Keeping Up With Kirbys

Do your kids ask you "how do I spell (insert word)?  I absolutely think it's important for us to teach our kids to use available resources.  They need to learn to use the word wall, books, environmental print and the words that are available to them throughout the classroom.  Of course, I teach them to write the sounds that they hear but another resource in my classroom is their traveling word wall words.  One of the things that I've used with my kids starting in Kinder is a personal word wall.  These are the words that are IMPORTANT to that specific child.  It may be their video game name, the place they visited during a vacation, or a favorite t.v. show.  These are the things that they want to write about.   After they have recorded the correct way to spell their important word in their traveling word wall they ALWAYS have it to refer back to AND they can be helpful to others that are interested in that word.  Click here ...

This post will truly be a little of this and a little of that so stay with me.  As much as I don't want to share this.........it's a must.  It's too funny and terrible not to share.  So let me give you the sweet and sassy of it. The Sweet: Word Wall Celebrations { click here }are a great way to get the kids moving and using their entire body to memorize these difficult words.  The kids LOVE this time each week. The Sassy: Although, you are witnessing nice handwriting, this child's partner did NOT follow directions.  This poor girl has the word "child" written on her shirt.  UGH!!---The celebration was called  back tracer.  We traced the sight word with OUR FINGERS on a partner's back.  Well, everyone except her sweet partner.  He decided to use a marker. What?!?!  The word we were practicing was actually "children" I noticed what he was doing at about the "child" point.  At least he spelled it correctly. :( Do you ...

We did it and it was "GREAT"!!  Let me just tell you...first week of school is CAH.RA.ZY.  Now, add a student teacher in the mix.  Her sole purpose for observing this week was to see the craziness of "the first week of school".  Okay, you want crazy......I can show you crazy.  At one point during the week I asked her "Have a gone to the restroom today?"  Poor girl, she looked at me and said "ummmm, no".  BUT I'm sure she went straight home and checked her manual to make sure she wasn't supposed to keep up with my restroom breaks. The kids came in the first day with a Play-doh activity waiting for them.  Second graders LOVE play-doh too.  It was a great way to keep them busy while I gathered supplies and greeted parents.  You can pick it up { here }. We learned the expectations of working with math tools.  We sorted construction paper, they LOVE doing this.  It's a great activity to promote teamwork AND it works ...

Well, I have marked 2 things off my to do list.  Yay!!....but I'm constantly thinking of more things that I need to do.  Yikes.  I wanted to share some progress pics of the classroom because....really, it helps me feel as though I'm getting some things accomplished. I'm loving Cara Carroll 's bag idea because that space above the cabinets can look so gross. I don't have a Cameo (yet) but this is my version without a it.  This is the mailbox area and the display sheets for the kids work. This is a pic of my word work area.  That neat little cart in the picture has a whiteboard on one side and cork board on the other, plus an area to store tubs in the middle.  Greatness!! And while I was busy making new stacks of things to move, my Big Sass was busy making a giant cupcake for my outside bulletin board. I'm so thankful for the time we spent together today.  He is getting so big...{sigh}.   We are picking up his sophomore schedule tomorrow...