Reindeer Poem for Poetry Basket

I am preparing for the kindergarten open house tomorrow night at my school.   However,  I want to share with you my reindeer poem for my poetry basket.  

Go, reindeer, go

Reindeer, go,

Over the snow,

Fast fast and never slow,

Up and down,

Through the town,

Go, reindeer, go, go, go!

Click Here

December Calendar for Smartboard

It is 8:00 pm and I am still working at school.

I can not get my notebook 10 program to work on my Mac at the moment.....it is not the only program not working.  I need to take the laptop in for a new hard drive....

Anyways....I wanted to finish a couple of things at school...and updating my December Calendar was one of the items.  You can download the calendar from my wiki site:

 http://schuellerslessons.wikispaces.com/Calendar

Thanks for reading....and if you have any thoughts or comments.....I would love to hear from you :)Sue

Christmas Sticker Math Station

Christmas Sticker Counting Activity

I need to be honest.....

I read all about how wonderful Math Stations are on everyones' blogs.....and it is not working for me yet.  

I feel that I am not teaching everything that I need to teach.   I am extremely frustrated because my little ones do not seem to remember what to do at each station.  I spend a lot of time explaining and re-explaining to about 10 children.  .......   4 are avoiding doing work.....  and six are racing through everything.  

This month I am not going to introduce everything the first week.  I am going to slowly introduce a station when I have a minute .......  around other lessons.  

So many children did not complete all the tasks in November so I don't feel the need to quickly switch them all.  

Christmas Sticker Counting Activity

 There are ten cards that the children need to practice counting the stickers and then correctly print the numbers on the lines.    

I created this activity because I still have some little ones who struggle with counting and some other children who struggle with working independently.  

All my students need to work on printing their numbers.  

This is easy to make:  I purchased stickers at Target and the Learning Shop and put them on colorful cardstock.  I will laminate them when I get back to school.  

 Here is the recording sheet template........ I left it blank for you......just in case you want to use different stickers.  

Thanksgiving Puppet Show

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend :)

Here are a couple pictures from my Thanksgiving Puppet Show....

If you would like to know more about my puppet show 

Read Here

Thankful Class Book

In class today we made a class book about things we are thankful for........

For those of you, like me, who like to combine subjects together, I made this into a reading, religion and math lesson.

During our religion time we created a web of things and people we are thankful for....

Then for Math....we created this turkey out of paper pattern blocks......

Of course we took the time to review our sight words during reading:  I, am, yes, and, for, me 

and I added:  Love

The children love listening to books that they created.   :)

Sunshine Award

This week I was lucky enough to receive two Sunshine Awards from two kind early childhood bloggers.

Thank You so much for recognizing my blog.....

Thank you Lori from the Cachey Mama's Classroom.....
If you are a preschool teacher or a mommy to a little one you will enjoy this blog. :)

Thank you to Ms. Helms from Work Smart Not Hart Teaching Kindergarten

I just stopped by her blog for a few minutes but I plan on spending more time there exploring especially Math Ideas.   

So Here are the Rules for this Award:

1.  Thank the person who gave the  award to you and write a post about it.
2.  Answer the questions below.
3.  Pass the award to 10 to 12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you have given them the award.

• Favorite color?   pink
• Favorite animal? penguin
• Favorite number? 3
• Favorite drink? non-fat Starbucks Hot Chocolate
• Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook  (I guess)  Not a fan of either
• Your passion? biking  creating decorating  blogging
• Giving or getting presents? Giving
• Favorite day?  Sundays.....that's the day my daughter comes home :)

Now I would like to award the

to the following inspiring blogs:

Chalk Talk

A Place Called Kindergarten

Can Do Kinders

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

Kindergarten Works

Teacher bits & bobs

Kindergarten Rocks

Learning with Mrs. Parker

Technology Rocks.  Seriously.

Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

These blogs are awesome......I love to read their ideas everyday. 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful knowledge with me.   

1.  

Thankful

What a great idea to share this week what you are more thankful for......

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?

First and foremost I am thankful for the most wonderful students and parents in the world.......

