Songs From Yesteryear

My mom found this great piano song book in her box of old teaching things. It was published in 1951...made especially for Kindergarten teachers.  

I love looking at the pictures! (I secretly wish I was a Kindergarten teacher in 1951)

When I got my piano this summer for my classroom (remember how excited I was?!) I searched and searched for "Kindergarten" piano music and kept coming to dead ends. It's just no where to be found.  The majority of Kindergarten teachers no longer have pianos in their classrooms like they used to long ago.  

My students love when I play for them. 

"Are you going to play that on the piano today?"

I found a cute little number to play from the old song book and made it our clean up song.  

It's been so great being able to share my love of music with my students.  

Stop by sometime and we'll sing you some songs!

Must Be Friday

Today was your typical Friday in elementary school...times NINE MILLION!

Every few minutes someone broke out into song..."Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!..."

"Mrs. Wolfe, I LOVE Santa Clause!"

The good news is I got my testing all done a week early! Now next week can return back to normal.

I told my students my good news this morning.

Student 1: "What's normal mean?"

Student 2: "It means the same 'ole same 'ole"

Student 3: "Mrs. Wolfe, my dad's not around anymore 'cause he's lazy"

{?} 

This afternoon I was adventurous and got out the white glue...which any teacher knows is risky business. We were working on gluing our reindeer patterns. 

We talked about how "a little dot is a lot!"

I showed them.

I said it a few hundred more times.

Then I watched as one student used every ounce of strength to squeeze the glue in a continuous flow    

all     over     the     table.

lovely 

Just then a student was called to the office to go home.  As I walked him to the door he turned and said, "Bye Mrs. Wolfe! I'll miss you!"

No amount of glue on the tables or singing at an annoying pitch can make me forget why I do what I do :)

happy friday 

Thankful Turkeys

We traced our hands and added colorful turkey feathers

and we had a very special helper! 

We are thankful for many things in Kindergarten!

Family

Friends

Shirts

Hair Cuts

Candy

T.V.

Toys

Food

Haha I love the hair cuts and shirts...I guess if I think about it I am pretty thankful for those things too, especially having a shirt to wear...yikes! 


In our one family video I was telling you about yesterday, my sisters and I are coloring on Thanksgiving morning...all dressed up in our pioneer outfits.  My mom asks us each what we are thankful for.
Kate: "God"
Jessica: "My family"
Elizabeth: "THE T.V.!!!!!!!!!"


:)

We had a great two day week, but I'm ready for three days off!

Older Than Dirt

Looks like it's finally wintertime in Kinderland...

Tomorrow is my birthday!

My students are very excited.  We've been anticipating this day for 22 days now...everyday when we do calendar they say, "...and there's your birthday!"  

It's marked with a big birthday cake so we don't forget :)

Someone raised their hand this afternoon and asked me how old I was going to be.

"I'm going to be 100"

"Wow, you're as old as my mom."

haha

Tomorrow is our last day before Thanksgiving break and we get to have a special visitor in the afternoon.  I told my students that my sister was going to be visiting us.  

"The one who lives far away?"

"No, she can't make it tomorrow.  But my older sister will be here!"

"The curly haired sister?"

"Yup, that's her!"

I love how they know my family by their hair style :)

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Homemade Stained Glass For Me

I was given this gift today by a little girl in my class.

So sweet :)

You should have seen the smile on her face when she gave it to me!

Another student walked up and asked what it was.

I showed him.

Then as he twirled back to his seat he said, "Yeah I've got something at my house for you. I just keep forgetting to bring it...it's candy."

"Oh wow! How special! But you know you don't need to bring me anything."

"Yeah, I do...it's candy."

Things you get to do if you're a Kindergarten teacher

Play fun Halloween songs on the piano

Watch Barney's Halloween special

Wear dorky Halloween socks 

(one of my students asked me why I had pancakes on my socks...umm you mean pumpkins?)

Today was the last day of school before we go on Fall Vacation...
Now a week of rest. 
Just me and Martin. 
Enjoying beautiful Oregon.
I can't wait to share our trip with you when we get back!
See you in a week!  

A Calendar Song For You

In Kindergarten we are practicing everyday how to read a calendar.

We know that a calendar teaches us the month, the day of the week, the date, and the year.

We're working on knowing what day it is...because in Kindergarten they think everyday is Friday...which is sort of depressing when it's only Monday :)

Enjoy our singing! (don't mind my new student in the front row...he's still trying to understand what it means to be in school, i.e. we don't roll around on the floor during our song :) 

Suicide of a Crawdad

Remember my fish tank in my classroom?

