Ponderings for the New Year

Yes I am still here.  Maybe I will keep this up this time.  Maybe I won't.  There is soooo much out there for teachers compared to just 5 years ago that many times I feel like I don't have much to contribute.  With facebook, pinterest, teacherspayteachers and all of the fabulous blogs with ideas and products I wonder if I what I share might not be original. 

I will just share my thoughts for awhile.  Today I was cleaning out my bookshelves and ran across a copy of NAEYC "Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Early Childhood Programs."  When I first started teaching I spent a lot of time with this organization and this book.  It still shapes a lot of the ways that I teach.  I am at a private school.  We have adapted the common core to fit our goals, but we haven't adopted it out right.  We can do that.  It's nice.  There are parts of the goals that challenge me to be a better teacher and there are other parts that make me think, "Yes, we can teach these things to a kindergarten child, but SHOULD we?"  And I am seeing these practices trickle down to preschool and it worries me.  It worries me that we will drill these concepts instead of teach understanding.  It worries me that we present subject matter that they are just not ready to understand.  It worries me that our environments are no longer full of wonder and exploration.

"For children to understand fully and remember what they have learned, whether it is related to reading mathematics, or other subject matter areas, the information must be meaningful to the child in context of the child's experience and development." (DAP - NAEYC)

This is my goal for teaching in this new year.  Making learning meaningful.

Sing Sing Sing - Something a little different on TPT

I love, Love, LOVE to sing with my little kinders!  It is such a wonderful tool to help them transition, learn new concepts and just get some wiggles out.  Years ago I created a CD with several songs on it that I have written.  It didn't sell very well (I am not a good business woman) so I stuck all the CDs in my basement and gave them out as Christmas gifts every year.  Until now ... I just figured out that TPT accepts mp3 songs so I opened a store!  Yes me!  I did it!  I think ... I hope ... technology is a friend and an enemy.

Anyway, check out my store and get a FREE song ... just for you ... FREE!  It's a song that I use a lot to transition to snack time or lunch time.  If you like it there are a few more.  I will be adding more in the weeks to come, so check back often.  Follow me ... rate me (be nice, I'm sensitive) ... enjoy the songs!!!!  Just click on the picture below to get to my store.

Random pictures from the beginning of the year

I have started a new blog that is just for the families in my class and I haven't been back here since so ... here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

Here is a picture of our class mascot, Freddy, having snack with us.













Freddy loves Froggy!

 Look at what I found at the St. Louis Teacher's Recycling Center.  Some sort of medical supply.  I call them Wacky Stackers and we use them for counting, sorting and measuring.

 Collage Books!  Every week for homework I send home a letter page. The children return it covered with items, pictures and words that begin with that letter.  Then I put them all in a book.

 Here it is!  My classroom circa 2012.  I completely lost the month of September.  I have a great class this year.  Hopefully I will find time to post more about what we are doing.

OK Totally haven't posted in ages. I think of fun things then never do it. I have TONS of pictures that are still on my camera from last year. I mean to post them with something clever then I never do it. Hit a bit of a brick wall last year and still trying to recover. Have a great story. It reminded me why I LOVE kindergarten. I have a wonderful new crop of kinders this year. We are only in our first week and they are doing very well with the new routine. Yesterday we we reviewing the schedule for the day. (They all want to know when we are going to have snack, recess, lunch, etc. - constantly) I told them about the specials in the afternoon and how after specials we would have math time. Before I could go on a little guy raises his hand "Mrs. Long Mrs. Long, do I have to take a bath or can I take a shower?" I stifled a giggle and said, "No honey, I said Math" "What's math?" Then we had a nice long conversation about what math is. I got a candle, some bath salts and some smelly salts from my secret pal today ... I think I would like bath time better than math too.

Stepping away from K for a moment

My son was a huge hit at a St. Louis Blues game not too long ago. I am on spring break now and I was able to figure out youtube. Check out the video. He is hysterical. This has absolutely nothing to do with kindergarten or education - just me being proud of my kid!



Let's Go Blue!!!!!!!

Easter (and Spring break) are Almost Here!

I had another great lunch with the St. Louis Blogging Ladies. Pictures to come soon.  In the mean time I have realized I don't really have an original idea.  All of my teaching ideas have come from other sources.  What follows are some great resources for Christian classrooms to use.

Here are some great books to read with your class ...












I love the sight word book "Where Was Jesus" from Hubbards Cupboard.  There are some great craft ideas on this page as well.  Check out these Sun Catchers!



There are also some great songs at the bottom of the page.


Christian Preschool Printables has some great resources as well.  The picture quality that I have here isn't that great so click on the link to take a look.


