The Rest of Catholic Schools Week

Oh my goodness was Catholic Schools Week exhausting! Last night I came home, collapsed on the couch and took a hard earned nap. We had so much fun last week with all of our activities but I am definitely looking forward to a normal week! Earlier this week I posted a little bit about what we did on Monday. The rest of our week went a little something like this:

Tuesday: Teacher luncheon and Vocabulary Parade

Wednesday: Movie in the afternoon

Thursday: "How Well Do You Know Your Teacher?" Game Show and Invention Fair

Friday: All School Mass, Science Show, and 5th graders vs teachers kickball game

All throughout the week we had Penny Wars and Candy Grams (buy a candy bar to send to a friend and write them a message).

Our vocabulary parade was so much fun! The students all had to dress up in a costume or outfit that represented a vocabulary word. Here is a pic of a couple of the kids dressed as "technology" and "orbit".

We had so much fun but this teacher was absolutely exhausted by the time it was all over. 

I wanted to share with all of you the bulletin board we ended up going with for CSW. We tried to stick with the theme of "Raising the Standards":

 

Each student had to write one goal on a circular piece of lined paper and illustrate themselves achieving their goal. We put it into a cross formation to keep with the CSW theme. Next to our board, we had the words "Kindergarten is raising the standards". I love this crinkle border I saw on Peace, Love, and First Grade. Laura is so creative, you should check out her blog if you get a chance!

Have a great Saturday!!

First Few Days of School

We are officially on our 5th day of school and things are starting to settle in nicely. We have been able to start on some "real lessons" this week and I am excited to share one of them with you (I say "real lessons" because while there is more meat to them than last week, it is still only the 5th day of kindergarten!). We have finished our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom name trees. These were super easy for the kids to do, the most challenging part being the accordion folding. Luckily my kiddos are all very hard workers who are independent and want to do the work themselves. For this lesson the students had to write their names on the first line, and then count the letters in their name and write the numeral on the second line. This ties together both our Chicka Chicka study and our study of our names. I guess it technically counts as handwriting practice and math since we practiced recognizing and forming our numerals too. So this one little lesson accomplished a lot!! Here are a few of our finished trees:

You can definitely notice the beginning of the year kindergarten handwriting!! I cannot take credit for this idea because, like so many other things I do, it came from Pinterest. Speaking of Pinterest, I have one more picture below from my grade partner. Ya'll she created the most adorable tree for her bulletin board that she saw on Pinterest and I just can't let it go without being seen! 

This idea is especially genius because we will be studying apples soon, and then as we head into fall she can switch out the green leaves for fall colored ones. It is hard to see from the picture but she used scrapbook paper to die cut her letters on, which is something we both LOVE to do. It just adds that little extra touch to make it a teensy bit cuter! 

I hope you're all having a great week!!

Hallway Bulletin Board and Linky Party

This week we started back with our BTS meetings and oh my goodness am I excited or what?!?! Getting my class list was like opening a present on Christmas morning. This year I only have 14 little sweeties to start (I've been told to expect a few more that are having issues with getting their paperwork in though). I was excited to see some of the unique names! Every year at the beginning of the year, we start off with the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and so I figured I would start off my hallway bulletin board with a Chicka Chicka theme! Here it is:

I hope you're all enjoying the back to school madness as well. On Monday we have our Meet the Teacher Night and I will upload all of the paperwork I give to them in case ya'll want them too. 

Now onto the 5 Things I Miss About Summer Linky Party. This Linky Party is from the Joy of Kindergarten and even though I am excited for school to start back up, I will certainly be missing quite a few things about summer!! 

1. Having the time to go to my morning yoga classes!! I will certainly miss starting the day being healthy by going to yoga with one of my best friends. I would need to start going to class at 5:00 am in order to be back in time to get ready for school and that it just a wee bit too early for me. 

2. Oh my goodness I don't even want to think about what I'm going to do when my little sister goes back to college. The end of my summer means that the end of her summer is just around the corner. This is a picture from a painting class we took together this summer.

3. I have already said this one a few times but I will definitely miss my sweet little pup Tucker!! I signed him up to go to a Doggy Daycare so he will at least be having fun a few days a week while I am at work and not all alone in my apartment- thank goodness!

4. Having the time to read for fun rather than for school or for grad school. I am already looking forward to Thanksgiving break just so I have the time to leisurely read a book (oh, and the fact that we will be going to visit my little sister at college in HAWAII!! Ahh!!)

5. And last but definitely not least, I will miss just RELAXING. This is definitely something I take for granted a little bit about mid way through the summer and I miss big time once the school year starts back up. 

Alright, now it's your turn! Head on over to Joy of Kindergarten to link up!!!

Classroom Pics

Well I can't believe it but I am finally almost done getting my classroom put together!! There is still a little left to do, mostly just sorting through a bunch of stickers that were donated to me and organizing them. Anyway, here are the pictures!! 

Ok, you caught me! This first one is not actually of my classroom, it is a 4th grade classroom I saw while attending a workshop. I just love this bulletin board because I have had the song "Call Me Maybe" stuck in my head all summer and this board made me smile :)

This is a view of our carpet area where I hung up the pom poms I bought at Party City. I think I am overdue to update that super old chair. It looks like it has been there since our school opened in the 60s.

This is just a side view of my classroom. It is very unorganized right now but this is where we keep most of our games for centers and some math manipulatives in the red and brown bookshelves.

I am so proud of this! This is something I saw on Pinterest and actually made it! I am the worst about pinning things I think are adorable and then never going back to them. But this time I actually made it!! It is made of two of my file cabinets that I put back to back and then covered with paper and border, then put magnets on it. Later in the year, this can be one of our centers where they spell their sight words using the magnets.

This is our specials classes and special events schedule board. At my school, which is Catholic, we go to mass every other week. My kids are always asking "are we going to mass this week?" We also have some specials that are every other week and they ask about those. Hopefully by keeping this board updated it will keep them informed on what to expect that week. The days of the week are from Mrs. Lemons blog and the specials tags I found on TPT from Little Miss Glamour. Sorry for the blurry picture!

Last but not least, here is the view of my room from the door. Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures!!