Adjustments

I can't quite get into a groove with my Christmas ideas. Everything I try, doesn't go how I originally want it to. For example...... A few weeks ago, Mrs. Greca and I decided that we were going to have the kiddos decorate stockings to hang in the hallway. So this past Thursday, I planned to decorate stockings. I put out all kinds of decorating tools for the kids to use. Things like pompoms, pipe cleaners, feathers, foam stickers,  markers, crayons, glitter glue, etc. I let them pick the color of paper they wanted as well as what stocking tracer (there was a standard stocking and a stocking with a curled toe...very cute, Thank you Mrs. Augustine!...) they wanted. HOLY HOLY HANNAH. THEY TURNED OUT AWFUL. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but they were HORRIBLE. They looked like garbage. Elmers glue was everywhere. They scribbled all over them to fill the space. The glitter glue resembled seagull poo because they didn't have the motor control to squeeze it. It was just a disaster. At first, I felt like my students let me down, that they didn't try hard enough, or take it seriously. I wasn't sure what it was, but I left Thursday pretty annoyed. As I thought about it during the next 15 hours, I realized I had NO RIGHT to be upset with the performance of my students. ZERO. I set them up for that, for failure, but I wasn't exactly sure how. I gave them the necessary tools and pretty thorough instruction time. During the morning on Friday, it hit me. They are five. They came only handle so much at a time. They aren't ready for open ended jobs. I told them how to use the glue, the markers, etc...but I have never showed them or taught them what it looks like to have a "free explore" with something so open ended. They couldn't handle the freedom of being able to use whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted. They needed more structure with the assignment, and that's EXACTLY where I failed as a teacher. Now granted, they thought it was completely and totally sweet that they could do whatever they wanted, but they really couldn't produce anything successful or worthwhile. On Friday, we redid they whole thing. I still let them pick color and type, but they were limited to materials. They had markers and foam stickers. Now I look at that setup and still think I'm doing them a disservice. Only markers and foam stickers? Seriously. How boring. But, we are working together on finding a good groove and appropriate activities that fit what they can do and what I want the end result to be. Of course only having two materials to choose from wasn't as fun as an open ended assignment, but they were successful. And THAT'S what it is all about. So, I'm sorry Room 111. You will have to forgive me. We are all learning here!

'Tis the Season!

I went to school today for way too long (5 hours..) to prepare for Christmas themes and the next three weeks before vacation. Since Thanksgiving seemed to be "early" this year, there were four weeks until Christmas after that break (now there is three). It seemed too early last week to start getting into Christmas things, so I tried to avoid the subject. Today, I met up with Erika and we planned Christmas! I am so excited for all the cute things we are doing. I find that planning takes way, way more energy and time than I could ever imagine. It is really not just "planning". You have to decide where you want to put things, what order you want to do things in, what you have to send to the copy center, what you can copy at school, what you need your parapro to prep, how you want her/him to prep the work, what you need to quickly prepare for possibly the next day, etc... It really isn't just a "let's do this at this time" or "we will do this then". This is when being a first year teacher kind of stinks. I really have a blank slate to work with. I can't go to my files and pull out everything I did at this time of year last year....because there wasn't a last year for my teaching career. This is just how to goes! You got to start somewhere! I also decorated slightly for the season. I put up a little, fat Christmas tree in my room. Yes, a Christmas tree in my classroom. I can't wait to see my kiddos' faces when they see it tomorrow morning....or if we happen to receive a letter from Santa, himself!

How fast the time went!

HOLY MOLY! I was warned, but there was no way someone could prepare me for how fast this time of year goes by. I feel like Halloween was just yesterday, but December is TOMORROW!! EKK!! I apologize to my "followers" since I have not posted in quite awhile! November was the fastest month ever! We had a fun time preparing ourselves for Thanksgiving. We read a lot of books and talked about what it means to be thankful. We had a great time making all kinds of Thanksgiving things. We only had two day of school last week, but they were packed with excitement. We made Pilgrim boy hats, Pilgrim girl hats and Native American Headbands. We pushed all of the table together in a straight line and had ourselves a Thanksgiving feast (while wearing hats &/or headbands). Our feast was a lovely plate of graham crackers and pretzels. YUM!

