Gus the Bus

This week, Gus the Bus came to our school to teach the kinders about bus safety. In the Clark County School District, this is a free service, in which you simply make an appointment and they'll even stick around for BOTH sessions. Definitely a hit!!!

Spelling Word Review

I created a simple PowerPoint with the previous and current weeks' spelling words. When they correctly identify the word, I move on to the next. To spice things up, I projected the slideshow onto the ceiling. They loved it!

Potpourri

I recently took a professional development class. The instructors stressed the importance of entry tasks. Typically, my entry tasks for my kiddos are finding their birthdays, unstacking chairs, putting away their belongings, getting out notes for me, and a welcome worksheet. I gave them a hands-on activity that focused on Trophies' letter of the week.

Students were asked to make the letter "y" using a pipecleaner that fits the flashcard.

Entry task supplies have to be ready for the students, as they enter the room, so they can dive right in!

I displayed my example on the overhead.

At the PDE class, they encouraged us to make flashcards and randomly in the stack, add pictures of familiar faces to keep the students' attention. They love looking to see who pops up next!

We made frog puppets, during our Frog-themed week.

At my class, they encouraged us to get fun, new pointers for students to track print. Here's a water squirter.

We did the same writing activity as previously posted here.

Father's Day Gifts

Photo courtesy of Mrs. ElCid.

The Father's Day gifts turned out great this year. Last August in Target's "One Spot", they had three-packs of picture frames for $2.50, so I loaded my cart with 54 frames. In the 4"x6" frame I put in a picture of each child holding the sign above. On the frame, I hot-glued random puzzle pieces. They frames were much nicer than last year's, so hopefully I find the same frames again!

Also, my husband and BIL wrapped the frames in scented 1 gallon trash bags and tied green and blue ribbon. The same trash bags from Mother's Day, but not in pink.

Butterflies!

K-9 Demonstration

A Plant's Needs

Today was our first day back from Spring Break. Last week, I only went in to my classroom once, to find our garden dead, of course. I decided not to discard the sad garden. Before break, the children and I talked about what a plant needs to grow and since our garden had no sunlight nor any water, I took this as a learning opportunity for the classes. We talked about why the plants died, what we could have done to prevent this, and the importance of sunlight and water. I gave the students a chance to feel the crunchy, shriveled up plants and we compared them to the soft, perky alive sprouts we once had. During recess, I wheeled the garden to our grassy area and dumped the plants out, where we touched the roots and discussed their job. Luckily, there were no tears over our "loss." (Sigh of relief.)