Fall

Fall is one of my most favorite times of the year! We have had a busy September on the home front, and in the classroom, and we are so excited that it is feeling like fall in South Carolina!  In our classroom, we have had many opportunities to get to know one another and build our community.  The students have quickly learned our structure and routine, and I have been amazed at the amount of learning that is already taking place. 

During our whole group shared reading lessons, we have learned to identify the parts of a book, how to identify characters and settings, and we are already learning several decoding strategies.  Our students can demonstrate tracking words, and they are able to use pictures and beginning letter sounds to figure out unknown words.  They also learned during the very first week of school that sometimes readers read pictures, sometimes we read words, and sometimes we can retell a familiar story.  During our independent reading time, I am excited to see and hear our students practicing these strategies!

In math, we have worked extremely hard to understand numbers 0 - 10.  In kindergarten, students should not only be able to count numbers in the correct sequence, recognize numerals, and count sets of objects (understand cardinality), but they also must gain a deeper understanding of our number system and how it works.  For example, we need to understand that numbers can be represented in many different ways, and that even if the representations change, the numbers don't.  It is so much fun to see our students working with these numbers and using numbers to solve problems!

I think I have been most amazed by my students' writing this year! Our whole class seems to really LOVE writing, and they are so very quiet and concentrated while working on their independent pieces.  I have students who are writing their own books at home, and bringing them in to share with the class! WOW!!!!!  That makes this teacher's heart SMILE!  We started this year writer's workshop by charting "Who are Writers?" and "What Do They Write?"  We came to the conclusion that we all are writers, and that anything that you say can be written down.  Our students gained confidence from the fact that they are writers from the beginning.  They have had several examples of great writing as we continuously read throughout our day.  Many of our students have shared that they would like to be published authors one day, and I'd say they are well on their way.  So far this year, we have learned to write opinion pieces and we are just beginning to learn to write informational pieces.  Our students have learned how to choose their own topics for writing and have had opportunities to practice making these choices in their journals.  We just published opinion pieces about our favorite candy to display in the hall for others to read.  The students had a lot of fun writing these pieces.  This past week, we spent time learning how to use a circle map (thinking map) to gather our ideas about fall.  I modeled for students how writers might use the circle map to help them write to give information.  During shared writing, our students helped to write one fact sentence using information from the circle map.  After that, our students worked to use the circle map to help them write their own pieces.  They will continue to work on these pieces this week so that we can publish them to display on our October bulletin board.  I hope to include some pictures of their writing to our blog this week, so be sure to check back for examples!

During this month, we have also implemented our Guided Reading groups.  It usually takes me about a month to get routines, structure, and rules established during Literacy Stations so that everyone knows what they should go and what they should be doing.  This month also gives me a chance to assess my students to find out where they are developmentally, and what we need to work on next.  The last two weeks, while my other students were in Literacy Stations working on independent reading and writing activities, I have pulled groups of learners to work on specific skills.  This is one of my favorite parts of our day, and our students love it, too!  These groups change all the time, based on students' needs.  They really enjoy the independent practice of our stations, too! 

In our classroom, we have 4 stations with at least 2 literacy activities in each, that our students rotate through during the week.  One of those 8 activities is working with Mrs. Brooks, our wonderful co-teacher on writing.  My Guided Reading group is a pull-out station.  My students don't rotate to my station, but instead, I am able to pull students with the same need from each of the other stations they are working in.  Our math stations and Guided Math work very similarly.  We have 4 stations with at least 1 math activity that our students rotate through during the week.  One of those 4 activities is working with Mrs. Brooks.  My Guided Math group is a pull-out station.  The major difference between Literacy Stations and Math Stations is that once our students finish their math station work, they may go to free play centers.

By organizing our stations in this way, all of our students work with Mrs. Brooks once each week for reading and once each week for math.  All of our students meet with me two or three days each week for reading, and 3 days a week for math.  This is the third year that we have used Literacy Stations and Math Stations like this in our classroom (where the stations are separate with Literacy in the morning and math in the afternoon), and they continue to be a class favorite!

Our science and social studies lessons so far this year have had us getting to know each other and our communities.  I am excited to start one of our fall themes this week as we introduce apples and how they grow to our students.  One of the science standards for kindergarten students says that they need to understand that all organisms go through stages or a process of life called the life cycle.  Students have so much fun learning during this unit because they have opportunities to explore and use hands-on experiences throughout. 

Whew! September sure has been busy, and it has also been FULL of learning.  We are off to a great start in kindergarten, and it will just keep getting better and better!  My Munchkins are off to great places, today is their day. They are off to great places - off and away!

Whew! It's Been Awhile!

It is hard for me to believe that it has been a year since I have posted to this blog!  It has been a busy, busy year!  My son finished his sixth grade year, my daughter finished her fourth grade year, and I finished my 12th year of teaching kindergarten!!  I have also started working more with vinyl, turning my hobby into a small business of sorts, as I have received orders for so many different things from my friends!!  I have a page for that, if you are interested in seeing some of what has kept me so busy:  https://www.facebook.com/MeeksMeSmileVinyl.  I have also been busy this past year working on school stuff!  I now have 25 original products listed for sale in my TpT store:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Alison-Meeks.  I had the opportunity to serve as our kindergarten team's instructional facilitator during 2012 - 2013, I worked on our district's math curriculum guide during 2012 - 2013 as we correlated it to the new CCSS for math, and I helped to create our district's new kindergarten report card this past summer so that it is now correlated to the new CCSS.  Also this summer, I had the opportunity to serve on our school's interview team this past summer as we interviewed candidates to fill vacant positions, and I took our district offered graduate class on using iPads in the classroom.  My children are still playing baseball and softball year-round, and I continue to serve as Team Mom for both of their teams.  I guess as I read back over this list, I should not be surprised that it has been a year since I have updated this blog!

