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!!!

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!!!!

not forgotten!

I have been super busy the past couple of weeks.  I have not forgotten my little blog.  I have been taking a lot of pictures and thinking that I will blog about each thing, but I have not made time!  So quick summary of what has been going on in Ms. Brown's class....
We did Mrs. Jump's Penguin unit. My kinders LOVED learning about Penguins!  You should buy the unit for next year.  Lots of great ideas and a great unit that covers so many different subject areas.

We did a science experiment with blubber.  It was really cool to see how the Penguins stay warm.

I made this little guy the same height as an Emperor Penguin.  They are the tallest Penguins.  We each stood beside the Penguin to compare our height with the Penguin.   

Valentine's Day was fun.  We enjoyed fun crafts and graphing with candy!  They love when we get to do "fun" math.

I also pulled a tooth!!!!  It had been loose for weeks!  She finally got enough courage to let me pull it.  I felt honored! 

We had Parent Involvement Night.  Families were invited to come back to school for a fun learning night with their child.  We made ice cream in a bag.  It really was a successful night.  I also thought that it was great because the parents helped their child make the ice cream.  I was able to chat with families and students.  It is fun to see them after school!

Last week we studied the letter Vv.  I brought my violin to school and played a couple of songs.  Everyone was very impressed!  I played in middle school and two years of high school.  I usually pull it out once a year to play for my Kindergarten students.  Every time I play it I am surprised that I can really remember any thing about it because I feel like it was so long ago.   

Finally....to the week I have been waiting on all year! 

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

I have lots of fun things planned this week. 

My goal is to blog about each day!

Enjoy celebrating!!!



hip hip hooray!!!

I think the 100th day of school was every thing I expected it to be and more.  My students had a blast.  They worked together and helped each other in groups all day!  I loved walking around and listening to all their little conversations.  Every time I do something or plan something I always want it to work out perfectly...because that is how I see it in my head!  Well, I think one thing I have learned this year being a 1st year teacher is that most everything I do is trial and error!  My assistant might still be hating me from Thursday, but I told her that it is trial and error! 
We got everything done I had planned which I was pretty excited about because I had a lot planned!  I found a lot of great ideas on different blogs.  So glad our 100th day of school was after a lot of other school systems!

 Oriental Trading had these cute crowns that I had the students color as their morning work.  They LOVED coloring with markers.  They knew it was a special treat!

We counted by 10s, put the numbers in order, glued the numbers to our ice cream scoops, and then put the ice cream scoops in order! 

This is why she hated me that day!  I had the students count out 100 fruit loops then put them on a necklace.  It did take a long time!  I really had no clue because I had seen the idea on several different websites and on blogs.  No one mentioned how long it would take!  It was a little messy too but the kids thought it was awesome!  One student told me that the 100th day of school was the best day and better then all the other days because he got to make a fruit loop necklace. 

I think all of them had the fruit loops eaten by the end of the day!  It was too tempting!

In our groups we made a giant pizza with 100 toppings.  I had already cut out all the toppings.  We sorted the toppings, counted, and added up to see that we had 100 in all. 

I also hid 100 Hersey kisses around the room.  On the bottom of each kiss was a number.  I let the students find them throughout the day and then put them on our hundreds chart.  I had to make sure that they knew not to eat them or sneak one in their pocket because we could not eat them till we found ALL 100!  It was not until the very end of the day that we found them all. 

I had sent home the weekend before this paper as a parent involvement.  I told them to fill the numbers with 100 of anything they wanted.  I had some creative ones come in.  I enjoyed watching them share with the class and praise one another's work!

It was a fun day had by all!  Now let the count DOWN begin!

fitting it all in

I didn't leave school till 6:00 tonight!  It was a long and very busy day!  We are getting really excited about all the upcoming events in our room!  There is slight bouncing off the walls...me included!  I have so much I want to do and so many special events happening at once!  We are finishing up our Penguin unit, celebrating the 100th day of school, and trying to fit Valentine's day into all of the fun too. 

This is what my room looked like this afternoon.....

I was also COVERED!!!  I hope our little craft turns out...I am a little worried....

I found this Valentine craft in my Family Fun magazine.  Here is the link.  This week we are also talking about the letter Yy.  So I felt that this Yarn valentine fit in well!
Here is a little glimpse into what tomorrow is going to be like!

That is right...finally...the 100th day!!!!! 

I am super excited about everything I have planned!

Check back to see the fun that we had!!!

its beginning to look a lot like christmas!

