It's All About the New Year

Christmas Break is flying by!  We have been busy with our families and enjoying the mornings we get to sleep in a little.  We both decided that we needed to work in our rooms or something.  I mean what kind of break would it be if we didn't involve school!  We love our jobs!  After much procrastination, we did it!  We took our second leap of faith and posted our first product on Teacher's Pay Teachers!  EEEKKKKKK!  We are very excited at how it all turned out, and we hope all the teachers who use it are excited too!  Please check it out and let us know if you have any questions!  Thanks for everyone's support, help, and encouraging words.  Enjoy the rest of your Christmas Break.  It won't be long until we are back into the swing of things!

Click on the picture above to go to our TPT store.

It's the Most Busiest Time of the Year!

 OK, OK, OK  I know "most busiest" is not grammatically correct, but I was trying to make the title sound like the song that goes..."It's the most wonderful time of the year." 

I survived my Disney trip, and after 21 hours of sleep (once I got home) it was back to reality....
I missed my Rockstars so much, and I think they missed me too; I got lots of hugs when they saw me Monday morning.  Mickey Mouse even sent them a special treat since they were so well behaved while I was gone! We have been busy finishing last minute projects before we got out for Christmas.  Sparkly Angel even was happy to see me.  She got a new skirt and boots with fur while I was gone!  She has been busy this week too! Take a look at what all has been going on this week!


 Here are all of the ornaments we made over the past few weeks.  We put them in bags with a poem for their parents.

We made our gingerbread houses this week too!  I love this project.  This is my third year to do them.  I was always too scared of the chaos and mess it would make, but I absolutely love watching my students create their houses.  If you have never made these with your class, then you should definitely try it next year! 

 I didn't get a picture, but Sparkly Angel rolled our Christmas tree and room!!  I guess she was all rested up from her nap she had the day before.  She built us a snowman with marshmallows and pencils, and she had our Santa letters delivered back from Santa.  We even had some North Pole Magic (glitter) in the bag with the letters!  And of course thanks to my fellow Glitter Girl (Jamie), my students (and floor) got glitter sprinkled all over them!   Today was her last day in our room, she has to go back to the North Pole to help Santa.  She brought us a letter from Santa.  Santa lifted her magic just for this morning so we could give her a goodbye hug.

 We partied like Rockstars on Thursday!  We had a Polar Express Party in our pajamas with hot chocolate, marshmallows, cookies, and candy canes.  We watched The Polar Express until lunch time.  We had pizza, chips, KoolAid, and cupcakes for lunch in the room, and it was FINALLY time for the gift exchange.  They were very anxious to get their gifts.  We played "hot potato" with the gifts, and we opened them all together on the count of 3.  My whole class was very grateful and happy with their gift. 

 That is our week in a nutshell!  I am sure I am forgetting something because we were so BUSY!!  We made it to Friday, and now its two weeks off to spend with family.  I wish everyone a Happy, Safe, and Blessed Holiday Season.

Oh!  I almost forgot one of the sweetest things one of my students said the day of our party....
She told me this was the best day ever because it was the day of the Christmas party.  She then said, "it's the best because you get to spend time with your friends, I mean that is what Christmas is all about anyway!"  She then told me all about Jesus and how it would be his Birthday.  She said, "Jesus is why we have Christmas, we celebrate Him."  I was just overwhelmed with joy that even a 6 year old gets it!  Makes my heart smile! As your rushing around trying to find that perfect gift, try to take a moment or two and remember the true reason for the season. 

Deck the Halls

Hey Kinder Krazies!!  Well, it is the day of our Christmas Party!! The halls have been decked, the students are jolly and the glitter has been spread!  Today we will wear our pajamas, drink cocoa with marshmallows, eat cookies and pizza, make edible  Christmas trees and exchange gifts! Needless to say our day will be PACKED!!!  We have been so busy creating!  Here is a look at a few things we have done.  I can't wait to share our party pics!

These are our bags that the students will take home with all of their goodies. The students were able to decide which bag they wanted to create.  For some of them, this was a hard choice!

These are our gifts to our parents.  I make these every year.  I always love them!  They caption below the picture reads "May angels guide you throughout the year." This is a gift our parents can always cherish.  Once the year is complete, they can always staple another calendar on it!

