May

Here is Ms. Maggie Flowers, the OT, helping a student write his name on his coloring book. She helps several students and has been a big help to me this year as well. Thank you Ms. Maggie.

The flower garden outside of my classroom planted with pink, yellow, and white roses. Everyone says how pretty it is so I decided to take a picture of it and put it up on the web site. If it was not for my para working in it the garden would probably have been abandoned. I love flowers but I cannot keep them alive.

Vann's Strawberry Farm Field Trip - Friday, May 1, 2009

Here are some second grade boys who carried the cooler full of milk and the box of sandwiches to the classroom for the on the morning we went to the strawberry patch. They were a big help.

Here the students are listening to the lady at Vann's Strawberry Farm. She was telling them all about the fruits and vegetables they grow.

The students are inside the cooler feeling how cool it is inside and seeing what kinds of things are kept in the cooler.

The lady who works on the farm is telling the students about the strawberries and how to pick them. Mrs. Williamson is watching.

Here are some students picking strawberries to put in their containers.

These students are looking around for some strawberries.

Look at these two filling their containers.

The wooden milk cow waiting to be milked.

Here are some students milking the milk cow.

These two boys are moving little balls and rings up and down a maze.

Here are some students holding on the chain and looking at Mrs. Quimbley's beautiful house. Some day I will own a pretty house like that.

Here the students are sitting at the tables under the shade trees in Mrs. Quimbley's back yard.

Here are some teachers fixing their plates of food at the teacher only food table. We ate inside while the students watched a movie on the big TV. I was so busy making pictures of the house inside I hardly had time to eat.

Here the students are walking down the drive way leaving Mrs. Quimbley's house. As we were all leaving she was taking pictures and saying good bye.

Here are the students sitting on the bus ready to head back to school.

Mrs. Ragan decided to go down this road hoping it would be quicker to get back to school. But the road was still closed due to the flooding we had back in April so the bus had to turn around. We ending up going about ten miles out of the way. I just had to get a picture of this.

Making Mother's Day Gifts, Friday, May 8, 2009

Every year I purchase these door knob hangers and some little sticky decorations in the craft section at any kind of craft and fabric store. I write the students' names on one side. On one side I write Don't Disturb Mom and on the other side I write Welcome Mom is in!. The students put the little sticky decorations on them for their mother. Their moms can hang the door hanger on which ever side she would like depending on how she feels. The mothers think they are great. They give them to their mother on Mother's Day.

Here is a picture on one before it is decorated. The decorations are right beside it on the table.

Here is a student decorating one for his mom.

Here is a group of students at the red table decorating the door hangers for their moms. They stopped long enough to smile for the camera.

Here is a picture of a morning message written on a hand writing poster that matches the handwriting paper the students use to write with. They have to copy down a morning message every morning as part of their morning work during the announcements and while I take care of morning housekeeping things.

Here is a picture of two boys writing the morning message on handwriting paper. Practicing every day really helps the students learn how to form letters and improve their handwriting.

Addition and Subtraction

We learned how to read and solve addition problems. Here are some students are using red and blue uni-fix  cubes as counters. They used blue for the first number and red for the second number. They count all of the counters to find the answer or sum to the addition problems.

We also learned about story problems using both addition and subtraction. The teacher or a student will tell a story problem and the students have to listen. They must decide whether to add or subtract. They have to use the numbers in the story to write out an addition or subtraction problem and then solve it to find the answer. This is one of the math GPS standards for kindergarten. I used teddy bears to help demonstrate story problems and I made up stories about the bears.

After I demonstrated story problems and how to solve them the students completed a math sheet from their math books about story problems. To keep up with the bear theme I gave the students teddy bear counters to use and we made up stories related to teddy bears. The students at the yellow table are working hard writing math problems and using the bears to help them solve them.

Field Day 2009

On Friday, May 15 we had field day for all the students in grades K-2nd. We had lots of fun. Some activities were held outside and some were held inside in the gym. We had some good players and winners in our class!

