Literacy Night and Book Fair

Our school held a literacy night where families came to eat pizza, make a book with their child, and then check out the Scholastic book fair! We even had a special guest- Clifford the Big Red Dog! Mr. Berryjam and I both volunteered "helping" Clifford throughout the night ;)  as well as helping kiddos get their free book of choice with a $5 coupon.

Clifford and I. I couldn't resist that big nose!

Clifford dancing and ready for a toddler's hug

Sadly, with all that was going on we weren't able to stop and shop last night. But don't you worry- I am a frequent Scholastic shopper and there will NEVER be a lack of books for my students in the classroom.

Dr. Suess Week

This week my kindergartners celebrated Dr. Seuss week. Each day had a fun school-wide theme, and we put together some Seussical fun into the learning as well. And for your little known Dr. Seuss fact... Dr. Seuss was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity the same fraternity Mr. Berryjam was in.

Learning Activities

Fox in Socks bulletin board.

I drew and cutout the sock template for the students to use and they colored their own wacky sock for Fox. We later did a shapes lesson and the students drew and cutout their own shapes to add fox.
His head is a big red circle with white circle eyes. His nose and ears are red triangles. The whiskers are thin black rectangles and the nose is a small red circle. I think it turned out adorable!




(photo coming soon) Cat in the Hat rythming -at words hat

(photo coming soon) Seusical Zoo/ Wocked in my Pocket rhyming lesson and bulletin board

Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! skit
This was going to be our class play but end of the year behaviors haven't been exactly where they need to be to pull this one off. We also have a LOT to do before the end of the school year where this wouldn't get the time and attention needed. However, we did assign parts and 'rehearse' the story a few times in the classroom. My favorite is one of my little shy guys getting so excited to say into the pretend microphone "you can go by LIONS TALE" in a big excited voice. Two of our loudest students share the line "or JET" and they yell it in perfect beat together. 

Eating Green Eggs and Ham
I am not sure I ever tried this as a child but as an adult I will say it wasn't half bad. The teachers cracked two dozen eggs into a bowl, added green food coloring, and cooked in a skillet in the classroom then diced ham was added. We graphed how many kids didn't like it, liked it, and loved it. All but four students loved green eggs and ham.

Cat in the Hat dance (you tube video)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvcRgUa1A2E
I am a fan of the Deskercise videos but this was a nice way to switch it up and still get the kids moving. As a bonus I didn't have to see Slim Goodbody who I can't decide if he is more creepy or corny. I wish I could videotape and show you how cute the students were dancing to this, but you know all the legal mumbo jumbo won't allow it and I want to keep my kiddos safe online and offline.

Theme Days:

Wear Red and White day
I'm sure this was Cat in the Hat inspired. I wore my very Seussical red and white striped tights and my red Grinch T-shirt over a long sleeve white tee. I forgot to grab a photo.   

Funny Socks day
(I wore zebra print slipper socks inside the building instead of shoes) 

Draw your favorite character day (which I decided was Grinch Day instead)

Dress as your favorite character day
I was a weird mix of crazy things... I'm a Woset from the Closet? It was part Thing1 and part whatever I could find in my closet. I never got a full-body shot but I had fuzzy rainbow leg warmers and penguin feet. My dear teaching friend was an adorable Lorax.

Making Valentines for Students

This year I decided to be that fantastic teacher who makes her own valentine gifts for her students. I would like to identify this idea as "pinterest-itis" because I saw many adorable creative ideas online that require much more patience and craftability than I have, but make it seem like any person could make a wonderful crafty gift with a smile on their face. Now, I am a creative artistic person and I can draw like no ones business but pinterest puts a whole new level of pressure on teachers.

Crayon Hearts! This would be my easy no-effort valentine to my students. I was even excited to jazz them up a bit by taping them on cardstock hearts (cut out with my Cricut) and wrapping a color ribbon around them. I found a silicoln heart baking dish at Walmart for $2.50 and along with two giant boxes of crayons from the dollar store I was ready to have the cutest homemade valentines for under $5.

Reality soon hit me when I spent more time than I had imagined just unwrapping those crayons from their wrappers but eventually they were unwrapped and cut up into about 5 pieces per crayon ready to go. Reality then hit even harder when I pulled the first batch out of the oven after melting time was up:

 

No, those aren't brownies. Those are gorgeous crayon valentines. Nailed it! 

A few things were obviously wrong here. I took out all the brown, gray, black, and dark colored crayons to brighten it up and broke the remaining crayons into 2-3 pieces for larger chunks of color. A fellow teaching friend who had done this craft many times before said to only use crayola but I stuck with the dollar store crayons. The above fixes seemed to do the trick and I ended up with some cute and colorful- although not at cute as pinterest- valentines for the students.  

 The top was the first batch, the lower ones are the second batch for comparison.

The students thought these were really cool crayons and liked that I had made them myself (my artsy abilities are known as "Mrs. Berryjam's magic"). I'm also glad they had something that was not candy in their Valentine bags. I was not expecting so much candy to make its way into my classroom. It seems this year's "it" valentines were Spongebob themed Fun Dips. If you aren't familiar with Fun Dip it is literally a pack of sugar you dip a hard candy sugared stick into and eat. Don't get me started on the red dye in the many cupcakes each child got to take home! 

After learning the tricks and some trial and error I think I will do this every year for my students. It's cheap and although it takes some time (especially with a mold that only holds six) it really is fun. Maybe pairing it up with a coloring book would be cute as well to go the extra mile, but I'm a teacher's budget and I don't want to spoil my kids. That's what Christmas was for. 

 

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Berryjam!

I will never understand teachers who take the day off for their Birthdays, it is so much fun to celebrate with the students! Mr. Berryjam surprised me by coming up to school with two dozen roses (white and red) and let the students each pick one to give me. I got pulled out to talk to another teacher and when I came back the students were lined up ready to hand me a rose. They had also secretly made me cards as well.

A cute card from a student, they captured my hair and style perfectly. 

 Big bright flowers and a Mickey Mouse card from a coworker. 

This was on our classroom board, all my students signed below!

Cold Weather Crossing Guard Fashion

This is just a silly post. The weather has been below zero here and crossing guard duty has been rough in the cold mornings. I've been trying to make the best of it by jazzing up the cold weather wardrobe. Enjoy the silliness!

Merry Winter Break!

Today is the last day of school for 2012, we are almost ready for winter break! Today Santa is coming (Toys for Tots) and I'm excited to see their faces when they get to sit on his lap and receive a brand new toy of their choice. We will also have a small class party where they will enjoy some healthy snacks, coloring a wooden holiday mask I picked up for each of them at JoAnne's crafts, and I will finally give them their gifts I have been working hard to collect and put together!

I'm Jingle Belle, the tacky elf today! 

 

 These are the 25 gift bags I set up for my students for Christmas this year. (photo taken while I was still filling them, in the end they had tissue paper and big bows). Each contains a box of crayons, three holiday pencils, a coloring book, a pad of writing paper, a pack of tissues, a pair of fuzzy striped gloves, a knit hat and matching scarf, and four scholastic books each with a handwritten note from me.



I couldn't have done this alone. Thank you to those who donated to this cause!My kiddos were SO surprised and one even told me it was the first book he ever had that was his own. If YOU would like to donate books to our class my scholastic class code is JVZGD and write "for class" as student name. Merry Christmas! God Bless us, everyone!

First Day of School 2012

Students aren't the only ones who take a first day of school photo. Here is mine!

The snazzy yellow reflective vest is because I drove my motor scooter to work today. This is what I looked like leaving the house. As you can see, I am not your usual teacher.