We always make reindeer food in brown lunch sacks.  This year, I decided to make them part of my science center and as an ornament for our tree.  The students mixed the correct amounts of ingredients and used a funnel to place in their clear plastic ornament.I thought they turned our great and the parents can reuse these every year to make and hang on their own tree!

These are our Gingerbread Man glyph ornaments.  Usually I make a large one to hang in the hall, but there was just no room.  The Toy Soldiers took over!  I thought these turned out cute and the students loved making them with Q-tips! I love that they were all different!

 

We made our snowman ornament.  Students created the buttons by using their pinky finger.

Finally, we made our peppermint candy!  Just another keepsake for the parents:)

What kind of ornaments do you make?

Can't wait to share all of the party pics!!

Family Life!

Sorry Kinder Krazies! I haven't posted in a couple of days.  I still have not gotten in the routine of taking pictures throughout the day.  Yesterday, we were in a meeting most of the day learning about Accelerated Reading.  This is a new computer program at our school.  If you have ever used it, I would love to know what you think about it.  All K-2 students will use it. 
Lately, I have been so busy after school running three children to basketball practice/games, art lessons and social events, I can barely keep my head straight! Somehow we did manage to slow down long enough to do breakfast with Santa and make our Christmas card picture!  I thought you might enjoy meeting my family!  So here they are!!

  This is my husband, Brad.  No, he is not a race car driver. He is actually a lieutenant for the DeSoto County Sheriff Department.  For his birthday, he was given the opportunity do drive a race car on the tracks.  We met at Delta State University and will be married 15 years in March. We live in the middle of about 800 acres of corn, soybeans, milo and cotton.  I have lived here all my life and wouldn't change that for the world.

These are our children.  Mason is our oldest.  She is 13.  She loves to play basketball.  She is truly a social butterfly.  I could make a full time job out of just carrying her to all of social events.  Braden is our middle child (green sweater) is 8 and just loves all sports and is also on the "go" all the time.  Our youngest is Will.  He is 7.  He is our "deep thinker."  He likes quiet places and to be at home.  I think the Lord knew what to give me! He knew I could not handle 3 children that were full of drama!  

Blog with you soon,

Jamie 

Science, Science, Science!

One of our viewers asked us to address how we fit science into a schedule that is already jammed pack!  I was so excited about this question.  I know with everything that is demanded of us, I think I can not fit one more thing in!  The following is ways that I (Jitterbugs) fit science into our routine.  I hope this helps.
Mississippi is a Common Core state.  Usually at the beginning of the year, I look over the standards and see how I can incorporate the standard into the theme that we will be doing.  Right now I have 9 tubs, in each group,  as work stations.  Students have a choice as to what tubs that they would like to do.  One tub is a science tub.  It meets one of the standards that I would like my students to meet. These activities stay in the tub until I am ready to move on to another science standard. 
In the afternoons, I alternate science and social studies.  I find that most of the time, these co-inside with each other and it always incorporates writing.  Once we discuss the topic and do a couple of activities with it, I put those games and activities at the stations.

 

 This is one of my science book that I tend to fall back on.  I will be the first to tell you that it is "old school".  There are plenty of cute ideas on the internet to meet these standards.  But these are simple easy to set up and easy for the kids to put away.

 I hope this answers your question!  Thanks for your question!

Jamie

Hot Glue, Ornaments, and Ribbon, OH MY!!

I have been working hard on getting all these ornaments made for my kids!  My students painted them, but there is a lot of hot gluing that goes along with it!!  I will post pics as soon as I get them finished.  My kitchen table has been filled with hot glue, burlap, ribbon, and popsicle sticks all week.  My husband keeps asking if he could help, so I thought "well,  he could give me his opinion on which ribbon to use."  As I am showing him the different ribbons, I say "it just needs something, not sure what."  He responds with, "Yeah, I think it needs some glitter."  It was at that exact moment I was reminded that I have found the one for me!  HA! HA! HA!  I guess with all of the glitter girl talk lately, he has developed a love for glitter too!!

Normally, I would have plenty of time to get all of this done, but I leave Saturday morning for DisneyWorld!! I will be gone all of next week, and then only one week left until we get out for Christmas Break.  I am so excited to go to DisneyWorld.  It will be my first time to go, and I get to share this experience with my step daughter, mom, dad, sister, brother in law, and nephew! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.  We haven't been on a vacation together as a family since...well never!  I am so nervous about being gone from my classroom for a week though.  I just pray that everything goes smoothly, and Sparkly Angel watches them closely!  I thought about taking her to Disney with me, but I think my kids need her more than I do! 

