Free Programs Coming to Your Classroom

Hi all.  As I'm planning the year, I'm trying to book some of the free programs around the area.  Try checking in with some of your local activities in your area.  

I always schedule the following free programs throughout the year:

How to Keep Our Teeth Healthy - Dentist (30 min)

The hygienist comes to our school to teach us about healthy vs unhealthy foods.  They also teach us the proper way of brushing our teeth at home.  The ladies have a great way of teaching the students how to floss with a jump rope and balls that represent the stuff in between your teeth.  The dental company also sends home a tooth brush, floss, and other knickknacks in a bag so the parents know who came to visit for the day.

Stranger Danger - Police department (30 minutes)

A local police officer comes to our school and teaches us about strangers.  We define what a stranger is and they read a story/discuss what to do when a stranger approaches and how to keep safe.  We practice screaming as if a stranger were around us.  Then there is a short video clip with a stranger danger song.

Officer Patti - Police department (30 minutes)

This is a remote control squad car that focuses on safe people, buckling up and a review of strangers.  The kids LOVE that Officer Patti (the remote control car) speaks to us and truly interacts with us.  It is a fun way of learning how to be safe in our community.

Hand washing - Health Department (30 minutes)

The local health department comes to our classroom to teach us about the importance of hand washing and how to properly wash our hands.  They have a cool contraption that allows the students to see the "germs" (glitter and lotion solution).  This helps them see how bad it is before they wash, and to see what areas they need to work on when they wash their hands next...yes Kindergarteners are not pros at washing their hands.  When they actually see where they didn't clean, they are always surprised.

5-4-3-2-1 Go - Health Department (30 minutes)

5-4-3-2-1 Go!® is the new health message on Nutrition and Physical Activity adopted by the DuPage County Health Department. This message teaches students that being healthy is as easy as; 5 fruits and vegetables a day, 4 glasses of water a day, 3 servings of low-fat dairy a day, no more than 2 hours of screen time a day, and 1 or more hours of physical activity a day. This message is easy to understand for all ages.

 Dazzle Duck - Retired Teacher's Husband (30 minutes)

A retired teacher's husband comes in to teach us about colors, rhyming and how to be a good student with Dazzle Duck (a puppet).

Alphabet Puppet Show - Retired Teacher's Husband (30 minutes)

A retired teacher's husband comes in to teach us about the alphabet with Dazzle Duck (a puppet).  He goes through the whole alphabet and then has different pictures that begin with each letter.  He engages the students with humor and allowing them to guess the pictures.

Career Day - Different Parents (2 hours)

We invite parents to come into the classroom to teach the students about their different careers.  This is up to the parents to plan their talk on their own.

These are all free guests that come into my classroom.  Do you have any other free programs that you'd like to share with the rest of us to have more hands on learning from different departments around your community?

Please share in the comments!  We'd love to hear from you!

1st Day of Kindergarten

First Day of Kindergarten

Let me set the tone for you first - I always host a "Kindergarten Connection" a few days before school.  This involves an opportunity for students to meet me, see the classroom, drop off school supplies, play on the playground, meet the PTA and meet friends in their classroom.  This gives me an opportunity to have many of my supplies on the 1st day of school.  Yes, it's true - I've never had 100% attendance, but I still love the fact that MOST of my supplies are already put away before the 1st day of school.  Because, let's face it, supplies are one of the most frustrating things about the 1st day of school.

Dismissal is the most stressful thing about the first day of school.  At Kindergarten Connection, I have parents varify how students will get home for the year, and to mark if it will be different on the 1st day of school.  If the parents aren't at Kindergarten Connection, I do email or make phone calls on the first day.

One more thing about our school, we have an AM dismissal at 11:05, and then an additional "OKEEP" program in the afternoon.  This is an Optional Kindergarten Enrichment and Enhancement Program.  In order for students to stay for the full day of Kindergarten (8:20-2:55), they must pay to stay.

Ok - now, back to the 1st day of school.

8:20 - 8:30 Welcome to Kindergarten

• Greeting, Name Tags/Attendance and a "Welcome to Kindergarten" coloring worksheet.
• Since most supplies are put away, I put some crayons and pencils on tables if students weren't able to make it to the Kindergarten Connection.

