All About Mrs. Lewis

Today the office sent off all of my staggered start letters! I can't wait to meet my new kindergarteners. I included the address of my little neglected blog, so I thought I'd better update!

Hi, I am Mrs. Lewis!
I have been a teacher for 16 years. I graduated from Florida Southern College in 1999 (Go Mocs!) with a BS in Elementary Education K-6, Specific Learning Disabilities K-12, and Varying Exceptionalities K-12.

I have been married for 10 years. My husband Andy is also a teacher. We have two amazing daughters- Amelia is 8 and Lydia is 3.

My favorite thing to do it read! I also love to find great books to read with my daughters and to my students! I have a very healthy children's book collection. You can never have too many books. Thank goodness for free shipping on Amazon!

I enjoy spending time with my family. We like to swim, go on walks, and take day trips. We also spend a lot of time deciding what movies to rent from Red Box.

This summer I was lucky to tutor at the Rosewood Summer Moonshot Academy. I have also spent many hours in the pool, at the free movies, and The Skate Factory. My daughter Amelia and I are currently on the hunt for Waldo. The Vero Beach Book Center has him hidden all around town.

When I am not with my family or working in my classroom you can find me at Target. I can always find a thing or two I need.. especially from the Dollar Spot.

As my summer ends I will be in and out of my classroom and attending a few trainings. I am hoping to fit in a trip to the new Crayola Experience in Orlando and make Amelia's summer bucket list complete by going to a flea market...

I can't wait to meet all of my new families and say hello to my old friends.

I am excited for a great 2015-2016!

Sunday Night

I had a wonderful long weekend! My daughter Amelia had her first swim meet Saturday. I went out with a friend to a comedy show to benefit a student at our school who will be having a heart transplant. I went grocery shopping (and forgot a few things) and worked in my classroom for a while. I also read books, played barbies, and cooked, cleaned, and laundried. So now I am wrapping up my weekend with a little lesson planning. My school "to do" list is very long but I am trying to find a better balance this year. Looking forward to another week! Fire Safety, Christopher Columbus, and Mrs. Wishy Washy here I come!

Why I have the best job in the world

This amazing child got recognized in a "mid writing workshop interruption" (in the middle of writing) for making a thinking bubble over his characters head! Pretty safisticated for 20 days into kindergarten. So, during Core Knowledge he took that thinking bubble to the next level and put one over the houses in his neighborhood. This (and a million more each day) is why I have the best job!! 

Lockdown, Septmeber 11th, and Grace

On Wednesday our school was in a code yellow for the entire day. There was a situation involving US Marshalls in the neighborhood behind our school. The lockdown was a safety precaution and thankfully no one was hurt. My students had absolutely no idea about the events of the day. The art teacher came into our classroom with the explanation that she wanted to see our art in our room. I took a class vote and it was unanimous that we would have a picnic lunch in our class room with hot lunches being delivered. (don't you know they begged me on Thursday for another picnic!) I avoided recess disappointment by showing The Magic School Bus. Dismissal was different but I explained we were practicing for a rainy day. Thankfully, no one needed to visit the clinic! It was exhausting for the adults on campus but the kids were all stress free. Even my own 2nd grader had no idea. I sent worried parents photos on Remind101 to reassure them that we were carrying on and happy and safe!

I don't discuss the events of 9/11 in my classroom because  my students are so young. I do emphasize 9/11 as a day of service. We took time to make our classroom extra clean for Ms. Dot our custodian and I did "shout outs" to students I saw being kind and helpful. We read this book-





                                                  


and we talked about ways to make the world a better place. We also sang I can Change The World With My Own Two Hands by Jack Johnson on YouTube-

The students painted pictures and I included a note on the back that I found on this blog - Preschool Daze a few years ago. The note said:

                   While we didn’t discuss the events of September 11, 2001, we talked about

the ways we can be kind, the ways we can solve conflict, the ways we can

change the world to be a better place. You adults who are reading this note

likely remember the moments of 9/11/01. May the colors created by a child’s

own two hands give you hope and reassurance of the goodness that is.

Because we were talking about service we also talked about our beloved friend, Officer Morrison. He has been standing guard for over two years in the morning and afternoon at our school. This wonderful city policeman patrolled our school during the lockdown the day before. Seeing him out our window made ME feel reassured. He worked closely with our administration and the US Marshalls all day. Sadly for us he is retiring next week. We made him a card to say thank you.

                                     

On to Grace..... I spent 6 hours after school in professional development this week... and we had a lockdown.... and it was a full moon... and my daughter had swimming practice 4 nights.. and the alternator in my car went out on the way to school....