I won't be able to blog while I am out of town, but I plan on finishing up a lot of things going on in my room when I get back.  I can't wait to share all of the things we have done.  Jamie, its up to you to blog next week for the both of us!  Hope everyone has a glitterific week!  Until next time. . .

Christmas Has Entered The Building

I don't know about you, but December always seems like one of the most chaotic months of the school year! Just when it seems that you have gotten those little ones in a routine...BAM, December strikes!  You have testing for report cards, testing for reading levels, standardize testing, not to mention Christmas ornaments, hand crafted gifts for parents, Christmas parties, field trips... The list could go on and on!  As students get excited about the all the things that this season seems to bring, it has been so much fun creating centers that tie into all of the festivities.  Here is a look at what the Jitterbugs are doing this week!

Here is a pic of our toy soldiers and Santa's sleigh.  These were our art projects last week.  The reindeer are made from each students hand prints and foot prints.  Their noses are a strand of lights that you can get from any store!  The students loved seeing their art work come to life!

Here is one of our math centers.  I just found a Christmas tree coloring page, put colored stickers on it as ornament.  Ashlynn had a blast counting the ornaments and matching it to the correct present.  She completed the center with the recording sheet .  That is a math center that can be used the entire month of December!!Whoohoo!

Writing sentences using sight words and pics.  Our focus is beginning and ending every sentence correctly.

Here the students put the trees in order from largest to smallest. Once that was completed they measured the trees using marshmallows. Of course, there were a lot less marshmallows by the end of the day.  I think they ate most of their data! Glad I had a recording sheet for that one! lol

We also wrote the room with singular and plurals and matched CVC words to the correct reindeer.  I would post the pics but it is past my bedtime, my 3 children are screaming my name and for the life of me, I can not think of who published it to give them credit! Sorry...new blogger problems!

Finally, our tree with the first set of ornaments on them! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

By the way, what fun ornament do you create with your students?

Terrific Tuesday!

Sparkly Angel had a surprise for Ms. Jodi's Rockstars this morning!  Our tree was filled with candy canes.  We found her hanging around with this note!  

 Several students got to pick a candy cane from the tree today! 

 We made our Rudolph bags today too.  I make these out of brown grocery bags.  Since you cannot find brown bags without print on them, I just glue a long piece of brown construction paper over the front.  I bought my bags at Aldi, they are the cheapest place I have found.  We use these bags to hold all of our Christmas crafts and treats that will be sent home on the last day of school before Christmas Break.  Students worked with a partner to trace hands, then completed their bags by following directions.  I had pre-cut ears and eyes.  Students cut their own hands and noses.   Then of course, we had to add red glitter to the noses!  No project is complete without a little glitter!! 

 

 

Our new student!

Here is a look at our start to this week!  First we had a new student today!  Her name is Sparkly Angel (students voted and picked the name).  We are so excited to have her in our room.  She brought us our Christmas tree.  When students arrived in the classroom, she was hanging from the top of the tree with the book.  We read the story and talked to her all day!  I hope she doesn't tell Santa anything to get us on the naughty list! We cannot wait to see what she will do next!

Some of our students began working on his/her Gingerbread Man glyph!  We LOVE glyphs!!  

We also reviewed addition.  We made this anchor chart together before Thanksgiving break.  My students really get the hang on addition and enjoy it!  I spent  A LOT of time on number sense before introducing addition to my students.  I think that made this transition easier for everyone!

 

December is always such a busy month for us!   We are busy making ornaments and gingerbread houses.  I plan on posting more pictures of all that we do this month.  Can't wait to share it all with you! 

Thanksgiving

Hey ya'll! It's Jodi here.  Just wanted to try out the new blog again.  I am trying to figure out what all these buttons mean!  I thought I would share some of my Thanksgiving activities with everyone while figuring it all out.  Hope everyone had a safe and blessed Thanksgiving Holiday!