8:30 - 9:00 Ice Breaks and Introductions

• Discussion: “Say your name. Then answer this: 'if I could be an animal, what would I be?”
• Animal scramble.  Give students a picture of an animal.  Let them look at it and think of the noise the animal makes. Find a spot around the room.  Then have them close their eyes, get on all fours and find a match.
• Once they find their match, work on introductions and give your partner a high-five. Find another partner after you've already introduced yourself to one matching animal. Find as many matching animal sounds before time is called.

9:00 - 9:45 School Tour 

• Read Aloud: Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes. 
  • At the end of the story, I always have a "note" fall out at the end of the book that says that Pete was around the school.

• Introduce mystery walker.

• Practice walking in a line in the classroom before you go out in the hall. Search for Pete the Cat school tour cards around the building. Try to find Pete as he was strolling through your school. Each one says, "Goodness no," to us worrying about missing him.

• When you get back from the tour, Pete leaves an "It's all good" worksheet for the students. Allow them to color for a few minutes.

9:45 - 10:20 Restroom Break and Recess 

• Rules/routines about restroom - unless it comes up sooner

10:20 - 10:35 - Snack and Read Aloud

10:35 - 10:50 - “A Year of Writing in Kindergarten” Journal

• Decorate journal cover and 1st day of school picture. 
  • If possible, take pictures of students on the first day (so you can put it in the journal too).

10:55 - 11:05 Read Aloud Scrapbook 

• Personal Scrapbook about myself called "The Adventures of Mrs. Brouwer"

11:05 - 11:15 GoNoodle Activity

• Dismiss those that aren't staying.

11:15-11:40 Lunch Prep

• Read Lunch Bunnies by Kathryn Lasky

• Establish rules and procedures - cafeteria. Take a tour of what table they will sit at, where the milk is and where to throw the trash away (we do not have hot lunch available).

• Practice lining up (introduce the hallway chant and line transitions).  
  
  

11:40 - 12:20 Lunch/Recess

12:20 - 12:45 PM Pow Wow

• Establish reentering classroom rules and PM Pow Wow

• Review Rules and Procedures

• Allow for bathroom/drink break

• Calming music and relaxation time

12:45 - 1:00 Getting to Know You Activity

1:00 - 1:40 Shared Reading/Writing

• Read Aloud:  The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
• Discuss the Kissing Hand (quick text/story review).
• First Day Feelings Anchor Chart (text to self connections) and predictable sentences.
  • Graph what the students are feeling today. Discuss most/least.
• Chester writing craft: "On the first day of school, I am feeling ____."
  • Stamp a hand print in the middle. Put a heart sticker in the middle.
  
  

1:40 - 1:55  Getting to Know You Game/Activity or Recess

• Recess or brain break at this time too!

1:55 - 2:25 Read Aloud David Goes to School

• Invite students to carpet. 
• Praise those who came to carpet following the rules and review carpet rules. 

•  Come up with rules for the classroom together.  Make a chart to review this week.

2:25 - 2:40 Getting to Know you Activity

2:40-2:55 Dismissal Stack and Pack

• Folders and explanation of each side of the folder.

• Show where each student will go for dismissals.

• Monitor.
  
  
  It was a very busy day. I got in 9000 steps today in my tiny room. Who would have thought it was so many.
  
  
  The biggest goal of my day - get to know my students, make them comfortable and have a little bit of fun here and then. I hope your first day of school was as successful as mine! It's a new year! Enjoy every moment of it.

Author Fest

Calling All Authors!

Every year, our district hosts an author festival.  The students have the opportunity to meet many different authors at their grade level.  This year, we had the opportunity to meet Michelle Schaub, the author of Fresh-Picked Poetry - A Day at the Farmer's Market.  She was entertaining, enthusiastic and the students couldn't wait to participate in her reading!  We loved learning about how Michelle became an author and the things that inspire her every day.  She was inspiring to our students.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Our PTA does an amazing job of helping raise money for the school throughout the year.  One of the amazing events is "Game Night."  This is an adult only activity.  At game night, there are different silent auctions throughout the evening.  My teaching partner, LRC director and I decided that we would host a "Teddy Bear Picnic."  The students were allowed to bring their stuffed animals to school and have a picnic with us.  We opened it up to the entire class (and past students as well).  This gave the PTA an opportunity to make more money.  Students stayed after school for 1 hour so we could participate in some fun!

Unfortunately it was a rainy day so we had to improvise.  These are some of the things we did at our picnic:

-Craft: Bear crowns

-Game: Played "Pin the Bow Tie on the Bear"

-Activity: We put our stuffed animals in the center of a sheet and try to pop them off of the sheet.  The girls were giggling the entire time and probably could have played this for much longer.

