Happy Saturday! Get this…I woke up at 5:30 this morning and could not go back to sleep. Stupid internal alarm clock. Why must you torture me?! And my legs? Those puppies are sore this morning. I’m not cut out for manual labor like moving a classroom. Apparently I need to get back to the gym. 5 months to get my Vegas body!
It’s Saturday…so it’s time for a peek into the week that was. Sadly, with the great classroom switch of 2014 we didn’t get to a lot of what was planned, but we still had a great week. AND we couldn’t do one of our art projects because, um, we don’t have a hand shaped die cut. True story. GRRRRRR.
This week was all about Martin Luther King and acceptance and tolerance. It is very simple: if we all adopted the mindset of 5 year olds towards others who are different, then the world would be an amazing place. The 5 year old view of the world is simply amazing. We need more of that in our world every day. GO 5 YEAR OLDS!
The week kicked off with our KWL chart. I was super impressed with what they already knew about MLK! As the week went on, we added our learning.
Funny story…yesterday during the great classroom switch, one of the volunteers asked me why the M,L,K for MLK were upside down and out of order! TRUE STORY. I explained the KWL chart and they were amazed. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is a teaching nerd like me…
We used this powerful lesson on diversity to understand that we’re all the same on the inside where it matters. Again, the brilliance of 5 year olds could change the world. They were very opinionated and had great discussions of what made us the same and how that was more important than what color we were!
Someone shared that they do the same lesson with M & Ms! I might have to switch it up next year!
We discussed what kind of dream MLK had and how it was different than a nighttime dream. Hard concept for the ‘staches but we were able to wrap our minds around it and share some of our very powerful dreams. 5 year olds…changing the world.
Notice the glitter bulletin board paper….glitter….nuff said.
This week our math focus was all about place value and tens and ones! The ‘staches got this concept so fast, even I was amazed.
We started off with hands on lessons and moved to some kinesthetic activies: a scaenger hunt and walk, count and write the room! Click here to see a detailed post on my initial place value lesson!
We even used some drawing to work on place value!
And finally we did some assessing. We did cut and paste and writing the number. Master achieved!
This week we learned the letter E and the two sounds of E. I totally forgot to take a picture of the completed circle map, but the words are: evil, excercise (that’s my pumping some iron…), Elmo, Easy Bake Oven, elbow, eat, egg, Elijah and elephant!
And of course there has to be a silly hat! Nothing like big elephant ears to kick off a Monday!
And finally, I have to share a major success story. Ya’ll know and love my buddy, “Fire Drill.” How can you not love someone who flees the building during a fire drill with flailing arms, screaming “it’s a fire!” and who isn’t afraid to express her frustrations in the form of crossed arms and “OH MY GAWD” statements!
Well, here it is. Day 93. And she was able to write her name for the very first time. This. is. why. we.teach. Test scores? Assessments? Evaluations? They all take a backseat to this.
BUT it doesn’t stop there. Watch this video.
When I met FD on day one, she could not tell me her name. I decided right then and there that she would be reading by the end of the year. Without fail, she has far exceeded that goal. Now our goal is to read on grade level by the end of the year.
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7 comments
Way to go!!! Your week looks like it rocked! Love the place value unit. .. my kiddos are doing surprisingly well with this concept too. I am def going to check out your TPT unit! Way to go to little FIRE DRILL!!!!!
Way to go!!! Your week looks like it rocked! Love the place value unit. .. my kiddos are doing surprisingly well with this concept too. I am def going to check out your TPT unit! Way to go to little FIRE DRILL!!!!!
Go Fire Drill, Go!!! That was terrific!
She is PRECIOUS!!!! You've done an amazing job!
Congrats on Fire Drill accomplishments! YES! that IS why we teach, especially Kinders….they love to learn! just curious..what were you going to do with the hand cut outs? we have a hand die cut and I'm always up to new ideas…I love your site and your attitude!
I love little Fire Drill and I love you for being such a caring teacher. You're lucky you found each other!
Woohoo, “Fire Drill”! I smiled as I watched that video as I've heard that book a few times this year.
Amanda
A Very Curious Class