Hippity Hoppity!

Last week was a nice and partially mellow 4 day week!

Amazing how we're already in April! Time seems to be racing! Well...sometimes it's on sloooow mode!

Last week the munchkins had a family project due during the week and surprisingly they all turned it in! Some parents are actually getting a little more creative! ~It's about time!! The only reason I think they all did one was because their child wouldn't be able to participate in the Easter Egg Hunt without it. Haha! They were to create their own Easter basket and the only rule was, it could not be store bought. They all did a great job! The three best baskets were given prizes and that was a plus for them to complete the project as well.


The winds were crazy during the week and we were worried it would ruin our egg hunt but luckily we scheduled it Thursday morning before the winds blew in. The munchkins were super excited for their egg hunt and it was the perfect carrot to dangle over them during the week if they didn't behave. ~Yes, I enjoyed dangling that carrot! I even had my new munchkins step-mom call to ask ~Is it true they won't have their egg hunt because they didn't behave because someone, how do I say, passed gas on the rug? ~What?!!! I almost died laughing! ~No they don't get in trouble for FARTING! I didn't say that but told her ~If they don't behave, yes, they will not be participating in the egg hunt. Then she started to tell me that there is something wrong with him, that he's not all there, used the term weird, and that his father is in denial. Hello?! ~I think you're weird!!! The term parent or step parent shouldn't be given out so freely. Just because they're labeled "parent" doesn't mean they are parents or know how to parent. She might be like Cinderella's step-mom! Eeek!!

Back to the fun stuff!...The Egg Hunt!
Each munchkin had to bring 12 eggs filled with wrapped candies and our volunteers hid them the morning of our hunt. The volunteers did a great job hiding them in the two jungle gym areas we have. I'm the loud mouth of the group, why I'm not sure, because I was always really shy! heehee! On my count all Kinder munchkins took off running and scurrying to get as many as they could. They were thrilled and yes we had a few tumbles and rolls! Eggs everywhere! It was such a sweet sight to see them so excited and looking through their goodies. They were dying to open and eat it!! Since we did the hunt early in the morning I now got to dangle their filled baskets in front of them during the rest of the day! ~Ahahaha! I know, I know...mean teacher! It worked though! They were little angels! Haha!

From here on out there aren't anymore breaks in the year. ~Drag!! Unless I take one myself and make it a long weekend down the line. Which I just might! ~Shhhhh no telling!!!
TAKS testing is coming up and I'll be pulled from my munchkins to test some students! Yikes!! Sad thing is Kinder will start their assessments also after TAKS. ~More testing...YUCK! We still have a lot of work to do and push these babies to be ready for 1st Grade. I haven't heard if I'll loop up to 1st with these munchkins or not so until then we still have a few adventures left! Stay tuned!
XOXO's

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, and Pumpkins

Last week our main adventure was a field trip to the Mesilla Valley Maze and Pumpkin Patch! Yay! Woohoo! (jumping up and down) Yippie!!!

We had so much fun!!! If you have never been to a maze or pumpkin patch it should be a must!! Mesilla Valley has the best one, I think! Not only did the munchkins have fun, each teacher did as well.

This was the first trip on a school bus for many of them and probably the first trip outside of their own neighborhood. It was an hour ride and no potty accidents! Whew!!! They were so good and had fun looking around as we drove through El Paso to Las Cruces, NM.

We had a little drama when we loaded the buses in the morning with our sack lunches and milk. Let's just say some, ok...one janitor isn't much of a gentleman. Sheesh! I think chivalry is dead!! I won't get into the details because I may throw in some colorful language that may get your eyeballs to pop out! haha! Let's just say, I wanted to bop him one!

Back to the happy times!....

The munchkins took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and got to pick out their own pumpkin. They had so much fun and there were so many in the huge field! We had talked about how pumpkins grow and read them a couple of books with pictures, but for them to get the actual experience was amazing. It was cute to hear them use the vocabulary they had learned in class. They scurried like little field mice as they searched for their perfect pumpkins. They would see one, grab it, look at it, then move on to the next one. Once they found "the one" they knew! Guess that's like the perfect man! haha Pick a few and throw some back..haha! Yes, that's a whole other blog! heehee


The pumpkin vines are pretty tough and some munchkins had a hard time pulling off their pumpkins. Once one or two got the twisting action down right, they went around helping the others. We wrote names on the bottom of their pumpkins so they knew which one was theirs at the end of the day. The stem was pretty prickly and I was just like the munchkins searching for my "perfect" pumpkin and pricked myself a couple of times...ouch!

