Hootin' & Hollerin'

Here's what has us Hootin'...

We are back! The students are getting into their routines and beginning to learn the rules of the classroom. This is our 20th year teaching. So we decided to celebrate, by hiring an artist to come paint our rooms. Chrissy Dodd did better than we could have ever imagined!!

Since I am the Jitterbugs, I asked her to do a bug theme. The students were crazy over the glow in the dark moth in the bathroom.

 I didn't get a very good picture of the Japanese beetle. It is peeking his head out from around the desk. I did dress up the lights just a bit. They are the same lights that I had last year. I ran sparkly green ribbon through them. I was able to just punch out flowers from the di-cut machine at out school to put around the light bulbs. It added so much to the room!

My class has a Rockstar theme, so she came up with some art work for my classroom.  I LOVE everything about my room!  She exceeded my expectations!  The students absolutely LOVE their room! I am actually missing one picture of an area that she painted, I will add that later. 

 

This had us Hootin' too...

I don't know about you, but we stopped everything today to talk about germs. The sneezing and coughing has gotten out of hand. So I decided to do a little lesson I saw shared on Facebook on how germs are spread.  We talked about how everyone has germs, and that we do not want to share those. Then I decided that I show them how they are shared.

First, I chose my two helpers to start the "spread of germs" (glitter). I did this by putting lotion on their hand and dipping it in glitter. 

Next, they gave each other a high five.They were able to see the germs that could spread when we cough or sneeze in our hands.

 Then they shared them with all of their friends!

 Before we knew it, everyone had "germs!"

They loved this lesson! They remembered all day to sneeze and cough correctly.

It is messy, but so is Kindergarten. 

This is what has us Hollerin'...

This week's holler goes out to ESGI! We have already finished our letter screeners AND turned in our data, thanks to ESGI!  If we had to do these paper/pencil, we may still be struggling to do them while trying to teach rules and procedures and everything else that comes with the beginning of the year chaos! ESGI provides automatic documentation, progress monitoring, and provides so much more detailed information that is available to teachers and parents. We are able to look at previous records from students that are repeating kindergarten, so there is not any time wasted re-assessing these students. This week our parents received a letter, generated from ESGI, about which letters their child knows and what needs to be worked on at home. 

ESGI offers a free trial for teachers who want to try it out.... We promise once you try it, you will never go back to paper/pencil assessments again!!   ESGI has made assessments easier and saved us hundreds of hours of testing! Imagine getting all of that instructional time back and giving it to your students!  IT IS SO WORTH IT!!   
Click the ESGI button on our blog page to get started!! 
 Go try it out!  

 

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1
Last week, Mrs. Jodi told you all about the butterflies that her class made. I wanted to share how we made ours! 
With all of the talk of Spring bringing showers, we thought that it would be a perfect day to get out in the rain  to create our butterflies. The students drew on filters with markers. They then were able to run out in the rain to get their filter wet. They had a BLAST!

our finished product!

 Hoot #2

During this time of study, we read several books from Eric Carle, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This followed along with our theme, but I wanted to also use it to discuss different illustrating techniques that authors use when writing. The students loved this. First, the students grabbed a piece of large yellow construction paper. I put a few large drops of blue paint on their yellow paper. Then, using a brush, the students spread the paint as thin as they could to create a textured green. After it dried, they cut their paper into several circles. They arranged their caterpillar anyway that they wanted. This was a simple idea that turned out super cute!

 



This Week's Holler...
This weeks holler goes our to Mr. Mike, the president of our PTA. This guy is really special to us. His daughter is a teacher at our school.  He has a grandson that attended Walls, and he has a granddaughter who is currently in 3rd grade at Walls. He does more than I could ever possibly list. We are lucky to have him and we know it, but now the whole county knows! Tonight he was named Parent of the Year for DeSoto County Schools!! That's right! For our whole district!! We are the largest county in MS. We couldn't be more proud. Mr. Mike, the Kinder Glitter Girls love you!

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

Spring is here!  It is warming up, flowers are blooming, pollen is covering everything (literally), and baby animals are born & hatching!  There isn't a better time to start our Oviparous animal unit!  We began with hatching chicken eggs.  We set up our incubators, got the eggs from the chicken farmer, and began to learn all about chickens! 

We are officially the proud parents of 6 chicks!!  

We think we have 4 roosters and 2 hens!

The kids are so excited!!

Hoot #2

I decided to try something new this year and purchase live caterpillars from Insect Lore.  The students have loved observing how fast the caterpillars grew throughout the day, and how overnight they formed their chrysalis!  

 

We made butterfly hats to wear.  As I was adding the faces on to the hats, they told me that it needed a proboscis!  

These Rockstars never cease to amaze me at how smart they are! 

We made butterflies out of over sized coffee filters.  We colored them with markers, and then sprayed them with water. 

This Week's Holler...
Testing season is among us, and we know this time of year can be very stressful and exhausting!  This week's holler goes out to all the testing coordinators out there! They have worked so hard to ensure everything runs smoothly so that teachers don't have any added worries.  Our testing coordinator is the best by far!  She is always willing to help in anyway she can, and she takes care of business!  Thank you Toni Glass for all that you do and will do!  Hang in there, there is light at the end of this tunnel.  You are the best!