Chapter 5: It's Fall, Y'all!

We had a week full of fun!

This week's letter was S, and here's our poem:

"S says /s/

spider in the soup

/s/, /s/, /s/"

Our list of letter learning is growing fast!

We continued learning about numbers 1 through 5, how to make numbers in a ten frame, and how to model and write them.  We also started studying spiders...yuck!

Our week started out by one of the sweeties, T, telling us that she had some pizza and french fries in her backpack.  Of course, Mrs. Henson and I were very concerned, and wanted to make sure we kept them refrigerated if needed, so we asked her to get them out and show us.

"See, it's my pizza and french fries!"

Since we celebrated the first day of Fall this week, we decided to make some pumpkins and decorate our classroom door!  The directions were for the students to create their own pumpkins with only paper, scissors, and glue.  I gave them the pumpkin cutout, and they had to create the rest.  It was so much fun to see what they came up with!
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy! (excuse the blurriness - privacy is important)

Our finished door!  "Happy Fall, Y'all!"

 Ok, now here's a story for you.  We have a problem with wasps somehow making their way into our classroom.  Mrs. Henson is allergic and of course the children are terrified.  So, Mrs. Murphy has to wear her "brave hat" to get these pesty bugs!  ("pesty" was one of our vocabulary words this week!)  Last week, we had some administrators come in to observe us during Writing instruction, and one of these little guys landed right on Mrs. Henson's sweater.  She froze, and I literally leapt over the children sitting on the carpet to swat it off and kill it.  Of course, I saved the day!

Well, this week, we had another unwelcome visitor.  I chased this little stinker around all morning on Thursday, and the kids kept a close eye on wherever he flew.  In summary of me trying to get this guy, I pulled down the curtains, knocked down the display board behind my desk, and lost my shoes! No worries, I didn't give up.  See....?

On Fridays teachers can wear jeans to school.  I usually wear my jeans rolled up since it's still warm outside.  After breakfast I was sitting in the rocking chair getting ready to start the day, when I noticed one of my boys trying to roll up his jeans.  I asked him what he was doing.  He doesn't talk much, so he just looked down at his jeans and looked back up at me.  I said "Are you trying to roll up your jeans like Mrs. Murphy?"  He shook his sweet little head "yes".  So, of course, I helped him!  (We eventually unrolled them, but he just wanted to be like me for a few minutes!)

My sweet girl, T, would not got to sleep at rest time on Friday.  She was restless and kept calling my name.  Finally, I gave in and asked her what she needed.  She said "Mrs. Murphy, can you rock me in that chair?"  "Have you never been rocked in a rocking chair, sweet girl?", I asked.  T said, "No. Can you please?"  I could not pass up this opportunity to love on her and rock her as long as her little heart desired.  So we rocked for about 10 minutes with our music playing and all of the other children snoring, and she fell right to sleep.  My eyes filled with tears while I rocked this sweet angel, and I prayed that she would always remember what it feels like to be rocked in arms of love.

Kindergarten Funnies:

The school gives us a fruit or vegetable for snack on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays - and we love it!

T: "Mrs. Murphy, I want a pinch." (peach)

JW: "I like your braces, Mrs. Murphy!" (bracelets)

JL: "What that is?"

A precious little girl had on some cute shoes, so I asked her to find out where her mom got them from.

Me: "Did you ask your mom where she bought your shoes from?"

J: shook her head yes.

Me: "Oh good! Where?"

J: "The sto'."  (store)

We were working on 10 frames, and somehow the kids kept losing their numbers...

JL crawled under the table and all I could see was his hand pop up holding a number and he shouted "I got me a ten!"

In my attempts to kill that pesty wasp...

JL: "Mrs. Murphy, don't get stinged by that wast..."

Practicing the number word EIGHT:

"eighk".... "eighch".....

(We will keep working!)

T: "Mrs. Murphy, can you fix my belp?  It has come a loose."

That's all for this week, folks!

Please continue to pray for me, my assistant, and all of my sweet kiddos daily.

Believe me, they are much needed and appreciated.  

Until next week,

XOXO

Chapter 4: Half of My Heart

This week was a busy one! 

Our letter this week was R, and here is our little song:
"R says /r/
rooster on the roof
/r/, /r/, /r/"
So far we have learned A, E, H, K, M, and R!  We are getting smart!

We worked on some Close Reading strategies with the book Friends.  We will continue to work on these strategies for a while so that the students can understand all of the elements of a story.