Make your own Resurrection eggs ...



Easter memory match ... I just make one copy, cut them apart and use them in my writing center with Deedee Wills Writing Workstations for April.





Ok ... time for me to decide what I'm doing tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon.  If not, I know I'll have some time over spring break (3 MORE DAYS!!!!)

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!  Philippians 4:13

Dr. Jean!

I got to see Dr. Jean last week and I left with my brain crammed full of ideas.  She has a great website full of wonderful ideas.  If you would like, check it out here.  She also has a blog with almost daily ideas.  My favorite were the cheers.  They are a great way regain control in a crazy classroom and it REALLY WORKS.  Here is a link for her cheer cards - CHEERS!

I thought I would include some pictures of other good ideas I have used in the classroom.  I have very few original ideas and I can't remember what idea is mine and what belongs to someone else, sooooo ... if you see your idea, let me know so I can give you credit.  I will probably have to put this disclaimer on every blog post.

Here is our Invisible I picture.   The children drew on white paper with white crayon and then painted over it with water color.  They thought it was absolute magic!

This was mixing a little blue and a little yellow (love this book).  I know a lot of people do this, but I just thought this picture was beautiful!

Dr. Seuss Week!

We are working on measuring with non standard units of measurement. Here is a little homework page I made.  Click here to get a copy.

Valentine Card and Groundhog freebie (a little late)

Valentine's Day is coming, so mabe this year I will be organized.  As I have said before, I teach at a Christian school and Valentine's day is a great time to focus on the love of Jesus.

Here are some cards that I made for my class.

Click here to get a copy.  I use it with heart shaped playdough.  I have a great recipe for playdough.  You can find it here.


We had a lot of fun for ground hog day.  I know this is too late for you to use, but you could pin it for next year.  I took the kinders outside to look at their shadows (it was 60 degrees in the St. Louis area!).  They got with a partner and traced each others shadow with chalk.  Then we went inside and wrote about the groundhog's shadow and about our shadow.  Here is the paper I used.

Get a copy here.

On the top lines the children wrote "The groundhog saw his shadow."  On the bottom line they wrote "I did too!"  In the middle, the children drew a picture of themselves seeing their shadow.  We had so much fun with this activity another teacher commented that she would like to be a student in my classroom.  What a wonderful compliment.  It made my day!

Ok, this is me playing with google docs.  I had no success before, but maybe this will work.  I use this cover for our snowflake books.  I have cut out foam snowflakes from a craft store on the frame next to my door and I have numbered them 1-20.  I have the children estimate how many snowflakes tall they think they are, then I measure them, they record how many snowflakes tall they actually are and then I take a picture.  Here is a link to the googledoc if it works  Snowflake book cover

I can do it!

Now this doesn't look like a rowdy bunch of ladies does it?  No ... I didn't think so.  Ok we used our inside voices most of the time. (See my previous post for links to all their blogs)  From the back there's me, Chrissy, Meredith, (table) Katie and Deedee.

 I am still on a big learning curve with this blogging thing.  My computer is a dinosaur and so I am currently using my son's computer to create this post. (No it is not fair that his computer is better than mine, but he knows more about it than I do - he's 12 - help me ...)

At the lunch I learned how to use Power Point to make fun slides.  I did this one really quick, but I see more in my future (thanks for the pic Chrissy).

I learned a lot more from these ladies as well and I have been on a real high.
 Today reality smacked me in the face ... a little - assessments, assemblies, "grown ups" (acting like children - I will stick with the real thing, thank you very much).  But I'm not going to let it get me down.

Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher posted a scripture yesterday that I read this morning:

"Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you."  Philippians 2:14.

It helped ... a little... I work at a Christian school ... I may post this on the wall.



Winter Fun - Part 1

Ok I don't know if there will be a part 2, but just in case.  I am putting up some pictures from our winter activitities.  Some are my own ideas and some are from other blogs ... unfortunately I am terrible at keeping track of where I got things  so ... if any of these activities are your idea or you know where it came from please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.  Thank you and here's the stuff ...

Stories about snow to practice new sight words.

Our bulletin board ... Thank you pinterest!

This is for all my blogger friends that teach at a Christian School.  I got the poem at Danielle's Place.

Fun poem for ordinal numbers.
That's all for now.  More later ....

Thank You!

I had the BEST afternoon.  I barely blog, but somehow I got an invite to have lunch with some of the most amazing women in the teaching blog world.  It was such an inspiration to sit around and talk and laugh with these ladies.  I guess I better get off my butt and rejoin the fun.  I'll try to post more ideas so I give back just a little of what has been given to me.  Thank you so much Katie (Little Warriors ), Deedee (Mrs. Wills Kindergarten), Meredith (Keen On Kindergarten), and Chrissy (Read Write Sing )! 

