Class Assignment... All about me

I know I haven't written in a while, but unfortunately my grad school classes have started back up.  Don't worry I promise I will get it together and share some of the great and crazy stories of what has been happening in my classroom.  Also, my classroom got some great compliments today so i will need to post updated pics. 


Until then I thought I would share my first class assignment for the quarter.  


We were to make some form of presentation introducing ourselves to the class and it had to include a self portrait, an interest of ours, our education, and a favorite song.  Here is what I came up with... 


http://photopeach.com/album/ugsb8s

My Favorite Time Of Day...

Well, here it is...

 If you cannot tell it is indeed nap time.  Today I had quite a few precious children decide to not take a nap (they still have to rest quietly)  I don't know how they do it because I know that if my head would have hit one of those cots today I would have been out within seconds (regardless of the fact that they are only about three feet long).

However, for two very good reasons I could not:

1. That would mean leaving the children unattended, and I would no longer have a job.
2. I am still trying to get back in the school year, and always have some sort of work to catch up on.

 Well now on to the reason I write, and the things that make my day interesting...

             (Oh yeah, and about those hidden personalities on the first day...)
Today, not only was it our first time getting out the paints (lots of fun involved in that), and having classroom jobs, but it was also my first time ever getting bit by a student.  Don't worry no skin was broken, however, I did think it was share worthy.  While this is a hazard (of many) to go with the job, I do not take it personally.  As young children we are trying to grow into our personalities and along with that comes control our emotions (Anger).  I know that this student and I are going to be spending a lot of time together this year, and as long as we can both control our emotion we will make it out alive.

While some situations may be harder to handle than others, don't worry, because there are still moments when I cannot seem to get enough.  For instance, on Fridays we are allowed to wear jeans and t-shirts, and when I walked into the school wearing a purple t-shirt instead of my usual red uniform shirt one of my students was a little confused.  I love it when they ask questions, and encourage curiosity, and that is the exact reason why this particular student often makes me smile.  When I walked in wearing my purple shirt she said,
"Ms. Lisa what happened to your red shirt?"
"It's Purple today"
"Well you can't teach us in that purple shirt can you?"
"I'm sure gonna try"


Lastly, I know I promised some updated classroom photos...

The finished group area (just got new calendar today!)

Remember, I mentioned we started classroom jobs today?  They were so excited to choose their jobs, and take on a new "big kid" responsibility.

One of our photo boards

Our creative expressions board

Family connections board (lesson plans, bios, newsletter, schedule, safety procedures)

Well, that's all I have for the time being but please remember when you are at work tomorrow that although you think no one notices my students would notice if you wore a new shirt, new shoes, a new hair style, or a new shade of eye make-up the second you walk in the door.

First Day of School

So today was the first day of school, and I don't have any pictures because if anyone has experiences a first day of pre-k you barely have time to breath.  However, I survived, and I have to say that it was not too bad.  All day I only had one cryer, and that was right upon arrival.

We are going to be spending all week:
adjusting to our schedule (we were way off today)
getting to know each other
learning when we need to sit still and when we can wonder the classroom
learning bathroom etiquette, how and when to wash our hands
and most importantly how to all live within one classroom together everyday (this one will probably not be accomplished until the end of the year).

Even though I am absolutely exhausted (I know, poor me) I really had a great first day, and as long as no one is hiding a crazy side I think I have a pretty great class.

Preplanning and Awaiting The Madness...

Alright, so this week was preplanning, and I have pictures as promised.  First of all, I would like to let you know that out of the 30 items on my to do list (yes I admit it's a little excessive) I managed to successfully complete about half.  When I walked into my classroom Monday morning I felt as if I was taking a morning swimming class again as I did when I was younger, because my body was frozen with shock.  Only this time it was not from cold water, but because I realized I was going to have to completely start from scratch in just a couple days.  However, just as I did when I jumped into the freezing water, I took a deep breath and just kept going.

