Happy President's Day! ...from kindergarten

Happy President's Day!  Like many other schools out there, we will be in school tomorrow.  We are going to celebrate President's Day all day!  To start the day, we are going to learn about the two presidents who have birthdays this month: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Dr. Jean has a long song about money.  I take each verse (each coin) and teach them individually.  We are about to start our money unit in math, so this is the perfect time to introduce them!  I will let each student hold a penny and quarter and study them with a partner.  We'll only learn the penny and quarter.

Here are the lyrics (to the tune of Clementine):

Found a penny, found a penny
Found a penny just now!
It is round and brown and shiny
Found a penny just now.
I see Lincoln, I see Lincoln,
Our 16th president.
On the back is his Memorial,
Penny, Penny
Worth one cent!

Found a quarter, found a quarter
Found a quarter just now!
It is big and round and silver
Found a quarter just now
I see Washington, I see Washington
Our first president
On the back the bald eagle
Quater's worth 25 cents!

Next up, we will talk about George Washington.  I have "A Picture Book of George Washington" to read to the students.  We'll also touch briefly on the cherry tree story.  Then we will create a picture of him and record one fact we learned about him:

Up next: Abe Lincoln!  I have the same picture book of Abraham Lincoln to share.  We'll make a log cabin and put a penny in the window.  We'll talk about Honest Abe, and write a fact about him that we learn!

How can you celebrate President's Day without wishing you were president too?  I found an old but cute handout with a picture of the oval office at the top and handwriting lines with plenty of room.  We will talk about President Obama and his responsibilities.  Then we will think of things that we would like to see happen in our country.  After that, the students will write about what they would do as president to make our country even better!

If we have time, we will do an interactive writing activity to write a letter to President Obama.

**I am a stickler for modeling to my students how to be respectful.  My beloved grandmother who was my classroom coach for many years taught me that you call the President of the United states either Mr. President, Mr. lastname, or President lastname.  You do not refer to him as "lastname" only.  So it's President Obama, Mr. Obama, or Mr. President.  :o)  That's the only rant I have today!  Love you, Grandma!



Thanks for reading!  Be at peace, and all will be well

And She Lived Happily Ever After...Blogging

Once upon a time there lived a girl who grew up to be a teacher.  She was married to the most wonderful husband in the whole world!  Every day she came home excited to share with him all the amazing things that happened during her day in Kindergarten.  Ever loving, her husband would sit and listen, but he prayed that she could find someone who cared about Kindergarten as much as she did.  Then one day, the girl stumbled upon blogger!  She was so excited to see all kinds of teaching blogs!!  She liked them so much that she decided to start one of her own.  It looks like she'll live happily ever after, while blogging.  :o)

So this is me, I'm Brenna.

I have a little bit of a problem.  I love teaching Kindergarten waaaaaay too much.  I have a dream class with dream parental support, and we do so many fun things together!  Besides all the time spent making everything for my first year of kindergarten, I also spend time looking for new fun things to do.  The amount of teacher websites out there with great pictures and ideas is simply overwhelming.  I am in no way a computer geek, so me spending lots of time on the computer is just disgusting to me.  But, the outcome of my students' faces while having fun doing the activities I find are priceless.  This blog may be my official demise, because my type-A personality makes me want to perfect every single detail as well as share every single detail.  This is the very first blog I have ever attempted, but surprisingly enough, I don't think I will be devastated if no one ever reads it!  I am so grateful to all the other teachers out there who have posted activities, worksheets, posters, photos of art projects...I realized that I needed an outlet that wasn't my poor husband to tell the world about my ideas!  They may not be brilliant ideas, but the things I get to do with my students sure do make my day!  :o)

So this is me with my new hubby - we just got married this past summer.

He is a teacher too - he teaches 5th grade and is so great at it!  We used to teach in the same school - I was a first grade teacher and he was in fifth.  It's where we met.  Our story is my favorite story of my whole life!  If you are bored enough, you can read about it on our website....  Me and My Baby
He keeps me grounded, but also is able to let loose and we have lots of fun together!  I think that every teacher should be married to another teacher.  We are able to vent to each other, but at the same time we can recognize if the other person needs advice or just needs a platform.

We have two pets: Kody, the Siberian Husky and Hank, the grey tabby cat.  They "love" each other most days, but are still in the adjustment period of their relationship.  I hate to admit it, but I have a feeling that they are stuck forever in that period of their relationship.  It has grown to "I will tolerate your presence."  :o)

We can't wait to start a family...sorry...let me start over: I can't wait to start a family, but we will wait a little while longer for that adventure - we're having so much fun seeing what this whole "marriage" business is like, that we don't think another one would fit in right now.  But like I said, we can't wait to start a family!  So for right now we will eat, drink, and be Married (as Charlotte says), and have a blast!



So that's all for now...be at peace, and all will be well.