Thankful!

We are so thankful that we made it through our last week!! It was crazy! The stomach bug that circulated our school was KILLER! Just ask Cristy!

Cristy caught it the morning of her Harvest Feast!! Yep, the one where she had 40 parents coming to her classroom! NO worries!! Her faithful/fabulous assistant ran the show like a champ! The kiddos still cut veggies, mixed the stew, made piki bread and homemade butter!! It was awesome! We tried to help, but Mappin had everything under control!

The only thing I was able to help with was to put pictures that Mappin took into a photo story so parents could see all of the preparation that went into the special feast!!

However, I am pretty sure that is what led to my demise!! I used Cristy's computer! AAAHHHHHHHH!!! Yes, I used it the very day she woke up tossing all her cookies!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Yuck!!

I have always heard that the worst germs are on phones and computers!! Well, I was fine Tuesday, but all day Wednesday, my tummy felt a little SQUEEZY! You know like Junie B. felt in Stinky Smelly Bus.  No time for sickness!! My Harvest Feast was Thursday!! I was terrified!! I gave myself a couple hours to be sick before I willed myself to PRESS ON!

So, I made it through my Feast! Yay!! And, even made it to the Thursday, 8:30pm showing of Hunger Games!! Loved it, but hated how it left me hanging, even though I knew it would!!!!

So what is the take away from this post???? Well, I think it should be, don't use any one's computer if they are out sick or wipe down your computer often to avoid scary germs!

Also about Junie B.!! We were so sad to hear about Barbara Parks!! We do love us some Junie B. Jones!

More about being THANKFUL...
We are so thankful for...
A great school
Fabulous assistants who are great friends and awesome with the kiddos (they read our minds)
Awesome kiddos and their families
Supportive administration
Plenty of resources
A blog where we share our Tales from K
Blog followers who support and understand what happens everyday in the classroom
And each other!!!
We make each other be the best that we can possibly be and it's AWESOME!!

Thanks friends!! Have a great week!

Turkey Trivets...SO Stinkin' Cute!

So it's been crazy around here.  Been planning my parents 50th wedding anniversary party, oldest kiddo just finished football season (Superbowl Champs!  Woot-Woot!), and the general madness of school, sick kiddos, holidays...

We are trying to get back on the BLOGGING BANDWAGON!!!

So this week is our Harvest Soup Celebration.  We love to have the kiddos make something to give to their parents as a treasure to remember the event.  You still have 4 days (or more) to make these super cuties yourself.  They are easy peasy!

Materials Needed:

6 x 6 tiles (We use 45 cent off-white tiles from Lowe's)

Acrylic Paints (yellow, green, orange, red, and brown)

Sharpies Markers

Clear Acrylic Spray

Steps:

Paint the kiddos hand (brown palm and different colors on fingers).  Let it dry.

  Then have them use Sharpie Markers to add the eye, beak, waddle, and legs.

Then use a black Sharpie to sign their name and date it.

After it's all dry, give the tiles a light coat of the Acrylic Spray to seal it all in.

That's it!  So easy, and so stinkin' cute!

Parents can stand this on a picture easel, use them as a real trivet, or tuck away for safe keeping.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Hi Friends! Hope you had an awesome weekend!

It was Brooks' 3rd birthday yesterday and OH BOY was it a WEEKEND all about him!!

So is everyone gearing up for Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, then Winter Holidays?? Wow the year is moving way too quickly for us!

We just finished our amazing work with rocks. It was super fun. 
We are about to begin our unit on Living in America. What a perfect time, since Veteran's Day is tomorrow.

WE would like to thank all of our VETERANS for serving our country and protecting our freedom!

If you need an Awesome Veteran's Day card to make with your Kindergarten Babies, check out this cute card that we altered a little from one of our kindergarten friends at a nearby school. She made them with her class! Then gave them to the neighboring middle school to hand out to Veterans at their Veteran's Day program.  Super cute hand print flag with the saying. Then your kiddos could write a personal message to a veteran inside.

Stop back by soon for our Living in America Unit. It should be finished really soon!!!

