Belated President's Day...

...because LATE is better than NEVER!  I have been so busy finishing up report card assessments and getting all my  crap  important documentation together to re-license, which is costing an arm and a leg now, ughh!  I just NEVER got around to posting my President's Day FREEBIES I made for all of you! WHAT?!?!  Yep, you heard me right, FREEBIES!  As you all know I have a crush on our friend Harry, I use his songs ALL THE TIME!  So of course we watched this:

Then I created cut and paste activities for the kiddos to test what they learned from the video.
(Click on the image below to get your own copy from Google Docs)

We also discussed the various pets some of our past presidents have had... then the kidlets got to choose what pet they would have if they were President.

Here I am as President Sumens with my pet zebra on the white house lawn.

Do you want your own copy?

Click below:

We also talked about the parts of the flag, made a national symbols book, and learned You're a Grand Old Flag for our end of the year program.  Whew.  It has been a busy week.  With all of that and our report card testing, Treasures Unit, and fitting in MATH (I always teach money this week, it ties in NICELY with our study of presidents and symbols).

We watched this: (I know you are SHOCKED it is a Harry K video)

After the video we solved some riddles about coins and then played Kagan style with a quiz, quiz trade all about MONEY!  The kids had a BLAST learning about money today and hopefully we have those coins down because my daughter and I cannot seem to get this song out of our heads.... haha.

Oh and by the way, did you notice that I am almost to 100 followers?!  It seems like it has been a looooong time coming!  So I really want to plan a big giveaway... if you are interested in joining in leave me a comment below or send me an e-mail: mindysumens@gmail.com

Remembering Dr. King

I hope you are enjoying Human Rights Day as much as I am.  I have to admit I slept in until 9:00 and didn't bother to shower until I put my littlest one down for her nap, at 1:00!  Yep, total relax day!  I have loved every minute of it.  Making pancakes and buttermilk syrup (yummmmm!)  Playing Hungry, Hungry, Hippos with the kids, folding laundry, watching the Miss America Pageant (because I haven't had a chance to and so why not, even though thanks to facebook I already knew who won),  and bbq-ing for lunch.  Later today we are headed to go help some friends move... yipee!  The kiddos are excited to play with friends and watch movies while the grown-ups move boxes and clean.  I am just super jealous, I dream about the day when my family of 5 is not trying to squeeze into our tiny 1300 square foot home.  Someday right?!

Tomorrow we will be talking about Dr. King in out kindergarten room and I thought I would share a few of my favorite resources with you.  I know you will be shocked to see a Harry Kinder video, because I NEVER use them, haha.  I think I am Mr. Harry's biggest fan! 

 

We will also be reading this book:

I love this book.  I have been reading it to my classes every year since 2005. 

In kinder I like to keep the conversation brief, however when I was a first grade teacher we began a discussion on human kindness after MLK jr Day and continued it through Valentines day.  We enjoyed a month of seeking out opportunities to be kind.  Every act of kindness had to be reported by another student or teacher (you could not report your own kind acts) and each act of kindness was written on a heart.  We (as a first grade) plastered our hallways with hearts and by Valentines hoped to have more than 500 hearts.  Each year  our random acts of kindness project grew and by my third year teaching first grade we had the entire school participating and had more than 3,000 hearts adorning our school hallways.  We had parent volunteers helping us di-cut hearts, hearts, and more hearts.  

Sadly we have not continued this tradition the past few years.  Our first grade team has all dispersed into different grade levels and different schools.  We were no longer there to head it up.  

The years that we did participate however always reminded me of how a focus on being kind seemed to create a more caring and loving class.  

So tomorrow I will focus less on the injustice, the violence, and the tragic end of Dr. King and more on his message of love and kindness.  

Enjoy the rest of your long weekend.  Back to the classroom tomorrow!