I sent home all of the beautiful pictures my students painted with a wonderful note and quote on the front... with a TYPO. UGHHH I didn't even notice it until I looked at the photos I took of their art work. So - I sent home the correct quote yesterday... so thankful for God's Grace.. hopefully the parents of my students will give me a little grace too!

The Golden Rule

  

This week we focused on the Golden Rule in kindergarten. This saying is part of the  Core Knowledge curriculum for kindergarten. All of the planets aligned this week because without much effort at all, my read-a-louds all fit into this theme! To introduced the saying I read The Berenstain Bears- I love this book! I found it for 10 cents at a junk sale.. it was once a chik-fil-a kids meal prize! Our author study this month is Audrey Penn. I read Sassafras, a story about a skunk who is embarrassed by his potential smell who encounters a grey fox and together they learn a lesson.  ---BONUS! Our reading curriculum theme was, "What makes me special" So, I read The Ugly Duckling and we talked about the Golden Rule and what made the "ugly duckling" special. I also read Rachel Parker Kindergarten Show- Off and had a great discussion about friendship and treating others with kindness. It was a great week!

Routines and Procedures again and again and again

My little kindys are amazing. They are full of wonder and questions and SO HAPPY! The first weeks of kindergarten are so important. We spend so long getting the procedures down.. the time I take to establish how to be in kindergarten pays off in the end.. but it can be exhausting! This afternoon at car duty another kindergarten teacher and I just looked at each other and sighed.. it's kind of like herding cats these first few weeks.
This morning during our phonics lesson I was teaching the class how to echo back to me... I say {letter} {picture} {sound} and the class echoes it back to me. To walk them through it I said {letter} {picture} {sound} an then I made the mistake and said "echo"
Well, you know how this goes... I heard 18 darlings echo back to me, "{letter} {picture} {sound} echo!" After reminding them NOT to say echo 5 more times.. I thought.. well, Tuesday we will try again!

Units of Study - Storytelling with Carl

My kindergarten team and I are embarking on a new writing journey-- we are joyfully diving into Lucy Calkins Units of Study. I am so excited to be launching a real writing workshop! In the 11 years I have taught kindergarten, writing was always a bit of this and bit of that flavored with whatever the current reading curriculum thought about kindergarten writing. It never felt right and writing was stressful for me (and my students).  I was lucky enough to attend 4 days of training this summer on Units of Study and it was so soothing to my kindergarten soul!!! The last few days I have been teaching my students how to be storytellers (in the If/Then book if anyone out there finds this post and wonders). Good Dog Carl had been a HUGE help! I had never heard of Good Dog Carl books - turns out there are 14 of them!- but I am lucky to be teaching with another kindergarten teacher that met Carl many years ago and gifted these books to her now grown children. She added them to her classroom library and is sharing with me. They are PERFECT books for storytelling because only the first and last page have words. The rest of the pages are full of engaging illustrations. They make it easy to tell the story by reading the pages and encourage children to sketch out their stories without worrying about the words.  Carl was also a huge help this week during Reading Workshop since we are learning to read 3 ways! Of course I want all of the books now! I will have to keep my eye out for a deal.

I had a wonderful week with my class this week. I am so excited for the next 175 days!!

Ready for 2014-2015!

Room 108 ---- Before!!

The floor is waxed... Now I have to put all of this away!! Good thing the AC is on!

I Heart Ethan!

 

 

Meet Ethan~ a super hero and miracle.  7-year-old Ethan has been recently listed for a heart transplant at Shand’s Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. He was born with Hypoplastic Left heart syndrome – in Ethan’s words “half my heart works”.  Ethan has already endured 3 open heart surgeries and many other smaller procedures.  A very special #iheartethan bundle fundraiser is available for those who make a $20 (or more) donation to COTA in honor of Team Ethan H.  Funds are being raised to assist with transplant-related expenses.

 

 

Click here to meet Ethan

Donate $20 or more to COTA in honor of Team Ethan H. and receive this K-2 Bundle worth over $100!

 

 

 

Head over here to donate now!

Pencils Glue & Tying Shoes

White Rabbit's Color Book

We had some fun on Friday mixing primary colors. I read White Rabbit's Color Book. I stopped at the last page and we made predictions about what color rabbit would be if he jumped in the yellow, blue, and red paint. I wrote down all of the predictions and reread the book while my students mixed and painted the colors. They were all very surprised that he turned brown! It was a great way to end our first week all together.

