January!

Boy! We have done some fun things in January.

We were learning about Winter. The students were learning about proper dress in the winter as well. For Large Group Literacy (LGL), we read the story "Froggy Gets Dressed".

After reading it and discussing what we wear in the winter, the students had to get me dressed! Here are some fun photos.

I had a bunch of different options to choose from and they had to choose the appropriate ones.

 

We also listened to the story, "The Emperor's Egg" and watched a real life video in order to connect it to real-life situations. I wanted the children to see illustrations and then real video to connect that the story is non-fiction and applies to the real world. 

 They have such concentration! We tried marching around the room with them! All we used were cotton balls. I told them those were their precious baby penguin eggs!

It was so icy that we missed a lot of outdoor play time. In order to prevent another full blown center time, we set up stations the students were able to go to. These stations included the following: puffy paint, ice hockey, and ice melting. I used these to make a matrix of who explored ice.

 For the ice hockey, we used our rectangular blocks to create a border around the table. On each side we left a hole for a goal. There were groups of two on each side. We gave them sporks (spoons would do too) and a piece of ice. Once they started hitting it back and forth,  they were having a great time!

 To make puffy paint, we mixed shaving cream and glue. I do not have exact measurements, we just sort of eyeballed it! We added glitter to make it beautiful!

 

To enjoy ice melting, give the students two pieces of ice.  One green and one red. The green one is for salt and the red one is for water. We gave the students droppers to add drops of water to each. They waited to see which melted faster! 

Winter Plans

So I have been thinking a lot about what I would want from a blog being a new teacher...I thought and thought and thought and came up with an idea. During my very first year of teaching Pre-K, I would try and find examples of lesson plans to see what I am doing compared to everyone else and how does it look. Georgia recently switched standards to the GELDS so it is a little more comprehensive than last years standards.

I have decided to provide an example of my lesson plans for this week coming up. We are learning about winter and the winter weather. As we do the activities I will add pictures and more examples.

Here are my small group plans and some resources that I have found or made myself. I just Google certain images or clipart and use them. I am not selling them or own them, I am just using them personally.

click the image to view or download. These standards are only useful if you teach Pre-K in Georgia! I am so sorry! But the ideas are great!!

For the Building a Snowman group, I tried last year and it went alright. I had die-cut three different sized shapes and a hat and nose and so on and they would gradually build the snowman piece by piece. This got a little overwhelming for some of my students because there were no visual cues, just verbal directions and an assigned step for each value. But I found this link on Pinterest that has it laid out in a visual form for the students to see. It also shows them what to draw.

The website has such great winter ideas! Check them out!! 

For my Reading Group, I found a winter letter sound match online that cost money, so I used graphics from Google images and the search to create my own. Remember, these are not my images. 

Here

Here 2

Here 3

The third document I won't use in my small group, I will use that later on. Maybe even next week with a different group.

Here are some of my Large Group plans for the week as well. I have not included any of my books yet. They are such a pain in the butt to me! Errr!!!

If you are wondering what Higgledy Piggledy is..it is a great tool to teach syllables to kids! It goes a little something like this:

Higgledy Piggledy Bumble bee, 

Will you say your name for me?

(name)

Let's clap it!

Let's snap it!

Let's stomp it!

Let's clap it!

I start out doing the kids' names in the beginning of the year and then move on to other words. It really helps them start to segment words into parts. 

The other Phonological awareness game is the "I'm going on a trip..." game. This game is great for beginning letter sounds. This week we are trying the letter W. Anyways, the point of this game is to sit in a large circle and name items with whatever letter sound you are focusing on that you would bring with you. 

There are plenty more great ideas for PA here!

Okay, I hope this is helpful...I will definitely add more picture and progress of what we are doing. This is just my general outline for the week. :) 

Year in Review

okay, so I am addicted to Linky parties! Here is another one by A Teeny Tiny Teacher . Check her out!

Here is a review of my thirteen favorite things from 2013. I cannot wait to see yours.

