Exciting News!!

Well folks it has been quite some time since I last posted... sorry for the disappearing act!  I found out at the end of the school year that I am going back to KINDERGARTEN!!! YAY!! I haven't been this excited in a very long time!  I recently got into my new classroom and it looks great.  The custodians really worked their tails off to clean it.  I swear you could eat off of the floors!  I will be posting some classroom pictures just as soon as I am done cleaning and organizing.  Which knowing me will take me straight into September! HA! Anywho... hope you all are enjoying your summer vacations.  Talk to you soon!

Flowers and sunshine!

I needed to share something that one of my sweet little monkeys did today.  When I walked into my classroom and found my little friends waiting patiently outside my door, one little monkey had quite the smile on her face and both hands behind her back.  I decided to just let it go and see what happened.  Well weren't Mrs. H. and I suprised when she came to both of us with these construction paper covered water bottles filled with dandelions.  HOW CUTE WAS THAT?!  Such a sweetie pie!  Here is a pic for your viewing pleasure!

Tune in tomorrow as Mrs H. and I will be dressing up in honor of the Royal Wedding, tiara and all!!! HA!  I am also going to have the kids write what they think a Prince and a Princess do way over there in England.  That should lead to some interesting writing.  Also, the monkeys have been working on problem/solution writing.  Hil.ar.ious!  One of the  kiddos actually wrote about the mess that is forming on my desk.  Whoops!  Guess I need to clean it off huh?  I will post pictures of the writing and of course of our outfits tomorrow!

Debbie Miller and Dr. Jean

Last week I had the UNBELIEVABLE opportunity to meet BOTH Debbie Miller and Dr. Jean.  People, I have to tell you I was STARSTRUCK!  I met them both at the SDSE conference in Manchester, New Hampshire.  I was blessed to have my principal pay for not only me but two of my collegues as well!  What an experience it was.  If you've never been to one of these conferences I would encourage you to give it a try.   Here are some pictures of my actually tooty-ta-ing with Dr. Jean.  I told you, I was starstruck!


Another presenter that I thought was fabulous was Donna Whyte.  She has a webpage called the smartiezone.com.  I can not tell you how many great idea I got from her site and to see her in person explaining all of her, well awesomeness,  was just ahhhhmazing!!  Perhaps it's the inner teacher geek in me but I just love seeing and hearing what other teacher do in their classrooms to  make it work.

We are currently on our spring break but let me tell you I have already been hard at work searching the internet to help me introduce adjectives, main idea, bossy r words, and time to the little monkeys when we get back.  As soon as I get it all together I will take pictures and post them for your viewing pleasure!

HAPPY SPRING!!

AHHHH VACATION!!!

February Vacation is here, and let me tell you, it could NOT have come at a better time.  We had sick kiddos galore, and we all just needed a break from each other!  Of course I am a giant work-a-holic so I have been busy searching the internet for some fun activities to do when we get back.  As soon as I get back in my room I will take some pictures of the activities we have planned! 

Penguin Pocket!

The cover...

Pocket one..

Here is an example of the penguin book the little monkeys made to store all of their penguin related work.  They came out SO cute!  Each piece holds different information.  As we work on penguins these books will be

Pocket two...

                                                         bursting at the seams with 

Pocket three.

                                   information!

As promised here is a picture of the watercolor penguins that they made.  I am really impressed with them, AND they make the room so colorful!!!

Have a great day!!

Ms. Daly

Penguin painting...

Mrs. H. painting her penguin!

Our penguin chart where we are recording all of our facts!

The beginning sketches!

Today we painted beautiful penguins using oil pastel crayons and watercolor paints.  The kids really did an amazing job.  I found the idea for this project at http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2009/03/penguin-painting-for-first-and-second/.  We talked about what penguins looked like, as well as what their habitat looks like.  As our unit moves on we will learn about penguins that don't live on iceburgs, but that's not for a bit!  Here is my sketch that I used to show the children how to make their penguin using ovals.  As soon as I have them all hung up I will post more pictures. I took a picture of Mrs. H. painting her penguin, I would have some of the kids but for privacy purposes I don't want to post their little faces online.  There is also a picture of the chart we have started where we are storing all the interesting facts we are learning about penguins.  

SNOW DAY 2011!!

Welcome back from 2 days off!  I hope everyone survived the snow, and more important the SHOVELING!  Thankfully I have the very best landlords ever who did a great job shoveling!  We all even built a snowman.  It was a work from home day for them!  I found the snowman kit at the Christmas Tree Shops.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that store!  You can always find something super fun there!








I found this great idea on FirstGradeParade and decided to try it with the class.  The children had to write tally marks as they interviewed the rest of the class asking what they did over the snowdays.  We decided that most of the children in the class had a snowball fight (with their siblings!) and the least amount made a snowman.  I was so surprised!  

When we get back to school on Tuesday we will start talking about Famous Americans.  I am taking ideas I have gotten on the secondgradeteachersclub.ning site as well as in the blogging world to help the children grasp the ideas.  We will start with Martin Luther King Jr., then go into Rosa Parks, then Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  By the end of this unit the children will be presenting their own Famous American projects.  MsWinston.com has a terrific unit that I started using last year and added my own little bits and pieces to.  We will also be continuing our penguin study.  I need to post pictures of the super cute penguin pocket folders they made on Monday!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Study Island Is Here!

Our school now has access to a great resource for preparing our kids for the state standardized tests.  We have purchased a building license for a web-based program called Study Island, which is accessible to students from school or home.  If you have Internet access, your child can access Study Island from home as well as school to prepare for the state assessments. I have sent home your childs personal password and login.  Please feel free to use it as much as you want at home! :0) We will be using this program in the computer lab each Friday as well as in class during different times in the day.

 We are excited about the potential benefits this program can bring to our students, and we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity by using Study Island. 

Welcome 2011!!!

I found this great idea on Ms. Durnings Blog.  I made tracers for the bread and the butter and had the children trace and cut out their own "toasts".  They had to write a wish that they had for 2011 on the butter.  Mrs. H. and I made our own bulletin board on the wall so that we could have these awesome "toasts" hanging on the wall.  I think they came out pretty great!

Here is a picture of the start of our new bulletin board.  While the children were in Music, Mrs. H. and I covered the cabinet doors with blue and white fadless paper to make the doors look like an iceberg.  Next week we will start our penguin unit and this is where our handprint penguins will be living!






We had indoor recess on Friday and when I came back from lunch this is what Mrs. H. had come up with.  Can't leave that woman alone for a minute!!!  ;0)  I think it came out super cute, we decided that we could have the kids make a snowflake to put around the snowpeople.  










This week is going to be super busy as we finish up our snowman book reports and work on our penguin unit.  Check back soon, I hope to add more pictures of our work!