Sunday, September 18, 2011

Community Building Activitiy: Friendship Salad

I decided to do a fun activity as a class to build a sense of community within my classroom.  The idea is not mine but something I have found online when researching for community building activities.  An activity that I came across and thought it would be fun for my students is creating a Friendship Salad.

The items that you need are: large bowl, mixing spoon, bowls, spoons, variety of fruits, marshmallows, yogurt, and a rotten banana.

I told my students that the bowl will represent our classroom.  I used blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and apples.  I came up with a meaning for each fruit.  I told my students that blueberries are the kind kids in the class, strawberries were the kids that don't ever give up and try their best, peaches are the kids that share, apples are the kids that are respectful, and so on.  A different meaning for each item. Then we talked about how yummy the friendship salad was and then I pretend to start peeling the rotten banana.  My kids started yelling stop and no don't put that in.  Then I told them the Rotten Banana could cause trouble in our happy classroom.  The banana will possibly be the name callers, the ones that does not share, cut in line, and say harmful/mean things to others.  As a class, we agree not to add the rotten banana inside our yummy salad.  Then we discussed the rules of the classroom and how important it is for each of us to follow the rules so we can not be a rotten banana.

Here are some pictures of the activity.














Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Winning Couldn't Get Easier Than This

Kreative in Kinder is offering a free unit.  All you need to do is follow some quick easy steps and you get to choose one free unit! How amazing is that! Her ideas are amazing and you will sure enjoy the unit.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Dreamlike Magic

Yay, I am so thrilled that I won a $35 gift card from Dreamlike Magic.  I am really REALLY excited because I have been wanting a new blog template.  The stuff there are AMAZING and very cute.  Everyone needs to check the blog out and look at all the adorable stuff.


Click here to check the site out!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

First Day of School

On my class list, I originally had 29 kindergartners but 5 did not show up today.  It felt great knowing that my class size was smaller than I expected but who knows, they might show up tomorrow.  I was surprise how independent my students were.  Yes, on the first day of Kindergarten! I started Math Work Stations, of course they were just math manipulative for them to explore with but I didn't hear a single "Miss Nguyen!"  It felt nice for once because I kept hearing that over and over and over again all day.  I didn't have any meltdown, thank goodness.  Today went smooth.  We came up with the classroom rules together, did a cut/glue activity, explore math manipulative, and read "The Kissing Hand."  My feet are killing me even though I wore flats.  I am looking forward to another fun yet tiring day tomorrow!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

CVC words

I created these simple cards for my students to practice with CVC words.  This is not my original idea but something I saw on pinterest that inspired me to create them for my own use.  With 29 kindergartners, I need to keep them busy, entertain, and teach them how to be independent.  Tomorrow is my first day, wish me luck! I don't know how I am going to do it with 29 kindergartners.
Click here for them!