OK I promise I will never get all mushy again.  Probabaly.  More than likely.  Ok I just cried at a commercial, but it was really touching...

I won!

Ok I haven't posted in quite a while, but I spend too much time reading other blogs. I entered a contest for Miss Kindergarten and I won, so I thought I would give a big shout out to her sight.

http://misskindergartenlove.blogspot.com/


Check it out! She has a lot of great ideas.

As for me, I have some great materials and pictures, but terrible technology at the moment. Maybe Santa will put a new computer and camera under my tree. Until then, I'll have to wait for the gremlin fairy make it possible to post something in less than half an hour. Please check out some of my favorite sites in the sidebar. That is where I spend a lot of my time!

Thanks again Miss Kindergarten!

Morning Work

I use a variety of activities for morning work (that time between when they first arrive and when school actually starts).  The children look at the board to find out what the work will be that day.  I have had handwriting practice, Math Boxes, quiet activities, books, puzzles, etc.  I created these to reinforce the color words we have just introduced.

Beginning color words


beginning color words 2

Life Saving Teacher Tips

Katie Mense at Little Warriors is having a linky party asking for some life saving teacher tips.  My number one life saver is the people that I work with.  I have worked in an environment where I barely spoke to the other teachers in the building.  I love where I am now.  I have a wonderful assistant in my class and I know I couldn't get through the day without her.

I also couldn't make it through the year without chocolate.  After the first few days of school all the kids in my class knows that chocolate is my favorite food no matter what form it takes.  The first letter we introduce it M and our first treat - m&ms.  Life is good.

The final thing that I couldn't live without is music.  "Music soothes the savage beast" - William Congreve.  And that is certainly true of my kinders.  We sing in my class all day long.  I love Dr. Jean, Jim Gill, Heidi Songs, Frog Street press, Harry Connick Jr. (ok not a children's musician, but we love to dance to jazz), and Greg and Steve.  On Fridays (Fabulous Fun Friday) I bring my guitar for some extra music.

Sing and eat chocolate with a bunch of great people.  That about sums it up!

First Day!

Our first day of school was today and I have a great group of kids.  It was only a half day, but I am exhausted.  Another half day tomorrow then a full day on Wed.  Whew!  Time to get back in the swing of things (and to Sonic for their $1 large Diet Cokes! Mmmm caffeine!)  Here are a few pics of my classroom.  For the coconut tree, I have some great friends who own a printing shop.  They gave me the end rolls of the vinyl they use.  Then I cut the leaves and had my WONDERFUL (6'5") husband hang them from the ceiling.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today it's my birthday and here is something for you - it's my absolute, all-time favorite playdough recipe. Yes, I know you probably already have one or have seen one like this, but one ingredient seems to make all of the difference. It's pretty much your standard cooked dough recipe, but right before it sets you add 1 tablespoon vanilla. When the dough is done it seems smoother than the other dough recipes I've tried and it smells wonderful.

Play Dough Recipe
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
liquid food color
1 Tbsp vanilla
Mix the dry ingredients. Add water, oil and color. Cook over low heat. When it starts to set add Vanilla. Cook until set. Knead until smooth.



I just loved this picture when I saw it.  This image is from minieco.  The colors are made from natural ingredients.  Her site has some wonderful ideas.  Check it out.

It's Almost Here!

My birthday that is. OK, really I have hit the age where I no longer count birthdays - I don't really remember them. I forgot my birthday was Friday until my mom called wanting to visit. Oops. Anyway, here is a birthday present to you. When the children in my class have a birthday we make them a picture present book. I give the birthday child a piece of cardstock to decorate and we make a poster of things the birthday child likes: favorite food, favorite movie, favorite color, etc. Then each child gets the paper below. They write the birthday child's name at the top and their own name at the bottom and draw a "Picture Present" for the child in the middle. Then my WONDERFUL assistant Mona (I cannot say that too many times - I am blessed) puts wrapping paper over the picture - like a lift the flap book - and binds the book together. I'm going to my school today, so I will try to find my copy that a class made for me and take a picture. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy! (I am trying scribd now - let's see if it works)

birthdaypicture[1]

Take Home Folders

Every day the children in my class have take home folders.  I use frogs for my classroom theme, so our folders are F.R.O.G.S. (Fully Responsible and Growing Students).  This is not original, buy I'm not sure where I got the idea.  Here are the labels I use (2"x4").  This year I have poly folders, so I'm not sure how well the labels will stick.  I will report back.

froglabels[1]