Maggie McNair

Last week we were really lucky to have the author Sheila Booth -Alberstadt visit our school. She is an alumni of our school and the Aunt of two current students. She read us two books- Maggie McNair Has Spiders in her Hair and Maggie McNair has Stinky Underwear. They are both adorable books with a great message on being honest, being teased, and taking care of yourself. My students really enjoyed the visit!

B is for BUSY!

My Little Dodger of the month!

BLOG
has been at the top of my "To Do" list since August. Unfortunately, the items underneath have been things like- newsletter, IPDP, goals, FAIR, FLKRS, mid-terms, writing night, lesson plans, Daily 5, make copies..... you get the idea.. I really like to blog so I am going to try to upload photos right away and document the 2011-12 year! I will be taking a brief (too brief!) hiatus between December and March to give birth and soak in the goodness of a newborn before I my FMLA runs out.

These days I am busy planning for the weeks ahead and trying to wrap my brain around a new teacher evaluation system and all of the trainings, observations, and madness that the State of Florida has mandated.

My schedule has changed a bit this year as well. My daughter Amelia has started VPK at a local Elementary school. She LOVES it and we are so blessed to have access to a FREE quality program. The downside- the hours are exactly the same as mine and there is no before or after care offered for her age. SO- my little girl is taking the yellow BUS to and from school. The problem is I live a good 20 minutes from my school. The bus picks her up at 7:50- give or take 5 minutes.. and I have to report at 8:15. I haven't been late yet- but this new morning routine has been a difficult adjustment. Last year (well, the last 12 years) I liked to be at school by 7:45 at the LATEST! I was first in line for the copy machine, laminator, Ellis machine... the school was quiet for a good 1/2 hour before it gets NUTS! Now, I rush in, sign in, fill up my water cup, go to the bathroom, make a mad dash to the copy machine, and greet my parents at the door, check email, check lesson plans..and start the day! Thankfully, my husband is able to meet the bus in the afternoon most of the time.. so I can stay late to plan.

I don't know why this year is busier then others- I work every Sunday in my classroom and still... I have many items left on my "to do" list. I can't imagine it will be better once I have a newborn!



Apples

We spent 3 weeks in September learning about apples! We:

used our senses to explore apples

we painted apple trees using our arms and hands and fingerprints

we read apple poems

labeled the parts of the apple

learned about the life cycle of the apple

tasted different kinds of apples and graphed the results

we learned about Johnny Appleseed and made a puppet

we bobbed for apples in math

and matched capital and lowercase apple letters!

Listen to Reading Daily 5

We have been very busy learning the rules and routines of kindergarten! I have neglected my blog for too long. I have a ton of photos ready to be uploaded and not enough time in the day right now. We are slowly incorporating all 5 elements of the Daily 5 into our day. I made this for Listen to Reading for the computer. I love Glogster. Just click on the picture to go to the web site for audio stories.