Holy tired, Batman! What a week. It is my humble opinion that the day after Valentine’s Day (and Halloween) should be a mandated no school day. Just sayin…
Well, I know you’ve all missed me because I didn’t post anything yesterday….terrible awful I know…and I am CRAZY late posting today. But I have an excuse. We moved our house into storage today. Yep. Our life is in a 10×20 storage space. And there was a whole lotta life to cram into the space. And it’s crammed. To the ceiling and all the way to the door! The Kindergarten Smorgasboard World Headquarters has temporarily relocated to a new location courtesy of a friend! And on March 25, we will move into our shiny new digs! WOOHOO!
And since I’ve made you wait so long to hear (read!?!) my random and mindless chatter, here is The Saturday Kindergarten Post!
Our week kicked off with a celebration of the Chinese New Year. I showed to monsters where China was located using Google Earth. Best. Idea. Ever. They thought that was the most amazing thing ever. We will definitely be using that toy some more!
I read the book Ruby’s Wish to my class and we talked about Ruby’s Wish to go to university and how we all wanted to go to college! YES! This is huge for the population of students that I serve! I was so glad that they already had that idea planted. We also compared and contrasted Ruby and her school to us and our school. I highly recommend this book for comparing and contrasting, women’s history month or even for a book about equality.
Of course, we don’t just party in the kindergarten smorgasboard (no really, it only looks like that…I promise that we learn stuff and it’s researched based. And common core aligned. True story.) so we did this awesome addition project to help us kick off the year of the snake (snake, really?! Why not a panda bear, China?!). The monsters loved this project and they did so well. If you want to do this project you can get your free copy on the freebies page!
We also did a super fun art project with paper and paint! I gave the monsters a piece of paper and told them to wad it up. Then I gave them some red and yellow paint and modeled how to dip the paper in the paint. We then painted our snakes with our paper wad! And of course we added glitter! These turned out super cute! Paper wad painting. Glitter. I am thinking this will happen many more times in Monsters, Inc.
Chopsticks and Ramen Noodles. A Chinese new year FEAST! There is nothing better than 5 years olds eating with chopsticks! I do love that this snack cost me a whopping $2. Thank you Ramen Noodles and the nice Chinese restaurant for the free chop sticks!
And people, don’t panic! You know that not a holiday (or even semi-quasi holiday…or even a regular day..) goes by without a silly hat! This adorable hat is being modeled by “Oprah” and “Gayle!”
And yes, my kids are always, 100% of the time, that calm and that engaged. Always. No, really. Always. OK, not always. But sometimes they’re engaged! Usually…
This week we also introduced word problems! People, this went so well I might or might not have hypothetically jumped on the table and did a dance. We used my Dino-Myte addition pack and little rubber dinosaurs I found at Wal-Mart way back at Halloween (I tell the mister I am not a teacher hoarder…these things actually are inspirations for my crazy genius…and they get used…) so they were perfect! We used these work mats and the word problems were projected on the Smart Board. We read through the problem and the monsters were off and running. They very quickly picked up on the numbers in the problem and were solving problems before I could finish reading. I totally think it’s because they’re teacher ROCKS of the dinosaurs. Next week, we will do the same thing but with unicorns. You know. for the boys who don’t like dinosaurs, but love unicorns.
I have had tons of questions about the work mat, so I am sharing it with you! It’s included in my Lego Addition Freebie! Head to the freebies page to grab your copy! (You can also get some free dinosaur and unicorn ten frame cards to go with the dinosaur and unicorn adding packs!)
CLICK ME! CLICK ME!!
After we addressed those Common Core standards with our word problem magic, we went back to partying…er..more learning. Who says you can’t learn while partying?!
So, let’s address the big pink elephant in the week. The dreaded V day. Why is this day so crazy for kindergarteners!? I am glad it’s over. Here are a few snapshots from our V day celebration!
We love common core standards!
We love tree maps!
We love sequencing! And we love the old lady books! This cute There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Rose activity is from Primary Graffiti! And yes, she swallows glitter! Oh, if only…
We love sugar before we go home!
We love our love bugs hat!
And it’s true. My monsters knock my socks off EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
We ended our week of LOVE with some puppy love! How cute are these?! I found them on Pinterest of course. The monsters loved that every piece was a heart! And I love them because they’re doggies!
And that’s our week! Lots of fun. Lots of learning. And one exhausted Mr. Greg
Be sure to check back tomorrow for some super freebies that I’m working on to go with my presidential writing creation!
