Measuring With Cuisenaire Rods

What fun it is to measure with Cuisenaire Rods. The students place the Cuisenaire Rods on the apples. Measuring is fun! Then, when all of the rods are placed on the apples, the students color the apples the same color as the Cuisenaire Rods.   Click here for a copy

Apple Addition

I am getting things ready for August! School will start soon. August 18 will be our first day back. I hope you enjoy this idea. Make the tree map and laminate. Create addition cards to fit your students levels. I have 2 students at this station. They use one mat and one set of cards. They will use counters in the trees to create the math problem. When they find the sum, they will write the answer on their own worksheet. The students can color the apples after they answer the problem.



Storytown Focus Wall Theme 1 Kindergarten

I have been working on creating Focus Wall Posters for my Kindergarten classroom. I hope you enjoy these too. Please leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Click here for your copy!

Out Of The Mouth Of Kindergarten Kids!

This is why I LOVE teaching Kindergarten!!!!!

Mrs. Watson:  "Class, please raise your hands when you are finished writing the answer."
Dalton:  "Mrs. Watson, when my hand is half up, that means I am half done OK?"

Mrs. Watson: " Boys and girls, what is your favorite kind of pie to eat?"
Girl:  "Cherry"
Boy:  "Apple"
Boy:  "Moon Pie"

Mrs. Watson:  "Oh! I love your new shoes."
Boy:  "Mrs. Watson, you better watch out! These shoes can really go fast!"

Mrs. Watson:  "Students, we need to take our bathroom breaks now, please."
Girl:  But, "Mrs. Watson, I took a break at my momma's house."

Mrs. Watson:  "Boys and Girls, please wash your hands. We are going to have snacks now."
Boy:  "I'm so hungry, I'm going to shove it in my whole mouth."
Girl:  "I brought $5.00, so I can get 5 snacks today!"

Lion Valentine Boxes

On February 8, 2011, we went back to school after having several snowdays off. We made our Lion Valentine card boxes. I found this pattern years ago in a craft book at WalMart from a book titled "Craft Projects for Special Days" by Shirley Burgess. The book cost me $1.88, so that tells you how long ago that was. Probablly when Vinita, Oklahoma got its very first WalMart. I covered cracker boxes with light pink construction paper (a little difficult for the K kids to do on their own). Then they decorated the large pink heart into a lion face. Good Job Kindergarten Kids!

Lois's Apple Pound Cake

I love this apple cake recipe that I received from a fellow teacher years ago. I haven't make one in a while, so on this wintery day I thought I would use up some of my apples on this delicious cake.

1 1/2 cups corn oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups finely chopped, peeled apples
1 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup golden raisins

Beat oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well blended. Combine dry ingredients, and add to sugar mixture, beating well. Stir in apples, nuts, and raisins. Spoon batter in a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan or Bundt pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done. Let cake cool in pan 10 minutes before removing from pan. Sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar.

January Bulletin Boards and Snowman Art

Our January bulletin board really expresses how our winter 2011 is. We have had so much snow and several snow days.

My Kindergarten class enjoys "Arts and Crafts" time as much as I do. They love to draw on a fresh piece of paper. We drew snowmen with white chalk on blue paper. I loved these so much that I just had to share them with you. So Cute!

Winter Wonderland in Checotah!

Here we go again! Snowing most of the day here. Will we have school next week? I have really enjoyed this time off! The snow today is so beautiful. Sam and I are having fun watching the birds eating out of their feeder in front of our living room window. I took a few pictures and then I heard him coming from upstairs with his tripod. What are you going to do Sam? I am going to set up the tripod and take some pictures. Well, his turned out much better than mine! Thought we would share the beautiful sights.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

It is official, we broke the record! We received 14" of snow in Tulsa, and about 8-10" here in Checotah. It was beautiful watching it come down all day. Then late this evening, just before dark the sun came out for a little while. I ventured out to take a few pictures, but it was just too cold for me. Not the birds! Sam had put out more food this morning for the birds and our lovely cat, Butterscotch! I enjoyed watching the birds all day while I stayed inside and played on my computer. It was so nice to have a snow day! I really miss my Kindergarten Kids, especially Dalton. Hey, Dalton, Meme took a picture of your little tricycle. Isn't it beautiful sitting out in the white snow!

Pattern Blocks A Fun Kindergarten Activity!

My class enjoys making patterns with the pattern blocks. I put some pictures of patterns on the Smartboard and they created the same on their mats with their own pattern blocks. Fun! Fun! Fun!

100th Day of School Pizza Art Project

We loved celebrating the 100th day of school in Kindergarten! The students created a huge pizza with pepperoni, peppers, cheese, and sausage. The students cut out these with red, yellow and green construction paper. I wrote 100 in the center of the pizza and Our Class Pizza at the bottom. -- We read a story in reading about a boy who drew a tree last week. When the boy got to school, he showed the students his tree he drew and they all wanted to add things to his picture. They wrote Our Picture on the paper because everyone drew something on it. -- So my bright little ones came up with the idea to write Our Class Pizza on the pizza they created. Aren't they smart!

I love having my grandson in my class. Here he is working so hard with his classmates.

Kindergarten Kids Love To Play With Junk Tubs

I have collected an assortment of buttons, beads, play money, and small items for the students to work on counting activities. I store these in old PlayDoh tubs which makes for easy viewing when choosing the item they want to count with.

I created these worksheets for this junk tub activity.

My Familys Wiggles and Giggles

Technology is awesome. I have been so intrigued with it and I am still amazed each and every day! I became interested in computers in the 80's while teaching 5th grade. I thought the Radio Shack Coco Computer (not sure of the correct name) was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I taught myself how to program simple (basic language) learning games for Jennifer and Sarah like flash cards with their color words and sight words. Now today, I have so many technology pieces to work and play with. At this moment I am creating my first blog, working on February lesson plans for my Kindergarten students and using my laptop to down audio books from the library to listen to while I travel, work and play and just go off the cell phone with my daughters. Yes, technology is awesome, especially the Sony eReader my husband got me for my birthday and the iPod he got for Christmas. I love them SOOOOO much! Thanks Sam.

This past week-end, Sarah and I spent our snowy days scrapbooking and looking at photos. I worked on scrapbooking pages from our trip to Walt Disney World. I can still remember little Erica and Blake saying “Papa, Meme, when will you take us to Disney World?” Well we finally made the trip in 2008. We stayed at Orange Lake West in Kissimmie, Florida. By then we had more grandchildren: Cody, Dalton, Emerson, Dakota and Derringer. Oh my goodness, did we have fun! We sure missed Gerald, he was deployed and could not go. We will take him someday soon!

Papa Sam bought all the little ones colorful flippers and snorkels.

They had so much fun at the resort swimming and playing on the waterslide.

 Off to Disney World!

Kennedy Space Center

So Tired!

Wake Up! We are going to the beach.