New Additions to our Kindergarten Class!

We have 12 new additions to our classroom this week and some very proud dads! Next up, butterflies. Will keep you all posted...

Do you Tweet?

Are you a "tweeter"? If not, I highly suggest it. This is a great quick, easy, and fun way to connect with fellow educators. Here are some ways I use Twitter:

-Share ideas

-Ask fellow teachers all over the world classroom, resource or professional development questions

-Find classroom and curriculum ideas about anything and everything

-Follow leaders in education for inspiration

-Keep up to date on the latest education/classroom trends

-Help fellow educators by sharing (re-tweeting) their posts

-Develop your PLN (Personal Learning Network)

Twitter is so easy to join. Check it out here: http://www.twitter.com

Tips:

-Sign up for Tweet Deck. You can post easily and look at other tweets. You can have it on your desktop for easy viewing. This way you won't have to log into your Twitter account to view new information.

-Make your tweets easier for others to find. At then end of your tweets, add tags like #kinderchat, #educat, #elemchat, etc, to maker your tweet easier for others to find. I frequently tag my tweets with #kinderchat.

-Follow lots of people to ensure your tweets are followed. Twitter will give you suggestions. You can also look at others follow list for ideas.

Great "Tweeters" to follow:

cpkindergarten (that's me!)

TeachersNet

iTrT

TeacherInMe

jmcmcmahon

Mr_Fines

Matt_Gomez

Grade1

hechternacht

teachpaperless

k3teachers

Ted_Talks

cindybrock

DiscoveryEd

mimemphis

kandersonpds

Spring Time Means Kindergarten Chicks

Every Spring we are lucky enough to break out the incubator and grow some chicks. Some years we only have a few hatch and some years we have almost all of them hatch. We have 18 eggs so we will hopefully have some precious little chicks in 15 days. I will keep you all posted!

Here are some great resources if you are (or are interested in) teaching this unit in your classroom:

Chick Life Cycle Exploration Set

Interactive Quiz

Enchanted Learning: All About Chickens

Chickscope

Job Week in Sr-K

This is Jj week in Kindergarten and you know what that means...Job Week! We have had a Judge speak with the classes and later this week we will have a fireman and a bug exterminator. I am going to highlight today's visitors because it was very different and extremely interesting. We are lucky enough, here in Memphis, to be the home of the National Ornamental Metal Museum. The Metal Museum is the only institution in the United States devoted exclusively to the advancement of the art and craft of fine metalwork. The boys found it fascinating and I thought it was every educational. Here are some pics from their visit. You can find out more about the National Ornamental Metal Museum HERE.

World Maths Day

On March 1st, our school was lucky enough to participate in World Maths Day. I am proud to say that 2 of our classes placed in the top 20 in the world. Although, we didn't participate online in our Sr-Kindergarten class, we focused our day around math activities. One thing that the students loved was math game rotation. Each class visited all 4 classrooms for different math activities. The activities were all so much fun the the students think it is "cool" to visit their friends classrooms. Each teacher's activity was different and the one I chose to use was a web site named Toy Theatre. I put the site on the SmartBoard and the boys were able to work in teams to to solve the problems. If you haven't checked out Toy Theatre, it is a must. There are wonderful games for many subject areas. We use it frequently! If you aren't signed up to do World Maths Day, check it out. It is a great learning experience and all your students will be so excited to compete with their peers from all over the world!

Helpful Links:

World Maths Day

Toy Theatre

Write up about PDS's Participation in Maths Day

News Story about PDS in World Maths Day

StartWrite and the SmartBoard

This might be old news to some but I have just discovered that you can use StartWrite paper on your SmartBoard to practice handwriting. How it took me years to figure this out, I do not know. I am so excited about it, though! All you need to do it open your StartWrite and then start using your SmartBoard "pens". Make sure that your Smart Board tools are on and go from there. I love working with handwriting but it can get a little dull sometimes for me and for the boys. This is a great way to make handwriting more interactive and exciting for the students.

If you don't have StartWrite you can click here for a free trial.

Smart Tables

Last week the Smart company dropped off a Smart Table for us to use for a couple of weeks. It was so easy to use and the boys loved it. One of the keys to using the Smart Table is that you have to work in groups of 2, 3, or 4 on a lot of the games and activities. I think it is quite an investment for any school but the students seemed to love it and there are a plethora of games and activities that you can load. It was so easy to use, just plug and play!