March Work Station Linky Party

A little behind in my posting, but if you click the button below, you will be have access to some AWESOME March activities!   Thanks to Marlana at Lil' Country Kindergarten for setting this all up!

                                      

Election Day

You can read about last year's election here.

This year, as part of our presidential study, we read Duck for President.  We have been discussing a lot lately about how voting is a fair way of making a decision because everyone gets a say and it isn't one person's choice over another.   So after reading our story, we held a mock election for president of the barnyard.  Here's how it went...

 the polling booths...

the voting process...

casting the ballot...

I voted!

and the results are in!

I have been doing graph analysis sheets for all of
our graphs for awhile now and I feel it really helps bring the information together for the kids!








My class has made their voices heard!   Duck for President!!

Kissing in Kindergarten

What a wacky week!  First, snow day on Monday, then back on Tuesday for a half day with Valentine's Day parties (we had in-service in the afternoon), then a surprise! you get to go to a workshop workshop yesterday.  Needless to say, I am cramming every little bit of Valentine love in that I can this week.

Today...we couldn't stop with the kissing!

This morning...we "kissed" a heart with a Hershey's Kiss to show phoneme isolation...

  

then rewarded our smart thinking with the sweet treat.  :)

Next came a guest reader, one of our Early Lit teachers, Mrs. Dobbs, who read us Froggy's First Kiss.

then we predicted in our journal what we thought Frogelina gave Froggie at the end.   They did an amazing job!

A box of chocolate

(my favorite) A peanut butter and jelly sandwich

a kiss

a valentine

During our Read Aloud we also read Arthur's Valentine and compared and contrasted it with Froggy.

I {heart} my class!!!!

TAG! You're it!!

I haven't been blogging long, but I got tagged by Samantha at Oh the Places We'll Go.  Never one to shy away from a childhood favorite, I'm playing along.  Here we go!

1) You must post the rules.

2) Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3) Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.

4) Tag 12 people and link them on your post.

5) Let them know you've tagged them!

Part One: 12 Fun Facts about me...

1. I have just a minor major obsession with The Wizard of Oz.
2. I have 2 children..an 11 year old Border Collie named Maximus and a 2 year old daughter named Ellie.  They both wear me out!
3.  I don't eat hamburger.  9 words--Girl Scout field trip to a vet. Dead cow.--enough said!
4. I am the oldest of 4. 
5. My siblings, my dad and I all have names that begin with the first 5 letters of the alphabet (Andrew, Brett, Charles, David and Erica).
6. If I won the lottery, I would open a children's bookstore like the one in "You've Got Mail"!
7. My favorite colors are purple and dark green.
8. Everyone comments on how organized I am, but my car is always a wreck!
9. I've taught for 14 years, all but one of them in Kindergarten.
10. I worked for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the state of Missouri as a STARR (Select Teachers As Regional Resources) teacher from 2007-2008.
11. My day doesn't start without at least one cup of coffee.
12. I almost didn't graduate from my Masters program due to a fluke with my comp exam.

Part Two: Questions I Answered.

1. What is your favorite thing to teach?

Phonemic awareness...it's were my creativity usually comes into play.

2. What state are you in?

Missouri

3. What is your favorite song?
"Austin" by Blake Shelton.  I'm a hopeless romantic.

4. If you won the lottery, what would you do with it?

Open a children's bookstore  :)

5. What is your favorite grade to teach?
Kindergarten

6. What do you dread teaching?

Math because I am not very good at it myself.

7. What is your favorite teaching memory?

One year for Christmas, a student came in after school to give me a gift.  I opened it and was oohing and aahing over it and the little girl said, "Ms. D, there's more under the paper."  I pulled back the tissue paper and there were treats...for my dog!  I talked about him so much she told her mom that she needed to get him a present too!

8. If you were to do something other than teaching, what would it be?

Probably product development for an educational company.  I love making stuff!

9. What is your favorite book?
Kids book...My Father's Dragon.  Adult book...Educating Esme.

10. What is the best lesson you ever taught?

Wow...it would have to be the weather/Wizard of Oz unit I did last year.  My kids got so into it as we learned about rainbows and tornadoes then wrote a piece about each.  I made the COOLEST Wizard of Oz bulletin board out of it!

11. What was the worst lesson you ever taught?

I laugh and say anything math related!

12. What do you do for fun?

With a 2 year old...sleep!  LOL

Part Three: New Questions for the ones I've tagged

1. What is a constructive way you handle stress?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What one word would you use to describe your teaching style?

4. How often do you blog?

5. Who is your idol?

6. Have you ever had a bad habit that you have now overcome?

7. Is there a smell that you can’t tolerate?

8. What are some of your favorite smells?

9. What’s your favorite kind of movie?

10. If you could move anywhere, where would it be?

11. What was your favorite book as a child?

12.  Cat or dog?

Part Four: Tag! Your it!
(I only did 10...sorry!)

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

Little Warriors

Lil' Country Kindergarten

Really Roper

Kindergarten Kisses

The Kindergarten Kaleidoscope

Kindergarten Hoppenings

Mrs. Jump's Class

Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten
Mrs. Mayas' Kindergarten

Sticker stories!

Do you remember as a kid how you would do just about anything for a sticker?  I have tons of those stickers you get as incentives from Highlights magazine sitting there collecting dust, so I pulled them out to use during Writing Workshop yesterday.

We've gotten in a bit of a rut with our writing and I was looking for a way to motivate my young authors, so I gave them a sticker to use as part of their illustration.  They were excited to be able to illustrate first and the quality of their stories and illustrations were wonderful.  

The squirrel found acorns and was in the tree.

The snake is brown.  It is underground.