Nepal Earthquake Relief

No matter how close or how far disaster hits home. Hearing about the Nepal earthquake broke my heart. After being so close with the school and family over there it hit hard at home. Throughout the year I had taught my students all about the people, culture, animals, and landforms in Nepal. Even as five/six year olds they were sad to hear the news as well. Together we worked to spread a little joy to the friends and students across the world!

STEM Grants

**Update this past year allowed another couple thousand dollars worth of STEM materials in the classroom. We now have 10 ipads to explore concepts, bridge building, fairy tale STEM kits, and so much more! Also, we now have geography readers for the kids to read in leveled groups!

This year was the year of opportunity and growth for our classroom. Chevron came into the area and opened up grants to classroom teachers where they could get up to two $1,000 grants worth of STEM materials. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. With the help of some family and community support donating the last 100 dollars on each grant I received $2,000 worth of materials. This bought bridge building activities, house building, car building, daily math solvers, and more. My focus is to get students aware of the world around them and get them involved.

Through the grant I did not just stop at my room. I went and helped get over $22,000 for the school by pairing up and co-writing the grants with other teachers. The look of the students' faces when the materials started to be delivered. Sheer joy!! Never did I think I would get this opportunity to bring materials to not only my room but the entire school!

Help Out the Class!!!

*** Update thank you for making our Reading grants come true!

Hello Everyone,

I have recently created another Donorschoose project online to get more technology and resources for my students. Please click the link below to donate to our classroom project. My students would be more than thrilled to get more engaging activities for our room.

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/raising-readers-with-miss-p/1496076?challengeid=20542939&utm_source=dc&utm_medium=project&utm_campaign=copyURL&rf=copyURL-siteshare-2015-03-project-teacher_1991506

Directions for donating:
1. Click the link

2. Type or select the amount of money you wish to donate and press the green give button.

3. Click the blue 15% optional donation. You may change the donation to 0% which will give all of the money to our classroom and lower the project cost. Click save.

4. Click proceed to checkout.

5. Click proceed as a guest.

6. Fill out all of your information.

7. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Type the work SPARK in the promo code area and press apply. This is what doubles the donations for free.

8. Fill the rest of the form out and payment options.

9. Confirm payment and option.

10. Feel good that your just helped enhance education for our classroom!

Directions for Sharing on Facebook:

1. Copy the link from above.

2. Post the link in a Facebook status or email.

3. Copy the directions from above.

4. Paste in with the status so your friends and family can donate.

5. Write a personal thank you message for their consideration.

Thank you to everyone who helps with this project. I would like to give a big shout out to Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Shirer who have already generously contributed to the last project titlled "Wiggle While We Work!" I could not accomplish what I do in this classroom without all of your amazing support as parents!

Thank You!!!

About a month ago I was a little sad to find out I was not chosen for the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship. So instead of being bummed I set out to get more teaching materials for the classroom.

There has been a lack in Science and Math lately in the schools with more of a focus on reading. Many students have an interest in these areas and I want to help them build and grow their interest. To do this I set out for a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) grant.

I am proud and excited to announce that thanks to Chevron and a few donors (Bev, Steph & Brent, and Chris) I have received $2000 worth of STEM materials for my Kinders!

 

Thank you!!! I will be posting more projects soon in hopes to revamped some of my classroom and keep it bright, stimulating, and educational!

100 Years Old

Once again for the 100th day of school time flew by! Before we knew it we were 100 days smarter and 100 years old! Students put on their 100 year old best to look super 100. The Kindergarten wore anything from beards to hairy eyebrows. Students could be seen walking around with canes, big bellies, glasses, pearls, ties, curlers, gray hair, and even a life alert button!

Take a look at this Kindergarten grade photo! Can you spot me in the middle?

Arctic and Antarctic Wonders

This year I topped an all new record of milk jug building. My typical 100 milk jug igloo project quickly turned into a school wide frenzy. Before we knew it we had over 600 milk jugs to build our frozen tundra room.

Every year we explore the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the world. This is by far my favorite part of the entire school year. 

We tracked the process of collecting milk jugs on a school wide poster outside of the office. Together we put them in bags in sets of ten. This provided a good visual for grouping by math.

Here you can see our classroom featured in a local newspaper!

Bubbles Galore!

One of the best parts about being a Kinder is getting to explore the world of Science.

With the help of Carnegie Science Center our room got to take a closer look at bubbles and explore them hands on.

 

First the students learned what made up the bubble solution. Next, they got to blow bubbles using different shaped wands.

 

Each student was given a cup with a straw. They got to experiment how the bubble changed with the new tool.

 The result was that they were able to make much larger bubbles! Some were as big as their entire head!

 

 

 Hands down the last part of the experiment was the most fun. We covered the cups with a piece of cloth. This made tiny bubbles and foam like you would see if you added too much soap to your washing machine. They had a blast making a mess!