Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

 This past week I introduced the book CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM to my students.  I set up several centers connecting to the book.  Also we learned a really great song to go with this book.

 These two students are working in our writing center.  I cutout a coconut tree and taped it to a cookie sheet.  Then the students used magnet letters to place onto the tree just like in the story.  As you can see these two had fun "making" words on their tree.

 This young lady worked with me in small groups on her name.  The poem was getting the students to count the letters in their name.  Each student read with me the poem and we counted the letters in their name.  Then they had to make their tree.  First they took the trunk of the tree and did an according fold with it.  Glued it in place along with the leaves and coconuts.  Then they glued their name onto or around the tree.

 Another young lady in the writing center.  She found the read the room glasses and was wearing them while she worked on her tree.

 This week I also introduced the color blue and the shape square.  The students were working on their fine motor skills as well as working with glue. The students had to tear small pieces of blue paper and then use a Q-tip to dip into the glue and place the glue onto the paper.  They had to glue the blue pieces around the square.

 This week we were introduced to characters in a story.  So I used this anchor chart to discuss traits characters have.

 This week in Math we were introduced to textures with this chart.

Our Voc words for the week that went with the story FOLLOW THE LEADER.

 "Mat Man" from Hand Writing without Tears...We did this as a group with the song.

 Some of our charts I have used this week

 Our song during math time to learn our colors as well as same and different

 Our names added to the word wall

 The students made their own Mat Man on their white boards

 They did very well with this for being our 4th day of school

 Day # 5 we are already sorting colors into groups and they picked up on this fast.

 This was the second day we did Mat Man this time on chart paper.  One student asked me "What about the hairs here?" He was pointing to his eyebrows so we added hair on his head and eyebrows.  I loved how they were thinking of the details. Then after large group that is when they went to make one on their white boards.

We added the color words and animals from Brown Bear Brown Bear to our word wall

4th day of school

Today was the forth day of school.  We have had some ups and downs so far.  I started out with 11 students that I started calling to set up a time for the parents to bring their child in before school started to have them assessed with the ECAT.  During the call there was two disconnected numbers (I mean all numbers were disconnected that they put on their application) so they got dropped.  Then one momma stated she doesn't think they are ready for public school that her child has special needs.  I asked what kinds of special needs cause we can accommodate them the best we can especially if that child has an IEP.  She stated he doesn't talk and isn't potty trained (Ok my thoughts here was really at 4 he isn't potty trained).  I let her know that he has to be potty trained to start Pre-K and that she needed to let us know what they planned to do cause there is a waiting list.  Well he never showed up so he got dropped from my list.  The added more students to my list that I got to meet at Meet the Teacher Night and they set up their times to bring their child in.  So long story short I have 18 kids and 14 are boys.  Another boy got dropped from my class cause of no show (if they don't show they get dropped) I received another application today bringing my total back up to 18.

So I am going to be challenged this year with having this many boys.  I already have a sore throat from repeating myself so much and now a cough to go with it now.  Some other challenges I have had so far has to do with technology.  I have a brand new Promethean Board that has duel pens and neither one of them works.  So a work order was put in the week before school started (about 10 days ago) second challenge with the board that my wires that connect from the board to my computer are too short and i have to bring the laptop to the board and it sits in a students chair.  I have to work the board this way by using the mouse and not the pens.  Well last week the board not won't connect with my laptop so I had to come up with a backup plan (using a projector hooked to my laptop to project our calendar etc onto the board) but this has wires crossing the middle of my circle time carpet where an accident is waiting to happen.  I planned my lessons with fun activities that involve the board.  So needless to say this has been a challenge.

We are still learning the routine of the classroom and the boys rather "not" listen to what I am saying and I have to repeat myself.  So my goal this week is to find a way to connect to them to get them to follow directions within the first 2 or 3 times not 10-15 times. LOL.

I want to end it with a quote from one of my boys who was assigned to housekeeping today.  "Ms. Beavers housekeeping is boring."  Don't you love them. :)

Working hard

I have been working hard the last 3 days in my classroom.  This year we have a new principal and she is letting us into our classrooms a week earlier than normal.  YEAH! Since I have a new Promethean Board in my classroom I had to rethink my classroom layout. And I think it will work well this year.  We will have to see when I have students in the room.

