Dads Rock Celebration

Well we celebrated our moms and the kiddos thought it was only fair to also have a morning to celebrate dads! Again I was so impressed by our turnout-about 23 families were represented. We made books that talked about their dads-if they knew about what they were like when they were little or their favorite things about them today.It was interesting from a sociological perspective that with the dads they mentioned how they love money more than they talked about that with the moms and also more about their work and sleeping! Some of them were funny like: "my Dad was smart when he was little" or "my Dad is a bit of a smart-aleck". Here's an example from one:

My Dad's favorite animal is a lion.

My Dad, when he was a baby, he would look up at the stars and then he is asleep.

My Dad's favorite food is carrots.

Of course, we had food:

And the kids did self-portraits:

And they filled out how their dads were like superheroes!

Overall I think it was a really nice morning. I think the Dads were glad they came and endured our little chairs for a while! :)

Good-Bye Kindergarten

Now I had it in my head that we'd do this activity a little closer to the very end of the school year (we actually only have 12 days left with the kiddos!). However, we are doing EOY's all this week and I wanted something light and fun for them to do after their morning of testing.

I read them the book: 

I asked them to look around our classroom and write about what they would miss. Most of them wanted to write "good-bye" instead of "good night" but it was interesting to see what they value most in the classroom. Our kitchen center, blocks and puppets I think were most popular and they are right-they will not probably have those in 1st Grade. :(

Our buddies are stuffed animals they can read with and take turns taking home.

I think it's so funny that they wrote conduct chart because we are required to post one but I NEVER use it! :)

I don't know what the first one is, but the 2nd one is puzzles. Then puppets and my stool. I recieved a stool as a gift one year and I let my assistant for the day sit on it.

Rocking chair the last one makes me a little sad. I'm sure they will still have fun next year.

Little panda song-too cute!

And buckets-we do bucket fillers. :)

I Love Teaching GT Kids

Yes, there are drawbacks. People think you have it easy-you will be in meetings and they will talk about some strategy and then say "oh, but you teach GT kids, you don't have to worry about that. Actually it's a huge spectrum of abilities that you deal with. We used Fountas and Pinnell leveling this year-I had levels from A through M the first day of school! It's very hard to show growth the way the district wants to see it, because they ace the BOY and therefore show no growth EOY. There are very few resources for GT in early childhood because many programs don't even identify kids until after 2nd Grade.

But let me share what one of my kiddos said today. Let me preface this by saying, we were doing a unit on dragons in probably March. We read a poem with the dragons singing in cacophonous voices. So, of course I explained what the word meant and shared with them that "cacophony" is one of my all-time favorite words.

Fast-forward to today. I sent a student next door to give the teacher a note and she came back saying "it's really cacophonous in there". I laughed out loud. I said "you know it's cacophonous in here too!"

Those are the moments that make it all worth it! :)

What I'm Reading

I realized I hadn't done a post about books for a while. My reading goal for this year was 40 books and I'm already up to 23! Not that my focus in reading is just a number-but I'm proud of myself. Maybe 5 years ago my number was zero, this is a skill I'm consciously working on. So I try to read at least a little bit every night (although this time of year is hard, I come home every day so exhausted). I also have started listening to audiobooks when I drive or shop. I can get through a book that way every week or 2 depending on how long it is. Some of my recent reads:

An interesting mystery story. A daughter is arrested for her mother's murder which she may or may not have committed because she doesn't really remember. So when she's released she sets out to solve the mystery herself.

I know, I know people often write Stephen King off as just a "horror" writer. However, I have been reading his books since I was a teen and he is still one of my all-time favorite authors. I think he has a profound way with words. This story is about a man who loses an arm in an accident and as part of his therapy moves to a beach house and starts painting. Of course, that's when all the weird stuff starts happening. Not too scary if you are faint of heart!

I wanted to listen to something light and upbeat because I find my mind filled with too many things this time of year-especially coming and going from work. Mindy is really light and upbeat! I want her to be my BFF, although I could only take her in small doses. I did find her exploits starting off in Hollywood and landing the job on The Office really interesting.

Meh. This book was ok, but I was disappointed in the ending. It's like the 4th book I've read in the YA genre with the same kind of ending-a bit derivative at this point. I liked it up until the last chapter or so.

This is what I'm reading now. I think it's also considered YA, it's written in a different tone than I'm used to-trying to stretch myself a little bit and read some different things. So far very exciting!

This book reminds me of Fault in the Stars in a lot of ways-but not in a bad way. The characters are maybe suicidal instead of disease-fighting though. I really like it so far!

That's my reading update. I know people might be looking for some summer reads. I myself can't wait to dive into my bookpile. I'm on probation from buying anymore until I read more of the ones I have! :)

Advice for Future Kindergartners

My kids know they will be 1st Graders in just a few weeks and they are very excited for that next step in their education. I asked them to write a letter to the Pre-K students coming up-what do they need to know when they start Kindergarten-I got some interesting answers! :)

You should always start off with an easy book.

I hope you do good in Kinder, do all the time good good, very good.

You should always pay attention and follow directions.

You should never yell, especially at Miss Trayers. It's safe. (love that she wrote that!). She has a dog named Ruby and I'm the Class Clown.

Be safe and listen to the teachers and do the best work as you can beacuse I don't want you to get an "F". So do it because so you can go to vacation.

It's awesome, but I don't know if you want to know.

When it is the first day don't cry if you miss your mom. Be strong. And if you want a drink of water and they're doing a lesson don't get a drink of water, only if they are not doing a station. (We have a water fountain in our classroom and one of my pet peeves is that they constantly ask me to go get a drink when I'm doing a lesson and they know my rule!)

You don't have to be afraid of your teacher.

Always make sure your answer is appropriate.

You have to make spaces [in your writing] and listen.

Make sure on the weekends you read and listen.

Be a good kid with Miss Trayers and in class all day, be good every day so you can learn. Thanks.

Do not hit your friends. When you are in a lesson you can't drink water. Do not be crazy. Do not be mean.

Be creative on your work and make your teacher smile!

Be a good kid and listen to Miss Trayers. Don't play and don't talk and listen to the book and learn as fast as you can. (I love that last part, this is one of my kiddos who struggled in the beginning-she certainly learned as fast as she could!)

You need to know that you are going to have spelling words and going to have fun.

I hope you do well on the test. You should maybe not run. Respect the teacher.

And last but not least....she added this as kind of a P.S.

You gotta love 'em! :)