With only three days left in April, it seems like a perfect time to share some favorite teacher moments from the month! Is there an activity your kiddos absolutely loved? Did your students knock your socks off with their test scores? Do you have a teacher-to-teacher giggle to share? Or maybe you have a learning moment or two you’d like to tell us about?
For me, April has been all about learning. I was reminded about the importance of play—that it’s good for a person no matter his or her age. And, as you all know, I also learned that I need to make sure I’m wearing my clothes correctly! (If you missed this story, see the post “Still Chuckling.”)
All ears!
Diane
PS: Remember, if you comment on this post (and any others from April), your name will be entered in a drawing for one of our new books. You get one entry per post you comment on, and we’ll draw two winners! Deadline is April 30. The contest is over now—congratulations to Darlene and Pammie, winners of our April drawing!
Several of my kindergarteners wrote and published their own stories that were 3-5 pages long. I am so proud of their hard work and the way the stuck to working on writing the same story over several days! I love watching Kindergarteners when they realize they can actually read and write! It makes all the struggles worth it!
Well, I have a new student who began with my special ed preschool class about 3 weeks ago. She has a vocabulary of about 12 words. Her mom told me that the students said hi to her grandmother for the first time. Hearing this brought tears to my eyes!
We’ve been taking advantage of the sunny weather and going outside and really enjoying nature. We have several red-tail hawks that hang around in the trees near our playground, and the kindergarteners have really taken an interest in them. As a matter of fact we will be going on a field trip to a nature center and learning more about the red-tail hawk.
The other day when we were outside, one of the hawks flew pretty low above our heads and landed in a high branch of a tree. We were all standing around watching it preen and talking about it, when all of a sudden it lifted its tail and a long stream of you-know-what came out and shot down and landed right on the shirt, head, and sweater of one of my boys! It was quite a sight! After we cleaned him up I emailed his mom about it and she thought it was quite funny. I wish I had my camera handy. What a memory that would be!
We started our vegetable garden! The children dug the holes, planted potatoes, covered and watered them. They also enjoyed having their pictures taken while they were working.
I love teaching my preschool class about caterpillars. It is so much fun to give them party blowers and have them pretend it is the butterfly tongues. They loved being wrapped in toilet paper chrylis and emerging just like a real butterfly.
I HAVE A 2 YEAR OLD BOY, LAST WEEK TO OUR SURPRISE WAS FOUND CLIMBING THE LADDER WHICH WAS LEFT LEANING TO THE HOUSE ROOF, THINKING A YOUNG KID OF HIS AGE CANT DARE CLIMB. SURELY WAS FOUND HALF THE TOP OF THE ROOF. DEVELOPMENT! A SURPRISE ALWAYS.
We have an exercise period every morning at our school before taking the kids into class caleed Pico Fit. This month we have been teaching our 2nd graders how to square dance. They are having a blast and are actually getting very good!!! They are just so darn cute to watch!!!
This spring our preschool class has been busy making a flower garden display across one wall. Each child has made 4 to 6 different flowers using different paper craft techniques. Next week the preschoolers get to gather their bouquet and present them to their moms for Mother’s Day. Spring sure is the busiest time of the year, but the most rewarding.
We just finished our Growing Things unit. We planted grass in cups, and the students drew faces on the cups. When the grass grew, it looked like hair. The kids got to give their cups a hair cut. It was hilarious. Some cups wound up bald – others were partially bald with bad comb overs. Lots of fun & laughs!
We are lucky to be located about a mile from a public park in our city. Have taken advantage of the wonderful weather by walking there for lunch and recess. The kids have really enjoyed the change!
We have thankfully entered spring and my class has “Srping Fever.” A couple of years ago, an Eagle Scout used our school property for his final project making a path through the woods for us to enjoy. The class begs EVERYDAY to be able to explore, pick flowers, and do run through the woods. It has been so nice to see God’s creation renewed again and to share it with my students.
We were working with tens and ones. So I brought in my pencil collection and had students guess how many were in the box. We then wrote our guesses down and began to count them by using tens and ones. When we had a set of 10, we would bundle them up with a rubber band. The students were counting and having a great time to see who would be the closest. Total of pencils: 710 Parents are still talking about the pencil math lesson. Guess my students really had a good time with that activity. By the way the pencils were not plain. They had names of places, companies and some were different shapes or had holiday scenes on them. So we worked on reading and math skills at the same time.
April faves: I think the kids know school is close to being over, they are off the wall…i just have this feeling they sense things coming to an end and get ansey. But my favorite thing this month was our Bif Art show for our scholarhsip program…classes make a special art projects and parents comet o here them sing that night and get to bid on the art project…we also get to see special works that were saved for this night and just socialize with the other families in the school. THe kids are so excited to show mom and dad the art they created. THey are so proud of their hard work and want to share that with parents. AND all proceeds go to scholarship to help families in financial need.
This year my first grade class were given the opportunity to see how butterflies develop. Although I had thought about doing this for several years, I had never done it before. My aide has done this with her daughter and ordered this kit and a ladybug kit as well. She ordered from insectlore online which also has other kinds of kits both plant and animal available. Each morning the children excitedly enter the room to see the developments made. At this time most of the caterpillars have formed a crysalis. The ladybug development has been very interesting to watch also. Their larval stage was something I had never seen before. What a wonderful spring project and a beautiful way to appreciate God’s creation. I recently ordered kits for my grandchildren as well.