One Week Down...

It was a great first week of Kindergarten! All four students are extremely excited about coming to Kindergarten, and everything we do is fun and adventurous to them.

Yesterday morning, we practiced our Bible verse song that we had been reviewing all week, and I decided to videotape them with my camera because they were doing so well with the song. Enjoy listening to Psalm 56:3!

The best part of the school day (at least to me!) is when they come back from afternoon recess. We gather together to read a story, and then they settle down for rest time for about 30 minutes. On Mondays and Wednesdays, they listen to Patch the Pirate adventures, but on Fridays they get to watch a short movie. Yesterday, they watched the first movie in a series called "Storykeepers". It's a series about Christians in Rome,who have to be secretive about their faith because of persecution. They go around secretly spreading stories about Jesus during His earthly ministry. The stories are filled with adventure, so they are always a favorite amongst my kiddos! As you can see, they are pretty wrapped up in the story! Laying so quietly and peaceful....I love movie rest time!! :-)

Yesterday afternoon, we did a crayon melting project. Remember those crayons I mentioned before??? Even though Elizabeth and I worked on melting crayons during vacation week, there still was a whole bunch left! So I brought the crayons in, and the kiddos got to pick what crayons were going to go in their cupcake tins. They each had a row to themselves...the benefits of being part of a small class! The crayons were still cooling when school was done, so we won't get to see the finished results until Monday. I am sure they will have fun coloring with them though!

The first week of Kindergarten is over. Like I said in the beginning, it was a great week, mostly because my kiddos made it so easy with their enthusiasm! However, I think it was also a great week because I did a "teacher check" each day. For my first 2 years teaching Kindergarten, the first week of school was always so rough for me. My first year teaching, I was so clueless as to what to expect. I knew I had to get them to read, and I got really overwhelmed the first week because I saw how much I would have to teach them to get them to the point of being able to read. *Panic strikes!* My second year teaching, I knew how the previous year had turned out - my students had learned how to read. *Phew* I can do this!! However, the first week was rough because I realized I had to start all. over. again. *Ugh!!* This year I was determined to have the right attitude. Mr. Anger taught a class 2 years ago about setting goals and objectives. My first 2 years, I saw the BIG goal of teaching my students how to read. However, that wasn't an attainable goal for the first week of school, so it got me discouraged. This year I am trying not to focus too much on the "big goal". I realize that it is the end goal, but there are a bunch of little goals and objectives to reach BEFORE I even think about that end goal! It's a process...and I am determining to make it a fun, flexible process - and not to panic when they don't get everything the first week of Kindergarten!! Oh yes, teaching is a learning process!

I saw this quote the other day, and knew that I just had to post it. It's a perfect quote for any teacher, especially a Kindergarten teacher, to grasp and understand!

I can't wait to see my students turn into butterflies!! However, I am going to enjoy each and every moment they are caterpillars, discovering the wonder of learning new things!

First Day of Kindergarten

These pretty flowers greeted me when I entered the Kindergarten classroom today. I officially felt welcomed to the first day of school! :-)

Then before too long, my four EXCITED students entered the classroom with huge smiles on their faces, ready to begin their first day of Kindergarten!

Today was a lot of fun. I introduced them to the pledges, calendar, daily news, classroom jobs, rules of the classroom, rewards for following the rules, and lots more. Their little heads must be swimming! We played a fun game which I like to call "Photo Scavenger Hunt." Yesterday, I had taken a bunch of random pictures of objects and parts of objects around the classroom. Today I showed them a picture and they had to search all over the classroom until they found the object I had taken a picture of. I was quite proud of their observation skills. :-)

Before snack and recess, they played a Winnie the Pooh matching game.

They had lots of fun on the playground swinging on the swings, going down the slide, and just running around!

To make them feel like they were actually in school, they worked on their first paper, and we played an ABC game.

They all loved sitting at their desks!

Let me introduce you to my Kindergarten class. You'll be seeing a lot of pictures of them during these next 9 months or so!

Aidan

Juliana

Grace

Leah

Today was a great start to a new school year! I am looking forward to having a lot of fun adventures with these four special students! :-)

Everything's Ready!

Here are some pictures of my Kindergarten classroom...all organized, decorated, and ready for excited lil' kiddos to enter it on Tuesday! :-)

Vacation Week

What a fun-filled, busy, exhausting vacation week I have just experienced! Definitely something I needed before I got into a crazy work routine again!

Here are a few pix of the week to give you a glimpse of the fun we experienced.

