you know you are a teacher when...

Kindergarten! 

I love it!!!! 

I loved it when I did my student teaching and I still love it now!  So thankful for this year with my kinders!

You Know You Teach Kindergarten When.....

• Dr. Jean songs are constantly stuck in your head!
• You do whatever it takes for your students to love school.  Even if it is dancing crazy, singing, and dressing up! 
• You read stories with so much emotion and come up with voices you never knew you could do.
• You get kid meals at Chick-fil-a and pass up the ice cream to have free prizes for your treasure box.
• You can always find stuff at Target's dollar spot to use in your classroom.
• You buy things and think about what letter it starts so you can incorporate it into part of a lesson or theme.
• Your students treat your drawings like they are masterpieces!
• You get 200,000 hugs a day!
• You have run out of room for your book collection, but continue to buy more!
• You dream about your students.
• You stay at school late, get to school early, and continue to think of ideas and work on school stuff at home.
• Your students call you Mommy and Grandmommy and you don't worry about correcting them.
• You consider yourself part doctor, hair stylist, and dentist!
• You spell phonetically!
• You enjoy going to your students' sports games on Saturday mornings.
• Students can ALWAYS put a smile on your face.

Now it is your turn to join! 

Click here and have fun!!!

 The Inspired Apple

long vowel poems

Abby from The Inspired Apple made cute poems for her students while they were studying long vowels. 
She inspired me to use her idea and create my own!

I knew I didn't have anything to go on my phonics bulletin board but once I saw her poems I figured this could do the job!

I am not going to change my career to a poet, but I think they turned out cute!

Feel free to check out her blog and use my poems as well!!!

 

  (Ms. Amy is my sister.  She wanted me to write Ms. Amy is an angel!  I had to say no!)

 (love that as we read the last line, my students gave each other high fives!)

U and O are from Abby!  

Check back for my part in a linky party she is hosting!

queen of the classroom

Each week in Kindergarten we study a different letter.  I try to plan fun activities to do with different words that start with the letter we are studying.  I like to read books that start with the letter and then write a sentence or two for our writing.  Some letters are just a little harder than others!  Whenever I buy books for my classroom I try to think if I have books that start with that letter or not. 
Q is one of those letters.  I didn't have any books to read so we just had to pick words and write sentences about things we already knew.  My favorite was writing about a queen...that would be ME!

(Ms. Brown is a queen.  She is queen over the classroom.  She is a pretty queen.) 

Look at my beautiful throne!!!

date night

Student: "I had good time last night, Ms. Brown."

Me: "What did you do?"

(I had forgotten that she did tell me the day before!)
Student: "I went on a date with Justin Bieber!!!"

Me: "Oh I forgot about that!  What did you two do?"

Student: "We went out to eat at McDonalds."

Me: "Did he pay for your meal?  The guy is supposed to!"

Student: "Yes...he paid."Me: "Good!  What happened after dinner?"

Student: "He took me shopping and bought me some new clothes."

A little later through the day...

Student: "Justin Bieber is at my house."

Me: "Why is he at your house?"

Student: "He is waiting on me to get home from school."

A little jealous of her night!

important question

It is things like this that make a Kindergarten teacher's day! 

Translation for those of who you don't read Kindergarten...

I have a question. 

Ms. Brown can you be my best friend? 

I love my kinders!!!

brownie points!

I am a believer in positive reinforcement.  I always try to find something positive in people, and I try really hard to be positive in my classroom.  Sometimes it can be difficult, but I have found in many situations, being positive works much better than being negative!!! 
In January I decided to start using a class wide positive behavior management idea that I found here.  It has been a great way to keep my whole class accountable for their behavior and actions.  Every time we get a compliment by anyone at school, such as we get a good report from special pull out classes, or everyone in class is on task, we add a brownie to our brownie pan. 

(I like that brownie points go with my last name too!)

When we fill up our brownie pan, which we just did on Friday, we get a class reward. 
I came up with some simple and inexpensive rewards that I knew my students would enjoy.  Some ideas are: lunch with the principal, lunch with the assistant principal, special snack, no homework, extra recess, popcorn party, suckers, bubble gum, hat day, and afternoon movie.  Each reward is on a slip of paper in a mystery envelope.  I let one child pull a slip out, and that is the class reward. 

They never forget to put up a brownie!  They also never forget about their reward!!!! 
That is what happened today!
...I spent the weekend with 10 high school girls and my youth group at our D-Now weekend retreat.  There was lots of fun and LITTLE sleep! 

I love hanging out with these girls.  They are so fun and make me want to be back in high school (well...just a little). 

...So since Sunday was full of catching up on sleep and trying to work on lesson plans, I totally forgot about their special snack they had won on Friday!  It was one of the first things they asked about first thing this morning.  Luckily I was able to run to the store and grab some popsicles. 

Today they got 3 brownies!!!!  I am so proud of my wonderful class (which is now 24 as of today)!!!!

can't believe my eyes!