It was a beautiful day to top it off! After the hayride we sat to eat lunch and time was flying! It's true time flies when you're having fun! Boy were we having fun!!! Decisions, decisions...do we do the corn maze or the huge slides??? We had about an hour left because it would take us another hour to get back to school. If we get lost in the maze who knows how long it will take us to get out and if a search party would need to be sent in after us. Hmmm??? If we just slide then we don't get the experience of walking in a corn maze!! ~ Ok decision made!...we're going into the maze...eek! I had to remember a few things...DO NOT lose a child was #1...haha! ~Keep counting, 17 students, 17 students! Then I had to remember...pay attention! If I don't, we'll be going forever in circles. ~Should I leave bread crumbs like Hansel and Gretel?? No wait, one of the munchkins might eat them!! In we go!!!! ~Wow, look how tall Ms. Buddé! Taller than you! Are we going to remember how to get out Ms. Buddé....I hope so!!! As we walked a bit into the maze the turns started to creep up on us...right or left??? ~Wait...there's a sign! Mini Maze??!! It was a poem and clues to follow in order to get out... a shorter way out for the little munchkins. ~Yay! Whew! Thank goodness because I was beginning to get worried! It was the cutest poem about bees and there were 10 clues to help us out! Guess it was my Hansel and Gretel way out! ~Woohoo...we made it out!!


Now it was time for the slides!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeee! There were about 5 HUGE slides that they were excited to get on. Some of their little faces just looked up at them with a little hesitation but I had them grab their potato sack and run up the hill before they thought about it too much! After the first time down the slide they LOVED it and kept going back. That was the best part of the trip for me to watch...they were laughing so much it was adorable. Of course I had to go down the slide myself...heehee! As myself and my other partner in crime waited at the top for our turn...all our kids were at the bottom chanting our names...Ms. Buddé, Ms. Buddé, Ms. Cabral, Ms. Cabral! Little munchkins from other schools kept cutting in front of us...~Hey! It's MY turn...I wanted to say...heehee! Finally....Wheeeeeeeeeeee! SPLAT! Ms. Cabral crashed into me...haha! The kids loved to see us make fools out of ourselves and so did we!



It was time to load the bus...wait!...potty break before another hour ride back! On the bus some of them fell asleep...funniest thing ever! Poor things slept or squished each other or against the windows...but they were quiet! Shhhh!!!!!! Ahhhhh...nice!


What a wonderful experience they got and I was lucky to share it with them! What a fun day we had!


This week is a short week...tomorrow is their costume dress up day, Wednesday is pajama day and half day early release, Thursday and Friday the kids are off but we have teacher inservices...ugh!
Stay tuned for more....
XOXO's

Short Week..Hip Hip Hooray!!

Hip, hip, hooray...start of a short week today!

What a wonderful break! I can't say I was full of energy and ready to get back to work...I had too much fun and wanted more time off. haha! I had to remind myself it was going to be a very short week. 3 day week, yes three days because I have a workshop all day tomorrow...Woohoo!

I normally wouldn't be very happy about going to a workshop but this one I am. If anyone took any English courses at UTEP with Dr. Keith Polette, you know what a great speaker he is. In my undergraduate course of Children's Literature we would swoon when he spoke. He has a great way of keeping your attention and interest. It doesn't hurt that he's not bad on the eyes too...heehee! ~blush~ He has some great children's books he has written which relate to our Southwest area. I'll post more about him and his work and the workshop tomorrow if all goes well.

My munchkins today were very calm and it was nice. They're starting to fall into a routine which will make my life easier in the long run. We were supposed to watch President Obama's speech today but not sure what happened. The techie that I am and another fellow teacher found it streamlined on a Washington web site and the munchkins got to listen to it. To my surprise they did a very good job paying attention...well, some listened. My penguin boy, who should have been the main one listening wasn't...ugh! All my other munchkins were very focused on what President Obama said especially when I gave them the eye when he said "Listen to your teacher." It's amazing what they know and how well they listen. Many times we get looked over because we're Kinder! We had a great discussion afterwards about the things that were said and what some of the things he said meant. This was a perfect transition into the discussion of having a substitute tomorrow and they BETTER behave! We'll see what happens with that when I get back on Thursday.

