Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

Our first hoot is all about DATA!  This year our students have 2 computerized tests that they will have to take.  One is mandated by the state, and the other gives teachers a plethora of information about their students' strengths and areas of concern.  Our goal this year is to GROW, GROW, GROW!  In order to help us stay on track, our wonderful principals have created a "data room" that displays every teacher's data.  This is a great visual for teachers to see how their students are growing.  This forces us to look at our data and allow our data to drive our instruction; therefore, we are tailoring our instruction to meet our students EXACTLY where they are.  We love looking at our data, and we definitely can't wait to see how much these Jitterbugs and Rockstars will grow!

 

Hoot #2

Speaking of growing our students and data, we are only 2 months into school and have seen our students begin to SOAR!  We use ESGI in our classrooms to help with assessments that we give our students.  A huge focus is on letters and sounds at the beginning of the year.  We set a personal goal for ourselves and our students...we want all of our students to know all of their letters by Halloween.  And with the help many Jack Hartmann videos, Leap Frog's Letter Factory, perseverance, and a few tears, we are almost there!  Look at all of this growth!  In August I had 7 students who knew all 52 letters, now I have 18 that know all 52!!!!  I was super excited to see all of their growth, and  I am proud of my kiddos for all of their hard work! 

  

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes to ESGI! Thank you ESGI for your continued support of teachers and saving us HUNDREDS of hours of assessments!  If you do not use this tool, then you are wasting a lot a valuable time assessing your students. Did I mention that it is paperless???!!! At a glance, I can look at my standards that I am targeting to see if whole class review is necessary. 

 When I click on a students name, if gives me an overview of the student's knowledge. If I press "details," then it will give me the exact question that the student doesn't know. My students have so much fun with this! It is not uncommon to hear them say, "Look how much my brain has grown!"

You can click any of the icons on the right and with no effort at all, you can have a detailed parent letter explaining their child's knowledge. We have heard of some teachers that even use these as the report cards that they send home! Every primary teacher needs this in their life!

Click on the ESGI button at the top of our blog home page to receive a code for a free trial and a discounted price!!!

Two Hoots And A Holler

Hoot #1
Now that the school year has started, we are all about routines and procedures. Our students have started centers and love them. In the beginning, I know this can be a headache. We have 27 bodies that are excited. They go in 27 different directions to do their favorite center and have a million questions as they do them. Rest assure, that this too shall pass. We find that it helps to put them with partners, and encourage them to work together in the beginning. Usually, they will slowly start doing centers independently has the year progresses.

Jitterbugs are busy counting sets.

Letter recognition

Writing our letters and numbers

Hoot#2
 Learning has never been so much fun!  We truly believe in age appropriate, hands-on, fun learning activities.  We teach 5 and 6 year olds, so it is only natural that they learn through play.  We are hard at work learning so many things. If you know "littles," you know that you have to spice it up a bit to keep them engaged in their learning. As many of you know, we went to RCA about a year ago, and we were truly inspired by the things we experienced there. We have always moved and grooved, but since attending, we do a lot more and with more excitement. Helpers get to do their large group time on tables, including dancing and singing! Have I mentioned how much fun teaching kindergarten can be?!?!

This Week's Holler...
We started this school year with a brand new principal and assistant principal.  We have been truly blessed to get these two women as leaders at our school!  They truly care about their teachers and the students.  We are so proud to have this "Dynamic Duo" to lead our school to greatness!  This holler is for you Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Cobb!  Thank you for all of your support and faith in our school! 

 

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1
Welcome back to all of the teachers out there! Yes, this is our first post of the year. We know, for many of you, this is your first week of school. To those we would like to say, "Keep going! It will get better!" We are actually on our 5th week of school. It has been a roller coaster to say the least. We have 27 students in our room, and we have be taking standardized tests for the past 3 weeks. Well, we all have the same feelings about that so no need to get on that soap box. We also have first activity. Between that and breakfast, it can be tricky to find something for students to do during that short time. So we introduced morning tubs! Jodi and I simply do not have the time to create something (you know how it is), so we used Tara West's Hands On Exploration Tubs. We couldn't be more pleased. We printed them out on card stock and laminated the cards.  We punched holes and put them on rings. We placed the appropriate manipulatives in the tubs, set them out  and let the students go at it! There were a few rules that were put into place to make it go a little smoother. 
1. There are 3-5 sets in each bucket. Students can only go to that tub if there is an available set. 
2. The students can pick any bucket, but once they choose, that was their bucket for the morning.

  3.  Use inside voices.

They absolutely love them! 
This gives us time to get all of my morning jobs done without being interrupted constantly!

Hoot #2

  Last year, we posted how we went to Ron Clark and implemented the house system. Last year, was a trial to see what worked for us. We just had Kinder and 5th grade do the house system. This year, our entire school is doing it. We are a K-5 school with 800+ students. So far, it has gone great. We opened the school year with the teachers popping a balloon to discover their houses.  

 On the first Friday of the school year, students popped their balloons to see which house chose them. Each house meets once a month, and every Friday students get to sit with their house for lunch. Even though they are only kinders, they take a lot of pride in their house!  The weekly winning house gets to fly their flag on the flag pole out in front of the school  for the week.  
New winners are announced each Monday.  
 They are having a blast, and so are we!

As each child popped their balloon, they got a bracelet that had their house name on it. The bracelet is the color of their house. 

Rockstars had a blast popping their balloons and cheering on each other! 

The Jitterbugs loved their bracelets and finding out who was in their house!

 First Friday! Eating my lunch with Presley House! Our house color is green! Each house wears their colors on Friday and we eat together!

This Week's Holler...

This holler goes out to all of the teachers out there! We know that August and September can be rough, stressful, and very tiring. Yet, you get up every morning to tackle it all over again! You are amazing! There are the elite few in this world that can to what you do! So go out there and make a difference! 
YOU GOT THIS!

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!