Secondly I am thankful for the wonderful smartboard that a parent donated to my classroom

2. What person are you most thankful for?

I am most thankful for my husband.  We have been married for soooo many years and he still puts up with all my crazy ideas.  I am so thankful for his patience and forgiveness.  

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?

This blog is awesome...the organizing and decorating ideas here are amazing.  

This blog is so cute.  There great ideas here that you can use everyday in your classroom.  I love the Friday Favorites. 

I am thankful to April from Chalk Talk for two reasons:  1.  She has amazing ideas that I  use in my classroom all the time and they are wonderful.  2.  She is one of a few bloggers that have listed my blog on her blog list and that has lead to new readers at my blog.  I am thankful for her kindness. 

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?

I begged my husband for this laptop last year for Christmas......and I have gained so much from the blogging world  and Pinterest ever since....so many new ideas......

5. What are you most thankful for?

My family......these are some wonderful kids..  :)

Idea for next year.....turkey related

This is my favorite Thanksgiving book......

Will Mrs. Gumm eat the turkey she raised from an egg on Thanksgiving?

I have so many different ideas I can do with this story.  I think each year I do something different....

• journal writing .... prediction ....Will Mrs. Gumm eat the turkey?
• picture retelling...draw as many items as you can remember that the turkey ate....
• Draw the characters, the setting....What is the problem....
• Write....Why didn't Mrs. Gumm eat the turkey?  

The list can go on forever......

Next year I found a cute follow up art activity that I will try instead of my suncatchers.

Mrs. Wood's Dual Language Kindergarten Class

What is your favorite Thanksgiving Story?

Thanksgiving Cards for the Elderly

Throughout the school year our kindergarten and first grade classes send cards to the elderly in our parish to bring some holiday cheer their way.

 This is my 10th year and each year it is hard to think of a new idea for the children to create.

I was inspired this year when I saw this idea on Pinterest.....sorry no site given.

Unfortunately I did not think the noodles would make it through the mail....so I was thinking sticky tape  until I saw another idea on 

A Place Called Kindergarten

Use scrapbook paper to create feathers.....that was so easy to do.

I have a whole file folder of scrap pieces of scrapbook paper.

And the results and these beautiful cards for someone special :)

Saint Cards

If you are a child of Catholic Faith you will remember these cards

I'm a bit late with this post.....but better late than never.  November first is All Saints Day.  My students had a big project to do with a lot of parent help.  They had to look up information about their Patron Saint and then dress up as their Saint for the Nov. 1, Mass.

Sounds like a lot.....but I have been doing this for years......and the children and parents love it.  I took the information that the parents provided and I took pictures of the children in their costumes and this year I created the children their own saint cards.

We have shared this information about the saints during our religion class.  We created a time line of when the saints lived.  We also look up on the world map where the saints lived and we are creating a list of the good deeds that the saints did to make a difference in God's World.  

More Cute Easy Turkey Projects

This is one of my easiest class book projects during the year......and the kids love it.

They practice counting by 5's all year. :)

We also used our handprints to make these cute placemats... my partner teacher found this cute poem to go with it.  

Operation Christmas Child

A few weeks back the fifth grade teacher at my school presented the idea of having all the children in our school participate in the Operation Christmas Child program this year.  It is a wonderful program and if you have not heard about it you should take a moment and go to their link.   It is an amazing way to bring Christmas to children around the world.

The past week the children in my class brought in lots of crayons, stuffed animals, toothpaste, soap, coloring books, candy, tooth brushes, little toys, puzzles,  lots of wonderful little treasures.  We collected an entire box full of things.   We watched and learned as much as we could about the program and the children in Operation Christmas Child.
Most of the classrooms in our school collected at least one or two boxes full of treasures.

Then we drew pictures to decorated the inside of our shoeboxes and wrote a class letter to the children who will receive our boxes.

Today was packing day and we went down to the lunchroom and we were able to pick out all the wonderful things to pack in our boxes.  We packed two shoeboxes:  one for a girl and one for a boy.

At the end of the school day we prayed with all the other children in our school for the children who will receive our boxes.  We are very excited to find out what country our boxes will go to....