End of the year whirl wind!

I know I have been neglecting my little blog lately but as every teacher knows, the end of the school year is madness! Although many people are wrapping up their school year this week, our last day with kids was on Thursday. Up until then, I have been busy practicing songs and poems with the kids for our "awards day", creating awards for students, putting together a slideshow of our year, planning our end of year "Luau party", making kid's end of year gifts, trying to squeeze in as much teaching as possible, CLEANING UP, and getting ready for summer school which starts tomorrow! (Phew!) I wish I had pictures to show what all of that hard work looked like, but all I think I took was a quick pic of the students' end of year gifts! 

Since our teacher work day on Friday however, I am happy to report that I have gotten to spend time with my family, my friends, and spent maybe a little too much time trying to catch up on "The Walking Dead" on Netflix! I just can't stop watching it, it's so good! 

I hope everyone who is still hard at work is able to enjoy their last few days with students. Just remember....

Wrapping up the last few weeks!

These last few weeks have been CrAzY busy! Although, as a teacher I feel like I am always saying that! There is always something am I right? Well since I haven't done an update in a while, here are just a few things that we have been up to lately....

Even though my students are only 4 and 5 years old, we start talking about college early on. When talking about our community at the beginning of the year, I point out local colleges in our area. During our community helpers unit, we talk about how many of the careers the students aspire to have require a college degree. During the month of April we ramp it up a notch and talk about college the whole month through. 

For our family project in April (we do one each month), students created a college pennant with their parents. Here they are displayed on our "college bound" wall.

Throughout the month we have also been working on these little books that are all about student's plans for college. They wrote about where they wanted to go for college, what they wanted to learn, and what career they hoped to have after they graduated. I also included a sweet little picture on the last page of each book with that student in a cap and gown. Here is a sample of some of the pages:

The parents LOVED these! I had several tell me they were going to hold on to them until their babies graduated high school and got to college!

We also wrapped up our unit on animals and insects last week. We learned the body parts of insects singing and dancing away to this cute little song I got from a training a couple of years ago. Then we played "insect Simon says." I would say, "Simon says, point to your antennas!" and they would make antennas on their head." Or, "Simon says, point to your thorax!" and they would all point. It was a quick, fun way to check who got it and who needed a little extra practice.

  I saw this cute little foldable in one of my genius coworkers classrooms and knew my kids had to make it! Student's drew a loooooong insect inside the foldable so that when you open each flap, it shows that part of the insect. I just took pictures of several different heads to show you guys though because I love all of the different insect facial expressions! :)

 Along with insect body parts, we have also been learning about different life cycles. Being the AMAZING Ants that we are, I knew I could not end the unit without making this cute little ant Life Cycle plates using beans (white and black) and pasta (shell and macaroni - sorry I know it is not the best picture!). 

Last Thursday I was also able to enjoy my Teacher of the Year banquet. I felt really grateful and honored to be voted teacher of the year at my school this year and loved attending the banquet with my amazing Husband and parents. 

 We have also had Lemonade Day, 1 on 1 end of year testing, and had a Muffins with Mom celebration - oh my! Like I said, it has been a whirl wind past few weeks! 14 days left! We can do this!! 

Wild about field trips

Yesterday we went on our field trip to the zoo and it was definitely wild! Most of my babies had never been on a bus, so before we even left the school parking lot I must have heard, "Mrs. Alexander, THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!" at least 10 times! As you can imagine, their excitement and enthusiasm only grew from there!

Once at the zoo (along with several bathroom breaks and the all important lunch) we got to see all kinds of cool animals....

The kids got to check out the Komodo Dragon,

the cougars, 

 the leopard, 

And many, many more! 

It was such a great experience for the students since many of them had never been to the zoo before. I was happy that they got the chance to see so many different animals and even happier that my parent volunteers and I were able to keep track of 21 VERY excited 4 and 5 year olds the entire time.

When we got back to school, we took a much needed nap and then did a quick writing activity reflect on our favorite part of the day. 

Happy Earth Day!

We started our one on one end of the year testing this week so needless to say, it's been a little crazy! But that did not stop us from having some Earth Day fun yesterday! 

I decided not to get too deep into the "3 R's" because we do a whole unit on protecting our planet during the month of May. So, to give a basic introduction to some Earth Day concepts,  we read this cute, informative and did I mention FREE Earth Day reader from Sweet Sounds of Kindergarten

Then we did a sort of things we can do that help the Earth and things that hurt the Earth.

We also did this adorable Earth Day writing activity that I have seen all over Pinterist.  I'm not sure where it came from originally but thanks to which ever creative mind came up with this; I just love how they turned out!

"I promise to plant trees, recycle my clothes, I promise to help the Earth by donating clothes, and picking up trash." I have to say, I am pretty proud of my little pre-k friends phonetic spelling! They have come such a long way from learning letter names in September!

Finally we used some of the recyclable materials my kiddos brought in to make these "binoculars." We are going to use them on our field trip to the zoo tomorrow. I cannot wait to watch them looking at all of the animals through these! 

