Open House

It's that time of year already.  We are six weeks in and it's time for Open House {our Curriculum Night}.  Since moving to Kinder, all of my stuff is null and VOID!  Everything I did in first grade had to be changed quite a bit.  All of my hand outs and even my Power Point {yes, I said Power Point} had to be changed quite a bit.

I just figured out that people are no longer using Power Point and there is this wonderful little thing called a PREZI!  It took me a few days to figure out how to make one and then a teacher friend sent me her's.  I studied it and then went off and made my own.  Not too shabby for my first time.... Check it out!  

We also have to make something for families to take that night.  So each year I do an apple with a little poem stuck to it and then have a hand out for them to take home with things they need to know for the year about our learning.  The poem reads:

An apple for the teacher is really nothing new, accept when you remember that parents are teachers too.  I look forward to working with you and your child this year.  ~Mrs. Smith

The hand out I give them is a tri fold pamphlet.  It's quick and easy to make.  I am sure most of them go home and trash it anyhow.  I like to think they don't but I'm not wasting printer ink and paper for hand outs.  I am going to post my PREZI on our class web site, so they will always have the info there if they need it.

FIVE more days until track out!  That's all I have to keep telling myself.  Then I have three sweet weeks off. Well, it may not be too sweet since my three year old is having his tonsils and adenoids removed, but it's still a vacation away from school no matter how you look at it.

Letterland

I had been asked if I blogged about Letterland yet.  So I thought, "self, that's a good idea right there".  Our school district picked up Letterland last school year and it started with Kindergarten.  Then, this year, it trickled up to first graders.

Letterland is a program to teach early reading skills, spelling, and phonics.  It also has a handwriting component which I LOVE but more about that in a minute!  Our school needed a handwriting program in the worst way.  I noticed how well it worked after my son had went through Kinder.  He was able to decode and blend sounds like nobodies business. His handwriting however, is like my husbands, so I am guessing the handwriting program part of it worked as well as it could have for him.

Letterland is actually a British program and most of the songs that go with it, have the accent of British people.  It's quite amusing.  I can sing like Super Nanny now.

This is my first year doing it with Kindergarten and the kids love it.  Each day, for the first eighteen days, we introduce two Letterlanders a day.  This is called "fast track".  It's a quick way to introduce the characters, their letter sound, and their letter name.  In Letterland, they all have a character, such as Annie Apple, but in real life, you just see their black and white, plain letter.  The kiddos really look forward to who we will meet and hear their stories.  Each Letterlander has a story, action, and song to go with him or her.

One of the negatives is that there is lots of assessing.  In Kindergarten, how can you assess, individually, every five days?!  That has been a challenge.  I just see what's right for my class and keep plugging along.

After the fast tracking, we go back and spend more time on each letter.  We practice the letter, it's sound, and letter formation.  The only thing I do not care for is the order it teaches the letters.  I may need to study up on it some more but I used to teach handwriting and letters by the form of their letter.  So I did c, o, a, e first because they all have the same round shape.  I know there are others but you get my point.

I have always been a stickler about handwriting and the way I taught in in Kinder a long time ago.  This part is tough for me but I am going along with the program and maybe next year I can make some of my own tweaks to it.

One more downside is the materials that this program has.  There are so many materials but our ditrcits only purchased the bare minimum.  When I am looking through the teacher manual, I see activities, etc, but realize that I cannot do them because I do not have some of the stuff.  That is where I need to make changes as I see fit and add other things.  They ask we use this program with "fidelity" and use ONLY Letterland characters when decorating our classroom and use their ABC line.  But if we do not have all of the materials, that is kind of hard to do.  So I use what I want!

All in all, it's not a bad program but it takes up a lot of time for each lesson.  I use the Daily 5 Literacy format and I am trying to get my lessons to fit into Daily 5 Focus Lessons.  I'll let you all know how that goes once we are up and running with D5.

Staggered Entry

Kindergarten has what we call "staggered entry week".  There are small groups of my class that come each day of the week and I assess them, get to know them a little, and get them all unpacked.  I think it's a great thing because if I had all 22 in the same classroom and tried to get assessments done, it would be pure chaos.  I am grateful for this staggered entry week.  I get a really good idea of where my students are at and what I need to start teaching with.

It really amazes me the range of kids there are.  I have some who can already read, others who can identify some letter/sounds, some who can count to one hundred, others who can only count to ten, while others hardly know their own name and cannot hold a pencil.  Some are four years old still.  They are babies!

I'm not understanding why free early education is not available more.  It really is needed.  There is so much to do this year.  I need to take my kiddos who cannot identify letters or write their own name and have them writing two to three sentences by the end of the school year.  It baffles me in this country how unimportant education has become.  Kindergarten has changed so much from when most of us went.  It's no longer milk and cookies, nap time {even though they ask for naps, poor babies}, and playing.  Playing is still important but now I am planning what they "play" so that they are really learning.

