Two Hoots and A Holler: New Year, New Ideas

Sorry guys, we are just now getting around to our first post of 2017!  Between holidays and snow days, we have been busy playing catch up!  So here it is (finally), our first Hoot and Holler of 2017....

Hoot # 1

 So far 2017 has been very busy!  When you are busy, you do not have much time for anything...like displaying work out in the hallway!  The wall outside my door has been blank since before Christmas Break!!  I loved Ron Clark's theory on hanging student pictures in the hallways that he shared during our visit to Ron Clark Academy in December.  He basically said that students didn't even notice that their work was displayed in the hall, and teachers were constantly hanging things and switching things to display in the hallway (which we know takes what seems like forever sometimes).  If the students did not even notice it was there, then why are we taking up our time doing it?  We all know a teacher's time is valuable!  So at RCA there are literally hundreds of pictures lining the hallways of the students.  The students actually look at the pictures to see if they see themselves or their friends.  The best part is....once they are up, they are there the entire year! I brought this wonderful idea back to my classroom.  I printed pictures out of various activities we have done since August, made sure every student was in at least one picture, and hung them in the hallway.  The next morning as the students were coming in the classroom, it was all they talked about!  They were willing to skip out on breakfast to stand in the hall and look at all the pictures!  One kid came in grinning, and said "Ms. Jodi, that is just AMAZING!"  Another thanked me for hanging up a picture of her where she looked "so cute"!  I will add a few pictures here and there throughout the year, but it will not come down until May!  This is definitely something I will do every year now!  Just by hanging pictures so much of my time was saved, and it brought smiles and laughs to every student in my room.  TOTALLY WORTH IT! 

Hoot #2

Due to the snow break, we had to combine a few of our activities. We finished our new years celebration by making our New Year's glyph.

Then we began our study about Polar Bears! The students loved learning all about these lovable mammals. As we finished our study, we made a chart of all of the cool things that we learned. We created polar bear glyphs to go with our chart.

This Week's Holler...
This week's holler goes out to April at Grade School Giggles. She has everything you could possibly need as a primary teacher and more.  Handwriting has been a frequent topic around our Kinder table. So, we were immediately drawn to her "Handwriting Help" post. We already had the pencil grips that she selected, but the blog post gave use some wonderful ideas to try with our kiddos. There is something for everyone! Go check her out!