Kingergarteners CAN write paragraphs!!

İQue se va y se va y no se ha ido! I feel like this i show my blog has been working, but for me it’s more like….que escribe y escribe pero no escribe nada J. I’ve had a difficult year, but am doing my best to start blogging again. It really helps me cement what I have implemented in my classroom. Hop on over to Bilingual Teacher Clubhouse to read about how kindergarteners really can write a paragraph!

10 Things About Me

Decided to link up with Blog Hoppin to talk a little about myself. I really wanted to add pictures, but by the time I finished looking for, scanning, and inserting pictures it would have turned into Let's Talk About Me Tuesday. I won't be able to participate in tomorrow's link up since my school is under construction and my classroom is front and center of the huge cranes, so I'm not allowed in. (Looooon sigh). This is the first summer I have not been able to go in early and start setting up or cleaning up. It's been driving me craaaaaazy!

 

Anyways, here are some interesting things that you might enjoy reading about me:

 

1.  I am half Thai, half Salvadorian, and 100% American :). I am fluent in English and Spanish, and can count to 10 and say hello in Thai. Don't know if any Thai speaking person would understand me, but that's how my dad taught me.  

 

2.  My daughter is therefore now 25% Thai, 25% Salvadorian, 50% Mexican, and 100% American :). Talk about a future identity crisis! I have no idea what she's going to bubble in on those standardized tests under "ethnicity". I hated having to pick one . . . until there was the "other" bubble. I adore the "other" bubble.

 

3.  I have been playing the piano since I was four years old. I never did win a school talent show though. Always came in second next to a certain other someone who always outshone me. But no hard feelings. Well, not that many. I continued to help out as the church pianist for about 15 years until I was too pregnant to sit comfortably at the bench.

 

4.  I have been teaching for 9 years. This will be my 10th!! I was a "part time" teacher for two years, a regular substitute for one year, a long term sub for one year, and finally have been teaching kinder Spanish at a dual immersion school for the last five years.

 

5.  I have had the privilege of travelling to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Thailand, Hawaii, and the East Coast. The last two I still consider a privilege since I'm a SoCal girl. Oh, and technically I've been to Canada since we crossed over at Niagara Falls.

 

6.  I married my one and only boyfriend (didn't start dating until I was 21). Kind of embarrassing but it is what it is.

 

7. I was voted most shy in junior high. Not exactly the award you want to win. And now I'm a teacher. No one thought that was possible, but as we all know, speaking to five year olds is NOT THE SAME as talking to a group of peers.

 

8. I've been a vegetarian for the last 6 years. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it was. I really want to become vegan, but I hate cooking, so . . . . it's super hard.

 

9.  Hated high school. Enough said. Loooved college!  Unfortunately, I had to leave about 9 months earlier than planned because my mother got sick. Therefore, I received my undergrad in 3 years and 3 months with only one summer of classes. Yup, definitely a nerd.

 

10.  I secretly desire to be the most organized person in the whole wide world, but unfortunately I'm the complete opposite - a slob. I used to be the kind of person that had piles of stuff but knew exactly where everything was. Really! But now I just have piles and have lost my awesome memory. Definitely something I've got to continue working on this year.

 

 



 

Cheap Classroom Management

 

My first couple of years I spent more money than I wanted on little trinkets and toys to fill my prize box with. It worked really well as a motivator, but after gaining a husband and a toddler I've had to cut down on the spending to practically $0. I knew I had to try something different this year to add to my bag of tricks.



 

Like most ideas teachers have, this little diddo did not come out of thin air. I took this idea from Miss Kindergarten adjusted it to fit my classroom's needs.  This is a great way to motivate students as a whole group. I don't know just how I'm going to use it yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough.

 

 

 

This is the basic idea:

• Choose a behavior that your students need help improving on.
• When the entire class does the targeted positive behavior choose a bingo card and mark it on the bingo chart.
• The first prize that gets entirely highlighted is the prize that students will earn.

You can get this Spanish version of the "premio chart" right here. Just print it out on cardstock. Print two of the actual bingo card so that you can cut one up to use as bingo chips.  I've used a colorful polka dot border because that's part of my envisioned theme this year. I've never used a theme, so we'll see if I actually have time to decorate my classroom that way.

 

I chose prizes that I thought my class would like, but if they end up hating some and loving other things I will definitely be changing them along the way. I chose to use for now:

 

P = palomitas en la clase (popcorn in the classroom)

• This is the only option that I will have to purchase (or most likely ask some great parents to donate!!!) Students will be able to eat popcorn in the classroom during a time of my choosing.

