Lights! Camera! Action!

The Count Down Begins....

This week is our last week until our Holiday break!!! Woohoo!!!

Time is flying by too quickly!!! We did some mid year testing last week and continued with our Christmas activities. In the testing area...well...to my surprise a lot of them are doing pretty good in reading but then I still have about 7 who are not there yet. Those are my tutoring group. Yes, tutoring in Kindergarten....I know, it sounds bad to have 5 year old's stay for tutoring but it gives them more individual time. I'm hoping after the holidays the little light bulbs turn on. ~Ahh...and then there was light! heehee Many times it is developmentally and many times it isn't. For some reason many begin to blossom over the holiday and they sky rocket the last part of the year. ~Crossing my fingers!! What's key to their success is... a strong support system at home, then these munchkins will not have as many problems as others might. All in all they are doing great so far!! ~Whew!

Tonight was our Kinder Christmas Program!!! We all like to go above and beyond a normal production. Yes, I said production...haha! That's pretty much what it is and we go all out! Wow, what a turn out!!! It was crazy! Parents get so excited to see their munchkin on stage and it gets packed! Our parents turn out in huge masses for these programs but when it's Parent Night...uh huh...no shows!

My class did Santa's Workshop, it's a number I usually do if I teach Kinder. My munchkins program revolved around The Nutcracker Suite music which I love and loved to watch. I have wacky elves, little toy dolls, and toy soldiers in the program and they're all waiting for Santa to leave so they can come out and play. Each one of my munchkins truly fits their character! Yes, it's not like The Nutcracker but I just use the wonderful music and it turns out pretty cute.

They did such a wonderful job tonight!!! I was very proud of them! Wait!....let's hit rewind to a week ago! ~What a mess!!! I almost wasn't sure if this batch of munchkins would be able to do this or not! I was the Nazi choreographer/producer! (whatever that role is called) No offense to my German people! heehee I was a meanie!!! All the years in dance, Saltatrix, Trooperettes, Poms, Golddiggers...ugh...brought out the meanie in me! haha All my dance directors from the past jumped into me! ~Point your toes! Do it again! Again! Again!.... Don't break your wrist! Don't mess with your costume! Don't wave at anyone from the stage! Don't do this, don't do that...SMILE! oh yeah and have fun!! I know, I know... Sheesh they're only 5!!! Everything I remember going through all those years of dance and performing, I so appreciate everything I did and what each director taught me. Practice makes perfect! Poor babies probably thought I was the meanest teacher ever. ~I probably was!! The cute thing about all of this is that they now are aware of how to behave on stage. On Friday, 1st and 2nd Grade put on their own performances. Back in the classroom, my munchkins started discussing the things they noticed...~Someone waved when they were not supposed to. They played on stage. The girl dropped her hat and picked it up. They didn't do it together. Hearing their comments made it all worth wild that I have been the Nazi person...they did learn something!! Luckily I'm not the only one in my grade level like that...I have a partner in crime who also demands a lot from her class. To see my munchkins faces light up when they hear the cheers and claps and to hear them say ~That was fun!...is priceless. ~Ok, now I sound like a commercial! ha! They did their show twice in the morning for the school and once in the evening for their parents and they did a wonderful job and asked if they were going to do it again tomorrow! Haha! ~Whew, thank goodness it's over!!! Making the costumes and teaching them the simple little routine pooped me out!!!

We have 4 days left...Yay! Tomorrow we have a show that our Superintendent and 60 others are putting on for the schools. I'm sure my munchkins could give them a run for their money! Heehee J/K This week is going to be filled with more fun, sweets and Holiday cheer! Did I say sweets?...yummy!!! Stay tuned for more adventures in Munchkinville!
XOXO's

Beautiful Snow Day!!!

Poor Mr. NoNo...

Yesterday brought the first day of snow in EP for the holiday season. It was exciting for the munchkins, as well as, their teacher...Yippie! Snow just brings out such happy feelings, happy times, and it also created new memories for these little munchkins who have only been around 5 years. Wow!! Can I remember back to my first experience of snow?...hmmm....not sure if I can remember that far back..haha...I swear I'm an early Alzie or just not using my brain as much anymore! I'm not sure if I was five but it was when I was little and we would go downtown to the Placita during Christmas to see the tree, the moving decorations, and the nativity scene and there was a little snow. Love going there during the holidays and I planning on going this year too. Hopefully my little munchkins will be able to have the same wonderful experience with their parents as I did. Another memory of snow was in April many moons ago...yes April, the weirdest thing but the funnest too!