We used scissors today for the first time...eek!!! Wow!! It's amazing to see the correlation of my munchkins who have no clue how to hold or use scissors with those that have very poor fine motor skills or I should say lack of fine motor skills when writing and using a crayon. The munchkins that I've notice have poor fine motor skills couldn't hold or manipulate scissors if their life depended on it! Before using the scissors we first learned how to trace their little hands on construction paper. Most of them did ok, but some hands looked like strange creatures from the black lagoon! Once we traced, then I had to show them how to hold scissors. Yes, just like anything else, many need to be taught how to simply hold little scissors correctly and then getting their little hands to manipulate the scissors open and closed. We went over the rules...no playing, no poking, no cutting hair, no cutting uniforms, no walking with scissors, no this and no that! Finally....we started, they first have to learn to place their thumb and first two fingers in the correct places. We did that over and over. Whew! That's a job in itself! A good chunk of them did very well holding their scissors while others struggled. I know I should have just had them practice cutting paper into snips and strips but I wanted to push them a little more. Well, those cute and strange little hands we traced...it was time to cut them out! Maybe 5 cut out beautiful little hands and kept the fingers intact! Another 7 or so did ok...a few fingers missing or chopped off or their hands looked like part mittens or creature hands. Haha! The other 4...ahhhhhh!!! I think that's going to be homework for those...just holding and cutting up paper and following lines to cut. Yikes!!! Their poor little hands were...hmm.. let's just say amputated! Not making a joke of any amputees but these poor little hands had no fingers and were left as blobs. I'll have to post the pictures later of some of their construction hands...they are super cute to see!

Toward the end of the day today they had a special treat...Ronald McDonald came to talk and put on a skit about Bullying. Did you know there was a real Ronald McDonald...well there is!! Heehee! It was a little scary to see this very tall man dressed in the full outfit and makeup! My sweet special "Jimmy" boy cried. At first I thought it was because he was scared of the clown. Who's not afraid of creepy clowns?!! Well, later he told me he cried because it was "too wild." They gym was packed with K-3...that's a lot of kids and he had them very active and it did get loud and crazy. This was a good indicator for me that he doesn't do very well with too much audio stimulation, but he did do ok. The kids loved his show.


We'll see how tomorrow turns out at the workshop and I cross my fingers the munchkins behave with the sub...or else! ;) Stay tuned...
XOXO's

Day 2 in Munchkinville...Relief!

Day 2 was very calm...thank goodness! But, where do I get new feet! Ouch!

Parents were very good about leaving their munchkins at their designated lines. No criers!!! Yay!
I still can't get over how tiny they are and so darn cute!!! I slowly started a basic routine with them which will help in the long run. In my opinion if the discipline doesn't start from day 1...forget it, you've lost them and you'll have problems all year!

I made listening and following instructions into a game. They were thrilled to hear we were going to play a game! If they only knew... I was assessing to see who I may have difficulties with when it comes to listening skills and following instructions. It was fascinating to watch, to say the least! Hmmm...are they like my little mice in an lab? Heehee! In a way they are, bless their little hearts because they are so innocent and impressionable at their age. If I tell them the sky is pink they'll believe it! Or that my eyeball bottle has the eyeballs from kids who misbehave. No, I really don't tell them the sky is pink...haha! Ok so I do use the eyeball bottle...haha! No worries, not real eyeballs...just water bottle with gel and googly eyes! Haha! They do think I flattened kids eyes and stuck them in the goop..heehee! I know, I'm bad.

Their little minds are like sponges wanting to learn, it's just finding the right method to teach them that can be frustrating at times. Not all munchkins learn the same way. You have visual learners, auditory, kinesthetic ...etc. so I try to touch all areas using any means possible; music, dance, movement, etc. I always fear I won't be the best teacher I can be or that they won't learn everything they're supposed to. The pressure I put on myself is horrible sometimes. It's true that we are our own worst critic! Well, enough of that for now!

