words

"Hey! I was there first!"

Normally, when I hear these words, I roll my eyes anticipating a squabble between two kiddos who both want to be the line leader.

Today, hearing these words made me happy.

Why?

They came from a little girl who was silent in my classroom until about February because she is still learning English.

Go girl!

Crossing Over

I have officially turned a corner to realizing how little time is left in the school year and feeling like I am going to be a big ball of sadness when my kiddos leave me and become first graders. Lately I have been trying to do things a bit more "my own way" and I have been loving it. Today as I circulated the room while my kiddos were writing in their journals, I literally felt like I was just soaking in their adorableness. I seriously LOVE them.

They make me laugh.

They make me smile.

They make my heart feel full and happy.

Even the ones who need constant reminders to stay on their bottoms and keep quiet when I am talking are pretty awesome little people.


Case in point....Today I read the story The Three Questions, which is pretty deep and very philosophical. The main theme is that a little boy wants to figure out how to be a good person, so he is trying to find the answers to three important questions. The "moral" of the story so to speak is to be good to the ones you are with. We talked about how it's important to be kind to one another and do nice things for each other.  I asked both classes if this story reminded them of another story we read earlier this year (thinking about Have You Filled a Bucket Today?) and they came up with many different stories that we have read that included acts of kindness...like Trixie giving away Knuffle Bunny to the crying baby on the plane. We have started talking about "book to book connections" and they were all over it, thinking of wonderful examples and really remembering those acts of kindness displayed by some of our favorite characters.

At one point today we started talking about how soon they will become first graders and they will go to another teacher. One little boy said, "I am going to miss you Mrs. Sneaker."

::tear::

ok, let's be real....

::lotsandlotsoftears::

Those little peanuts who showed up on the first day, some of them never having been in school before, are just so grown up. Reading. Writing. Making book to book connections! I almost can't take the fabulosity! (yes, I made that word up).

I used to look at the Kindergarten students (back when I taught first grade) and think that they were such babies. So not capable of things that my kiddos could do. Now, that I have been on the other side, I feel like they are going on to first grade with so many skills! They are seriously awesome.

I love my job.

Stone Soup

This week we are focusing on the letter V, so we are having a vegetable party on Friday. Each kiddos is responsible for bringing in a particular vegetable which they conceal in a paper bag and they will give the rest of the kiddos three clues about it so they can guess which vege it is. Since we are focusing on veges, I thought it would be a great week to read Stone Soup. I scoured the library (ok, I really scoured the library website and amazon) to find some different versions of the story to read this week. I bought several different versions in Germany last year, but I left them in storage, so off to the library I went. Luckily, between the two closest libraries, I found almost all of the books I wanted.

We started today with the version of Stone Soup written by Marcia Brown. This is the old school version I remember, and despite some aspects that didn't seem like they would be too familiar for the kiddos, they were so enraptured! I used some cute ideas from here so the kids could put the vegetable cutouts in the pot while we read the story. I backed the pictures with poster board, laminated them, and put small magnets on the back. That way, I can reuse them next year. Stories are always more fun when they are a little bit interactive!

Next we will read Kallaloo, which is a version of Stone Soup that takes place in the West Indies. The images, people, and food are somewhat different, so this version is really fun to read. 

Finally, we will read Cactus Soup. I think lots of kiddos will relate to the types of food in this version and Eric Kimmel books are great.

I had the kiddos write today in order to tell whether or not they would share their food to make Stone Soup. It was interesting to hear their responses and I loved seeing some of their critical thinking. Tomorrow I am going to have them write lists in a little book I put together to show what kinds of food went into the different soups.

A few other versions that I came across, but didn't find are:

I am a big fan of how these different versions represent different kinds of people in different places and many cultures.

Fun!

Today was our grading day, so I was in my classroom without the kiddos for a bit. I actually finished most of my report cards yesterday afternoon before class, so all I had left this morning was writing grades for my PM class. It was so fun looking through their journals and what they have written recently. I LOVE kid writing and I kind of wish I could just teach writing all day long and incorporate good literature and fun stories.... ahhh, that would be fun.

I headed to the library once I was done at school and got several (ok, lots) of books for next week. We are going to be focusing on the letter v and having a vegetable party on Friday. I thought it would be fun to read Stone Soup, so I got that and a bunch of other books related to gardening and vegetables. I am still trying to think of a fun writing idea that the kiddos can do that has to do with comparing the different versions of Stone Soup. I have been meaning to post the über cute writing they did with the Mo Willems books, but I lost my flash drive, so I can't scan them. Soon, I promise!

After heading to two different local libraries in order to secure all of the books I wanted, I went in to Michael's because this girl loves some arts and crafts! I heart their $1 bins and I always come away with really cute stuff, especially different paper products that I truly don't need with either a K or a T on them. I have an obsession with monogrammed items.... Today I found the most adorable little stamp sets in the dollar bin. They are complete alphabet sets in lower case and upper case.

1 dollar each.

Deal!

