November

I'm sorry, I have really been slacking with this blog. I was afraid when I started it that this might happen. My weekends have been very busy... But, better late than never!

A lot has happened in the last month. I had the opportunity to observe another Pre-K class in the district a couple of weeks ago, and I got some really great ideas from her. What really amazed me is that she doesn't assign the students to go to certain centers. She puts out a variety of centers and lets the kids choose what they want to do! I plan to try that with my students as soon as I get the extra materials that I requested from my campus. Stay tuned for whether or not it works for my classes!

We have covered so much in the past month that I feel it would be too much to take it all on, so I will just cover the things I remembered to take pictures of in the past week or two. Last Friday we had our school wide Vocabulary Parade. Here are my students wearing their headbands that they decorated. We had already walked through the school and were waiting on the older kids to come by. My friends did such a nice job walking in a line--I was so proud!

We also learned the letter D/d last week, and we made these cute D is for Duck crafts.

We also reached our 50th day of school this past Wednesday, so the kids dressed up as people from the 1950's. Look how stinking cute they are! I wish I had gotten the friend on the left's shoes in the picture--they were white dress shoes and his whole outfit was on point! However, the camera-lady was just 4 years old, so I can't expect too much of her.

I really feel like we are finally getting to the point that every Pre-K teacher has told me about--that wonderful time when all of the students know and meet my expectations 95% of the time, and we just get to play and learn together all day! And SOON SOON SOON we will finally have an aide in the room, which will be such a great help!


XO,
Mrs. G.

Fall is Here!

Hello, readers! I missed posting last week because Hubby and I went out of town last weekend to visit Birmingham for the first time since we moved away. It was very fun but I'm happy to be spending this weekend at home on my couch :)

This week in Pre-K we covered:  Our Emotions/Feelings, the letter "N," the number 4, and the shape rhombus (NOT a "diamond!").

For our emotions, we read The Way I Feel, How Do Dinosaurs Say, "I'm Mad!", and The Selfish Crocodile. We talked a lot about our feelings and what kinds of things make us feel certain ways. We also talked about how we can change other people's feelings based on how we act! We also learned what to do when we feel mad. Instead of yelling or throwing things, we should count to 10 and take a deep breath. 

We made our cute little letter N is for Night crafts. I love how they turned out!

 

My neighbor donated this cute dress up clothes that she found at the dollar store. The kids have loved wearing them at the dramatic play center! Aren't they so stinkin' cute?!

I also got this sweet gift on Friday from one of my morning friends.

I LOVE these chocolates, and getting something like this on a random Friday makes me feel so happy. I'm so grateful to these parents who thought of me!

Next week we will talk about the number 5, the letter S, and circles. The theme is Our Bodies. Parent/Teacher conferences are on Friday, which means that I will have ALL 43 kiddos in my room from 8:10-12:10. If I'm being totally honest, I'm pretty terrified about that!! It will work out though :)

Another week gone!

Happy Friday, everyone! This week was technically my first FULL week with my new Pre-K friends, because we only had a four days week last week after Labor Day. It was also Open House yesterday. Needless to say, I am VERY relieved to see the weekend!

This week in Pre-K our theme was "Playing Nicely Together." We were able to practice this very thoroughly at our stations, and the station that is best for learning how to play nicely is the dramatic play station. I can't tell you how much it saddens me that the primary grades are starting to do away with dramatic play opportunities. Even in Kindergarten it is considered frivolous to include some dramatic play on a daily basis, despite the huge amount of research supporting how beneficial dramatic play is for young learners' social and emotional development.

Anyway (rant over)... because the students in my class work in pairs, we have 10 stations total in our class. We can usually fit in about 4 or 5 stations, which means that each student gets to go to the dramatic play center at least twice per week. Yay for dramatic play!

M and A playing nicely together in the dramatic play area.

