Happy Saturday! It’s a washout in the Music City. Rain. Rain. Rain. Our backyard is now a pond! We did venture out to Target! I got a new wireless mouse (I am so excited about this!) and some popcorn socks!
People, I have to tell you a story and then I’ll get to the week that was! We’re teachers. We understand the value of education. We understand the value of a strong foundation in math and numbers. OK. I might get throat punched, but I’ve never been a big proponent of calculators in math classes because I think it allows to get away with not learning math and number skills that we need in REAL LIFE!!! Today, I was proven CORRECT! We stopped at McDonald’s for a drink and french fries (the smell of those things is evil and cannot be refused). I handed the young man a $5 bill. My total was $3.27. Immediately I know my change is $1.73. Apparently, the computer doesn’t show him the correct change. And then it happens. He pulls out his iPhone. People, HIS IPHONE! Opens the calculator app and figures out my change. I.was.dumbfounded. I have since tweeted McDonalds and now I am sharing this with you. Math is real. Math is necessary. Math is going to be around and will still work when your technology doesn’t. Learn math.
Now that you’ve heard my rant about math, here’s what you really want to see! The Saturday Kindergarten Post!
As I was editing pictures today, I was amazed at how much goes on in our classroom in a week. 8 hours a day. 5 days a week. 40 hours of learning, art, behaviors, laughter, tears and it all comes together to create these little scholars. Seriously…zoo trip, Earth day, plants, poop, oo words, SAT 10 practice, decomposing numbers, calendar, addition and subtraction. People really have no understanding of what we do! Teachers, we are superheroes! BE PROUD!
This week our end of the ABC countdown rolled on! Read Aloud Day, Sunglasses Day, Thank You Notes, Umbrellas and Violet Day!
Our week kicked off with a trip to the zoo! We had a blast! The monsters were well behaved and received so many compliments from people on their behavior! It is great to be able to take what we learned in the classroom and expose the monsters to the animals so they can see their knowledge in action!
After we returned from the zoo, we celebrated Earth Day! We read The Lorax and talked about the ways we can keep the Earth clean and beautiful! The monsters are now recycling crazy. I love it! I might have been yelled at a few times this week for putting paper in the trash can! I love love love these mustache pictures!!!!!! So much fun! They giggled and laughed when they got to put them on! 
This week we learned all about plants! We learned the needs of plants, the parts of plants and the life cycle of plants! Of course, we use art to help us share what we’ve learned! These sponge paint flowers were so fun and MESSY! My motto is this: the bigger the mess, the more success! I bought some small sponges at Wal-Mart and cut them into petal shapes. We cut out a flower pot, painted a stem and sponge painted the petals! Super fun and easy!
Of course we planted seeds too! We planted marigold seeds in cups and they’re already sprouting! We also planted bean seeds in CD cases so we can see the seed as it grows!
As part of our plant party, we read the book Tops and Bottoms! If you don’t have it, GET IT! It’s a great book for plants. After reading Tops and Bottoms, we used our feet to paint carrots! They turned out way cuter than I thought! Yes, I touch their feet. Yes they laugh hysterically while I’m brushing the paint on! And yes, it smells like feet! But the end product is so worth it!
This week we also worked on decomposing numbers! We used dice to decompose numbers! We used rainbows to decompose numbers! We used ladybugs to decompose numbers! And we used our red and yellow counters to decompose numbers!! It was a fun, hands on, engaging week of learning this common core standard!
You can get the Decomposing Dice freebie on the freebies page!
A special thanks to Mrs. Payton for her awesome Decomposing Pack!
This week we also learned about “oo” words! I did read the book “Everyone Poops” on Friday and we had lots of laughs! We ended our oo word week with fruit loop words! And yes, we made the word poop on our activity! I’m glad that I have the same sense of humor as a 5 year old!
These are some of our fun centers for the week! The monsters are into sight words and smelly markers this week! I wonder what it will be next week?!
SUNGLASSES!
And finally this week, we welcomed a new member of the kindergarten smorgasboard family! Goliath the guinea pig!!!
Rockin my blue Oakleys! Yes, they match the blue shirt and the blue socks. I always match my clothes. ALL OF THEM! ALWAYS!
I heart the Earth!
Alright people, it’s time for us to connect more! I love interacting with everyone! You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus! I am contemplating doing a Google Hangout (group video chat) for the blog sometime! Join me on Google Plus and we can chat!
Instagram: kindergartensmorgasboard Twitter: gregsmedley
Facebook: kindergarten.smorgasboard.7 Google Plus: Greg Smedley
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9 comments
I am a big advocate of learning to do math without calculators. There is an ice cream place in our town that does not use registers that tell your change. They MAKE their servers count back your change to show the total amount given (did that make sense? I hope it did :).
Love all your fun activities you did during your week. I am going to Target tomorrow to grab some of those popcorn socks. They are awesome!!
Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten
Amazing but at least he put the right equation in his iPhone. Gotta get credit for that.
Love all your activities, especially the Tops and Bottoms paintings. How cute!!!
Nicki
Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten
Yikes! Scary McDonald's math! I am with you completely on the calculator things. It's really important for students to have a solid knowledge of numbers and math before getting anywhere near a calculator!
My Kinder-Garden
Completely agree about the calculators! The older kids at my school just wrapped up state testing and the weird thing was….they could use a CALCULATOR….but all number lines had to be covered or removed from desks. Um…they couldn't use a number line, but could use a calculator….???? Totally makes no sense, right?!?!?!?
Debbie
K is for Kinderrific
I worked at McDonalds in college. We had to shut the computer system down for 10 minutes and restart it one day. I quickly realized I was the only person who could quickly count back change so I made everyone else get the food.
Great activities! 🙂 I love Goliath!
Thanks so much for the shout out Greg – several of your followers have stopped by my blog 🙂 I hope your students enjoyed the packet!
OMG I would so Google Chat! 🙂 I've done it before and it is fun.
Mels