All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom is not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and milk are good for you. Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and work everyday some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out in the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere! Poem by Robert Fulghum
We had a busy and exciting today in K108! We made chick masks and our Easter baskets this morning in centers. We even listened to "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick" by Lucille Colandro and Jared D. Lee at our listening center. The Easter Bunny came to visit and hid some eggs outside in the courtyard for us! Regan, a 5th grader from Mr. Henry's room, came to read us an Easter story that she wrote and colored with us. It was very nice of her to volunteer her time and we all appreciated it. Happy Easter everyone!
On Thursday, April 2nd K108 got to meet B-7 through some really cool technology. Mrs. Blazosky and I used Skype to call each other and we used webcams to see each other. Our kiddos got to meet their partner from B-7 as well as watch the interactions on our SmartBoard. Some of the questions and comments were so cute! The children were absolutely amazed at getting to meet their partner through the computer. I cannot wait to see what we come up with next!
April Fool's everyone! K108 teamed up with Mrs. Traci Blazosky's first grade class at Clarion Area Elementary to pull some super pranks this April Fool's Day! To get us ready I read the book, April Foolishness by Teresa Bateman. The story is about a young boy trying to prank his grandfather on April's Fools day by making up all these crazy accusations about the farm animals on his grandpa's farm. A very cute story and it got us in the mood to plot our pranks on B-7! During Writer's Workshop we drew our prank and wrote a story about it, and then we used VoiceThread to load the pictures into and record our voices telling our prank. Enjoy!
K108 had a very special guest reader yesterday! Mrs. Flick, beloved former 2nd grade teacher, read us Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, sang the song Six Little Ducks with us and gave eaach of us a bookmark with a farm animal on it! How lucky are we? We felt very fortunate to have Mrs. Flick come in and spend some of the afternoon with us! We always enjoy having visitors!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
To go along with St. Patrick's Day we also learned about rainbows in our classroom last week. First, we watched a video on our SmartBoard from Discovery UnitedStreaming about what makes a rainbow. Then we did science centers! They made rainbows out of markers, paper plates, construction paper and green Easter basket grass to represent that there must be rain AND sun present to see a rainbow. We also played a game on the Smartboard where the kids were asked to fill in the correct colors in the rainbow and I did a science experiment with them with just milk, dish soap and food coloring. I out a dab of red, yellow and blue in three seperate sections of a bowl filled with milk. Then I added in the dish soap. The dish soap did not mix with the milk-instead it floated on top making the colors mix and swirl together to make all the colors of a rainbow! The children were amazed as they watched the colors mix and swirl together to see the different colors that were made.
K108 was ransacked by a tiny and mischevious leprechaun on Tuesday, March 17th! Thank goodness that St. Patrick's Day is over and we have a whole year to be safe from such an attack again! He left footprint all over the floor and tables and he even peed green in our toilet! To top it all off he hung our beloved hot potato from the celining! What a sprite!
This is my first FULL year teaching kindergarten at Keystone Elementary. I began teaching kindergarten in January of this year, and I am really excited about my first full year! I graduated from Clarion University with dual degrees in elementary education and early-childhood education in May 2006. I love the experiences that kindergarten has given me, and I look forward to the adventures that await! I am currently working on my Masters Degree in Special Education at Slippery Rock University and live with my husband, Dave, and our two dogs, Winston and Isabel.