French Toast

(FYI, Student #1 and Student #2 are twins)

 

Student #1:  “Hey, Mom, can you help me? WHOOPS! I mean Miss Sinnott.”

Me: “What did you just call me?!”

Student #1 (laughing): “Mom!”

Student #2: “Yeah, Miss Sinnott, he called you mom because he ate french toast for breakfast.”

 

I laughed about this for hours!!!!! Who know that eating french toast for breakfast causes you to call your teacher "Mom"!?

Preparing for Conferences and Progress Reports

Well, that time of the year is here...and I don't mean Christmas. I'm talking about progress reports. It isn't so bad if you enjoying poking your own eye with a stick. GOODNESS. I enjoy my students so much, but doing 21 one-on-one sessions to record letter awareness is enough to make me go crazy. We evaluate letter regonition four times a year. The letters are printed on cardstock and cut out into flash cards. The students are required to tell the name of the letter and it is recorded. Now, I played tennis in high school and piano growing up, so I like to think that I have pretty decent hand-eye coordination, but boy was I wrong. I had the hardest time trying to record correct & incorrect answers and flip flashcards. It was hilarous. Eh, I guess it is just first year teacher problems. If that's one of my biggest concerns this year, I'll take it! Anyways, I evaluated in September and then again at the beginning of November. I have to say that I am very impressed as ALL of my students improved. YAY!  Parent Teacher Conferences are this week. I had some last night and some tomorrow night. I've meet my students' parents before at Open House and the Halloween Party, but it was really great to chat for 15 minutes one-on-one, show them some work samples, and thank them for sharing their child with me. One night down, one night to go!

Happy Halloween!

 
It's a bird....It's a plane...It's...
 

 

A Bucket Filling Superhero!

SUPERRRRR LISTENINGGGGG!!!

 

 The DK Team!

 

Halloween Time FRIENDS!

Everyone loves a good quality pumpkin patch!

I gave my students orange paper, black scrap paper, scissors, and glue sticks. Very cute.

I will admit it. I went a little Halloween decor crazy. I just couldn't help myself. I kept thinking of all kinds of things to do!! Halloween is here!

Flutter, Flutter Little Bat,

How I wonder where you're at.

Swooping through the darkest night,

You find your way without a light.

Flutter, Flutter Little Bat,

How I wonder where you're at!

Haunted Houses.........

We also did a Pin Poke Cat. Such a classic. The cat was traced on black paper with a white colored pencil. The students used push pins to follow the lines and "cut it out". Oh and tear paper pumpkins with a Mod Podge coating.

Happy Halloween from Room 111!

Michigan vs Michigan State

I put this up on Thursday morning and by Friday afternoon it was COVERED with signatures. My students loved it. Miss Sinnott loved the outcome of the game. Win, Win.(Note: My lovely, awesome 5th grade helpers took my idea and made it happen on my door. Thanks girls!)

Clifford Day

For "C" week, we celebrated Clifford Day. Yes, celebrated. We spent the whole day in Clifford mode. Needless to say, it was adorable, but I'm glad it only happens once a year. We read Clifford books, created paper Cliffords, made Clifford headbands, and ate "dog food" for snack. It was a fun day! I wish I could show the pictures of the students with their headbands on...it was too precious!

We put the dogs in the hallways for decoration for a few days.

Snack was Reeses Puffs cereal. As I sit here and reflect, I think of how crazy that day was....and well, it is no wonder they were so hyper about Clifford Day...I fed right into their excitement. Who creates personalized dog "bowls" for their students? This girl.