R = recreo extra (extra recess)

• Self explanatory I think :). Although with the limited space in my school it might end up being free centers indoors.

E = escoger juego de Pipo (choose your game of Pipo)

• My students play a computer game called Pipo which helps them with letter and sound recognition and later decoding and blending syllables, but there are other parts of the game, such as English games, painting, or math that I don't allow them to use during my class period. If this prize wins they can play any Pipo game of their choosing during a center or specified time.

M = manana de compartir (sharing morning)

• Students can bring in something to share with the class.

I = invitar a los papas al almuerzo (invite parents to lunch)

• I thought twice, thrice, etc. about this one, but I know that parents will love it. My school no longer allows parents to just come in to the school and eat with their child for security reasons as well as management. If this prize wins then students will be allowed to invite their parents to eat with them in my classroom. Students whose parents cannot come can sit with another parent or just sit with me while we eat. I know this takes up one of my lunch periods, but it will only be a few times.

O = osos y peluches en el salon (bears and stuffed animals in the classroom)

• Students can bring their stuffed animals to the classroom to read with or to sit with them (as long as they are not disruptive - definitely set expectations first) for a specified amount of time on a certain day.

If you happen to use it please let me know! Any comments are appreciated :)

 

 

The answer to downloading YouTube videos!!!

 

 

 

Ok, so maybe I'm the only one who didn't know about this, but I am soooo grateful to Ms. Jessica over at A Turn To Learn for finally solving my looooooooong sought after answer to how to download youtube videos! BTW this is an AWESOME BLOG!!! Especially in the area of technology. I have definitely added her to my new Bloglovin list. (I've been MIA for over a year, and I still don't have internet access at home, but maybe in a couple of weeks, so I'm still catching on to a lot of stuff.)

 

Hop on over to her blog to find out how, but basically go to www.savemedia.com and just paste in the URL of the youtube video you want to download. Make sure to "Save As" in a folder where you will find it later. If you're anything like me I tend to download things and have no idea where they download to on my computer.

 

I'm going to try my very best to start blogging again, because I really miss it, but no promises this time :)

 

 

Here are the URL's of videos that I have downloaded so far:

Chinese New Year Song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJI_UHnhCNM

 

 

Ni Hao Kai Lan Chinese New Year Song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8xurIQuU0Q

 

 

Los tres cerditos y el lobo feroz:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIncBenShck

 

 

Marcha de las letras por Cri Cri:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXa0yaJ5KDo

 

 

And definitely more to come . . . .

How do you use GLAD pictorials?

So this post is a little late for this year, but the idea is what counts :) Our grade level lends itself very well to using GLAD pictorials. I use them all the time! I just wish I could trace lightly enough so that my kids were actually tripped, but alas. The new thing for me is that last year I was introduced to having students create their own pictorials based on the teacher's. I tried it this year with the important historical figures we have been learning about and I was soooo impressed with the results! Mainly students copied my example, but they did such a good job and it really helped them review and choose the things they remembered to write in their pictorials. Here are a few examples, some unfinished, of Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman.  We are in the process of putting them all together to form a book for each child. I'll let you know how they turn out. Aren't they so cute??!

Stamping sheet with T, C, N

After seeing the great stamping sheets that Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons created a whiiiiile back when we all bought those alphabet stamps from the Target Dollar Spot, I just had to create something for my kids to go stamping crazy, so here is my simple version. Students can choose to "play" this game once they complete their center activities, and of course they win a ticket if they complete both sides. On the front students simply stamp the name of each words. In this case it is words that begin with t, c, or n. Then on the back they must write a complete sentence with each of those words. Click here to get this free stamping recording sheet.



Initial Syllable Review Freebie!

My students are currently reviewing intial sounds in Spanish beginning with t, c, and n. I thought I would share one of the sorts that they have completed during centers. Just have students cut out the bottom portion and each picture, then glue under the correct intial syllable. It's great for Spanish language learners because they have to say the words and if they don't know it they have to ask some one else. Just click here to get the classifying t, c, n syllables sort. Hope it's useful!

Organizing your day

This will be short and sweet. I know that many teachers use filing trays or the cubby type boxes from Lakeshore to organize materials for the next day, but I found these magnetic pockets a few years back (I think Lakeshore) and they work great, especially since I have limited counter space. I just use one for each day of the week.



Making clear pocket strips for cents!