Here is what I walked into on Monday.  I know it is hard to tell, but this mess is not what a classroom should look like.  However, the positives are that is it is a very large room (this is not even the whole room as I am standing in the huge group/ literacy are), the huge windows let in plenty of light, and we have lots of wall space to display picture and art work.

I decided immediately that I did not like the bright green and baby blue, and since I could not change the baby blue at this time I began to rip down ever single board until the walls were bare.

Next, as I can not stand unorganized chaos and to not know where anything is I trashed the entire classroom in order to put it back together the I wanted it.

Until Wednesday I felt like I was drowning in a bottomless pool, however, by about Wednesday afternoon I began to see things slowly coming together.  We had organized mostly everything into its place, cleaned everything out, I unpacked most of the stuff I had brought from home (remember the huge pile of stuff), and my assistant had been working really hard on getting everything labeled (more pics on that project later).  I was finally able to tackle a couple items on my list.

I ran to the dollar tree (a teacher must have) and picked up these letters for our new boards...

I tackled the daily schedule (I didn't have this up until a month into school last year).

The group area is coming together...

I ordered a new calendar set so we are awaiting its arrival, and this are will also house our job chart and birthday board both of which still need to be constructed.

And finally... after a whole roll of yellow contact paper, the room was looking much more open, bright, and clean.  And I was feeling a lot better about having 22 students enter into it in just a couple days.

(This picture was taken before I put up their names on the cubbies)

This weekend is going to be spent organizing lesson plans, typing up newsletters, and mentally preparing myself for yet another school year.  I will be along next week with fun first day stories, and more classroom progress pictures.

Good luck to all teachers on a new school year!

Summer is Coming to and End...

   Well, I haven't written in a long time, however, as this is mainly about my classroom the summer does not give me much to work with.  One of the benefits of being a teacher is that in the summer you completely forget that you even have a job, however, that tends to make August a very depressing month.  And here we are; August 4th.  It may come as a surprise to some (ME), but I actually have to return to work in just four days.
   You may remember at the end of last year I mentioned that I would be moving to a new classroom.  I have gone in this summer to rearrange the furniture, however, the entire classroom still needs to be set up next week before the students come.  Don't worry I have made several lists to keep me on track (I am a huge list maker).  I will post updates on the classroom setup next week, however, I wanted to answer the question that many often ask, "What does a teacher do during the summer??"

Here is what I did this summer (don't get to excited...)

1. Most importantly... I have been relaxing by the pool, (trying) to work on my tan, and spending some much needed bonding time with my dog, Vienna.

2. Of course I have been getting in as much husband time as possible (which is hard when this is his busy time at work).  We both have summer birthdays, and therefore, had a great time celebrating those.  We were also able to take a vacation to Vero Beach, Florida with most of Justin's family.

3. We have had several visitors this summer

4. I have been catching up on some good reading (I stockpile all school year, and then read them in the summer).

5. Trying out some new recipes

6. I painted and redecorated our master bathroom

7. As some of you may know, I am in the process of earning my Master's so, of course, I have spent the majority of my time here...

8.I have also taken up running just about every other day, and going to yoga 

9. I have to admit though I have also spent a little time staring at this...

10. And last, but not least, I have organized and reorganized my school stuff to take to my new classroom

Wish me luck as I once again start off on the journey that is a new school year (and yet another new classroom)!

Happy Easter... And Some Big News

We had lots of Easter fun this past week!  

"Egg Hunt" - there is no Easter because it is considered a public school - blah
      Anyway, I had parents bring in eggs filled with candy, and as with each sets of new students every year you get new set of parents so I was not sure what the outcome was going to be.  I have to say that I was very impressed, and they did not disappoint.  Each students ended up collected about 25 eggs a piece (yeah that's a lot).  I debated over and over how I wanted to conduct the hunt in order to make sure that everyone got the same amount of eggs, and to top it all off Friday was a very wet day or the playground.  I decided to number each of the eggs, and then assign each of the students a number.  They had the number tapes to their hand, and when we went on the hunt they could only gather eggs with their number.  Not only did this make it fair, but it also put a little learning into it (without them even realizing it of course).  The class and I decided the a little water wasn't going to hurt us, and we headed outside for our egg hunt.  Finding the specific numbers made it last longer as well, and I think everyone had a really great time.  We had cupcake that afternoon so all the goodies went home for them to add to their Easter candy collection.