One of my favorite questions that has been asked this year by one of my kinder friends, "Do you have a reason why leprechauns like to play tricks on St. John Patrick's Day?"  Well, that is a hard one to answer.  First I enjoyed a little giggle about St. John Patrick.  Not really sure who that is.  Never heard about him before!!!  I had a hard time coming up with some reasons.  The only way I can explain is that leprechauns like to be tricky and sneaky.  And that they were today!!!!!!
We had some great traps set up around our room, but they were not good enough for those little guys!  We were all a little bummed about that! 

LOVE the spelling!

Those leprechauns made SUCH a mess!!!!  Took the green squares off our magic rug and threw them around the room, turned over chairs, books were everywhere, chairs turned over and on top of the tables, lucky charms were on the tables, gold pieces thrown around, little feet prints on desks and the floor, and green bead necklaces for everyone.  One trap had an alarm on it, and we thought we had caught the leprechaun because as we were walking to our room, we heard it going off.  We just knew we had it, but when we got in the classroom, he was not in there! 

(little shoe stuck in the window as he was trying to escape!)

As we walked in everyone was in shock!  One kinder friend said, "Ms. Brown, I just can't even believe my eyes!"  She didn't move.  She just stood there in shock. 
I enjoyed watching their excitement.  My favorite though was a girl just leaning on one of the tables eating the lucky charms that the leprechaun left on the table!  She didn't care about anything else going on around her except for the cereal! 
After a little more work we enjoyed a wonderful St. Patrick's Day snack!  Rainbow cupcakes!  I let them ice their own cupcakes.  I like to let them participate a little in their snack time.  They were very yummy.  We also had some leprechaun juice! 

(fun recipe from familyfun.com!  i love getting their magazine.  such great ideas!)

So much excitement for one day!  

One more picture....this is the note the leprechaun left

This is one of my favorite things about St. Patrick's Day....ENJOY!

Roy G. Biv

We are getting ready for St. Patrick's Day in my class this week.  We started the week off by talking about rainbows.  I introduced rainbows by reading The Magic School Bus "Makes A Rainbow."  As I was reading a student said, "Ms. Brown, I wish you were Ms. Frizzle."  I agree!  I love her science lessons.  I wish I were better at incorporating science into my classroom!  It is something I plan to continue working on! 
I found a cute craft and poem to go along with the colors of the rainbow on a great blog I like to follow.

They turned out so cute!!!

Our room is filling up with traps and green and gold.  We are very hopeful that we are going to catch that sneaky little leprechaun!!!

teach like your hair is on fire

Last month I went to a "support" meeting for the first year teachers in our county.  I really enjoyed getting together with other beginning teachers to talk about our first year experiences.  We discussed excitements and things that we have struggled with during our first year.  We were given the book Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Esquith.  I have enjoyed reading the first few chapters.  Makes me reflect even more personally on my first year experiences.  The author talks about his classroom being a "different world."  He says, "It's a world where character matters, hard work is respected, humility is valued, and support for one another is unconditional."  This is my goal.  I want my classroom to look like this.  I am eager to finish this book and learn some more of how he accomplished this "different world."
We had another follow up meeting this past week.  We had assigned seats and at each of our seats was a frame with a note from a student in our class and a photograph.  It was such a special surprise!

Little notes like this at the end of a day can make a teacher happy and proud!  We all need a little affirmation.  This is one of the best!   

The presenter at our meeting also read the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  He said he read it on the first day of school and last day of school.  I liked how he related it to the classroom.  I found it at TJ Max last night and plan to read it Monday to my students.  I might have to hold back the tears while reading because we only have a few short more months till our school year is over.  It is so hard to believe! 

Reflecting on this past year has been really good.  I am proud of my accomplishments and most important proud of each of my students accomplishments!!!

red robin

Every Monday I send home a word list folder.  As a part of their homework, they are to read these words and come back Friday and have a "test."  These word lists help the students practice sounding words out and working on blending.  They get so excited on Fridays to be tested. 
This week as one student was being tested he came to the word  "yum."  He started sounding it out and blending. 
He read the word, yum, then says,

"Red Robin, YUMMMMM!"

Glad he is comprehending the words he is reading!!

i do so like green eggs!

Last day of our Dr. Seuss celebration week!  I had one parent come in this morning and tell me that they have had so much fun this week!  I love to hear that! 

Today was Green Day.  We read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss! 

And what kind of green day is complete without trying green eggs?!?!?



I scrambled the eggs and divided them into 23 little cups.  While I was passing out the cups of green eggs, I had one student tell me not to give her a cup because she was not going to try it!  I begged a little and told her she should just take one little bite!  So I counted to 3, and we all tasted them at the same time.  I think it surprised so many of them that they actually LIKED green eggs!  3 students did not try the eggs.  1 student told me, "Ms. Brown, if I eat these green eggs, I will throw up!"  I did not force her!!!  They begged me for more!  I only had enough for everyone to have a little taste.  I had a couple more eggs and told them after lunch we could maybe have some more. 