We also worked on our numbers, 1 through 5, this week.
I've got some smart kiddos!

This poor guy came in to school on Monday and could not hold his eyes open... He even fell asleep standing up in line.  Bless him.  He had a rough weekend.

(Don't worry, I let him sleep all morning!)

I can't take full credit for this one, but it was too good not to share.

One of the other Kindergarten teachers did a "Take Home Project" to help her students practice Rhyming Words.  They each got a little brown paper bag with a note that read "Please send two items from home that rhyme!"  

Well, here it is!  Very creative!

 Bear.......Hair

One of my students from my very first year of teaching, who is still very near and dear to my heart, is now in the 4th grade.  Wow!  That's hard for me to believe.  She's got a bit of a "rough" side to her, but she never wants to disappoint me.  I hadn't seen her in a few days, so I started to worry that she had been in trouble.  On Thursday, the counselor came to my room with this note and told me that Paris wanted me to read it, and that she needed to see me during my planning period.  I quickly opened it up and this was inside......

"To: Mrs. Murphy

From: Paris

I got the other half"

My heart swelled with love, and my eyes filled with sweet tears.

I love my Paris.

This week's Kinder Funnies:

JW: "I got exmas on my arm." (eczema)

Me: "Who writes the words in a book?"

AL: "The authostrator."

Me: "Who draws the pictures in a book?"

TW: "Them grown folk."

One of my kind parents brought candy for the kiddos on Friday!

I asked the kids if anyone had any allergies, like peanuts, that I needed to know about.

JL: "I ain't got no asames, Mrs. Murphy!" (allergies)

That's all for this week, folks!

Please continue to pray for me, my assistant, and all of my sweet kiddos daily.

Believe me, they are much needed and appreciated.  

Until next week,

XOXO

Chapter 3: M is for Murphy

This has been a week filled with emotions...

This week, we learned the letter "Mm".  Our letter poem goes like this:

"M says /m/

monkey on a mountain

/m/, /m/, /m/"

The kids like this poem because when saying the /m/ sounds, they rub their bellies (like, mmmm good).  I must say, it's really cute!  As we were practicing identifying words that begin with "m" I saw some lightbulbs go off in their precious minds...

Me: "Children, let's think of words that start with /m/"

Class: "monkey, music, money, man, mop, mouse"

Me: "Very good!  There's another /m/ word...that's very obvious...Mrs. ___"

Class: "MURPHY!!!!!"

All week, they continuously told Mrs. Murphy that her name begins with /m/. 

We also started learning our numbers! yay!  We worked hard on numbers 1 through 4 this week and we reviewed all of the shapes that we have learned.  We learned how to write each number, how to identify each number, how to represent each number, and how to spell each number.  That's a lot for kindergarten, right??

It is really fun to watch their little brains learn.  It is truly miraculous.

Our big learning activity for the week was comparing and contrasting our two stories: Caps for Sale and Straw Hats for Sale.  We worked on these stories all week, and on Friday, we made this Anchor Chart, also called a Venn Diagram.

(please excuse the fact that Mrs. Murphy can not free hand big circles...that's why we turned it into a pumpkin!)

Instead of getting into the emotional stories, let's get to the funny stuff! 

That's the stuff we want to remember anyway, right?!

On the playground at recess one day, there were some locusts on a tree.

Me: "Hey children, what is that on the tree?"

JL: "a crab."

TW: "a peanut."

(They were very serious...)

TW: "Mrs. Murphy, you working on your boputer?"  (computer)

JW: "My skin fell apart on my hand..."  (she had a hang nail)

TW: "Mrs. Murphy, why this fruit cup don't have no shugahs in it?"

TW: "Mrs. Murphy, he's tryin to eat them leaves..."

Me: "What? Leaves?"

TW: "Yeah! You see them leaves on his tray?"

Me: "That's salad, sweet love...."

Even though Mrs. Murphy had an emotional week, I stop myself and look at these sweet children every morning as they come into the classroom, and I can't help but thank God for this opportunity to love them and teach them.  Mrs. Henson and I love these babies so much, even when it can be hard.  I'm sure there will be more emotional days and weeks before this school year is over, but I can always start fresh the next day and show these children love.

That's all for this week, folks!

Please continue to pray for me, my assistant, and all of my sweet kiddos daily.

Believe me, they are much needed and appreciated.  

Until next week,

XOXO

Chapter 2: Tears of Love

Everyone is still here and doing well!

