Parade of Books

Today we had our Parade of Books for Dr. Seuss Week and Read Across America! It was so much fun. Each child came to school dressed as character from a book. They also had to bring the book with them. When the parade started each child walked with their book throughout the school. At the end we all met in the gym for a special Seuss assembly. What I loved about this was the variety of books that were represented. We had everything from Pete the Cat, to the 3 musketeers, to Pokemon! It was so exciting! I look forward to doing this every year.

Another tradition I love is decorating the classroom door for Seuss Week. This year I did "Think outside the Hat" and a student of mine brought in cardboard book covers that I put on the wall. The Cat Hat is 3D with the characters popping out. It was very cute!

The Foot Book Activity FREEBIE

Read Across America is week is coming up FAST! 

Here is a little activity that I thought I would share. This activity explores your kiddos' foot from Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book using non-standard measurement. Students will trace their foot onto the paper. (I would do this without a shoe on.) After they trace their foot, they can use pennies, paperclips, unifix cubes, and crayons to measure how long their foot is. You can read The Foot Book before hand and have a discussion about the numbers your class comes up with afterwards. Have fun!
 P.S. This is also a great Big Buddy Activity!

Click HERE to get this FREEBIE!

Happy Read Across America Week and 

Happy Birthday to

Learning Empathy

Teaching Kindergarten students about empathy is hard. By nature they are self-centered at this age. This is not a bad thing. They are exploring their world and how to live in it. As a Kindergarten teacher, I am responsible to them to help broaden their world. Teaching empathy is the best place to start. While they are not all ready at the beginning of the year, I see a need to learn empathy during the winter months. Honestly, it is perfect because it goes right along with Valentine's Day. 

How do you teach 5-year-olds to care for others? You talk about it! This month at our community circle, we are working on real-life situations in which children can relate. I have attached the situations we discuss as a class. I state the situation and we go around the circle discussing our feelings on the topic. Some can relate. Some can't. The goal is to imagine what this feels like and share.

We are reading a variety of books that relate to empathy. The first book we read is Stand in My Shoes by Bob Sornson. In this story Emily learns what it means to think about how others are feeling.

Finally, I want to give you the 5 ways to teach your children or class empathy. More and more students spend time with the tablet or phone. Less and less spend time with other people. Without these interactions, we are responsible to teach them how to relate to others.

With all the academics we are required to teach please think about this quote:

Imagine what your child can be if they learn this skill in Kindergarten? Amazing. The answer is AMAZING!

February McKinley Connections

Mckinley Connections

Find out what is going on this month!

Zones of Regulation

I have been using the Zones of Regulation this year to help my students become aware of their emotions. Of course, as the Disney lover I am, I added the popular Inside Out characters to make it a little more fun. My students were introduced to the Zones at the beginning of the year and have these posters up in their calm-down corner of the classroom.

By giving my students the vocabulary they need to express their emotions, I have seen a major improvement in students who easily get over-excited, sad, and angry. Download these posters as a FREEBIE for your class!

We are embarking on learning about cultures from around the world. We are also learning about the people that sparked and drove the Civil Rights Movement. Today we ,made our hallway bulletin board with pictures inspired by Rosa Parks. She knew that everyone had a right to self respect. If we can teach this in Kindergarten, we will inspire our kids to know that they are just as important as every other person in the world.

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.”

-Rosa Parks 

 

Mystery Science

Recently I was introduced to a program called Mystery Science. What I love about this program is that it follows all of the Next Generation Science Standards and makes it relevant for both teachers and students.

Mystery Science revolves around a man named Doug. He narrates the slide shows and includes stories, videos, and activities right into the slide show. The slide show even has directions for the kids to watch on HOW to do the activities. We have only completed the first couple of lessons, but I really wanted to share this site so that other teachers can check it out.

Right now it is free for teachers. I don't know if they will start charging at some point, but I suggest signing up.

It is a K-5 curriculum with 6 lessons in each unit.

There are a total of 3 Kindergarten units:

Weather Watching

Force Olympics

Plant and Animal Secrets

and a total of 3 First Grade Units:

Spinning Sky (Space)

Lights and Sound

Plant and Animal Superpowers

There are also seasonal lessons. Check it out!

All of the resources are directly in the program. Nothing costs extra. Check out our start on the Weather unit. We have become Weather Watchers and are learning how to check the weather.

Our 4 questions are:
1. What is happening in the sky?
2. What is the temperature?
3. Is it windy?
4. Is it raining?

My students really understood the direct instruction provided to them. We went outside and applied these questions to our learning. While you might think they just watch a video, they don't! The slide show consists of video portions and teacher read-aloud portions, movement and team talk portions, as well. Definitely engaging!
Check out our observations!

As you can see, it was 1) cloudy 2) cold 3) windy and 4) raining. I appreciated my students having the questions right in the corner of their paper to remind them what to look for.

We also created some art to go along with the second weather lesson, which was about storms. I chose to have the students paint, although Mystery Science suggested other activities as well.

While I am just getting started with Mystery Science, I have to recommend it to all who are looking for a good science curriculum. I will keeping you updated on how it goes.