Love Notes Link Up

                                                         Amy at "Literacy and Laughter"
                                                                   is having a linky!

                          

Name: Ann

Grade you Teach: Kindergarten 

State: North Carolina

Birthday: February 29 -- no birthday this year

Favorite Colors: Red and blue

Lucky Number: 13 -- met my husband on Friday the 13th

Favorite Subject to Teach: Literacy!!

Go to Snack: Trying to make it bananas or apples -- but Lindt Truffles call...

TV Show: NCIS

  Last Movie You Watched: March of the Penguins

  Music You are Loving Right Now: "10,000 Reasons" and "The Song Has Ended"

Always shopping at: Wal-mart and Dollar Tree and ..."Teachers Pay Teachers"

  Word of the day: Snow?

“Love Links”

share links to…

                             a blog you are loving right now: 

                              Heidi is one of many that I love...

 Going to see her at a conference in NC in a couple weeks -- so excited!!

More things I love...

What do I love doing in my free time?

Sing with my Carolina Style Chorus barbershop buddies,

Go to church,

And read other teacher blogs -- there is no other free time!

Favorite vacation spot?

Bar Harbor, Maine and Charleston, South Carolina are the places we have loved in the past few years.  We also had a great time in Pennsylvania Amish country a few years ago, and San Antonio was fun, too. When we lived in Germany, our favorite places were Holland and Switzerland.

Beautiful Maine

Charleston

And the loves of my life --

                           My son-in-law and my 3 children give me so much joy --

and the best show-and-tell ever --- my husband of 38 years, Sam --

He's retired now, after serving 25 years as  helicopter pilot in the Army.  We met on a mission trip right before he went to Viet Nam.  He always comes to school on Veteran's Day.
Here's a Animoto video I made for our anniversary
Happy Anniversary 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

I also love teaching kindergarten -- here is the door to the magical place where my babies learn to read and write and turn into first graders...

(Daily) Five for Friday

                                             I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching
                           to post a few random pictures from this week in my kindergarten.

 1. The Daily 5 routines are making life so much easier for me!  I have about a half dozen laundry baskets that help them choose a good location and stay in one spot to read -- they have built a lot of stamina by now so I can work with reading/intervention groups for a good chunk of time.

2. I am finally getting the Word Work activities going -- with some independent work.  These girls are spelling their sight words with wikki stix.

3. I made a "BAM " game for each child with their individual sight words.  These 2 are playing the game -- much more fun than flash cards!  They also take the cards home to play with their parents, hopefully.

4.  Some of my kinders discovered my stash of "How to Draw" books, and have really enjoyed learning to draw pictures on their own.  This week I asked them to write a sentence or two about the picture they drew -- The Work on Writing piece of Daily 5 is now in session.  I especially love the fact that they took the initiative to start working on this without my instruction.

5. We celebrated the 100th day this week, and I made 100 pancakes, just like the wolf in "The Wolf's Chicken Stew." They loved the book -- and the pancakes!

We had an icy weather event this morning -- school was cancelled at the last minute and we were all sent home.  I got back home at 8:45 this morning -- best "snow day" ever!  Gave me time to work on school stuff and actually cook a Pinterest inspired supper, and still have time for a long nap!



                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Doodle Bugs Teaching

100 Days of Kindergarten

 One hundred days -- Hooray!! What fun we had celebrating today! It was fun to take a day off from the regular routine and celebrate our accomplishments.  Look at some of the great collections they brought it this year.

                                 We made hats -- the girls were happy to model their creations.

                                          Something new this year -- building with 100 red solo cups.
                                         This was my favorite activity -- lots of belly laughs!

                                          And our other favorite part -- a 100 piece snack!



        We ran out of time -- and no one was very hungry after all that, so we will save the 100 pancakes until tomorrow.  I read "The Wolf''s Chicken Stew" and we made a connection to the "Three Pigs"and expanded vocabulary to include "craving" and "scrumptious" -- and they burst into spontaneous applause at the end of the story.
      Now tell me -- in how many professions -- other than acting and professional sports -- can you get applause on a regular basis?  I love my job!!
                                        

Going and Going!

 Another week of trying to do assessments every time I can squeeze them in -- I am about tired of doing assessments!!  I just want to teach!  But they have to be done by the 25th, so the end is in sight!!
  Today I called a little boy over to do the reading assessment, and he took a look at the book and said, "I can't do it'"  After words of encouragement he started, then picked up speed as he realized that he COULD do it.  He spread his arms and said "I don't know what happened -- but I can go and go!!" I explained that it was a good fit book -- and that he should always choose good fit books !  I love it when it clicks for a kid -- and they realize that they can go and go -- and read!
   The 100th day of school celebration has been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday, since we had a snow day today. That's really good news for me, because my assistant, "Mrs. Awesome", has an appointment and wasn't going to be there that day. The bad news is that we have to go to school on Saturday to make up the snow day -- major bummer!!
   Anyway, I've been thinking about all the things we have done in the past -- and eliminating some because it's just too hard with 26 kids.  We have the hats ready -- I borrowed this picture from Pinterest since I forgot to take a picture of mine.  "Mrs. Awesome" made them.

