can you read kindergarten?

There are lots of things that I will not miss about teaching (i.e. paperwork, testing, bad behavior, annoying parents etc.), but trying to figure out what a sweet note from my students says will not be one of those things.  I always love trying to translate what they write!!

Can you read Kindergarten?  Do you know what this says??

One million brownie points will be awarded to whoever can translate this note correctly!!

not that i'm counting.....

28 days of school left.....

.....minus 6 days I still have left to take off....

......minus 1 day of administering TAKS....

......minus 1 day of going on a field trip....

......minus 1 day I'm in charge of a volunteer luncheon....

......minus 1 day that we have Field Day/Movie Day....

.....equals 18 days of teaching.

And that's if you count the last 4 days of school as teaching days.

But let's be honest......  

Grades are due on Friday, so the last 4 days after are pretty much fun days.  

So let's just go with 14 more days of teaching.  

But like I said...

I'm not counting!

living out of a suitcase boxes

When we found out that we were pregnant in October, I may or may not have starting packing up my classroom in November.  

After I have taught each unit, I have been bringing home my box of books and files that go with it.  After I'm finished with the  unit, there's no need to have any of it up at school, so I packed it up!!  I've been really good about not taking home anything that I'm still still using or have needed all year. 

But.....

We are down to 32 days of school, and my belly ain't getting any smaller, so this week during all my breaks I've been using every spare moment to really get packed up.  I've got just about everything packed up in boxes and all packed up in my cabinets.  

It's like I'm living out of a suitcase, but I'm living out of boxes.  I know where everything is, and I can still get to it all.  It's just in boxes, rather than my cabinets. 

All I have left to do is take all the boxes home and take everything down off the walls, but that's a job for my hubby!!

woody for president??

This past week, we've been learning about presidents.  Today I did a writing activity where my kids had to complete the sentence "If I were the president of the United States, I would......."

One of my little guys wrote that he would "rule the world" and drew a picture that suspiciously looked just like Woody and Bulleye.  I asked him who it was and this is how our conversation went.....

Me: So who is that in your picture?

Student:  Oh that's Teddybell Rosabell

Me:  Do you mean Teddy Roosevelt?

Student: No, it's Teddybell Rosabell and his horse, but I don't know his horses name.

Me: So who exactly is Teddybell Rosabell?

Student:  He's the 56th president.

Me:  Wow, how many presidents have we had?

Student: Something like 1,000.

Me: So who is the president now?

Student: Arock Obama

Me: WOW, you are so smart!!

I couldn't stop laughing about what this little guy had told me, so I went to tell the teacher across the hall.   She laughed so hard and then showed me what one of her little girls wrote in her journal.  She had written....

"Bark Obama is our president."

Oh 5 year olds!!! They are so funny!!

journal writing

I started Writer's Workshop with my kids today.  It's always funny seeing what the kids "write".  

I put write in quotes because at the beginning of the year, most of my kids aren't writing.  They write some letters, then I ask them what their stories say and write what they say on their paper.  

Today I had one little girl write....

"Once upon a time a woman disguised herself as a kid."

Another little girl wrote.....

"The purple platypus went to work at 9 o' clock."

And another little girl wrote....

"I see twirlies everywhere."

All these funny journal writing made me think of this picture from an e-mail I received once.

A drawing a little girl drew of her mother that makes it look like she's an exotic dancer on a stripper pole.

Here's the message the teacher received the next day:

Dear Mrs. Jones, 

       I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in. 

the best part of waking up is sonic in your cup

I love Sonic drinks.  I don't like coffee, so a Sonic Coke Zero with vanilla is like coffee to me.  I love Sonic so much that I go just about everyday!! I am addicted.

Thankfully the Sonic right by my school gives teachers 99 cent Route 44's all day everyday.  I go so much, that the owner of the Sonic even knows my drink.  If the owner takes my order, I just say "Hey It's Katy. Can I have my regular?"  

Right before school started the owner asked if she could set up a deal where I give her son a ride to school (he's a 4th grader at my school) in return for FREE Sonic drinks!!  Of course I said yes!! I just can't pass up a Sonic drink, especially if it's free.  So now every morning, unless the owner if not working, I get a free Sonic drink.

What a great way to start my day!! And week!!

I really think that my Sonic drink every morning helped me have a great first week!!

first day of teaching kindergarten: take 4

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4

If you want to see all of my first days of school pictures growing up you can see them here.

I had a great first day of school.  I didn't have any major problems at all.  It an exhausting day though. I literally have to tell them how to do everything.

Here's what I sound like through out the day.....