Remember how I can't seem to keep any fish alive?

It's currently empty, except for a big green fuzzy Japanese algae ball. 

It was completely full Tuesday evening. 

I had three new fish and a thriving crawdad who was appropriately named Captain Hook due to his one claw. 

Wednesday morning I checked on my tank and two of my fish had perished.  I didn't see my crawdad, but didn't think twice about it because he liked to hide under the plastic bonsai tree. 

School started and someone of course needed a bandaid for a microscopic cut.  As I wandered over to get a bandaid, I noticed something odd on the floor.  Is that a leaf?  A wood chip? What is that?

I leaned closer...

 ummm yeah, that would be my crawdad.

I have no idea how he crawled out of the tank, jumped off a table, and crawled 50 feet across the classroom.  I felt so sad for him.  He thought he was crossing over to greener pastures and instead ended up dying on ugly multi-colored carpet.  


Martin told me I should have brought him home so we could have eaten him.  I think I'll pass.  
"Hey kids! Sorry about the crawdad! But don't worry Mr. Wolfe and I enjoyed him for dinner last night."


Maybe the fish were teasing him because of his one arm and he wanted to get out of the tank. Who knows. 
I'm just sorry I didn't find him sooner...

Thoughts

I'm pretty sure I spent almost 60 hours at school last week.

With conferences and meetings coming out the wazoo I haven't had a moment to catch my breath.  And I've been so inconstant about blogging. 

Plus life has thrown a few curve balls our way the past few weeks that we are trying to gracefully deal with. 

We had our first round of conferences last Wednesday and I have to say they were much better than last years...remember this?

I had a father tear up at the thought that his daughter would someday have the opportunity to graduate high school and then go onto college!  We definitely have our share of disgruntled parents...unappreciative and demanding. But we can't forget our families who value education and thank us for the things we do for their child.  

On a different note...what do you think about my new shoes? 

My mom splurged and got them for me last weekend and I have to say they are a HUGE hit in kindergarten :) Anything with sparkles or bows are a sure thing for five year olds. I think almost every student raised their hand to tell me that they liked my shoes...even the boys :) Little kids are funny.  One student will compliment me and then the ENTIRE class will begin their endless, sweet, and competitive compliments.

"YEAH? Well I like her shirt!"

"Mrs. Wolfe, I like your pants!"

"Mrs. Wolfe, I like your toes!"

"Mrs. Wolfe, I like your shoes, shirt, pants, toes, AND hair!"

haha

There's nothing like a dose of five year old to make you feel better.

Field Day

We played and ran ALL day!

We learned how to work as a team, use encouraging words, and be good sports.

And we had plenty of rest time.

I think the best part of the day for my students was having Mr. Wolfe join us. 

"Is Mr. Fox coming back this afternoon to play?"

"Mr. Fox??"

"Yeah! Your husband!"

"...you mean Mr. Wolfe?"

Oh and the popsicles were pretty delicious... 

Martin was exhausted by the end of the day and now he can officially understand how I feel every day after work :) 

Sneaky Cookie Eater and Loose Tooth

This afternoon I had just pulled a few students to practice counting to three when I heard, 

"Hey! What are you eating?" 

I looked up and noticed nothing out of the ordinary...probably some child eating a wood chip from the playground.  I continued on with the counting bears.

"How many yellow bears?"

"1, 18, 14, quatro."

oh boy. 

Suddenly someone ran up to me yelling in hysterics that one of our friends had lost his tooth!

I walked over to the student who was building a castle out of wooden blocks. 

"How exciting! Where's your tooth?"

"Oh, I stuck it back in the hole so I could eat my cookie."

"WHAT!?"

"Yeah, I put it back 'cause I'm eating my cookie."

Yeah, I got that part.

"Friend? Why are you eating a cookie during class?"

"It's left over from lunch."

He sort of looked a me like, "Duh, Mrs. Wolfe, what else would you do with your left over cookie?"

After putting his cookie back in his backpack he was able to proudly walk to the nurse to get a treasure chest to put his tooth in. 

Remember how exciting it was to lose a tooth?  My knees still get weak every time a student shows me how flexible their loose tooth is. 

"Look! I can bend it all the way back with my tongue!"

e w w w. 

Round of Applause

My students applaud at everything. 

When I read a story they applaud at the end.