Dunkin' Donuts BABY!!!

So this Halloween we  needed to come up with something that would knock the socks off of our families! Every year at our Family Fun Night event, the teachers go ALL OUT to impress.  We are so dang "INTO" it that it's not even funny.  I don't know who has more fun...the kiddos, the parents or all us teachers!

This year our K team decided to be "DUNKIN' Donuts"---and I don't mean just some plain old donuts...I really mean DUNKIN' donuts!  We borrowed some jerseys from Page's hubs who hooked us up!  We found some matching shorts (in my case, I somehow squeezed ALL of this into my almost 10 year old's shorts...let's just say I am thankful the jerseys were LONG to cover all my parts!)  Then we added pink headbands, wrist bands, and knee socks for the TOTAL package!

People...we are NOT actual basketball players, we only play ones on TV Family Fun Night!  No basketballs were hurt or mistreated in this event.  OK---I lie!  We did TEAR UP the court, better known as the little atrium were we were set up.  And you should have SEEN our MAD dunkin' skills!  Dribble, dribble, dribble, SLAM DUNK baby...right into the Little Tykes basketball goal.  We were VICIOUS!!!!  

Anyway, we got A LOT of laughs from our kiddos and families...especially the DADS who totally "GOT IT"!    Be sure and take a look at our past stints as Fruit of the Loom Guys, Minions, Humpty Dumpty and the Horsemen...here at this post!

Now...hopefully the moment you have been anxiously awaiting...

TEAM DUNKIN' DONUTS!!!!

We had lots of people tell us..."That is SO clever!"  And darn it, we told the truth and said, "NO!  That's so Pinterest!"  Here's the original pin that caught our attention!

Anywho, we hope you ALL have a SAFE and Happy Halloween!  And if you still need a costume idea...this post might just come in handy!!

Great Field Trip

Happy HU-MMMMP Day Friends!! Don't have a heart attack, but this will be the shortest post I have every done!! Yay!! At least I know I'm too wordy!! I'm working on it!!!

We went on an awesome field trip today to our performing arts center.  Only 1 kid tried to escape (or wander off), but Cristy has super sight and wrangled her back to my line!! Thank goodness!!!

We saw the Ugly Duckling and the Tortoise and the Hare presented by... 

Lightwire Theater Company!!

 (And no, they are not paying us to talk nice about their company or the show, but if they want to, we will take either cash or check!!!)

It was super cool!! It was kinda like watching a show of Disney's Electric Parade.

 Check out their website by clicking the image below!! If they come to your area, we highly recommend taking your kiddos.

Tips before going to the show: 

Read the stories

Prepare the kiddos for some darkness

Don't Freak if your kiddos talk a little during the show!! It was totally OK!!

Have a great rest of the week!! It's all down hill from here :). We can't wait to post pictures from our Family Fun Night tomorrow!! Our costumes are so awesome!!!

Soiled Again!!

Promise, this is the last time we soil you with soil!! For real!!! But we really did think you would want to hear all about how well or MESSY our soil lessons went after using our new super, duper Soil and Rocks unit!

Thanks Cristy for making an awesome flip chart for the active board so the kiddos could develop a plan for the best way to learn about soil! Of course they decided that finding soil around the school was the best way to learn about soil!! WOOHOO!

What next? We thought the kiddos should also tell us what tools we would need and the procedures we should follow! Let's just say our Kinders are funny little people and smart too!

They told us we would need shovels and buckets to collect the soil. We told them we didn't have enough at school and they told us they would bring plenty! So what did we do???

Of course we waited until the next day, when everyone brought buckets and shovels to collect soil! Yep! You knew it already! Only one person brought a shovel and one  brought a bucket!

So we talked with the kiddos about a new plan for collecting soil! After pulling TEETH and pulling out some of our own HAIR, the kiddos finally came up with using bags to put the soil in and with a LITTLE (I mean a TON) of guidance they came up with using spoons to dig up the soil!!

The kiddos told us each pair needed 2 samples. We told the kiddos to pick a partner who could help them or who they could help and get busy collecting.