We also learned about the letter T, number 2, and triangles. We did the ABC mouse song for the letter T, which the kids absolutely loved. My morning class always asked me to play it for them again! We did a letter craft again this week: T is for Tree :)

I think they turned out really cute! I also got half of my donors choose project, dot markers, which I promptly used with practice for the number two. I got this cute activity from Miss Kindergarten on TpT.

As promised, here is a shot of our Bucket Fillers wall.

It's the perfect height for my little friends to put their "warm fuzzies" into.

Next week, our theme is "Who Am I?" In our class, we will be focusing on things we like, what we look like, and self-esteem. We will also be learning about the letter P, the number 3, and rectangles.

Thanks for reading!
-Mrs. G

This Week in Pre-K

This week in Pre-K, we started introducing the letters. We will do one letter each week until they know them all. I'm following the Neuhaus suggested order of introduction, so we started with the letter I/i. I LOVE the ABC mouse songs for the letters, so we started with that.

The kids loved it so much that they asked me to watch it over and over again! We practiced writing the letter Ii, we colored in the letter Ii, and we made this cute letter "I is for igloo" craft:

I precut all of the letter I's, the small white squares, and the "doors" for the igloos, and the kids developed their fine motor skills by gluing everything down. Aren't they cute?

This week we also focused on the theme of Friendship. We read my FAVORITE book for children, "How Full is your Bucket?" 

I love how this book makes it easy for children to understand what it means to be a good friend (aka: a "bucket filler.") I especially love how the book explains that when you fill others' buckets, you fill your own at the same time (because being kind to others makes you feel good!) I really can't say enough good things about this book. After we read the it, the children all decorated their own paper buckets, which I taped to plastic cups and attached to the wall. Now, when I catch a student being a bucket filler they get a "warm fuzzy" (a pom-pom) to put in their "bucket." I forgot to take a picture of our bucket filler wall, but I will definitely add one later! It's such an effective way to teach kindness and friendship, and they LOVE getting warm fuzzies.

This week I also introduced the number 1 and the square shape. We sang the song, 

"A square is like a box, 

A square is like a box,

It has four sides,

They're all the same,

A square is like a box" (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)

While we sang, we drew squares in the air.  They loved it!

We had so much fun together this week, and I can't wait to do it all over again next week! Next week we will be focusing on the letter Tt, the number 2, and Triangles. Thanks for reading!

David Goes to School

My goodness! What a week. With the help of some very generous people, I managed to get my classroom packed, moved, unpacked, and set up again in just two days. I met all 42 of my new little friends and we got started together on Wednesday. Let me just say that I am incredibly grateful that we have a three day weekend ahead!

This week my mission was the get the students to start to understand some of my expectations for them. I read David Goes to School by David Shannon every day that I taught. That's right, every day. Repeated shared readings are excellent for 4-year-olds, because as they become familiar with the story, they can "read" the words with me! This helps them develop some early concepts of print. Plus, it helps them remember the moral of the story. We also made these cute David Goes to School crafts, which let me get a glimpse into their fine motor skills, their ability to listen to and follow directions, and whether or not they were familiar with scissors. So many discoveries from this one project! 

K. using her scissor skills to cut the stripes for David's shirt.

T. showing off his fine motor skills by drawing a mouth on his David.

Final product:)

And now...this lady is off to bed.

When Things Don't Go According to Plan

Wow, what a crazy first week of school! The first week is always crazy, but this one will go down in the record books...

I spent the first four days of this school year with a wonderful class of 17 kindergarteners. We got along splendidly and by the end of that first day, I already loved each one of them with all of my heart. We learned our routines and expectations, and I got a feel for their different personalities. I kept thinking how lucky I was for having such a great class!

Then Friday came. I found out Friday morning that the powers-at-be decided to cut a Kindergarten teacher. Of course, they cut the newest member of the team. Since I moved schools this year, that lucky person is me. In the past, the policy was that the newest teacher to the entire school would be displaced to another school, and then the teacher whose grade level was affected would be moved into that newly opened spot. Evidently that policy changed this year, so that movements like this affect as few people as possible. While that makes sense for the sake of the children, I feel that it will discourage teachers to ever move grade levels or schools, because seniority on your specific team is the only way to guarantee that you won't be moved to another campus.

