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Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas in 7A


Come on in! Ms. Patton's class is always open. :)


I always want to remember what I have done year to year in my classroom. This December was a FUN time for our Kinders! I hope they all have great memories from our fun. 


Square Books Junior had Chris Van Allsburg, the author of The Polar Express for a book signing at the end of November. The teachers had all decided that we would do the play as our Christmas program this year. I thought it would be awesome to meet him and get my classroom copy of the book signed. I stood in line, met him, snuck a picture and then COMPLETELY forgot to read the book and tell the story to my kiddos.
(typical December madness incident.) Ha! Can't wait to share this memory with my kiddos next year. 


Snowflake, our elf, showed up from the North Pole and was still cold from his travels! Our kiddos named him and we learned a lot from him. How to be patient, how magic happens and how we need to behave so that he can brag on us to Santa! :) These are just a few of the funny things we experienced with him. He was a BUNDLE of fun! (except for that day that the teacher forgot to move him). OOPS!

                    

Our Christmas party at school could only consist of a few hours so we found lots of things to fill that time. Together as a class, we made fake snow with the ingredients above and it was SO much fun. It's cold and mold able so it  makes for a fun science experiment too!  Then, we made our goody bags for the students to take home which included their ornaments that they made their parents. These were super easy this year and are so cute because they include their thumbprints. I love a good home-made gift that a parent can keep forever. 

 We had a great day watching "The Polar Express" after our play and enjoying hot chocolate. All my teacher friends that have this fun day.. Please tell me that you pour a gallon of chocolate milk into your crockpot and call it a day! Much easier and it taste phenomenal. 


In December, I absolutely love being a teacher! Having so much fun with these kiddos is what I do best and I'm praying that they learn something in the process. Teaching is so much more than kids learning facts from a book. The experiences that they have are what makes learning so fun. I hope that they carry so many fun memories from our December together.

What fun things did you incorporate in your classroom?

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Throwback// Fairy Tales.

Someday you will be old enough to start reading Fairy Tales again. - C.S. Lewis


Lucky for me, Fairy Tales are engrossed in a unit that we do in Kindergarten! What person doesn't want to read fairy tales and talk about what they mean with a 5 year old? It's a fun week and we get to do some neat activities while learning!


I had our kiddos save their milk cartons and we used these to make the houses from the Three Little Pigs! It was adorable and the students loved being able to work together (aka, FIGHT) for which was theirs and who could stick the most on their houses. It was hilarious to see how much straw actually fit on their cartons! Poor babies!


Then,  we made our own story board using file folders and their coloring of the three pigs. They loved being able to use their wolf to blooooowwww all the houses down. My favorite moment was seeing these kids use their re-telling skills to share and discuss the story! 


Towards the end of the week, we made these pig noses out of egg cartons. It was adorable and I hope that all of the noses made it home safely! 


Let me tell you! I never knew all the options of activities and FUN things that I could do as a teacher! I often think back to student teaching and thinking that my life would be consumed with worksheets and test and all those "teachery things."

But, in all reality Kindergarten is full of hands on learning and being able to see their learning through play and enriching activities. Now, I am not gullible enough to think that every activity that I do is important and beneficial because I know better! But, I do believe that my students have fun in my classroom and they learn something new each day!

I love my classroom and can't wait to share more with you! Catch up at it's finest... 

Happy Thanksgiving week! :)

Ms. Patton

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

The one with the pumpkin.


You know those weeks where you just feel like you have a plan and you love what you are talking about. Well, pumpkins do that to me! I LOVE researching and finding ideas that will help kids see pumpkins up close and personal. 

I have found that so many children have never carved a pumpkin, much less looked on the inside and cleaned a pumpkin out before. It was a eewwy, gooey experience that I am SO glad we got to enjoy together!  We did worksheets, watched videos and talked LOTS about the Life cycle of a pumpkin. The kinders really picked up on this and loved talking about how they grew. The Life Cycle of Pumpkins hat was my favorite activity that we did. The kids did such a good job on coloring and placing the events in order. It was really easy for this teacher and the lesson was presented just as well! 

While on this unit, we went on our Fall Field Trip to Cedar Hill Farms in Hernando, MS. We had such a good day! The weather was beautiful and the students were intrigued and loved seeing all the "fall fun" around them. We did have a OOPS moment in our day though. CH Farms has a play area for kids and we waited to go there last before we loaded the buses. I told all of our students to put their pumpkins on the back wall of a building, and they did to my knowledge. When we were about 10 minutes from loading the bus, we started lining up and guess what? NO PUMPKINS! THEY WERE GONE! Can you imagine the chaos that ensued?


My students were crying from exhaustion and the sheer fact that their pumpkins were missing. Thankfully I talked to the lady at the farm and she let me grab enough of the smaller pumpkins to make up for the pumpkins that were MIA. Wow.. I have never. #welcometotheworldofteachers

FALL is treating us well in Ms. Patton's room. We are dissecting pumpkins, dressing up on Friday for Halloween and enjoying the cool weather!

Also, this song is our treat these days! They love to DANCE for Halloween! :)

Check back often.. we have lots up our sleeves. 

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Apples, Apples, Apples.


Have we really been in school for 51 days? This is CRAZY, I tell ya! We were in the middle of Morning Meeting this morning and I told my kiddos I couldn't believe how much we have been through together already! :)

Apples is one of my favorite weeks to explore with the kids. Kindergarteners have a very limited knowledge of how Apples grow and what we see when we look at apples. It's fun by the end to have them talking in the "apple language" and telling their friends which color apple is their favorite. 