      The thing that I love most about a holiday I the day when we com back when they all have stories to share.  I always make sure I give them each a chance to share what they did on their holiday with the class,  and many of them told about their egg hunt adventures, their visits to the Easter bunny, and gathering with friends and families.
      Later in the morning when the students were at centers I heard a couple of them talking about the "Easter Bunny" and could not resist writing down their conversation...

     "Did you know the Easter bunny that I saw was not real?"
     "Yeah, I know, he was just in a costume."
     "I saw his neck when I was sitting on his lap, and that's how I knew he wasn't a real bunny."
     "The Easter bunny doesn't even talk, he just waves!"

   Anther girl who was sitting by listening, but not quite convinced finally joined in.
      "Oh no, the Easter bunny doesn't talk?  That's bad!"
   She was so shocked, and I am sure her parents will have to do some explaining tonight.

The Big News...

         I also found out on Friday that at the end of this school year the state will be shutting down my classroom (boohoo).  We all knew that GA pre-k was cutting costs, and I guess this was one way they decided to do it.  My director is in the process of looking for a school for me to transfer to, but in the mean time if anyone knows of any elementary teaching jobs (haha) please let me know!

From The Mouths of Babes...

 This week is spring break, and so far I have not gotten much relaxing done between school work, and the electric being out for 14 hours causing me to clean and work on lesson plans.  Oh well, why complain when it could be worse.  However, since I'm not at school I didn't have much to write about so I thought I would share some of the quotes from past students that made me want to start this blog in the first place.  The thing I love about teaching is that just about everyday I my students make me laugh.  Here are some examples...

My first year teaching I had a girl in my class who had two older brothers.  Her brother enjoyed playing guitar hero, and she would often sit in the room and watch.  This led to her constantly singing Guitar hero songs in the classroom, and her favorite was Eye of the Tiger.  One day she was singing the song, and right in the middle she stopped and said, "Ms. Lisa, do you know why the song is called I Owe the Tiger?" I said, "well I think that it is called Eye of the Tiger."  To this she replied, "No, it is called I Owe the Tiger because someone owes the tiger money." all I could say was, "No, I did not know that."

Last year I had a students that after seeing a picture of my husband on my cell phone she decided she was in love with him.  She told me, "Ms. Lisa I am going to get married to you husband." I told her, "But he is already married to me." She then looked at me like she was going to cry and said, "But I love him!" 

It is things like this that make the noise, arguing, and tying shoes all day seem like not such a big deal.

One last thing I wanted to post is a video that is pretty old so I am sure a lot of people have seen it, however, it makes me laugh every time.  If you are having a bad day it will turn right around when you hear this little boy, and watch the facial expression that go along with it.  click here to watch    

Sorry I didn't have much to say, but I am going to get back to enjoying my spring break.  Next week we will be talking about bugs so I am sure there will be some interesting things to share...

Lisa

Welcome Spring...

As I expected most of the students did not even notice that we no longer had a fish, and although they were a little disappointed they were very excited when I explained our caterpillar project.  So rest assured are class is moving on right into this beautiful Spring...

As Promised, I have pictures of our planting projects we have already started.

We are Trying to turn our carnations red.  we have them in water with red food coloring. It is supposed to work like celery, and go up through the stem to make the petals red.  I have don it before with celery, but not with carnations.

Today we planted lima beans.  We placed the seed in a zip lock bag with a wet paper towel, and then hung it on the window.  Hopefully be Monday we will start to see some growth.  Each students planted their own seed.

