Five for Friday- Favorite Stories! :)

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! 

 

This week, I decided to share my five FAVORITE funny school stories.  It is hard to narrow them down, but I think I did it!

 1.

When I was trying to teach the children to "read to themselves," we said a poem with motions, and then did only the motions as we said the poem "in our heads," with no voices.  Then, I said, "Watch me read this page to myself, in my head."  They all watched, and then one little boy said, "Mrs. Kisloski, we couldn't even hear what you read because your hair was in the way!" 

 

 

Side note:  Later that day, when the class  had to do a writing sample of letters, numbers, and a sentence for me to save, the same little guy came up to my desk and said, "I really love you."  He waited a few seconds and said, "You're pretty."  Then ( the REAL reason for the visit...),"I really do not want to write my letters. "   Classic.  And I have to say, it almost worked! ;)

 

 

 2.

When I was teaching 2nd grade one year, the girls were at the age where they started trying to keep secrets and have "clubs."  We had a LONG talk about feelings and not hurting others, and I ended it with the statement, "Secrets don't make friends." 

 

Four years later, my friend was watching a Yankee game with her now 6th grade daughter, and the catcher was whispering to the pitcher on the mound.  The little girl said to her mom, "Secrets don't make friends."  Her mom said, "Who told you that?"  and she said, "Mrs. Kisloski." 

I told her mom to tell her that pitchers and catchers can have a pass on that rule during a game!

 3.

 I have had these balancing birds ever since my own children were small.

 

I had them out on our science table when one of my little guys from last year stopped by to see me in the morning.  He said, "OH I remember those! I love those!  We don't have anything fun like that in our room this year. We only have iPads instead."   So there, Technology!  :) 

 

 4.

This story is my OWN son.  I was so proud of him when he was really catching on with his reading when he was little- maybe a little more proud than I should have been.  We used to go to Walmart's One Hour Photo a lot back then- when we used to get film developed (remember that?!).

One day, as we were just a few feet from a sweet girl working at the Photo Lab, my son said, "OH NO- Do we have to go to One Whore Photo AGAIN?!"  My friend and I still laugh about this - and use it whenever we get the chance, like she will write, "I have whores and whores of housework to do this morning..."  It never seems to get old.  :) I still laugh. 

 5.

 This story makes me laugh every time I think of it.  A couple of years ago, I had a quite a little instigator in my classroom. It was the beginning of the year.  We had the class talk about everyone getting along and being friends...    So one afternoon, a sweet little shy boy came up to me because he had had a little incident with the instigator and knew he had to come clean. He said to me, "What I MEANT to say was, 'Will you be my friend.' What I ACCIDENTALLY  said was, 'I want to punch you in the face.' "   

 

That one may be my all time favorite.  But- you never know what tomorrow may bring! That is the beauty of teaching!  :) Thank you for visiting!

Carolyn

 

 

 

Outdoor Treasure Hunt

Today was a perfect day for our Outdoor Treasure Hunt!  I have had everything prepared, and was just waiting for the perfect day.  Today was it.  It was a  million , ok, that is an exaggeration... It was   900,000 degrees in my classroom today.

 No air movement + LOTS of humidity = Perfect reason to get outside!

This was my preparation:

I stapled the stickers, paper, and bag together.  I like to have the children be able to put a sticker on the number of what they find, so that they don't need to have a pencil or anything else to keep track of outside.  I put everyone's name on the paper before we went outside.  All of the treasures go right into the bag. 

I almost forgot the other essential item for this Treasure Hunt:

I keep some of these in the staff room freezer just for urgent days like today! :) 

We met on the rug in the classroom to read over what we would be looking for outside.  We discussed different things we could find for each treasure and then hoped we could find them!

After I paired everyone up, and we went over our rules, we were off!

 

 

 

Just what she hoped for for "something soft!"

  

 

The were so focused on the goal- nobody even messed with those PUDDLES! YAY!

 

 Heading back to share!

 Treasure!

 

 

A more delicious "treasure!"

 

 

We had a wonderful afternoon!  Thank you for visiting!  :)

Happy Teaching,

Carolyn

 



 



End of the Year Thank You Cards

I just wanted to share a couple of ideas that I used for thank you cards from the class for people who have helped in my classroom this year.

This one was a "hugs and kisses" theme.  :)  I took a "hug" picture of the class for the front that I printed out 8X10:

 

and then for the inside, I printed out the "kisses" pictures each 4X6, because it is the class blowing kisses:

Then, they all signed the  top of the inside!

 

The next card was an ice cream theme. This one was for my mother for helping the children with their reading every day. :)  As I have mentioned before, my children LOVE The Big Dipper (our ice cream store by the school at the bottom of the hill). 

The way I talk about everyone loving this place so much, you might think it was a very grandiose place... :)  Nope.    But that doesn't mean it isn't special! I think the exact way it is, is what makes it so special.  :) 

 

They also LOVE the new Sweet Frog Yogurt store that opened up nearby.  I decided the best thank you gift would be some gift cards to the places the class loved best.  

Here is our card:

Thank you for visiting!
Happy Teaching,
Carolyn

Busy Bees

The bees are buzzing outside and we are busy bees inside!  I made these bulletin boards for our hall:

When we begin learning our sight words in the fall, some days I call them "Buzz Words" and my little bee puppet helps me "buzz" when the class reads the words correctly.

We also talk a lot about how to "bee" in the beginning of the year as a classroom rule activity, sort of like these bulletin boards. 
Last week, we wrote, "I can be" stories.  I hung them out in the hall by our May flowers.

