Martin Luther King Jr. Day

It is my impression that what touches Kindergarten children stays with them for a very long time.  I take my job very seriously.  Young children are so impressionable and learn so much from observation.  So much of it is wonderful and some ... well... not so much.  Teaching the lessons Dr. King once dreamt about is one of the joys of my job. 

I always spend a day or two prior to Martin Luther King Day reading stories about him and leading discussions about what he stood for - equality and fairness for ALL people.  It is always instinctive for children to see the world that way - if only everyone could see the world through a child's eyes.  

On Martin Luther King day, we do many activities to show and express his teachings.  Take a look at a few...

Dr. King, himself

A couple of close up views.  Even though the boys and girls follow the same set of directions, each picture is wonderful and unique!!

I read the book The Crayon Box that Talked which is also a famous poem to the class.  The premise of the story is that crayons in a crayon box argues that each color is the best.  A young child over hears the argument and buys the box of crayons. In the end, the child shows them that they are all beautiful,  especially when they work together.  I then discuss with my kiddos that our class is like that box of crayons -all different in a special way, no one is better, we are all wonderful in the same way - just like the box of crayons.

So cute!

I found this wonderful idea on - you guessed it - pinterest!  Thank you Vicky Moore for sharing!

                                              Our Poetry Page for this week

  

Penguin Projects

Penguins are popping up everywhere in Kindergarten!!  Our January theme is of course penguins.  The weather during the first part of the month didn't call much for the study of penguins - but we are feeling it now!  I will be adding more as we study this interesting and comical bird.  Here are a few of our projects we've completed so far....

Our Adelie penguins

Our January Quilt

A close  up of our penguin handprints and snowflakes.

Our penguin wind socks

One Of My Favorite Finds....

In one of my past blogs, I admitted to you that I am a blog stalker.  Well, now I must admit to you that I am addicted to ------- pinterest.  I have found SO MANY ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL ideas on pinterest! 

Here is one of my favorites.  It is my new clip chart.  Each day the boys and girls begin their day in Kindergarten with their clothespin on "Ready to Learn".  As I catch my kiddos being good listeners, hard workers, moving through our transition times easily, being helpful, anything postive, they get to move their clothespins up throughout the day.  I also use it to remind my boys and girls to keep an eye on their not-so-great behaviors.  If we are having difficulties remembering rules, clothespins are moved down the chart.  Here is the great part, as I catch the students who are having a bit of a rough day, being good, they have the opportunity to move up the chart during the day.  At the end of our day together, we look at our day and cheer on each student for their accomplishments throughtout the day.  For those students who have reached the top of the chart, a line or mark is added to the end of their clothespin.  Once they have earned fives lines, they receive a red clothespin and we conitnue as we go through each color of the rainbow.  Our ultimate goal a - GLITTER clothespin.   Ahhhhhhhh!

The boys and girls have responded fabulously to our clip chart.  I LOVE it because it really reinforces positive behavior in my little kiddos!  THANK YOU to Denise for sharing on pinterest such a fun way to promote positive classroom behavior!





Math Stations

Our school improvement goal is to improve our students math skills grades K-12.  Every teacher, no matter their grade or subject matter, will be incorporating math into their curriculum to help achieve this goal.  In the past, our goal was to improve our students' reading skills and our test scores are going up.  

In the Kindergarten classroom, we are using a new and challenging math series, incorporating Accelerated Math and now we are adding Math Stations.  After a student has completed their AM work, they are free to check the Math Station chart to see which activity they will be working on for the day.  At the end of each day I rotate the stations.  The stations include activities for: counting, shapes, sorting, number recognition, coins, patterns, measurement, addition, and subtraction.  Each month I will change the stations.  Here is a look at our January Math Stations. 

The boys and girls put these in numerical order - counting by ones to 20, by tens to 100 and by fives to 100.

Then the boys and girls write their numbers for even more practice.

Dice activities are great ways to work on counting and following directions.

A counting activity - the students count the snowflakes and clip the clothespin to the correct number.

The boys and girls make different kinds of patterns then record on a coloring sheet.

Every snowman needs some buttons.  The students put the correct number of foam shapes onto the snowman.

Practicing addition.  The boys and girls write the math problem on their recording sheet.  Pasta "snowflakes" are used to help solve the math problem.

Storage for our Math Stations

The boys and girls check this chart to see which station they will be working with each day.


Below are some snapshots of my kinder kiddos working with their January Math Stations:

Calendar Books

It is the beginning of a new year and the beginning of new things happening in Kindergarten.  One of many new and exciting things is our Calendar Books.  This is an idea I discovered on Kathleen Pedersen's Kindergarten website.  Unfortunately, I did not come across this fabulous idea until just recently so next year I plan to introduce Calendar Books at the beginning of the school year.  We do our Calendar Book activities every morning to reinforce our calendar skills, patterning skills and counting skills.  Here is a peek inside....

Each student has their own book.  I keep them in tubs at the front of the room.

We are learning the months of the year and our Kindergarten friends' birthdays.

These are our tally marks for each day we are in school for the month.

Counting each day we are in school for the entire year!!

Keeping track of our days---blue days are school days --- red days are days we are not in school.

These are our January patterns We do a pattern a week.



Polar Express

This day is a favorite for EVERYONE - our Polar Express celebration!  The activities are based around a favorite book for the holiday season.  In the afternoon, right after recess the boys and girls change into their PJ's and are greeted by the "conductor".  The boys and girls find their seat with their ticket on the "Polar Express".  I punch their tickets, check my pocket watch and read the story Polar Express to the class.  After the story, we drink hot chocolate and stir them with candy canes while we munch on some delicious Christmas cookies.  A very cold package mysteriously arrives to our classroom and inside is a train whistle, some magic reindeer food and a silver bell for each student.  We then finish our afternoon with some great Polar Express related fun!!!  What a GREAT afternoon!  Can't beat the smiles!!!

Making our elf donuts.  Cheerios dipped in almond bark and decorated with sprinkles.

We made these Santa bags in the morning.

All aboard the Polar Express!!!

We did a train glyph. 

Enjoying hot chocolate and cookies while listening to some holiday music!

We graphed -who likes marshmallows in their hot chocolate...

Our Polar Express keepsake.

 .

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM MRS. STRAIGHT'S KINDERGARTEN KIDDOS!