Oh. I love my job.

It has been almost two weeks!

OH YIKES! It has been so long since I last posted! I have a good reason. I promise. For some reason, the last two weeks, I have been EXHAUSTED! I don't know if the excitement of the first weeks of school has passed, or if my classroom is taking more energy from me, or what the issue is! I have a lot to catch up on...stay tuned...I will do it tonight after school. PROMISE.

Acorn HOUR

We had a lovely DK gathering where we learned a cute poem, collected acorns, and ate an adorable acorn snack! The snack was a donut hole, frosting, Cocoa Krispies, and a pretzel stick!

I'm an acorn small and round, Laying on the cold cold ground. Everybody steps on me, That is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut. I'm a nut.

My sister is a NEWS ANCHOR!

For anyone that read the title, you are probably confused becuase you know that I do not have a sister. Well, if you are a DKer in Miss Koster's class, you might think differently. I met Erika Koster in August when we both started working in our rooms here at school. Miss Koster is new to DK, but has a lot of great teaching experience in Florida, Wyoming, and of course, Rockford! Like all of my other teammates, we have developed a very great friendship. A few weeks ago, Miss Koster took her class on a Bear Hunt (see previous post about Bear Hunts if you need an explanation). I was visiting her room beforehand and the students were telling me all about what they were going to do. I told them that afterwards they BETTER come to my room and tell me how it went. Well, Miss Koster's class really saw a bear outside (think stuffed animal bear in a tree) and were bursting with excitement! They came and told me all about it and I just couldn't let it go. I pretended to get on the phone and called NEWS CHANNEL 8!! I told the boys and girls that a news anchor and crew were on their way to interview the children about what they found outside! You better believe I dressed up in a costume and went upstairs (relax, my students were in Music class for 45 minutes...I wasn't ditching them!) to talk to them. I made Miss Koster's papapro Mrs. B use a Kleenex box as a video camera. I had a remote for a microphone and I was asking them all about it. They tried to call me out for not being a news anchor, but I quickly convinced them that I as the news anchor was actually a woman named Brenda....Miss Sinnott's TWIN SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about a good time. I really think they believed me...well, most of them. To this day some of them still ask me about Brenda and when she is going to come visit. Well, boys and girls... Brenda may come visit when you least expect it...

Even though she was laughing hysterically, Miss Koster captured some great moments!!!!!

Little ears could be listening...

"Miss Sinnott, I am going to tell you what I talked about last night because I talked about it last night so now I am going to tell you what I talked about last night which is Obama is about the people and Romney is about the money." UHHHHHH WHAT?! YOU ARE FIVE... WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT POLITICS?!?!?

Thursday was BEAR DAY!

This week we talked about the letter "B". Everything we talked about was surrounding the letter "B". Mrs. Greca (my mentor) and I decided to make Thursday "BEAR DAY" (if you must ask, bear starts with the letter "B"...). I told the kiddos they could bring a stuffed bear from home to have the entire day except at lunch, library, and recess. THIS WAS ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL. Those bears worked on jobs with my students, played with my students, ate snack with my students, and even sat on the rug with my students. I set up a "Bear Hospital" with all of the doctor equipment. It was so cute. They were taking it very seriously. For snack we had gummy bears and teddy grahams. When the kiddos were gone at lunchtime, Mrs. Augustine arranged all of the teddy bears on the carpet and I turned on a movie. I pretended that I never went to the room (I usually eat in the teacher's lounge) and headed to pick up my little ones from recess. We all walked into the room together and saw the bears sitting on the rug watching the tv! My students were literally speechless. SPEECHLESS. They didn't even know what to say!!! After a long, long pause, one little boy said "MISS SINNOTT. THIS IS HORRIBLE. THE BEARS ARE BEING SO NAUGHTY! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GO THROUGH YOUR TEACHER'S THINGS!!!!" Ha. Ha. Anyways, so Mrs. Greca and I decided to have a bear hunt outside. It was so beautiful out (about 73) and we wanted to get our kiddos moving. So we go on this bear hunt outside and teach the littles how to quietly walk, use binoculars (their hands), and "back up slowly" if you come in contact with a bear. They were all set. Well, Mrs. Greca lead the kids outside and I quickly made bear biscuits (Pillsbury biscuits, butter, sugar, cinnamon). I joined them and we started searching for bears in the woods. Instantly, a few kids started bawling their eyes out!!! "I don't want to see a bear!!! I'm scared!!" I did NOT see that coming! Once we made it back to the door, we found a note from the bears to our students (I hung it up after making bear biscuits). It basically said that they were sorry we couldn't find them but they left us treats (bear biscuits) in our room!! We went back to our room and enjoyed our snack. Once finished, all the kids shouted "This was the BEST. DAY. EVER!" What a fun day! Mrs. Greca teaching us how to FREEZE!

