Monday, April 7, 2014

on the Magic Schooooooooooooool Bus...

For book character day this year, we were inspired this year by our favorite science-minded redhead and her magical school bus.  I have always adored Miss Frizzle and her out of this world fashions.  I love that her dress is always themed.  I found the most perfect blue swing dress on clearance at Old Navy and the deal was set!  I made some felt planets, stars, and other fun things to sew on it.  I found the most perfect shade of yellow tights (Target clearance) and added my own red shoes and my little girl's Merida wig.  I had to pin the wig and put part into a pony to create the Frizzle look. I thought it turned out pretty fabulous and my students LOVED it.


Mr. Howse made THE most incredible bus out of carboard and paper.  He even added those sweet familiar faces of the kiddos in the back!  The bus opened up so our other kinder teachers could hop on!






This was by far my most favorite book character day!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Cooking with Kinders

Well we unintentionally took a few...errrr....well several month break from blogging.  But we are ready to get back in the swing!

One of the things that has kept us so busy this year is "Cooking with Kinders".  We started cooking with our students last school year and have continued it on this year.  Basically we plan a cooking lesson with our students based on our unit of study each week.  We combine our classes and have a blast.  We are able to connect MANY CCSS standards into each lesson (like average of 13!) and we are feeding our students at the same time.  Last year we presented our "Cooking with Kinders" idea to our district school board.  In November of this past year AETN contacted us to partner with them to put in a garden.  A few representative came and cooked a big Thanksgiving meal with us and took some fantastic photographs!  Hopefully we will get that garden going before this school year ends for sure!

This fall we were asked to present it at our state school board conference!  It was the first time for either of us to present formally and we were so nervous and excited.  We got to share our idea with school board members, principals, and superintendents from all over the state.  We got a good response and learned a lot from our experience.  We were so honored to have been chosen.





In January we were recognized at a school board meeting for presenting at the ASBA conference and a local education reported heard about us so she contacted us to do a story.  She came in late January and observed/ took photos and videoed while our students made salsa and guacamole.  It was the most precious write-up in the paper and she put the most amazing video together of our students.  You can see it here.   Again we were so beyond honored.




We love the cooking program we have created and feel that it is a strong way to incorporate so many CCSS standards into your weekly lessons.  It provides a hands on, integrated, fun lesson for students and it feed those bellies at the same time.

We are currently working on putting together a printable unit based off our cooking lessons for TPT.  We will update when we do!