Jen's Notebook

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have had an enjoyable winter vacation. Now, on to the new year! Which, of course, means new things to make and invent!

Well, it’s the first official day of winter vacation for me. And wouldn’t you know I woke up sick this morning.  Hmmm. . . . .  At least I don’t have to get ready for a sub!!!

I decided to teach my math class how to make  tally marks while playing a math game last week. The kids really enjoyed the activity and learned how to make a tally mark every time they rolled the dice to keep track of their rolls. Later in the day, one of the Kindergarten students who come to me for Math went up to his own classroom teacher and said” I loved math today. We even learned how to make Italian marks!” Guess I will be doing some vocab reteaching next week! That is after I stop smiling! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving vacation.

I love this time of the year. I enjoyed it as my own children grew up. And I enjoy it as a teacher. There are so many fun ideas to do with the holidays in a Kindergarten classroom. I am constantly looking for new ideas. I’ve added a new song and retell to my math ideas titled Order Song. I hope you will enjoy it! And Happy Autunm!!!

Well, we have been going along in writing for the last few weeks. The kids have been drawing their pictures and telling their stories. So today, I ask them to try to put some words as labels on their stories. One of my students says to me, “I can’t even read yet, and you expect me to write words now?” It took a lot for me not to laugh!

I have a confession to make. It is really hard to blog. (Or at least it is for me)> Don’t get me wrong I talk almost non-stop! But sitting down and writing my thoughts or stories for the day is so very hard! I think it might be because I don’t find a lot of what happens during my day worth writing about (and maybe that’s a good thing). So the blogs have been few and far between, but I am continuing to work on getting pictures on this site to make it easier to use. I hope all of you have had an enjoyable first month of school and that things in your classrooms have become  settled and enjoyable as the school year really kicks into high gear.

I walked into the lunch room this morning at breakfast time to talk to a few of my former students. One of my current Kinders called me over to the long line he was standing in and stated to me very loudly,”Teacher, I have a dollar in my pocket but my mom told me not to tell anyone!” I smiled and told him, “Then you better not let anyone know about it!” All the other students in the breakfast line started laughing! My little guy smiled, oblivious to the fact he had let his secret out within the first hour of the school day.

I can’t get over how little Kindergartners are this time of year. I tend to forget they start out in my classroom without a lot of school social skills. That can make life as a teacher both hard and hilarious! With that said, my quote from a kinder this week comes from a little boy in the classroom next door to mine. During the lunch recess I was walking down the hallway and he came running by me. I asked him “What are you doing buddy?” He grinned ear to ear, raised his hand as high as he could to show me the hall pass he had gotten from a Para outside and excitedly said “I have a free pass to get a drink!” And on he ran to the water fountain. Boy, oh, boy do I miss the days when I thought getting a pass for water in the hallway was both a great adventure and a free gift from someone else!

I hope you will enjoy something free and fun today as well!

Four days of parent conferences and one day of teaching! The first week of the school year is now officially over! Friday was a great day with my Kinders! Just for kicks I counted how many of my 18 students were the baby of their own family!  Total-13!!!! I wasn’t surprised by the high number. I could tell from the one day of teaching . We all have them in our families. The baby!!! I have my own (he’s the youngest of five). I remember telling several of his teachers that I didn’t do him any favors by treating him like the baby. But he is my baby! You have to love teaching the baby of the family. Yes, they are usually demanding and use to getting their way but in return they are out going, strong willed and willing to take chances. It should be an interesting school year.

Well, the first day is over. ALthough we have parent-teacher conferences for the first four days of school. So I should say, first day of conferences down, and three to go!!!! I always enjoy conferences, I learn so much about the students, and families. Yet, I can hardly wait until Friday when I actually get to start teaching. So, 1 day down, and 179 to go until my students are first graders. YAY!!!!!