HOWDY YA'LL! My favorite unit so far this
year was our farm unit! The kids absolutely LOVED learning about all of the
animals and about what farmers do. Our school is located in Floyds Knobs,
Indiana and it is surrounded by a lot of land and some farms. I really think it
would be neat to go to a dairy farm and let the kids see all of the hard work
that farmers put in (maybe next year!). I used Deanna Jump's Farm Fun Mega
Unit and lots of ideas from Pinterest. You can check out my farm unit board HERE. Both are the perfect resources to add to the activities that we did in
class. Deanna's provides nonfiction books to use for various farm animals. We
learned about pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep. I definitely recommend using her
unit! You can purchase it HERE! I will warn you that teaching about cows, chicken, and pigs may rock some
of your kids worlds! Ha! I had a few that didn't know we eat these animals! Uh
oh! That made for some interesting conversations! :)
Nonfiction and Fiction Frog Unit!
Just now getting around to
posting all of our hard work on our Frog Unit! We worked on frogs for two
weeks! We started with learning all about real frogs. We learned what
nonfiction means and we researched information about real frogs. We also
learned about the life cycle of frogs and we compared them with toads. We made
the life cycle seen below modeled after Kim Adsit's in her Frogs and
Butterflies Unit on TPT. I also used some of the graphic organizers from Deanna
Jump's Frog Frenzy Unit on TPT. The kids LOVED learning all sorts of
information about frogs and Herpetologists!
The next week we focused on a fiction week of frogs. We read
several of the Froggy books and did a character analysis on Froggy. We have
been working on the parts of a story and this really helped us focus on the
what a character is. We used Deanna Jump's Froggy Math and Literacy Fun Unit!
It includes a lot of fun little comprehension and math activities. Deanna makes
my life so much easier! :-) We read "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a
Frog" and making the cute little old lady craft. I found the idea on
Pinterest and made a little sketch on paper. It was super easy and turned out
really cute! The kids thought the book and craft was hilarious! I would
definitely have swallowed a doughnut also! Hehe! We ended our fiction frog unit
by reading "Prince of a Frog". It is a cute little story about a Frog
wanting to be a Prince and in the end his friends show him they love him for
who he is! We painted a frog and then--the BEST part--bedazzled a crown for
him. I thought they turned out so cute! So much fun!




Math Workshop!
We love math workshop! I am very lucky to work at a school that is very flexible with what we can choose to teach with. Last year was my first year so I used Envision because that is what the previous teacher used. I like the idea of Envision but I feel like in kindergarten, it was missing a lot of standards, and it wasn't really capturing the attention of my students..or me to be honest! I decided that this year we needed a change. After researching for a few weeks I decided to go with Deedee Wills and Deanna Jump's Math Workshop Units. So far I am loving them! I truly feel like the kids are getting something out of learning and enjoying themselves! I also love the workshop model. Each lesson starts with a fluency review on the carpet, I introduce a new topic, the kids work with a partner, and then they work at their desk by themselves (to check individual understanding). I could not be more happy about the results! :)


Living and Non Living Fun!
We had so much fun last week learning about living and nonliving things! I used a mini unit on living and non living things made by Nancy VandenBerge that I got on TPT. It was perfect for our gummy worm and real worm experiment on Friday. Sidenote: I HATE worms! Ha! The things we do for our kiddos. :)
I was so proud of how they did. We had so much fun and we learned a whole lot too!

FIRST FIVE DAYS OF SCHOOL...CHECK!
Well everyone....I MADE it
through the first five days of school and through parent night! I am so excited
for this school year! I only have thirteen babes this year! Crazy!!! I wanted
to share a few things (tips and tricks) from my parent night that I really
loved doing this year (AND that made a huge difference)!
1. Make a
power point presentation!-- This
really helps you stay on track of what you want to talk about! We only have
twenty-five minutes to meet with our parents. We usually do two sessions so
that parents with multiple children can get to both classrooms. Anyway, with
only twenty-five minutes time FLIES by! AND if you're like me-- you may get off
subject and talk talk talk! Ha!
2. Make
colored copies!-- this is HUGE! Not only does paper just look more
interesting/pretty when its on neon paper, parents are more likely to read what
it says. When the non-OCD people go home white papers sort of just get lost. I
am guilty of just setting stacks of paper down and then not ever going through
them! You want parents to LOOK at what you gave them! I also find that the more
"cute" you make something- the more it draws parents in! :)
3. Make a
gift for your parents!-- Sure, maybe you are sucking up just a
little..but do it! The parents ranted and raved over the little water bottles I
gave them. It does not have to be anything expensive or big, but parents like
that you took the time to think about them! After all you want to establish a
good relationship with your parents right away! It not only reflects positively
on you--it shows what kind of person you are! At the end of the day we are in
this together! We want the same things for our school babies that they want.
4. Tidy up
your classroom!-- Yes, you would think that everyone does this! But it is really
important to make sure your room is presentable! Everything in my classroom is
not exactly how I want it yet but that is okay! I could probably work on my
room for two more years before I thought it was perfect! Ha! But anyway,
parents notice how organized/clean your room is. If you have stacks of papers
everywhere...hide them! You want to make a positive first impression on
parents!
AND last
but definitely not least......
5. BE
YOURSELF!-- Be
confident in your ability as a teacher! After all we didn't go to school to
return to school for fun! The best part of being a teacher is that most of us
LOVE our job! Unless you are a teacher you will never understand the love we
have for our job. We develop little people's (some big) minds!

Classroom Reveal 2015
Hello friends! I can finally say that I AM FINISHED
with my classroom for school next week! As most of you know this is my second
year teaching! Whew! I am so happy to have everything ready to go without
feeling like I was going to lose my mind! It is crazy how much difference a
year makes. I am so excited to get started with my kinder babies! I have big
plans this year for my blog! Stay tuned! Thanks so much for stopping by to see
all of the hard work that I have put in! :)





Happy Learning!
What Summer?
So I know that I have been M.I.A. this summer! I have been tutoring five kiddos this summer and working on making my classroom perfect for my second year teaching! I cannot believe that I not only made it through my first year, but it is already time to start a new one! OMG! Anyway I cannot wait to really get more into blogging this year! Here is a before picture of my classroom this summer....stay tuned to see my classroom reveal!


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