-Snack: Teddy grahams, marshmallows and chocolate chips

-Song: Listened to songs about Teddy Bears

-Read Aloud: The Bears' Picnic by Stan and Jan Berenstain

At the end of the day, the students were allowed to keep their stuffed animals at the school for a teddy bear sleepover.  In the morning, the students could come back to school 10 minutes early to get their stuffed animals and they saw that their stuffed animals had a party when they got back - more crafts were finished, supplies moved and they were all around the room.  The kids thought it was so much fun!

Insects

Last week we studied insects.  What are some characteristics of insects - 6 legs, head, thorax and abdomen!

We spent our Science day learning all about insects by reading books, learning on Brain Pop Jr, and going outside to explore some of the insects on our own playground!  Our technology day consisted of listening to different insect stories on our iPads (using QR codes).  We used Seesaw to draw and tell our favorite book and why it was our favorite!  For engineering, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  We built our own chain link caterpillar.  Our art project for the week consisted of reading The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle.  We made our fireflies glow in our jars with glow-in-the-dark paint!  Finally, our math was a color by adding insect picture.

So, I will leave you a quote by an unknown author for your students...

"What did the firefly say to the other when we left?"
"I have to glow now."

St. Patrick's Week

We were lucky all week in Kindergarten! We learned many things about Ireland, St. Patrick's Day and enjoyed some leprechaun fun.

Earlier in the week, our Science experiment consisted of erupting rainbows (vinegar and baking soda).

During Engineering, we read How to Catch a Leprechaun by  Justine Korman.  My students loved seeing the different ideas that the kids did to catch the leprechaun.  After the students went back to their desks, they had to draw how they would build a leprechaun trap.  After they drew their trap, they created it out of everyday items from our STEAM materials.  Each of our traps were different and my Kinders enjoyed explaining how their traps work on SeeSaw! They got to video tape each other and show their parents immediately how their traps worked.

After we were finished with our traps, we brainstormed what we would think, feel, say, and do if we caught a leprechaun.  We came up with many different things that we could do.  Many students wanted to ride a rainbow or get the gold.  This student want a Lamborghini!  :)  Kids say the best things!












After reading The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing, we made a pot of gold art so the leprechaun might come into our room trying to find all of the gold.

On Friday, when we came into the room, there was a tricky leprechaun who painted rainbows everywhere, left footprints on our tables, turned out posters around, left a mess in our library and our leprechaun traps had gold coins in them!

Of course we made some leprechaun art and enjoyed our week study of leprechauns!

 

 Get my free writing template and pot of gold art

here!

 

Dr. Seuss STEAM

Hi everyone!  I'm excited to start blogging about my years in Kindergarten!

Last week was Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Like many of you, we spent the entire week working on Dr. Seuss!  Throughout each subject, we incorporated Dr. Seuss books.  Even during our S.T.E.A.M. time, we spent all waking moments on Dr. Seuss.

Our favorite activity started with our Science "phenomena."  A phenomena is something that sparks questions for the students.  I showed a bunch of pictures from Dr. Seuss books.  All of the pictures were interesting buildings Dr. Seuss has drawn in his books.  The students were amazed by all of the pictures and how things were standing and if they could really look like the Dr. Seuss books.

This obviously sparked many questions for the students so we had our "Question Session."  We wrote down many questions, but we only investigated one.  How can I build a Dr. Seuss building?

Each student began his/her drawing of what "Seussville" would be best to build.  The table had to come together to discuss what they wanted to do as a table.  Once they were ready, I gave them plenty of materials right from home - yogurt containers, juice boxes, paper towel rolls, paper, etc.



The students immediately wanted to build Seussvilles that were tall and lean and quickly found out that the weight of the items were too much to actually hang the way some of Dr. Seuss buildings were.  They had to rethink, revisit and try again.

Eventually, our Seussville creations were a success.  Day 1 was over and we completed the building stage.

Day 2 consisted of creating a name for our town and painting our Seussvilles.  Some of the names were so cute - Rich World, Sunshineville, We are all Winners 'Ville!  We looked through pictures of some of Dr. Seuss' earlier books - the ones that consisted of only a few colors.  We especially look at the Cat in the Hat.  We noticed how the two main colors are red and blue.  At this time, we picked 1 color that we wanted to paint our town and began finishing step 2 of our Seussvilles.

Day 3 will be writing our own creative story about our own town.   Stay tuned for our writing papers!