This week in Kindergarten

This week in Kindergarten....
I am overwhelmed as a teacher this week. It seems to me that it is harder for my students than last week. And for me as well. I have been working so hard, printing, laminating, organizing, and getting ready to be the best darn teacher in the world. I am exhausted. My students kept falling asleep in class today. I gave them "the speech." Drink more water, do your homework and GO TO BED ON TIME! And I realized that I am exhausted and I have a headache and I need to take my own advice. The goal for tonight is to go to bed on time. And not do "school stuff" tonight. That's the goal. But I need to take time to blog.

I finally finished the Martin Luther King Jr. bulletin board.

I think it looks really great. If you look at the picture you can see the differences in children's fine motor skills. It seems that sometimes we are so busy learning in Kindergarten that we forget that being able to cut and use a scissor is an important Kindergarten skill. I am just a first year, but sometimes I do want to scream... "they are just in Kindergarten! Let them be kids!" By the way, I don't know what is "politically correct" and what is not. I tried to give students the color of paper that matched their skin or their ethnicity. I am so proud of them and all their differences and yet how close they are and that they can share their cultures with each other. If you knew me in Kansas, you know that there would not be the same demographic pie if we were there. I love my school family.

Starting at the beginning of July last summer I have had both Guymon and McPherson weather on my computer and I have compared them daily.  Usually this is only a 3-5 degree difference between the two. But this week there has been a much broader span.  And while my grandson and granddaughter were rejoicing that it was in the 50's in Kansas, we were outside without jackets this afternoon. It was in the mid 70's today.  And I got the chance to let me kids just be kids. 

Today I finished reading Junie B. and a Little Monkey Business. I asked my girls to show me some monkeying around today. Here's what I got:

Aren't they great little monkeys? We had so much fun on the playground this afternoon. 

We are working on Pattern Caterpillars in centers this week. Students are supposed to make a repeating pattern with the circles and add a yellow head. The caterpillars that a couple students made this afternoon did not have repeating patterns. But the "hooray!" moment was the use of their fine motor skills (cutting) and that two of my little non-english speakers took part at center time and participated and showed pride in their work. I was tickled. The name of the game is progress baby! And they are progressing. I am so excited. 

Here is our center board. I have been putting sticky notes on to keep straight who goes to which center. What do you do for centers and center rotations? This week we have: Blocks, Bean table, Math Center 1 (Monster Mash), Reading Center, Math Center 2 (Pattern Caterpillars), Writing Center, Art/Painting Center,  ABC Center (Rhyming Words), Housekeeping, Math Center 3 (Spinning Snowflakes). 

I am working hard (too hard) to get ready for 100th day. We are going to have a great time if it kills me. But I hope it doesn't kill me. I hope we all have a marvelous time. I will post pictures.