Our Thanksgiving Feast

Check out our Thanksgiving Cooking Stations!

Thanksgiving Blessings Trail Mix

Our room mom did a fabulous job leading the "Thanksgiving Blessings Trail Mix" station!

Bugles: Shaped like a cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, a symbol of our nation's abundance.

Pretzels: Arms folded in prayer, a freedom sought by those who founded our country.

Candy corn: Sacrifices of the Pilgrims' first winter. Food was so scarce that settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn a day.

Nuts or seeds: Promise of a a future harvest, one we will reap only if seeds are planted and tended with diligence.

Dried fruits: Harvest gifts of our bountiful land.

M&Ms: Memories of those who came before us to guide us to a blessed future.

Homemade Butter 

This energetic station was making homemade butter out of whipping cream! 

Ingredients: Whipping cream

Directions: Pour whipping cream into small plastic container and shake, shake, shake! The cream will start to solidify into a butter ball. Salt to taste and serve with popcorn.

Cranberry Relish 

These little cooks-in-the-making are blending up some homemade cranberry relish for their family's Thanksgiving Dinner.

Ingredients: Cranberries, mandarin oranges, and sugar

S'measies

We made "S'measies" at my station (easy s'mores). It is no coincidence that I had the yummiest station, ha ha!

Ingredients: Graham crackers (chocolate or honey), marshmallow fluff, and chocolate frosting

1st 9 Weeks Snapshots!

Wondering what we've been up to these past 9 weeks?

Well, we do a lot of reading in Kindergarten. Did you think we were too young for that?

We are learning how to spell using a variety of tools- Pencil and paper are so last season!!

Recognizing and spelling our own names is important, but we're stepping it up a notch.

Everybody needs a day at the farm. We're practically farmers now!

We found lots of ways to utilize our pumpkins: counting, sorting, ordering, comparing, describing, floating, cooking, graphing......

Ms. Taylor says eating is "exploring our 5 senses"-- we'll take it!

Card games, 10-frames....what is this, 2nd grade??

This 9 weeks has gone by fast. We've learned a lot and had a blast! There's more to come with these next 9, we're gettin' smart and feelin' fine!

Reading Briefcases

Kindergarten reading homework will be in the form of a "Reading Briefcase" that will start coming home this Friday, October 5th! This is oral homework that your child will do with an adult or capable older sibling on your own schedule. Nothing needs to be turned in to me. I recommend that you practice from the reading briefcase at least 3 times a week. Find what works for you and your child, and make sure you return the briefcase on Fridays so I can swap out the old items with new ones. I would suggest keeping the briefcase in the backpack when you are not using it.

Homework Included:

• Homework Sheet (A new homework sheet will be placed in the briefcase each week that includes that weeks new skills and a review of old skills. This is not written homework and will require an adult to participate. It only takes a couple of minutes, I promise!)
• Alphabet Chart (Your child knows how to recite the alphabet chart and you will catch on pretty quickly. Say the letter, sound, and picture in order.)
• Text (A new text will be added each week in the form of a book or paper that your child has already learned in class. Check your child for accuracy and work on fluency by re-reading.)
• Letter Naming Fluency (letter automaticity is important! Make a game out of it and "speed drill" your child twice to see if they can beat their own time!)

Tools Included:

• Phonics Progression & HFW List (The high frequency word list and phonics progression are included so that you can see what order we will be learning our letters and sight words in case you would like to introduce them at home before they learn them at school-- this is not homework :-)
• Alphabet Tracing (not required but a resource for you to see how we learn the proper letter formation at school. You can have your child trace the letters with his/her finger/markers/crayons/pencil at home if you choose. If I think your child needs extra practice, I will send home tracing homework in the blue folder. Otherwise, this is just an option for you if you choose to use it.)
• Reading Log (record each time your child has read the text 3 times. For instance, if you listen to your child read the new text once on Monday and twice on Tuesday, you can fill out the reading log for that text since you have read it 3 times. One text can be used multiple times on the reading log as long as you read it 3 times before recording. Repetition is KEY! Completed reading logs will receive a Recognition Notice.)

Learning to Read...