We did so much today and they were very good. Yes, we had some moments but they're learning that boot camp has begun. haha! They were better today because they knew I would be sending discipline cards home today if they misbehaved. One little one was preoccupied at one point and whispered to me "how am I doing today?" Awww....of course I had to reassure him he was having a GREAT day and would keep his green card. (No, not crossing papers but a green itty bitty card they think is worth gold!...heehee)

We did our calendar routine, we sang and danced the months of the year and the days of the week! Woohoo! They loved the months of the year to the movements of the macarena! haha! If you remember how the macarena goes try it...it works! You know you want to try it! Haha Our days of the week are sung to the tune of the Adams Family and it's cute to watch because most of them can't snap yet so they use their mouth/tongue to make the snapping sound. "Days of the week..snap snap...Days of the week...snap snap...Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week..snap snap...there's Sunday and there's Monday, Tuesday and there's Wednesday, Thursday and there's Friday, and then there's Saturday...Days of the week..snap snap..." :)

We did a little bit on how to draw a face and details so we don't have anymore alien's in our drawings or stick limbs and fingers...heehee. We also did a little bit on numbers 0-5...we'll be working on this for a while...eek! I forget what they come in knowing or not knowing. We'll also be doing a lot of fine motor skills to help them control the crayon and writing skills. I don't use pencil's at all until later. We only use crayons right now. One reason is they'll want to erase everything and it's a mess! Also I want them to learn it's ok to make a mistake and not worrying about erasing everything and keep going. The crayons make even the smallest scribble look nice and colorful!

I had the best compliment today from one of my munchkins which started a chain reaction...one of my itty bitty boys said..."you know what? I like this class!" I told him "well I like that you're in this class and this class likes you too!!" Then of course they all started saying they liked being there! Awww....whew! Thank goodness!!! Guess being strict and a balance of fun keeps them coming back, I hope!

I'm still crossing my fingers and praying that my class size stays small and behavior problems to a minimum. I did get a new little girl today but she's wonderful and a beautiful little thing. I'm lucky so far with my little pingos, Spanish for behavior kids. Some of the stories I could tell you about some of the other kids in the Kinder classes...eek! Parent's need to start disciplining their children, have consequences, and be consistent...ok enough or I'll get started on a soap box.

I told my kids we had a secret...shhh...get a little closer to hear....don't tell anyone... ready?...you're still to far...get closer...listen.. ~whispering...Guess what?... I was told I have the Best Kinder class ever and they gave me the best kids!
Their little eyes lit up and you can see them beaming! Love it!

Hoping for a good rest of the week...stay tuned.
XOXO's

Teacher Inservice #3...Much Better!!

My Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho is....pooped!

Why is it so hard to wake up in the morning?? I'm an early bird by nature but knowing I have to get up by 5 is just killing me! Could it be I haven't followed my own advice I give to parents about having their munchkins go to bed early? I should have taken my own advice and started going to bed earlier a few weeks ago! Hopefully I'll hit the pillow early today!

Day 3 of Inservice was much better today! Thank goodness!!!
Once again we were provided with a wonderful breakfast at our campus; tamales, fruit, coffee, and orange juice. Yum...well except for the coffee and juice. I need to make the suggestion that not everybody drinks coffee and orange juice...yuck! haha! But I can't complain when it's FREE! heehee! They also provided a wonderful lunch for us too!!! :)

We started off with a wonderful talk from our Principal. She's super energetic and so positive about the new school year. If it wasn't for her leadership I don't know what we would keep us going. The kids keep us going, but it all has to start from the top. This will be her third year with us and she has turned moral around and she really is there for the kids. We're blessed to have her.

