On a day such as this...

It is difficult to believe such evil exists in this world.  Such horror.  Words are inadequate on a day such as this.  All I can say is that I am holding my own children a little tighter.  I am loving my kindergartners a little more and I am praying for the victims and their families.  Praying for peace and healing.  

Chromebooks for our Classroom

I have an incredible opportunity to get some Chromebooks for my kids at an unheard of price!  I was approved for a project to get 6 Chrome Books for only $99 per computer through Donor's Choose.  To make this opportunity even more incredible for the next 7 days Donor's Choose will match dollar for dollar any donations given to my project!!!  Please tell your family and friends, anyone who may be willing to help us fund this project!  Help me spread the word.  There are only a limited number of Chromebooks available for this price so we need to act quickly or they will be gone.  Every little bit helps.  Donations-no matter the size, will help these kids.  Oh and did I mention that all donations are tax deductible.

To learn more or donate:

1.     Visit my Teacher Page, http://www.donorschoose.org/mrs.sumens
2.     Choose the project Chrome Books for Kinder Kids, enter the amount of your donation, and click "Give"
3.     During check-out, enter the word INSPIRE where it says "Match or gift code", and your donation will be matched dollar for dollar.


EDITED TO ADD:  Our project is fully funded!!!  I cannot believe we got it funded in less than a WEEK!  Thank you to all of our amazing donor's.  My kiddos and I are so excited for our chromebooks.

Want to learn more about Chrome Books?  Check out the video below.

When life gets in the way...

So I kinda disappeared... I didn't do it intentionally.  It's just that since Thanksgiving I have felt a bit like this.

Overwhelmed.  Stressed.  Trying to Catch up.  You see the week after Thanksgiving was report cards and parent teacher conferences... yep.  I had 41 kindergarten parents and report cards and eeek.  Am I the only one that completely stresses over parent teacher conferences?  I stress.  It drives the hubsters crazy.  I have been teaching for 9 years now and it still stresses me out.  At least I am old enough now that I could actually be a parent to their child (somehow that makes me feel more qualified to give them advice and help) and now that I have a kindergartner of my own I have more of an understanding of what they are going through when I send home INSANE amounts of homework (yeah... I really cut back on homework this year when I actually had to try and help my child get it completed each night... uh, reality check).  Being a parent to a now six year old also has helped me realize that yes, kids do do THAT?!  (Every single thing I have had a kiddo do and thought "what kid does that" my own dear children have now done, well except for the peeing on the cinder block fence, during recess, and telling me that 'it is not pee... it is just a really big SPIT' -- that is one that my own dear ones have not attempted... yet.)  Long story short I was super busy filling out report cards (cuz that is EXACTLY how I wanted to spend my Black Friday) and meeting with moms and dads and grandmas.  Then it was December... DE.CEM.BER!!!  What!?  My kinder kids went straight to Crazy Christmas Mode!  I have to say having Conference Week (where my kinder kids do not come on Monday and Tuesday and have early release Wednesday-Friday) immediately following Thanksgiving break was poor planning... too many days without school or with short schedule.  I usually get two good weeks of instruction after Thanksgiving before the Christmas bug bites... not so much this year.  They came back on December 3rd Christmas Crazy!  I feel like I am putting out fires and constantly managing their behavior... whew.  So I haven't blogged.  I haven't even read your blogs... I know!  It as if for the past three weeks the blogging world ceased to exist... time warp back to 2003!

 But between the whole parent teacher conference early release schedule and the 3 dance performances my daughter has already had this Christmas season, my husband singing with orchestra at their annual Christmas concert, the 4 Christmas parties we have already attended, and well daily life with 3 small kids it was also finals week for the hubsters.  So I had to fill in, give him time to study, write his essays and article reviews, finish his last presentation, update his online portfolio. Can I just say how incredibly GRATEFUL I am to have this semester behind us!  We (well HE but really WE because it has taken its toll on both of us) only have student teaching left and my cute hubby will be ready to TEACH!  He is a secondary music education major and after attending 3 universities, over 10 years (although there are quite a few large breaks in that time frame), with 3 different majors, serving an LDS mission, getting married (to me), 3 beautiful kids, a small fortune in student loans, and almost 200 credit hours he (we) will be graduating in the spring!  During that week of post Thanksgiving-parent teacher stress-report card finishing my cute hubby also happened to have his BIG Senior Recital.  He was amazing, he is amazing!  He passed (of course).  Our friends were there, some family (they all live far away so it was hard to make it) and of course all his professors and fellow classmates attended. He sang and sang and sang in English, German, French, Italian.  (Over the past 10 years he has really helped me gain an appreciation for opera and the symphony.)  He worked so hard and now not only is the recital behind us but  Hubsters last final is done.  DONE. When  I got home from an IEP tonight at 5:30 we wanted to celebrate.  We couldn't.  Instead we made pancakes with the kids.  Put them in the tub.  Did homework with our six year old.  Tead bedtime stories.  Put the kids to bed.  Looked at each other and decided that we could celebrate with John Stewart.  We watched The Daily Show and ate ice cream.  Then for the first time since November 21st I opened my Blogger Dashboard... friends you have been busy.  I could hardly believe all of the cute-ness that I was seeing.  You are amazing.  I missed you.  I missed your inspiring ideas.  I missed reading about your adventures.  I missed it all.  So hopefully I am back... and ready to blog again (I have a lot of catching up to do)!  Life is calmer and that is a good thing because my Scholastic order just arrived and I have 41 Christmas books to wrap up for my kinder kiddos (because I give them a book every year for a Christmas present) and Polar Express day to plan, I am using Sign Up Genius (If you haven't used this incredible site yet, DO IT!  It has saved my busy stressed out self so many times this year!).  I haven't even started Christmas shopping (remember I spent Black Friday doing report cards) and if I don't start soon Santa may not make it this year!  I still have time to order from Amazon, right?!?  Okay I may still be a bit sparse in my posting until after the holidays but I promise to be a better blogger in the new year!  Thanks for all your support... sorry for the ranting.  Merry Christmas!

