunately that doesn't mean that they don't sometimes feel like they aren't good enough when they see what others can do. That's why I love being a Christian educator, because I can share God's word with them to show them that He has a plan just for them.

Then when all the work was done it was PLAYDOH TIME!!!

Here are just a few of the creations:

Simon's Crabby Patty (in Mommy's favorite color)

A burger Chas made for me, unfortunately I was still full from my snack.

Jasa's ice cream cone.

A Valentine Message from Andrew. 

After lunch it was PARTY TIME and we had a blast thanks to some hard working parents!

I was too busy having fun to take pictures (I'll get the hang of this blogging thing soon I hope) but we played a game where we had to pick up and move marshmallow from one bowl to another with only a straw (shout out to the 5 kids who just stabbed theirs, creativity I love it), then we had to eat  Twizzlers without using our hands, and we finished off the fun with a Pinata.

Now I sit here reflecting on the day's events, the handmade cards and sweet little notes, cuddled up in maybe the softest blanket ever, eating way too much delicious candy, and I feel so blessed to have these children in my life. These smart, hilarious, and most of all caring boys and girls come to me looking for knowledge but at the end of the day they teach me as much as I teach them. They remind me why Jesus called us to make ourselves "like the little children" I listen to them talk to each other and ask questions and I know that it is the pure hearts full of love and the eagerness to learn that helps us walk closer to God.

Oops I need a title change.

Make that three times I almost cried and one time it rained on my face.

"So let my life be the proofThe proof of Your loveLet my love look like YouAnd what You're made ofHow you lived, how You diedLove is sacrificeSo let my life be the proofThe proof of Your love" 
~ "Proof of Your Love"
for KING & COUNTRY

Faith and Feelings

My favorite thing about my students is that they are an open book, I never have to wonder what they are thinking because they will tell me. During yesterday's Bible lesson one of my students asked me "What does Jesus look like?" his friends were eager to describe the pictures that they had seen. This led to a much larger discussion of "What is Heaven like?" So we talked about what the Bible tells us about these things but the thing I was really stuggling to get across to them was that Heaven and Jesus are so much greater than we could ever imagine, that the colors we will see in Heaven will be so much more vivid than anything we've ever seen, the absence of darkness and sorrow,and the wonder and peace that we will have upon entering God's Heavenly Home. So last night I went home thinking about how on Earth I could ever communicate all of this to them, then I remembered this book:

I read the original book about a year ago and I found the "kids" version in Barnes and Noble not long after that. My favorite thing about the book is that each page has a sample of the Scripture related to it's content meaning the kids get the story and the Bible truth all together. My kids really enjoyed the story and they were so engaged. After reading the story we talked about how the pictures of Jesus in the book were different than the pictures we see in our daily Bible lesson and how amazed we will be when we finally get to Heaven and see Him in person. Then we said a special prayer to thank God for the incredible things He has prepared for us and for sending Jesus to take away all of our sins so that we can live eternally with Him. 
Between our morning devotion's focus on the lost lamb and the shepherd who carried him home and this discussion we have spent a good part of our day talking about The Father's Love and how He will reveal that love to us if we have faith in Him.
I can't help but feel like this was God's perfect timing for this discussion as we approach Valentine's Day and talk about love; because no love is great than the love of God.

"It heals the sick
Comforts the weak
Breaks the proud
Raises the meek
In this life no guarantees there is love.
Love is the answer
Love will find a way
When we love one another
It's a brighter day" ~ Love by Chris Tomlin

"But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for He has been good to me." ~Psalm 13:5-6