 I have my copy of my favorite 100 day book -- The Wolf's Chicken Stew.  It's about a wolf who is trying to fatten up a chicken by feeding her 100 treats every day.  I plan to take my griddle and make 100 mini pancakes to feed my little chicks.  They always LOVE that.

  And of course, I will read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day. 

   And, like the book, we will make a paper chain with 100 links, build things with 100 blocks or Legos, and write about what we would buy with $100.  We will probably hunt for 100 chocolate kisses to put on the 100 chart and write numbers to 100.  And I will check out the ideas I have on my Pinterest board and look at TPT for some fresh ideas.  But that is part of the fun with kindergarten -- ALL the ideas are new to them!
   And after all the fun -- there are only 80 days left to get ready for first grade!

I'm On My Way

    "Got a dream, got a song..."  that song has been echoing in my head today as I think about going back for the second semester of kindergarten.  Another part of the song says, "When will we be there?  I don't know... all I know is I am on my way!" It's the time of year when I usually see so much growth in reading and writing.  My goal is always to get every child to "benchmark" -- that magic score that means they are on track for first grade.  When will we be there?  I don't know. But as I am getting report cards ready, I am seeing signs that we really are on the way!!
    (As a barbershop singer, most of the songs in my head are in 4-part harmony, barbershop style -- here's what this one sounds like.)

    "Got a dream" also reminds me of all that we need to squeeze in this month.  The 100th day and the celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. both come at the same time.  I always do my favorite unit about penguins in January, too.  We also have a field trip next week,  and DIBELS assessments that have to be done by Jan. 25. I'm starting to feel a little stressed!

   I was reminded by Kelly Mikesell in her post today about the importance of reviewing all the procedures and routines -- so add that to the plans for Monday. I really want to get my Daily 5 up and running again, and I plan to get the "Read to Someone" part working better by teaching the

"Powerful Partnership" guided reading unit I bought from TPT.  I have been blessed with a partnership with some 2nd grade reading buddies this year, and I want to teach them how to talk about the books they read with their buddy -- thanks to common core requirements, they need to be able to do more than just read fluently and accurately, but also "with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text."
    I've got a dream -- a dream that everyone will come back ready to learn -- and listen -- and that I will be able to see great progress.  I hope it is more than just a dream!!  
    

Quiet Heroism and Acts of Kindness

As I sat down to write a blog tonight -- not about the sadness or difficulty of the week, but thankfulness for the people I work with, the volunteers, the children -- acts of kindness that touch my heart -- I found this column from the Charlotte Observer.  The columnist, teacher Kay McSpadden, said it so much better than I could -- so here is her column.

Quiet heroism in schools daily

By Kay McSpadden
Special to the Observer

Posted: Friday, Dec. 21, 2012

About the shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary…
I don’t want to talk about gun control or about our attitude in this country about guns and ownership.
And I don’t want to talk about the difficulty of getting good mental health services for suffering people – or even about the stigma and expense involved because our health care system has failed us.
I don’t want to talk about how schools in this country have changed since Columbine – how we practice lockdown every month, how armed resource officers are a normal part of the staff, how new schools are designed to keep visitors out, observed, recorded.
And I certainly don’t want to talk about the grand act of heroism of the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary who reportedly confronted the shooter, or the teacher who hid her young students and then lied about where they were before she was killed.
I don’t want to talk about that sort of heroism – the kind few of us are ever called on to witness, much less emulate. I can’t bear to talk about any of those things right now. Later, when the shock and immediate anguish have softened, we’ll talk then.
Right now I want to talk about the quiet kind of heroism that I see every day when I go to work at a public high school in America.
I want to talk about the first people on our campus every morning, the cafeteria staff who arrive in the dark to start breakfast. In my school district, almost two-thirds of our students live below the poverty level, qualifying them for either a reduced price meal or a free one.
Every time I write about the meal program, readers complain that feeding children is a parent’s responsibility, that some people are using the program fraudulently. I’m not going to talk about that now. What I want to say is that no criticism, justified or not, truthful or misinformed, takes away from the quiet heroism of the cafeteria workers who feed hungry children.
I want to tell you about the custodians, the people who get to school before I do and who are still there when I leave. The custodian who cleans my classroom clears the trash and vacuums the carpet, wipes down the desks with disinfectant, polishes the windows – and then she cleans the hall bathrooms and water fountains before moving to another classroom, and another and another. My school is cleaner than my house because of her daily heroism.
I want to talk about the school bus drivers who pick up their first students before 6 a.m. The rural district where I work is so large, so spread out, so poor, that half our students ride the bus, even to high school. Of all the jobs I can think of doing, getting up before dawn to warm up a drafty bus and then driving a load of noisy students isn’t something I would choose.
The secretaries and bookkeepers and registrars and attendance officers are my heroes, too – the way they juggle the needs of the many with dignity and patience, the way the school cannot function without them.
And the guidance counselors and media specialists and resource officers and principals and aides and coaches – watchful shepherds and surrogate parents who joke and tease and advise and worry about our students – they are unsung heroes, too.
Every teacher is a hero to some child. The teachers I know speak of their students in the possessive – “my students, my kids, my class” – not rhetorically but genuinely, giving them gifts of time and care both in the classroom and beyond, opening up the world to them, handing them tools for making their way in it later on their own.
And I want to talk about the quiet heroism of the students themselves, students I know who woke up cold this morning in an empty apartment and got themselves and younger siblings ready for school, who caught a bus at 5:55 a.m. and rode more than an hour to eat a warm breakfast in a crowded cafeteria, heading to a long day of English and math and art and history and science and marketing and computer teachers telling them that they can do it, that even when no one else believes in them the teachers do – and so do the principals and guidance counselors, as do all the adults at the school. These people perform deeds of quiet heroism, without question, today and tomorrow and the day after that.
That’s what I want to talk about now – the small acts I witness every day – because the larger sacrifices are too new, too wrenching, too horribly familiar to bear the weight of words just yet. That’s because those of us who care about our children have lost our voices to grief.