This is our new long term plant project.  When we were having trouble keeping our normal class plant alive (apparently I am not that good with keeping things alive) I ordered this to replace it.  Since then my assistant has been able to bring our plant back to life, and we have a lovely new addition.  there are 5 different kinds of plants in here, and each one has to do with the 5 senses.  Aloe = touch, palm = hear, polka dotted plant = see, eucalyptus = smell, and herbs = taste.  I am really curious to see if this plant take on life in our class...

Our home living theme is a garden center.  Here the students can buy plant and seeds, and then pretend to plant them wherever they like.  I am trying to introduce the concept of money.  They are having a lot of fun pretending to plant, but they told me they wished they had real dirt and water.  I let them know that we will be doing more of that outside.

Lastly, we are trying an experiment with grass seed.  Apparently, if you put the grass seed in any shape, it will grow in that shape.  We decided to do our initials, however, we aren't seeing much growth.  We'll see how that works out, and I will keep you posted on everything else as well.

Lisa

P.S. - Wish me luck I start grad school on Monday!!

R.I.P Sapphire

There comes a time in every man (or fish's) life when their life comes to an end. Unfortunately for Sapphire that time came all too soon...

Yep, our second Beta fish died, and yes that is also after the two miniature crabs.  I swear we are feeding it the amount the container says, we keep them clean and happy, and they still die?  If you are wondering we will not be getting another fish (or crab) so don't try running to Peta about me.  I do feel bad though, and even worse when I have to tell the students, again, that our pet has died.  However, I am also wondering what they may be doing to that fish when I am not looking.  After one of these unfortunate events I usually wait about a day to see who notices that the fish is missing (don't worry I already flushed it), because I love seeing how observant they are.  I will probably break the news to everyone tomorrow afternoon.

As for a new pet...
Well, we will not technically be getting a new pet this time, however, since it is Spring we will be having several creepy crawlers visit our class.  Yesterday I ordered our caterpillars which we are going to feed and take care of until they make their cocoons.  Once they are in their cocoons we well place them in a butterfly habitat to live in for a couple days as butterflies before we set them free.  This is one of my favorite things about Spring, and an awesome way to teach the students about life cycles.  Also, the good news is we recently brought our class plant back to life, and with the beautiful weather we are beginning to grow many more.

I will update tomorrow on how the students took the news, and will also show pictures of some of our news planting projects.


Lisa

Culture Fest 2011

So sorry I haven't written in a while.  In that past couple weeks I have attended a couple trainings, found out the I am starting Grad school in a week, and with the beautiful Georgia weather it is just really hard to be inside sometimes.  Anyway, here is what went on in our class today, and next week we are going to be starting some planting project.

Today wrapped up the end of our "Earth" discussion, and we celebrated with CULTURE FEST 2011.  I am sure you, like many of my parents, are asking "What in the world is that?".  Well during this theme we discussed different parts of the world, as well as, many different culture.  Every Friday is show-and-tell, and therefore the children brought in show-and-tell items from all over the world.  We had the following items: an African doll, a Mexican flag and water pitcher, chopsticks, Bindi (Indian jewels that the women wear on their forehead), an African drum, German chocolate, and Alaskan bear, and one of my students brought in pictures of his parents Indian wedding.  Now, I know that this probably would have been interesting and exciting enough, however, we also gave the students the option of bringing in a food dish from another culture.
Here is a list of the food we had:

Roti and curried green beans


Sushi and Korean popcorn


Asian Ginger rolls

Mexican cookies and pastries

A Mexican hibiscus drink


Nachos and Cheese

Jalebi (Indian sweet fried dough)


and Pigs in a blanket


Overall, this day was a lot of fun, and I believe the children got a lot out of it.  I was impressed with how much they were actually willing to try as my students are pretty picky eaters.  However, I thin there were too many sweet because they were a little wound up afterwards.  It was a good thing it was about 80 degrees today so we could go outside and burn of that energy.

I am also really impressed with the parents in my classroom as they were great sports in bringing in food.  I know I have several parents telling me their kids were bugging them everyday for two weeks about bringing something in, and know it isn't always easy to shop pr cook during the week.  I really have some great family involvement, and that is so beneficial not just to me but also to the students.

