Cozy Kindergarten: 2013

Well, I have had a VERY busy July, August, and September! Very late in July my husband was offered a job as the band director of a much bigger school in a MUCH bigger area in Durham, NC! I got lucky that there was still positions open and I was able to interview - and get new shoes, as I drove the almost 3 hours and realized I was wearing flip flops for driving and had forgotten to grab my cute wedges for my interview! - and I was offered the kindergarten position that very day! Yay! :)
It's a beautiful school - only 8 years old!

So I am now a Creekside Eagle! (Before, I was a Petersburg Eaglet!)

So there we were, in August, no where to live yet and 2 new jobs. We stayed with a friend for the first week of school! Thank you Nick and Allison! (There's another cute story - my husband is friends with Nick, the fellow band director and I went to school with Allison! Makes you realize how small the world is!)

Now we are in our new apartment - I'll tell you one thing, it's hard to go from a house to an apartment We have a house worth of stuff and now we have an apartment and a storage unit!

I miss my friends from Petersburg, but we are keeping in touch via facebook. We had a great time at one last lunch together in August before school started back.

So, now I'm making new friends at work, I've already met more neighbors than I did in 4 years in SC! I guess apartment people are different than neighborhood people! :)

An exciting part of being in a new school is that I am in a new classroom - that means I get to decorate/set up a whole new area for teaching new kinders!

Here is our hallway display:

Green and Yellow Creekside Eagles!

Dramatic Play Area

Birthday Wall

First week books

Calendar and Weather Panda (my class named him King Fu Panda Bear!)

Student work display area

My Pete the Cat display

Teacher's Desk

Student Journals and reading Center shelf

Reading buddies

Computer Center

Puzzles area

Writing and Math center shelves and work cubbies

Play-doh, cars, blocks

My small group area

My class pictures

A few photos of my kiddos!

Batman is in my class! :)

Reading!

Computers!

Puzzles!

Letter Writing!

First, I must apologize for not posting sooner...shame on me!
I hope someone can use this next year!

Each year, my fellow kindergarten teachers and I countdown the final days of school with an ABC Countdown - it is so much fun! Each year, we tweak our ABCs a little bit. And this past year was a blast!

A - Animal Day: We each brought in our favorite stuffed animal to share and be our buddy for the day!

B - Bubble Day: We spent part of the afternoon outside blowing bubbles! Part of our morning was spent chewing bubble gum and seeing who could blow a bubble! (Left over gum makes for quiet writing times, too!)

C - Crazy Hair Day: We had some crazy hair for sure!

D - Dance Day: We did a lot of dancing on this day! Some favorites and some new dances!

E - Estimation Day: We had a few different jars the students used to estimate, this boy won the Skittles!

F - Friendship Day: The Guidance Counselor came to talk about being a good friend and not being a bully. Each student got a paper heart to wear.

G - Game Day: We played games on the Promethean Board, but we also broke off into small groups and played some board games too!

H - Hawaiian Day: One of my favorites! We gave each student a lei and many wore grass skirts or Hawaiian shirts! (This is one of the days we changed - it began as Hat Day, but our school allows that sometimes).

This is me with my principal on Hawaiian Day!

I - Ice Cream Day: We each made our won ice cream sundaes!

J - Joke Day: We told jokes (some from books and others from our minds!) and then made these "Why did the chicken cross the road?" pages.

K - Kindness Day: My kiddos around our "K is for Kindness" poster!

L - Lollipop Day: We of course had lollipops and did some lacing, too!

M - Muffins for Mom Day: The Friday before Mother's Day, we invite the moms (grandmothers, aunts, etc) to have breakfast with their kindergartner.

This boy also made himself a Mask in the art center!

N - Nice Note to a Staff Member and Name Game Day: We made a list of all the people who work in the school and then students made a card for one person and (most importantly) got to deliver it that person!

We also played name games including, making patterns with the letters in our names.

O - Outlaw Day: The week before, I took each child's picture with a bandanna and a cowboy hat so that I could make these:

We also had Outdoor story time!

P - Pajama Day: We wore pajamas to school!

We alsoate popcorn and watched a Peanuts cartoon!

Q - Questions Day: we played "Would you rather?" where I let the kids get up and move around to answer the questions. For example: "Would you rather eat worms or french fries from last year?" and the kids would have to move to either side of the room to answer the question. I would then ask a few kids WHY they choose that answer!

Oh! And we made a question mark! ;)

R - Reading Day: I had students pick a buddy and read together anywhere in the room.

S - Sports Day: My kids who play sports got to show off their uniforms at school! The rest of us supported our favorite teams or sport!

T - T-shirt Day: Wear your favorite T-shirt. These two wore Spider Man tees!

U - Unique Object Day: We had some very special objects come in. The black rock is a lava rock from Hawaii and the gray stuff in the bag is lightening glass! Cool!

V - Voting Day: We found out after our countdown began that Field Day was going to happen on our Y Day instead of Z Day (Zip into Summer!). So for V Day, I had students vote on what they wanted on Z Day - a Donut Party or a Pizza Party! We talked about what voting is and how to persuade someone to vote with you! So I had them write about which kind of party they wanted and why.

Donut Party won, in case you were wondering!

W - Watermelon Day: My twins brought in a watermelon for the class!

X - X Marks the Spot! We talked about pirates and how they hide treasures and create maps to help them find it again.

So, naturally, we made our own treasure maps!

Y - Yo-Yo Day: I only had one child bring a yo-yo this year (and I couldn't find mine!).

Z - Zip into Summer (with Zebra stripes!): Zip into Summer was meant to be Field Day, but as I said they had to change our Field Day to Thursday, which put it on our Y Day. So we wore Zebra stripes and had the party that was voted on on V Day!