Looking in the woods....

Looking in the meadow...

I am a teacher not a baker/chef...

One cutie brought in a Thank You note the next day. "Miss Sinnott, I had my mom write my words."

When one door closes, another one opens!

Today I was officially booted off of my parents insurance (car, life, health, dental, vision). Today is the end of an era. I am now officially an adult with a career and my OWN insurance. Let's have a moment of silence. HA! Like I even know what a moment of silence is...I teach 5 year olds.

Fall is here in Room 111

We fingerpainted orange, yellow, and red on fingerpaint paper. The next day we traced maple leaves (reflection: a maple leaf is far, far too hard for these little ones to not only trace but cut out...next time, a different type of leaf will be used) and cut them out. Mrs. Augustine hung them up and BADA BING! BADA BOOM! a fall themed tree.

Goals

We had to submit goals today for our school year. My goals are as follows: strengthening oral language skills, creating independent learners, and this blog! My goal is to post at least twice a week for the rest of the school year. My worry is not that I can't come up with enough to talk about (let's face it, I can talk forever and like my dad always says "you're mouth moves faster than a bird's "beep" during berry season...wow, thanks.). My worry is that I am not going to have the time to post twice a week. Time flies and I'm nervous that I will put my blog on the back burner. However, hopefully now it is an actual real goal, I will commit to it. We all know my commitment skills aren't that great (i.e. gym memberships I like to pay for on a monthly basis and not go, budgeting plans, etc). Here goes nothing! Week 5, ready or not, here I come!

Today was Picture Day. YIKES.

My students looked absolutely adorable today. The little girls had not a hair out of place. Perfect curls, perfect frills, and perfect bows ( one had a yellow flower in her hair twice the size of her head..SO CUTE!. The boys were so handsome in their collared shirts and gelled hair. I had my day planned pretty loosely since I didn't know how it was going to go. However, if someone told me ahead of time what was actually going to happen, I wouldn't have believed them. I'll do my best to explain this unexplainable day in DK. Let's face it that K and DK could get themselves dirty playing with a roll of paper towel. It is just their nature and they can't help themselves. I assumed that we would all go right in the morning, to avoid spills, slips, bumps, bruises, etc. The morning quickly flew by and before I knew it, it was 10:30 and we hadn't gone yet. No problem except that we have Music from 11-11:45 and then lunch from 12-12:45. So I sent my kids to music and lunch and they still didn't get their pictures taken. Well, as one can imagine, I picked them up from recess at 12:45 and some friends played in the "Gaga Pit" (picture a large, large bull pen filled with dirt...they play a dodge ball like game there), some friends sprinted their hearts out, and some stood facing the opposite direction of the wind. Needless to say, they were a little disheveled. I tried my best to clean them up and then we headed down to pictures. Well, at this point in the day, I have no aid, and sometimes getting these friends to do something together while out of our classroom is like herding cats. So I stopped in the office and asked them to send my aid, who spends the afternoon in 5th grade, down to not only assist me, but get her picture taken. I owe this woman my left leg. She's a life saver. But,HOLY MOLY. Things were still insane. Three photographers at a time and all of the kids have they order forms that during their wait time have turned into fans, airplanes, trucks, kleenex, and who knows what else!! So once that torture was over,they decided we needed a class picture. GREAT. I can do group picture. I can. Just not when it's on the playground equipment. During big kid playground time. In the afternoon. I mean I could have put puppies in front of them and there would still be NO WAY they were going to pay attention. God bless the photographer who probably said "hands at your sides" about 2874592803470 times. She was patient but I literally almost shouted "JUST TAKE A PICTURE. IT DOESN'T MATTER. THEY ARE FIVE!! They are never all going to be just the way they should!" She was cracking me up. My poor children. I had no choice, we weren't called down until 2pm. I couldn't be mad or anything because they are five and can't help all of the wigglies they have. And it wasn't their fault they went so late. The whole process was literally 45 minutes. And it was chaos. Next year, I call dibs on being one of the first to go, since I was one of the last to go. Eh, you live and learn right!? Next time, I'm bring activities!

