Two Hoots and A Holler: October Happenings

Hoot #1

This week we continued to learn about bats, spiders and all things spooky for Halloween! The students had a great time painting and creating their bats from paper sacks. This original idea was from Kimberly Jordano.

Clorox Wipe containers work great to help hold the bag in place!

By the way, we do not have uniforms at our school. The students are mostly wearing orange to bring recognition to stop bullying.

After the bags dried, they were stuffed and stapled. Eyes, ears, wings and feet were glued put in place. 

Our final step: Each student had to wrote their favorite "at" word on their bat.

"Going Batty with the "at" Family!

These kiddos were also jumping at the chance to learn all about spiders!! First, we made covers for our spider books by marble painting using white paint on black construction paper. These web paintings turned out great! I wish I had taken pictures of the finished product!

Next, we did a little science and ate just like a spider! This activity can be purchased in Deanna Jump's TPT store.  It is a wonderful way to teach students the process of how spiders prepare and eat their food.

Of course, no unit is complete without a hat!!

SPIDER RACES!!!!!!

This was the last activity of the day! The students had a blast with this! It has become one of my favorites and theirs too!

Large milkshake straws were cut into thirds. I bought some plastic spider rings at the dollar store. I just cut the ring part off and you are ready to race. The students line their spiders up at the end of the table. When the whistle blows, they blow through their straw and continue to blow until it falls off the other end of the table.

The crowd cheers!!!


To help us get in the Halloween spirit even more, we also read several books that were all about monsters!  After reading Even Monsters Need Haircuts we created our Frankenstein monsters and we compared our name with his by counting letters, vowels, and syllables.  

Hoot #2
As many of you know, October is a busy month with all of the events and happenings....there is Bully Prevention Awareness, Breast Cancer Awareness, Red Ribbon Week, and Halloween; but October isn't complete without a visit from our local fire station!  A visit from fire fighters and paramedics came to talk to our kindergarten kiddos about fire safety and prevention.  The students even got to get in the ambulance and see all of the tools the fire fighters use on the truck.  Their day ended with getting their very own red fire fighter hat and activity book!  They could hardly wait to wear those hats home!  

Thank you Walls Fire Department and Desoto County Emergency Medical Department for taking out the time for our students!  They LOVED seeing the trucks, equipment, and gear! 
 
This Week's Holler...

This week's holler is the best yet. It goes out to our best friend, Stacey Brantley! Stacey and I met 16 years ago when we became neighbors. We became friends pretty quickly.  Stacey was going to school to become a teacher and I was experiencing my first year as a teacher. As the years rolled on, we became strong teachers, but even more importantly we became inseparable friends. She is currently a First grade teacher at Murrell Taylor Elementary in Jacksonville, Arkansas. Her talent with those students is something that would just put a smile on your face. Stacey is not a teacher that you can find on the internet. No, she doesn't have a blog or a TPT store. So you may be sitting there wondering why I would even tell you all about her. ????

Stacey had a beautiful baby this past summer. 8 weeks later, she found out she had breast cancer. Needless to say, her world was turned upside down. (Mine too for that matter!). She is handling it like a champ! Not only is she handling it, she is THRIVING!

So this October is a little different this year for me than most.  I couldn't let Breast Cancer Awareness month go by and not give a shout out to my best friend ! No, this cancer will not define her! She shows up every day to be there for her students.  Those students love her and her bald head, that she proudly shows because she wants her students to understand that it's OK to be yourself, and that it is OK to accept everyone! That is a life lesson, folks! Her strength and dedication to her students inspire us daily.  

I could go on and on and on and on....

She is amazing!!

We are blessed to be inseparable friends!

Two Hoots and A Holler:

Hoot #1

Yesterday officially ended our first 9 weeks of school!  We cannot believe 9 weeks has passed by already!  It has been a very busy kickoff to our year.  While we are busy testing report cards, sight words, and reading levels, we can't help but to think back on that first week that we met our sweet class.  It is absolutely AMAZING how much they have grown!  There is not one student in our classes that hasn't grown academically and socially!  This is the time of the year when we reflect back on what has happened so far in our classes, and we think about what has worked and what hasn't...ya'll know as well as we do, every class/student is different and we must change our teaching to meet their needs.  Incorporating more hands-on, sensory type of activities has benefited our students in many ways!  Our students LOVE school!  We have had several texts, letters, and emails from parents about how much their child loves school.  This makes our hearts smile to hear this!  Students who love school are going to be more motivated to learn. The only thing we have done different this year is added more developmentally appropriate activities in our classrooms!  In just 9 short weeks, it has had a HUGE impact on our students....so much in fact, their parents even see the impact school is having on their child! 

That is what teaching is all about, guys!  It is having that rewarding feeling that you are doing something positive for each student in your class, it's that feeling of success when you know you have motivated children to want to learn, it's standing up for what you know is right for your class (and doing it), it's giving children opportunities that they may have never had, and most importantly it's allowing students to blossom in his/her own time by meeting THEIR needs (notice it says THEIR, not my needs, not what the curriculum needs, not what the test needs you to teach, not what someone needs to dictate for you to teach, it is THEIR as in the students).  Here is a recap of some of the things we have done so far this year...

Making shape pizzas and eating real pizza in our pajamas for the letter P!

Learning all about Hawaii for the letter H!

Hh is for handprints!

Making leis to wear while we learn about Hawaii. 

Chewing gumballs to see if we can blow a bubble for the letter G!

Lemonade and ladybug hats for the letter L. 

Hoot #2

While the end of our 9 weeks was drawing near, we had a great visit from our local EMT's and fire fighters! It is fire safety month, so our local fire fighters and EMT's reached out to all of our kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders to teach them about fire safety.  Our kindergarteners loved seeing the fire truck and the fire fighter getting all geared up to go fight a fire!  The most interesting fact that our students learned, was there are girl fire fighters!  They thought that was the coolest thing ever! And of course, no fire fighter visit would be complete without each student getting a goody bag and their very own fireman helmet to take home!  

Striking a pose in front of the fire truck! 

One of our kindergarten students and fire fighters showing others how to stop, drop, cover, and roll. 

This Week's Holler. . .
This week's holler goes out to Claire Lynn Designs!  We snagged her business card at the blogger meet up in French Lick, IN.  Click the picture below to go to the website.  Our favorite is the state teacher shirt!  That will definitely be on our Christmas list this year!  There are definitely LOTS of cute, customized shirts to meet every teacher's style!  These would make great teacher gifts for your child's teacher or principal gifts!  
Go check it out, you will be glad you did!