Another thing I noticed from this week was how different the preschools in this area really are.  The kids that did go to preschool are coming from home preschools, half day preschools, preschools that are run by a chain, and private preschools.  They all prepare them differently for Kindergarten too.  From what I have seen, I am SO glad I did not send my child to Kiddie Academy.  They are truly awful.  The behavior from the kids that went there are not that great and they are teaching them all the wrong letter sounds.  Teaching kids to put a shwa at the end of their sounds makes no sense to me.  A "h" sound is not a "huh".  DO you say HUHamburger?

A clean slate though... this year I am excited to see how much they will grow!  I remember Kindergarten to be the year that I saw tremendous growth.  I saw growth in first grade but not as much of a jump as some make in Kinder!  I can't wait!

Here are some more pics of my classroom.  I had to try out my new camera, I must say, I like them a lot more than the photos I had with my phone camera.  As you can see, I am going with a Safari theme this year.  I also used my son to model some behavior so I can so them in pictures how we do things.  I have a pocket chart at the front of the room, so when they come in tomorrow morning, they can look at the pictures, in order, of how to unpack each morning.  Eventually they will be able to do it on their own.

Behavior Chart

This speaks for itself but, each classroom must keep a way to figure out how their kiddos are getting home each day.

View from my classroom door in the hallway.

View from the cubby area.

View from the back door.

Tables are ready for tomorrow morning.  They have name tags to wear.

View from the front of my room.  I LOVE my word wall and tree.  

Kindergarten Jitters

I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous.  I could teach first grade with my eyes closed, I KNOW first grade and the Common Core.  It used to be that way with Kindergarten so long ago {ok, five years is not that long ago but it's long enough} and I knew how to teach the pants off that too.  With the way Common Core is and the way incoming Kindergarten babies are, I am just not sure I am prepared. 

I have the classroom set up, but it's really still for first grade.  Kindergarten is not ALL play anymore but there is still some learning they do require through play.  Hands on learning is only right in my eyes.  I need more stuff for them to play with.  My kids at home are not too happy with me because I am highjacking their items at home to bring to school.  I snatched a train/road carpet from my son's room to put in the block area.  The dramatic play area is less than appealing, but it'll come along as I get more stuff. 

To me, if my room is not set up or put the way I have it in my head, I can't do anything else until that is complete.  The room is sort of bare but that will come with time as well. I'll just have to get over it because the kiddos are coming TOMORROW!! 

This week is staggered entry week for the Kinder babies.  Wish us luck!

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

My track out has almost come to an end.  It was such a great track out.  There wasn't anything eventful that happened to make it great, unless you LOVE these guys.

That's right, I saw NKOTB over my track out {and thank GOD I was tracked out because the show was on a week night}.  They were AMAZING!!!

So that happened and my family also came to visit.  I was a busy bee because my grandmother taught me how to sew.  I now have a sewing machine and I have made new curtains for my classroom and I am also in the middle of chair pockets/covers for the new Kindergarten class I will have this year.  The chair covers are no easy task let me tell you.  I bought fabric, I cut the fabric after measuring but it still would not turn out right.  After a lot of thinking, I grabbed a pillow case from my closet upstairs, turned it inside out, an sewed up both sides.  VOILA!  A seat pocket.  It'll be majorly big for the tiny chairs in the classroom but I am ok with that... for now.

I'm also on a mission to make little sit-upon pillows for my milk crates I am making into stools.  I think those will look super cute around my reading table or to go in the listening center.  My time has been consumed with these things, spending time with my boy, and not working on my National Boards.

I was going to attempt the NBCT this year but it has come to a halt for now.  My husband and I are willing to invest the $2500 for me to do this but I have taken a stand for myself and said NO.  I am not doing it because there may be a cut in the extra money you get in your pay check.  It's always on the chopping block.  Our state of NC is already talking about not paying teachers for being a Masters level after 2014.  To me, that means, they will also cut NBCT pay.  I just cannot justify in my head why I would put all that money upfront and effort into such a thing, and not get anything in return... except being a better teacher they claim is makes you after you do it.

I think what I am going to do is enjoy a year of not being a team lead and not pick up anything new and just throw myself into this Kindergarten curriculum that is new to me all over again.  I may kick myself down the line for not doing it, but I can always come back and try it another time.  My goal was to wait for both of my boys to be in elementary school and not be paying for preschool anymore before I do National Boards.  It's just a LOT of money and I already have my graduate degree.

Decisions, decisions!

Anyways, I am ready for Kindergarten and our first day back for the 2013-14 school year is Monday the 1st!