Team Work

There are 8 developmental kindergarten teachers at my school. This is because DK for my district is centrally located at my school. I have to admit that although a team of 8 is very huge with all different ideas, opinions, and personalities, I do not know how I could possibly start and survive this year without all of the support. I often wonder what my year would be like if I was the only DK teacher at one school...let's just say the thought never ends well. We talk as a team about what we are doing now that makes DK being together beneficial. I think the benefits are almost limitless. I have 7 other people to laugh and cry with. I have enough lesson plans, ideas, books, and crafts within my fingertips to fill the Library of Congress. I have 7 other people that can play "good cop" and "bad cop" at any given time. I have 160 other students in my grade level to have fun with. We started a new thing this year called "Move, Groove, and Learn". My class calls it "Together Time". Every day at 1pm, whoever wants to join comes to my room (or Molly's or Lisa's..just depends on the day) for educational songs, rhymes, dancing and videos for about 30-40 minutes. THE STUDENTS LOVE IT. LITERALLY BEG FOR IT. I love it too. It gives me a chance to get to know the other kids and basically just be downright silly! We have only been doing it for 3 weeks, but I already see a world of difference in my students. It's expanding their frame of reference a little more every single day. If you have the chance or the time, you need to do it in your classroom too. It doesn't matter how long or what you cover. Just do it. The kids need the social exposure. They need the movement. They need each other. However, I do have to say that not everything is rainbows and butterflies, but that's my job. My career is not easy, but every day, no matter how challenging, it is worth it. I always say "If you aren't laughing, you're crying so you might as well laugh" and that is the honest to God truth. So thank you to my team for your constant support and guidance. I appreciate it more than you even know!

What do you make?

I saw this viedo last week at a staff meeting and wanted to shout "YES!! ROCK ON!!" at the top of my lungs....but I'm the newbie...so I didn't...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xkk71rhQpo&feature=player_detailpage

Self Portrait

"Miss Sinnott? I drew this picture of myself for you so incase you miss me the days I do not come to school tomorrow you can look at it, see me and be happy again." (FYI, "the days I do not come to school tomorrow" translates to: Saturday and Sunday)

Is it bad that all I see is Sid the sloth from the movie Ice Age!? :)

Our Classroom!

Two reasons (excuses?) these pictures are so blurry: 1. It was 7:50 AM!!!!! 2. I was in a hurry. Go figure!

The tree on the wall is made entirely with paper. My pride and joy!

Be a rule follower!

