Happenings With Hemme - Blog

Happenings With Hemme

Last Week of School

5/16/2017

I get the question a lot whether or not the last week of school we "do anything". Of course we do. I consider it one of the most important weeks of school. We not only DO things and learn, but we have the most fun of all.
It's a time where we review in really fun ways.
Here are some things we've done this last week.

The PM Class is still focusing on COLORS, colors, COLORS! We played a lot of matching games this week then talked about the different colors.

Shape/Color BINGO is a favorite. Today we played with marshmallows.

This group of AM kiddos (4/5 year old) is SUPER smart. They are my number class. I have really had to challenge them this year. This last week we have been ordering numbers (1-20). This is a fun Smart Board game.

My BIG Graduates

I absolutely LOVE my kiddos, all of them, but these ALMOST Kindergarteners have a very special place in my heart. I've had them for 2 years and am very sad to see them go. I have watched them grow and mature. They are ready for Kindergarten!!

Take a look at our Graduation Slide Show. This was played before graduation. Mrs. Roder and Miss. Wiecken's classes are also in the video.

www.wevideo.com/hub#media/ci/919437252

Play Day at the YMCA

5/10/2017

We had so much fun at the YMCA. Thank you PTO for allowing us to go!

Spring Sing-Along

5/10/2017

Our DANCE CONTEST entry.
We entered the Eric Litwin "Keep Rolling" dance contest.
I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/910485981

Learning Through Play

5/5/2017

This is a glimpse at our CENTER TIME! At Early Childhood we believe learning happens through play.
We give our students plenty of opportunities to play.

Elena and Alliana were putting an alphabet puzzle together at first. Then they decided on their own to sort the letters by color. After they sorted, they counted. There was no prompting by a teaching. Smart girls.

Javier made a ramp for his cars.
He was making all sort of noises to go along with his play.

These girls were in the dress up area. Erika and Amaya decided Aleena was sick.
They were playing Doctor. They gave her medicine and she felt much better.

Hunter loves puzzles. This puzzle is a hard one where you have to match pieces (community helper to job site). He was successful in the end.

I'm sure you all have seen these papers come home and wonder what it is. Well this is our "paint center". It's an easy clean up for me. The students use paint markers to paint. This center allows students to strengthen their wrist muscles.

Bugs

4/20/2017

We started the week by reading the book "Bugs Bugs Bugs". This was a great introduction to our bug week. Then we graphed, Do you like bugs?

The PM class used their listening skills to following directions are put their bees together. I love how they turned out. Very unique.

Name Caterpillars
I love this activity. This was the first time the 3 year olds played with all the letters in their name. They are getting pretty good about recognizing their names, so this was our next step. They got to match the letters in their name. I was very surprised how easy it was for some.

"The Grouchy Ladybug," is a cute story. So many things discussed from this book. What does grouchy mean? What makes you grouchy? Which animals are bugs? Which animals are not? Are the animals getting bigger or smaller?

Both classes got to do a fun interactive Smart Board activity. Am I a Bug? They sorted bugs and animals. We discussed what made them bugs or not.

Bug Habitats
We used forks to paint grass and our fingers to make bugs in our grass.
The kids got really creative with this.

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

The 4 stages of a butterfly are what we learned about today. The pictures were mixed up and as a class the students had to put them in order of the butterfly cycle. I even made it a game for them and closed my eyes. I loved listening to them discuss it together and have "friendly" arguments. Both classes were successful.

Wow, just WOW!

4/11/2017

My little classroom blog isn't so little anymore. Oh my goodness. I don't know who is looking, but THANK YOU. 1,441 views in one week...and every time I look that number grows!!!!
Big things are happening....recognitions, awards, sponsors, advertisers...so excited.

Another exciting thing...
I got EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR!!
Such a huge honor. I am proud to represent Early Childhood.
I love my job and my kids!!

I hope everyone had a FABULOUS Easter.
I enjoyed my time off with my family.
(Here are my little bunnies.)

The Farm

4/6/2017

FARM WEEK is probably my favorite week, if not one of them. My husband and his family have a farm in Sweet Springs where they milk cows, make cheese, and grow crops. I might have married into the family but I couldn't be happier about raising my kids to be farm kids.

Yes, that's me milking the cows!

FARM WEEK in our classroom...

We graphed our favorite farm animal.

Number recognition is very important, especially before these kiddos go to Kindergarten. We cut, counted, matched, and glued. So many skills in this "worksheet".

Baby Chicks
We had eggs delivered to school this week. They were kept in incubators. The students were able to watch the chicks hatch, then eventually hold the babies.

Cutting, Gluing, and Following Directions...OH MY!
The PM class cut out farm animals and made their own farm.
The AM class cut out their farm animals and listened to some positional word directions. GREAT JOB listening.

