Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

Teachers are known for their willingness to help others, so it was not surprise when we saw so many teachers reaching out to help fellow teachers in Texas!  Hurricane Harvey hit Texas relentlessly!  These teachers, students, and citizens need our help!  Our school has 2 former coworkers who teach in Texas.  They have not been able to get in their classrooms, so they are unsure about the amount of damage that was done.  We are sure teachers across the state lost tons of supplies that they spent their own hard working money on, and we encourage YOU to reach out and help! We recently read on Facebook that Sun, Sand, & Second Grade has a link to sign up to adopt a classroom.  We thought this was a great idea, and we wanted to share in hopes that many of you will adopt a classroom.  Click the picture below to sign up!

For more information go to  http://sunsandsecondgrade.blogspot.com/2017/08/adopt-texas-classroom-faq.html

Most importantly, continue to pray for the state of Texas and many others who have been effected by this devastating storm!  

 

Hoot #2

This year we began a new positive behavior strategy for the cafeteria.  We saw on Facebook one day over the summer (can't remember exactly who posted it) the idea of the "Golden Spatula".  We took this idea to our principal and cafeteria manager, and they thought it was a great idea to help enforce cafeteria expectations.  Each week a class from each grade is awarded the Golden Spatula!  In order to receive this award, classes must follow cafeteria expectations, have good manners, clean up after themselves, etc.  Our cafeteria staff decided the winning class each week.  Our kids look forward to who will win each week!

 

This Week's Holler...

 This week's holler goes out to Briana at Sun, Sand, & Second Grade!  She is a teacher in Florida.  She has taken on the responsibility, with the help of friends, to help teachers in Texas!  Her kindness and willingness to help others deserves this week's holler!!  Thank you Briana for this great idea and helping teachers across the nation unite for a good cause! 

 

Two Hoots and a Holler

Hoot #1

We began centers/workstations this week!  The students LOVE them!  They did so well with following directions and completing the activities.  We were impressed!  They actually "hoot and holler" when it is center time!  That is their favorite part of the day. 

Hoot #2

Light it up, up, up!!  Yes, another Ron Clark inspired idea gets a hoot this week!  We left RCA with SO many ideas that we wanted to incorporate into our classrooms!  We are taking baby steps towards our end goal, and this is one idea that is a huge hit with the kiddos! Ron Clark students stand on tables, so do we. Ron Clark used disco lights to celebrate accomplishments, so..... we have disco lights and LED lights to help us celebrate successes.  We do A LOT of moving in kindergarten, and we sing and dance A LOT!  The lights only come on for special occasions.  The kids love it when the lights are on, and even some have said that they love school because their classroom has lights!  haha  If it keeps them motivated to want to come to school and learn, then we are all for it!!  

  

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten. We use Julie's stuff on a regular basis in our classroom. She has a ton of resources if you are look for items for you centers. Over the past couple of years, we have done an activity with the poem Rainbow Hair. After looking at her blog, that is about to change!! She has a Troll Craft that is SUPER CUTE!! You want to check this out!

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

Since visiting Ron Clark Academy, we have been dying to incorporate the house system at our school and in our classroom!  Last Friday our classes joined two 5th grade classes for a house reveal celebration!  Each child got to pop a balloon to see which house had chosen them.  

 The students (and teachers) had a BLAST!!  Every student was excited and so were their house mates!  Check out some of these pictures!!

HOUSE OF GRISHAM! HEAR THEM ROAR!

5th grade house members created a tunnel for the younger house mates to run through as they welcomed them into their house!

Grisham is in the HOUSE!!

Jodi ran and gave "high fives" to the new students in Grisham.

Mrs. Gardner welcomes Parker to the House of Welty.

Presley 5th Graders 

 Bryson got green!!

 Leah got green!

Mrs. Amy was busy writing down the names of the first members
of Presley House!
OOOOHHHH YYEAH!!!!!!

Presley House Completed
Kindergarten and 5th
Let the memory making begin!!

Hoot #2 

The beginning of the year would NOT be complete without our yearly subscription to ESGI!!  We have LOTS of screening to get done these first couple of weeks, and this tool helps make assessing students EASY PEASY!  If you have not already heard of ESGI or you have never tried ESGI, then you MUST go sign up for their free trial.  We promise you will fall in love with all that it has to offer!  We honestly cannot say enough good things about ESGI!
There is a NEW Classroom Management feature.  WOW, just WOW!  Just when we thought ESGI couldn't get any better, they add this feature!  Using this will help you create class lists, name tags, name plates, cubby names, bus lists, etc.  We are still learning what all this new feature will do!  

We cannot imagine how we ever survived teaching kindergarten without it!  It is worth EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY.  If you have any questions about ESGI, do not hesitate to contact us.  We will be glad to answer any questions! 

Click the ESGI button below to go sign up!  If you decide you or your school would like to purchase, then don't forget to enter promo code B6125 for a discounted price of $159 ($199 regular cost). 

 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Tara West at Little Minds at Work.  She has SO many wonderful activities and tools to use in kindergarten and first grade!  We use her guiding reading bundle every year!  We LOVE how easy the lessons are to follow, and how simple she has made teaching guided reading.  Go check out her blog and TPT store!  You will be glad you did!  

Tara West's Blog 

Two Hoots and A Holler

We hope everyone had a blast during their summer break! 
We did a lot of relaxing and a little traveling.

We have started our year with 20 new Jitterbugs and Rockstars! We can't wait to see how these students grow. 
We are definitely raising the bar this year!!

Hoot #1

As many of you know, Jodi and I went to the Ron Clark Academy last school year. We took sooooo many things away from that. One of the things that you couldn't help but notice was that teachers did not have any of their student's work hanging in the hall. RCA had pictures of their students hanging instead. We fell in love with this idea! We started this, on a small scale, last year. This year we decided to go all out! We did not have the money for actual frames, so we made our own! I think that they turned out great! Throughout the year we will add more and more pictures of our students until it is full!

 

We also decorated our doors, and it will last ALL YEAR! No more wasting time throughout the day trying to design a door, just to pull it down in a few weeks! These doors were created with vinyl. It is hard to tell in the picture, but every single letter, polka dot, and star is made of GLITTER vinyl. We absolutely love how they turned out. A big Thanks goes out to Shauna Gardner for lending us her time and machine to create our doors!!

Hoot #2

We wanted to create something special when the students arrived for open house. We wanted our parents to feel welcomed and loved in their child's new elementary family. We created two areas in the hallway that they would walk under as they found their classroom.

 We are the Walls Elementary Gators, so it was only fitting that a Gator was there to greet them.

 This one is our favorite and probably the easiest!

We are so excited to start this school year. There are so many new things that we are going to try.

Here we go...........

Welcome class of 2030!!!!!!

This Week's Holler... 
This week's holler goes out to Leslie at Kindergarten Works.  She has some wonderful ideas on her blog about the first week of kindergarten.  We love her idea of her lesson plan bracelet to help keep her on track and remind her of things that must be done.  We are so busy this time of year, and this bracelet would definitely work for us!  She has TONS of helpful information (like activities for kids, bootcamp, free printables, etc.) to help teachers survive that busy, hectic first week of kindergarten.  Go check her out!