Five for Friday!

OMG! I am so excited that it is Friday! Here is another Five for Friday post!

1. Tomorrow is Saturday and we are headed to Music Midtown! If you know me, then you know that I LOVE Tegan and Sara. I have seen them several times and it never gets old. We also get to see another band that I have been wanting to see for like ever: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O is a dream boat! There are many more bands but I don't want to brag or anything. ;)

2. Yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate day which I had no idea about until that morning. I dropped all of my plans and threw together some pirate fun at the last minute! It was FUN!!! We read "Pirates Don't Change Diapers", made pirate hats and eye patches, dug for treasure with our special treats, and drew a treasure map! ARGGG WHAT FUN!

To make the snack: get 2 boxes of shape treats (they were $1 at Kroger!), Twizlers, and Oreos. Put two shapes at the bottom, crush Oreos and put them on top, then make an X with the Twizlers. Afterall, X marks the spot.
*This was a great way to teach the letter X, teaching about maps, and we even added a little shape recognition in there.

3. I don't know about you, but my kids were CRAZYYYY this week. We needed a lot of dancing and fun in order to calm ourselves down. I like to show a video I made in college to remind them of making good choices and consequences. It is a song that I wrote with a friend. It is very catchy....you've been warned.


The kids loved it! We  even made our own version for parents with us singing and dancing.

4. We have been talking about shoes this month and one of the quick activities we did was Shoe Graphing. I got out a long piece of butcher paper and labeled three different types of shoes: sandals, sneakers, and slip-ons. We talked about each type of shoe and decided to see what shoe was in our classroom the most! I am going to blog more about it next week so here is a sneek peek!

5. Kinley had a school get together that showed us what she does at school! It was so cute to see all of the fun things she does and what she likes to do the best. She remembered the class rules, how to make a magnet sensory bottle, and hold scissors. AWWW! This makes me happy for next year when she will be in Pre-K at my school. Mom is proud! :) 

Family Fun

At my school we have a book of the month (BOM). This is where a family signs up to donate a specific book to our class. For September, our book was "Bat Loves the Night." I asked the parent who donated if she would like to read and do a quick activity with us. She agreed!

(I have great parents, y'all!)

She read the book to us and the kids really enjoyed hearing someone besides me read! LOL

After we were finished reading, I showed the kids a picture of the LARGEST bat and the SMALLEST bat side-by-side.

*SmartBoard pics are never any good!*

Then I told them that the largest bat had a wingspan of 5 feet! I of course explained that a wingspan is how long our arms are when we hold them out to our sides. Since they have no concept of 5 feet, we measured using rulers. This gave a great visual, counting practice, and measuring activity (all which are important indicators for GA WSO).

 

Then of course we measured the smallest wingspan (5 INCHES)! This was a great way to show the differences between feet and inches. We discussed more and less as well. 

After the measuring, We took pictures to see if our wingspan was longer or shorter than the biggest bat!

We made it into a fun book! 

The next day we did an activity to where we could get a visual of how many mosquitos a bat eats in an hour. My para was so kind and cut out 600 bugs and then sorted them into groups of ten. This activity was a lot for the Pre-K kids. They needed a lot of help since they are unable to cut and glue very well. This gave them great glue practice. We did this during work time and called them over few at a time to glue. If you are willing to go through a lot of work, this mosquito activity is a lot of fun and looks great when you are through!! 

 

I loved doing this bat activity! I will have to revisit this book and come up with more activities in October. :) 

Currently slacking

Oh my gosh! I have been quite the slacker with this blog and I apologize. I promise I will be better this September. :)

I think I am still getting used to all the newness of the students and my Master's program. I will get there. I can do it. I think...

1. I don't even know why Teen Mom 3 is on my TV. It is a little interesting though. It has been playing in the background as I have been writing my lesson plans and I have to say that the drama is ridiculous. 

