Five for Friday October 21

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

       

Here is one of my fall bulletin boards.  I always love the advice different things have to give!



I had the best day ever last week when I got to FaceTime with Emily Kate  Moon in my classroom, and she read her book, Joone.  Oh, I mean- it was all for the kids.  I think I may have said, "I'm friends with Emily Kate Moon, but I've never met her yet either!" too many times, because when I said it, one of my boys said, "Yeah, you told us that."   OK....  Anyway-  Here is my post all about our wonderful day!

AND if you'd like to make fabulous Dr. Chin turtle hats of your own,  click HERE for the pattern.  My wonderful art teacher made these with the kids and gave me his pattern to share.  He printed the hats on green paper, let the kids cut and decorate them, then stapled them into a hat.  They were perfect.

Here are two great directed drawing videos for drawing a turtle.  The kids LOVE these!

Don't forget to end your special Joone Day with ice cream sandwiches, because...  why not?!  

We had our October Random Act of Kindness Day on our calendar last week!

 I wrote about how I love to work kindness into our Calendar Time HERE.  It was a RAK for our playground aides. I love our playground aides, and so do the children.  They're great.  The children took them each an amaryllis bulb.  I LOVE growing these.  They grow SO fast and are absolutely gorgeous.  It's a perfect science activity for the classroom, too, because the children can measure almost daily and see growth!  The kids were so excited to give.  That was the best part.

Dr. Jean and I finished our Brain Cookies packet.  We put together over 90 favorite brain breaks for any time of the day.  We thought the name "Brain Cookies" would be fun because they are little treats to help get through the day- (and these are even healthy!)  We use these all the time in my class.

My kids love it because I store the cookies in cookie containers, and the leader gets to choose one that we do!

You can keep them on a ring or even in a cookie jar!  Just have fun!  That's what it's all about.

One of my favorite ways to get my kids writing is sticker writing.  I guess it's just different enough and fun enough to be a perfect combination.  We use Lucy Calkins for writing- which is fine- but gets to be a little too much too fast for my kids.  There are just too many parts for little five year old brains to remember to put together sometimes.  I find I don't really get much "writing" because they just plain need to learn HOW to write letters, and use those sounds to make words and get down what they want to say.  So some days we just need to back it up a little.  

I buy stickers at the Dollar Store, and cut each page in half.  Each student gets a half page of stickers and an 8 1/2X14  (Legal size) paper.  For some reason, this bigger paper is just exciting!

The children can put their stickers anywhere they want, and then draw more details for the stickers the background.  Then, they can labels and add speech bubbles if they want.  

I use this as an activity to teach early sentence writing.  I have each child write, "I  see  a  ..."  and they can finish it with whatever they see in their picture.  This is a great way to practice writing sight words.  You can use lots of different sentences with this writing:  I can see a...;  I like my...;  Can you see the?...;  Look at the...  My____ can _____....  anything you want!


 We work on neat printing, spaces, stretching out words and hearing sounds, and adding a period at the end of the sentence.  I was so proud of them- and I actually felt better about their writing after this.  Phew!  Some of those "books" for writer's workshop had me nervous...  Now I see hope.

I wrote a post about Sticker Writing that I did later in the year.  They love sticker writing anytime!

Finally- just to make you all feel better about yourselves... in case you had a long week.
I watched this Cooking Panda video to make sugar cookie ice cream cups.  SOOOO easy. Basically... Butter the backside of a cupcake sheet really well.  Cut sugar cookie dough.  Put on top of well-buttered circles. Bake. Slide off.  Enjoy.  

So here are mine. We had sugar cookie crumbs to put on our ice cream.  At least we had ice cream.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Let it Go!

This is the year of the song Let it Go in my classroom.  Thank you, Frozen.  Thank you, Disney.  

