It's been too long...

but boy are we having a good time in kindergarten!

Routines are becoming just that, routines finally and we are getting wrapped up in learning.  Pretty soon, my minions will come off my door to make room for mummies.  I'll post a picture of the door when it's done.

Anyway, we are really building our writing stamina in Writer's Workshop and are beginning working on our reading stamina.  My students are really doing great with the writing. I have never had a class that will just go for it and write.  I am more used to being asked over and over about how to spell words.  These kids are just going for it- some are writing the actual sounds and others are just writing a jumble of letter at this point, but they are trying which is awesome.  I used Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills Writing unit and I am happy to say it has made a huge difference.  The children's drawings are becoming so detailed and I think it is really helping them understand what a setting is in a story. We have backgrounds in our stories/pictures, not just a character! Awesome!

The children really enjoyed shopping for "Good Fit" books like Kim Adsit's Reader's Workshop unit suggests.  The had a ball choosing their books and then going deeper in their books and making substitutions.  Lean and Tell and Turn and Talk have also been introduced and they are starting to understand the difference.  I love listening to their conversations with each other.

Both of these workshops occur daily, but we are still able to fit in creative time with some fun projects.  We started our study of letters with the letter A and made ourselves into astronauts.  They turned out so cute as you can see.

We also got introduced to Nelly Noun thanks to Kreative in Kinder for her ELA Super Heros pack.  I created a project to go along with her and the kids loved her.  I think it is going to make such a difference in getting them to remember what a noun is.

Finally, we also celebrated the coming of the fall season with some scarecrows and the seasons of an apple tree.

We are off to a great start in kindergarten and I can't wait to see what comes next!

I can't stand how cute!

Here are all my students' paintings from last week.  Those rectangles are covering their names. How sweet they all look! This is why I love this project!

So much fun in kindergarten!!!

First two days!

Wow, I'd forgotten how exhausting the first days of school can be.  Just getting up at 5:15AM was a shock to the system, but the constant energy needed to keep myself moving was C-R-A-Z-Y!

Anyway, it was a great start to the year.  My kiddos are adorable and seem so eager to get learning.  Just what I like! The first day was a half day and we got to know each other and dived right in with some projects- decorating a picture frame for their first day photos and I traced each child for a painting project the next day.  Here is how 2 of the frames turned out! We are experts with glue bottles already!

The next day we really got in to the routines of Kindergarten. We began our math series with a unit on Position and Location. The kids really enjoyed the memory game that comes with this one.

Then it was time to paint.  I love this project! I have to love it to do it every year.  It can get insane with all of my students painting at once and needing different colors and spilling the paint and trying not to get it on their uniforms... You get the idea.  However, it is awesome to see how much they enjoy it.  They really love to recreate themselves, as you can see by these two that I took a picture of- I love the ears on the first one and all the hair on the second one.  Too cute!

 After lunch, we spent the afternoon working in our Poems, Songs, and Anchor Charts notebooks.  We started by putting in the 5 Little Monsters poem (credit Deanna Jump) that we read and then put in our first anchor chart for Reader's Workshop (credit Kim Adsit).  This chart reminds us what being ready to learn looks like.  After they glued the chart in, they drew a picture to go with it.

We ended the day with a visit from our 5th grade buddies where I think we got out every bucket from the toy shelf.  I'm pretty sure the 5th graders wanted that playtime more than my kiddos! Thankfully there was a surprise waiting for me at home... delicious!

Thanks Dad!!!