I'm Back....

I feel very embarrassed to say that it has been 5 months since I've blogged about life in and out of the classroom! The joys of learning a new grade level have kept me busy, busy, busy, but I'm
ready to start sharing the signification small moments that are keeping my passion for teaching aflame!

Without playing too much catch up, I'm going to jump into what's been happening in my sweet Kindergarten classroom! Ya'll, something inside these little ones has really clicked since we have been back from Christmas break and its so exciting. I feel like I'm with First Graders!!!!

With that being said, creating Reading Leaders has been a tremendous goal of mine this year...even in Kindergarten! I had incredible success with the Daily 5 concepts of Read to Self and Read to Someone in First, that surely these little Kinders could to it too....and they can! Now, it's taken wayyyyy more practice and modeling, but they are up to 17 minutes for Read to Self and about 15 for Read to Someone! Yep! That's at least 30 minutes a day of reading for these little ones! You can see our Read-to-Self Meter below...if they reach 20, a classroom hamster it is! Yikes!

This past week was Literacy Week and we had a grand ole' time! The first day we discussed the pros and cons of using an ipad to read vs. a real. live book! We chose a favorite book and mounted it to a chart paper ipad! The concept was IPAB---I Prefer a Book! And let me tell you, most of them do! We also reviewed how reading is a fantastic way to Sharpen the Saw. It's always my first choice when I need to relax!~

We also learned during Literacy Week that books can be about People and can give Information!
We looked at 2 nonfiction books about Neil Armstrong (I figured it would be beneficial to understand why their school has its name!) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They were in awe during the story or Dr. King! It was precious. We read, discussed and then wrote to explain!

 

And of course there was a cute project to correspond!

Finally, we've been kicking into high gear with AR tests in the classroom! While I don't necessarily love the fact that the questions are all text dependent (I wish there was a way to throw some higher level questions from Blooms Taxonomy in there), it does give my little ones a chance to read and practice showing what they know! My sweet volunteer and I's goal is to have every child take at least 1 test a week! My higher readers can of course take more, but I really wanted each child to have a chance to sit with my volunteer, receive one on one attention, and take their time when taking the test! :)))) I want quality...not quantity! So far so good!

Speaking of reading, I've been diving into this book lately that my mom passed down to me.

When I started teaching Kindergarten this year, I didn't quite understand the importance of this, but now, I've moved my schedule around in such a way so that the final 20-30 minutes of each day, children have a chance to choose their play! Yes, I have some on computer and I pull students work with them/remediate/enrich, but it's been a beautiful way to start the new year! They SO need that time to play, interact, speak to others, learn to cooperate, and use their imaginations!

Well, that's all for now! Off to blog about the 100th day of school~

Happy Learning~
Mrs. Hunter