Pictures

I am going to try to publish some pictures - which I thought I just did with the other post so here we go again - remember be patient with me :)

Happy Fall Y'all

Hi Y'all! I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather! I sure am! I am getting out my Oklahoma State Cowboy Sweatshirts (which happen to be orange and black so they are great for October BUT we do NOT like being called Halloween State so don't even try it) I had so much fun doing a week of apples with my kids - we made apple smiles, applesauce and of course graphed our favorite apples - red or green. This was the first year in 18 years of teaching that green won! Last week we studied SPIDERS and I read all three of the Miss Spider books but I will have to admits Miss Spider gets married is a looonnng drawn out book and hard to get their attention with but Miss Spider's Tea Party is awesome and has counting to 12 and lots of learning connections. We made Miss Spiders - art projects that turned out super cute - with big yellow circles, two smaller green circles for her eyes and eight black legs. I let the kids draw her happy mouth and nose etc. They are all original looking and turned out pretty great!

I have found a wonderful site called TeacherspayTeachers.com! Have you heard of it? It's a site where teachers can buy units, lessons or other things that teachers have made - there are a lot of freebies on there and most things are pretty reasonable. AND guess what I found yesterday?!!! A teacher in Georgia made posters for all the Kindergarten Common Core Standards with really cute graphics in I can, we can statements for $10 so I got that because it looks way better than the way I did it. There was also a Sight word unit with homework, and assesements. But my favorite was this poster - called Banana Split - I always say at the water fountain 1,2, 3 you're done. This is a reminder 1, banana, 2 banana, 3 banana split! How cute is that! (and at least I'm not the only one that doesn't think you don't need to be drinking forever).

I hope everyone is doing wonderful and received the newest newsletter. I am going to watch a blog video on how to improve this blog and make it better. Please be patient with me!

Email me or comment if you have a chance! I get lonely sometimes :)

In my best singing voice.."WE WILL SURVIVE!!!"

Two quotes I saw somewhere else that make me smile - hope they do you too:

Be calm and teach on.

Stay calm and pretend it's on the lesson plan!

We can survive it's going to get normal soon - I just know it

An interesting article

School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books - www.nybooks.com - edit -delete

In my classes at U of I we read a book by Diane Ravitch and had many discussions about her and all teachers should at least read her thoughts and understand the issues that are effecting us

Common Core Standards Thoughts and Musings :)

Common Core Standards are driving me batty! Don't get me wrong, I think they are great and our kids can meet them and I don't mind teaching them BUT seriously trying to write each week is getting on my nerves. Our school decided it made sense (which it does) that Kindergarten should go ahead and use them this year since this group of kids will be the first group of kids tested on them in their third grade ISAT so here we go, and this year our superintendant decided for every lesson we as teachers have to write the objective/standard on the board and the students need to be able to say what it is for every lesson - which is a great idea - BUT (here is another but) in kindergarten where we change lessons every 15 minutes or there may by 5 standards that apply let alone center time where we have 5 or 6 different activities going at once and right now I can barely keep them sitting still or get them to stop talking let alone hop and down and write different things on the board and explain it, these are just random things that are worrying me right now...any thoughts??

OH! and the math standards for kindergarten where are the patterns????

(DId I mention I had a big class this year? I know some of you do too. What was in the water 5 years ago :) So many babies born - By the way my friend in Oklahoma is a labor and delivery nurse and she warned in August alone this year at her hospital there were 451 babies born (mostly boys) she thought that maybe in 5 years we'd all want to retire HAHA! Anyway I am just talking "outloud" trying to see if anyone else is mucking through this too. Have a great day!

Love ya! Jamie

Bulletin Board Picture

Hi! Here is the picture of the bulletin board I made and a link to a great article I read. Check it out - the yellow one is a sign I have posted on my door since the mid 90's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/opinion/blow-an-ode-to-teachers.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share An Ode to Teachers is the name of the article

Welcome! Making Connections!

Welcome to Kindergarten Konnections! I hope this spot will be a fun place for us to "gather" and share ideas, joys and some frustrations of teaching kindergarten. When we teach in our area - or Northern Idaho we are a bit isolated from other kindergarten teachers and do not have much time to collaborate and get together. This will be a way we can hopefully do that in a small way.

Please share your ideas with us!

I am on day 5 and feel like I am running on a gerbil wheel at the moment and I desperately want off! HELP! I am ready for normalcy and for the children to know the routines and quit talking a little less - lol! They are cute and cracking me up but I am too tired to write down their funny sayings like I know I should.

I hope you are enjoying the start of your year!

Any cute bulletin boards or anything fun you have tried?

I actually did a new bulletin board that I am so excited about! (I hate bulletin boards and I'm not good at them) I found this saying on another site and used it - "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I wished for you and here you are!" then there are stars all over with their names on them! I am never that cute-so I was happy. :)

I will post a picture tomorrow of the board. Please share your ideas too and invite other teachers from around the area! Have a great week!

Love ya!

Jamie