Well, my husband knows all too well that my favorite thing to wear is pajamas. Granted I cannot wear them out, but as soon as I get home from work or shopping, I slap those babies on. I am especially loving these that I bought recently at Old Navy. So comfortable! 

 

Besides pajamas, my favorite real article of clothing that I can wear to work or out in public is definitely my blue jean jacket! I wear it all year and it goes with everything. I even bought a matching one for Kinley. 

Seriously?! I am a movie watching fool. My favorite thing also happens to be going to the movies. Can I just give you a list of a few of my favorites that I saw in theaters? Please? 

These are some of my favorites that I watched this year. Leonardo DiCaprio is the best actor of our generation. Charming and believable. Amazing. 

Since I make up my own rules around here, I think I should be able to put down two series: one that I enjoy by myself and the other I enjoy with my husband. It is sad that I have a lot of shows that I watch by myself and a lot that I watch with my husband but the two that I am going to list are my two favorites. I have re-watched the series a million times and never get tired or bored. 

I just cannot help it! I want to know who A is. I cannot believe I am admitting this but my sister and I read theories and clues as to who A is and then we re-watch episodes to try and pick up on the clues. It is ridiculous, but I cannot stop. It is my guilty pleasure. 

My husband and I watch Doctor Who together. Eric started watching a long long time ago and then I started maybe almost 4 years ago. We have re-watched it two times and cried recently when Matt Smith was regenerated. :( Well maybe I was doing all the crying. He was definitely my favorite of them all, but I am excited to see what the 12th doctor will bring. 

UMMM I almost forgot to add my last favorite show that ended this year... BREAKING BAD! I was/am 100% obsessed and hooked on this show. My brain would constantly wonder what was going to happen. LOVE IT!! 

My favorite restaurant is a local Japanese place called Zen. I eat there every year for my birthday and when I was pregnant with Kinley, I ate there 1-2 times per week. There house dressing is delicious. AHHH. 

Before the break, I have tried to give my students some exploration time in the mornings before we start calendar. I will have an activity to explore on the tables ready for them to experiment with. I have not wanted to try this before because I was scared it was going to be a disaster and then two weeks before the break I decided "to heck with it" and did it. The students enjoyed it and I will continue it once a week for the rest of the year. 

Here are the two things I did:

1. Put out several gingerbread cookies and several cups of water. Had them touch and feel the cookie before putting it in water. Then I had them drop it in water and watch. After a few minutes, they were to feel how it changed. It turned "smooshy" as they liked to call it.

2. The next thing I did was I gave them all a candy cane and a cup of water. They were to drop it in and see what happened. Spoiler alert: it disappeared right before their very eyes. 

These were great because it sets the students up to be able to predict based on prior experiences on the future. With these two activities, my students now have built knowledge that water can change the texture of an object. Based on this, you are now able to do small group experiments and predictions with other objects and water. 

My favorite gift this year was the gift of a wedding. My parents were so lovely and paid for everything to be exactly how I wanted it. My mom worked so hard making everything beautiful and saving her money to make it happen. Couldn't have done it without you! 

There she is waiting to give me away!

I pin so much...mostly hair that I like and classroom ideas. My friends probably hate me. LOL

I pinned this during the summer and actually used it for my classroom. I use it everyday as a reminder on how to be a good listener while at the carpet. It works like a charm every time. 

well seeing as I am the worst blogger ever, I do not have many to choose from. I do have one, however, that I do enjoy. It was a great activity for our book of the month. Check it out! 

Favorite post - you won't be disappointed

This is a hard one. This past year has been a busy one. If I think about it, the best accomplishment that I achieved this year would be getting A's in my two Master's classes while getting married and going on a honeymoon (and working). It is a huge deal because I am a procrastinator and I actually got it all done without missing any huge assignment. Y'all, I am growing up. 

This picture was taken around January. My mom and I were shopping and could not find Kinley. When we looked at the mannequins, we hardly noticed Kinley because she blended in so well with them! We did not ask her to pose, she was standing like this when we saw her. LOL This makes me chuckle every time. What a goof!

PS: You're welcome for not putting another wedding picture up here. I thought you might have needed a rest. 

