Chinese New Year

My students love learning about different cultures and holidays and Chinese New Year is no exception.  They learned that this was the year of the snake and figured out what year they were born in.  We worked with missing sounds in the animal names, learned about lucky money,  and read books about how different families celebrate Chinese New Year.  We made Chinese Dragons and had a dancing parade with another kindergarten class.  The end of our day capped off with fortune cookies.

4th Grade Reading Buddies

Every Thursday, we read books with our 4th grade reading buddies!  This week, they came to us and listened to us practice reading our sight word books, decodable readers, and nonsense word practice sheets.  My students are trying to read with fluency, reading the correct words and sounding out words we don't know.  We take turns reading each week.  Next week, the 4th grade students will choose picture books to read to my students. 

Learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I saw this great idea on Pinterest! Shocker I know! lol!  A class had created miniature Martin Luther King's to do their writing on.  I absolutely loved the idea!  It was a step by step process but I think the students learned more about Dr.King this year than they have in previous years.  3 other kindergarten classes ended up using this idea as well so our hallway was filled with Dr. King writing. Thanks to Tunstall's Teaching Tidbids and Pinterest for the great idea!  

Royal Readers in KM

Mrs. Williams, one of our secretaries read us "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.

Mrs. Arne, our school counselor, read us "My Friend Bear" by Jez Alborough.

Mrs. Wilkerson, our cafeteria director, read us "The Biggest Snowball Fight" by Angela Shelf Medearis. 

"I Love to Read Month" Kicks Off

February is "I  Love to Read Month!" at Pinedale Elementary.  Our school goal is to read 250,000 minutes between 2/1 and 2/28.  To show my students that adults use reading too, I invite one to two adults into my class room each day in February to read a book of their choice to my students.  Mr. Legerski, our school principal helped us get started and was the first adult to read to our class!  He chose the book "My Brave Year of Firsts" by Jami Lee Curtis.  The students are excited to see who comes every day to read to them.  Check back to see who else comes to read to KM!

Check Out The View!

When I fly out of the Jackson Hole Airport, I usually layover in Salt Lake City and do not fly over Pinedale but on this trip home for Christmas break I got lucky!  Who would have thought I'd connect in Dallas, TX trying to get to Chicago! Even though there was a 90 degree temperature swing between airports, I was super excited to fly over Pinedale!  If you look carefully, you can of course see the town of Pinedale and Freemon Lake but you can also see the elementary school (use Ehman Lane as a reference point).  Living at the base of the Wind River Mountains sure is different that the corn and bean fields of Illinois where I grew up! 

Life Sized Santas

When I was in first grade, my teacher Carol Jones had us make Santas using our whole body as a template.  I remember being so excited to complete mine and when I got to bring it home....wow!  I was pumped! lol!  My mom hung up my Santa and the one my brother made when he was in first grade until we were in high school and they finally fell apart.  When I started teaching Kindergarten, I knew one thing I had to do....Santas!  For 2 days, my room is covered in glitter, paper, glue, and cotton balls and the kids have an awesome time.  Every spare minute between academic times, we worked Santas!  When the students finally get to see their completed (lesson one- let the glue dry under the glitter before picking up!) Santa hung up in the hallway, the smile on their face is priceless!  I wish I could show Mrs. Jones that she lives on in my classroom.  I am proud to say I used one of her ideas!