I am so excited to announce that we will be beginning our phonics progression this week! Beginning with the letter M, we will begin explicit lessons teaching letters and their sounds. We will also start learning how to divide sentences into words, words into syllables, and syllables into sounds.We will learn how to identify the first and last sound in a word, words that rhyme, and words that begin with the same sound. Here is a guide that will help to explain the skills and concepts being taught so that you can practice them at home.

Understanding Reporting of

Kindergarten Performance Standards

Area Related to Standard	Explanation
Reading
Phonological awareness	Phonological awareness refers to the child’s ability to realize that sentences are made up of words and that they can separate and identify these words; that words are made up of syllables which they can hear, clap, and blend; and that syllables are made up of individual sounds which they can hear, rhyme, and blend.
Phonemic awareness	Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in language (i.e.- ch- says /ch/,). Phonemic awareness refers to a child’s ability to hear, identify, separate, and blend the beginning, middle and ending sounds in words (example- bag has 3 sounds- /b/- /a/- /g/).
Applies letter/sound relationships	This standard refers to the child’s ability to match all 26 letters to their sounds, plus read and write these sounds. It also refers to the child’s ability to match letters to their sounds to read new words. Lastly, it includes the child’s understanding that print is read from left to right and that when the end of the line is reached that the reader must return to the left side of the page (i.e. “return sweep”).
Identifies upper and lower case letters.	Ability to name upper and lower case letters.
Demonstrates listening comprehension	This standard refers to a child’s ability to think about and retell a story including a beginning, middle and end. It also includes a child’s ability to make reasonable predictions before reading and to respond to reading by asking questions, talking about what was read, and connecting what read to their own lives.
Applies vocabulary	This standard refers to a child’s ability to express their thoughts and ideas clearly, in sentences, using vocabulary words they have learned in class.
High frequency words	High frequency words are words that occur many times in print. These words are directly taught to students. This standard measures a child’s ability to recognize and read these words in lists as well as in texts (stories, poems, nonfiction books, etc.).

Managing the Kinders

In college, a professor once told us that Elementary Education is 10% content and 90% behavior management.  Ironically, we only receieved 1/2 a semester of Classroom Management with an Early Childhood Education degree. This blew my mind at the time, and still does, as I continue to face challenging classroom management issues each year and search for tried-and-true methods of preventing and responding to behavioral issues in the classroom. {Soap Box: 20-25 kindergarteners to one teacher (with NO AID) is absolutely ridiculous and should not even be legal.. but that's another story}. 

After my first two weeks with this new class, I knew I needed to make some changes in my teaching procedures/techniques. This year, I have many children who are VERY easily distracted and many children who talk waaaaaaaaay to much. So I did some research. I wandered across a technique called "Power Teaching," and I watched a mesmerizing video of power teaching in action. I decided to adopt a few of the techniques and try it with my kinders. Thank you, Power Teaching.......it worked! Well, so far. 

Two points of focus for this year's class was transition times and attention-grabbers. Power Teaching introduced me to a solution to both of those problems. We now march to the carpet and back to our seat as we chant the name of the place we are going. For example: If we are leaving the carpet, heading to our seats, we chant "Seat, seat seat........ seat, seat, seat......" as we tap our legs and march to our seat. Each student stops chanting, sits, and puts their head on their desk when they reach their seat. Voila! No one got distracted on the way and started drawing on the floor with permanent marker. I'd say that's a win. The attention-grabber I adopted was "Class? Yes!" When I say "class," they say "yes." However I say "class," they say "yes." For instance: If I say "classity-class" they say "yessity-yes." Cute, huh? Second, we use "hands and eyes." When I say "hands and eyes" they repeat me, clasp their hands in their lap and focus their eyes on me. This one is done repeatedly during carpet time, as I have a lot of drifters. 

I'm still looking for a solution to the "busy hands" issue, as I have a few kids who always need something in their hands. I would have no problem handing the child a stress ball and letting them have at it, except they seem to be unable to fidget and focus at the same time. Thus my google research begins again. If you've got any suggestions, please share! :-)

-Ms. Taylor

Helping from Home: Name Writing

As you work with your child at home on writing his/her name, remember these 5 tips:

1) Supervise your child. Make sure they are using the correct pencil grip and not practicing a bad habit; muscle memory takes many repetitions.

2) "No letter, ever ever ever, starts at the bottom" - our chant when we forget to start a letter from the top.