I cannot wait to continue reusing and recycling more materials throughout the month of May! I  hope everyone had a happy Earth Day!

Oh Hoppy Days

Last Friday was our first make up day after missing 2 "bad weather days" earlier this year. In Texas, "bad weather days" are usually days where it's cold enough for it to freeze or snow - but it probably won't. :) Because it was Good Friday and originally a day we were supposed to have off, I tried to make the day as fun and festive for the kids as possible.

First we made these adorable chick hats to wear during our "animal egg hunt." I have to admit, I am a little obsessed with these! They each had their own little personalities just like the kiddos wearing them!  I think I will be making many more paper plate hats like these. 

The kids were WAY into being chickens and even threw a little "balk balk" in between verses of several of our calendar songs! Inspired by their love of all things chicken, I taught them the Chicken Dance during music and movement. I could not believe how many kids had never done it before!

Here are some of my little chicks having a blast hunting for eggs. 

When we got back inside from the hunt, we did an "egg-periment" inspired by these Magic Rocks. I wish I had taken pictures of the before eggs, because the after doesn't really look like anything but bubbles! I made the eggs the night before by forming a clay mixture using about a cup of baking soda, a tablespoon of water, and some food coloring for each egg. I just squished the baking soda mixture oh so carefully together to form an egg shape and let it dry overnight. *Now that I have made them once, I will say that letting them dry in an egg carton is a BAD idea. The bottom parts did not dry at ALL. Next time I will let them dry overnight on a paper towel.* I also want to find little plastic chicks or something to sneak in the center next time I do it. How cute would that be?!

While the kids were in ancillary, I hid plastic eggs containing a letter of the alphabet in each egg.

When the kids came back, it was egg hunt round two! After the students found all of the eggs, they had to work together to put the letters that they found in ABC order. 

We also explored sounds using a few left over plastic eggs. 

I filled each egg with different objects from around the room and then hot-glued the same objects on the other side of the carton. Students had to shake the eggs and try to match it to the correct object by the sound it made. 

That afternoon, my sweet Mom came by to help me make an Easter treat for my little chickadees. The kids loved these goldfish carrots! You can download the "Some Bunny thinks you're GREAT!" tag that I made for free here. It comes in several different colors. By the way, sorry the picture is so dark - I was trying to sneak it in during nap time :) 

I think we had an "egg-cellent" day if I do say so myself :) 

Buggy about Spring!

Here in the Amazing Ants classroom, we have gone absolutely buggy - in more ways than one! Over the past few weeks, students have begun to notice lots of little critters popping up outside. We have seen June bugs (lots and LOTS of June bugs), rolly pollies, butterflies, and of course ants! Seeing all of these not so creepy crawlers roaming around outside has really peeked my students interest, so while talking about life cycles this month, I have put an special focus on investigating "bugs."

Here are some of the bug themed workstations my students are using this month:

Matching objects to the letter line by begining sound: 

Finding the 2 words that make up the compound word on the firefly:

Matching the spider web to the correct spider by counting syllables:

Spelling out the CVC words on the caterpillars:

and matching the 2 sides of the butterfly using alliteration to name a few :) 

And now for my favorite bug themed portion of the classroom: Dramatic Play! For the month of April I have turned dramatic play into an Entomologist Laboratory. The kids LOVE it! Here is a little tour of our lab:

 

I don't think the kids really get the "Don't Bug Me" sign, but it makes me smile every time I see it :)

On this side of the lab, students can read the "Color Bugs" book, try and guess where these patterns in nature are found, and take a closer look at some real bugs as well as a chrysalis from one of our old classroom butterflies that we released a couple of weeks ago.

  I filled the area with real pictures and diagrams of different bugs and insects for students to view:

  

 In this area, students are able to take a closer look at different insect parts using a microscope and slides as well as practice the life cycle of a butterfly in a variety of ways:

  

 

  

  

  

 

I hope you enjoyed the tour :) I hope to post a few more of our buggy ideas as we continue of unit of study throughout the month!  

  

Who, me? Wait, What?!?

Great title right? ;) No this is not a post on questioning strategies; that was my response when I found out that I was my school's Teacher of the Year this year!! I am still in shock and total disbelief!

I feel so honored and privileged to even work at such a great school with the most amazing group of teachers! The fact that they voted for me as teacher of the year is completely unreal! I am on cloud 9! I didn't even know I had won until other teachers stared popping in my room and calling me to say congratulations! When I finally got around to checking my e-mail at lunch, I saw this:

 The best part about all of this has to be the amount of love I have been getting from co-workers (both past and present), friends, and family today as  they have found out. I think for all teachers, many days go by when you feel discouraged and unappreciated. After a very long couple of weeks, today has been such a blessing! I hope that all teachers get to feel this amazing amount of love and support at some point. 

Now time to stop blogging and start working on my official teacher of the year essay and documents for the district! :)