"Please don't do that, no ma'am, tuck your chair in, great job, stay quiet, no sir, put a bubble in your mouth, sit down, write your name, don't touch the walls, walk quietly, go potty, great job, get a drink, not yet, straight line please, line up, criss-cross-apple sauce, watch where you are going, hands in your lap, kiss your brain, are you listening, come over here, awesome job"**

**multiplied by 10 or maybe 20 or more like 40

out of the mouths of kindergarteners

"I'm tired because my Dad woke me up in the middle of the night to come to school."

"My Mom and Dad sure are going to be bored without me home!"

"Is it okay if I color a piece of art instead of a picture."

"I think I'm going to like school after all."

"This is the BEST school ever!"

I'm looking forward to many more Kindergarten Bloopers this year.  

I think I have a pretty funny group of kiddos!!

back to school

And summer is over....just like that.

I sure an going to miss it. It went by way to fast.

This week is full of meetings, meetings, and more meetings.  And some more meetings.

It's a little frustrating because every year we sit through meetings ALL. DAY. LONG. with our mind going a million different directions thinking about all the things we need to be doing in our classroom.  It sure would be nice if they just cut out the meetings and let us work in our classroom for 5 days.  

I think every teacher would agree with me!!  Am I right ladies??

Anyways, happy back to school!!

it's that time again....

Last year, about this time, I posted about how I have bad dreams before school starts. You can find that post here.

Well it's that time again.  

The bad dreams have already started.  

I started working in my classroom on Monday so I think that's why they have started.  I have a to-list a mile long, and I just can't stop thinking about school.  When I finally fall asleep at night, the last thing on my mind is always school, so all my dreams are about school.   

So far I have dreamed that they put all boys in my class, then I dreamed that I had all the special ed kids, all the ESL kids, all the speech kids and all the requests.  All the teacher were mad at me because I had kids they were supposed to have.  I also had a dream that I turned on a video for what was supposed to be 10 minutes long, but I couldn't get it turned off so we watched TV all day.  My principal was secretly watching through a window so I got in big trouble.  Last night's dream was the worst.  It was mass chaos.  I forgot to bring nice clothes for Meet the Teacher so I met all my parents in my work out clothes.  Meet the teacher is from 4-6, but everyone came at 4 so I had parents mad at me for not talking to them right away.  I was totally not prepared for them to be there.  I didn't have any of the notes or take home stuff out for them and I didn't have any of my cabinets cleared out for them to put supplies up.  I was so stressed in my sleep. 

The funniest thing about all these dreams is that I did a lot of preparing for this school year at the end of last school year.  I am very ahead of the game and ready to go.  And I have 3 years of experience in Kindergarten.  I guess all teachers just get a little anxious before school starts. 

This morning I woke up at 6:45 to pack Matt's lunch and chat with him before he left for work.  I usually just wake up and get out of bed when he leaves, but I decided to stay in bed this morning.  I forgot to set my alarm, so I slept until 10am.  I never to that.  Ever.  That should tell you how tired I am and how restless I am at night.  

If you think about it, say a prayer for me and all the teachers out there.  We need lots of good rest before the 1st day of school.   

foundations

We had our Smith Family Reunion today. (a.k.a our first staff meeting) We have a lot of changes and a lot of new staff members this year so our design team went all out in planning our "reunion".  

One of the things we did today was go under the school (literally, we climbed down this secret door in the janitor's closet) and sign the beams underneath the foundation of our school.  The reason behind doing this was because 3 years ago when our school was still being built we had a special ceremony with our principal and our namesake.  

All the teachers and their families came to the school and signed the foundation of our school.  We got to pray in our classroom and write scripture on the foundation of our own classroom.  

Today our principal wanted to give our new staff members a chance to sign the foundation of our school as well.  

It was neat to go back and look at my pictures and remember the scriptures I wrote in my classroom.  As I am starting to get ready for this upcoming school year I am praying these same scriptures for my new group of kiddos. 

And while I'm praying for my new kiddos, I'm also praying for my sweet friend Sarah.

Sarah and I started teaching togethers 3 years ago.  Her and her husband moved to Waco this summer so this will be our first year not teaching together.  She is at a new school with all new people so I know that can kind of be scary. So say a little prayer that she has a smooth transition to her new school.  And if you think about it, say a little prayer for me too, I'm kind of having a hard time not have her around.  I have never not taught with her, so it's just kind of weird not having my friend around.  

It's going to be a good year though.  We have a firm foundation centered around Christ, and I know He is going to do good things at our school this year.  

tennis shoes & fried alligator legs

Student: Can I have a tennis shoe for my nose?