Oh and P.S.  I got an e-mail from Donor's Choose yesterday.... Chrome Books for $99!  Yep you read that right!  But you have to get your project submitted BEFORE December 21st!  So go to Donor's Choose RIGHT NOW and create a project!  You cannot beat that price.  I am HOPING to get funded for 6 of them.  Can you even imagine enough Chrome Books for an entire center!  EEEK!

We Feasted...

Every year my kindergarten class has a feast.  We make pie, turkey roll ups, celery and toppings, fruit salad, and top it off with a delicious holiday drink.  We dress as pilgrims, make our own native american place mats, and visit with our friends.  It is always fun.

This year was no exception although anyone else out there who teaches two sessions of K???  Do you notice that each class is so profoundly different?  My AM class was so calm and mild mannered, delicately eating their food.  My PM class was all boisterous and spilling cranberry juice right and left...haha.  I promise I teach them in the same way, discipline them similarly  we have the same management system?  It always amazes me how different they can be.  Each class takes on its own personality.

Anyway, I am feeling pretty grateful this year... not only do I have a job I love and am passionate about, I get to hang out with those adorable faces.  I am also married to my very best friend and we have 3 incredible kiddos.  Life is sweet.  I hope you are able to find gratitude tomorrow as we pause for a day of thanks.  The hubsters and I are finally all settled in at my parents home (it was a long drive with too many potty stops for my 4 year old) and the kids are actually asleep (it is super hard to go to sleep when your cousins are there to play with) my desert is made and in the fridge and my dad is downstairs prepping the turkey for tomorrow.  whew.  The real question is do we even look at the sale ads?  I have to admit that now that Black Friday is Black Thursday I am WAY less into it... I am not about anything cramping on my Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day!

Last Week....

Last week was all about fire safety.  We were super busy, what with a field trip and all.  I know I am not the only kinder teacher out there who is beyond tired after taking those kidlets on a field trip, whew!  I meant to hop on here over the weekend and show a glimpse of our centers this week but I had too much catching up to do.  My kiddos and my house were in desperate need of a mother... and a housekeeper.  So better late than never here is a glimpse at last week's centers...

We also discussed what to do in an emergency, and thanks to Mr. Harry we were able to discuss what constitutes an emergency.  If you haven't figured it out by now I am a HUGE fan of Harry Kindergarten!  

This week is all about Thanksgiving... pictures coming tomorrow!

Field Trip

I am beyond tired... 41 kinder kiddos on a field trip... today.  Whew.  In total there were over 120 kiddos on our field trip the 41 were just the ones that belong to me... they had a GREAT time.  Our firemen are pretty amazing and they put together one incredible field trip.  Check it out:

 Getting off the bus.  Our class went to the firehouse park first while the other group checked out the fire station, yep that's me in the plaid... pictures of me are a rare find, enjoy.  

This is my favorite kindergartener in the entire world, because she belongs to me... that's my daughter!

We all had so much fun at the park look how happy these monkeys are! 

 After a quick snack it was our turn to head across the street to check out the fire station.

 Each of the kidlets got to spray the hose... it was their favorite part.

 Here I am with about a quarter of my class... I am the luckiest teacher ever... they are so precious.

 Then we got to check out the fire trucks.

Then we went inside the fire station and the firemen taught about fire safety and all of their cool gear.

Here is my whole group (most of them anyway).  In front of the truck. Ready to head back to school. 

Such a fun day, the kids learned a ton and had a blast.  However I am glad that I do not always have 40+ kiddos in my tiny classroom... whew.

Tomorrow's FRIDAY!  Woo Hoo!

Going on down to the fire station...