Last night the district followed along with most of the other districts and decided to start school 2 hours later today. Very nice for us!! Not very nice for parents!!! Eeek! Waking up to a beautiful white fluffy blanket of snow on everything was the best sight to see. It was still snowing and great to leave two hours later than usual. Why can't we start school at 9:30? Not that I'm a late sleeper it just seems the munchkins were more alert or maybe it was the excitement of the fluffy white stuff! Did I mention how many little munchkins showed up to class?...Well, I predicted 10 and to start the morning I had 8...~Woohoo!!! Twenty minutes later 2 more popped in...total for the day was 10! Still a Woohoo moment!! 10 munchkins only exist in Lala Land! Today was truly Lala Land in Munchkinville!!! It was heaven!!! The things I could do with only 10 munchkins!!

They were so excited about the snow and wanted to go out and play in it. ~I did too!! I had to control my excitement for them as well. Because half the class was missing they drew and wrote about the snow. Then I pulled out my Christmas decorations and Christmas tree and we started getting into the holiday spirit. Thank goodness for 99.9 who plays Christmas music all day long!!! The only thing missing was the hot chocolate which I thought of taking but didn't. ~Darn!

As I set up the tree they were cutting out little hands for our hallway paper tree. Boy oh boy, some of those little hands! The cutest thing is when I get alien hands, monster hands, 3 or 4 finger hands...eek! haha! They were so quiet and in deep concentration while working. haha! We need a lot more practice with scissors and cutting around and in between! Out of the 10 in class maybe half did decent hands and didn't amputate any fingers! Heehee! Once they finished cutting I put them together and presto! A Christmas tree!


Lunch came about an hour into arriving at school. The munchkins were also surprised...~It's lunch time already? That was fast! They also kept asking if I was going to take them outside like we tip toed out yesterday...~shh! don't tell anyone! heehee Of course I would, but I told them we would need to do some more work after lunch. That's when my little smarty pants, Mr. Blue Shoes said, ~but why are we going to do work when not everyone is here or are we going to do it again tomorrow? ~Yes, he makes sense but...shh.. I'm not going to tell him that! :) ~Don't worry Mr. Blue Shoes we'll go out when we finish another project after lunch.

After lunch came and went. The sun was starting to shine, so I wanted them to have a little time outside before it melted and PE, because then it would be time to go home...so we bundled up and were ready to go out. We were off to make a snowmunchkin! Six munchkins brought gloves and 4 didn't...hmmm???... ~Only the 6 who have gloves will help roll the snow and you 4 will help me with the things we need for our snowmunchkin. We tip toed out the doors to our spot in front of our class. Luckily one little girl understood how to roll the little ball of snow Mr. Blue Shoes did on the ground in order to make it bigger and bigger. The other little gloved munchkins followed her lead and did the same. I stacked up the body parts when they were done and my other little helpers helped put him together. ~Wait....hmm...something doesn't look right??? What's missing?? ...~Ahhhhhhh!!! We forgot the nose!!! One little munchkin volunteered to run back to the class and find something. ~Yeah right...knowing my luck if I let him do that, he'll run like a wild wet animal down the hallway and our cover is blown! haha!!! ~That's ok, let's see if we can find something out here. There was nothing!!! Not even a little rock! We decided to leave him without a nose. ~What do we name our snowmunchkin? Silence... Finally a little munchkin said, ~How about Mr. NoNo!? hmm... ~Why Mr. NoNo?...~Because he has NO NOse!! Wow...good idea! ~Ok, that's his name, Mr. NoNo! ~Yay!!!

In we went after our little snowmunchkin (Mr. NoNo) was done. Mission accomplished! The day went by so fast but we had such a great time! The next 13 days are going to fly by, then Christmas break!

Stay tuned for more adventures in Munchkinville!!!
XOXO's