Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

Our first hoot all about the letter P. We had an awesome party to celebrate the letter Pp!  Thanks to our wonderful parents, we were able to eat pizza, pickles, popcorn, pretzels, Pringles, pixie sticks, pop tarts, purple juice and so much more. We got to even wear our pajamas to school!!  We also had popsicles at recess and made pirate hats.  We topped off the afternoon with a real princess coming to read to our classes! We just love days like these!
Jitterbugs & Rockstars love princesses!

Hoot #2

Our second hoot is something that has helped us show a lot of growth already! If you have not heard about the "Blue Book," we highly recommend that you look into it. Over the past few years, it seemed that our students really struggled in the area of phonemic awareness. We have also struggled with trying to find the right combination that would work with our littles. We do believe that we may have found it!  It is perfect because it is quick and covers all of the areas of phonemic awareness. It takes about 15 minutes (max) to do it. It We do it daily, every morning during large group time. We do hand motions to help the students retain the information. We love it, and the students do too!!  We would love to answer any questions that you may have about this. 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to a beloved coworker who has began a new chapter in her life.  She has worked at our school for 15 years, so we have had lots of laughs with this special lady!  Bonnie, we are so very blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know you and call you a friend!  Good luck on your new adventure!  
We love you!  It is not "goodbye"... it is "see ya later!"

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

In kindergarten, it is our goal to develop readers who have a love for books.  In order to promote this, we have already started using book boxes in our classrooms this year.  Book boxes are used during IDR time, Read to Self time, DEAR time, or whatever you may call it.  This year's group of students are SO excited to get their book box and read their books.  I have never had a group of kids so excited to read this early in the year.  It makes my teacher heart happy!  I learned from a co-worker last year to use whisper phones during independent reading.  Because students this age are emerging readers, it is good for them to read out loud.  But it can get very noisy and distracting with 26 different voices.  Using whisper phones made out of PVC pipe (from Home Depot or any hardware store) helps with the noise level and helps students be able to listen to themselves read.  Students were able to stay engaged in independent reading time for 5 minutes on the first day!  We are continuing to work on our reading stamina and increase it daily.  

Jitterbugs love reading too!

Hoot #2

Well, we have survived our first field trip! We have been studying the 5 senses, so we took a trip out to Litcherman Nature Center. The students loved it. They got to rotate through centers to explore their senses and learn how different animals use their senses.  They were able to see and hear the animals in the woods as they took a hike. They were able to see the fish, geese, and turtles eat food. They were able to taste things that were sour and investigate their taste buds. They even were able to feel a snake and opossum. It was very warm, but an awesome way to reinforce the skills taught in our classrooms.

We love when parents come along as we
learn!

 

We LOVE field trips, but these kiddos were "field tripped" out on the bus ride back to school! 

 
This Week's Holler... 
This week's holler goes out to Mr. Mike, AKA Cowboy! He has been in charge of our PTA for several years. He does an outstanding job! He and his helpers are the reason our students and teachers get the things they need. Well, the past week, he has been very sick, but we are glad to report that he is doing much better. We love you Mr. Mike and all that you do for us! 

    

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1
This year Dr. Seuss's birthday and our monthly house meeting fell on the same day!  We learned all about Dr. Seuss and read several of his books in class throughout the week.  On Friday, we got to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday with our house buddies!  Their 5th grade house buddy read a Dr. Seuss book to them, then we sang "Happy Birthday" to Dr. Seuss. Finally, we had a small birthday party in honor of Dr. Seuss.  After 300 cupcakes, 40 tubs of cotton candy, 250 drinks, and lots of Dr. Seuss books, we think these kiddos had a blast! 

Mr. Hickerson, a 5th grade teacher, really enjoyed reading to our kinders!  The kinders LOVED hearing him read and seeing him dance at the celebration.   

 Some kinders read to their 5th grade buddy!  Seeing our kinders reading to their buddy made our hearts so happy! 

Hoot #2

Well, we have been lucky enough to be able to expose our kindergartners to more technology than ever this year!  This week is "Report Card Testing" week. We don't know about you, but usually that also means it is a review week. It is a little more relaxed. In a world full of assessments and rigor that is not age appropriate, it is nice to sit back and show our students how much their brain has grown! ESGI allows us to do just that! Our students are so excited to see how much of their pie graph turns green.

This year, we have been blessed to get ipads in our classroom. We now have 7 in our room. The students love to get on them. If the students are doing individual work, they are doing Reading Eggs. This is a great tool that we recommend for your kinders. It helps with phonemic awareness and other reading skills. During free centers, they love to work together in pairs. We discovered these jewels, and we are loving these new headphones!

What makes these headphones different from others is that you can take any other head phone and plug it directly to the headphone and you immediately have a partner to work with. So now we have the ability to have 14 students working at one time on tablets!!! There is no more fighting over tablet time!

The additional headphone plugs in right under the ear!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Amber at A Smiling Teacher. She is an elementary teacher from Ohio. We are in love with her writing station. Super fun and super easy! She is selling it as a bundle on TPT, and it is on our wish list now!  Go check it out!!