Two Hoots and A Holler: Collaborative Classrooms

Hoot #1

This year our school is incorporating Collaborative Classroom into our ELA curriculum.  The Collaborative Classroom includes the programs Making Meaning, Being A Writer, and SIPPS.  We began this program with our kinders on the first full week of school.  It is a learning process for students, as well as teachers.  During our Making Meaning lesson, we talked about things we can do after our read aloud, My Friends.  We carried it over to a shared/interactive writing lesson.  The students got to write and share that they can write their name.  This chart is hanging in the classroom for students to revisit and read.  

As some of you may remember from last school year, our classrooms under went some renovations over the summer.  They are still in the process of putting the final touches on our rooms.  While we are waiting for everything to get done, these beauties got delivered to us!!  You have never seen teachers so excited over an easel!  These easels are like the Cadillac of easels!  They have everything you could possibly need or want!  These really help us out when we are making anchor charts or interactive writing with our students during our ELA lessons!   These easels hold all of our materials we need to incorporate Collaborative Classrooms curriculum!  And for that, we are in LOVE with these! 

Hoot #2
We have already begun our center, workstations, or whatever you decide to call them!  We are kind of old school, and we still call them centers.  Our students look forward to this time each day.  They are so excited and engaged, that most of the time we do not even realize we missed our rest/quiet time!  Students actually cheer when they know its time for centers! Take a look at what our kids are doing during center time...

Students use playdough to make 2D shapes.  

 

Students are matching letters using these letter mats and letter tiles. 

 

Students are using pattern blocks to form letters.  They are also making sets on ten frames with number mats and unifix cubes.  

Students are sorting buttons by color.  

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Tales of the Sassy Teacher! Melinda's blog is too cute! We love the lemons! She is a sassy teacher that has taught K-2. Her children actually change classes!! We did this for a short time ourselves! We really loved the learning experience that we gained from trying it. We really enjoyed the reading Melinda post about field trip prep. We have been busy this week planning all sorts of trips and will take any tips we can get! Melinda has a ton of topics for you to choose from! Be sure to check her out!! Happy teaching everyone!

 

Two Hoots and A Holler: Welcome Back!!

Hoot #1

Well our summer has seemed to have come and gone in a blink of an eye!  We had some great times on the beach over the summer, and now it is time to get back in the groove of things! 

We could NOT get into our groove without to ESGI!!!  If you have never heard of ESGI or used it, then you are truly missing out!  This assessment tool has saved us HOURS of assessing in our classrooms, and hours of gathering data for parents and RTI.  

Why do we think so highly of ESGI? There are so many reason, but here are just a few reasons why we will never teach another year without it! 

•  It is user friendly!  It is so easy to enter your class, pick from hundreds of assessments, and begin!
• Tests that we create can be shared with other teachers in our district!  
• There are SO many assessments to choose from, there is sure to be one that fits your needs!
• Paper and pencil one on one assessments can take days, even weeks to do.  Then you have to analyze the data, which takes even longer!  We can test skills in just a matter of days, not weeks...AND it analyzes all of your data for you!  
• It provides individualized parent letters and flash cards to send home with each child.  It keeps parents in the KNOW!
• It has a Spanish version of letters to send home to parents.  
• It tracks student growth as a class and individually throughout the year.  

So what are you waiting for??  Those are reasons enough to want to try it out for free!  Sign up for your free trial today, and get started!
The first 60 days are free for first time subscribers!
Once you see that you cannot live without it, you can purchase the yearly subscription is $159 (regularly $199) by using the code B6125 at check out.  

 

Once you try it out, you will be asking yourself..."how did I ever manage without it?!?!?"

Hoot #2

This is our first full week of school, and we have had our new kiddos in our classrooms for a little over a week.  It was so great to start our first day off with smiling faces of teachers, parents, and students.  At the beginning of every year, we tend to forget how hectic these first few weeks can be.  We forget how much we really have to teach these babies, including the all the little things we take for granted. Our new group of kids have amazed us in every way!  They have adjusted so fast to their new learning environment.  After 3 days of school, we were able to start our new curriculum in full effect!  These kids are listening, joining in discussions, sharing work, and loving every minute of it!  Students are already telling us each day how much they love school!  They are cheering when they see a new book appear, getting to draw a story, getting to use their new school supplies.  They are so eager and motivated to learn, and it makes our hearts so happy!  It is going to be a great year.  We cannot wait to see how much our students are going to grow this year! 

This activity allowed students to practice coloring, cutting, and gluing.  It can be found in our TPT store in our Back to School Activities download.  Click here to go to our store!

I think it is safe to say that these kiddos LOVE kindergarten!  

This Week's Holler...

 We have a lot of changes going on this year, but we have a strong kindergarten team of teachers to help us get through it all.  We know it will be a great year because we work so closely together.  We are excited to take on all of the challenges and celebrate all of our success with this wonderful team of teachers.  We definitely could not do it without each and everyone of them.  So glad to have these ladies in our teacher tribe!  

Here's to another awesome year of kindergarten! 

Keep Calm!  WE GOT THIS!

GO GATORS!!!  