Naturally, we did a graph before tasting our apples to see which we predicted we would like the best. (Yes, I see my grammar mistake!) The students were so excited to try the apples and make the decision based on what they tasted. You give a kid food and they'll do anything you ask! :)




The students filled out an "Apple Investigation" which included how many cubes tall they thought their apples were and many other ways of seeing what apples are all about. I let them work in groups to boost their engagement and friendliness with their peers. 

On Friday, we told them that we were going to make homemade applesauce.  We brought the apples and cut them open that morning. Isn't the star in the middle just the coolest? We cut the apples into little pieces, mixed them with sugar, ground cinnamon, and sugar and let them cook in the crockpot for the rest of the day. Right before school was out for the day, we smashed the applesauce up and waited for the verdict.

Our kiddos LOVED it! They had WONDERFUL things to say about it. They wanted their mamas' to make it for them as soon as they all got home! I've never felt so loved because we ALL know I'm no cook.


We included Johnny Appleseed books in the mix and had a great week learning about red, yellow and green apples. Can't wait to see what happens next year! 

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Back it Up// Open House and Classroom Decor.

I remembered that I had never showed the ins and outs of Open House in my classroom. This is always a very exciting time for me because it sets the tone for the parents and lets the teacher in on little quirks, etc. that are within each child.

For Open House this year, I decided to have a few snacks for the families to enjoy. I had lemonade, cookies and mints. I loved setting up with my Mason Jar drink dispenser and my McCarty pottery tray! The parents and the kids enjoyed snacking and my kids fully expected this on their first day too! One little girl asked me where the cookies were? Whoops!

I did a "scavenger hunt" type walk-through with the parents. When they walked in the door it explained that they needed to visit each station. The first was a sign in page and had directions for them to take the forms that needed to be returned ASAP. The second station was the drop off school supply table. Most of our parents brought their supplies on Meet the Teacher night but a few waited until the first day of school. 

The third station was a place for the student to pick out their seat and for their parents to fill out paperwork. I also had a coloring book that students could take and choose a picture to color while they waited on their parents.The fourth station was the snack table and where my assistant and myself stood to talk to the parents and students. Meet the Teacher went really well and the majority of my class came to see what Kindergarten was going to be all about. 


My room this year is INCREDIBLE compared to the room(size wise) that I had at my previous school. I have enjoyed having more room and being able to spread out during centers, whole group, etc. I love decorating a room to be a fun place that kids can enjoy and learn! I love all the bright colors and the DIY aspect of all of my accessories. My reading nook is my favorite because we made a "home-y feel" using two file cabinets and a curtain rod. I added wooden pallet book shelves that are super special because my daddy made them! The kids love to put their library books in them and cuddle up to read.

I am SO proud of my room and I can't wait to keep you updated on the progress of our room!

Stay tuned...

Sunday, August 24, 2014

We know our Names!

New school, new classroom= One excited, nervous, and happy teacher!

I'm now a Kindergarten teacher at Lafayette Elementary in Oxford! I am so excited to be back closer to home and to have the sweet kinders that I have. I am trying my best to update this blog weekly for my parents to look and see what we are doing in our class and to see how their children are progressing.

We started on a Friday this year, so that day was spent learning how all of our babies work together and rules and procedures. Then, last week was pretty much spent doing the same thing! The students are really getting the hang of our classroom and how it works!

This past week we have been reading Chrysanthemum and working on activities with our names! I have 19 sweet babies and all of their names are so special! This book is a great book to show with students that no matter what their names are, they are special and no one can take that away!


In the book, the classmates of Chrysanthemum's were mean to her about how her name sounded. They bullied her because it was different and was longer spelled than their names. We talked about how students need to be nice to their friends and how when you say something mean, you can't take it back. We used our heart to demonstrate this and will hang it up in our room for the remainder of the year!

Before you speak
think and be smart
it's hard to fix
a wrinkled heart.

During one of our centers, our kiddos paint dotted their names and we use it for a decoration on one of our front boards. Hopefully as we begin to practice writing, the kids will use the board to write each other's names. 


After working with our names for a few days, the students make rockets with the number of squares that they have in their name. They had to write their name, count the letters and get that many squares to do the craft. These turned out really cute! 


On Friday we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and the kids loved seeing the letters all come together.  They got to put the tree together based on the front cover of the book and then were able to put the letters on the tree to make their name. They turned out so cute!


I can't wait to see what this next week brings! 
Kindergarten is so fun and TIRING at the beginning of the year! :)


Monday, December 23, 2013

All Aboard.. Polar Express Day!



My kiddos sure had a fun day last Thursday! My assistant and myself had plenty of Polar Express fun around the room to make it exciting for the most skeptical kid. Oh how I wish the Polar Express had been around when I was little because it is the coolest story turned into a movie that I have seen! My kids were engaged and loved all the animation that was in the movie.

We started out with our kiddos chairs set up on the carpet like a train and then when they entered the classroom from their Special time we had yellow Polar Express tickets for them to "board" with. Then, we let them watch about half of the movie before we indulged in some "hot chocolate".. (Chocolate milk in the crock pot). I picked out some cute snowman cups and red/white straws from Dollar Tree to make the memories more special. :) This teacher loves some Dollar Tree!


When the movie was over and it was almost time for lunch, Ms. Patton's kiddos got a call from the office and we had a SPECIAL DELIVERY! We had bells, that were directly from the North Pole because they were still cold! AH! It was so fun. Our kids went haywire!


We are lucky to have such a challenging and sweet class! I'm so thankful that we can provide so many happy and fun memories along the way for our Kinders. I pray that they don't remember all the times that we have to correct them but remember all the times that we go above and beyond to share the magic of learning with them!

Hope all of your teachers out there have a Merry Christmas!