Once again, it seems like I am running behind. My father passed away the week before Christmas. He had been a life long smoker and finally it caught up with him. I am just now starting to get caught up after being out of the classroom to be with him in the hospital and then for his funeral. My dad was an awesome guy, and he will be greatly missed. I feel very blessed for the time that I had with him, and knowing that I got to hold his hand in the end and know that he was comfortable, I feel very grateful. My school was awesome to me and my family, and even though I would have liked a different outcome, I feel blessed to have such great friends and family.
Yesterday, I took the day (even though it is still Christmas break) and went into the classroom. I needed to rearrange, and get things in order so when the kiddos get back from break, we can hit the ground running. :) First couple of days I will finish up assessments for the report card. In the Kindergarten classroom we are always doing summative assessments, but sometimes we need to do those formative assessments as well.
My classroom kiddos made a Christmas mouse ornament for their parents. I ordered the kit from Oriental Trading. My lesson plans for the first week back include a theme on Mittens, where students will work on ending sounds, rhyming, sound sorting, and lots of writing using mittens as a theme. I have been busy working my Mitten themes into Math and Literacy centers. We will compare and contrast "The Mitten", by Jan Brett and "Move Over Rover." We will be counting and writing tally marks, practicing our adding, practicing not only counting by ones but also by tens and fives. Next, we are going to go into Arctic Animals, and informational writing about informational text. Comparing animals, and building vocabulary. Now that my classroom kiddos are gaining fluency in sounds and letters, I will add more sight words each week. They have learned several, but still need to push some in that area, the big goal being that they become independent readers. I like using thematic units that I get from DeeDee Wills and Deanna Jump from www.teacherspayteachers.com. I love using their stuff and it is aligned to common core. I also like using stuff from Printable princess and Julie Lee. If you haven't seen their stuff, you might want to check it out. Happy New Year!!! God Bless!