Jodi's Class

All of the kindergarten classes participate in a Thanksgiving feast.  We sit all together as a grade and eat lunch that day. Every class creates a Thanksgiving place mat and some sort of hat or costume for this day.  Some classes have on pilgrim costumes, some have Indian costumes, and some wear turkey hats.  We created our place mats whole group one afternoon.  I had students glue squares in a pattern going across the top of the construction paper.  (I use long construction paper.)  Students colored their letters and glued them onto the squares to spell the words "Give Thanks".  I pre-cut the squares and feathers.  I demonstrated how to cut a large circle for the body and a small circle for the head, and the students cut the pieces for the turkey.  They added the beak, waddle, and eyes.  Once all the glue was dry (some students get very glue happy, so I had to wait until the next day), I asked each student to tell me what they were thankful for and wrote it on the feathers.  A variation to this would be to let the students wrote his/her responses on the feathers themselves.  I had these laminated so they would last at least through the lunch!  They turned out super cute!  Some of the responses were just priceless!!

Jodi's Class

These are our Indian costumes we made.   The vests are made out of bulletin board paper (you can also make them out of brown paper bags).  Using bulletin board paper is a lot easier and faster than using the brown grocery bags in my opinion.  I pre-cut the vests and feathers for the hats.  I ran off pattern block shapes on colored copy paper.  The students were instructed to glue the blocks into a pattern on the front and back of the vest.  We also had learned about Indian symbols and their meanings.  The students used markers to draw the Indian symbols on their vest.  We discussed Indian names, and they came up with his/her own Indian name.  I wrote the name they created on the vest for them.  The hats are made out of sentence strips, construction paper feathers, and foam stickers in the shapes of leaves.  I normally have students glue pattern blocks around the headband, but I had a student donate these stickers to my class.  She kept asking me what we were going to do with them, so I decided to let them use them on the headband.  They loved wearing these!  I even had some wear them school the next day!  

Hey Kinder Krazies!  This is Jamie.  My class is called Mrs. Jamie's Jitterbugs!  From day one, these students are told they are the best!  I believe it and so do they!! Since Jodi and I are just starting this blog, I thought I would share some of the things that we have done over the past few weeks.  I hope you enjoy!

Here is a pic of my Jitterbugs!  I recently was able to get a book donated to each child from another organization.  This was a picture that we took thanking them for our books!

Brace map of our pumpkins!

Every year we make place mats for our Thanksgiving Feast.  Ours are actually glyphs so that each student's mat is different.

 These are our Thanksgiving hats! We were the turkeys! I saw these hats on Kinderbykim.com years ago.  I just love them!

 These are our water color scarecrows that we made.  The Jitterbugs did an awesome job!  Later, they completed the sentence by writing about when they are scared and created their own scarecrow from construction paper.

Yea! I think Jodi and I are starting to get the hang of this ole' blog idea:)

Our First Leap of Faith

Hey ya'll!  Thanks for checking out our blog.  This is our first, of hopefully many, posts.  We have always used teaching blogs as our main "go to" resource.  We have been talking for a few years of creating our own blog.  We have always been too nervous and unsure of ourselves to begin such a task!  After all, we are only kindergarten teachers!  After visiting Greg Smedley-Warren's classroom, he and his staches gave us the push and words of encouragement we needed to take our first leap of faith.  Today is the day that we decided to jump right in!  We are Jamie and Jodi (AKA Glitter Girls), we have been teaching together for 14 years.  We teach next door to each other, and we balance each other out.  Jamie is the fiery red head who is always full of energy and the spontaneous one; Jodi is the one who tries to keep everything organized with lists and the one who loves to joke and laugh. Jamie is the one who has the guts enough to actually do the ideas that Jodi comes up with; however, everyone knows at our school that if a prank has been played, we are guilty!  We are inseparable, like glitter and glue!  We laugh together, cry together, come up with teaching ideas together, and even get in trouble together (mostly by our principals, ha ha).  Our school is in rural Northern Mississippi in one of the fastest growing counties in the state.  Our school is in a very rural area of the county (our playground is literally next to a soybean field).  Many of our children have limited experiences and lack background knowledge.  We believe the lack of these things does not define our students.  We feel very strongly about making a difference in each child's life.  There is nothing greater than seeing the sparkle in our students' eyes when they finally "get it".   Everyone can succeed, everyone has goals, and everyone can accomplish them.  So here we go setting out to accomplish one of our goals!  There are many goals in our career we want to accomplish, and we would like to take you along with us.  We hope that you will follow us to read and see what all we do in our classrooms.  There will be many stories of what we are doing and pictures to follow. 

We are off to sit back and enjoy our big ole glass of sweet tea!  Ya'll come back now, ya hear?