Two Hoots and A Holler: WE MADE IT!!

Hoot #1

It was finally moving day this past weekend.  Both of our rooms had to be COMPLETELY empty!  YIKES!!!  We have been stressing about this off and on all year long!  We had our rooms packed in boxes, black garbage bags, and tubs all around our rooms.  We got a truck and a few good friends to help us move, and it was done in 3 hours!  

 

Our whole life was packed into this truck, or so it seemed!  And technically it took this truck load and two car loads to get all to the warehouse!  

 Six loaded pallets later, it was done!  We purged a lot of stuff when we packed too!  To think our whole career can be packed onto 6 pallets is crazy!  Of course the pallets were like 10 feet long! Now Jamie will say that over half of that belongs to Jodi! Don't let her fool you, some of her stuff was packed on the pallets with Jodi's stuff too!  Jodi has been accused of being a hoarder and being the Wal-Mart of the school because she usually has anything and everything anytime someone needs it! 

Hoot #2

We had 4 days of school this week without students, so we had the opportunity to help others as much as we could.  SEVENTEEN rooms had to be completely empty by the end of the day!  We were scrambling around trying to help out as much as we could.  This was a good thing because to sit in our empty rooms was kind of depressing.  Today was the last time that we would ever see OUR rooms where we have worked for 14+ years!  When we walk into our rooms in August, they will be forever changed.  Our careers began in these rooms, and our friendship grew between these two rooms.  As we walked to get our purses to leave today, we stood in our room and just looked around.  A completely empty classroom that is full of memories...it was just sad to see it so bare and quiet. These two rooms have held hundreds of students (close to 800) over the years.  That is 800 memories made, 800 lives touched and changed forever, 800 imaginations that felt safe to bloom, 800 little, innocent souls that felt safe and loved.  You can't put a dollar sign on that!  These rooms will be truly missed! 

  Although we are excited to see our new classrooms, we are sad to let our old classrooms go.  We can't wait until August to share the after pictures, but for now here are the before pictures of our classroom...

So until the new school year, this will be our last Two Hoots and A Holler until our new adventures in Rooms 2 and 4 begin!  You may see some random blog posts about our summer fun!  We wish all of you a relaxing, awesome summer that is filled with a lot of laughs, love, family, and making memories! 
 

 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to  Miss Kindergarten!  This is definitely a go to blog on our list!  We love to read all about her new creations and ideas!  We love her Read & Reveal and Write & Reveal bundles in her TPT store.  Those are definitely on our wish list!  Go check her out if you haven't already!  

Two Hoots and A Holler: It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Hoot #1

This past week we had our end of the year kindergarten breakfast and program.  During the breakfast, the students got the opportunity to show their parents all of their hard work throughout the year and share their memories of kindergarten.  At the program the students sang a few songs, and the graduating classes were introduced.  We ended our program with a slideshow of "Our Year in Pictures".  The big finale came when all of the kindergarten students jumped up, sang, and danced to "Roar" by Katy Perry.  That is always our favorite part of the celebration!  The kids love singing along and dancing.   It is a very sentimental and emotional day for everyone.  Parents and teachers cried tears of joy and sadness.  We are happy to see our kiddos soar and grow throughout the year, but we are sad to see it end.  We get attached to these kids, and they become a part of our family.  So Ms. Jamie's Jitterbugs and Ms. Jodi's Rockstars deserve this hoot!  They made us so proud this year, and they are forever a part of our lives and hearts.  Thank you Jitterbugs and Rockstars for making this such a wonderful year!  

Hoot #2

 So speaking of how hard it is to say goodbye, we have to say goodbye to our principal this year.  She is retiring after this year, and I am sure it will be filled with days of relaxation and no stress (we are kinda jealous! haha).  We have been under Ms. Kelley for as our assistant principal/principal for 14 years!  To say she is just our principal is a HUGE understatement!  She is our rock, our leader, our friend, our work mom, our inspiration, our supporter, our strength, our role model, our mentor, our everything!  It will be very hard to say goodbye to her this week, and the thought of it brings tears to our faces as we type this.  Our school coordinated a surprise for her earlier this week.  All of the students and staff were instructed to sneak out of the building and meet in the storm shelter.  While we were getting situated, Ms. Kelley was "making a video" about the renovations that are taking place this summer.  They told her they wanted to video her talking about our storm shelter, and led her to us.  When she opened the door, she was SHOCKED!  The entire school was there, and she had no clue!  Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" started to play, flash mob dancing began, and signs were held up by students that said "Thank You for Believing in Us!"  It was epic!  Of course, we teared up at the celebration when she began to give her speech.  Check out these pictures of us waiting for her to enter....

Ms. Kelley, we would like to say, thank you for never giving up on us, even on those days we drove you up a wall!  Thank you for trusting us to better our school and students.  And most of all....

THANK YOU FOR BELIEVING IN US! 

WE WILL MISS YOU!! 

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to two amazing teachers who we couldn't have survived this year with out!  Amy Willoughby and Amanda Sanders are our sidekicks at work, they are like our work wives haha.  We spend day in and day out with these two ladies, and they help keep us in line.  Without these two, we wouldn't be able to make it through the year!  Thank you both for all of your hard work and dedication to the students and us!  You two are simply the best!  Have a restful summer!  

