Five for Friday Linky Party ~April 11

Hi!  I feel like a horrible blogger lately!  It's been awhile since I last blogged.  We've had some pretty big stuff happening here.

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 things about my week!

1.  My BIGGEST news and current excitement in my life is that I am going to be teaching kindergarten next year!  I am sooooo excited about this!  I taught kindergarten 15 years ago when I was a brand new teacher. I then looped to first grade with my k class.  I went back to kindergarten to pilot all day kindergarten and then landed in first again!  That has been where I have been for the past 11 years.  Our district will be switching from 1/2 day kindergarten to all day kindergarten next year.  I was excited and put in my request to transfer down.  I will miss first grade so much!  There are so many things I love doing in first grade (chicks, gingerbread man, Author's Tea, teaching my kids to be readers and writers and seeing the huge growth).  I will miss my team the most but will be working with an amazing team next year too!  This week construction started on our school.  The new kindergarten rooms are being built!  Whoo hoo!!  

 This area is all fenced off and the 4 new kindergarten rooms will be here.

 It's crazy how these boards can make the inside of the school look so dark.  I can't wait to watch the progress of our new home away from home! ;)

I am also sooo excited that I get to attend the Wild About Kindergarten conference in two weeks. Info here. I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from Deanna Jump over at Mrs Jumps Class.  I am excited that I get to actually meet her and get more ideas from her.


2.  We started our chick unit this week.  We have done so many things in our class related to chicks.

 We set up our incubators and added the eggs on Thursday and Friday this week.

I have an old Styrofoam incubator that I couldn't throw away.  I use this to put extra eggs in in case one of the incubators fails...and we need to transfer eggs over.  You really can't see inside it...but it still works.  Our baby chicks are due on April 30th and May 1st!  I can't wait.  I LOVE this unit and will miss it next year.

 We have a scale to weigh the chicks after they are born.

 I have a nest with a "chicken" sitting on it.  The kids thought the eggs were real at first.  We talked about how a chicken has to sit on her eggs to keep them warm for 21 days.  They have to turn the eggs so they don't stick to the shells.

We made our own nests.

 I gave the kids a round, plastic container.  They cut paper to make their nest.

 We then added Styrofoam eggs from the The Dollar Tree.

 The kids took their eggs home.  They need to keep them safe for 21 days.  They have to turn their eggs every day.  On May 1st, they will bring their nests back.

 Hopefully, if they have taken care of them....and bring them back...chicks will "hatch" from their eggs.

 The kids love having these stuffed chicks sit at their desks with them while they are doing work.  They earn them sitting at their desks by being really quiet, hard workers.

 These eggs show what the chicks look like each day as they are growing.

 This chick will be used for Morning Meeting.  The person that is sharing will hold it.

I have tons of things in my Chick Life cycle unit.  You can find it HERE!

I have free word wall words HERE!

3.  We started our poetry writing this week.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having kids write poetry.  Every year we do "LOVEY" activity.  You can read about it in this post.

We made popcorn and used our five senses to write about making popcorn.  I used this fantastic product by Susan over at Thank God Its First Grade.

You can find it HERE.

4.  Our Student Council had a NEON day today.  Everyone wore neon clothes.  I had some sunglasses that I was going to use at the beginning of the year with my kids...but I never had a chance to do the project I was going to do.   So, today, I thought it was fitting that each kid got a pair of sunglasses.

They all looked so cute and BRIGHT in their neon clothes.  

I even wore tons of neon and painted my nails in glow-in-the-dark neon nail polish.  The kids thought it was so cool.

They also loved my bright socks!

5.  My husband and I finally moved our treadmill out of the garage and up the stairs.  It has felt so good to run on it again.  I have 2 5k's coming up soon and need to get training for them. 

That's about all for now!  I hope you had a wonderful week!

Sara

Poetry...Oh Lovey

This week our school is having our SPAC night.  It's an academic night where every student in the school has art work and projects displayed for their parents to come and look at.  Every child has at least two pieces of work displayed.  First grade always does poetry projects.  For the past few years I have had my kids bring in their LOVEY to school.  A Lovey is something they have a special attachment to.  It could be something they have had since they were a baby or toddler.  It is something they feel a connection to.  I send a note home to my parents and have them send them to school (reassuring them that we will only take the item out for a picture).  Some parents fear that their child my lose their item...and it would be tramatic...because they can't go without their special blanket or stuffed animal.  The first thing we do is take pictures with our Lovey.  We then brainstorm adjectives and feelings that we have towards our Lovey.  The children then write about their Lovey...why it is special, how long they have had it, when they use it, ect.  After writing about it, we edit their writing together.  I then have them copy the poem on a big sheet of white paper.  I attach lines behind the paper so they have guide lines to write on.  When they are finished writing their poem, they trace the words with Sharpie markers.  They then pick two colors of chalk and use the sides of it to color their paper.  When done, they take a tissue and blend the colors together.  I then look at the colors they selected and mat their pictures on paper of the same color and attach to their poem!  This project is a lot of work...but SO worth it and parents love it!!!

 First step...take pictures of kids with their Lovey.  I develop the pictures in Sepia.

 Next brainstorm words to describe Lovies.  Have them write about their Lovey.

 Transfer to big white sheet of construction paper.

 Use two colors of chalk to color paper.  Color over words after they have been traced with Sharpie markers.

Finished projects.

Here is a copy of the note that I send home to parents.

You can get it by clicking here:

Lovey Note to Parents