It was so awesome watching and listening to the Mini-Scientists rationalize why they needed 2 bags or why they should not put both samples in the same bag.

After successfully collecting soils samples or PLAYING in the dirt for 30 minutes, our friends were ready to get busy! Our little scientists used a magnifying glass to observe and compare 2 soil types!!

They had a blast!!!

The next day, we hypothesized about which type of soil would best grow seeds! The kids worked in teams to place soil in a cup, then add seeds, more soil, and water. When finished they author wrote about what they saw, they illustrator drew the picture of their soil with a pencil, finally the artist colored the picture. We will observe and record about the samples again on Monday!

The kids think the loamy (dark/moist soil) will best grow seeds!! We will SEE tomorrow if anything happened. Please, don't let our seeds be too old!! Please, I really hope something has grown!!!

What next???
Rockin' with Rocks I guess!!

Have a great week!!

Conference Tips and Ideas!

Oh-My-Goodness!  Is it seriously ALREADY time for parent-teacher conferences???  The year is absolutely flying by!

We are gearing up to meet with ALL 19 of our families next week to share the great things their kiddos are accomplishing this year!  That's right, ALL of them!  How you say?  ALL...of them?   Keep reading! :)

We thought we would take a minute to give you a few tips that have worked out really well for us in getting EVERY SINGLE ONE of our families in for this important event!

The BEST thing we EVER did was to begin using this "You Pick 3" conference sign up sheet.  We don't have scheduled time off to hold our conferences, so we just choose 3 days that work out for us.  We include as many time slots as possible where we can be available to meet with families.  We always try to include some early morning times for our families that can't take off work or who are just coming in from the night shift.  We schedule slots during our specials classes (music, pe...) and then plenty of after school time slots as well.  We try to have at least 1 late night where we have conferences scheduled for 5:00 or later for our working parents who hit us on their way home.  (This year my own kiddos have football EVERY DANG night, so I couldn't schedule any that ran TOO late, but in years past I have scheduled them as late as 6:30.)

Now I know this might seem like a BIG time commitment from you...and it is!  BUT, and this is a BIG but, this is truly one of the BEST ways you could ever possibly spend your teacher time!  It always breaks my heart a teeny bit when the only time some parents hear from us is when something is WRONG!  Conferences give you the opportunity to REALLY connect with families and share some of the GREAT things happening with their kiddo.  Of course not ALL the news will be good news, but we can definitely take this opportunity to FIND the good and share!

And we promise it will SO be worth your time.  You will make some serious partners in educating your kiddos when you build these strong family ties!  And let's be honest, who doesn't LOVE to hear how awesome their kiddo is???

We have been able to get nearly 100% participation in our conferences for the last several years.

We LOVE the question and comment section too!  This encourages families to reflect on how their child is doing and what things THEY would like to discuss as well!  Everyone is VESTED!

And if you do have some families that DON'T sign up, we tweak the letter to say this:

Please find your scheduled conference time below.  I appreciate everyone returning the sign-up sheets so promptly.  I was able to give nearly everyone their first or second time preference.  If you are unable to attend at the scheduled time, please let me know as soon as possible to reschedule. 

If you do not see your name below, I did not receive a conference sign-up sheet.  Please rank your time preferences (1,2,3) from the remaining times below.  If you would prefer to have a phone conference, please make a note of that in the comment box below.  Thanks!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      See you in 2 weeks! - Cristy Fogle 10-10-13

Then it's time to get ready for all the parents heading your way!  To make it a bit easier, we start with the electronic form below.  We set up the basic format we want and then change a bit here and there to match each kiddo.  For example, each record says:  "Math:  Number Sets - counting sets to___" and we change this portion for each child.  Same goes for:  "Reading/Phonics:  Knows ___ upper and lowercase letters". We just add in how many they know.

The comment section is always very individualized, as is the goal section!

So we hope these tips help you get ALL of your families in to share your kiddo's great learning with them!

We will be more than happy to email out either of these forms if you would like to tweak them to fit your style!  Just leave us a comment with your email address and we'll shoot them out!

Happy Conferencing!