Anyway, I am being moved to teach Pre-K at a Title 1 campus. I am honestly a little afraid of Pre-K--they are just so little! But I'm also excited for the opportunity. This situation has really been the result of a perfect storm of events. If I hadn't switched schools, or if I had stayed in First Grade (which is what I originally signed on for), or if the Kindergarten class had just had 5 more students, I would not have been displaced. So, I'm going to believe that teaching Pre-K at this other school is exactly where I'm supposed to be!

I get two days to move. Tomorrow I will help my Kinder friends transition to their new classes, and spend the rest of the day packing up my things. Tuesday, I will be provided with a moving truck and some movers, who will take my things to my new school. I'll spend all of Tuesday setting up, and then I'll start teaching my new classes on Wednesday! After having some time to get used to the idea, I'm actually kind of excited to get going!

Snack time with my short-lived Kindergarten class. I will miss them!

Classroom Reveal

I cannot believe that the kids come on Monday! I had so much fun meeting most of my students at Meet the Teacher on Thursday. I can tell that I am going to have a very sweet class this year!

I redid my classroom decor again this year (I swear, this is the last time!). I went with BRIGHT colors, and I am pretty excited about how it turned out! (Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

My mom is making me some curtains as well (they should be arriving today!) so I will have to add an updated picture later.

I got these adorable posters from Deanna Jump. Check out her TpT store here. I also got that adorable chaise from a neighbor of mine, and another fabulous neighbor donated the picture frames and the white board. My plan for the Author's Table is to hang three choices for writing (I will add more as the year goes on) and put the corresponding papers in the drawers below the table. You can read more about the writing station I created in this post from July!

My wonderful husband did my Word Wall. I knew the engineer in him would make the lines perfectly even and straight, and he did not disappoint!

So what do you think? I'd say it is a HUGE improvement over my classroom from my first year...Don't you think? ;)

First year classroom--I've come a long way!

Rustoleum Door Handles-DIY

Guys. I leave for Zambia TODAY. In less than 7 hours, the mister and I will be on our merry way to Dubai, where we will stay overnight, and then onto Lusaka the following morning (which will be Sunday already!) But, before we go, I wanted to show off my latest DIY in the Gomez house. I know it's not teaching-related, but part of being a teacher is taking full advantage of summer time--which for me means updating our house!

One thing I have always hated about this house is gold EVERYTHING. The faucets are all gold, door handles, toilet paper rolls, towel racks, mirror edges, you name it... GOLD. It is so very '92. After more than two years in the house, I have finally started to do something about it.

Obviously, it costs a fortune to replace all of those things with more updated versions. Being a teacher, I don't exactly have a fortune to spend! So I gave Rustoleum a try. I have read online that it is pretty durable, inexpensive, and looks good to boot. 

 Here is a "before" shot. See how awful they were? Not only were they gold, they were all scratched, and whoever painted the door got paint all over the handles.

The process was pretty easy. I just took out the handles, sanded them down (that was the worst part), stuck them in this little flower holder from Joanne's, and gave them about 2-3 coats of Rustoleum (I used he Oil Rubbed Bronze color). I only had to wait around 30 minutes for each layer to dry. 

 

As you can see, I did it in our garage. A garage in Texas summertime heat is no joke, even with the door open. But the smell of Rustoleum is so overwhelming that there was no way I could do it inside.

Anyway, here is the finished product:

I think it's a huge improvement. It's hard to tell, but it has this interesting matte-but-shiny-at-the-same-time finish. I only had time to do the handles on all of the downstairs doors. When we come back, I will do the upstairs door handles, as well as all of the toilet paper holders and towel racks. If I'm feeling very brave, I might even try to tape our glass shower up and do all of the edges of that too. Look at me being domestic.