This past August, I had the awesome honor of meeting my new group of "kinders"!  Our first day of school for students this year was August 19th, which also happens to be my birthday!  What a wonderful birthday present to meet 22 of the sweetest little darlings ever!  I am so excited to work with them and their families this year!!  My wonderful assistant, Mrs. Brooks is still by my side in the classroom, and I will forever be grateful for her.  We are looking forward as we embark on our 13th year of teaching kindergarten together!  Check out my TpT store if you are in need of something new for your kindergarten, first, or second grade classroom.  Check out my vinyl page if you are in need of "anything vinyl", and check back here to find out more of what is going on with Mrs. Meeks' Magnificent Munchkins this year!! I promise that it won't take me so long to update this time!!!!!!  Thank you to all who support me in all that I do!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Teaching!
Alison

Slice O' Numbers

The second product that I added to my TpT store for sale was my Slice O' Numbers math activity! We use this in our classroom as a math station.  My students use this to order numerals, match numerals to sets, and match sets to number words.  If you think this is something that your students would enjoy, please visit my teacher store and download.  As always, if you choose to purchase this or any of my products, please leave me a comment to let me know! I would like to personally thank you for supporting what I love!

To purchase this product, please click the link below.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Slice-O-Numbers-Matching-Sets-to-Numerals-and-Number-Words

 

Happy Teaching!

Alison

Alphabet Match!

If you visited my Teachers Pay Teachers store for the freebie, you may have seen some of my other products.  As of right now, I have only 4 products available.  My goal is to create at least one new product each week.  Some weeks I may have extra time, and in that case I would try to create more than one.  Some of these will be freebies, so keep your eyes open!

I love sharing and collaborating with other teachers.  I am always willing to share ideas and thoughts about teaching, especially "kinders"!  I am in my 12th year of teaching, and all of my experience has been in the kindergarten classroom.  Kindergarten is definitely my passion as I love teaching students how to read! 

I have created this popcorn game for my students to use in literacy stations to match upper and lowercase letters, name the letters, and identify the sounds.  They can also use these cards to order the alphabet.  If you think this is something that you could use, please click below to visit my teacher store.  As always, if you choose to download anything, I would love for you to leave a comment here so that I know! :0)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Popcorn-Alphabet-Match

Happy Teaching! Alison

Free Stuff!

Who doesn't love free stuff?!?! I don't know about you, but as a teacher, I find myself collecting all sorts of free things because we just might need it one day.  I can't count the number of empty toilet paper rolls we have stored in our classroom, or the number of empty baby food jars.  Is there anyone with me on this??

Periodically on this blog, I would like to post things that I have made and used in my classroom.  If you can use these things in your classroom, you are more than welcome to download them for free.  The only thing I ask is that you comment letting me know that you have downloaded something and maybe a little bit about how you plan to use the resource.  This way, we all may get some new ideas, and I have a way of knowing what you are interested in! :)

My first freebie is going to be my set of math prompts that I have listed for free in my TpT store.  Please visit the link below if you are interested in a set of 4 math journal prompts for February! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Prompts-for-February-Free

Again, if you visit and download these, please comment here letting us know! We appreciate all of you for your feedback and support!

Welcome!!

Hi Teacher Friends!

I have been a member of the blogging community for quite awhile.  I started my first blog in 2006, entitled "Cherished Moments with My 2 Angels".  I started that blog so that family members who didn't live near us could keep up with our day to day activities as a family of four! My husband Craig and I have 2 children, a son named Drew, and a daughter named Mikayla.  We have family members that live all over the United States, and blogging with pictures was much more conventient than mailing pictures. 

In 2008, I began a weight loss journey where I lost close to 100 pounds.  In 2009, I started another blog, entitled "Happiness Doesn't Come From a Bag of Chips".  My intentions with this blog were that it could document my weight loss journey.  It was about that time that I discovered Facebook.  I found that it was a lot quicker and easier to update a Facebook status than it was to post to my blogs - plus I could more easily update Facebook from my phone. 

So, here we are in 2012, and I have decided that I need a teacher blog about the wonderful things that are happening in my kindergarten classroom, and in all of the wonderful classrooms across our country.  Lots of changes are occurring right now in education, and I believe networking with others is so important, now more than ever.  I will call this blog "Mrs. Meeks' Munchkins" since that is the title of my weekly newsletters to my parents.  My kindergarten students are my munchkins, although I have also been known to call them "goose", "sweetheart", "silly", and "honey".  I believe that my job is to serve the youngest amongst us, and I take that job very seriously! I believe that teaching is a job I was Called for, and that all of those who I have the opportunity to teach have been in my classroom for a reason!  Once they are my kindergarten babies, they are always my "babies", no matter how old they get!  I hope that I teach them half of what these students teach me every day! 

My hope for this blog is that teachers from all over the country will read and share some of the great things that are taking place in their schools or their classrooms.  I hope to use it as a place for reflection and a place for collaboration.  I can't promise how often I will post, but I am hoping to post at least once each week!  I hope to include photos of work samples, TpT products, etc.  Please feel free to do the same, if you are here visiting!

I am excited about this new venture and the possibilities that it brings, and I hope we can get excited together!!