Two Hoots and A Holler: Kindergarten Memories

Hoot #1

We recently participated in a Box Tops competition at our school.  The grade with the most Box Tops won a pizza party for the students, and the teachers got to have lunch off campus at a restaurant of our choice!  Guess who won?!?!  Kindergarten!! We were so excited because we worked hard to cut box tops out at home, tape them to the paper, and check expiration dates.  Our kiddos rocked it too, some brought them in by the hundreds!  Our students got to enjoy their pizza party at our last field trip to the park.  We got to eat our lunch at Texas Roadhouse!  We don't ever get a duty free lunch that involves a spill or two or eating an entire lunch in 10 minutes...it was VERY nice to enjoy this lunch with the amazing people we work with!  Just look at these happy faces...

Hoot #2

We just went on our final field trip for the year!  We went to see "Seussical." We cannot believe how fast this year has flown by!  This is the time of year when you are collecting memories and pictures to share with your class, and you can't help but to get all sentimental!  It's so sad to see them go so soon, but it's also amazing to see the person they have grown to be!  

Desoto Family Theater Kids did an OUTSTANDING JOB!! The kids in the play were absolutely AMAZING!

EVERYBODY LOVES THING 1 AND THING 2!

This Week's Holler...
This week's holler goes out to Kristen at Happy Days in Fourth Grade. As you know the testing season is among us! Kristen has posted some cute ideas to get rid of those testing blues!  These treats are sure make your students smile!! Her TPT store is also amazing! Thank you Kristen for all that you do!!   

Two Hoots and A Holler: Happy Kindergarten Day!

 Hoot #1 
Today is National Kindergarten Day!  We want to say thank you to all of the wonderful kindergarten teachers out there who inspire us every day!  Thank you for being so dedicated to making a difference!  We also want to thank all of our kindergarten students, past and present, who continue to make us smile and laugh each and every day!  They are the reason why we do what we do!  Our students continue to amaze us and make us proud every day...our cups runneth over!

Too cute not to share, although we all know kindergarten is more than snacks, crafts, and naps!  

Hoot #2

Now that our worms have cultivated our soil, we are ready to plant! We learned that each part of a plant is important. We defined the function of each part and finally labeled the parts.

 Next we were ready to use our cultivated soil to plant our real seeds! Each day the students will find some time to write about the progress that their plant is making.

As you can see, they took this job very seriously! They were all so intrigued! They absolutely loved learning about the whole process! 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Kelsey at Aloha to Second! Kelsey currently lives in Chicago! That is such a different life from our surrounding farm land! Isn't that the greatest thing about teaching?!?! You can connect with people from all over the world and you still have so much in common simply because you are a teacher. Recently, Kelsey did a cute recycling project with her class.  They made instruments out of recycled items that they brought from home to class. I know that Earth Day is tomorrow, and I know that many of you cover Earth Day in your lessons.  You need to go on over to Aloha to Second and check out her neat activity! Thanks for sharing Kelsey!

Two Hoots And A Holler: Kindergarten can get MESSY!

Hoot #1

Last week Jamie posted about her student's Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs writing and craft she did with our weather unit.  My (Jodi) class is a week behind doing this activity.  I found a cute cloud craft on Pinterest that I wanted to do, so I revamped it to incorporate their writing and the book Cloudy With A Chance  of Meatballs.  I made a mixture of shaving cream, glue, and blue paint for them to finger paint their cloud.  While that was drying they did their writing.  The next day they colored, cut, and glued their food on their cloud.  The paint didn't turn out as puffy as I wanted, but they had a blast doing this!  They couldn't wait to read and see what food their classmates chose.  Here are some pictures of the activity...

Students are finger painting their cloud. 

These students chose chicken legs and pork chops! 

Here is the finished product!

This one says, "I wish it would rain blue bubblegum because it is so good but it is junk food."

Hoot #2

 This hoot is what Jamie has been waiting to do ALL year!  Her favorite unit on plants and worms!  Today was WORM DAY! She planned a lot of activities for both of our classes to do with worms.  The students got to pick and name their worm, dig dirt for its temporary home, observe their worm, make a worm hat, eat a "worm" snack (with gummy worms, of course!), do a science experiment to make their gummy worm come alive, and finally release their worm back into its habitat.  WHEW!  It was a BUSY day for these kiddos and teachers!! Now, I (Jodi) can't stand to see or touch worms at all!  So, we made a deal that if I did gingerbread houses with her class at Christmas, then she would do worm day with my class.  I am so glad we made that deal because my students got to experience this AWESOME DAY!  So a big shout out to Jamie, Amy (Jamie's assistant), and Amanda (Jodi's assistant) for making this day possible for all of our students!!  

Students eating their "wormy" snack while they fill out a web about worms. 

She is picking out the perfect worm for her have for the day...this is a HUGE decision for kindergarteners! 

These students are observing their worms with a magnifying glass and filling out their observation form. 

After picking and observing their worm, they got to write about their worm. 

He found a worm in his soil that he put in his cup.  He had to release it back into its habitat before he could add his worm to his cup!

He is watching his worm in his cup cultivate the soil. 

He is measuring his worm using cubes and recording them on his observation sheet. 

 Students are releasing worms back into the soil so they can go back to their jobs of helping the soil become rich! 

Goodbye worms!  It was a great, fun-filled day! 

OH!  I almost forgot!  Students are going to plant seeds in their cup of soil that their worm lived in for the day! 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills!  It is hard to holler about one without the other because they have collaborated on so many TPT units together!  When we first ran across their units on TPT, we felt like we had hit the gold mine!  We LOVE the math workshop units, they have been a life saver!   Both of their blogs are FILLED with information and ideas to use in your classroom.  Literally, there is so much information on these two blogs, it would take days to go through it all! Check them out if you haven't already, and be sure to have pen and paper next to you to take notes!  Follow them to be sure you don't miss out! Thank you Deanna and DeeDee for helping out teachers nationwide!

 

Two Hoots and A Holler: Lovin' Some Spring Weather

Hoot #1

We have been studying all about the weather! You can not do this unit without reading Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. After this reading, we followed up with this cute activity! Each child decided if it could rain anything, what would they want it to be.

The students wrote what they would like for it to rain.  They also had to tell why they chose for it to rain that particular item.  Of course, they had to draw the item they chose "raining down" from the cloud.

Isaac wishes it would rain chickens because he likes it!

Cristian wishes it would rain hamburgers because he likes hamburgers!

Hoot #2

After several reschedules due to the weather, we finally were able to go on our field trip to the park! This is one of my favorite field trips because kids get to be kids! They are able to pretend with each other and role play.  The fact that the weather was beautiful was just icing on the cake!

What at beautiful sight of imaginations at work!

 Here is a pic of Kamille being a meterologist.  She was busy predicting the weather. "Today is going to be sunny!" We have been studying the weather for the past two weeks.  This made my heart so happy!

 Jevon and Tylor loved pretending to cross the draw bridge!

 Abdiel was the knight in the castle!

 Cristian and Mason were having so much fun! They decided to take a rest for a minute.

  What a WONDERFUL DAY!!!!

This Week's Holler . . .
This week's holler goes out to new mom, Jena, at Sew Much Music.  Jena is an elementary music teacher who travels among 4 schools.  She incorporates LOTS of technology into her music instruction, and she shares how she does it all on her blog!  She has some great ideas for teachers to incorporate music into their classrooms.  Go check her blog out, and don't forget to share her blog with the music teacher at your school! You will be glad you did!