I was not able to post last weekend, so we have lots to catch up on!  This week was a short week, only 4 days, but it felt like it was so much longer than a regular week.  Any change in schedule throws the kiddos off, and makes this teacher a little crazy!

We have learned the letters H and K since last time we updated you!  Here's our poems:

"H says /h/

Horse in a house,

/h/, /h/, /h/"

"K says /k/

Kid in a kayak,

/k/, /k/, /k/"

These poems are all part of our Read Well program, and they build upon each other to create a fun song!  The kids are getting super good at recognizing letters, knowing the sounds we have taught (A, E, H, and K), and how to write them.  I am impressed with their little minds - they learn so quickly!

We also started learning about Rhyming Words, and read Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham book.  Rhyming is a difficult skill to master, so we will work on it for a good while!

We finished up our study of shapes.  We had such a fun time learning the names of shapes and how to describe them - how many sides and how many vertices.  (I know, vertices is a big word for Kindergarten, right?!) Here are some pictures of our Shape Anchor Charts:

We have started learning sight words, and we have also started learning how to write sentences.  We focus a lot of time on this:

"Letters make up words.  Words make up sentences.  Each word has it's own special space in a sentence."

The students can copy the sentence starter from the board, and then try to complete the sentence with their own word or words.  Here are some pictures of our "I Can..." writing.  The students drew a picture of something they can do, and tried to write the words to describe their pictures.  We also had a little fun with this writing activity...since we have been learning shapes, I put on my "brave hat" and let the kids paint circles onto colored paper by using toilet/paper towel rolls.  They had a blast!

Last, but certainly not least, we celebrated Grandparent's Day at school on Friday!  We had a few grandparents come visit our class, and I made sure to take pictures (of course).  Here's a picture of our sweet little craft we made for our grandparents:

"Grandmas and Grandpas are

everything nice,

Like presents and candy and 

raspberry ice.

And chocolate fudge sundaes,

with cherries on top,

And popcorn and peanuts and

grape soda pop.

In winter or summer,

In rain or in sun,

Grandmas and Grandpas

are wonderful fun!"

It happened...the kids saw their teacher cry....
One of my precious boys, who does not listen to Mrs. Murphy, at all, but adores Mrs. Henson, got into some trouble during Resource class one afternoon.  Mrs. Henson was explaining to him how she was disappointed in his behavior and how she expected him to do better the next day.
She said, "L, Mrs. Henson loves you, but tomorrow I want you to do better, ok?"
Me: "L, what do you say to Mrs. Henson? She said she loves you."
(no response....but not surprised!)
Me: "L, doesn't your mom and dad tell you they love you at home?"
(he shook his head no....)
So, I lost it.  In front of the class.  As they were walking out to go home.  There I stood, crying.  Mrs. Henson ran over to him and scooped him up into a big huge hug.
So, needless to say, Mrs. Henson and Mrs. Murphy tell every one of them that we love them every day.

Kindergarten Funnies:

AL: "Mrs. Murphy, I brought you some money.  But my momma said to bring her the change."

Me: "You brought me some money?"

AL: "Yep! I brought it for you.  But I gotta get some change."

Me: "Ok...I'm confused, though?  What's the money for?"

AL: "Just to go shopping with!"

Me: "What shape is this?"

LM: "That's a sware."  (square)

Me: "T, what does that 'fajita' taste like?"

TW: "It tastes like a tie..."

Me: "A tie?  What is a tie?"

TW: "A tie.  Like on a car."

Me: "Oh, a tire?!  How do you know what a tire tastes like???"

When the kids were leaving on Friday for our long weekend:

Me: "Goodbye children, I'm going to miss you all!"

KA: "Oh, please don't be sad, Mrs. Murphy.  You're too pretty to cry."

TW: "I got a dog at the house.  His name is Sawshit."  (Sausage)

TW: "Mih Henson, do you stay with her?"  (meaning, do you live with Mrs. Murphy)

Henson: "No, I have a house and Mrs. Murphy has her own house."

TW: "Oh, well I want you to stay with her, ok?"

Me: "Do you like those apple jacks?"

TW: "Uh huh, they got shugahs in it." (sugar)

"Mrs. Murphy, you got some more of them corn flake jacks?"

I fall more in love with my kiddos and my job every day.  Even on days when they test my patience and seem to be a bit difficult, I leave school loving them more and more.  I am happy, happy, happy!

That's all for this week, folks!

Please continue to pray for me, my assistant, and all of my sweet kiddos daily.

Believe me, they are much needed and appreciated.  

Until next week,

XOXO