I'm going to do BETTER!

Ok friends, back a few months ago I got so behind on the blog that I just through my hands up for the rest of the year. I know, I know. Not the best attitude, but I could just never find the time to get it done the way I want it to be done so I let it slide....NOT ANY MORE! I plan on having a busy, productive summer, and blogging all my plans for the next school year will be one of my top priorities!!

I didn't lose touch completely with the land of blogging. I am a faithful follower of several blogs including Deedee Wills over at Mrs. Wills Kindergarten. Isn't she awesome?!?!? She is having another book study of Katie Wood Ray's In Pictures and In Words this summer and I am SUPER excited!!

Pictures from the last couple weeks of school to come very soon!!

Happy teaching friends!

I'm a HUGE slacker!

Ok friends, as you can see it has been quite a while. I have been quite busy though. Slade and I are now married! Yay!
Now on to all things Pre-K! I recently went to the SDE TN Pre-K teachers conference, and it was awesome!!!!! If you have never seen Kim Adsit, she is AMAZING!!!! I learned a zillion ways to tweak what I am doing. It also felt great to have some things validated! Now I promise, promise to post some of the things I learned in the next two weeks. I am planning on using that time to slowly make changes in my classroom. Obviously, there won't be any super drastic changes at this point in the year. I don't want to confuse my kiddos, but I do believe I can enhance what I have already been doing. CRAZY exciting! Stay tuned!!

Happy teaching friends!

Math and Literacy Stations....

I have taken lots of pictures this year of the students in their stations, but I have failed to share them. I am going to include a few in this post. If you see something you like, let me know! All other ideas are welcome. Leave a comment and let me know how you run your stations and what your kiddos are working on!

 During our farm unit, we used farm animals to make patterns. Now we are using holiday items like ornaments and candy canes. Pictures soon!

 Here the students are counting sets of objects and matching them with the correct number. The letters on the right side of the pocket chart are part of a literacy station where they sort by beginning sound. Gotta love multiuse materials! :)

 Again, this is an older picture. The little learners were using Autumn leaves. They count the stickers on the colored leaf, color a leaf on the paper to match, and write the number of stickers. Make sense?

 I don't know about yours, but my kiddos love beads. This math station is very simple- numbers glued to pipe cleaners, and the students add that number of beads. FUN!

 Back around Halloween, we made sets in muffin pans. I simply wrote the numbers in the bottom of each cup, and the students had mini Halloween erasers to make the sets. :)

 This station is again making sets but it also helps my four year olds with fine motor skills through peeling and sticking the stickers. Plus, they love stickers!!

I have said it before, but it makes my heart melt when I see a Pre-K friend enjoying a book. If only I could have recorded the dialogue between these two to share with you. This is not our "Book Nook", but it is a shelf I have in our large group area. I keep books that I am going to share as a read aloud here. They were more interested in these so they plopped down for a read. I LOVE IT!

Most of the stations I have shared here are Math stations that cover similar skills. I like to see how others do things, and I really enjoy variety so I try to provide it for my kiddos. I will get some pictures of our Literacy stations this week and post as  soon as I can. Again, leave a comment with your ideas and station activities!

Happy teaching friends!

Well, it has been far too long!

After the last post, I had every intentions of making a new post as soon as we went to pumpkin patch. Well, obviously that didn't happen. I have been so busy with school and personal things that I have not gotten to posting. But, the wait is over! :)

First- pumpkin patch. We had a BLAST! The students L-O-V-E-D it! We went on a hay ride, played pumpkin games, had a snack and story, saw some farm animals, and had our faces painted. On top of all  that, the kiddos learned lots of interesting facts about pumpkins and each one took home their very own pumpkin. We also received a large pumpkin for the class to investigate when we arrived back at school. Seriously, it was one of my absolute favorite days of the school year so far!

Second- I also have a few pictures of a turkey glyph that we made Friday at school. These turned out great! I originally got the idea from a website called Overall Success. I have also seen it on a couple blogs. They were so cute I couldn't resist! This week we will continue to learn about Thanksgiving, and we will end our week with a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving of our own! The little ones are so excited! We have a count down on the board next to our calendar.

Now- the pictures!

 Mrs. Michelle telling all about pumpkins and how they grow.

The students REALLY enjoyed petting the animals. There is a rabbit in there somewhere. :)

Almost every single one squealed at the touch of the pumpkin "guts".

Happy teaching friends!!

A day full of pumpkins!

We are going to a pumpkin patch tomorrow morning, and when we return to school we will do a pumpkin investigation and taste test. I made a pumpkin cake, and I think it turned out pretty cute. I just hope the kiddos like it! I'll be back this weekend with LOTS of pumpkin pictures, but for now just one of the cake. :)

Happy teaching friends!

Our First Day Back....

I was worried how our day would go because we were out of school all last week for Fall Break, but we had a great day! I took a couple pictures of our monster display in the hallway as well as a couple of students' first experience with shaving cream. It was a blast! We wrote our names, letters, numbers, shapes etc. They just loved it!

We sorted our monsters glyphs by color.

I think the monsters turned out really cute. This was our first glyph of the year.

And a couple in the shaving cream.....

 Happy teaching friends!

A few more pictures....

I know that I said that I would do this sooner, but it has been a busy Fall Break for me! I mentioned before that we did several Chicka Chicka activities, and I inlcuded a picture of a hallway display that was inspired by a fellow blogger, but I can't remember now where I got the idea and can't find it on any of the blogs I follow so whoever thought of this, THANK YOU THANK YOU! My students loved seeing their pictures up!

On another note, it is back to school for me tomorrow. I had a productive Fall Break, but mostly things that I needed to for my wedding in December and not as many for school. I did finish everything on the MUST DO list though.

Tomorrow, we will begin a unit on pumpkins that will span the next two weeks ending with a trip to a local pumpkin patch. I know the kiddos are going to be super excited. Pumpkin Unit pictures soon!

Chicka Chicka hallway display

We learned all about fire safety!

 A few more pics of our apple unit.

Happy teaching friends!