Sucessful Staggered Start!

I LOVE that our school is allowed to have a staggered start. I really think it helps with the transition into kindergarten. I love being able to get to know my students and be able to just observe and listen. This week we started school on Tuesday and had 4 days of staggered start. All of the kids will be back on Monday and we will start our journey together. I need to take photos of our room! Until then....

Orientation

It was so wonderful to meet my new students  at Orientation tonight! 

Author Spotlight

My family and I had a wonderful quick trip to New York to see my Grandmother! Now that we are back in Florida my husband and I are eager to get our classrooms together. I spent all day on Sunday unpacking boxes of new curriculum. Andy (my husband) is working in his room today so I am home enjoying the last day of summer.

 

I put these Author Spotlight posters together after seeing the idea.... on the internet. I am terrible at keeping track of ideas I get from blogs or Pinterest.

 

I am going to feature an author each month or so and compile their books on top of our classroom library. Students can review the poster, read the books, and complete the "monitoring" form (is your district "doing" Marzano too?) during literacy centers.

 

 

Mrs. Lewis gets ready for kindergarten

Here are the before pictures!! I am taking a quick trip to wish my Grandmother a happy 91st birthday in New York... Then I'll be back to post the after photos!  

World's BEST Pencil Sharpener

 

Pencils.

Necessary in kindergarten but such a headache for me.

 

I inherited a mechanical sharpener bolted to the counter that merely chewed pencils until it left only a gnarly stub. I banned the use of that device and created a sharpened pencil tub. Students were to leave a broken pencil and get a nice fresh sharp pencil in return. It worked.. kind of. I have a hate/hate relationship to the electric sharpener. It is so loud and never really works.. how does it only sharpen one side??? I NEVER let kids use it.. because I couldn't stand the noise.

 

I made PENICLS a class  job. The idea was a student would come in before the bell to sharpen pencils. I would plug in the sharpener by the back door (as far away from my desk as possible) and put them to work... Well, the sharpener gets too hot after about 4 pencils so.. I never had enough sharpened pencils. Thankfully, I usually have a little group of pencil hoarders that will have 6 or more pencils in their desk. I have said, "who has a pencil for ....." more then once.

 

I often sent bags of broken pencils and that cheap pencil sharpener home for parents to deal with. I always felt bad doing it.. knowing that it would take hours.

 

Over the summer I learned about Classroom Friendly Supplies on one of the various kindergarten blogs I read. Even at $24.99 and FREE shipping I didn't order. I couldn't spend money on a new pencil sharpener when I had one in my classroom that worked... kind of.. that I had already spent $45.00! The bloggers loved it.. I saw it on Pinterest and I even visited the website.

 

Last month I went to sharpen a pencil and nothing happened. Electric sharpener officially dead.

Excited.

 

I went to the website  and ordered. It came REALLY fast.

THIS IS THE BEST SHARPENER EVER!!

I can sharpen a NEW pencil in less then 30 seconds. I counted 20 rotations and I got a perfect sharp tip. I taught my class how to use it.. it has gotten a lot of use the last two weeks and it is holding up just fine. It sharpens perfectly every time. The best part.. it is SUPER quiet! I sharpened pencils while I was on the phone!

I am NOT getting paid or a free sharpener to write this. I just love it that much!

It comes in red, blue, black, and green :)

 

 

We had a very busy 100th Day of School! -- I know that my door is just "lovely" - HA! That was the best I could do at 4:05 the afternoon before! The kids LOVED it!

 

 

 

 

 

I assigned a 100 days of school poster project. I love how they are all different!

 

 

 

I love this poem. I found it on  Pinterest (of course.. which is now tragically blocked at work!)

 

Here is my lesson menu- we didn't have time to do everything. We are going to do some of these activities this week.

 

 

 

The Hat

Just sharing our door- we read books from the same author during Literacy week and compared the texts. Here is our craft from The Hat. I love Hedgie! This idea was totally copied from The Chalk Talk blog-

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Last week we spent two days learning about the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is so refreshing to me that my students think the segregation laws were absolutely absurd. They looked at me in disbelief when I told them that black people couldn't eat at the same restaurants as white people. They give me hope for the future.

 

This is probably too late for most- but this is what I taught last week. link here

 

 

Author Visit

We were SO lucky this week!! Nick Bruel the author of Bad Kitty came to our school. He read us Bad Kitty and Poor Puppy. He also talked about how he writes his books and took questions from the kids. He was AMAZING!! I know this experience will stay with  my students forever. They were so impressed to meet a REAL author/illustrator!