Playing Spring Catch Up...

Well, Spring Break is coming to a close....and as much as I'd like to say it was a "break," it was more 

of a time to catch up on life!

Cleaning the house, cooking for the husband (which I don't do often), spending a short time with family, exercising, sleeping, getting a puppy, finally using those Disney tickets we got for Christmas, reading, lesson planning, and on and on....whew! 

I have to say as much as I've enjoyed the catch up time, what I've enjoyed most has been those little pockets of time that I've had to read...yep...read! 

I finally finished these two gems...

        

And am about to finish this one...

Yep. I'm a nerd. I have a weird obsession with books about life/stress/health. All in all, finally finishing these helped me realize that my day to day life is not one of balance. Habit 7, Sharpen the Saw, is not one that I have mastered or think I will ever master, but it is one I have been convicted to work on! These two top books suggested by my pastor have really helped me gain perspective on creating balance physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

After the break is over I plan to jump into these two books! 

  

Thanks to my brilliant mother for suggesting these! These were her words when I asked for educational book suggestions, "Everyone who is on the "cutting edge" of education is reading these two!" 

Haha. Love her and I cant wait to jump in. 

I also came across a few AMAZING youtube clips of Eric Thomas...The Hiphop Preacher. Have you heard of him? Wow! I spent a whole morning watching every one that I could, but there was one that really stood out to me both personally and career wise. Check it out below! 

At the beginning of his speech he says that our values need to match our dreams. This really struck me as an current educator. While he used a marriage analogy, I thought about my classroom and my team! We have these grand goals and dreams for our students, but often our day to day lessons/activities/values do not match our educational dreams. We know that students need hands on, engaging, exciting lessons with depth and TIME to complete....yet we find ourselves bogged down by what we "think" we need to teach and cram in to one short day! Yikes. For whatever reason, our educational values have gone out the window and we are teaching in ways we wouldn't normally teach because we feel like we have to....

Maybe its the high stakes testing, the pay for performance, and/or the high pressure observations, but this really encouraged me to try and slow down, and do what's best for children. 

That should always be the basis of our values....

Personally, I LOVED when he spoke about being OBSESSED with improvement. While I find myself overly obsessed with work sometimes, this showed be that I need to be obsessed with balance and other areas of my life: family, health, exercise, my relationship with Jesus. Yep. This was powerful. 

All in all, this Spring Break was a fantastic time to reflect and get back on track! Feeling thankful. :) 

Penguins, Penguins, Penguins!

Since returning from Christmas break, my team and I have gone crazy for winter books...especially books about Penguins! Maybe it's the fact that we live in South Florida that makes us latch onto "colder" books! :)))

Anyways, we began the study with teaching our little ones what the word schema meant! We brainstormed their penguin schema and then added it to the chart. We then throughout the past 2 weeks have been using non-fiction and fiction books alike to add to our New Learnings section! It's so fun to see how excited they have been.

We then began the process of writing our Penguin Non-Fiction books! Before the writing of each page, we taught a mini-lesson that corresponded. Now I hear the students finding table of contents everywhere! Haha.

First came the Table of Contents....

Second, What They Look Like....

Third, Where They Live.....

Fourth, What They Eat...

And Last Interesting Facts.....

We copied our Penguin, Penguin poem that we have been reciting for the last two weeks in our best handwriting! :) No floating letters please~

We are not quite finished for we still have to add our diagram and front cover, as well as conduct our blubber glove science experiment! So...more to come next week!

In the mean time, my intern brought in this cute guy with fake snow! It was SOOOO cool. It literally felt cold and the kiddos LOVED touching it! It was a great way to bring everything together. :)

Happy Learning~
Mrs. Hunter

The 100th Day!

This past Thursday we celebrated the 100th Day of School and WOW did we have fun!

The students walked into to a streamer decorated door (totally forgot to snap a picture) and the fun began!

We discussed what 100 year old people could and couldn't do! It was so funny! We made two Thinking Maps and then wrote two sentences...then of course made a cute project!~

  

 

The funniest and weirdest one was when one child said that 100 year old people couldn't cut fish...hmmm...I wasn't really sure how to respond, but I popped it up there anyways! Haha.

My sweet intern then read this cute book and the kiddos LOVED it!

We also made 100th Day Gum ball Machines compliments of my creative teammate Mrs. Denton! Totally stole her idea. ::)))))) The students were given a large white circle and they had to use their fingers to paint 100 gum balls. I had my little ones do 20 of each color! They had so much fun painting, but even more fun cleaning up! They all wanted a turn rolling up the dirty table clothes! It's the small things I suppose! :)

In the midst of all of this fun, one of my wonderful volunteers met with each child to make a 100th day snack! Each child chose 10 foods and then counted 10 of each. Very fun!

The final half of our day was spent counting to 100 by 1's 5's and 10's as well as creating 100th day head bands~ The students had to count by 10's to make it and they did a wonderful job!

As the students left for the day, Mrs. Meerman our intern passed out these cute treats. Indeed each child is 100 days smarter and I can't wait to see how smart they are at the end!~

Happy Learning!
Mrs. Hunter~

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

Readers are LEADERS...

Readers are Leaders.
This is what my mom has always and I mean always preached!
Well, as I get older I have found that it is SO true.

After the end of this past school year, I remember speaking to my students about the upcoming Summer Reading Olympics! We discussed the different levels of success and how reading just a little a day and make our brains EXPAND dramatically....and if we don't, well than as one of my students said "Our smart brains will shrink!" Too cute. :)

With that in mind, I thought, "WHY aren't teachers part of this challenge? If we are encouraging our students to be reading leaders, WE should do it too!" So here is my reading progress so far this summer. I know, it's all over the place, but I tend to read several books of different kinds at a time to stay engaged. :)

What I'm Currently Reading....

