Out of the mouth of babes...

You never know what you will hear in a Kindergarten classroom.  Yesterday one of the Kinders asked "Are we going to practice our 'APPLEBITS' today?"    Another Kinder asked, "When are we going to do our 'FOX IN PHONICS'?"  We work on our alphabet and Saxon Phonic everyday.  I am sure I will never get tried of hearing about applebits and fox in phonics because it makes me smile everytime.  I wonder what I will hear tomorrow?  I love Kindergarten!

Teaching Manners and Expectations

My Kinder Kats Rock big time!  I am in awe of their progress and successes in the short amount of time we have been together.  In less than a month, they have grown as a Kinder family and are making academic progress.  We are setting routines, making new friends and learning so much already.  In other words, they are buying what I am selling!  Woot! Woot!

Teaching good listening behaviors is at the top of my list of important skills.  So I went searching for resources.  I found the most amazing unit to help my Kinder Kats become awesome listeners it is called  Monster Fun, Teaching Manners and Expectations by K. Pedersen at Growing Kinders. You can find it at Teachers Pay Teachers for FREE.  I am impressed at how my kinders are really making a connection with these posters.  I have tried may different ways to teach good listening skills over the years but none with this impressive of a result so quickly.  Included are little posters to explain each body part and how it looks when you listen.  My Kinders are even able to recite the statements on their own.  We go over the cards together the first thing every morning.  It is also helping them with behavior choices.  Am I in Kinder Heaven or what?  Thank you Growing Kinders for the time and
effort you put into this and thanks for sharing. 

My KinderKats on Broadway

Today we acted out/retold the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We made a wooden bridge from our little wooden chairs. Everyone got to play their favorite character.  My KinderKats thought they were on Broadway. The performances they gave were outstanding. We laughed and laughed at all the funny voices.

A FUN and so 'Kinder' activity.

We also started our Daily 5, Read To Self practice this week and I am impressed. We will surely become great readers. We are also learning about the ABC's. We are enjoying lots of fun activities like the name cheers for each letter, hide and seek letters and ABC notebook to name a few. We will be having our ABC party in two weeks to celebrate. We are slowly learning about our class calendar. My little KinderKats look forward to the brain breaks that we take because they are loving the parmethan board and all the awesome You Tube songs that we now have available to us.   We have really enjoyed the Patty Shukla STOP song and this version of STOP too, both are awesome.  Patty's musical freeze song,  incorporates spelling the word "S.T.O.P". This song is on Patty's 1st CD "Play With Me, Sing Along!" and the new video version of this song is on her 1st DVD "Musical PE For You & Me"  My Kinders love all her stuff.  

First of all I want to thank all of you who have viewed my blog and those who have become followers.  I will in the very near future be responding back to each and everyone of you.  So sorry for the nonactivity on my blog.  I have been on the back to school merry go round for a couple weeks now.  It has been great but so time consuming as you all know very well.  I have a new class of 17 awesome KinderKats and I am falling for each and every one of them already.  We are having some great fun.  I will share some of the back to school activities that we have done later.

I wanted to mention one of the activities that my district sponsored during one of our inservice days before school began.  We participated in a community action proverty simulation.  The Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) is a unique tool that community action agencies are able to use to educate everyone, from policy makers to local community leaders, about the day to day realities of life with a shortage of money and an abundance of stress. CAPS is a copyrighted tool made available by the Missouri Association for Community Action to organizations that want to promote a greater understanding of poverty. During a simulation, participants role-play the lives of low-income families, from single parents trying to care for their children to senior citizens trying to maintain their self sufficiency on Social Security. The task of each family is to provide food, shelter and other basic necessities during the simulation while interacting with various community resources staffed by low-income volunteers.

This simulation is very powerful.  I would like to encourage everyone to check it out.  You will be glad you did.  I am hoping the link above will work.  If you have trouble let me know.

Taking back the FUN in Kinder!

 Sight Word Parking Lot

Photo Source:  www.jugglingwithkids.com

This is one way I plan on taking back the FUN in Kindergarten!   My little Kinder Stars will love this activity.  This is going into my Daily 5 word work center.  Keep it simple like the photo or go all out if you are feeling creative.  Either way I am sure this will be a hit.  All you need is poster board, something to draw with and a collection of Trains, Planes and Automoblies.  tee hee  When drawing and labeling the parking spots for this activity consider using both sides of the poster board. One side could be used for sight words and the other side for word families.  This activity lends itself to uppercase, lowercase ABC's, numbers, sight words, rhyming, sounds, addition and subtraction practice to name a few.  So pull out those flash cards; on your mark, get set, GO!

Kayla says, "Nothing is better than combining play with learning!"  I agree!

From Kindergarten Lesson Plans by Kayla Johnson and Akane at Juggling With Kids.

O.K. here goes my first official ‘teacher’ post.

So... what could be better than a smiley sticker on your paper?
I say, NOTHING could be better if you are a kindergartner!

While blog stalking today I came upon Ms. Schatz's blog, How About Them Apples http://schatzskindergarten.blogspot.com/, which by the way, your title is so clever. This then lead me to Mrs. Shelton's blog, Kindergarten Korner  http://kentuckykindergartenkorner.blogspot.com/.
There I found this awesome idea she calls, Did It Dots. Mrs. Shelton uses smiley stickers to reinforce following 5 writing rules. Check it out you will be glad you did.
http://kentuckykindergartenkorner.blogspot.com/2012/07/did-it-dots.html

 I am certain many of you are familiar with this book.  It has become along with my many kinder kats the inspiration for my blogspot.  I will, no doubt, refer to it often in my blog journey.  I received this book as a gift in the late 1980's  from a friend that I taught Kindergarten with many, many years ago. Little did I know that this book would speak to me in ways that are beyond words. I truly love the thought that this journey I am taking will in a funny way include an old friend that I have never forgotten and learned so much from. Thank you old friend!  Let the fun begin!