A is for Apple

This morning went fabulous, we are settling into our new school time schedule and Kaitlyn was so eager to start her first day! We started at 9:20 when she woke up with some apple oatmeal to get us ready to start learning. I know everyone has been at school for at least an hour or two by then, but at my school we value our morning sleepy time. It's awesome I'm actually on time :)
We jumped right in to our activities today, It felt like I was right back in my classroom...just with a much smaller audience!
Working with Kaitlyn reminds me of all the things I love about teaching. The creativity, the hands on activities the light bulb moments when they finally get what you have been repeating 700 times.
Two things I took away from today.....
 I miss the actual purity of teaching.  When you taught what your students needed to know, in a way they could understand because they needed it, not just because it was what came next in your teacher manual. In today's classrooms the purity of teaching is hard to find. It's been buried and hidden amongst the endless to do's, the "essential" data driven programs and the suffocating paperwork. But if you look hard teachers still have that glimmer deep inside that still exists. I just wish as a society we could have enough faith in them to allow them to do what they were born to do....teach.

Today's projects also reminded me of one more thing, the definite separation of primary vs intermediate teachers, I can definitely testify having been both . The separation and difference can be summed up in two words paint and glitter. Primary teachers love getting their hands messy and don't mind a little glitter on the floor, Intermediate teachers on the other hand start twitching when they see projects that list paint and glitter as their two main supplies. You can tell by the following activities, and run on sentences that I am DEFINITELY a Primary teacher!
So roll up your sleeves and get a little messy with your little ones....

Here was our First Day!

While Kaitlyn ate her breakfast she went through her alphabet and color books (I found these in teh dollar section at my local Target) using a pointer. I would ask her to point to objects, colors, letters etc. Great warm up activity to get her started. We talked about the letter A and I pointed it out in her books.

After breakfast was over Kaitlyn started her first activity. We made a sticker book with her name on it. I used some left over scrapbook paper cut to 5X7 had hr choose 4 pieces and then hole punched the sides attaching ribbon through each hole to make it like a book. I had her hunt for the letters on her sticker sheet (another Target find) to make her name on the front. I will use this sticker book as positive behavior reinforcement throughout our lessons. Each time she tries really hard or completes as task correctly or other desired behavior I will let her pick a sticker to put in her sticker book. As the holidays come closer we will make new sticker books and I will get different stickers for her to choose from. I have found in the classroom that this is a great motivational tool for young ones :)

When we started learning about the letter A we talked about the sound it made, I had Kaitlyn first use her finger to trace the letter on her blackboard (Walmart) and then use her special red crayon to trace the letter. Since she is a lefty I am trying to let her figure out how she is comfortable writing without too much influence from me. So the tracing really works for her as she is learning the basics of printing.

We read the Book Apples, Apples, Apples. We talked about different types of apples and the four seasons.

After we finished reading our apple book we worked on our 4 seasons project. 

First (Step 1) I put some blue paint on a piece of white construction paper. Kaitlyn used her hands to spread it around the whole paper. (Step 2) After it dried I painted her hand and forearm brown. I placed it onto the blue paper 4 times making 4 trees. (Step 3)For the first tree we added cotton balls for snow (Winter), for the second tree she used her fingerprints in green paint to make spring leaves. we added small balls of pink tissue paper for apple blossoms (Spring) For the third tree she used two colors of green for the summer leaves and the used red thumbprints for the apples. (Summer) For the last tree she used red, orange and yellow paint to add the fall leaves using her fingerprints  (Fall) When she was all done we reviewed the seasons and I wrote them on her paper.

For our cooking activity today we made Apple Croissants....they were fabulous! Kaitlyn and I cut open the apples and looked inside counting the seeds we found and naming the parts of the apple. I sliced them very thin and added them to some butter (2 TBS) and a few sprinkles of cinnamon sugar and pumpkin pie spices in a sauce pan on the stove. I heated them until they were soft. I unrolled the Pillsbury croissants onto a baking sheet added a few of the apples and then rolled them up...Baked till golden and bubbly about 15 min. when we took them out Kaitlyn drizzled some caramel on them....they were oh so yummy!

I hope everyone had a great first day back at school wherever your classroom might be, and I hope that you find these little lessons that we are learning to be helpful.

Getting our classroom ready

The night before the first day of school is always quite exciting. No matter how many years went by in my career I would still be up all night with excitement the night before school started. Wondering what each of my twenty little ones would be like, excited to meet them and eager to start a new year. I would spend hours planning and prepping my room getting it set up just right....those days are long gone and the reality of me staying home is starting to really sink in. I do have to say planning and prepping my classroom this year was a whole lot easier. However the excitement is still the same, I am excited to see Kaitlyn's face when she walks in and sees the dining room all set up for her first day of school. We will start our first real week with our school schedule, I am eager and excited to see how things go. This week we will be learning about apples, we will focus on:

So join us for some " Lessons on the little stuff" as we begin our preschool homeschooling adventure!

New Beginnings

The feeling a teacher gets when they see school supplies neatly lined up on the shelves come July gives them a spontaneous Joy. Many wish they could postpone that Joy in order to enjoy just a few more days of summer vacation. But as a teacher its hard to deny, you love what you do, that's why you teach. It's not for the money, not for the fame you do it because you have a passion, a passion to inspire, therefore you teach.

The night before the first day is always exciting. I never can sleep, fearful of sleeping too long and not making it on time. You hate to be late that first day for two reasons...

1. All of the good  breakfast treats and seats in the back go fast.

2. You don't want to miss catching up on the Good Summer Gossip

For those two reasons I am usually on time that very first day!

I always have my clothes laid out and my new calendar and fancy Purple Pen ready in my schoolbag ( My ole Ruediger Girls can testify to my love of purple pens and frilly school supplies). Ah the night before the first day is was my favorite.

For the first time in ten years there is no outfit laid neatly at the foot of the bed, no brand new calendar or purple pen, no alarm set.....because for the first time in ten years I won't be joining my friends on that very first day back after summer vacation. 

Tonight comes with many mixed emotions because so much of who I am is wrapped up in my profession and my job as a teacher. But for the next 365 days I have been blessed with an opportunity to become a stay at home mommy/teacher to my own two amazing children Kaitlyn (3years) and Callen (5Months) Other than teaching I can't imagine another job as rewarding as being a mom. So while my friends are busy ironing their clothes and filling up their new school bags I have put my alarm in the closet and have snuggled up on the couch for a family movie night with my little loveys. Eager to start my new beginning tomorrow and filled with excitement at the amazing opportunities that lie ahead.

So for the next 365 days along with my role as a mommy to my beautiful children and a wife to my amazing husband I am also going to take on the role of teaching my daughter and preparing her for VPK next Fall. Using my experience and knowledge of Early Childhood education we are going to be learning a few "lessons on the little stuff" we will tackle the typical 3 year old skills like letter recognition, fine motor skills, numbers, counting etc. through fun hands on activities. Each week I will feature one or two of the activities we do at home on the blog, I will include some tips, pictures and hopefully some funny life lessons along the way. Join me as I embark on this new chapter of my life as I give a few lessons and learn a few lessons on the little stuff!