Anyway, thank you for reading. I'm off to wrap my pack in saran wrap:)

Love,

Mrs. G

P.S. I will report back in a few months on how durable they actually are!

Reading Comprehension

Hubs and I are leaving for Zambia in 5 days!!! I can't believe it's almost here! In anticipation of not being around a computer for 2 weeks, I have been a busy bee making everything I think I might need for the beginning of the school year. 

 One of the major things we cover during the first grading period in reading is comprehension. We want our kiddos to be able to identify the characters, setting, problem and solution. We also want them to be able to make connections to what they are reading, and be able to retell the important events. With that in mind, I created some printables that would be great to use either in center activities or with small reading groups.

I also created these cute little posters to hang on the wall of our reading corner. I made one for characters (shown below), setting, problem, and solution. I also made posters for the different types of connections that readers can have (text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.)

So, what do you think? I will probably be adding more to the packet as time goes on, but for now there are 20 worksheets available, along with seven posters. If you would like to see more, please visit my TpT page for the full preview!

Thanks for reading--I'm off to write up our itinerary! AHH!

Writing Center

First things first....

Happy 4th of July!

Now, onto business. My second mission for this summer was to design a meaningful, interactive writing center that I could use all year. I wanted the kids to have a choice in what they wrote, whom they wrote it to, and what form they wrote in. Over the past week, I have created my Ultimate Writing Center. I think it has everything I need for my First Graders to be engaged all year long!

First, I set up different cue cards for them to choose what type of writing they want to do. They can choose from List It, Prompt Me, Letter Writing, Book Making, Poetry, or Write About It.

Once they have chosen the type of writing they want to do, they can choose from the idea cards I have created to help them decide WHAT to write. For each month, I have created three different ideas for them if they are stuck. Of course, they can always choose to wing it and write what they feel like writing!

Here is one of the sets of cards from December.

Here is one of the sets of cards from April.

As you can see, the different months have ideas that are related to events that happen during that month.

In addition to the cue cards, I have also created ALL of the handouts that you will need! Many of these can be used with Lakeshore's Dry Erase Pockets, which will save you lots of copies if you have a limited amount.

 Here are a few more samples. If you are interested in seeing more, please visit my TpT store. I will upload images of my future kids using the station as soon as I have kids to take pictures of!

Thanks for reading!

-Mrs. G

Welcome!

Hello!

I am Mrs. Gomez--welcome to my blog! I have taught Kindergarten in the past, but this year I will be starting an all-new adventure in First Grade!

There were many things that I wanted to make this summer to make my classroom great. My first mission was to create signs to go along with my Reading Buddies. 

Reading Buddies are something that I started last year, thanks to an idea from a friend of mine. The idea was simple: Assign a stuffed animal (I used Beanie Babies) to a reading strategy. When a student got stuck on a word, they tried one of the strategies we had learned while holding the animal that represented the strategy. Here are some of my strategy-animal match ups:

There are many more too! I am excited to have the signs to go along with the animals. I plan to print them on card stock, laminate them, and bind them together. Then I will just put them in a bin with the animals themselves!

My kids last year LOVED these. (I wish I had thought to take pictures of them in use!) I think it really helped the students think about the different strategies they could use to help them solve a word. I think it prevented them from just giving up because they wanted to be able to hold more animals. Now that I am moving into First Grade, I am excited to add more animals/strategies that would be age appropriate for them.

The great thing about these is that they can easily be changed to suit the unique needs of your classroom. If you don't have the exact stuffed animals that I have, you can also get creative with the animal names as well. For example, "Changer, the Chameleon" used to be "Flipper, the Dolphin" until Flipper was tragically taken out of the game (R.I.P., Flipper.)

I put the fully editable powerpoint up in my TpT store for FREE, so you can download it there and edit as you need!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more of my summer work!