My First Five for Friday Linky!

I love reading other people's Five For Friday posts. A lot of times they involved something funny happening and I love funny classroom stories! So today, I am finally linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five For Friday Linky Party!

 

We have been learning about apples all week. We made torn paper apples and I am in love with them! I love how different they all look. They also had to cut the sentence apart, put it back together and read it to me while pointing to each word. Great concept of word activity!

 

We also talked a lot about Johnny Appleseed this week. During inside recess (because it has been raining here 2 days straight!) one of my students decided to draw a picture of Johhny Appleseed on the chalkboard! Don't you just love when students really get into what you are teaching??? I love that feeling!

Another thing about that rain...I think it's messing with my kids'ears! They stopped working completely today! Don't ya just love saying the same thing 2, 3, 4, 5 times?! Yeah...me too...

I found this poem and thought it was hilarous! Pretty much describes how I felt today...

 

 But it's at that exact moment when I think I'm going crazy when one of my students comes up to me and gives me a big hug and says "I love you Mrs. Cogdell!" And then they all start giving me hugs and telling me they love me and even though they are still not really doing what they are supposed to do, it's so darn sweet I can't help but hug them all back. It doesn't get better than that :)

My last thing doesn't have anything to do with teaching...My mom came in town to visit me from Tennessee! I am so excited to spend the weekend with my family!

 



Beginning of the Year Activities

We have been back in school for a month now and I have been so busy getting back into the swing of things. Between getting my classroom ready, completing beginning of the year paperwork, working on lesson plans, preparing materials, TEACHING, and trying to have some kind of life outside of school, I have completely neglected my blog...But it's okay! I am back into a routine and I have things under control again. I am so happy to be back!

I am very excited to share what we have been so busy working on in my Kindergarten classroom! I have chosen a few of my favorite beginning of the year activities to share. The first one is an activity we completed after reading "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". They had to write their name then color and decorate the first letter of their name. It made such a cute display!

 

We also made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees! They had to cut and glue the tree together. Then I had their names written on sentence strips and they had to cut the letters apart and glue their name back together correctly on the tree. I love this for the beginning of the year...what a great way to teach that you put letters together to make a word!

 

During the 2nd and 3rd weeks of school our theme is All About Me and Family. Each student made a family tree, drew a picture of their family, and wrote how many people are in their family.

 

We have also been making a lot of graphs in our class. We made graphs for the letters in our name, the month our birthday is in, and how many people are in our family! My kiddos are getting good at reading graphs!

 

As much as I love the beginning of the year and all the fun activities, I am glad that the first month is over. It's so exciting to see how much progress they have already made in such a short time! They already know the procedures and routines, they are all friends with each other, I have formed a connection with each child, and most importantly they are learning! I feel so blessed to be their teacher and to be able to learn with them and love them all year!

 

Picture Book Linky: Picture Books for the First Week of School

 I was so excited to find this Linky Party hosted by Deanne at First Grade and Fabulous! As I mentioned in my previous post, picture books are one of my favorite things ever! I am constantly on the look-out for more great read alouds. I especially love books to read at the beginning of the year. They are a great way to explain rules and get them comfortable and excited about school. Here are my favorite read alouds for the beginning of the year:

This is a wonderful book about how children "bloom" at different times. I read this at Back to School Night to all my parents. I think it's a wonderful way to start the year!

 

 



This is always the first book I read to my new little Kinders. It is wonderful because they can really relate to it! They love telling me what they did the night before Kindergarten!

This is another classic that I have to read at the beginning of every year! My kids get really into the whole series of Miss Bindergarten!

 

 

This is one of my all time favorite books to read at the beginning of the year. I have several activities

to go along with this book as well.

In my class, I do Star of the Week. The first week of school, I am the Star. I  read both of these books to help them get to know me as well as to show them how the Star Student week works. I read Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon because I LOVE the message of this book. I am a very small person, but that never stopped me from doing what I want to do and being proud of it :) I also read It's Duffy Time because I have a pug (my baby!)

 

 What are your favorite back to school picture books?