Because I sort of love it.  I know some teachers have had about enough... case in point-

But seriously, the first time my class sang along and did the motions, I had tears in my eyes. They are so sincere. Here is a little clip of some of my girls singing today. I had another video when all my girls were singing together, but it would NOT load...so sad, because they are all so precious together, but I took this on my phone, and some of my sweeties weren't here today. 

My boys were hesitant to let themselves enjoy the song. (Even though they all knew the words and even requested the song...) But at the same time, they didn't DARE snicker or giggle because the girls loved it so much, I loved watching the girls love every minute of the song, and the boys knew that I would not let them take away the joy the girls had for the song by giggling through it. (Don't worry- we do LOTS of songs the boys especially love like that Everything is Awesome Lego movie song... so they can hang in there for this one!)

Luckily, the marines came to my rescue.  They probably didn't know when they signed up to help people, they would be helping a kindergarten teacher make a point, but they sure did. We had a long talk about marines- who they were, and how strong and brave they were. Then I showed them this video of these Marines watching Let it Go! (I stopped it before they started screaming (about 2:20) I just showed them enough to let them know it was 'cool' to sing along.)

You should have seen the participation (and hand motions!) the next time we sang. Priceless and even more  precious.

Finally, if you have had enough of this song, you'll like this dad!

I love the whole idea behind the words in  this song, and thought it would make a great lesson for the children.  The very day I decided to turn this into a lesson, was the final day of state testing for my friend who teaches 5th grade.  She came down to my room and said, "I listened to Let it Go, and just decided that that is exactly what I have to do with these tests. They are over, and I need to let it go." That was a sign.  We all need  to remember to let it go, sometimes.  

                                       

Then, when this was in my devotional this morning, I knew I had to write about -

Especially, look for areas where you need to let go, leaving your cares in My able hands.  Do you trust Me to orchestrate your life events as I choose, or are you still trying to make things go according to your will? 

~Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

I can always use reminders about that. 

     

For our lesson, we read Today I Feel Silly.  There are a lot of great books about emotions and feelings. This book has a lot of different ones in it, so it gave us a lot to talk about. 

We talked about the many moods that we each have throughout the day, and how sometimes grouchy, grumpy, frustrated, worried, upset moods will sneak into our day. They will. Yes, they will. And that is normal, and happens to 100% of people. But, what can we do to let it go? What can we do to change that mood and make it better?

Boy oh boy- if you want ideas about letting it go, just ask a five year old.  I got some great responses. I had the children write and illustrate how they would let it go.  Here are some of my sweet answers:

\

I'm with her!

I want the children to always remember that those moods are just temporary. They won't last.  I also want them to remember that there are ways to make those moods better.  I thought that if we talked about some ways to help, they may remember them some day.

Go Noodle has some wonderful stress relieving videos- yoga, stretching, meditating type videos- that can help calm the class down if you need it.  They are under the Maximo and Flow sections.   We love the Willow, Willow one. Here is a sample stretch with Maximo.  The kids don't think he's silly- they know that if they try their best they get points to make their class champ grow!  (By the way, Let it Go is also one of the videos on Go Noodle.  We know that because we get points every time we sing or listen to it. POINTS!)  One of my little guys said to me, "WOW- You are SO good at yoga!" So I now love doing "yoga" with 5 and 6 year olds.  A class of adults would not see it quite the same way... not at all.

Here are some other ideas to help your children let it go.

I found this video at Conscious Discipline and thought it had some great relaxation ideas to remember for some brain breaks in the classroom for me the kids!


I have my little "Think about it" friends ready to go-  I have 2 precious, softer than soft elephants who will listen with their great big ears to anything a child has to say, and never, ever forget it.  I also have a great squishy ball to squeeze (but the child must be really thinking quietly about squeezing it and how it feels to squeeze), and some "My Favorite Things" lotion to rub, rub, rub into hands and make frustrations go away while the child thinks about his/her favorite, happy things. I got this idea from Dr. Jean's "Self-Control" lotion.  Love it. 