I tend to be a rule follower in my everyday life. I feel guilty about crossing the street if it is not at a designated crosswalk, I 've never ever missed a due date, and I always follow IKEA furniture instructions verbatim (if you have never seen IKEA furniture before, you basically can skip to the last page of the manual and assemble). I'm not sure what made me be this way. Perhaps my Catholic school background or the fear of disappointing. Basically, I like boundaries and I think that it is part of my job to set up limits, boundaries, and rules for my students. At the tender age of 4 or 5, kiddos do not understand where their body stops and another person's starts. I frequently watched these future leaders of our world literally get tangled in another's arms or legs simply on the way to the drinking fountain. I talk about one of the most important rules of school.. "DO NOT TOUCH OTHER PEOPLE!!" I literally have sang this phrase, danced this phrase, clapped this phrase, and rapped this phrase (my inspiration comes from "ABC RAP" on YouTube...) numerous times every single day. While waiting for all of my students to come in line I asked in my most excited teacher voice, "What is the most important rule at school?" One student raised his/her hand and started to literally twitch with excitement! "Yes! ______! Tell me!" He/she replied, "Well, Miss Sinnott, the most important rule at school is to not open your lunch before you get to the lunch table because Miss Sinnott will eat it." Just when you think you are all on the same page, they throw a curveball at 'cha!

How could I resist?

My aunt was a first grade teacher for years and wanted to help me out in my classroom. I would love for her to be there but unfortunately, she lives about 275 miles away so a visit wouldn't be easy. She extended the offer to make activities and such for my students and OF COURSE, I agreed. She created little people and all types of clothing. Yesterday, I let my kiddos go to town and make themselves with the cut outs! SERIOUSLY HOW PRECIOUS. If you don't think this is adorable....this blog is NOT for you :)

And yes, one of my students does indeed have blue hair from time to time (see yellow shirt/ blue pants combo)...

Can you tell that I have some sets of twins? Matching clothes? Too cute.

Is it playdough or play-doh?

So, I decided that every Kindergarten teacher needs to make playdough. What I didn't realize was that it was EXTREMELY messing and very time consuming. You have to mix together all kinds of ingredients on the stove and then pour to on the counter to knead it. But it was so hot. What a hoot this was! My mom helped me and all she wanted to do what throw it away and go buy play-doh. I somehow convinced her to keep going and now my kiddos have homemade playdough ! Our first batch turned out HORRIBLE...so we had to throw it away and start over!

Here is the mixing process...

Poured it out...

...and started the kneading process! GROSS!

Dad needed to put some finishing touches and...PRESTO! Instant homemade play dough.

My first week as a REAL LIFE teacher!

Wowza. Wowza. Wowza. I am exhausted! What a crazy, exciting, eventful, tiring week. My students are absolutely great. We have some work ahead of ourselves, but that's why they are in my class! I had a few criers in the morning for the first couple of days, but I think we have all gotten over that! I have a few who miss mom &/or dad during the day, but they are learning. At first, I felt like it was my fault they were so upset. I felt like I should be doing something. However, I realized that it is a slow process. Every day was better than the one before. My teaching team is absolutely incredible. I couldn't imagine a better, more supportive group. They are fabulous. My principal is FABULOUS. More to come!... P.S. I posted this way late! Time sure does get away from ya!

School Starts TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is my first day of school. I repeat..tomorrow is my first day of school. It sounds so strange, but it is entirely true! I start my first teaching job tomorrow. I will be teaching Developmental Kindergarten (Pre-K or Young 5's) in . This is my dream job. Absolutely my dream job. I have a fabulous team (of 8!), a great principal, and a beautiful school in one of the best districts in Michigan! Much to my surprise, I am hardly nervous. We had Open House last week where I had the chance to meet my students and parents. I was more nervous for that night than tomorrow! I think the reason I am so relaxed about the whole day is because I have been so budy attending Professional Developments, meetings with my team, and celebratory parties for the last 4 weeks! I could probably spend more time in my room, but the truth is, it is not worth all of the stress! I am so excited for my classroom and I am proud of the way it looks and all of the work I put into it, and that is what matters. . I can't wait to be with my 22 little friends! :)