Two Hoots and A Holler: We Salute Fall and our Veterans!

Hoot #1
This week we had fun with scarecrows! We discussed how scarecrows actually got their name. Then we thought of things that scared us. After doing some brain storming, the students found a cozy place to write.  Each student wrote about something that scared them! Finally, they created their scarecrow!

This Jitterbug wrote, "I am scared when I see Mrs. Jodi." I love it!! Needless to say, I couldn't wait to run over and show Mrs. Jodi!

Hoot #2

We had our annual Veteran's Day Program. This is such a special event for us each year. This year, we made soldiers that told our Veterans how thankful that we were for them. These hung in the building where we served lunch to the Veterans.

 The following are pictures of our program and some of the beautiful decorations.

 These American flag hearts were made by the Rockstars to help decorate for Veteran's Day. 

Thank you to all of our military, past and present, for serving our country.  Thank you for protecting us and keeping us safe! You work does NOT go unnoticed!!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Whimsy Workshop! This is a website for all teachers.  There are TONS of STEM activities! Are you trying to find activities to go with a specific theme??? Susanna has provided a ton of great activities and resources! Be sure to check this site out! It will save you a ton of time!!

http://whimsyworkshopteaching.com/ 

Two Hoots and A Holler: All About Pumpkins and Presidents

Hoot #1

We are continuing our Fall unit through November, and we learned all about pumpkins!  We got to pick our pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, now we were ready to explore pumpkins.  The timing was awesome because it tied into our Making Meaning and math lessons!  In Making Meaning, we have been learning about sequencing and telling the order of events in which they happen.  We learned about the pumpkin life cycle by reading Pumpkin, Pumpkin, and students had the opportunity to retell the order of the life cycle to his/her partner.  We read other pumpkin stories throughout the week, and ended our week with cutting open a real pumpkin to see what it looked like on the inside.  The students completed a brace map of a pumpkin after we discussed all of the parts of a pumpkin.  This helped students with the concept of how objects can be broken down into parts, just like numbers can be broken down into parts. The students LOVED getting to grab a hand full of pulp and seeds...the girls were more interested in that than the boys were!  We also worked on our listening skills by doing a "Pinterest inspired" directed drawing together.  They turned out really good!  

 One thing we learned during our pumpkin study is that ORANGE pumpkins cannot be found ANYWHERE after Halloween!  We had to settle using a white pumpkin! It all worked out, most of the students had never seen a white pumpkin!

 Hoot #2

Our students were out Tuesday for Election Day.  So I thought I would do an impromptu lesson on the job of the President of the United States of America and explain what election means.  We read Duck for President and watched some factual videos about presidents.  Each student got to write about what they would do if they were President and complete a craft (Yes, the craft was inspired from Pinterest too!).  These turned out too cute to not hang up in the hall!

This Week's Holler...
 This week we are hollering at Julie Lee at Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten.  We use a lot of her center activities from her TPT store!  They are AWESOME!  She has TONS of ideas for November on her blog.  Our favorite is that cute "Turkey Talk" activity and writing!  Go check her out!  You will be happy you did! 

Two Hoots and A Holler: Halloween Happenings

Hoot #1

Did someone say Halloween on a MONDAY?!?!?!  We survived and pushed our way through it all, and now we are here to tell all about it! Monday was full of sugar, candy, pumpkins, and excitement, but it didn't stop us from learning!  We have been learning all about making text-to-self connections in Making Meaning.  We tied Halloween in with this skill and read Where's My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi. After listening to the story, the students shared with their partner what happened in the story and made a connection of a time when they were scared.  Then they connected the story again to themselves and told their partner what their mommy does when they are scared.  We made these cute Pinterest inspired mummies and wrote about our connection. We glued toilet paper in rows, let it dry, trimmed the edges, and added our writing.   Look how adorable these turned out!!  This will definitely be on our "must do" list next year too! 

Hoot #2

Not only did we survive Halloween being on a Monday, but we also survived our field trip to the pumpkin patch!  We visited a local farm to pet animals, feed animals, watch the pig races, ride a train, go for a hay ride, and pick our pumpkin!  The students had a BLAST on our field trip!  They were very proud of the pumpkin they picked to take home.  The smiles on all of their faces just shows how much fun was had!  

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Kelly at Sweet Sound of Kindergarten.  We recently discovered this wonderful lady and her blog!  It came across our Facebook page, and when we checked it out...we were in LOVE!  We could literally spend hours looking around and reading all about the awesome things she does in her classroom.  Her power point presentations with sight word phrases ROCKS!  It is definitely something we look forward to incorporating into our classrooms!  Go check her out and follow her!