Savoring Summer

Alright...T-minus 36-ish hours til Day 1 of this year! Soaking in the last few hours of summer!!! I'm getting excited AND super nervous! I have some major challenges to conquer this year. I am revamping my very week writing program, I have new technology by way of my online based grade book and smart response clickers, and I want to keep up with my blog...which so far I haven't been too good at. 
This post is a sneak peak at my classroom for this year! 



Our job chart and daily schedule.


Kinda blurry but the start of our birthday board. I am going to finish it with pictures of each student and their birthday. The border is my favorite part...$.57 at the teacher store for a whole pack!!! 



Our locker name tags. Following our circus theme. It's more of a subtle theme this year. 



Parent center--to cut down on the chaos in the morning and stacks of stuff on my desk that I have to sort through. 



Bulletin board--our action model for the year! 



Name maps--to go with our reading of "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes. He is our first author we will be studying this year. 



All about me Math People for the first day of school! I couldn't figure out how to turn it.

I will be posting more as we get started. Monday is the big day and I am excited to begin some new and fun adventures with my kids! 

Google Education Summit

Here I am...Day 3 at the Google Education Summit...all I have to say...WOW! I am sooo overwhelmed with information! This is so interesting...if I could keep up with all of the technology lingo. I'm not bad at technology...I'm just not familiar with lingo. : / Learning how to use all of the Google products in very interesting and I will definately be using it in my classroom this year! I already created a couple of handouts that will be going up on my TpT store soon! Thankfully I have a brand new Google Chromebook to learn on. I will tell you. This thing is awesome! I've been a Microsoft user since I was born (dad is NOT an Apple fan) and so this is like learning MAC...lots of different things with the keyboard and processes. I will update next week after I recover from the overload!

Let's review last year...

Here are some of our projects and activities from this past year. The first our kites. Early this spring we were learning about contractions. After they had mastered the concept, we created these kites. The kite itself has the contraction. The 2 pink bows had the words that make up the contraction. The blue cloud at the bottom is where they had to use the contraction in a sentence. This was a fun activity to reenforce the concept. And it provided decorations for our room at the same time.

I had the pleasure of doing Kindergarten Art this year. And it was a lot of fun! We got messy, we were creative, and we used our hands and feet! Here is another spring activity--pussy willow vases. We created the vase by folding an 81/2" by 11" in half and cutting a vase shape over the fold. The kids decorated the vases and glued them on to larger paper. We added branches and then used our thumbs and grey paint to add the pussy willows. I think they turned out fantastic!!!

Another kinder art project--we used a polar bear stencil to create this beautiful sunset scene. We painted the background first. After that dried, we added our polar bear and the rising moon. If you do it fast enough, add salt to the background before it is dry to add texture. Great winter scene, can be used with a social studies curriculum about Polar Bears, polar habitats, or to teach cool colors.

The last one I have to upload right now is another winter project. We did a snowflake crayon resist . Using a white crayon, the kids drew different snowflakes all across a large piece of paper. Then we cut that paper into fourths. We watercolor painted each fourth a different color. After those dried, we taped them back together.

Stay tuned for more of our pictures through out the school year. I am planning for next year already. I can't believe it!! Almost a month into summer vacation already. I will also be adding some of my new ideas as I recreate them for my classroom.

My First Blog...Introducing Mrs. M.

Here I am...joining the blogging world. I have been following many blogs for months and have decided it's my turn. I look forward to meeting new teachers around the world as well as sharing amazing ideas. Please leave comments and insight as you feel necessary.
A little about me...I just finished my 2nd year of teaching 3 days ago. I am eagerly looking forward to my 3rd year and ready to make even more changes to be an even better teacher. I was married to my husband, Jon, in July and we do not currently have children. I look forward to having my own children when the time is right.
I have taught 3 different grades in my 2 years of teaching. I work at a small private Lutheran school in Michigan. We have 50 students K-8 and 20+ in preschool. My first year, I taught grades 1 & 2. This past year I taught K-2 in the AM, and just 1-2 in the afternoon. It was a challenge giving all classes enough attention, but we did alright. We are still deciding on next year's classroom assignments. I am hoping to just have 1-2 again. Then I can focus a bit more on expanding my lessons rather than squeezing them in.
On that note, many people wonder why some private schools still have more than one grade per classroom. Isn't that "stuck in the past?" Well, it probably is...however, in a small school often the biggest reason is $$. But there are many advantages as well. This past year, my 2nd graders got to teach the kinders how to do a worksheet by reading the directions and helping them read all the questions. The younger ones look up to the older ones and it helps classroom management when they see the older ones quietly working at their desks. It takes a lot of organization and some differentiation between grades but it can be done effectively. I am still working on this...but I know plenty of teachers who make it work. Sorry...my tangent is done.
Stay tuned as I upload some of our work from this past year.