As you saw in my previous post, we enjoyed lots of junk food :-). I felt like we were ALWAYS eating something! But, hey, we kept saying, "It's vacation!" Good excuse, right? ;-)

Enjoying Dunkin Donuts after church on Sunday...

Monday night we went miniature golfing at Putt-U. Fun times! On the way home, we stopped at Rita's...like I said.... :o)

We went to Ocean Grove, NJ, on Tuesday. Actually, we ended up at a beach a little ways from Ocean Grove, but it's the same idea. :-)

I could have stayed all day! I love the beach!

As if we didn't have enough junk food already, we made chocolate chip cookie dough truffles on Wednesday.

Remember when I blogged about all the old, broken crayons I had peeled? Well, we started working on the whole melting process. There are still lots more to do though!

Elizabeth and I then spent two days in Lancaster. Of course, we went to Shady Maple (more food!). We also got to enjoy two productions at Sight & Sound, do lots of shopping at the nearby outlets, eat more food...you get the idea!

On Thursday, we saw Psalms of David at the Living Waters Theatre, and on Friday, we saw Joseph at the Millenium Theatre. Both were great shows!

And last, but certainly not least, we went to Knoebel's Grove on Saturday. Despite the crowd, we enjoyed a gorgeous day going on fun, "dizzifying" rides and eating...you guessed it...lots of food!

Not seen in the pictures, we also went on a few walks around the neighborhood, attempted an exercise video, played multiple games of Mexican Train, Mad Libs, In a Pickle and Mad Gab; stayed up late each night watching movies, shopped at the Lehigh Valley Mall and nearby stores, had lunch at Panera Bread, Olive Garden & Subway (different days..hahaha!) and supper at Bob Evan's, Friendly's, and Freeze and Frizz (somewhere in Lancaster :-)) There is probably more, but I can't think of anything else at the moment!

It was a great break from the "real world", but now I must enter that world again! Time to focus on getting ready for Kindergarten!!!! I am TOTALLY okay with that though!!

Even at the Ocean...

...getting ready to teach Kindergarten is not far from my mind!

Vacation = Junk Food!

The key to a successful vacation is always buying and eating lots of junk food - or so I have discovered! Both Elizabeth (my friend from NY who is visiting me this week) and I had already bought some junk food to start off our vacation, but tonight, as we were waiting longingly for dinner, we started making a list of things that we still needed to buy to fulfill our junk food quota. Talking about food and making lists to purchase food while rather starved is not always a good plan, just so you know!

After a walk to Giant later this evening, I think we will be set for the rest of the week! (Maybe!) Please note the apples intermixed between the rest of the junk food. We had to make at least one attempt to be healthy!

Don't we look immensely pleased with ourselves?! What you don't see in this picture is the pile of exercise DVDs that Elizabeth brought along with her for us to try out together. We will be working off all the junk food so it doesn't turn to, well, something else. ;-)

It's a Process

During this past week, there were some renovations done to the Kindergarten room. My room had 3 chalkboards in it, and of course, that was totally unnecessary! It just took up wall space that could be used for other things. So 2 of the chalkboards were taken down, a new bulletin board was put in the place of one of the chalkboards, the back wall was repainted, and even the heaters around the room - that were falling apart and rusty - were repainted and put back together.

This is what the room looked like for the first part of the week!

I kept reminding myself that it was a process. It was just for a few days and then I could get it back to normal again.

Believe me, I didn't waste much time! Once the paint was dry, I spent about 3 1/2 hours Thursday afternoon getting the room organized, and partly decorated.

You want to see the finished product?

Well, you can't.....yet :)

I want to wait until the room is completely finished to show you! However, if you do decide to take a peek in the room before the process is completed, I guess you can. :) Let me know what you think though! I am sure happy with the results so far. :-)

The boxes of curriculum are ready for each of my students, so I just need to organize it all in the filing cabinet, start doing lesson plans, and we are all set. :)

The first day of Kindergarten is only 17 days away! But before I do any more planning or organizing, I am going to enjoy a week of much-needed vacation!!

Stay tuned!

Birthday Girl

My lil' sis, Alayna, turned 15 years old today!

After ice cream cake and presents, I took her outside for a quick photo shoot with her new purple shirt and earrings.

Where is the baby sister I used to have? This young lady is quite beautiful and grown-up looking, wouldn't you agree?! ;-)

Love the natural smile/laughing look :)

Love this one!!

They grow up so quickly, don't they? *Sniff, sniff* :)