Shape Hunt & Graph /Our First Math Stations

We went on a shape hunt around the room looking for shapes!  After we each found 5 shapes, we sorted them, placed them into columns, then compared how many were in each group.

Math Station began this week. I just love them all in yellow; made us feel happy all day long!

Jaxon and Dylan are sorting buttons.

Bryson and Kaleb are sorting bears.

Aiden and Kaitlynn are building in the block center.

Landon and Lillian are separating parts that are 'same' and 'different'.

Bella and Melody are comparing and sorting dominos.

Savannah and Ian love the click-its!

Sorry this is blurry, but I had to include precious Skylar, Aylin, and Ms. Young!

Zero the Hero came and vistied on the 10th day!

It's Brown Day!

Look at all the zeros he left for us!

 We had to hunt around the room for his favorite number.

 There was even a path where his magic cape dragged on the floor as he entered!

He left us a picture and a letter!

He even left us a snack made of zeros!

So this is little Jaxon.  He came to school with his cool tie and said, "I just wanted to look purdy for you Mrs. Cooper!" Melted my heart!

Aylin, Bryson, and Lillian on Brown Bear day.  :)

Calendar Board and Tidbits

Keep in mind, the classroom is still under construction!  Here are a few pictures of some things in our room...

Love this class graphing pack from Kelly's Kindergarten. FREE downloads for every week of the year! 

Our Rules and stick chart.  Of course we use Dr Jean's Rules Rap to introduce and reiterate during the year.

My kids always complained about having to clean the lunch tables.  I created these 'sticks' with all the kiddos names (red for girls, blue for boys).  Now I pull four and move them over to the next cup.  The tablewashers put on the nametags and everyone only has to wash the tables about 1x a wk.

This is your typical 'word wall' chant activity.  At the beginning of the year, we use our friends names.  Later on we'll use seasonal words like ghost, turkey, presants, etc.

Our county just started the mandatory posting of 'I Can...' statements in the room. 

This is what I use during calendar and question time for kiddos to answer questions.  No one know when their name may be called, so you better stay on your toes!  I also keep my 'smartie pills' (M&Ms, smarties, skittles, etc.) ready to hand out in the same basket.

LOVE our estimation jar.  One student takes the jar home every night and puts 1-50 small items inside. The students record their estimations on small post it notes and write their names.  Whoever has the closest 'guess' recieves a smartie pill and the class does a cheer!

The First Week - whoah.....

At HBW, we do the typical phase in schedle that most schools do for Kindergarten.  There were 3 days where we focused on Chester and The Kissing Hand, 3 days where we hunted throughout the school for 'escaped' letters from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and our final two half days will be filled with Brown Bear, Brown Bear activities.

The Kissing Hand

Love this idea!  After creating our own 'Kissing Hand', each child drew a family portrait.  The child will take their creations home and retell the story to them.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! 

After reading Shiver Me Letters to my little Caroline this summer, I came up with the idea to do a letter hunt around the school.  I have to say, this is the BEST back to school activity I've ever done.  Pirate Jack (aka Mr. Josh Cooper, my husband) sent all of our kindergarten classes URGENT SECRET MESSAGES. Our secretary, Ms. Sherry,  called down to the room and said that we needed to rush to the office to retrieve the message (we just finished reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to the students).  Attached to the letter was a Flip camera message from Pirate Jack.  (My husband is such a trooper with his Disney Pirate Hat!)

The letter and video explained that the letters had just escaped from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Island. It was our job to retrieve them and send back word to Pirate Jack.  If we didn't help find all the letters throughout the building, he might be fed to the crocodiles by his captain!

Mrs. Orndorff let everyone visit the inside of her office.  She just knew we could find all of the letters before Jack was fed to the crocodiles!

Mrs. Grissom explained everything that goes on in the office.

This is just 1/3 of each of our 3 classes together.  We are averaging at around 17 right now.  

When we came back we made our own pirate hats.

After going outside, we came in for a quick snack.  LOVE these letter cookies from Kroger.  They held up the letters as we retold the story and sang our ABCs.

This is our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree outside of our room.  Super easy to make and oh so cute next to our displayed work.

What a Summer

This summer wasn't exactly what our family had planned;  however, we made it through and are excited and ready for a new school year!  Josh (my husband) and I are both tecahers.  We long for the
 'days off ' in the summer and the extra time to spend with our 3 amazing kiddos.

On the last day of school, we left for Disney World with two other couples and another one of my best friends.  9 kids and 7 adults ready for a week long of family fun!



So after an AMAZING week in FL, we returned home safe and sound.  I started not feeling well late in the week and went to the Dr. on Fri.  By 4:00 that day, I learned I had more than 20 + kidney stones and would need surgery immediately.  Now, 2 months later and 2 kidney surgeries later, I'm feeling better and ready to dive into Fall!



The Fun is About to Begin!

It's like Christmas Eve! Tomorrow I'll receive my class list for the 2011-2012 school year.  Lots of time and effort has gone into getting our new 'home away from home' ready.  Pictures and the latest news to come!