When I sing a song I made up they applaud.

When a student answers a question right...you might even hear a "Truck Driver" applause.

When I say it's time for recess...yup you guessed it.  Applause.

It's really cute.

Today as students were getting drinks and resting after recess I began to play one of my favorite songs on the piano...Un Sospiro by Liszt.  It's beautiful and calming.  

When every table had had a drink at the drinking fountain..."ONE, TWO, THREE! THAT'S ENOUGH FOR ME!"...my students burst into applause! I couldn't stop smiling and was actually sort of embarrassed so I stupidly curtseyed.  Then I heard "Mrs. Wolfe! That was superb!" "I love that song Mrs. Wolfe!"  Superb?  I didn't know they even knew that word! 

One little boy came and stood next to me as I played.  I was about to tell him to sit down because he hadn't raised his hand for permission to leave his seat, but I stopped myself.  He's probably never seen someone play the piano that up close and personal before.   He had a huge grin on his face and kept saying, "That's so cool how you're fingers are movin'!" 

Today is why I love teaching so much.

Shhh Don't Say It

When you tell five year olds not to say something...they're probably going to say it. 

Everyday at 3:45 the buses pull up outside of our classroom window.  The first few times it was tolerable when you would hear, "OH WOW! LOOK! The buses are here! Does that mean we get to go home?! YEAH!"

Now... not so much.

I finally told my students that I did not want to hear any mention of the buses pulling up because I could hear when they arrived without 23 voices telling me. 

Today right on the nose...3:45

I could hear the idling engines and our classroom suddenly turned a shade of yellow from the reflection of the bus.  I was reading Where The Wild Things Are during our last few minutes together and had just gotten to the best part where Max calls for a "wild rumpus".

"Hey everyone, don't tell Mrs. Wolfe the buses are here, she just know it cause she's smart!"

(Well that's true)

"SHHHH we're not supposed to say the buses are here!"

"Don't say it!"

"Mrs. Wolfe doesn't want us to say the word bus."

"whisper...bus...shhhh...whisper whisper whisper."

"Guys! Stop sayin' it!"

 It was like a late night sleep over when the parent comes in to tell the children that it's lights out and they don't want to hear a "peep" from anyone.  

So what do the kids do?

"PEEP!"

I've got to find a new strategy. 

Problems of a Five Year Old: Part 2

Today as we were making sure we were sitting in our squares on the carpet...visualize it, look around you, ask yourself if you're in YOUR square...I noticed that a few sneaky sneakies were sitting in a square of their choice.  I quietly asked them to move to their designated square. The guilty parties got up and reluctantly moved to their squares. One particular student however, suddenly burst into tears. He began crying hysterically, tears, snot, drool and all.  

Student: "Buuut I don't waaant tooo siit in thaaaat sqqquaarre! WAAAAAAA!"

Me: "Sorry friend, but that's your special square"

Student: "I want to sit in the green square!"

Me: "Your square is the green square."  

Student: "Sniff, sniff"

*silence*

Me: Alright! Let's go over our colors together

Remember?

Today was the first day of school.

When I walked outside to my car this morning it even smelled like the first day of school. Can you remember what that smells like?  My husband thinks I'm a little strange when out of the blue I'll say, "It smells like school outside."

The air was a little cooler...a little crisper.  Like fall wasn't too far away. (Even though it is :)

Everyone was in new clothes.

The kids shoes were bright with no scuff marks.

Their shirts and pants had newly bought creases in them still.

As the kids got off the bus it wasn't the usual yelling and screaming.

They were quieter, anticipating the new school year...if their teacher was going to be nice, if they would see their friends from last year.

Everyone is on their best behavior.

This may change tomorrow, but I love holding onto what the first day of school is..

It's so full of nostalgia, opportunity and promise.

Anything can happen.

We started screening our Kindergarteners today.  They will start next week.

They are so little and very excited about starting school.

Some of them even dressed up in their Sunday best to come to their screening today.

We don't get very much information out of our testing.  The students are nervous and shy.

Me: Can you tell me what letter this is?

Student: Huge Smile

Me: Is it the letter O?

Student: Huge Smile

Me: What letter is this?

Student: Oh! That's a stick with a head on ...and that one is a man with arms.

Me: Ooooh

Mostly they were concerned that there were no fish in the fish tank. 

"What happened to all the fish? Did they all DIE!? "

It's been a good day.  Tomorrow I will meet five more of my little friends.

