I know, I know, some folks don’t love Valentine’s Day.  For me, in kindergarten anyway, Valentine’s isn’t about romantic love, but all about being a kind and caring friend.  That’s how I present it and they really do love each other and want to show it. We had a hectic, but fun filled day.  I [...]

Well, it really doesn’t get much better than the 100th day in kindergarten. It’s kind of like Christmas, Valentine’s Day (coming Thursday!), and the Fourth of July wrapped into one.  Well, it is in my class anyway.   I used an entire bottle of glitter to make this for the doorway: We sang our hearts [...]

Today we read Martin’s Big Words.  We then watched a short video of Michael Clarke Duncan reading the book.  My kids were enamored with the images and words from some of Martin Luther King’s biggest speeches and ideas.  What stuck out to them the most?  The violence. When we finished with the story, I asked [...]

Today we made our Martin Luther King models.  They are so hard, but also so much fun.  I show the kids a finished model and then quickly free cut from construction paper to show them how to make the shapes needed for his face.  I then projected a super size photo onto the SmartBoard for [...]

Yesterday we kicked off our next PBL (Project Based Learning) Project – ‘Peace Week!’  We’re going to study the life of Dr. King and learn why his work was so important to our world and lives today.  Once we learn about his work, we’ll take that knowledge and design a ‘Peace Week’ for our school. Today I [...]

This holiday season, as I often do, I received many gifts from my sprouts. Apparently, in their little eyes, I love nothing more than Dunkin’ Donuts and scented candles.  Lucky for me, the real gifts are priceless. The gift of children who come in each day with a smile, offer a hug, and are genuinely ready to learn. The [...]

I just realized I haven’t made a single post all week.  Surely it isn’t because nothing hilarious, devastating, or poignant happened at school all week.  More likely, it’s just the season.  There seems to be more going on and less time to get things done as the year hurls towards it’s end. Report cards need to [...]

On this Mother’s Day, I thought I’d write about the word – ‘Mom’ and what it means. The dictionary defines the word simply as: Noun 1. mom – informal term for a mother – a woman who has given birth to a child. Clearly, all moms haven’t given birth to their own children, but what [...]

There’s just no other word for Valentine’s Day in kindergarten. Well maybe chaotic… or crazy… or ridiculous… but for me, ‘whirlwind’ just covers it. From Valentine’s delivery to waiting to open them (I probably heard, “When can we open our Valentines?” about fifty times… and I told them all many times when it would happen…) [...]

All week we’ve been learning about Martin Luther King. Jr.  We’ve read so many books, I am continually amazed at the number of age appropriate books out there about his life and work for kindergarten.  What has happened that is different this year, is, for some reason, while learning about Dr. King, by chance, we’ve [...]