Our morning covered faculty handbooks and student handbooks...more do's and dont's. While part of our afternoon covered Technology. Covering technology is always a plus in my book! Love it! The topic was Cyber Safety and some great web sites for parents and students when using the web. NetSmartz was one we had a good time using. There were great age appropriate videos discussing the importance of being safe when using the internet. Parents need to be more aware of what their children are doing when they are on the computer. We discussed how older students are experiencing Cyber Bullying. Wow...bullying even through technology.
Cyber Saftey Link
http://www2.yisd.net/education/components/links/links.php?sectiondetailid=146844&

Then, I was hit with the news....I'm getting a Student Teacher!! Ahhhh!! I was hoping I wouldn't get one this semester only because I'm going back down to Kinder from looping up with my past munckins. There's more pressure now...ugh! I needed to be able to let my brain go bonkers and get back into the swing of things. Now this poor little thing needs to learn from me??? Oh no!!! haha! I met her and she is a very sweet girl. I did warn her that there may be moments of craziness...not from the munchkins but from ME!! I've been blessed to get interns that work out very well and personalities don't clash ...whew! There are some teachers who can be so mean to their interns and be so by the book or hoity toity! I hope she has a fun experience and learns something...haha!

We finished the afternoon with reviewing our new state standards. If your child is a student in a Texas school and you would like to see what your child should be learning in their school you can click on the link and scroll down to either the TEKS Content by Chapter or scrolling down to the PDF file for each specific grade level. http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/
Kindergarten is more than what many think it is. There are standards, pressures, and demands for these little ones just as the older munchkins have. With all these pressures I hope I try to make our classroom fun and exciting so they learn to love coming to school. If I don't...eek..then I'm headed for a year of trouble! If we don't have music, dancing (of course), and a lit bit of crazy silliness while learning then I might as well quit!

Tomorrow will be a VERY long day 8-8...eek... it's our last inservice and a school family night for parents and munchkins. Our Superintendent was invited and other guests. Yikes! Best behavior...haha! They'll be having hot dogs, cotton candy and other goodies! Yay!!! I'll definitely need the sugar to keep me going!! Stay tuned for more!

XOXO!

Teacher Inservice #1...Wow!

Wow! Wow! Wow!


Today was day 1 of teacher inservices...I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed but with a bit of apprehension. The apprehension was there because today was our district wide inservice. From past experiences they always seem to drag and turn out to be crazy cheering events. Hmmm....What was I in for this afternoon? What would the bus ride out to the Plaza Theatre Downtown be like?? Would it be the same type of event? Would the speaker be motivating enough or only the first 5 minutes of their speech? Well....

The morning started out very nice! We all met in the cafeteria at 7:30 to say our hello's and give our hugs. Our administrators and office staff had pan dulce (Mexican Sweet Bread) for us, coffee, and orange juice. I grabbed the biggest and best chocolate donut ever!! If you have never had a Mexican donut...you're missing out! Yummers! None of this wimpy Krispy Kreme puff of air, but a delicious, thick, huge donut. I should have taken a picture of it but I ate it so fast it was gone! heehee! No coffee or orange juice for me...yucky!

The office staff decorated the cafeteria and tables with a Race Car theme. Our new Superintendent's district theme is Racing to Excellence. The cafeteria was covered with fun checkered flags and goodies everywhere. We even got a cute little racing goody bag! Once our breakfast goody time was over we got down to some business...going over our district handbook. Boy oh boy, there were so many "what not to do's." Once our review was over we were given some time to work in our rooms until lunch came. It was more like brunch I guess because we were eating at 10:30...but I wasn't hungry I had that huge donut! We were in our rooms for about 20 minutes until we were called back to eat. Our school provided lunch from The Lunch Box...Mexican food. I still wasn't hungry but I knew I wouldn't be eating anything until we got back after 3:30...ugh! I only ate part of my food and loaded up on the fresh homemade tortillas...haha!

We all left for the area middle school where we were to be picked up and bused. We acted just like the kids on the bus. Loud and noisy, giggling and singing! We were early so that helped tremendously. The Plaza filled up with all the elementary schools in the district. Wow!


Now this is when we were given a nice surprise...our Superintendent, Dr. Michael Zolkoski, and district personnel had put together an awesome band. Dr. Z is such a talented musician, as well as, the others or as they called themselves, Ysleta Power. Dr. Z sings, plays the trumpet, the sax, the bongos, and tamborine! They had a horn section which included a great college friend of mine, Marty Olivas, a keyboardist, Ruben Gutierrez, drummers, guitarist, bassist, and singers! Whew! What a show! We were singing and dancing in our seats and had a great time. They played some Santana, sang Love Train, All I Need Is a Miracle, I Will Survive and I think they sang Brown Eyed Girl to ME!!! heehee It was a great way to start off the afternoon!