And next Wednesday will be my first day of school. 

Can't wait!

New

What do you think of my new glasses? Do they make me look smarter?

When I was in elementary school I would have done ANYTHING to have glasses. And now of course I would do anything to not have them. 

My husband likes to sometimes do a little bragging about how he was given the gift of perfect vision..yeah yeah.  Although, his blue eyes are pretty perfect. 

My perfect visioned husband took me back to school shopping this evening.

It's tradition.

You have to start the new school year with a few new looks...even teachers. Now I'm feeling a little more ready.  It's funny how new school supplies and new clothes can get you mentally prepared to start school.

Tomorrow is it.

My last day of summer vacation.

Although it's sort of depressing I'm excited to start a new school year. 

A new school year gives us a fresh start, new faces, new stories to tell.  Our classrooms will soon be bustling with little voices and lots of activity. I have a feeling this year is going to be great. 

And I can't tell you how excited I am to be teaching Kindergarten again! 

teachers have moms too?

We had a very special guest in Kindergarten today...

My mom!

...aka Mrs. Wolfe's mommy...aka Mrs. Redente

We got to do lots of fun crafts that we usually don't have time for so I could get some more testing, testing, testing, and more testing done.  My mom is a life saver.  

Here's one of the little projects she put together

cute huh?

I think I see a light at the end of the testing window...I'm tired of asking the same questions 24 times

Happy Weekend

Ahhhh! I love that it's Saturday!

Yesterday was a difficult day...we had a red lockdown at school which is a HIDE UNDER THE TABLES AND NOT TALK type of lockdown. It means there is someone dangerous in our school. We were eating lunch in the lounge and quickly shut all the blinds and closed the doors. I think we were all a little freaked out...not knowing what was going to happen next...and plus all our kids were in the lunchroom eating. It turns out no one was actually in our school...there was someone with a gun across the street at the supermarket. Haha I sound like a seasoned inner city school teacher.  "No big deal! There was just a gunman across the street...la de da."  

I think my students have realized that school will be ending soon.  WOA yesterday was CRAZY!  When we were doing calendar I pointed out the last day of Kindergarten.

"After this day you'll be FIRST GRADERS!"

*cheers! claps! hoorays!*

During station time one little boy walked up to the calendar and told his friend in a high excited squeal, "We're going to be first graders!" and then proceeded to do some very advanced dance moves across the classroom.

  

I'm looking forward to actually getting some things done for school this weekend...

i.e. organizing my 2 foot stack of testing papers.

Then of course tomorrow is Mother's Day! I can't wait to help celebrate with my mom and this year I have two moms to appreciate!

My two beautiful moms

(my mom and my mother-in-law Pam)

Tattoo

I've got one.

When I was 19 and after trying my design on with permanent marker in my dorm room, I decided I really wanted to go through with it.  I wanted to get a cross to remind me of my faith everyday...it's nothing elaborate but I like how it makes me feel when I look at it. 

Yesterday my little friends discovered my tattoo. I had totally forgotten when I put on my capris today that it would be showing. 

"Mrs. Wolfe, what's that black thing on your leg?"

"Did you color on yourself with marker?"

"It's the letter t!"

"No! It's a tattoo and it's a cross," said one very street-wise little boy.

 oh geez

I just started in with my lesson hoping they would forget about that fact that their innocent kindergarten teacher had a permanent marking on her leg much like that of their older siblings and parents. 

I don't regret getting my tattoo...well actually I've regretted it maybe a few times. I'm just glad I didn't get the Broncos logo or Daffy Duck tattooed across my forehead...see mom?  Comparatively it could have been a lot worse :) 

Grumpy Pants

ummm...I think half of my class woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Here's how the afternoon looked: 

"Areely's group, stand up!"

Areely stood up and proceeded to look for her math partner...

"MIGUEL? MIGUEL? Where's Miguel?"

"I think he's in the bathroom"

Miguel then proceeded to open the door of the bathroom where he currently was and yelled,

"HEY? HEY! HEY? I'M RIGHT HERE! I'M IN THE BATHROOM!!!!"

whoa

Then I had to talk to Miguel about using a kind voice to talk to our friends AND to please not open the bathroom door when you are using the bathroom.

One of my other students was so tired and grumpy that he literally stood, head drooped, not moving.

"What's wrong friend?"

"mumblejumblegrumble"

I had to pull out all the stops...it was time for Raffi.  Raffi can cure any bad mood with a little song about baluga whales :)