These are some pictures from last year's class.  Chair push-ups help the children release some energy or frustration, and  remain calm and more focused.

We do like a good "Chair Push-Up" break now and then!  My whole class does this together. I have a couple children who benefit from this the most, but it is fun and helpful for everyone- as well as a challenge! They love to see who can stay up for a long time.

We also have a ball with the Wall Push.   I don't have much wall space, but we all line up quietly and walk around the corner in our hall, where there are no classrooms.  We try to push the wall as hard as we can.  I tell them we are trying to make Miss Quick's classroom smaller by pushing in the wall!   They really think we have moved that concrete wall over.  Sorry, Miss Quick, for your shrinking room.

Again,  this is a great "brain break" for everyone in the class.  Who doesn't feel like pushing a wall every now and then? One good thing about doing this in the hall is that I tell them we have push really hard, but be quiet, so they aren't screaming- but putting the effort into the physical exertion. You can also have the children push the wall, then turn around, and push it again, for something different.

Have a wonderful day!

Five For Friday and TPT Sale!

I am linking up with Kacey for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting! I am loving my summer Fridays and not wanting them to go too fast... 

1. TPT SALE!

All of my Prezis are on sale at my TPT store this weekend.  Every Prezi is $2 or free!  I hope you can find some Prezis that are helpful for you to start the new year.

2. Getting into that classroom!

I guess I must be a really optimistic person- because my first thought was, "LOOK at those shiny floors!"  I'm not that different from 5 year olds, cause I still like shiny things.  The difference, I  guess, is that at my age I am smart enough to realize they won't be shiny for long.  (Wow- that sounded really deeply depressing. But I am leaving it because  it sort of made me laugh at how depressing it sounded. ) You know what I mean- little feet/moving chairs/ throwing up on floors take off the shine really quickly!

I mainly put away the collection of treasures I hoarded kept in our extra room all summer for school.  Unfortunately for Jeff  Luckily for me, we live pretty close to a Teacher Store- and of course Target, Staples, Dollar Tree... So... yeah.

3. I can CALM. 

I found this video at Conscious Discipline and thought it had some great relaxation ideas to remember for some brain breaks in the classroom for me the kids!

 

I have my little "Think about it" friends ready to go-  I have 2 precious, softer than soft elephants who will listen with their great big ears to anything a child has to say, and never, ever forget it.  I also have a great squishy ball to squeeze (but the child must be really thinking quietly about squeezing it and how it feels to squeeze), and some "My Favorite Things" lotion to rub, rub, rub into hands and make frustrations go away while the child thinks about his/her favorite, happy things.

 

 

I can't wait to introduce Elmer the Elephant this year! After we talk about Elmer, these elephants are very special to the children.   I always start off early in the year with him.  This  year, I am using Sarah's Fabulous Elmer the Elephant Unit and I can't wait!  It has all this in it:
Color word crayons (small and large)
ABC order {color words}
Color word coloring page
Story Elements Page
3 choices of writing paper
I Have, Who Has? {short e}
Elmer craftivity

4.  The power of "YET"

This was a great little video to help me remember to use that fabulous word "yet."  For example: "Jeff, that extra room isn't cleaned out, YET."  ;)   Yes. 

5.  Our trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo!

We had so much fun just getting away for a couple days!  I love seeing personalities in the animals at zoos.  Here were some of my favorites.

He was a blue monkey. And he was really blue. :(  Made me sad.  

 

 

Grumpy Fish.  (It was in the aquarium and the picture is horrible. sorry!)

 
 

 

Happy Fish.

 Happy Shark. (Probably for SHARK WEEK!)

 Judgmental  Ostrich

 Laid-back Giraffe

Cocky Peacock

This peacock was just strutting around, knowing we all wanted to see those gorgeous feathers- and knowing he could just do as he pleased and never show them to us- he just plopped down and seemed to say, "Ha ha." 

Have a wonderful weekend! :)