Obviously my wedding is my absolute favorite of this year. So much love and fun going around, but I get it...it has been written about above and below (in my past post) so I will share my second favorite memory. 

Kinley is a pretty shy little girl. She loved Ariel, the little mermaid, and so for her birthday I called Ariel and asked her to come surprise Kinley at her third birthday party. We opened presents and ate cake when there was a knock at the door....Ariel walked in and I was worried how Kinley would react (with her being deathly shy and all). Kinley saw Ariel, opened her mouth wide and ran to give her a hug! It was the most precious thing I have ever seen. 

Also, Ariel was my favorite princess so I was super star struck too! Crying and all...what a weirdo! 

Well what do you know, I already made a blog post about this. It has very very good goals for the upcoming year. 

Let me check off number two there for being better prepared because I already got this done. 

New Year Promises

Patience. 

This word is a word that I need to remember every day. I seem to lose mine quite often. I want to remember this word and hold on to it in the new year. When dealing with four year olds all day and then coming home to an almost four year old makes you want to rip your hair out sometimes. Now when I feel like I am going to explode, I will pull out my special word and remember to have a patience. 

I cannot wait to see your 13 favorite things! Link up with Teeny Tiny Teacher! 

New Year Promises

OH wow!!! So I have not blogged since September but it really does not feel like it has been that long. When you have a wedding to plan, a honeymoon to go on, a Master's program to complete, conferences & "progress reports", and end-of-semester-craziness to finish, the months just shoot right on by. 

But I am back, baby! I still have my Master's program and general work stuff to do but the wedding and honey moon are done! Whew! 

What they don't tell you about a wedding is how fast it is over with. It seems as though you spend countless hours and an embarrassing amount of money for something that is so beautiful and over in the blink of an eye. Needless to say, it was totally worth it. I wish I could suspend time, though, and stay in that moment for a little longer. 

I will give you a little treat of the loveliness captured by Haley Sheffield. *Sigh*

                         

   

                   

After the wedding, we went to Universal Studios for five days. Boy! Was that fun. I finally was able to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We also went out a few times and had lots of random fun. 

But on to what this post is really about...

The new year seems to be all about starting over and coming up with resolutions and promises to be a better you. I see a lot of memes over social media that are giving a huge eye roll about this. I have to admit, I sometimes agree that it can be annoying and pointless to see the same resolutions over and over again but it is fun. Here is my list of cliched resolutions that I hope to fulfill in the new year. 

This is not my photograph, I found it on Tumblr and could not find the original source.

1. Obviously, I need to be a better blogger and at least post weekly! I also want to start posting more things that are meaningful to you teachers. Things you can actually use and implement in the classroom. So here is to hoping. If you have any advice or feedback, let me know!
2. I am a procrastinator. I will admit it. That's the first step to admitting you have a problem, right?! I would like to be better prepared in all aspects of my life: as a mother, a wife, and a teacher. I feel as though I am always one step behind. It is due to my laziness and procrastination that I do this. I will wait until the last minute to clean up, give K a bath, do my lesson plans, or even my school work. So this is it...the year I am going to be better prepared. I think I will start tomorrow. ;)
3. Here's the old cliche resolution. I want to be more active. I am not saying I want to start getting fit to the point where I am competing in competitions or anything (which is awesome btw), I just would like to move more and get outside more rather than sitting on the couch like always. Maybe learn how to hike and be one with nature? Maybe.
4. I love my friends, I really do. I just feel as though I am stuck in content zone right now. I would like to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people who I have not given a chance or a second thought. It also would be nice to have a few new friends that are not just mine or E's. Maybe friends that are ours.
5. Now this one is just silly. But seriously... who is A? I am watching PLL for the *cough3rdcough* time and there are so many clues and details that I am starting to think I am A. Give us some answers, darnit!

What are your resolutions? Let me know in the comments or post a link to your site with your list! :)


PS: since it is the end of the year and the end of a reign, let me take a moment to say goodbye to the 11th doctor. Bow ties will forever be cool.

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! :)