My, My Time Flies!

Another school year is almost over! It always amazes us how much “our” children grow over a school year physically, socially and academically. And we always wonder what happened to the time, if only we had a little bit longer!

One of the disadvantages of teaching on a military base is we don’t get to see our students continue to learn and grow from year to year. The constant moving that military families do makes it very difficult to keep in touch. Facebook (and other social media) has been helpful in that aspect. As a matter of fact, we got several Facebook messages recently about our pre-k and kinder babies graduating from high school. We even got some from students graduating from college! Yikes, time does fly!

We asked the students to name one thing they learned in Kindergarten.  This is what they said:

We also asked why they were excited about going to first grade:

Other End of Year Activities:

Live interviews (Chatterpix):

Kindness Books:  No More Pencils, No More Books,

No More Teacher’s Dirty Looks! by Diane Degroat and The Last Day of Kindergarten by Nancy Loewen

Graduation PinterestBoard

A message from S’s twin to S who’s  moved on with her family.  We miss her but with social media – we’ll be able to keep in touch! (by the way - twins were created in Ms. G's art class).

I leave you with a Smilebox of Ms. G’s pictures from a favorite summer vacation spot for Americans living abroad!

Another slideshow by Smilebox

Have an AWESOME summer!

Plip, Plip Plop!

We have actually seen more sun this spring than we did all of last winter and spring combined! We did have rain this week, thank goodness, since the water cycle was part of our lesson plan for preschool. Parents were amazed at how their four and five year- olds grasped the concept of the water cycle through the hands-on experiments that we did to represent the water cycle.  You have to love the cotton ball as a cloud that sucks up the water and then the rain is represented when you squeeze the cotton ball. J The children loved watching their cups of water too to see if the water would really evaporate.  It is so cool to hear them use the term evaporation when they are talking to each other!

On the other side of the water (not literally), kindergarten was talking about animals that live in the water. Sharks and whales are usually a topic of excitement, but there are lots of interesting animals that live in the ocean and plenty of fun activities that you can do to include a variety of them.  Our kindergarten class did research on an ocean animal and incorporated technology in their research to present what they learned. Awesome!

Web Quest: The unit of study on ocean animals started out with a web quest and listening to Bart the Shark (Voki).  The students were on a quest to find the information about their ocean animal and created their books.  Some were published on Educreations and others on Simplebooklet.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

Educreations Reports:
Some of the students were allowed to create their animal report on Educreations. Please excuse the pictures that are sideways.  They did an incredible job considering it was the first time they were allowed to be fully independent on their creation!
  

  simplebooklet.com simplebooklet.com
Simplebooklet Reports:

Under the Sea Pixie Slides showing what they learned:

Other activities:

Kindness Book of the Week:

We couldn’t decide between these two books to focus on for our Kindness book of the week because they are both so incredible.  Fish is Fish is a story that’s simply and wonderfully symbolic of how friends can remain friends even when they change as they grow up.  Swimmy is the story of little fish banding together to scare off bully fish.

iPad Apps:

Motion Math: Hungry Fish

Ocean - Animal Adventures for Kids

Pinterest Board:

Freebie:

Product:

Youtube video:

Pictures of the waters in Lipsi (Greece)

Have a great Dolphin Week!

Froehe Fruehling! (Happy spring!)

Froehe Fruehling! (Happy spring!)

Spring is a delightful time of the year in Germany. Usually our winters are long and dark, so the coming of spring is an anticipated event. Germany’s countryside’s and villages cast away their layers of wet and cold and welcome the beginning of the season with spring celebrations and lots of color.

Although the weather in Germany can be fickle, (Yes we still get snow sometimes in April!) people are eager to enjoy the sun, enjoy longer days and enjoy the awakening of nature. Driving through the villages is a colorful event as people plant and tend to their flower and vegetable gardens. You actually begin to see people too; taking walks, eating at outdoor cafes, riding bikes and working in their yards.

The excitement of spring is easily brought into the classroom. Children are eager to spend more time playing and learning outside. They notice the flowers blooming and the beginning of leaves growing on trees. They love to take nature walks and make observations on how the environment around them is changing. Science activities/projects are great to do during this time of year. And you can bring some of spring into the classroom as well through art projects and center activities.

Here are just some of the ways we bring spring to our classrooms!

Pixie Slides (Tech4Learning) of spring Activities the students like to do in the spring:

Water color art:

Other activities from my product, Carrots:

The Kindness Book of the Week: The Carrot Race

Never judge a book by its cover is what I say about this book! This book teaches a lesson that it’s not always what you see is what you get AND the importance of friendship!  Regardless of who wins, friendship should be valued above all.

iPad Apps about Vegetables:  Here are three iPad Apps that are excellent!  I especially like Vegetable Island! I think your kids will enjoy them!

Other carrot books:

Spring Video?

                                     

Time for a freebie and new product!

What's a post without a Pinterest board?!

Travel Slides:

To wrap up this post – we had to share two of the most popular travel areas in the spring.  I leave you with a slideshow of Alsace and Holland in the spring.  Pictures were taken by Ms. G! 

Create a slideshow design

Have a wonderful spring week!