So we only have about 5 minutes in the morning to do calendar. I don't teach math so it's not a major focus of my day, but it is a good way for students to begin their morning, so I wanted a super quick way for them to be able to read and identify the days of the week, months of the year, and seasons, and place them on the calendar independently. And of course for cheap. So I decided to make the above mentioned on cards, laminate them, and place them in a pocket chart behind my teaching easel so that I can just turn it around after calendar.

Then I had my regular calendar wall but instead of having students write the days, months, and season (because it just took up too much time and writing them wasn't my focus), I decided to just write the sentences on sentence strips and have a spot for students to just pick and place the correct answer.

I didn't have anything appropriate so . . . .

I took a transparent sleeve (the ones you put in binders) and strategically got 3 pocket strips out of it. Just cut it up and staple to the wall. Cut the front part in a U shape so it's easier for students to place the cards, and voila! Sorry I didn't take a closer picture. They are the shiny things on the wall :)

I'm sure I must have seen or heard of this somewhere, but I have no idea where. But it was just what I needed.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Here are one of the crafts that my students created to celebrate Chinese New Year. It's so simple but they love it. Unfortunately the one in the middle didn't follow directions very well :/ You know.

We also had fun watching some videos related to Chinese New Year. I've posted them here. Maybe you can use them as well.

Chinese New Year Song

Dragon Dance

Lion Dance

I don't know what this says or means, but my dad sent it to me last year for Chinese New Year, and on youtube it says Chinese New Year Song. But I love it cuz the girls are so cute :)

This would be sooooooo cool for my kinders to perform next year! A teacher can dream, right?



In the beginning . . .

I just took a look at my daughter's new Sabbath school lesson and this month we will be studying the creation!! And as if it was meant to be I just found these visual aides that I (drawings by my husband) made when I taught one of the Sabbath school classes a few years ago. The 7th day though is missing, so I need to make one ASAP. I thought they were perfect.

Could you use something like this to teach something in sequence in your classrooms? Like what?

Creating a clutter free classroom-before pics!

Yay!! So I finally got to uploading my photos from my super messy classroom. We started school again on Monday, and I was not allowed to go into my classroom until the day before, Sunday. So . . . I go happily with my husband and almost 15 month old baby girl to my classroom, ready to clean the top of my desk, dust a bit, and clear out as much of my office as I could.

To my surprise (not so much because it has happened waaaay too many times) my floor had been waxed and of course NOTHING had been put back. So my small little organizing task became a classroom cleanup and rearranging project. I have to say that I am very proud of what I accomplished in 5 hours so that now I am much less stressed out this week, but I didn't accomplish what I originally wanted to.

Here is NOT how I left my classroom:

And the process of purging some things from my office.

So . . . .  to the topic at hand. Here is the embarrasing state of my classroom. This is what I need to work on - how I DID leave my classroom :/

 My new "desk" which I just WANT to use for parents to put things and to store my "teacher items".

The next four are of my office. Believe it or not once there was a huge desk inside where I could actually do work!

 An overstuffed bookshelf which I have now temporarily covered with cloth.

My cabinet full of stuff that I've either forgotten about or don't even know about :(

Ok. That's it. I have faith that before the year ends it will all be much more organized :)



Dollar Spot Tic Tac Toe decoding game

I am so blessed to have such giving parents this year. They gave me a $50 Target gift card for my birthday in November! I wanted to spend it all on the kids, but since times are tough I bought some gifts for my daughter, but I did manage to grab four of these tic tac toe games. There were adorable pink and purple ones, but you know, the boys wouldn't want to play with those.

So this is what I did with them. I've trained taught my students to look up at our choice board to see what they can work  play with after they are done with each of their center rotations (hopefully next year I can convince my partner to switch centers because many times they are just not productive).

Anywho . . . I decided that students could play in pairs but they couldn't place their gamepiece unless they could read the words in the spot they wanted.

I cut up small labels the size of the gameboard circles and wrote different two-syllable, easily decodable words on them. One board has words with 'M' . .

Another words with 'P' . .

Another words with 'S' . . .

And the final with words with 'T'.

These are the first four syllables that kids learned this year. I will change out the words as the year goes on. Hope it goes over well.



Thanks for the Liebster Blog award!!!

Thank you so much to Louanne over at My Kindergarten Kids for giving me this award! I've been so absent from the blogging world since the school year started that this is a welcome surprise, especially because now I get to share the wealth with others :).

The goal of this award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.

The rules are:

{1} Copy and paste the award on your blog.

{2} Thank the giver and link back to them.

3} Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are mine!!!