This year's theme for my class is "Growing in the Garden".  I wanted to do this theme 1. I love gardening. 2. we have garden beds the students work in. And 3. I think it will connect well with learning.  So I had no idea what to do with my bulletin boards, so I went looking on Pinterest for ideas and BINGO tons of ideas came up.

This is going to be my word wall.  I am still working on it.  I had to hand make the sunflowers and still need to make 10 more.  Plus when I pulled out my letters some were missing hence the missing letters.  I am going to add green stems from each flower and then place the words we will use throughout the year on leaves and then add to the stems.  I hope this works out.  I will also add a small picture on the leaf with the word so my students can see what they are writing and learning.  Then I need to finish the tree with leaves from tissue paper.  I am also going to add butterflies to the tree.

This board is going to be my schedule, agenda, and Common Core Standards.  The ladybugs will have the student's names for them to hang up their backpacks next too.  I had a white picket fence on the green part but didnt like how it looked so I took it down and going to make a different one.  For my daily agenda I am making a beehive that will display the times for the activities and around the beehive will be bees that have the

Just A Few Days Left of Summer

Just a few days left of summer break.  I will be getting my classroom keys next Wednesday to begin my 12th year of teaching. In the meantime I have been doing my usual preparing for the new year at home and at workshops.The first workshop I attended (last week) was the OERB workshop.  I took the class for Pre-K to 2nd grade called Little Bits.  At the end of this workshop I came away with a complete kit to lead activities I learned during the class as well as $50 and a free field trip for my students.  (Free is always good, since we don't get to take trips anymore due to budget cuts.)

Then I got to meet my new principal at the PBIS training for our school district.  Along with others from my school we listened to each other and planned ways to improve school climate, attitudes, procedures, and so much more.  That same week I meet with a team of 6 of my peers and our principal to plan the schedule and other procedures for the coming year. (Crossing my fingers the changes work.)

Today I went to two of four trainings on the use of a Promethean Board.  I finally got my board the last two days of school and I am so ready to use it with my students.  During the training I got to learn the basic uses of the board as well as so really cool ideas to use.

I have the newest model (Not sure which one but it looks like this).  With the software there is a resource library with tons of templates, games, and activities for student or teacher use.  One of the things I liked was an ABC activity where the students can move the letters with their pen onto the screen.  I then had a thought to save the students work from the board into a electronic portfolio for each student. There are many times I wanted to save something they did but there was no way of saving their work unless I took a picture of it.  The ideas then just started pouring into my head.  I plan on using the Promethean Board as a center but then I realized I could use it with small groups as well.  For example if I have a small group of students who are having trouble with tracing, I can create an activity for them to practice tracing on the board then I can save their work to show growth.

Another thing from this workshop I learned about Promethean Plant. And that I can upload the things I need to work at home and then transfer it to my work computer with just a flash drive.  Tomorrow I will be attending class 3 and 4, learning more about the Promethean Board. On Friday I will be traveling with my BFF to Norman to attend Ag In The Classroom workshop.

Yesterday I meet with my two Garden Gal friends to have a bio-weekly meeting on our school garden.  We had a lady from our service center who helps with grant writing come sit in on our meeting and help us find and ways to write grants to get money for our garden.  We have come up with two major items we need that will cost the most on our wish list.  A Shed and a picket fence.  So let the grant writing begin.  On that note, our garden gal group received our donorschoose.org project funding for a compost bin.  YES HAPPY DANCE!!!!!

Reflection Question #2

What is something you tried in your classroom this year for the first time? How did it go?

I been reflecting on last year's class and answering questions to help improve myself and to help better my students' learning.  One thing I tried last year was the year long theme "Around the world with Pre-K". It was a bit of a challenge for me.  Why you ask?  One thing that was a challenge for me was to continue the theme throughout the year.  I wanted learning to connect to countries but not over whelm my students.  Another thing was finding material that was appropriate for my group.  As I have been reflecting about this theme, one question pops up in my mind "Should I do this theme again?"  I have been tossing that one back and forth.  I found some great ideas from Pinterest with this theme.  Some ideas running through my head: learning the countries letters and numbers, reading books and then mapping where the book took place on our map.  Much more things but save that for later.