Christmas crafts are very important in my family.  Every year my sisters and I make ornaments to give as gifts to family members and friends.  My parents' tree is FULL of ornaments we have made over the years.  As we were putting ornaments the other week I decided that my students could make several of the ornaments.  I know how special homemade things are to my family so I hope this will be the same with my studentss.  I am going to share several things we make over the next two weeks. 

Monday I had two parent volunteers come help!  It was awesome!  I am so thankful for the parent support I have!  They helped me with two Christmas crafts I had planned!  It was wonderful to have help so I could get a couple of things done! 
1st ornament was a snowman with ear muffs!

       Materials you need - frosted balls, black paint, orange paint, strip of felt, sparkle pom poms, and cups

Another teacher gave me the great idea of setting the ornament ball into a cup so the students don't have to worry about the ball moving around!

We let each student paint two eyes and a dotted mouth with the handle end of the paint brush.  The nose was a little harder for them to paint so we had to help.  It was neat to see the different "expressions" their snowmen turned out to have!  

Today we added the felt head band and two pom poms for the ear muffs.  So super cute!

 Snowmen faces drying!

Ready for a spot on the tree!

Decorating the tree with our new ornaments!

  Each one is different but so special!

Don't know how this snowman feels!!!



eat more!

We have a week left before we are out for a much needed break!  We are counting down the days, and I think my students get more and more excited! 

Thanksgiving is another favorite holiday.  As a little girl I remember always dressing up as an Indian or Native American from paper bags we made at school and then once I got big enough we some how had a Pilgrim outfit that was past down. 

This is a picture of me and my two sisters when I was probably in 1st grade. 

A couple years ago my sisters and I decided that we were going to start dressing up again for Thanksgiving.  So we do!  It is a fun tradition that we look forward to.  Some people think we are really crazy, but it is pretty normal for us.  We rotate what Thanksgiving character we are each year.  This year I am a Pilgrim.  I will post a picture on Thanksgiving because I know you will be dying to see our costumes this year! 

This year I will be carrying the tradition on to my students!!!  Next Monday we will be dressed up like Pilgrims, and Tuesday we will be Native Americans.  We have already come up with names and have been working on our head dresses.  More about this soon!

I have been planning lots of crafts for Thanksgiving to do during center time.  We have been working a couple of days on one of my new favorite crafts!  I used a turkey template from makinglearningfun.com.  My students colored their turkey then wrote "Eat More ______" on a construction paper square and then I stapled it to a popsicle stick and then the sign to the turkey.  I was excited to see how creative they would be!  I was not disappointed!  Some of my favorites....Eat more hot chocolate, eat more corn, eat more pop tarts, eat more pizza, eat more hamburger, eat more cereal. 

9 days till Thanksgiving!!!!

pumpkin art

When I was in college I did an internship in a 2nd grade classroom.  I loved the teachers I worked with and they were very encouraging and taught me a lot!  The assistant did great crafts with the students and I love crafts so we loved working together! 

We made pumpkins to decorate our door the other week and they turned out very cute!
These are things you can make with any grade level. 
Every child painted a sheet of aluminium foil with orange paint and before it dried we sprinkled some glitter.  I cut out a pumpkin on orange construction paper or poster board.  After the sheets were dry (the next day) the student tear the sheets into little squares. (this helps build fine motor skills for my little ones)  Then glue each piece to the pumpkin.  I painted one sheet brown and then let students tear a square and glue it to the pumpkin for the pumpkin stem. 
They look very good on our door.  There are a lot of different things you can make doing this same thing.  While I was doing the internship we did the same thing with apples and christmas trees.  I did this also while student teaching and we made suns! 
They really look pretty in person and can be a fun and easy craft for your students!

Smarty Pants!

I have had this idea in my head for many years now!  My sister told me about it when she was in college and so I have always thought how fun it would be to use them in a classroom.  I think they are so cute!  I hope my students will feel very special and honored when they receive smarty pants!

 I just cut out the pants from blue paper.  I drew on the pants with a sharpie and then stapled the two sides together.  I didn't draw anything on the backside but you could!  I will then put smarties in each pair of pants.  I have also made a cute bucket to put them in.  Its already at school though (so no picture).  I painted the same pants and wrote on it, "Ms. Brown's Smarty Pants."

Ta da!!!!!

My plan for use of these is when a student has made a 100 on an assessment or has done something smart of course!  I hope to pass these out a lot!  I love to tell my students they are little smarty pants.  A lot of times the kindergarten students I have worked with before didn't think it was a good thing!  Now since they are getting a reward when I call them a smarty pants they will feel so special!