Dr. Zolkoski spoke to us for a bit and he was a great speaker. The best part of his talk was to see a huge picture of one of my babies I had for three years on the screen and he referred to it as one of his favorite pictures!!! Yay! Gyzel!! We all cheered and I acted like a proud mama and took pictures of the screen to show her real mom. That was the picture that ended his speech and I wanted to cry!!


The guest speaker was Dr. Crystal Kuykendall, http://www.crystalkuykendall.com/biography.asp She has been a teacher in many different levels, a lawyer and a motivational speaker. She called us "Merchant's of Hope." Awww...I loved that! What an outstanding and motivating speaker! One of the best speakers I've heard so far in education! She had us laughing and almost crying, but had some very empowering words for us all. We left ready and eager to touch the lives and hearts of our munchkins!!!


Tomorrow is day 2...Teacher Job Alike...stay turned for that!

XOXO!

Day 5 in Munchkinville...Yay!!!

Heigh ho, Heigh ho...Yay! Yay! Yo!

This morning I was a little more excited to go to work because I was determined to finish before 12!! I stopped at the store for a few last items that I needed...curtain rod and some hooks. I walked in and walked out...yay for me, no detours!

When I arrived at school the parking lot was pretty empty, maybe because it was still early. Our trustworthy secretary's were there with happy smiles as always! I loved walking into my classroom today because it actually looks like a classroom. Finally!! Yesterday's cork board fiasco really ran me amuck.

At first I just piddled around not sure what to do. I finally organized my "what to do" list. I had a few projects to finish and would need my trusty tool, the glue gun...and my real tools. Yes, I keep tools in my classroom and to top it off they're in a cute pink case!! My past munchkins got a kick out of me having tools, especially the boys but the girls loved that they were in a pink case. Nice teachable moment..."girls can use tools too!" Heehee

My first project was to make a curtain for a wooden shelf. Basically, to make the shelf look neat...ok, who am I kidding, it was to hide the stuff in the shelf...haha! I had the curtain rod, the material I was going to use, and the glue gun was hot and ready! Yes, I used the glue gun to "sew" my curtain...heehee I have a sewing machine at home and know how to sew pretty well but this is the quick and easy way! I've done most of my curtains in the classroom this way. No burns this time!! Yay! It works great!!


The other projects were simple things like adding more goodies to our Calendar Area, adding hooks and screwing in screws to hang things. When you're limited to places to hang things we find anywhere we can. Teachers can find ordinary items and use them in different ways. We're pros! Hangers, clothespins, and a garment rack are great items in the classroom. The plastic pant hangers are the best! I use them to hang posters or chart tablets and they're easy to move around from place to place. The clothespins are just like huge clips! The garment rack is great for storage to hang the posters or chart tablets you're not using. Love it!


I had a few visitors come by to chat and "check out" how much I've done. heehee! One 2nd Grade teacher was going to check her room for the first time...eek! Vaya con Dios! (a blessing...heehee) I kept looking around my room for other things to fix but there really wasn't much for me to do. I left my little work area to work on so that when they give us "time" to work in our room I won't feel guilty saying I'm done...nanee nanee boo boo! ;) The "time" they actually give teachers to set up their classrooms is a joke. It's either half a work day or sometimes a full day. This is why teachers go on their own time to set up. Yuck!! I was happy I started very early because now I can enjoy not going back until I have to start teacher inservices on Tuesday. Ugh!

Four days of inservice...hmmm...those should be very interesting set of blogs. I received a letter stating what we would be doing on those four days. Very vague and not too many details. Day 1 in the am...who knows? In the afternoon we all are being bused to the Plaza to listen to our new Superintendent. Yikes all YISD elementary teachers on school buses to the Plaza??!! Field Trip!!! Haha! Day 2 Job Alike, this is where you meet somewhere with all the teachers from the district in your same grade level. Not sure what we're meeting to do or where?? haha! Day 3 at our campus...who knows? and Day 4 at our campus...who knows? Should be a very long week!!! Teachers would much rather use those days to work in their rooms and plan but no one ever listens to us...haha!! Stay tuned for next weeks adventure!

XOXO!
P.S. I did finish before 12!!! :)