Ms. Solano's Kindergarten Class

Playing Catch-up

Where on earth does the time go???

We spent a lot of time this week catching up on unfinished business.

I went home on Wednesday with the beginning of a cold. I am finally felling somewhat normal. What a great way to spend a 3 day weekend.

Here are a few of the finished glue/shaving cream snowmen:

Next we made symmetrical, pattern block snowflakes:

Here's a little book I created (hope to get it posted to TPT by this evening):

Snowman, Snowman!

Thanks to Em over at Bunch of Scrap I am now an Instagram user. I loaded it that morning when I got to school onto my iPhone and tried it out a few different options. I.Love.Them.

Pattern Block Snowflakes

Guest Reader

Mrs. Rossi, on of our Third Grade teachers wanted to come in and read to the kindlers. She just loves my little guys. She lost her husband unexpectedly on December 1st, and returned to school after Christmas break. Doing things like this is good therapy for her.

They were so intrigued by Mrs. Rossi...couldn't ya just eat 'em up?

This was an oldie but a goodie. Snowman sequencing (from the Mailbox, 1997)

A little bit of free time. My girls below discovered that they can make a stop light out of the Uno cards. They're great thinkers!

Snowman Word Scramble

We did this center together in front of the Word Wall.

(Next time I am going to put a small star next the beginning letter of each word. This will make it easier for my Littles that are ELL and/or have some speech issues).

Colorful Snowflakes. I used my Cricut to cut out different colored snowflakes. They had to pick a snowflake, and match it with the same color marker to write "Look" and then the color.

Miss Riedel doing group time.

Here's the Macarena Month song by Dr. Jean

We use the Smartboard each morning for Morning Group time. Here is my new little one creating a pattern for the rest of the class to figure out.

During "Free Time", Caleb wanted to make a dinosaur book. He used our "Dinosaur Words" file folder to assist in his writing.

Pterodactyl high in the sky.

Sea long neck whamming in the ocean.

Dinosaur planet is awesome.

Friday was declared Orange and Blue day in support of the Denver Broncos. Magnet letters was one of our centers. This group decided to but the alphabet up on the board.

Jackson spelled the names of his mom & dad.

This little one loves Thomas the Train and can spell every locomotive's name and illustrate them correctly.

We ended the week with this diddy from Cara Carroll over at the First Grade Parade.

I love how they turned out. They completed the writing portion with the assistance of their 4th Grade Buddies.

Next week we'll be learning about the arctic and penguins. Always a fun unit.

Have a great week!

Back in the Swing of Things

The first week back to school after 17 days of Christmas bliss is.....

Well, I'll leave the blank for you to fill in. All I know is that besides the getting up early part, I also had a hard time figuring out what to wear. See I love warm cozy jammies, jeans, my Danskos, sweats and slippers. Reading between the lines you can clearly see that *casual* is NOT part of our dress code. Oh, and not being able to take a mid morning nap, aaaaaaannnd, an afternoon nap {I like to sleep}.

Anyway, I thought when the kiddos came in on Tuesday morning, it would be post Christmas mayhem. Excited kids howling about what Santa brought. But it wasn't. Nothing. Not even a hey guess what I got. It was like they were in a drug induced coma. The day was smooth sailing. No arguing. No running. No shouting across the classroom. My new student teacher thought she was in heaven.

Then came Wednesday {queue in the dramatic music}. Holy moly, you would have thought it was Christmas morning all over again or a full moon. Or that their parents gave them a double shot of espresso, and a hand full of chocolate covered cherries prior to them entering the classroom. There was arguing. There was running. And yes, shouting, lots of shouting. My new student teacher knew for sure she was no longer in heaven.

Welcome to Kindergarten Ms. R!!!

The remaining three days were full of reminding. Where the folders go, how to hang up a coat, that we don't lay on the tables, and for sure mom is not allowed to disguise a full on Coca~Cola in a princess water bottle!!!

We did get in some puffy painting (aka glue and shaving cream). We didn't get them finished since some of my little artists used like 7 pounds of paint and glue so they needed extra dry time.

They love this stuff. It amazes me how many kiddos don't get to this kind of stuff at home.

Pictures of the finished masterpieces will come soon.

Of course we had to have some free time. This little group built a skyscraper out of the waffle blocks.

This ever-so-cute bulletin board was provided by Pre-k and Kindergarten. It is in the main hallway.

This is what a couple of my littles see when they look outside their windows on a winter day.

Top: snow covered mountain and a blue bird
Bottom: a fantastic snowman and a tee covered in snow

I found this on Shannon's Kindergarten Hoppenings blog.

LOVE her stuff and she offers it for free!

{Shout Out to Shannon}

The kids used these snowflake stir sticks as pointers.

I found them at Michael's on clearance.

We did some journaling.

I love this one. Emile can have a snowball fight and catch snowflakes on his tongue.

I hope your first week back was a great one! I can't wait to read all your blogs and see what you have been up to.

A Little of This. A Little of That.

I spent a lot of time over break ~~stalking~~ surfing all the super cute blogs out there and noticed how many teachers have their classrooms on Facebook. Well, I tossed and turned on this one, thought what the heck. And created a Facebook page for Ms. Solano's Kindergarten {though I have yet to post}. I spent my specials period figuring out how to link up and put the button on my blog - finally, it's there.

Today we celebrated the Epiphany. I have a couple of stories to share.

1. Our most awesome music teacher {and unofficial social coordinator} bakes muffins and puts two peas in one. We each get a muffin on our mailbox. If you are lucky enough to get the peas, you are crowned the Epiphany King/Queen. Well today was my lucky day!

2. During Mass, the priest asked the students what they received for Christmas. They gave their answers. Then he went on to ask if anyone gave God a present. Well, one of my littles said "no I didn't, because my parents didn't want to drive that far to give it to Him". How stinkin cute and innocent was that answer!?!

New Year's Eve isn't just the last day of the year. It is also my grandpa's birthday. We have always celebrated it with him for as long as I can remember. Here is a picture of my sweet little grandma {she's 89}, my handsome teenager, my beautiful niece, and the birthday boy. Happy 91st grandpa!

The day before we had to get back to reality, we spent the day shopping {not that we needed to spend any more time in a mall}. My niece absolutely loves her cousin. He's so good to her too, he even shared his Panda Express with her : )

Well that's all I have for now. I have pictures of what we did this past week and will get them posted soon. Have a great weekend bloggy friends!

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Lisa over at Criss Cross Applesauce awarded my little ol' blog the the Versatile Blogger Award. This is an exciting way to begin the New Year!

Now on to the blog award rules...

1. Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them. (Thanks Lisa you ROCK!!!)

2. Tell 7 things about yourself. (see below)

3. Pass this award on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they’ve received an award! (This was super difficult since I find so many fabulous ones out there...DAILY!)

Seven Things About Myself

I will be turning the big FOUR to the OOOH in February.
Oreo cookies and a tall glass of ice cold milk is my favorite dessert.
I don't grow my nails out of fear of poking small children in the head {which happened my second year teaching}. Drew blood and left a mark.
My dream car is a Volkswagen Bug!
Pink is my favorite color.
I can't cook. Well, I can, but only 4 reeeeeeeally good dishes. I try, but it's just not my thing {my poor husband and son}.
Our cat's *official name* name is Sheba. Although she IS the queen we NEVER call her that. Ever. We call her Kitty, Princess, Fluffy, Meanie, Your Highness, Crazy Cat....It all depends on her mood.
We completely renovated and moved into the house next door to my parents. Yes, my parents are my neighbors. And, my mom CAN cook and does almost every night of the week for us.