I love them so much I am tempted to stamp out a little letter to someone, so I can only imagine how much fun some of my kiddos will have "writing" with them. Each letter stamp is really tiny, but I recall loving things that were small when I was little. I had many very small books that I absolutely adored, so I think these will be a big hit, especially among some of my girlies. I need to get some new ink though, because the ink pads that I got in the dollar bins at Michaels in the past turned out to be not so kid friendly. Many a kid has gone home after stamping with very colorful hands.....oops! I should have been wary given that the word 'tampon' was on that brand (must mean something have to do with ink in French), but needless to say, they were not quite washable.

I am off to class in a little bit, so I need to snack up, clean up, and then hit up the adidas store for my cute husband who has requested some new kicks. Have I mentioned that I reunite with my cute sweetie in just about 66 days?! The countdown is on!

Happy Weekend! Think of me sitting in class as you are out doing fun things and hopefully relaxing:0)

600?

I think subconsciously I have been putting off posting this week because this is my 600th post and I felt like maybe it needed a little more fanfare that the run of the mill 'this is how my day went' kind of post. But alas, I don't know if I have anything more exciting that the regular stuff.

How about some balloons?

noise makers?

confetti?

That feels more like a celebration!

I have recently noticed several new followers popping up, so if you are a new visitor....welcome! I hope you like what you see! I kind of feel like Sneaker Teacher has strayed from my original intentions....I blog about my life as a teacher, but not so much in terms of writing specifically about what I am doing in the classroom. I do that more on my classroom blog, but for the sake of maintaining the privacy of my students, I keep the two separate. When I first started blogging it was more about specific teaching ideas and sometimes I want to get back to that, but I also appreciate how the blog changes as my life changes.  I have some really cute student work that I wanted to post, but somehow scanning a copy or taking a picture is not at the top of my to do list. I will try to get those up this weekend because they are SO cute. 

We have been reading Mo Willems' books up the wazoo and the kiddos can't get enough. We have read "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late" several times and each time it is just as entertaining as the first. The kiddos are starting to try and read our Mo favs during their quiet reading time and I love to see them so engaged in real literature! As much as I can, I try to include themes in our reading, writing, and math, which doesn't happen that often because we use different programs for each. This week, I have tried to bring in more Mo and we've done several activities related to his books. I wanted to work on graphs with the kids, so I made a blank graph with Mo's main characters along the bottom. I "polled" the kids one at a time to see which character is their favorite and created the graph as they watched. We discussed what information we could get from looking at the graph and then each child go a completely blank graph which they used to poll the rest of the group. Most kiddos used 5 different colors along the bottom and then asked the other kids which color was their favorite, but a few got really creative and drew five different snacks or sports teams. One kiddo even drew 5 different characters from a Mario Brothers game. Both groups LOVED going around and asking each other their question and coloring in the bars on their graph. It also gave them practice in writing the numbers 1-10 along the y axis.

Mo Willems Work

In writing, I created a sheet with some sentence frames and had the kids complete the sentences, "My favorite Mo Willems book is ____________. I like it because ___________." We talked about giving a reason why they liked it with details about something that happened in the story. Most of the kids wanted to write, "I like it because it is funny," but some did go beyond that and say why. A few wrote they liked Knuffle Bunny Free the most because they liked it when Trixie gave Knuffle bunny to the baby. I love seeing the deeper thinking from some of my higher kiddos. They are making connections between the different Mo books and it is so fun to see their excitement each time I bring out a different one. I have cleaned out both our school library and the local library, but there are still several I haven't come across. 

Today in writing we read Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late again and I had the kiddos come up with something that the pigeon would say to try and stay up late. I gave them a sheet with a picture of pigeon and they did their writing and then drew a voice bubble around their text. They did such a great job and I am in love with their work! Every single student was engaged in their writing and I got good work from everyone--even the kiddos who struggle a lot. I really wish I could post my favorite ones!!! Stay tuned because you will love them too! For the first time, we gathered on the rug after we wrote and I shared all of their work with them. They got to see what everyone else did and they smiled really big when I read what they had written. I think I will do that more often! 

Pigeon Voice Bubble

In other news, I am getting another new student tomorrow. I got two new students last week (or maybe it was the week before) and now another one. All boys....and they are all boy. At least with the one that starts tomorrow, I got to choose whether to have him in my morning class or my afternoon. I chose the afternoon because I already have a few really challenging boys in the morning, but in reality the same goes for the afternoon. I got to glimpse at his report card today from his previous school and it seems as though he has some behavior issues....lovely. When I think about how that might work with the very rambunctious kiddos that are in my PM class, I wonder if that was a good choice, but I already made it. The afternoon class has gotten about 8 new kids this year (as of now....) so they are really good at accommodating new students. They were so excited to find out about our new addition, so hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow. Getting a new kiddo always makes me a bit of a nervous wreck! On that note, maybe I should go put my feet up and relax :0)

Cheers to 600 posts on Sneaker Teacher and 600 more to come!