3) Use an uppercase letter only at the beginning of your name.

4) Use the primary lined paper and encourage your child to "use the lines" as they write.

5) Writing is a process. We want to teach the correct techniques, letter formation, and pencil grip, but we don't want to overwhelm the child. I suggest practicing name-writing for a couple minutes each night with a positive attitude and lots of encouragement. If your child is frustrated, skip a night!

Pencil Grip Song

(to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Pencil led is facing me 

(lay pencil down flat on table with pencil led facing toward child and eraser facing away)

I pinch the tip and lift to see.

(Pinch the pencil toward the led end and lift it - led facing down, eraser facing up)

Is it tired? It might be.

(Look at pencil to see if it is tired...shrug shoulders)

So I lay it down to sleep.

Take opposite hand's pointer finger and tilt the eraser end back toward wrist, setting the pencil in correct pencil grip position)

Pencil steady, now I'm ready.

Watch me as I write neatly!

Click here to familiarize yourself with the Developmental Stages of Writing.
Click here for Fine Motor and Letter Writing practice ideas for home.
Click here to generate your own Handwriting Worksheets for FREE.
         (I recommend using your child's name and having them complete one practice page each night until the skill is mastered.)

Color Songs

Here are links to the color songs we have been singing during "Color Weeks." The kids LOVE them, and little do they know, they are actually LEARNING while they sing these catchy little tunes!

Blue Song

Red Song

Yellow Song

Purple Song

Brown Song

Black Song

Green Song

Pink Song

White Song

Orange Song

-Enjoy!

Week One
Wow! Five full days of Kindergarten on the very first week of school has worn me out, big time! We had a week full of singing, dancing, routine practicing, expectation learning, friend-making, laughing, exploring, and getting to know each other. Thank goodness for restful weekends and the large cup 'o' joe that is keeping me awake this beautiful Sunday evening as I reflect on week one. I love my job!

First Week Findings: 
-Jack Hartmann's "My Whole Body Can Move" is our new favorite jam.
-We like to "rap" the Days of the Week.
-Automatic toilets might flush before you finish. It's okay. Continue :-)
-Play-doh smells funny.
-Ms. Taylor is very picky about a neat & tidy classroom, so WE are learning to be neat and tidy.
-Hand-painting tickles!!!
-If you fake sleeping at rest time, Ms. Taylor will give you an AWESOME POSSUM award :-)

Parents:
Thank you SO MUCH for the support you have already shown. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me or send a note in your child's blue folder. Newsletters go home on Monday. Continue to initial your child's behavior calendar each night. I look forward to a great year with your precious child.

-Ms. Taylor

To My Upcoming Kindergarteners...

Dear Kindergartener (and parent),

I am SO excited to meet you! You are going to LOVE kindergarten. I think I have the best job in the world because I get to go to kindergarten every year! I will be your teacher this year, and we are going to have so much fun as we learn and grow together. I'm going to tell you and your parents about a few important days that are coming up. Write them down so that you don't miss them!

Wednesday, August 15th at 4:00 pm- MEET THE TEACHER

A day to meet me (yay!), see our classroom (wahoo!), and fill out some very important paper work (alright!) Please do not miss this day!

Monday, August 20th- FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN PICTURES

I am so excited about this day, and I hope you are too! You will be getting your beginning-of-the-year pictures made, so come with a smile!

Thursday, September 6th at 6:00 PM- PARENT ORIENTATION

(Parents only please!) This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about what your child will be up to this year. I will inform you of our classroom procedures, discipline policy, important dates, and all sorts of other useful information. Please come!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I'll see you soon!

Ms. Taylor

Lately...

Followers, (both of you), I sincerely apologize for not updating you more often on the goings-on of Ms. Taylor's Busy Bees. Sometimes life just gets in the way :-).
I have compiled a few of the latest events to share in this post. I hope you enjoy!

Last week was Dr. Seuss Week!! We celebrated the incredible talent of the late children's author all week long. I was so proud of the superb work the Busy Bees did on their first ever book reports (pictured below.)

