Friday, June 9, 2017

Summer Plans!!

I will be teaching summer VPK this year and I am very excited!!! Here's why:

1. VPK is where it all started for me!  My very first blog was about my experience teaching summer VPK. Check it out HERE.
2. I have so many ideas of different things I want to implement next year in kindergarten.  I plan on practicing with my VPK students.

I am pretty sure we will have an awesome summer!  I met my students and parents on Wednesday and although many of my students are just finishing up their full year VPK program, they all seemed pretty excited about starting school all over again!

Here is a before picture of the VPK classroom:
This view is from the entrance.

This view is from the opposite end.

I paced back and forth for about 45 minutes before I came up with a floor plan that was comfortable for me.  Good thing I'm changing my kindergarten classroom theme to black & brights this year.  I plan on using my old birdie theme decorations to set up this classroom!


Here are the After Pictures!!!





I hope you are able to notice the difference!  We were able to put up bulletin boards, which were definitely needed.  I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Our Garden and Graduation

Graduation

This year I decided to have a "Moving on Ceremony" along side our VPK's graduation.  Well, the only dilemma was that we had to wait one whole week after school in order to have our graduation ceremony with VPK.  Needless to say, I prayed a lot during that week that my kinders would be ready for the ceremony and remember all of their lines.  Well, they did an excellent job!  I am so proud of them!  

They all look so cute and serious.  They are watching VPK perform. Sorry, I couldn't include any images of VPK, I don't have any media release clearance with them.  They were oh so cute!  You're just going to have to trust me. 

Our Garden

Our garden actually has a funny story that goes along with it:

I have always wanted to start a garden, however, everything I have tried to grow in the past has died.  So, I knew it would be a big risk trying to start one with my class.  I asked just about every teacher in the school if they had a green thumb.  Unfortunately, no one really claimed to have one.  I finally, received help from Ms. Rob, the middle/high science teacher. So both of our classes went outside and filled huge pots with seeds and soil and spoke life into it and commanded it to grow.  Well, two days later, we find our pots dumped out!  We were a little sad of course, but then Mr. Ted, our school/church's head of security, came and told us he did it!  It was clearly an accident, but it must have been a God wink because Mr. Ted knows all about gardens!  He proceeded to give us everything we needed to start our own garden.  We planted cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and basil.  He even built a garden bed for us!  


Here is the lovely garden bed Mr. Ted made for us.

  He even came by and placed the stakes in, so our cucumber and tomato vines can grow up the stakes.

Our garden grew will beyond our expectations!

Thank you Mr. Ted for helping our garden grow!!!

End of Year Update

I just so happen to go through my classroom pictures and realized that I haven't shared over half of our awesome kinder moments.  I have had an amazing school year! I was truly blessed with such an awesome group of students and parents!  I will truly miss them!   Here is a little slide show I put together to share those amazing moments.

Mrs. Williams' Kindergarten Class 2017

I'm not trying to be sappy and overload you with pictures, but......that's just what I'm going to do! There were so many special memories to share and I wanted to make sure I was able to share them all.

Birthday Surprise

One of our students decided to celebrate their birthday with the class and guess who showed up!  Let me just say, I had parents that were excellent event planners.  When ever I talked about having any kind of celebration or party for the classroom, they went well beyond my expectations!  So, this birthday boy had a Paw Patrol party.  Just imagine the faces on all the kids who happened to see him walk through the hallway....PRICELESS!  He even did the Tooty-Ta dance with us!

                                                     

Disclaimer: Yes, that is me giggling in the background.  I couldn't help myself! I thought it was just  hilarious.  Also, we were much louder than normal so that's why my buddy had to mention it.  He was right, but we were just having so much fun!

100th Day of School


                                        
Students had to build a tower out of 100 cups.  This was my first year introducing a center like this and my kinders loved it!  I was a bit surprised, but sometimes the simplest things can be the most entertaining. 

                                                   
Our 100th day gumball machine.

Our 100th day snack mix.  Which is my favorite center.

Our 100th day hat.

This was just a small glimpse into our classroom that day. We actually completed so many activities (write the room, count to 100 puzzle, writing to 100, etc.), I just wasn't able to capture it all.

Paper Bag Biography

So, I can't take the credit for this idea.  I actually stole borrowed it from a fellow teacher.  For Black History Month each student was assigned an African American historical figure that has positively impacted our country.  My kinders had to study their assigned person and gather factual information about them.  They also had to include four objects that represented their person.  Let me just say....those students blew me away with their awesome presentations!  

                                                   

                                                   

                                                   




St. Patrick's Day

On St. Patrick's Day we learned a little about the legend of St. Patrick.  We also talked a little bit about leprechauns ;) and discovered that one must have come into our classroom and turned it all topsy turvy! Lets see if you can find out what's wrong with this picture.

 By the time we finished cleaning our classroom we were able to find a pile of treasure to put in our rainbow pot (made out of paper plates of course).  

Here we are getting ready to make our green slime!

  I will admit, this was my first time making slime, so I was just as amazed as we noticed the change in texture once we poured our borax in!

                                            
I think they enjoyed it! ;)

I will take a moment to reflect on this day...This year was my first time celebrating St. Patrick's Day, so I tried to make it as fun and cute as I could, especially since I invited the VPK class to join us.  However, next year it will be fun, cute, and soaked in educational experiences.  Next year, I will create clues to help students Draw Conclusions as to where their treasure may be hiding.  I will also, make sure we incorporate the study of matter with our slime activity.  My mind is still reeling on the activities for this day, but I think we can make it just as fun and educational next year.  Expect an update soon!