Favorites of the day determined by a students vote: Mexican cookies, and Korean popcorn!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss...

This week has been incredibly crazy as I was at in trainings Tuesday and Wednesday.  I was great to get back and see my students today, although they did not understand why I had to leave them to go to trainings.  I explained to them that teachers have to go to school as well.  One little girl told her mom the previous day, "Ms. Lisa had to go to training so she could teach us new fun stuff."  While at the training I heard a couple funny teaching stories, and really wanted to share one.  The trainer told this while we were talking about how children are not only trying to find an answer for us, but they are also looking for the answer that they think you want to hear.
        This takes place during a church Sunday school class...
        The teacher was introducing a book and while trying to explain the animal in the story she said, "There is a small animal with a bushy tail."
         Nobody answered
         "He as a bushy tail, and jumps through the branches of the tree."
         Nobody answered
         "He has a bushy tail, jumps through the branches of the tree, and gathers nuts."
         This time a little by raised his hand and said, "I want to say a squirrel, but I thin I better say Jesus."

Yesterday was my favorite author's birthday, and since I was not in school we celebrated it today.  We started the day with reading several books by Dr. Seuss, and then we made green eggs and ham.  Lastly, before lunch we watched The Cat in The Hat, and I don't think I have every heard anyone laugh so hard during a movie.

Here are some pics...

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

In our classroom (and just about every pre-kindergarten classroom) there is an area called the dramatic play area.  This area is set up for children to pretend play.  My dramatic play area has child sized  furniture such as washer, sink, refrigerator, small cabinets, table and chairs, couch, high chair, crib, and a closet.  There are also babydolls, dress-up clothes, and a lot of play food.  While there materials are permanent and stay around all year I also have a secondary theme that get changed out about every other week.  This week since we are talking about transportation our theme for the dramatic play is a train station.
Here are some pictures of our train station.

Train with chairs behind it for passengers

complete with tickets, and cash register

Conductors hat

 I was taking some observations in this area, and I would like to share some of the things that are being said as he students are pretending to be at a train station.

"Tickets, who needs tickets?"

"Excuse me, where's the ticket line?"

"We gotta go to the dance in Alaska, let's get our tickets."

"I was workin the ticket line Ms. Lisa."

"Passengers need to get tickets from the train man, the conductor."

"I drive the train and take the passengers to America."

"I was the ticket helper, but then I was the son riding on the train."

There were some interesting conversations going on, and we were using a lot of new vocabulary.  All in all we are having a lot of fun with this theme.

Lisa

Dr Seuss Theme

I know I said I would post pics of my new Dr. Seuss theme so here they are...

This is our Birthday wall.  I put the cake up with contact paper, and then wrote on the name with dry erase so they can be changed out every year.  I also always hang up pics of their parties they have in class.

This is one of my favorites, the helping hands chart.  I used pics of the fish from The Cat In The Hat, and each one is a different job.  The students get a new job each week, and it teaching them a sense of responsibility and being a part of a group.

These are for their individual art work.  Each student has one of these hanging somewhere around the room with their name and picture.  When they complete art work in the class they can do one of two things with it.  1. they can put it in their take-home-folder, or 2. They can hang it on their place with the clothe pin that is already there.  

These are the signs for the bathrooms...obviously.

My Room has almost a whole wall of cabinets that are kind of a creamy color.  The pic above is what we did to the bottom cabinets under the sink.  It's fun, and we'e had a lot of comments on them from people coming into the class.

Here is what we did to the cabinets above the sink.  This way we can frame some of the art work the students do, and it is easy to change it out often.  They are always wanting me to put their art work up here.

We had a blank wall in the library, and my assistant came up with this idea.  She put up covers of some of our favorite books, and I think it turned out really cute.

These are a few quotes that we put up around the room.

We are still adding a few finishing touches, and I will add updates on those as they come.  

Lisa