Me: A what??

Student: A tennis shoe.

I'm pretty sure he meant a tissue!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: What would you like for lunch? Your choices are chicken nuggets, turkey with gravy or a cheese sandwich.

Student: I dunno

Me: Well sweetie, you've gotta pick one.  Chicken Nuggets?

Student: Nope

Me: Turkey

Student: Nope

Me: Cheese Sandwich

Student: Nope

Me: Just Cheese

Student: Nope

Me: Just Bread

Student: Nope

Me: Well, honey, what about fried alligator legs? (said very jokingly)

Student: Mmmmm, Yes (said with a big nod and smile)

Me: Seriouly, have you ever had fried alligator legs?

Student: Yes, they are yummy!!

Me: Where have you had them?

Student: In Boston with my family.

Me: Alrighty then.....

I just wrote down that he wanted a cheese sandwich then moved on to the next student.  His response....

"I'll have what he's having!"

Ironically the chicken nuggets were actually chicken strips today.  

Would it be bad if I told those two boys that the chicken strips were fried alligator legs??

summer school

Nine hours (7am-4pm) of summer school summer school is just wrong. 

You know is too long when kids are falling asleep all throughout the day.

It's just pitiful. 

At one point I had 6 of my 12 kids passed out on the floor.

Only 8 more days of these crazy long summer school days!!

When real school starts, I will definitely appreciate my 7:30-2:30 days!!

i don't feel like blogging....

I don't feel like blogging because I am absolutely POOPED/EXHAUSTED/TIRED.
My brain is like mush.

I'm teaching Kindergarten summer school from 7am-4pm.  

You read that right 7am-4pm.  

I'm with a class of 13 six year olds from 7am-4pm.  That shouldn't be allowed. 

If I'm tired at the end of the day, you know my kids are tired at the end of the day.

Oh well, I'll get over it.  The money is great and I'll be thankful I did it when I get my extra money on top of my normal paycheck!!

Atleast I had a few funny moments to get me through the day.

I had a little (Asian) boy tell me today that he knew how to count in Chinese. 

He said.....

Uno

Dos

Tres

Quatro

Cinco

And another boy tell me, "I have a sister that goes to this school, he's a girl!"   

See what I mean 7am-4pm is even making the kiddos brain's like mush.

Oops...I guess I just blogged.  

Goodnight!!

daily 5 conference

Last week I went to San Antonio with my team (and another school's Kinder team) for a Kindergarten Daily 5 conference.  

We had a great time hanging out on the river walk.....

....and a great time learning from the 2 sisters.  

(the 2 sisters are pictured on the top right and left)

If you are an elementary teacher and you don't know about Daily 5.  Go here and read up.  They have completely changed the way I teach literacy in my classroom and I will never teach another way.  It really is that amazing!!!

cucumber eyes

My sweet class gave me an awesome End of the Year gift basket.  It had a personalized travel mug from here, an On the Border giftcard, two free quesos at On The Border, a Barnes & Noble giftcard, really cute coasters with an "L" on them, and a gift card to Azura.  

When I opened the spa giftcard, I asked my kids what I should do at the spa.  Quite a few of them responded with "Get cucumber eyes!!"  

I took their advice and got a facial today.  Unfortunately, I didn't get cucumber eyes, but I did get tea bag eyes!  It was an hour long facial/upper body massage.  It was sooooooooo relaxing. I would totally recommend getting "cucumber eyes" at Azura. 

10 more days.....

10 more days until summer!!!

Not that I'm counting or anything!!!

pledge bloopers

I was doing some end of the year testing on my kiddos today, and one of the things I asked them to do was to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  I always get a kick out of the things they say, so I thought I would share.  

Here are some of my classes' Pledge of Allegiance bloopers.....

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United STEAKS of America, and to the REPUBLICANS for which it stands, one nation under GUARD, INVISIBLE, with LIVERTY and JUSTIN FRAWL. 

Who is Justin Frawl?? 

F is for....

Field Trip

Farm

Fun

What a fun day!! I am so thankful that we got to get out of the school while our 3rd and 4th graders took TAKS.  Unfortunately, tomorrow won't be as fun for me, because I have to administer the TAKS test to a small group of students.  

"pedicare"

On Friday one of my students was recognized for getting 100 AR points.  She is the first Kindergarten student at my school to ever do this.  She had to read over 200 books to reach this goal.

As her reward from her parents, she chose to go to the spa and get a "pedicare".

They even treated me to one too!!

After our "pedicare" we took a spin through Barnes and noble and then ate some lunch at Cristina's. 

What a treat!!