Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

 As many of you know, we went to the Ron Clark Academy in December. Since our trip, we have been implementing many of the things that we learned. Our tables are small and our supplies are stored in the middle of our table, so standing on tables would be a little difficult. Sooooo, we stand in chairs!!! That is right! At this point, during math, I introduce all new skills. Once I feel that the students have an understanding of the skill, I leave them to do the teaching! Yes, my students become teachers. I use large craft sticks to choose which student will be the teacher. That child goes to the front of the room to begin to walk students through skills such as counting on, addition, and subtraction. The student teacher will ask a question. If a student wants to respond, they must be the first one to stand in their chair. He/she is then called on by the student teacher.  If another child disagrees with the answer, that child then stands up and begins their statement with, " I disagree because..." Students can not move on to the next problem until all students are in agreement. Students show that they are in agreement by giving a "thumbs up"  hand gesture.  The same procedure happens when we are at the carpet for reading or writing.  The students simply stand where they are in order to respond.   The students love doing this! They love taking control of learning and contributing to their classroom. They have learned to support and disagree with each other calmly and with evidence.

I am so proud of them!

Below are pictures during our math time.

Hoot #2

We are busy gearing up for our Boosterthon Fun Run. This takes fundraising to whole new level! Students are sponsored by friends and family by how many laps they run! It is a great way to earn money for your school and get healthy all at the same time!  During the week of collecting money, students are given character traits that they learn about daily along with a sticker.The students are given prizes daily for the pledges that they collect.  For every $30 raised, a local family will receive 3 meals.  This is an awesome experience where everyone gets to participate whether you helped raise money or not, AND money raised helps the school and families in the community.  We recommend that you look into for your school! We have never seen our students so excited about a fundraiser before!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Kimberly Jordano at Kinder By Kim!  We have followed her for years through her website (kinderbykim.com).  We saw her at the I Teach K! conference about 10 years ago in San Diego, CA.  We have been in LOVE with her ever since!  She has some awesome books packed full of activities that are theme based.  We were ecstatic to learn that she has a blog and a TPT store!  Go check it all out, and you will see why we think she deserves this week's holler!

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

We are so thankful for our wonderful and creative assistants!  Without them, we are not sure if we would make it!!  Amy, Jamie's assistant, had the best, most simple idea ever!  She was walking through the craft department at Wal-Mart, and she saw cow bells. She bought one for Jamie's classroom, and told Jamie that the students should be able to ring the bell when they learn a new list of sight words.  When the cow bell rings the class looks at the student ringing the bell. raises the roof,  and shouts "WOOT! WOOT!" After the bell rings and the shouting stops, everyone is to go back to finishing what ever it was they were doing.  Jamie tried it first, and her students LOVED it!  Jodi could hear all the ringing and shouting next door.  Both classes have done this with sight word testing on ESGI, and since we incorporated the bell students are reading more and more sight words!  They want to ring that bell!! How simple and creative is that idea?!?!?!  

OF COURSE, We have already found sparkly stickers to decorate the cow bells!

 

Hoot #2 

 We made it to Spring Break!!!!  It seems like this year is flying by! We have been busy assessing students for the end of the grading period and getting ready for the last 9 weeks of the school year.  It seems like forever ago when we were starting school in classrooms that still had unpacked boxes waiting for renovations to get done and meeting all of our sweet, eager students.  When we stop and think about the beginning of our school year, we are just in awe at all of the progress that has been made.  Our students are growing more and more each day.  We are so proud of how far we all have come since August.  We all have been working hard...this Spring Break is definitely a needed and deserved break! 

We wish everyone a blessed, safe, and restful Spring Break!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Gloria and Eryn at 2 Scoops of Kindergarten!  They recently blogged about plays in kindergarten.  We definitely think that our students would love doing this!  This is going on our "To Do" list for next year!  Don't forget to click their "freebies" tab to go check out all the free resources they offer! 

Click here and Go check them out to get a "taste of the kindergarten life"!  

 

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

At the beginning of the year we were so nervous to begin our new phonics program, SIPPS.  We were uncertain of how to do it, and if it was going to work with our kids.  We have been doing it since November, and let us just tell you...the amount of growth we have seen in our students is AMAZING!!  Of course we had to get creative and figure out a way to make the lessons interesting and exciting for the students.  So we put our own spin on our SIPPS lessons!  We knew we wanted to put our lessons into Power Point presentations, but we still needed something more.  Jodi has students sit in scoop rockers, exercise balls, tables, or where ever they are comfortable.  The students teach the lessons and lead the class in reading the stories.  They love being the "teacher"!  Jamie has a reading party with her SIPPS group, and she has those kids up and moving as they are reading and learning.  Every SIPPS lesson is a dance party in Ms. Jamie's room!  The students see her in the hallway or cafeteria and start showing off their dance moves!  In both classes the students are up teaching the lessons to their classmates.  The students LOVE when it is time for SIPPS, and they actually cheer when they are lining up to go!  

Hoot #2 

This week has been all about Dr. Seuss! We have had so much fun! I wanted to share with you one of the activities that we did. We read:
 

After  reading the book, the students were asked, "What makes you...you?? The students answered the question with the prompt, "I am I because..". When they finished writing they were asked to create themselves using precut pieces.  This craft was inspired by First Grade Fresh; after seeing her pictures of this on Pinterest, we knew we had to do it!  They turned out SUPER cute!  They now line the front hall of our school for everyone to see!

The day ended with a visit from a special cat!!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Hope King at Elementary Shenanigans.  Since our visit to the Ron Clark Academy, we are in LOVE with Hope King!  She uses a lot of different games in her classroom, with a special "learning" twist to them to help her students stay engaged and motivated.  If you have never seen her classroom, then go check out her video of her room.  You will be AMAZED!!!!  Check out her blog and TPT store for some AWESOME ideas and resources!