During Dr. Seuss Week, we were studying the states of matter (solids, liquids, and gases). After learning and experimenting with the three types, we set out to cook up a mixture that would baffle us at its ability to resemble both a solid AND a liquid. Oobleck!! Dr. Seuss writes of this insanely fun substance in his book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We made it using corn starch, water, and green food coloring. The corn starch never quite mixes with the water. If you grab it firmly, it feels like a solid, but if you poke at it gently or turn it to pour, it acts as a liquid. I don't care how old you are, this experiment is always fun!!

On Thursday, I had one of those fabulous teacher moments where I realized just how far my precious students had come since August. I whipped out my camera and started taking pictures and video. They were reading Dr. Seuss books all on their own and were ENJOYING it!!! My heart smiles to see a child who enjoys reading.

Another huge event that took place recently was the Buzz Run. We ran our little hearts out to earn money for our school! This was such a fun event and we even got to enjoy a popsicle after all that hard work. Well worth it!

I hope you feel a little more caught up on our life as Busy Bees. I will say, I have tried to update many times, but the old 'blogger' format was not working with me very well! Now that I have the updated version, I will be updating more often :-)

Have a blessed week,

Ms. Taylor & The Busy Bees

New Additions

Now that the wonderful world of Pinterest exists, I've been getting some great new ideas on activities and organization for the classroom. I thought I'd share a few of my latest!

<--A bench made out of storage crates from Walmart, flipped upside down and topped with body pillows. The kids love it and it's a great incentive for good listeners!

<---I decided to purchase "Hot Dots" with my classroom donation money for the kids to use at Word Work during our Daily 5 Routine. They love the talking pen, and I love that it corrects their wrong answers and praises their correct ones!

I saw this idea for organizing crayons by color. I bought the tiny black buckets from the Target $1 section (love target!) and tied the corresponding color of pipe cleaner to the top so that when crayons are found, they can be returned to the proper bucket. This cuts down on all that wasted time that my kids were spending searching for the right color crayon.

I found a recipe for puffy paint on Pinterest. I just used 1/2 shaving cream and 1/2 Elmer's glue, stirred it together, and gave the children a foam paint brush. You have to let them dry for a few hours, but afterward you can touch the puffy paint without messing up the artwork. These polar bears were so much fun!

The Little Old Lady is very popular in kindergarten so I decided to make a sight word game out of her! I found a printout of the old lady and wrote a poem to go with it, then I glued her to a box and cut out a hole so that she could "swallow" the sight words.

"There was an old lady who swallowed a word.

How absurd, to swallow a word! The word was ___."

Feel free to use the poem! I, of course, had to explain what the word "absurd" meant, but it was a great vocabulary learning moment!

I keep cut out the sight words, laminated them, and put ten in an old single-serving Blue Bell container.

I recently purchased a few $1 CDs for rest time/journal writing. During these quiet times of our day, I find that the children are more relaxed and focused if I play a calming CD for them. The Dollar Tree had a great selection of meditation-type CDs, though their favorite is my Best of Enya cd. I don't blame them, that's my favorite too!

Another Target Dollar Section Find: Being the daughter of a band director, I have always found it important to incorporate music into the curriculum. I found these precious instruments for $1 each and had to have them! I recently went back to Target and found star-shaped tambourines, maracas, and more "girly" drums to add to my collection. We've been using these instruments during our reading small groups to help us break apart words into syllables. We beat the drum/shake the tambourine/etc. as we say the syllables in different words. The kids get so excited when they see me grab the yellow bucket because they know they get to play an instrument!

Celebrating the 100th Day of School

The 100th Day of Kindergarten is one of my favorite celebrations! The whole day is pretty much centered around the number 100. Here are some fun activities we did on our 100th day!

*First things first- we climbed through the 100th Day sign to enter the classroom!

*counted to 100 by 10's, 5's and 1's

*made a trail mix with 10 of each of our 10 favorite treats (making 100 pieces)

*wrote 100 words (we only got 40... but that's because we ran out of time, not words!)

*took 100 steps from our classroom door to see where we would end up (We ended up at Mrs. Haisten's classroom), * tried to earn 100 gum balls for great behavior- success!

*wrote about what we would do with $100

*discussed what we would like to have 100 of

*read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten

We've really enjoyed these first 100 days of kindergarten and can't wait to see where 80 more days of learning will take us!

January 9-13

Rainbow Snowflakes

We were tired of winter days,

Being cold and wet and gray.

So we asked a winter wizard

To make it snow a rainbow blizzard!