Smart Board Learning

I'm surprised that I've not posted anything Smart Board related. The kiddos in my room do Smart Board activities daily, multiple times. Here is a glimpse at what we do.

Do I belong on the farm? Is an animal sort. When it's the students turn they get to come up and sort the animal. They get to decide whether the animal belongs on the farm or not. It's a great way for me to see if the kids are grasping the concept.
We've done this sort of activity with many themes in our class.
The kids always love playing on the Smart Board.

Finished product! After we are done sorting we always count each group. Then we compare which group has more and which group has less.

Am

The kiddos got to pick a farm animal and another animal. This was done during small groups so I got to see if they REALLY knew what a farm animal was. Our conversations were great.

"A monkey could never live on the farm. There aren't enough bananas!" Bryce

Another Smart Board Activity
( I know, 2 in one post...I told you we used to Smart Board a lot).

Each child found their name and moved it to the animal graph, choosing their favorite farm animal. When we were done we counted. HORSE was the class favorite.

Wrapping up the Week

At the end of the 2 weeks, we did a very informal review. We listed all the things that were on the farm. They have quite the memory.

Just Because

4/6/2017

I couldn't resist. My sweet baby girl, Jules Katelynn, is 9 months old.

Spring

3/29/2017

Our Spring flower painting.
We used FORKS to paint pretty tulips. The kids got really creative with this.

Making Wind

This was SO much fun!
We read this cute book first to learn about wind. We learned that wind is invisible. Then we practiced making wind. We had contests blowing cotton balls. The kiddos LOVED it!

Our GRAY rainy day painting!!
GRAY is our color this week. It's very hard for some of the kiddos. I really stressed it.

We know WHITE + BLACK = GRAY

Spring Stories

This is something I learned at our teacher conference in Tan-Tar-A! Give the students materials and don't give them much guidance. It's amazing what their imaginations will do. In the case I gave my 3/4 year olds the choice of
2 Spring pictures. They got to glue and create their own story.
I typed exactly what they told me.

The 4/5 year old class was given the choice of 4 spring pictures to glue and create a story about. I really encouraged them to "stretch their stories" and give me more details. I was so impressed with their stories. They wanted to share them with everyone. They ask me daily when they can take them home to show Mom and Dad.

Name Flowers!
These ALMOST Kindergarteners have got their names down. I am so proud of them.

"My brain is doing a lot of work." - Ezequiel 5 years old

Rainbows/St. Patrick's Day

3/15/2017

Making our own Rainbows

You will need:
6 plastic cups (clear)
1 large clear container
food coloring (all the colors of the rainbow)
eye droppers
shaving cream
water

1. Fill the large container half full of water. This is our AIR. Explain that we can't see the air, but it's always there.

2. Put shaving cream on top of the water, covering it. This is the CLOUDS.

3. Now it's time to make the colors of our rainbow. In each clear cup, fill it about half full will water. Then add each rainbow color. If you have to mix to make colors, talk about it.

4. Take an eye dropper and slowly add each color to the cloud/air mix. The clouds will eventually soak up the "rain" and it will make a rainbow. Talk about how that happens with weather too. Once the clouds soak up enough water they can't hold it any longer and it rains. Our rain is just colored like a rainbow.

After doing this experiment as a class I had each child make their own personal rainbow in a cup. This was great observation for me. I was able to see if the students could recall information and identify their colors. I HIGHLY recommend eye droppers for fine motor. It amazed me at how many students didn't know how to suck water up an eye dropper. They know now!!

Our personal rainbows were a HUGE success. Alliana is my model. You can see her many faces and what she thought of the rainbow.

FUN with Skittles

I tried something new this year with my AM kiddos. I gave them materials and I didn't give them directions. They were able to do whatever they wanted. It was very interesting. They were doing things like making their name, sorting their Skittles, and making pictures using their imagination. It taught me a very valuable lesson. Sometimes it's okay to sit back and let them use their imagination and just listen to the conversation.

The PM kiddos sorted their Skittles by color. They were very disappointed that there weren't blue rainbows.

The Sneaky Leprechaun was BACK...

We tried so hard to catch him but he's too small and too fast. The kids did have some good ideas of how they would catch him,.

A'Kya wanted to
tie him up.

Jason thought he could use something sticky to catch him.

Autum wanted to sneak up on the Leprechaun then trap him inside this container.

Justin decided a ZipLock bag was the perfect trap.

We did not catch the Leprechaun but he did leave us a sweet treat.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover

This story was perfect for the AM class. We recalled information and put the events of the story
in order.

Clover Letter Hunt

The 4/5 year olds are getting really good at identifying their letters.
This was a fun way to see who knew their letters.
We got lots of help from our classmates.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Enjoy your nice long break!!!!