We are going on our first field trip of the year on Thursday, to the fire station. The kiddos love it. Our firefighters are amazing and do such a great job! To accompany this field trip we are using Kinder Gals unit (which is AWESOME, FYI) Click on the image below to head to the blog post about this unit and link to Kinder Gals TpT store.

Here is a sneak peek of what I was putting in my pocket chart on Friday...

I am so excited to share more with you about his incredible unit.  I will post about all of our week's activities on Friday.  As well as a GREAT FREEBIE.  See you then.

Happy Teaching

Assessment Time....

Report cards and SEP's are just around the corner, eek!  Report card testing is NOT my favorite part of teaching.  I hate filling out report cards and testing, testing, testing.  Despite my lack of excitement I will be spending time the next two weeks making sure my kidlets are where they need to be. To make this task a little more bearable I made a quick and easy assessment sheet to keep myself organized and make all that record keeping a bit easier. Here is a copy of the assessment form that I made for our team to use.  Feel free to snag a copy for yourself.  Just click on the image below.

Happy Testing.

More Fall Fun

Whew!  It is the weekend and I am actually busy attending classes and presenting at this:

I asked a while ago for tips and advice and got so many e-mails from all of you amazing teacher friends... THANK YOU!  Lucky for me my super amazing hubby is hanging out with me at the conference all weekend (he is my +1) and my Mom came to town to watch the munchkins... she will be ready to head home on Sunday I am sure.  Hubsters and I thought maybe we need to get her a gift basket with tylenol, calgon, and maybe even a splint...  haha!  Our kids can be a handful.

In school last week we are still enjoying the fun of Fall in our kindergarten classroom.  Here are a few pictures...

We used shaving cream, tempra paint, and liquid watercolor to make these amazing fall leaves at the art center this week.  Then we cut them out and wrote our favorite things about fall before we created our own fall tree (here in the hot desert we are still surrounded by green leaves, so we have to create our own to enjoy the colors of the season!)

 We make this cute book every year.  Our sight word this week was 'see' this cute book is filled with fun Halloween pictures (which we just made big and then ran on colored construction paper) and then my kiddos cut up sentences (which I just copied and cut into strips) to create the text.  We are able to review color words, as well as the sight words: I, see, a, an  

The kiddos love it and were so excited to take them home on Thursday.

Happy Fall!  Next week I am gearing up for that joyous event known as Halloween, whew!  I need to get myself a gift basket of tylenol, calgon, and maybe even a splint... BUT I am dressing up this year and I cannot wait to reveal my costume, it is perfectly me!

These are the 3D Shapes...

We have been studying our 3D shapes this week... and the kiddos have done A.MA.Zing.  Amazing I tell ya at learning the names of these shapes!  I love my little kinder kiddos!

We read this AWESOME book (which actually has no words so read is maybe the wrong verbage... )  I LOVE this book!  It helps my kiddos realize that 3D shapes are all around us!

We watched this cute video, a few times, to help us learn the vocab.

We also did some sorting...  Print off your own sorting mat by clicking HERE.

And learned these rhymes:

http://www.teachertipster.com/3dposters.pdf

We experimented which shapes can stack, roll, or slide and reported our results on a class graph.

Now I get to enjoy 2 days off for FALL BREAK!  I am super excited!  Tomorrow laundry but Friday... we will be off playing hard!  Jealous?!?

H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N {freebie}

I am a huge fan of our friend Mr. Harry!  I don't know how I ever taught without his fun songs to enrich my curriculum.  This is a fun little Halloween tune that would be super fun to sing with your kiddos. 

We had a few extra minutes with my PM class today and I whipped this out to sing while we waited to line up for the bus, they loved it!

I am feeling all Halloween-ish since we had our first two Halloween parties of the season last weekend (an amazing faculty party, and an outrageous house party which I left with all sorts of goodies, coupons, and freebies!  It was my first house party and I am HOOKED) I love all the fun of Halloween (not the spooky part though, that blood, gore, and scare is not for me... I am NOT a haunted house kind of girl) pumpkin patches, hayrides, corn mazes, and kiddos in cute costumes sign me up!

But let's be honest my kiddos really make the season exciting!  They are planning out their costumes, bringing home cute projects from school, and giggling about smelling feet and getting treats!  I love being a mom!  The kidlets and I finally put up a few decorations last weekend as well.  It feels nice to come home and see signs of Halloween in the house... lots more to do though, we are far from finished.  My favorite way to decorate for any holiday is to stick my kiddos crafts and artwork in frames... I am sentimental.  I know.  I keep their holiday artwork for ages... and get all weepy when I pull it out!  Even weepier when it is too old and faded to keep up anymore!  haha.

So my dearies, in honor of the season... I hope you are stirring up some Halloween fun wherever you may be... here is your freebie!  I am all about the think, draw, write for my little kinder kidlets these days so here is a little diddy I whipped up just tonight for my team to use with our kinder kidlets, thought I would share!  Just click on the image to head on over to my google docs and snag your own copy!

Happy Halloween!