Community Helpers

So last week we worked on community helpers! It is one of mine, and the kid's favorite units! So here is a little look at what we did!


I LOVE this bulletin board set! My old school had magnetic walls (awesome I know) so it was a center for my students to match the word with the worker and their equipment (a vocabulary word we learned this week!!). So I decided I would make it into a KL (I know we are missing the W) chart. On the green/yellow sticky notes we wrote what we know. Then on the orange sticky notes we wrote what we learned. There are closer up pictures below. The kids LOVED it! They have been reading the sticky notes all week! This week we will be adding more!

They loved learning about the soldiers. We learned about the US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force. We ran out of time to look at any others. The books are in our library for them to look at!

My favorite...dentists paint your teeth! The best thing was that the mobile dentist had just come to our school. So my little ELL guys were really able to understand, and make some good connections!

One of the favorites! We had so many books on police officers that I let a pair of students look at a book. They then found a picture that they liked the best. Then they discussed what the picture was about and "taught" the other students a fact about police officers. They LOVED being the teacher!

Firefighters! Another class favorite! We were just getting started with our new chart...so they didn't have much to add. They did know a lot about them though! I did the same thing with the books as we did with the police officer books.

MATH:

This week we were also working on measuring. I googled SMARTBoard Measurement and found a TON of great SMARTBoard resources. I say...why reinvent the wheel! If someone has already made a great SMARTBoard resource why make another! I can spend my energy on other quality activities for my class!

So around the room I put different lengths of tape and wrote a letter on the tape. Then the students went around with a partner and measure the tape with unifix cubes. THEY LOVED IT!!! They were so engaged and doing some GREAT problem solving. I made a simple recording sheet with the letters on it. One counted and double checked, and the other wrote the number. On the next letter they switched.

Thank goodness for a 3 day weekend!! Have a great week everyone!!

The mind of 5 year olds!

I have two classic Kindergarten stories for you today!

First I had one of my little friends come in this morning looking a little blue, but he didn't say anything. So I gave him a normal morning hug and went on. Then we were starting to get all of our snow gear off, and I looked at my sad little friend. All of a sudden he BURSTS into tears! I thought something was terribly wrong. I asked him what was wrong. He looked at me in those big brown watery eyes and he exclaimed "My fish Rufus died!!!!" Well his world has come crashing down! So we talked about being sad, and he got to draw a picture so he could remember Rufus forever!

Later I get an e-mail from his mom. She has told me that our friend really liked to take out the fish and pet him! HAHAHA too funny!



Then later today we were talking about neighborhoods. So much fun! We were drawing a "map" of our neighborhood. As we were making this map I asked the students "What are some places and things we would see in our Neighborhood?" Of course I got the normal answers school, Wal-Mart, and houses. My two favorites....Hy-vee so we can get Chinese food, and a pawn shop!


LOVE IT!!

New Year...New Me!

So I have to say, that I have been a terrible blogger! I just can't seem to get into it. I think the fact that I only have one follower is another part of it! Why write what no one is going to read! I get so jealous of all the cool blogs I read and follow. Another part is coming into a new school. I am trying to figure our curriculum and requirements. It is so hard when you have 100 people telling you 100 different things! So I have decided I am going to do what is best for me, and of course what is best for my students! So this brings me to my New Year's Resolution! If I write it....they will come!! HAHAHA So my New Year's Resolusion: At least one blog post a week! Hopefully with this, I will get a few more followers!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!