One World One Heart 2011: Welcome Teachers!

... and education majors!  And homeschooling parents!  And any and all other early childhood advocates!

Yes, I can be a bit exclamation-point-ish, but if you're a regular reader of Kindergarten's 3 R's, then you're used to it by now.



If you're a new visitor, directed here by Lisa's OWOH blog list or my other blog, Twigs and Tulle, I do hope you'll stay and wander a bit through my recent posts and archives!  If you're not the teacher type, but have a teacher (or future teacher!) friend or family member who'd enjoy my blog, I do hope you'll pass this link on to him/her and leave a comment for a chance to win:



A large bag of pattern block shapes!

Students love to learn about the attributes of shapes and make creative pictures and creations as they work with these wonderful geometric models.  Wonderful for a learning center or extra shape reinforcement activity, your children (or students) will love working with these manipulatives!

For a chance to win the bag, just leave a comment ~on this post only~ along with an email address or blog link so I can reach you if you're the winner.  If you're a blogger participating in OWOH, never fear, I'm on my way to visit you too!

I'll draw the winner of the pattern blocks on February 17- how exciting!

Don't forget to visit Twigs and Tulle for the giveaway post there (it's something crafty and cute!)!

Happy reading!

Bohemian Rhapsody on...

...ukulele.

Yes, ukulele.  And it's beautiful.  Take a listen:

HELP: iPad and iPhone Users...

...what MATH apps have you downloaded, use, and ARE HAPPY WITH for your school-aged child's use?  Moms?  Dads?  Teachers?

I'm looking for recommendations for ECE-2nd grade.

Thank you thank you!

(Yep, I get to test-drive an iPad for work and would like to transfer valuable search time over to trying-it-out time for highly recommended apps!)

"Anansi" is Not an "Ll" Word...

... "but Mrs. Sommerville, his LEGS start with Ll!"

Why, yes they do!

While making our Ll word list this morning, I asked the Stars to think of animals that start with Ll, and told them that we'd use construction paper at our art center to make the animal(s) they named.  While "ladybug" and "llama" and "leopard" made the list, it was one of our favorite characters, Kwaku Anansi that captured the Stars' draw-cut-glue spirit.

Spider?  Not an Ll word.

Arachnid?  Not an Ll word.

Anansi?  No, that's not an Ll word either.

And then the solution: L-e-g-s.

Works for me!

Here's what you need:



I scanned a page from our storybook and highlighted the shapes that the Stars could use to make Anansi:



Students used white crayons to draw Anansi's head onto the large black square (pencil shows up fine too):



Several Stars mentioned that Anansi has the letter T on his face, which we cut like so:





A hole punch made perfect nostrils:



... and black rectangles formed Anansi's legs:





He's got legs, and he knows how to use them!

Reminding Myself to KEEP CALM...

Thanks to my global professional learning community (*YOU*), I'm reminding myself:



Want to create your own "Keep Calm and..." poster?  Go here!

Second Semester: Are You Ready?

Many of us said "adios" to Semester One right before winter vacation, and as usual (at least on my end), the two weeks "off" flew by!

Thankfully I put away all of my Christmas and winter holiday decor on the last day of school and had pulled out the snowflakes, Martin Luther King Jr. posters so they'd be ready for the stapler today.

Living in Oz means my students are required to learn about and celebrate Kansas Day (January 29).  While we learn about our state symbols, we also observe changes in the weather, learn about MLK Jr., pick up several more sight words, work with addition and subtraction, and look for patterns in numbers to thirty.  My Super Stars paint, find and work with environmental print, get their craft on, and continue exploring their kindergarten world while hoping and wishing for snow to fall:

Are ~*your*~ fingers crossed for snow days?