Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1
This hoot is all about PUMPKINS!  We have read about them, learned about them, explored them, carved them, and picked them!  
First we read this book, then we guessed how many seeds we thought would be in our pumpkin. Our pumpkin had 681 seeds!!   

We cut open our pumpkin and pulled out all of the pulp and seeds.

We dug through the pulp to pick out the seeds.  
Then we counted out 20 pumpkin seeds to take home.  

We completed a pumpkin brace map after we explored and carved our pumpkin.  

The Rockstars voted, and they decided that their jack-o-lantern was going to have a scary face.
  I think they were happy with the end result!  

The next day, we were able to take our pumpkin unit further by attending a field trip to the farm.  Every student got to ride on a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick their very own pumpkin to take home!!   

Hoot #2

This year our kindergarten team decided to go all out on Halloween!  It was SO much fun, and the kids loved the entire day!  Students and teachers got to dress up in a costume for Halloween!!  There was only one catch though...it had to be a book character costume!

We also had students from the middle school come and read to our class in costumes!

After reading Room on the Broom, students got to make Witch's Brew for snack!  They got to help mix the snack in the cauldron and make spooky noises to make sure it mixed just right!  There was dry ice under the cauldron, but it had stopped smoking before the picture was taken.  The dry ice was so cool!! 

Then we got to do a "potion" and see whose jack-o-lantern would make the most elephant toothpaste.  The Jitterbugs won!  On the count of 3, we all shouted "HOCUS POCUS" and watched our jack-o-lanterns erupt!  The students all "oooohhh'd" and "aaaahhhhh'd"!  It was AWESOME!  

A Spook-tacular day was had by all!!
Even heard one student say, "this is the best day ever!"

This Week's Holler...
This week's holler goes out to all of our kinder team! We all work hard (that goes without saying), but we also work very well together as a team! This year we decided to dress up as letters from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The students absolutely loved seeing their teachers dressed up, and even though they may not admit it...the teachers had fun dressing up too!

 

Two Hoots and A Holler

Hoot #1

This week we had a special surprise at our school during a faculty meeting.  Our superintendent came to our school to award us medals for "Raising the Bar".  We were recognized for increasing student performance in 5 out of 7 proficiency/growth categories during the 2017-2018 school year. Our school was one of 11 schools to meet this criteria in our district!  It was a GREAT day to be a GATOR!!  We are so proud of all of the hard work and dedication of every single staff member and student!  It was a great reminder of why we do what we do and the difference we make every day!

Hoot #2

At this same faculty meeting, something else happened that has NEVER happened in all of our years of teaching!  We all entered the room knowing we were going to have to do some type of group activity...and let's face it, we all are tired after school and don't want to go to a meeting, much less be forced to do a group activity!  If you are a teacher, we know you totally get what we are saying!  Instead, our principals announce here is your Selfie Scavenger Hunt checklist, you have 15 minutes to find your partner and GO!  Teachers were running, making a mad dash to find their partners and were going in all directions!  You could hear running feet and laughter all through the halls of the school.  Some students were at school for play practice, and they kept watching teachers in awe as we ran by laughing and having a good time.  It was PRICELESS!  We get so bogged down with the hustle and bustle of everything that has to be done, that we only have time to say "Good Morning" to each other and we keep going.    We got to know and to hang out with another teacher that we normally wouldn't get the chance to hang with...and it was a great time had by all!! 

 BEST. FACULTY. MEETING. EVER!

 

 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Tara West over at Little Minds at Work.  We began using some of her reading, writing, and phonics units this year.  We absolutely LOVE them! Her units are so easy to follow, and they are age appropriate!  It is exactly what our students need!  If you haven't ever used any of her things, go check out her blog and TPT store!  We guarantee you will find something you cannot live without! 

https://littlemindsatwork.org/

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

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

 This year I wanted to focus on kindness and teach students how important it is.  I bought the book Bucket Filling from A to Z which is based off of the book How Full is Your Bucket? for Kids.  I have used this book as a read aloud to go along with our Alphabet Bootcamp.  We have been teaching a letter a day, and teaching a way to fill buckets that begins with that letter.  I have seen my students excel at sharing, using manners, and being kind to everyone. 

Over the summer, I read on a blog how a teacher used a "Giant Kerplunk" game to encourage her students in a positive way (can't remember the name to give that teacher credit...sorry!).  I decided use the same idea as a way to encourage students to be kind.  When a student is caught being kind, the student gets to pull a "kindness stick" from the Giant Kerplunk.  Eventually, all of the balls will fall.  When that happens, the class has earned a reward.  The reward maybe free centers one afternoon, an extra recess, lunch in the classroom, no shoes in class, or something that doesn't cost a dime, but the students will LOVE it.  

P.S.  My Giant Kerplunk came from a discount store and some of the pieces were missing....hence the duct tape!  It serves it's purpose though, and it is colorful too!  

These girls were caught by Jamie helping each other get to class one morning.
It was TOO sweet seeing my students smiling and helping one another first thing in the morning!
 

Hoot #2

Don't you just love that feeling when you see your students implementing something that you have taught them? I sure do! We have been working on the beginning stages of addition this week. The last two days, I decided that we would start our "student teachers". These are usually our helpers for the day. They get to come up and literally be the teacher. I do not do this on days that I am introducing a skill, of course, only when reviewing a skill. Everyone gets to be a student teacher several times throughout the year. The student teacher must do exactly like I do, including asking the other students questions. By doing this, we are meeting so many standards and the students have a blast learning!

This Week's Holler... 
This week's in holler goes out to Fiskar! Yes, that's right, the company that makes all of those student scissors. They get a big THANK YOU!! They donated enough scissors for every teacher to get what they needed for their classroom! We love our community!