Highlights

Classes are back in full swing which might explain why I have been MIA for the past few days. Thankfully I am not totally swamped with work so far, but as always I have been super busy and the week just flew by! I woke up yesterday feeling awful with a bad headache and feeling really tired, but I worked anyway and made it through. I felt a little better today and worked again, but I am really glad it is the weekend and even more glad that I don't have class this weekend. Here are a few high notes on the week:

• I have been assessing my kiddos all week because I need to do report cards again and the kids have been doing table activities while I pull one kiddo at a time. I always find it really hard to complete all of the assessments I need to do because let's face it, when Kindergarten students are not entirely supervised sometimes chaos happens. I have a hard time really focusing on the child I am assessing when I am distracted by kids being too noisy, asking me to get a drink, asking me to go to the bathroom, telling on each other etc., etc., etc. I had a few parent volunteers help, but on most days, it was just me and the kiddos. Luckily, they were really into the tables activities (especially the new science materials from my donors choose proposal that just arrived!), so I was able to finish all but a few assessments. I was really pleased with the growth my kiddos have made recently!
• I had a great day with both classes because we did a lot of hands on activities that are just more developmentally appropriate than a lot of the direct instruction lessons we typically do. They did exploration with pattern blocks during math and came up with some really great, creative designs and I loved seeing their work. I know they have gained a lot of skills because of the structured programs that we use, yet I love to see them really engaged in activities that better align with their interests.
• Speaking of kids being interested, we have continued keeping up with the eagle in New Jersey whose eggs have been on the verge of hatching since last Friday. Finally, we were able to see one baby today! The kids were so excited and I was too! I put the video up and had it projecting on the white board when they came in. During the middle of our circle time, the mother eagle began to feed her baby and we just stopped everything and watched. We abandoned circle time so the kids could go back to their seats to see better and they wrote in their journals about what they saw. I absolutely loved the spontaneity and pure excitement that was evident from just going along with something that was in the moment and really interesting. 
• We have been LOVING Mo Williams this week and enjoying all of the books that I can get my hands on. One reader recommended Knuffle Bunny Free, which I borrowed from the library and we loved it. I could barely keep myself from crying because it was such a sweet ending, but I don't think the kiddos noticed. We also finally read Leonardo the Terrible Monster and reread a few of our favorite Pigeon books. They just can't get enough! I am going to incorporate his books into a writing activity next week. I think I will have my little friends write about which book they like the best. Or, maybe draw the pigeon and write something funny that he would say. 
• The science stuff from donors choose is awesome! I am so glad that it was funded because the kids were so excited to explore magnets, sound, and colors! 
• Although I didn't feel well at all, I stayed late and organized my room yesterday. I like to consider myself a neat person, yet I have a hard time keeping everything in its place at school. I did a lot of cleaning, sorting, and it felt good! I feel like I never have enough time since I have to leave school at 3:50 in order to get to class on time, so it was really great to be productive for once! 

Next week I am planning to do the experiment that shows how carnations in colored water soak up the water and turn color. I remember trying this once before and it didn't work. Does anyone have any tips for making it work? I think I will try it out tomorrow to make sure I can get it right so I would love some advice!

Happy Weekend! 

Race

Yesterday I ran in my very first half marathon! It was hard, but I survived! My official time was 2:03:07 and I averaged 9:21 miles. Woot woot! I think I convinced myself that I will never run a full marathon, but I am really glad I tried a half. I think after I have plenty of recovery time I would try another one, but probably not until next year....

I wore my race shirt and medal to school today to show the kiddos. They asked if I won the race....haha. Not quite, but, in my own little way, I did win. I set out to accomplish a very difficult goal, I trained hard (in the cold, wind, and rain) and I crossed that finish line. So, yes, I guess that makes me a winner.

I went to bed really early last night and I am feeling like I will do the same tonight! I feel like I got a lot accomplished after school today though and then I had dinner with some friends, so I am feelin' pretty good :0)

Love its

Yesterday I ditched the writing activity I had planned in order to have the kids observe this Bald Eagle who was supposedly sitting on eggs that were about to hatch. I am still slightly suspicious that the interest in these "just about to hatch" eggs was an April Fool's joke, but I am so glad my friend Britta told me about the site because my kiddos LOVED watching the eagles. During writing they observed the video, which I projected onto the big whiteboard, drew a picture, and wrote about what they saw.

Free video streaming by Ustream

I loved the feeling of forgetting about what was planned in order to go with something immediate and interesting to the kids. I kept the video up all day and we continued to check in with the eagle as we went about our business. It was really cool. At one point we saw the eagle pair switch places so the one who had been sitting on the eggs could take a break. We weren't sure which was the male and which was the female, but we did get to see the eggs when they traded spots. Love it!

I have class this weekend, but the Friday session gets out at 7:30 instead of 9 (like my other weekend class). Both my new teachers are awesome so far and I am really liking this class that focuses a lot on journal writing and reflective writing. Love it!

After class last night I had to go buy a journal and I found monogrammed sticky notes at Staples on sale for 1.99. Need I say more? Love it!

Before class yesterday I arrive on campus early, so I got an iced latte and sat out in the sun (yes, we finally got some sun in PDX) and I read my book club book on my ipad. Love it!

I am headed to class again today from 9-4, but luckily we have an awesome farmer's market on campus so I can visit during our lunch break. Love it!

Tomorrow is the half marathon! Wish me luck :0)