2. I am totally loving this 3 day weekend. School has been crazy so it was nice to have an extra day to get caught up and relaxed. 

3. I think this is self-explanatory. Ya feel me, right?

4. I am wanting it to be October already so I can get this wedding over with! The closer it gets, the more anxious I get. Also, I am a comma abuser. I am unsure that I even use them correctly anymore. They are my favorite thing it seems. 

5. I need money$! Weddings are expensive and the closer it gets, the more worried I am about having enough money for it. So I am hoping this month and the next I can save a little extra to have for the honey moon. *Here's hoping!* As the date approaches, I need to be getting in to shape. I am such a procrastinator that I need to get going. My poor Kin. I have been so worn out from school that I feel like she has been pushed aside for a few weeks. But I WILL get better with all three of these things.

6. AHHH! That is so soon. I am excited. 

Check back at Oh Boy 4th Grade for other great blogs!

Learning All About Ourselves

So the first month of school is really a great time to learn about the rules and procedures (obviously) and this is especially needed in Pre-K. These kids are literally such young babies that they don't know about rules and how to walk in line. It is actually crazy how you forget how young they are because towards the end of the year, they are so much "older" and mature than when we started school.

Our AP at my school even said that he couldn't believe how much work Pre-K is. He never realized that you had to teach and help 22 kids open their milks, walk in line, use the restroom, sit criss-cross, and all of the other little things we take for granted or assume everyone innately knows how to do.

To be honest, it is a struggle those first few weeks. There is so much to go over and it is very intimidating and overwhelming. I started to feel angry and even upset. As a mother (maybe it's only me) I noticed that when Kin isn't listening, I take it personally. If I get on to her I am doing it with my emotions and she does not listen at all. My mom or Eric can get on to her and she listens. The difference is that they do not put there emotions in to it. After I realized this about myself, I knew that I was doing this in my room because, let's face it, we are together 5 days a week for 8 hours. If the kids were not listening, I would react with my emotions. I now know that there is no need to do that. It has made my class 100 times better and I feel the love everywhere.

PS: When I say I used my emotions, I am talking about you could hear that I was upset in my voice or that I would holler. JUST WANTED TO BE CLEAR ON THAT! LOL :)

Anyways, the first month of school is also a great time for kids to learn about themselves, their friends, and their family. The first thing we did was draw a self-portrait. My school uses handwriting without tears and so I gave no instructions. Just simply draw a picture of yourself. I mostly got pictures of scribbles and such.

The next day, we did teacher labeling. My co-worker saw this idea on Pinterest and shared it with us. The kids LOVED this. They told me how crazy and silly I was. They definitely had a blast. I wanted everyone to have a turn nso I wrote 22 body parts on sticky notes. I posted them on my teacher board and let one student at a time pick one. I will say that the sticky notes did not stick on my body or clothes too well. But it was workable.

The body parts I used were as follows:
eye, foot, toes, hand, wrist, fingers, ankle, arm, arm, leg, leg, elbow, neck, nose, mouth, ear, knee, hair, chin, chest, tummy, back.

The following day we listened to the Mat Man song and used our listening skills to put Mat Man together. There are several curves and lines that you use to put him together, so I explained what each part was. I gave everyone a piece and let them listen to the song. When the song said, "Mat man has 2 eyes, 2 eyes, 2 eyes..." The kids with the eyes had to put them where they go. This is a great song to help build listening skills as well. If you would like to learn more here is the site from Handwriting Without Tears. I made my own parts out of foam and googly eyes for the eyes. Here is our finished product. 

The next day I explained that we made Mat Man using shapes. When we draw ourselves, we can use shapes. We even drew Mat Man on chart paper together. After we drew him together, they went to their seats and made themselves using shapes. We talked about how girls can wear dresses and I let them guess which shape that would be. They guessed triangle. *ding ding ding*

Here are their before and after Mat Man. Can you guess which is the before? :) 

They really enjoyed this week and learning about themselves and their bodies.