Ah, as they say, well, someone somewhere out there says this, has even SANG this (most recently another Kindergarten teacher!): "It's the most wonderful time…of the year!" Yeah, right! That person was never a Kindergarten teacher! It has been an exhausting month in our classroom! We have worked very hard on our Christmas crafts as well as finished our reading portion of MAP testing and completed our very lengthy Kindergarten assessment. Below are the ornaments and our Reindeer Food (with special Rudolph flying blend). The Kindergartners did all the painting (except the pinkish cheeks…I gave up and did those myself because they didn't turn out right). I did the first eye (the snowman's right eye) on the papier mache pots as an example for each one (the pots are the kind that you plant seeds in dirt and put directly in the ground…they decompose). I drew the faces on with a pencil so they'd have a guideline to follow. They used Sharpies for the craft stick snowman's face. They painted the snowflake ornament as individual sticks, I hot glued them together for them, they "painted" on Elmer's glue and we sprinkled white glitter, they chose their white buttons and they glued them on. I had to stay MANY late nights finishing/touching up some things. They couldn't use the hot glue, so I had to cut and glue the pictures on the back and used cardboard as a back to sturdy it up. We "made" the magic reindeer food in class. It is exhausting teaching Kindergarten, but it is worth it. In no other classroom (except when I taught 1st grade and the Kindergarten was only ½ day) have I ever seen the amount of progress in a school year that Kindergartners make! They come in knowing hardly anything, and they leave as readers (true readers), writers, and mathematicians! They have an adventure for science, and are very interested in social studies concepts. Enjoy! (I'll post more pics of our party later.)