Here I am sitting with a group of students. The students sat on their towels on the ground. We were all cheering for our classmates and friends. Before we went out that day I poured and rubbed everyone down in sun block lotion to they would not get sun burned. Sun burn is painful. I know from experience.

Run! Run! Run! Here is a picture of one of the boys running in a race on the pavement.

Here is a group of boys who participated in a race. They look happy and they ran real fast.

The Twins Came to Visit!

On Friday, May 15, 2009 right after we went in the gym to finish up field day activities Monterel's Mom and Aunt brought his twin sisters to see us. We had been wanting to see them all year. His mom surprised us. They ate lunch with us and then came down to the room to visit a few minutes.

Here is a picture of Mrs. Kelson holding the babies Mia and Mya. They are so precious. I just love those babies.

Here is a picture of Monterel sitting on the rug in the classroom holding his twin sisters. He loves them and helps feed them and take care of them. He feed them a bottle while they were there.

Here are two students pointing to the numbers for the students to count. All of the students are counting numbers and some students are holding the babies. Monterel's Mom is looking at the calendar board as the students are counting.

Playing in the Classroom

Here is a student playing with math manipulatives. He put several shapes together to make some earrings. I just had to take a picture.

The Last Week of School!! The count down has begun!!

Here are some students eating honey and biscuits for breakfast one morning. No I did not cook the biscuits. I drove through McDonalds that morning and purchased 10 biscuits and divided them in half for the students. The students liked Uncle Charles' honey. We ate a whole jar of it!

This is a picture of me holding Graci. Graci is Mrs. Ragan's granddaughter. She has just finished kindergarten at her school the week before. Graci has really grown up and gotten big. When I first started she was 2 1/2 and little. Everyone thinks she is my daughter when we go somewhere together. She came with Mrs. Ragan on the Thursday before the last day of school. We all wore AYP shirts and jeans that day since we had an academic celebration. At the academic celebration the students from al grades received awards for their good work academic progress.

Student Awards from our class!

This student was one of the top AR readers for our class. She received a certificate. The other student, a boy, from our class was out that day.

These students received the most improved awards for our class this year.

These students received the good citizenship awards for our class.

Taking down and putting things away for the school year.

Here is a student helping take the seat sacks off of the chairs.

Here I am folding a seat sack and a student is watching me. I will take them home and wash them for the next school year.

The Last Day of School!

The last day of school for the students was Friday, May 29, 2009. We had fun and partied all day long. You will have to excuse the mess in some of these pictures since we are in the process of taking things down off the walls and shelves in the classroom. I will be moving to pre-k next school year so I have to move all of my stuff to another classroom.

I snuck Drosselmeyer the cat in for the students to see him on the last day of school. Drosselmeyer had on a black bow tie. Here is a student holding and hugging Drosselmeyer the cat.

Here is Ms. Grimmett holding the cat. She held him way out so he would not get hair on her. I just had to take a picture.

Here is a table of students eating pizza for lunch. We had pizza, chips, and soda for lunch. Mrs. Ragan bought lots of pizza and I bought lots of chips and sodas. We had a lot of food!

Another table eating their lunch and a student is wanting some more drink. All of the stuff in the pile by the table is my things that I am taking to Pre-K with me.

Here the students are watching the movie The Ugly Dachshund. This is the funniest movie I have ever seen. We have watched it several times this year and the students, Mrs. Ragan, and I still laugh our selves to death every time we watch it.

Here is Drosselmeyer hiding under the computer table. I guess he decided this would be about the quietest, safest place to get. We had so much noise and excitement going on the last day of school.

Good bye first bus load buses! It is a tradition every year that  on the last day of school everyone comes outside to wave and shout bye to all of the first bus load buses as they pull out loaded with students to take them home for summer break.

Whew! Looking back at all of the pictures and activities that we did this month, May was a very busy month!

Background Music "The Little Mermaid"