L is for Learning

    Today I introduced the letter Ll amongst other things (monday is always a loaded day.), even though the kids already knew the letter Ll and its sound, it is in our TE so I did it anyway.  We made a Ll word map on the white board and clapped the syllables for the Ll vocabulary we came up with today.  After that we began to characterize the Letter Ll and it's unique characteristics.  I have the students discuss with each other what they think the best way to make the letter with their body should be.  This is what they came up with :)
 CAPITAL L

                                          LOWERCASE l

Pretty cool right!

Ll Crafts: The possibilites with scrap paper :)

Dr. Suess's Birthday!

March 2nd
Lesson Plans are in the work for next week./
 I can't believe it is March next week already ;)
This cool event is on Saturday:
http://reading.target.com/read-across-america/
Check this site out! So Cool!
http://www.seussville.com/
http://www.seussville.com/special/read.html
I love the pudding idea on this site! I hope to do this on Friday for the kids. (We are going to cover Dr.Seuss all week  during our Social Studies time.)
http://thislittleproject.blogspot.com/2009/02/dr-seuss-day.html
More fun Activities:http://myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com/2009/05/dr-suess-birthday-party-in-making.html
Khol's is a great place to get the book and the stuffed animal that goes with the story. I have several books by Dr. Seuss that we got at Khol's.
http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/ourbrands/kohlscares.jsp

 Mrs. Guajardo's Kinder Class did these crafty paper plate Dr. Seuss faces.
I really liked the idea!

What the Teacher wants has an awesome unit you can look at for Dr. Seuss: I am going to use several of their ideas this week :)

http://whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/2011/02/dr-suess-is-on-loose.html

Mrs. Amy Gonzalez's bulletin. PreK
Really Cute

Mrs. Emma Claudio's Bulletin. (PreK)
Very creative board :)









Thing 1, Thing 2

GReen Eggs ad Ham!

What a fun filled day! I came home exausted. We did so many fun activities. We ended the day with OOBLECK and watched "Green Eggs and Ham"

I hope the kids enjoyed as much as I think they did :)

Every Day is a New Adventure

Today was full of adventure! We covered the Letter Bb, rhyming, addition, handwriting, math centers, space (planets), and too top off everything Mrs. Ayala lost her phone :( I am just not sure what happened, the only thing I can think of is that it grew legs and just walked out on  me LOL. Hopefully one of the kids doesn't come tomorrow and say OOOPS! I took this by accident, that would be funny.

The highlight was when the kids used the new clipboards that I got over the weekend.  It just so happens that last week in our curriculum one of the suggested activities was to "Write the Room" with clipboards, but I was disappointed because I did not have enough for a small group (my biggest group is 6 students) so I modified it and just had them write in thier journal at an independent table. Well TARGET has some really cute small ones in their dollar section.  I tried it out today, the kids loved it, they felt so important walking around the room with their little clipboard and pencil, I was amazed at how many words they wrote down! Even my kids who do not like to write did so well.

I would like to try and do this activity consistantly, maybe on wednesdays or something. We shall see.

 It's funny that now I have started this blog and I encourage students to visit the site, they all want their picture taken :)
"Mrs. Ayala aren't you going to take our picture?" ( So I rush to pull out the camera :)

Our School

  Dr. Rodriguez Elementary

GOOOO Longhorns!

http://www2.harlingen.isd.tenet.edu/~ROE/

Awesome ideas on this site :)

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

Got this cool video from this blog: -->    http://learningandlaughing.blogspot.com/2011/02/yes-we-can.html

P for President!

President's Day is on Monday Feb. 21st and George Washington's Birthday is on Feb. 22nd.  We are going to be learning about Addition & Money during Presidents Week, it is a great way to integrate the same theme across our curriculm.

I saw president drawings on a blog a couple of weeks ago, but for the life of me I do not remember which one it was, so I went on google and searched "How to draw a president". The pictures came out so cute!  I found some directions for the drawings but I simplified them for our Kinder kids.

PowerPoints Coming Soon: Click star for power point.

Check out Mrs. A Gonzalez's Pre-K class bulletin Board for President's Day! Too Cute!

Free Givaway!

This cute blog is giving away cool ideas/handouts :)
Check Out Fabulous in First!
------>http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/

Black History Month

Black History Month: February
During February we usually celebrate 100th day of school, Ground hog's day, Valentine's day, Dental Health, President's Day, George Washington's Birthday, Abraham Lincoln's Birthday, and Black History Month.  Its hard to cover each of these holidays equally, it can be challenging but we do our best right!  When we cover Black History Month we do not really focus on Martin Luther King since we focus on him in January.  Our Kinder Team has geared it more to African American Inventors, (since we can not cover every significant African American in KINDER, we will save SOME for the other grade levels LOL).  George Washington Carver is always in our lessons and several other inventors.  At the beginning of the week we start with Carver and then move on to the other inventors.  To close our mini unit on Black History Month we have a taste of Peanut Butter on Friday during our Social Studies time.
I have a subscrition to Teachers Helper (mailbox) as well that helps a lot when we are planning for our kinder lessons.http://www.theeducationcenter.com/tec/afc/magazines/subscribe/go.do
http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/black-history.htm
http://holidays.pppst.com/blackhistorymonth.html
http://www.flipkart.com/weed-flower-aliki-life-george-book-0671664905
Black History Month Coloring Pages - FamilyEducation.com

We used this powerpoint along with several videos from united streaming today.

I have no idea where I found this Power Point, but I have had it a couple of years. It is a great way to initiate a discussion about famous African Americans.  There are no facts or text, just the picture and the names.  I spoke about 2 or 3 facts orally to students as I went through the slides. One of my students had Nike: Air Jordans-so it was great that we connected with the picture of Michael Jordan, he (the student) felt really special:)

United Streaming: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/

FUN FRIDAY: To close our Black History Month lesson about George Washington Carver, we had a taste of creamy peanut butter and then each student was given 3 peanuts.  The peanuts were in their shell, so the students had to use their FINE MOTOR skills to crack open the peanuts from their shell. We had a really good time with all the peanuts, I joined in on the tasting too!:)