Objectives and Standards

I printed off some quick, ocean-themed subject titles and laminated them with a magnet. I write objectives for Phonemic Awareness, Reading, Writing, and Math.

I bought from www.teacherspayteachers.com the ocean-themed Common Core State Standards for kinder. I plan on hanging them around the room. They are super cute!

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Halloween Parade

In lieu of a Halloween party, we took the last 15 minutes of each AM and PM session to trick-or-treat in the office. The office ladies were so cute and excited to have my babies stop in. Each time we came around the hallway, they would yell, "They're coming! They're coming!" Then they would run to their spots. This was the first time I asked that children wear their Halloween costumes to school. It went very well without any "accidents"! I carried the sign below as we marched through the halls. If a teacher had their door open, we would parade through. Then the grand finale was blasting our classroom surround sound as we marched around the kinder playground to show off our costumes to parents. It was a great day and I would like to do it again next year, since I was still able to teach at our regular schedule.

Of course, we had Halloween cupcakes for snack though!

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Halloween Author Reading

On Halloween, the AM class had a very special treat. Jarrod Meistle, author of Victor the Vampire, read his book and handed out stickers and pencils!

I talked about this book here!

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"Sea Goals"

Get it?! Like sea gulls?

Anyway, we are beginning a school-wide goal setting program. We are setting short-term student goals, class goals, and school goals. These Post-Its on my bulletin board are advertising a specific goal for each student to master. When the goal is mastered, they will get a new Post-It. These goals are checkpoints for the long-term goals listed in the Common Core State Standards. We advertise it because we are each others' cheerleaders and every one is working on something positive at their own pace. Our class goal is: we will learn the letter sounds. Once we master that, I printed the next goal on the back, so I can just flip it over. Sequentially, the second goal is: we will sound out to read.

Each child's goal is sent home on this form, so parents can help, too!

I have designated the first day of each month as "Goal Day," when we review our goals and if possible, set new ones. It took me about 30 minutes to set a goal with each child individually. I called one kid over and asked, "What do you want to learn?" Together, we decided on each goal. Below, is a calendar tag I'll put up on the first day for each month.

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Ronald McDonald

Ronald McDonald came to perform a magic show for our school. Shockingly, only one child was scared to tears by him, but she got through it. :)

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Lesson Planning

In the Clark County School District, we now use an online lesson planning tool to create and share our lesson plans. The lesson plans are time consuming but extremely thorough. When plans are printed out, there are around 10 pages for a week of plans. For an obsessive person like myself, I enjoy the ability to color coordinate, plan far ahead, and not require paper copies of the Common Core State Standards when planning. Standards can be clicked on and dragged to where you need them. When you click on the colored subjet, the detailed plans come up in a new window.

Another useful feature is sharing the plans. I am able to share lessons with the other kindergarten and special education teachers.

www.curriculum.wiki-teacher.com

Victor the Vampire

My friend published his first children's book, _Victor_the_Vampire_, in his new series. We will be reading this book for Halloween and the author will also be coming in to read the story to my classes. The students of the week will also receive their very own copy this month, too!

Please check out www.victorthevampire.com. Of course, Victor the Vampire is on Facebook and Twitter, too!