 The whole class holding the chain that they measured the room with.

 Students using connecting cubes to measure the height of the plants and the length of our garden bed.

Another new thing I tried was gardening and connecting it with learning.  This was a big success with this group.  Two things I love gardening and teaching.  One concept that the students picked up on was measuring and for my age group they measure with objects not rulers.  But I introduce rulers to my students cause I saw that they were ready for it.  They ran away with it.  They took measuring the plants and garden bed from outside and brought it into the classroom with measuring the room, the chairs, the tables and so much more.  I got to see their minds grow.  It was a great feeling to see the learning they got from a ruler and a garden.

I am going to take this question a step further and ask myself what new things do I want to do this coming school year?  Here is my list:

1. getting to work with a Promethean board  (YEAH!!!)

2. using a new lesson plan format

3. laying out my classroom differently (have to since I have a Promethean board now. Have to arrange room to best utilize it)

4. re-vamp my learning centers both for literacy and math.

5. bringing writing into the gardens (having them labeling and journal more)

6. blogging in a PLC group. (saw this from another blogger and thought this is a great idea) so I am going to try it. here is the info:

                                    #4 Blogger for a PLC!

Have teachers create and contribute to a blog - together! Don't think of this as necessarily the type of blog with others outside of your PLC read (although they can and this can be great support/feedback), but more of a virtual meeting space to discuss practice and learn together. They can upload video, pictures and text to share ideas, challenges and solutions. This helps alleviate the, "When can everyone meet?" or lack of common planning time. Another great outcome is that all of your "meetings" are automatically archived. So all learning and brainstorming can be referenced throughout the year - and years - to come. Here is an example of a virtual PLC we did this year around our technology integration. In our first year, we set it to private - just for us to learn and collaborate - but are now considering opening it to learn with the world.

We will see how the new changes will affect me as a teacher and the students' learning.

Starting to Brainstorm

I woke this morning from a dream...the dream was about the up coming changes to my school.  We are losing several  great teachers through either forced trims or new adventures in teaching, we are also losing our principal, she is retiring.

The dream was putting me in a totally new school but with no control on my class.  I was more like a teacher aid than a teacher.  I even tried to call my BFF in my dream to talk about it but that was no good.

I received an email from our new principal last week.  She was introducing herself giving some of her stats in the profession.  She is coming from a High School down to Elementary.  That scares the hell out of me.  I worry about will she be early childhood friendly (know the importance of early childhood in education).  So I am saying my prayers that this coming school year will be a smooth transition into new leadership.

As summer is slowly coming to a close and the new school year is just a few weeks away, I am starting to think about new ideas for my classroom.  I want to do new things instead of the same things I have done in the past.  I also am not sure if I should keep the theme "Around the world with Pre-k" or choose another theme.  If I do keep the theme I want to make it better than last year.

end of the year reflections

1. What are some things you accomplished this year that you are proud of?

Some things I accomplished this year that I was proud of was the school gardens, tutoring the 1st grade students, working with other teachers on  improving writing skills, finally getting to see the new playground built from a grant I helped with two other ladies, and helping my BFF and teacher implement a literacy night at our school.

It was the second year for our 25 garden beds and it was a major growing success as well as improving my student's learning.  I have been helping with after school tutoring in the past but this year I felt it was more successful in student growth.  I assessed each of the students to see where they were at and then worked with them on the skills they were lacking in.  I created fun ways for them to learn but not thinking they were learning.  I worked a group of teachers and creating an assessment tool in writing to assess our students with.  I created the pre-k's writing assessment to help me and my fellow peer see and track our students progress in writing.  It was a really learning experience for me and looking at writing at a different way.  Our school received $34,000 from the Jimmie Johnson Foundation to help our school get a new playground. And Lastly my BFF was creating a large evening literacy night for our parents plus ribbon cutting ceremony for our playground and our school community.

