Building Vocabulary Through Vocabulary Journals

My principal recently purchased a set of Elements of Reading vocabulary cards for every classroom in our school. At first I was wondering what in the world I was going to do with them. I then brainstormed and decided to start using them for our vocabulary journals.  Here is a picture of what the vocabulary cards look like.

 

 

 

I am really excited about how well my students are expanding their vocabulary through the use of the cards and their journals. If you would like to check out the cards and  buy a set for your classroom, you can find them by clicking on the picture below. It will take you to the Elements of Reading website.

 

 



Bumpkin the Pumpkin

Halloween went great in my classroom this year. Our Halloween school days are always crazy! Kindergarten students in costumes always make for a wild day, lol. My kinders were really good this year. The events of the day wore me out. Here is a group picture of my sweeties in their costumes.

 

 

Are they not just too stinkin cute???? I decided to devote the entire day to the holiday. Their minds were in Halloween mode so I decided to play on that. We read several Halloween stories and then I read them my "Bumpkin the Pumpkin" story. They loved it! During center time we made our very own pumpkins out of toliet paper and orange table cloths.

 

First we covered our toliet paper rolls with a piece of orange table cloth.

 

 

Next, I had the children cut out the eyes, nose and mouth for their pumpkin.

 

 

 

After we glued the eyes, nose and mouth to our pumpkins, the children had to twist a piece of a paper lunch sack to make the stem for their pumpkin.

 

 

Here is a picture of our finished product. I think that they turned out fabulous.

 

 

 

The children gave their pumpkins to their parents at the end of the Halloween party.

 

Here is a picture of our party. My parents did a terrific job of bringing in treats and snacks.

 

 

One of my students loved our story "Where's My Mummy?" so much that he had his mom make us these fabulous mummy cupcakes. Are they not just too cute?

 

 

I hope that everyone had a Happy Halloween! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where's My Mummy?

 

With Halloween on its way, I decided to read my favorite Halloween book to my Kinders Where's My Mummy? My class LOVED this book. I have had to read it to them 3 times since Monday, lol. First we read the book and then made our text to self-connections by drawing a picture of Baby Mummy when he was scared in the story and then of a picture of what we do when we are scared. They turned out so cute.

 

 

 

After finishing the text to self-connection writing activity we made our very own mummy. At first they looked like marshmallow men so I had a brainstorm and we cut up white paper towels and glued them to the mummy's. They turned out so cute and the children were so proud of them.

 

 

 

My class is so excited about our Halloween party tomorrow. I will post pictures of it tomorrow afternoon. Happy Halloween everyone!

 

 

 

 

Apples!

Hello everyone! I recently did a mini apple unit with my Kinders when we studied the letter A. First, we had an apple tasting activity. I brought in yellow, green and red apples for the students to taste. I had them pick their favorite apple and color a paper apple the corresponding color. Our graph looked like this:

 

After we finished our graph, I had the students fill out this chart to record our data.

 

 

The next day we made these adorable paper plate apples. The students had such a fun time doing this and it made such an awesome hallway display.

 

 

I got the chart idea from the fabulous Deanna Jump. Happy Fall Yall!

 

 



October Currently

Hello everyone! Long time no blog, huh? I have been so super busy since football season started. I am the director of my area football cheerleading league and also a coach for one of the three squads. August and September were super busy months for me due to the new school year starting and cheerleading season. Our last ballgame was today so I will now be able to be a good little blogger again, lol.

I have linked up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the October currently.

 

 

 

Thanks for checking out my October Currently. Please come back soon and visit my blog. I plan on adding pictures of my NEW (yes, new!!!) classroom and some of the ideas that I have been using in my Kinder class this year. Thanks so much for following me! :)

 

 

 

This is my favorite October book. I am going to do a Halloween unit after Fall Break using this adorable book.



August Currently

Hello everyone! I am so sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. I have been super busy lately. We started back to school on August 1st with Teacher inservice and had our first day of school on August 3rd. I have also moved into a new classroom and have been working hard on getting ready for the new football cheer leading season. I have teamed up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the August Currently.



I am very jealous of my blogger friends that still have weeks until their new school year begins. Don't get me wrong.... I love school, I just wish I had more time to get school and cheer leading stuff finished before school begins.

I am having a hard time with my only daughter going to the 5th grade this year. I can't believe that she has grown up so fast. It seems like yesterday she was a student in my preschool class. :( I don't know why 5th is bothering me so bad. I seriously have never felt this way with any other grade. I was even fine with Kindergarten.

Okay back to my currently.....
1. I am in serious need of ink for my printer. I went to Walmart today and bought another pack. I have already went through 1 pack in a week, lol. I have found tons of blog freebies this summer and am itching to print them off.
2. I have the best coffee mug ever. It will hold an entire pot of coffee and keeps it warm all day long. However, it has a dent in the side of it and has started leaking. I am in search of another one for this year.
3. I am a huge cardigan girl, lol. I stay cold all the time at school and always have a cardigan or hoodie handy to wear. I would love to have a few new cardigans for this school year.

Now I am off to complete Farley's rule of 3 and then get some rest. Thanks again for stopping by! :)

Behavior Management

I have used a behavior management technique in my classroom for years now that really works for me. I used this method when I taught preschool, first grade and now kindergarten. I use the smiley face method. When a student breaks a rule or misbehaves they have to pull a smiley face. I use four colors: red, yellow, blue and red. Here is a picture of my behavior chart.

Here are the colors of the smiley faces and what each color means:

I have a sheet that I put in the students homework folders every night. I color what face they got for the day and check mark underneath the rule/rules that were broken. The parents have to initial this sheet every night. I am attaching a copy of my Weekly Behavior Report for you to use in your classroom if you wish. This method has worked great for me and I hope that it can help you too.





Mrs. Janelle's Behavior Chart