Each student made a green egg with construction paper.  Then we used the eggs while we made our graph.  We made a graph with the question

Do you like green eggs?

Friday is an exciting day because we have Fun Friday snacks at the end of the day.  Today I provided the snack.  We ate yummy sugar cookies and each child got to ice his own cookie with green icing and then put green sprinkles on his cookie.  And since they begged for more eggs I scrambled more eggs! 

I know you are thinking the same thing as I was...sugar cookies and green eggs go really good together!  They didn't seem to mind. 

My door has been decorated for Dr. Seuss the past two weeks and I have forgotten to share!

We read The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and had a discussion on opposites. 

(Dry, Wet)

I found this idea on The First Grade Parade blog and had to use it myself! 

A little sad that this week is over.  It was a fun and exciting week.  We read lots of great Dr. Seuss books and some other Beginner Books that my kinders brought to share.  I know that I will treasure this week forever, and I hope my kinders will also.  

hat day!

This has been an exciting week that has worn me out, but it has been totally worth it!  We are all having a blast!
We had a early dismissal today so I had a lot to cram into Hat Day today!

We read The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.  Another book that I had never read and it was really long but my students seemed to really like it! 

All but 2 wore hats today!  I love that most of their hats are bigger than their heads!  They all looked so cute in their hats.  I was hoping that someone would wear a Justin Beieber hat.  They didn't fail me.  My student who has been faithful to JB from the beginning sported her JB hat and matching shirt.  Too cute!!!!

I have been trying to go with the whole Dr. Seuss thing in my apparel this week. 

We did not have extra time today to do special Dr. Seuss activities, but we did color and design a hat as if we were Dr. Seuss.  We also did some rhyming.  I love to listen to their thought process as they think about what words rhyme. 

So thankful that tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!

Tomorrow is Green Day.  I am excited about cooking green eggs tomorrow with my kinder friends!

happy birthday, mama!

Like mother, like daughter!

I am such a mama's girl!

I love my mom so much.

Today is her birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!

She is my biggest fan.  She is my best friend.  She is my prayer warrior.  She loves me no matter what.

She has loved my sisters and me with her whole heart and much more. 

She has given up so much of herself for her girls. 

We are the girls that we are because of her.  I know that she has prayed for me every day of my life and even before.  I know that she will support me and be by my side no matter what I do. 

She used to tell us that we were stars, and we picked her to be our mommy.  But I know that God picked her to be my mama because He knew that I would need her...BIG time!

I love her so much, and I know that I would be so lost if it were not for her.

p.s. Thanks Mama for always reading my blog and fixing my typos and grammar!!!  Another reason I couldn't live without you!!!

Wacky Wednesday

First thing I told my students..."We might look wacky today, but we are not going to act wacky!"  Special days like this whole week has been my kinders tend to be a little on the wild side.  I know they are excited because I am excited and their teacher is doing some crazy things this week!
I had never read the book until over the weekend.  It is a funny book!

My kinders looked so cute and wacky today!  We enjoyed giggling as each student walked in.  I had one sporting a red and black wig!  It was too cute!  We made a cute Wacky Wednesday class book.  They had to draw someone or something wacky from our day.

My wacky look for the day!

We also talked about Dr. Seuss.  My kinders did not realize that Dr. Seuss was a human.  They told me they thought he was a character!  Glad I had this reader from Mrs. Perry! 

We had yummy cupcakes made by Ms. Jordan!  She made a Cat in the Hat cake too!  I didn't get a picture of it before her students enjoyed it!  The cupcakes had cute cupcake toppers from Frogs, Bees, & Under the Seas.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! 

Thanks for the great books and inspiration!!!

funny things are everywhere

Today was Cat in the Hat day.  I was most excited about this day because my assistant and I dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2!!!

I made the shirts last night.  I was up pretty late and kept asking myself why I still procrastinate!!!!  I am proud of how they turned out so it was worth the little sleep!

Our students loved the wigs and our outfits.  They referred to us as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Not Ms. Brown and Mrs. Green!

While we were Thing 1 and Thing 2 our students were cats!  They wore these super cute hats from Really Good Stuff.

After lunch while we were working on some fun Cat in the Hat activities my aunt, who is teaching at my school for 12 weeks, called my room and asked if she could bring her 3rd graders and come "look at us."  So they came and paraded through our room, took a look at us, and walked out!!!

We were quite a hit at our little school today! 

We worked on some great learning activities from a unit I purchased from teacherspayteachers.com. 

I really like the Dr. Seuss patterns and beginning sound worksheets that are included witht this unit. 

It isn't too late to get this great unit.

I loved this glyph from The Virtual Vine. 

Mrs. Larremore has a great blog that I follow.  She put together an amazing unit on Dr. Seuss, and it is free!  We made the cutest cats today from her unit.

Such a FUN day!!!

Tomorrow is Wacky Wednesday!!!!