Guest columnist Kay McSpadden is author of “Notes from a Classroom: Reflections on Teaching.” Write her at kmcspadden@comporium.net.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/21/3741500/quiet-heroism-in-schools-daily.html#storylink=cpy

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Tragedy in Connecticut

   

 I have been so disturbed today by the news of another school shooting.  This one seems worst of all, because it involved a kindergarten teacher and her class.  Ever since I started blogging, I have felt a connection to other kindergarten teachers around the world . We share ideas and plans and problems and solutions -- sometimes taking a peek into each others classrooms and lives. I think that is part of the reason why this has touched me more than usual.  My first thought was -- I wonder if she is on my blog list?  And I have pictured how incredibly horrible it would have been to see your son at your classroom door with a gun, shooting at all the little ones in your care. I can't even image, really -- but my heart goes out to all those involved in this great tragedy.  It is so very, very sad.

The Great Gingerbread Exchange of 2012

 I was lucky enough to get in on the gingerbread exchange with Mrs. Parker from "Learning with Mrs. Parker" this year, and it has been so exciting to see the envelopes in my box at school.  I haven't received all of them yet, but I will go ahead and share our bulletin board full of gingerbread people.  We got one today from Germany, dressed in camouflage, from a classroom of military kids -- I will try to get it up tomorrow.

We especially have enjoyed the ones with letters enclosed.  One letter today said that their favorite story was the one that said."Run, run, as fast as you can -- you can't catch me -- I'm the Gingerbread Man!" One of my kids said, "Hey, that's our favorite , too!" 

                                           They are coming from all across the country. 

                                      The cowboy from Texas was one of the favorites

                       We still have room to squeeze in a few more -- this has been so much fun!!

12 in '12 Linky Party

Lesson plans are written, and not time to go to bed yet -- so I'm taking time to join a Linky Party!!

 

Click here to find out about the
12 in '12 Linky Party

                                               And here are 12 favorite things from 2012!

12. Favorite movie you watched:

Didn't go to the movies at all this year, but I enjoyed a video series we did at church called "Not a Fan"  -- about being a follower of Christ. 

11. Favorite TV series:

NCIS -- I'd rather watch NCIS reruns than about anything else on TV. But I admit I have to look away sometimes on the gross autopsy parts.

10. Favorite restaurant:

When my daughter and I were in Denver, Colorado last month, we went to a little place called "Corner Bakery" for breakfast 3 or 4 times -- very yummy panini there.

9. Favorite new thing you tried:

Getting up early to have some quiet time before going to school -- reading "Jesus Calling" and drinking my "green monster" smoothie.

8. Favorite gift you got:

My Kindle Fire -- wish I had about 6 of them for my kinderkids to use for reading all the free books I have downloaded. I also like my i-pad furnished by the school -- but I still have a LOT to learn.

7. Favorite thing you pinned:

My book barn that my husband built after looking at the one on Reagan Tunstall's blog.

6. Favorite blog post:
First Day of Kindergarten because over 600 people actually looked at it!!

5. Best accomplishment:
It's a tie -- getting every kid in my class to benchmark scores at the end of the school year was my best professional accomplishment.  But getting to perform on the international stage with my Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus was a dream come true! And having over 10,000 page views on my little blog is just plain amazing.

4. Favorite picture:

Picture of my sweet husband at the Isle of Palms this summer

3. Favorite memory:
Vacation in Charleston, SC with my family

2. Goal for 2013:
Same goals I have every year -- lose weight and get more organized -- and one new one: start leaving the school earlier than 5:00!

1. One Little Word:
Blessed!

Gingerbread in Disguise

      I bought this great activity from  Mrs. Miner last weekend, and I am loving the gingerbread men in disguise that my kinders have brought in this week!

                                    My assistant made a bulletin board in the hall to show them off.
                                                 Here are some close-ups of some of them

                                                              So many creative ideas!!
I am also doing an exchange with other classrooms, and we have already received Gingerbread boys and girls, from NC, California, Maryland, Texas, and Michigan.  I will post pictures of that bulletin board soon.