ilovekindergarten.com Blog

Totally behind on my blogging, but wanted to post a few pictures from last month’s “Go Away Big Green Monster” week. 

The first was the purple monster in our sensory table.  I found this idea while playing around on pinterest, and the kids LOVED it.  We used orbits, the squishy, water absorbing things that you put in vases.  I found them in the floral/craft area at walmart.  I added googley eyes.  They lasted over a week, before the started to get a “musty” smell.  Totally worth it, though!

monster sensory table

I bought these “paper plate” craft monsters (they look like the monsters from Where The Wild Things Are) from Oriental Trading.  Loved them!  Plan on duplicating them next year in some way.

monster bulletin board

cheering vowels

I have a wonderful class this year.  I really, really do.  Very sweet.  Super bright.  Curious.  A dream class, really.  I’ve had one little thing that drives me crazy, however.  At any given time, about 1/3 of them forget to write their name on their paper.  It doesn’t matter how I remind them.  It’s not even the same ones all the time. 

So much of my day is small group work, so not everyone is doing the same thing at the same time, so maybe that is why…

Anway….this week I SOLVED the nameless paper problem!  I bought some REALLY cool highlighters.  They work like ballpoint pens…they click in and out…no lids.  My kids love highlighters anyway, but these are in a whole rainbow of colors and they click!

I announced that the ONLY thing you can do with these highlighters is circle your name before you put it in the turn-in basket.  They are so excited to use them, I haven’t had a nameless paper all week!

Name highlighters

Last week our shared reading book was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  We read this book, along with lots of other fun alphabet books, as well as the Robert Munsch book Up, Up, Down! 

I love reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but I have to be honest, I have never been a huge fan of the Chicka Chicka 123 book.  I just can’t seem to get the rhythm for it when I read it. 

I had so many things I wanted to do for my Chicka Chicka week, but just not enough time to do it all.  Here are a few of the things I used in small groups:

Letter Match

Bandaid Book

Letter Search

Counting Coconuts

Chicka Shapes

Chicka Chicka Bulletin Board

Chicka Chicka handprints

I am kind of behind on my blogging.  Such a BUSY time of year.  We had homecoming last week.  We had a great time with our crazy sock day, hat day, pajama day, team spirit day, and Red and Black day…but WOW it made the kids a bit wild!  I am looking forward to a regular routine this week.

I decided to redo my “All About Me” unit this year and base it around one of my favorite children’s books Elmer by David McPhee.  Such a fun book to read to kids and it always starts such great discussions.

Here are a few things I created to use this week.  You can download most of them at www.ilovekindergarten.com  Look under book units/Elmer

Elmer theme book

Elmer Counting

Elmer Measurement

Shape House

Elmer painting bulletin board

We had a great week with our shared reading book The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall.

Small groups went really well this week. They are really becoming much more independent already. I LOVE it! Here are a few things we did in small groups this week with our Apple Pie Tree theme.

How many apples?

Apple Patterning

Apple Pie Tree letter and word search

Name Game for Madison

Secret Code Names

Shape Apple

 We had Big Buddies on Friday with our Big Buddies.  We have SUPER Big Buddies from Miss Lampe’s 3rd grade class.  I used to struggle with finding activities to do with them in that 1/2 hour every Friday, but last year I decided since I always have a hard time finding enough time in my schedule for our Science and Social Studies themes, we would focus on those with our buddies.  It has worked really well. 

This week, they shared some of their new science knowledge with us and we did an Insect Hunt and Survey in the prairie grass around our playground. They had a great time.  Kindergartners love anything that includes a clipboard…the bugs just made it that much better!   These are some insect eggs they found. 

Big Buddy Insect Survey

I had a family email me this week that they had a monarch butterfly caterpillar in a jar for me. The kids were so excited. He was already forming the “j” at the top of the jar when they brought him in, and the next day, there was a chrysalis. I can’t wait until our butterfuly “hatches”!. It’s almost as exciting as hatching the eggs in the spring. The picture is not great, but I hope you can see it!

We did a math drawing activity with the number 5. Love how they are getting the idea of what a “math drawing” means.

Friday was our 10th day of school. Zero the Hero came out for his very first visit. He come out on the days that end in a zero, and the kids have to find where he is “hiding”.

I made my Zero from a “blank” doll I found at Hobby Lobby. Maddie and I sewed hair on him, found some cute tiny red and black tennis shoes, and his outfit is made from a pair of black newborn tights with arm holes cut in! He isn’t as pretty as some of the ones I’ve seen online, but it was fun making him with my 13 year old.

Zero the Hero

My favorite story of the week: Friday was our wonderful school secretary’s 50th birthday. I gave my class each a yellow daisy, and we hid them behind our backs, went into the office, and the kids each handed her a daisy and said “Happy Birthday!”. At the very end of the line, one of my girls pulled the the flower from behind her back with a big flourish…and said “Happy Birthday!” with a big smile. She then looks down at the flower, which is now just a stem! She had lost the flower somewhere in the walk down to the office! She looked at me with these big eyes, like, “OH NO! WHAT DO I DO?”. Poor thing. She was SO cute though, Mrs. Lauridsen just laughed and laughed and gave her a big hug.
Luckily I had extra flowers, so when we got back to the room, I sent her skipping down the hallway with all of the extras.

Mrs. Lauridsen's flowers