Day Two

Well...Let me start by saying I my head is a bit cloudy and the day is a bit blurry...but over all we had fun and I am LOVING being a kindergarten teacher. I just want to say classroom procedures were better today than yesterday! I am so impressed with how fast we are learning new things.
This morning started with a story...

An "OLD" first week of school stand by.  I asked my little buckaroos what they thought Chrysanthemum might be by looking at the cover of the book.  "I think it's the little girl. I think it is the BANANAS! I think it means to grow."  What amazing predictions we were able to make just by looking at the picture! (I really like the banana comment! That's exactly what that flower looks like to me now that I look at it!) If you don't have the book and would like to "read" it...click here

After we read about Chrysanthemum we played the Plate Game.  To make sure we were able to recognize our name.  Sung to the tune: If You're Happy and You Know It
If your name is on the plate
Pick it up!
If your name in on the plate
Pick it up!
If you name is on the plate you must be really great
If your name is on the plate
Pick it up!
By the end of the game EVERYONE could read their name on the plate.  Great Job!
Now what are we going to do with a plate with our name on it you might ask...We turned it over and drew our faces of COURSE!

 

What a wonderful job we did!
In the story we found out that Chrysanthemum has 13 letters in it. That is exactly half of the alphabet.  We thought it would be fun to find out how many letters we had in each of our names.  For this activity I introduced the document camera! (WOWZERS)

They were amazed that no matter what I put under it...it showed up on the SCREEN...and super BIG! We talked about this year we would all get a chance to come up and work under the document camera!! Fun and EXCITEMENT...that's what I'm all about! By this time it was time to go to the cafe and practice lunchroom procedures! (I'm not bragging or anything but room 313 is UH-MAZING)  And then out to recess. I tried to find as many as I could...

 

 Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

 

 

Making new Friends

 

 After lunch we came in to finish our names.  We wrote our names in boxes, cut them out (not without a little lesson on using scissor JUST FOR CUTTING PAPER), and glued them on another sheet of paper that says...There are ______ letters in my name.  We counted them, wrote the number and then graphed them! I heard things like. 4 and 5 have the "same".  "Do we have 17 kids in our class?"  That one stopped me in my tracks...I asked, "How did you get that number?  My little friends said, "I counted all the ones hanging up." Well, THAT'S WHAT I'm TALKING ABOUT!!! I love when stuff like that comes up! We talked about having 21 kids here today.  So we came to the conclusion that some ONE(s) hadn't put theirs up yet! Now that's some higher level thinking math!

We then read another book...(one of my favorites I might add...) The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

You can listen to it here ! We noticed that although Chester was just starting school...he goes to school at NIGHT and in a TREE! Great observations!!!!
After reading the book...we made our MOMS a kissing hand card.  So each of you know how much we love you...(you will find it in your child's daily folder) NOW...there is also some HOMEWORK for YOU in that folder. We would like for you to make your child a kissing hand to hang in our classroom! Feel free to BLING it OUT!!! Make it special for your little one! By this time it was getting close to snack time.  We had our snack and went to P.E. Ms. Guy had some QUIET time alone in the room! ~smile~
When we returned we talked about what a TEAM was.  Again, some great answers.  "A bunch of people trying to do something together!" I'm thinking that is a GREAT definition coming from a 5-6 year old!
Each table group got to be a team...we held hands in a ring...I threw in a balloon and without letting go of each others hands they tried to keep the balloon up! ( a little Kagan Brain Break) We had a lot of fun and soon caught on to the fact that we had to trust everyone to do their part!

We were missing a SWEET part of our class today...We hope she feels well enough to come back SOON!

What a way to end the day! And with that...this kinder teacher is T-I-R-E-D...In bed last night by 8:30...and hoping to be able to stay up that late tonight!
Thank you all for sharing your precious child with me! Each of them have already stolen a piece of my