1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Umm...can I say keep me on the edge of my seat? This is the second book in the Divergent Trilogy. The first book was AMAZING and had a Hunger Games feel, so I had to go for it. The second book so far is nothing short of thrilling and I'm reading it every free chance I get. Looking forward to the third book coming out soon! This has been my summer "non-school related" reading!

2. The High-Trust Classroom by Lonnie Moore

I whipped through this fantastic book right after school got out! It literally only took me a day to read it because it was so relevant to the 7 Habits Leadership philosophy that schools are implementing. Lonnie Moore lays the truth out in an honest way that makes you want to be the type of teacher he describes! I highly recommend this book for educators of all ages and grade level. It's a must read! :)

3. Lean In-Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

I heard about this book through the grapevine and bought it right away. Just the title itself oozes leadership! The author takes the reader through her life's journey and takes opportunities to empower women in leadership through her own struggles and success. One common theme throughout the book is that of Risk Taking, which for women is often a scary thought! I'm only about half way finished, but so far I feel encouraged to dream bigger, work harder, and leap into the unknown more often. A great refresher for sure.

4. Pathways to the Common Core-Accelerating Achievement by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth and Christopher Lehman

I have to be honest and say that while this book is FILLED with valuable information, I only read a little bit a day. It provides a deep analysis of the Common Core Standards and really challenges teachers to move away from centers and worksheets and really TEACH students how to read, and read for long periods of time. This book validates everything I believe about Readers Workshop and proves to be a phenomenal resource to anyone looking to take that leap!

5. Teaching with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen

I'm going Text Book style on this one, but WOW. There are so many little nuggets of truth within these pages that educators can totally implement into their classrooms. It discusses everything from the brain and different times of the day to energy levels and when the best time is to teach certain subjects. SOOOOOO Interesting and helpful. I always learn something new after just reading a page or two.

1. The Core Six-Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core 

This little gem of a book was introduced to me by my previous school's literacy coach. We started this as a grade level book study, but did not finish due to end of the year craziness. I really want to try and read the rest of this before the end of summer! What we learned from the beginning of the book was so intriguing and I can't wait to learn more! Hello new strategies!!!! 

2. It's Not Us Against Them-Creating the Schools We Need by Raymond McNulty 

My mom returned from a Model Schools Conference in Washington D.C. and this book was the Hot Topic! It focuses on the power of relationship building with students and families and delves deeply into the work of Bill Daggett! The 3 R's (Relationship, Rigor and Relevance) are of particular interest to me and I look forward to learning more and hopefully transferring that into my classroom! Model Schools Conference is in Orlando next year...who's in??? :))) 

Okay, so now that I have revealed my "nerdiness" I will leave you with a quote my husband and I always relate back to. 

"A Leader can only take his/her people as deep or far as he/she is willing to go himself." 

If we challenge our students to be lifelong readers, we need to lead by example and do it as well. :)) 

Happy Reading! 

-Mrs. Hunter 

Final Non-Fiction Tid-Bits!

WOW. It's been a while and I've realized that I have so many topics to blog about it's pretty much insane. So, I will start by explaining the final days of our Non-Fiction writing unit! :)

After the students received their envelope from the publisher approving their rough drafts, it was time to get to work! Now, because the books they would be writing in were pre-made, we had to plan out what would be on each page and work on it one part at a time!

To begin with, each student designed a front and back cover. I then scanned the drawing onto large labels which fit perfectly!

 

 

It was so cute to see how different their covers were.

Next, the students wrote their dedication and inside cover. :) Most students drew a picture on the inside cover, but this student is so NOT into drawing. Ha.

 



 

 

We then learned about Copyrights and added them to our books along with the Table of Contents. The pages in the book were pre-labeled so this helped ALOT!

 

 

 

To start the actual text of the book, each student wrote their own introduction to "hook" the reader! We looked at several examples in our National Geographic Science series which was so helpful!

 

 

After the introduction, the first two chapters were copied. What Does it Look Like and What Does it Eat. Each student had the same chapters but on the animal of their choice! It was a great way to stay organized yet still foster student choice and ownership.

 

 

 

 

The students printed off four pictures of their choice from the Internet to add to their books. They then had the option to add to the illustrations! It was cute to see how some were SOOOO detailed and colorful and some were just not into it! :)

 

The final two chapters were Where it Lives and Interesting Facts.

 

 

 

 

If you are looking at the map above and think it's upside down, that's because it is. Hmmm...it's a good thing we were in the middle of our Maps unit as well! Too funny!

 



To close the book, each student created a glossary with two words of their choice, an index, a references page including their sources and an About the Author Page. I took pictures of each student to put in the back, but this one had not put his in yet. Sorry! :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, the students were ready to show off their product to their parents and families!

 

 

 

 

We came up with a Non-Fiction Trail Mix! We listed what our animals ate and then tried to come up with "human food" that was similar! :)

 

 

 

While we were in the process of writing the books, I also had a volunteer work with each child to create a simple power point. They typed a bit, chose pictures and backgrounds, etc. That night, each student stood up and gave their Power Point Presentation! With the continued focus on technology, this was a great way to expose the students to tools they will use in their future!

 

Here is an example of one of my Firsties! I'm tellin' ya....they did an AMAZING job. I was so impressed!

 



 

Finally, the parents had an opportunity for their child to walk them through their books and the entire process!

 

 

The parents filled out a quick survey and they were PRECIOUS!

 

 

 

All in all, this was a very LONG process, but well worth it! We learned SO much and incorporated several standards to achieve our goal! I would do it again in a heart beat!



 



Enjoy!

 

--Mrs. Hunter