 

Two Hoots and A Holler: End of the Year Fun!

Hoot #1

It is getting real folks! We couldn't be more excited to be getting our entire classrooms remodeled! We have to have everything packed and out of our rooms by the last day! The boxes are starting to pile and the purging has begun!  Packing normally isn't this exciting or fun...but when you know you will walk into a brand new classroom in August, it motivates you to want to pack.  The best part is, it gives us the chance to really go through some things that have been in our rooms for years and organize them or get rid of them!  We try to do this in the summer time, but sometimes we run out of time.  And let's just be real, we are teachers who have been in these rooms for 14+ years, and we teach kindergarten...so, YES! WE ARE HOARDERS! We know we aren't alone with wanting to hoard and keep everything that we think we will use on that one craft or project we may do next year!  This purge is long overdue!  

Although we pack our rooms every year, this will be the first time in 16 years that our rooms will be completely empty!

Hoot #2
Today was Field Day for kindergarten!  There was rain in the forecast, and it rained...but a little rain never stopped us! We moved the races inside and had a blast!  The students were counting down the days until this day.  All the classes had so much fun, and they did so well with participating and cheering on their classmates. Here are some pictures of some of the kids racing...
 

The Jitterbugs were tied with another class for first place!  We had to have a tie breaker race! 

And first place went to..... 

THE JITTERBUGS! 

Way to go!!  Congrats Jitterbugs!  
At the end of the day, we were all winners because fun was had by all, and the teachers survived to tell about it!      

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Tiffany at The Lemonade Stand!  We could literally spend hours on her blog! It is on our summer reading list! Right now we love her post about parent/teacher conferences! If you are busy doing end of the year conferences, this is the place that you need to visit! She will have you organized in no time flat! Go check her out, she will have something for you!!

 
 

Two Hoots and A Holler: Thank you, teachers!

Hoot #1

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week!! This was the week that teachers all over the nation are shown how much they are appreciated.  We just want to say THANK YOU to all of the teachers out there who dedicate their time to teaching our future leaders.  THANK YOU to all of the teachers who have impacted our lives by supporting us, encouraging us, and guiding us. 
We feel so blessed and appreciated by our students and their families! We have gotten some wonderful goodies, lots of hugs, and TONS of sweet pictures and letters from current and former students!

 How unique! Check out the planters box that I was given

 There should always be love and sunshine in Kindergarten!!

 Flowers are wonderful, and I just love the bottle:) 

 A bag full of goodies from a sweet girl!  Chocolate is always good for teachers this time of the year!

And once again our PTA and parent volunteers out did themselves for all of the staff at our school!  They provided us with a wonderful lunch on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  Everything was wonderful, and we can't express how grateful we are to be a part of this wonderful family at WES! 

Hoot #2

We received another gift this week from our students.  It has a funny story behind it!  We are so impressed by all the sneaking around by teachers and students at our school, that it deserves its own hoot!   Jodi  and I came to school at the beginning of the week missing our cabinet doors!!

You can only imagine why we were puzzled about this!! Our classes are getting totally remodeled over the summer.  We were told by our principal that the "remodel people" needed our cabinet doors to take measurements.  Now of course, we had questions about that and we wanted our things that were hanging on the cabinet door back...but when your classroom is getting a complete remodel, you just don't question it, and go with the flow! Little did we know that two of our upper grade teachers, who are also parents in our classroom, were up to something! They needed us to leave our class to get the surprise complete, so our principal and testing coordinator arranged for us to have to "emergency" proctor for state testing one morning at the last minute...yes, we thought it was strange, but stranger things have happened!  And when it comes to end of the year testing, once again you don't question it, you just go with the flow!  While we are proctoring,  Mrs. Gardner and Mrs. England got our assistants involved in the plan to surprise us.  They prepared our special treat with our little ones while we were out! And here it is....

I mean can you believe that we had NO clue about this!?!  Never did we imagine that our students were up to this!  And can you believe that not one kindergartener or teacher that was in on this secret told or let it slip?!?! 
Since we have been teaching next door to one another for 14 years, we have never had our rooms remodeled!  So Mrs. Gardner and Mrs. England came up with the most creative gift ever! 
The idea is that we would be able to take something from our old classroom and bring it into our new one in August!! Is that a unique gift or what?!? These cabinet doors will be one of the first things that we hang when we return! We want to thank our class for the wonderful gift! We would also like to thank Mrs. Gardner, Brylee, Mrs. England, and Carson for coming up with such a cool idea and sneaky little plan!  WE LOVE THEM!

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Ashley at Teaching in the Net. We absolutely love that she is from Mississippi, just like us!!! We also love that she works with students with learning differences.  Ashley loves to incorporate technology into all of her lessons.  Right now, she is celebrating teacher appreciation week and the Kentucky Derby by placing her Kentucky Scavenger Hunt FREE in her TPT store! Be sure to stop by her blog and check out everything that Ashley is doing!!