20 Questions to ask myself at the End of the Year

1.  What are some things you accomplished this year that you are proud of?


2. What is something you tried in your classroom this year for the first time? How did it go?


3. What is something you found particularly frustrating this year?


4. Which student in your class do you think showed the most improvement? Why do you think this student did so well?


5. What is something you would change about this year if you could?


6. What is one way that you grew professionally this year?


7. Who amongst your colleagues was the most helpful to you?


8. What has caused you the most stress this year?


9. When was a time this year when you felt joyful and/or inspired about the work that you do?


10. What do you hope your students remember most about you as a teacher?


11. In what ways were you helpful to your colleagues this year?


12. What was the most valuable thing you learned this year?


13. What was the biggest mistake you made this year? How can you avoid making the same mistake in the future?


14. What is something you did this year that went better than you thought it would?


15. What part of the school day is your favorite? Why?


16. What were your biggest organizational challenges this year?


17. Who was your most challenging student? Why?


18. In what ways did you change the lives of your students this year?


19. Pretend that you get to set your own salary for this past year based on the job that you did. How much do you feel that you earned (the number you come up with should be in no way based on your current salary - rather, come up with a number that truly reflects how you should be compensated for your work this year)?


20. Knowing what you know now, would you still choose to be a teacher if you could go back in time and make the choice again? If the answer is "no,"  is there a way for you to choose a different path now?

preparing for the 2012-2013 school year

I have been pinning from Pinterest and came across some really good ideas and spent the afternoon working on a few anchor charts.  I have used charts in my classroom but not like these.  As the end of a school ends and the new one gets ready to begin, I reflect on the school year as to ways to improve myself, my teaching and student learning.  So some of these charts I think will help my ELL students have a visual as well as the non-ELL students.

 This anchor chart I hopes illustrates a good listener.  It lets them know the points of a good listener: eyes watching, ears listening, mouth waits to talk, hands in lap, raise hand to talk, face forward, and sit criss cross apple sauce.

This anchor chart I plan to use with our 3rd grade reading buddies.  It will help our reading buddies see how to sit and what they can do with their little buddy.  They can choose a book together, echo read, ask questions about a certain page, and practice sitting EEKK (elbow-elbow knee knee) with the book in the middle of their laps.

 My students are using unifex cubes to measure our plants in our garden bed as well as the bed itself.

Green Thumb Garden Gals

My BFF and I will be presenting next week at the ELL Summer Summit in Tulsa.  We are going to be sharing our start with our school gardens and how we use them in our classroom.  I am excited this will be my second presentation to my peers (my first was on how to get resources for your classroom through Donors choose).

The First year of our school gardens was mainly the set up phase.  This year we actually got to use it in the classroom to teach our students through a variety of methods from science, math, to writing.

Garden update

 April 4 , 2012 growth from our garden bed.  We planted lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cosmos, and tomatoes.

This is a fourth grade bed their beans are growing so fast.

Signs of spring

 My students are holding the chain we used to measure the circumference of our garden bed.  We counted each chain and there was 228 chains and it took 20 of my students to hold it.  We then used the same chain to measure our classroom.  From wall to wall the chain was the same as the circumference of our garden bed.

 Today my students made hand print Easter chicks.  I got the idea from a site that I googled under the subject hand print crafts.

 Each year I have my students do this activity.  It is a cute way to learn the parts of the flower.  They get to learn the names while learning to write the words. I use real sunflower seeds for the inside of the flower, a cupcake foil for the petals, a straw for the stem (I only had red ones lol), yarn for the roots and then they cut out their own leaves from green construction paper.

This is a new thing I did with the children.  They wrote words that had to do with spring onto raindrops and then glued them to an umbrella.  It turned out really cute.

Chinese New Year ...the Year of the Dragon

 Flag of China....continue to learn about different countries with Around the World with Pre K

 Chinese New Year Mobile

 The symbol for Dragon...2012 is the Year of the Dragon

In the writing center the students can write Chinese symbols for animals....

New winter projects

 Name Snowmen....The students put one letter of their name on one "snowball".  Then added the face to a smaller snowball.

 Snowy Day scenes from the book.  Students got to choose the colors of their buildings and then use colored chalk to make the snaw.

 "I have A Dream"....the students were asked to tell me what they "Dreamed" to become when they grow up.