GIVEAWAY!!

Check out this awesome giveaway for the Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations!  I have wanted this book since it came out so now I have an "excuse" to buy it!  Go over to Teaching Blog Addict---use the button on the left!--to enter!  Woot! Woot!

Sadness...

I am sad for many reasons.   First, tomorrow is our last day and I will miss my group of kiddos I have this year.  They are without a doubt one of the BEST classes I have ever had.  They have learned so much and we have all grown together.  Another reason for my sadness is that will be my last class at Diamond Elementary.  I have accepted a position in the city where I live and will teach Kindergarten there next  year.  It was a very difficult decision but one I needed to make for me and my daughter.

The biggest source of sadness is that I live in Joplin, Missouri, which you may know was devastated by an F-5 tornado Sunday night.  I was able to drive around a little bit last night and was shaking the entire time.  It was difficult to tell where I was because there are no landmarks left.  I was lucky.  We live a mile from where the destruction path lies.  We were not hurt and there was no damage.  It is a true testament to the faith and grace of God and humanity as we watch help pour into our town.  Please, please, pray for all of those affected in any way by this storm.  We will rise from the ashes and be better than ever!

You've gotta love technology!

I spent 2 hours the other night working on a post and, lo and behold, it's not on my blog!  UUGGGHHH!  I must have not hit "publish" when I finished.  :(

We are still here, counting down our days (6 1/2 days as of today).  I will be posting pics of our field trip and K graduation tomorrow. 

I'm trying...

I'm still here!  I always forget how crazy this time of year is--DRAs, then end of the year testing and grade cards, not to mention Spring Musical, field trips and other fun days.  I've been trying to post for over a week.  I promise to take some time next week and catch everyone up on all the fun we've been having!

To all the wonderful moms in my class and everyone else...

 On a bright note, THANK YOU to Barbie Roper at reallyroper.blogspot.com for the wonderful prizes I won in her latest giveaway!!  Go and check out her wonderful blog!

Plants, Seeds and Wiggly Worms!

All last week we took the Stanford Achievement Test.  In the afternoon, we needed a brain break so we had a ton of fun learning about plants.
Monday

We learned about the parts of the plant
and the job(s) each part played in the
growth of the plant.  We made our
brace map then we learned
Dr. Jean's Parts of a Plant song!





Tuesday
Using our handprints, we created sunflowers that were the same size as us and labeled the parts.  We hung them on the walls of the cafeteria ramp.

 Wednesday
On to the wiggly worms...first a schema chart before reading Wonderful Worms...

Then a fun gummy worm addition and subtraction game!
















Thursday
My favorite activity all year...our "wormology" lesson.  I gave each student a Canadian Nightcrawler to make and record observations about!

Friday
We planted grass seed to make a Mr. or Mrs. Grass Head.  Students journaled about their growth each day as part of their morning work.

Our Grass Heads a week later!

Going buggy!

Our class had so much fun learning about insects!  Here's a few of our activities:

We started out with discussing what makes an insect an insect and labeling the parts.  I did one on on chart paper while the students did one for their F.Y.I. folder.  

Practicing counting phonemes and syllables in a given word.  Students were given a target word, stretched the word out and placed one flower for each phoneme on their mats, then clapped the same word and placed ladybugs on their mats to represent the number of syllables.

Retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Charting the life cycle of the caterpillar before creating one on our own.

 

Helping my kinder'garden' bloom...

I've entered yet another cool giveaway!  Fran has been teaching forever and is still passionate about teaching!
Click here to go to her page!  http://kindergartencrayons.blogspot.com