Kindergarten Writing

Two school years ago I had the opportunity to work as a Teacher on Special Assignment at one of the schools in my district. During that year, I was able to have small creative writing groups on Fridays for grades K-6. I have taught most grades, but kindergarteners absolutely terrify me. No joke. I still put on my happy face and decided I could still handle a group of 10 on my own for writing. To this day, I still believe kindergarten teachers are super heroes! I was exhausted after 30 minutes once a week!

Anyway, here are two of my kindergarten writing projects. I tied both of them with literature.

Many Luscious Lollipops by Ruth Heller
Since this book is on adjectives, the best way to describe something is to experience it for yourself! So all my kindergartners got to try their very own lollipop in class! What a treat! We brainstormed adjectives to describe them, then jotted them down. After I checked their work and assisted with spelling where needed, they made a giant lollipop out of card stock circles (Precut, but you can have them do it. I only had 30 min/week) and popsicle sticks. I added the cellophane (seran wrap) afterwards.

My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss.
Love this book! I read this book and we talked about how we felt on that particular day. The kids wrote their sentences down on paper and then painted a paper doll to match that color. As you can see, a couple students had a many colored day!

New Year, New Ways

Sorry, I am a teacher, therefor I get summers "off." Ha ha, we (I am assuming most of my readers are teachers) all know that is not true. But I did decide to give my blog a rest.

I started school with my new group of 6th graders about 2 weeks ago. I am LOVING it. I just love my job. Period.

I did have a few management "issues" I needed to iron out this year. Since my 6th grade team rotates between classes, my room seems to collect many items that are not mine nor are they my homeroom class'. To battle this dilemma of students finding items and coming up to me EVERYDAY showing me these items or asking to return the to the rightful owner, I decided to up-cycle my many disinfecting wipe containers into a useful tool....Graveyards: where missing tools go to rest until the owner or a new, loving owner decides to resurrect it. Plus a convenient "Lost and Found" section for the bigger items (Pencil cases, books, hats, etc.).

My graveyards include the following: crayons pencils, markers, colored pencils, and the favorite, and eraser graveyard. No longer will student come up to me with the little (or the big) items that don't belong to them. They will glad take the item and put it away....students are told they can "resurrect" any item from the canisters and claim them as their own. No longer does a student say they don't have their pencil, crayons, etc....they just get what they need. So simple, so easy.

An added bonus: everything smells like lemon!