Saturday, February 2, 2013

Five for Friday...on Saturday!

I spotted this linky and thought it would be the perfect way to get my rear back into blogging. I finally found my stride this week after struggling to get back into the groove. Coming back from Christmas break and being sick both took it out of me. I was finally productive with my planning time (I can often be found visiting with colleagues to avoid my massive To Do list). Not this week! I organized and labeled cabinets, rearranged center spots in my classroom, and even cleaned out files. The most amazing thing of all was that I got to school 30 minutes earlier than usual most days this week so that I could get it all done. My 10 month old decided to wake up at 5:30 each morning this week to get me rolling. :) Can't resist her smiling face so up we got! Here's what has been happening in my classroom this week... We celebrated Kansas Day! Kansas turned another year older and we celebrated with lots of Kansas activities throughout the day. The kids made sunflowers (our state flower) with 100 sunflower seeds glued to the center. They counted out 10 piles of 10. We are experts at this after celebrating the 100th day of school last week. We also enjoyed a little chocolate "Kansas" treat. A mini Hershey choloclate bar with the corner bitten off. The mini M&M represents where we live. They loved it! The fun idea came from my teaching buddy next door. Love teamwork!
We also started our first week of yoga. We usually have 20 minutes of rest time each day. The kids would get out their rest towels and I would put on soft music for a little quite time every afternoon. This time was really nice at the beginning of the year. Many of the kids would drift off to sleep and the ones who didn't would get some much needed quite time. Well...this time stopped being peaceful in the fall and had since turned into one of my most dreaded times of the day. The kids would do just about any sneaky thing they could come up with and there was very little resting happening. Enter kid yoga! I found some wonderful DVDs on Amazon and the kids are LOVING that they get to turn their rest towels into yoga mats. It is seriously the cutest thing ever to watch them go from pose to pose. It's a great brain break for them and one of the DVD's is actually called Silly to Calm. Perfect for what I need right before learning center time. Anyone doing yoga in their classroom? Do you have a favorite DVD or resource to share? I would love to hear feedback.
Lastly, here is a pic of one of my cabinets in my classroom. I've been trying to reach this level of organization since I moved rooms in July. It only took half a year. Ha! I did tell my other kindergarten teacher friends that they might need to hide my label maker from me because I am getting a little out of control. I brought it home for the weekend. Let's just see how crazy I can drive my husband labeling things around our house.
Check out other Five for Friday posts!

5 comments:

Heather said...

Your Kansas treat is so cute!! Kids are so inspired by anything that has to do with food or candy! :)

Unknown said...

That closet of yours is entirely too cute! :) I just found you through the Five for Friday linky and I'm your newest follower! :) When I was in high school, I did a research paper on Kansas. It was really fun! :) I still know lots of random things too...like...people from Kansas are called Kansans...the Brown vs. Board of Ed National site is in Topeka...and you don't have any professional sports teams, but you have a great tradition of college basketball! ;) Hee hee hee! :) Glad I found ya! :) I'll have to stop back by really soon to see what else is going on with your sweet kinders! :)

Confessions of a Teaching Junkie said...

love the yoga pics! Found your blog through Kacey's linky.

Teresa
Confessions of a Teaching Junkie
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Mrs. Krol said...

So glad you three stopped by to visit my blog!

Stacy K. Wolf said...

I just found your blog and love it! I'm also a fellow Kansas Kindergarten teacher. I teach in the far NW corner.