 

He worked so hard using his best writing, and getting his story so perfect- and then he put that little math fact in his illustration at the last minute.  :)  I sort of love it more because of that "2."  It is so kindergarten! :)

 



We also wrote our Buzz Words in a beehive and wrote about how we are busy on the back.

 

 

Another day, we did a writing assignment about something that "bugs" us.  We talked about what it means if something "bugs" us and turned and talked about  some of these things.  These were some favorites:

I would say being sprayed by a skunk would be way up there on the list of things that would bug me!

 



I totally related to this one because the minute I sit down to do anything, my cat starts scratching on the door to come inside!  I love the little cat feet she drew. :) 

 

I found this poster on Pinterest this past weekend- AFTER I did my activity, but I am going to remember it for next year. I couldn't find the original source as much as I tried, but it is really cute- especially for this time of year when everyone seems to be bugging someone!  :)



 

I found this adorable  honeycomb activity on Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas blog.  I love her blog. She has so many clever ideas!

 

We can do so many math activities using the honeycomb cereal as manipulatives, too- adding, subtracting, tens frames.  The shape is especially handy since the hexagon is now a required shape to teach in Kindergarten.

 

I also found this adorable math freebie from Enjoy Doing Math TPT Store.  I didn't use it this year, but am excited for next year!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting! 

Happy Teaching,

Carolyn



 

 



Grandparent's Day!

 

Our school always has a special Grandparent's Day in May.  Grandparents (or someone special for each child) are invited to come visit the classrooms an hour before lunch, and then they eat a special lunch in the beautifully decorated gym with their grandchild.

 

 This is always one of my very favorite days- after it is over.  I always get worked up planning for the day , because I want it to be really special and memorable- but at the same time I realize that it will be hot, humid, completely crowded and crazy in my room, so I do the best that I can.  Once again, once it was over, it was one of my very favorite days!

 

In past years, I have made ice cream in a bag, which I love- but  I was going to have 57 people in the classroom this year- so I thought I would not attempt that.  (I am going to make that on my birthday in June with the kids outside when my daughter is going to come help me!) It is usually lots of fun- and a fun idea for grandparents to have to use at home over the summer with their grandchildren.  The last time I made it in the classroom, one grandma put ALL of the ingredients (including the salt and ice which is supposed to be in a separate bag) into one bag- and then didn't seal it completely, so when her grandson shook it... yeah...  :(    I am going to do this under our pavilion outside this year.  :)

This year, we stared a couple weeks ahead by planting our forget-me-not seeds.  We decorated the cups that we planted in by drawing on forget-me-not flowers with Sharpies. We also made cards that said, "Forget-me-nots for unforgettable grandparents!"  to go with the plants.

Our grandparents arrived about noon.  Many come early, so I am always playing some of our favorite class games as the are arriving, so grandparents have a chance to see some of the educational games we play.  My class LOVES any version of "I have, Who has."  We played with names, numbers, and sight words.  We also played "Sparkle."  If you are not familiar with this game, here are the rules:
Everyone stands in a circle.  I choose a sight word to be spelled- let's say it is "can."  I begin with the leader of the day, and that person says the first letter, "c", the next person says the next letter "a", and then the next person finishes the word with an "n."  The next person in the circle says "Sparkle" once the word has been spelled. The next person then sits down. Then I start a new word to be spelled.  We continue until only one person is standing.  The children love this game and actually are such great sports sitting down.  I have seen rules where a student has to sit if he/she says the wrong letter, but my intent for the game is to review and learn how to spell these sight words, so I just help the child figure out the correct letter and we continue on.  That takes away the fear of making a mistakes and works best for my little group. 

After all the grandparents arrived, we gave a concert of some of our favorite songs.  The children lined up in the front of the class.  We even practiced this.  I lined them up during the week the way I wanted them to stand (you know how you just know who needs to be in a certain spot by or NOT by a certain child!). I had them remember who they stood by and where their spot was.  During the day I would say, "OK- Line up in front of the class!"  They knew exactly where to go, so when I had 39 grandparents in the classroom and said, "Line up for our concert," the children knew just where to go!

We sang The National Anthem, My Mother is a Baker, Tooty Ta, My Favorite Things, and recited our Punctuation Poem.  They were pros!

Next, I had several "stations" set up around the room. I brought in some extra "grown-up" chairs to put around the room.  I had one table set up with Writing Folders, so children could share their books they had written.  Each child had 3 favorite reading books in his/her cubby to read on the rug to their grandparents. 

 

 

 

I had one table set up with Oreos, milk, and water, so the children and their grandparents could help us make our Oreo Graph. 

The last table was set up with a refrigerator magnet or card flower craft with the child's picture in the middle of a cupcake container as the middle of the flower. This is a sample flower using a construction paper flower.

I had fun-foam flowers of different colors they could choose.

 

They cut out a stem and leaves and glued it all together. They either put a magnet on back or glued it onto a card and wrote a note to their grandparents. 

My front reading table had our plants ready to go, and our Class Books out to look at. 

I had my Prezi of pictures from the year playing so they could watch that as well. 

With about 10 minutes left, I gathered my children on the rug and we read Grandpa's Slippers to the grandparents.  We had practiced this book together a couple times, and the class helped me read it beautifully! My class loves it because it is a circle story- our favorite!

 

Then, we were off to the gym for our special lunch. 

 

The grandparents are always SO appreciative and so relaxed. I think that is why I love the day so much.  The children are just precious anticipating the arrival of their special grandparents, and so excited to show every detail of the room to them.  I think I used up my new Clorox wipes before everyone came, so the room was as clean and dust free as possible! :) 

 

I also sleep really well after this day is over! It is only an hour, but you would think it was a week long!

Thank you for visiting!

 

Happy Teaching,

Carolyn