Career Day & Community Helpers

During the month of October, we learn all about community helpers and jobs.
We invite the local firefighters and police officers to come to our school and talk about their jobs. We also encourage parents to come and share about their jobs. This year we had a chemist come do science experiments!
We also went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and learn about farmers!

One of my favorite days during this unit was Career Day Centers. We have 3 kindergarten classrooms and we each set up 5 career centers in our classrooms (we had 16 total jobs). The kids rotated in each of the classrooms. We spent about 45 minutes in each class and about 5-7 minutes at each station. The kids experienced many types of careers!

Here are some!


                      Jeweler                                                               Hairdresser

                           
                           Real Estate Agent                Store Clerk (grocery worker/bagger)

                

 Musician/Singer

Banker

Teacher

Archeologist

                                    Vet                                Marine Biologist

                                     Painter                               Postal Worker

Architect 

Pediatrician 

Baker/Chef

 Construction Worker

The kids had so much fun and stayed very engaged.

The centers allowed the students to be creative, use their imagination and experience real careers.

Some of the centers required writing.

For example, the vet and pediatricians had to write prescriptions.

The real estate agents had to create brochures and describe the houses (big, small)

 and create a price.

The teachers had to model for their "stuffed animal students" how to write correctly on the lines using a white board and read a book from their book bags.

The bakers used math to measure and make "Hunter's Hash"

 (cheerios, pretzels and marshmallows).

The postal workers had to sort mail by letters and numbers.

The bankers had to sort coins by size and type.

At the end of the unit, the kids finally decide on their career and DRESS UP as what they want to be when they grow up. They come to school dressed in their career costume and present in front of the class. The kids answer the following questions:

1. What do you want to be when you grow up?

2. Where do you work in the community?

3. What tools do you need?

4. What is your job responsibility? 

3D Haunted House

I HAVE MOVED MY BLOG!

CHECK IT OUT HERE:
KINDERWORLD TEACHER HAUNTED HOUSE

This is our 3D Haunted House this year!!! 

The kids did a great job on it!

First, we spend about 1-2 weeks learning about 3D shapes in our math unit.

Step 1: Students bring in 3D shapes from home for a week and identify what shape they are: cone, sphere, cylinder, cube, or rectangular prism. After all the materials are in, we sort them by shape.

Step 2: The students spend 2 days constructing the haunted house in small groups (usually 4-5 students at a time). They decide 100% where everything should be placed. We do talk about using the biggest objects first and smaller objects last. Students must identify and name the shapes they are using.  I use hot glue to put the pieces together. While putting the haunted house together, the kiddos love coming up with rooms/ideas for the house (i.e., trap doors, mummy tombs, bat caves, secret cannons...it's very cute!).

Step 3: The students spend the next 2-3 days in small groups painting the haunted house black. I use regular Crayola paint but it definitely needs 2-3 coats of paint. The shiny materials (party hats) or plastic materials (water bottles) do not usually soak up the paint. I end up spray painting the rest with black. I do this after school without the kiddos to touch up all the pieces that wouldn't soak up the paint.

Step 4: Last, the kids spend 1 day in small groups decorating the haunted house with spider webs and spooky items. You can find these items very cheap at the Dollar Store.

We set up our haunted house at our school Monster Bash!!

I HAVE MOVED MY BLOG!

CHECK IT OUT HERE:
KINDERWORLD TEACHER HAUNTED HOUSE

Western Theme Classroom Decor Packs!!

I LOVE my Western Theme Classroom! Take a TOUR HERE!

I am always adding to the decor.

I recently just created 2 HUGE WESTERN THEME DECOR PACKS: PART 1 and PART 2.

I wanted to put them all together but the file was too large.

Check out my ROOTIN TOOTIN PACKS!!

Get it Below on TPT!

WESTERN THEME DECOR PART 1

and

WESTERN THEME DECOR PART 2

LIEBSTER AWARD--Love it!

LIEBSTER AWARD!!!! 
How COOL!!!

I was so excited and honored when I was nominated for the LIEBSTER AWARD from Jill at ABC's And Polka Dots.

After reading more about this award, I learned The LIEBSTER award is presented to 
newish bloggers, like myself.

“Liebster” means favorite, beloved, cute, lovely, dearest and welcome in German, and this award helps to draw attention to blogs that aren’t too well known.

I think most importantly, it's a great way to connect and 
make new blogging friends!

AND I am very excited to do just that!

THANK YOU JILL!!! VERY SWEET and YOU MADE MY DAY!!

Here are the "rules" for this award:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me

2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 readers

3. Answer the questions posted for me by my nominator

4. Share 11 random facts about myself

5. Create 11 questions for my nominees

6. Contact my nominees and let them know I've nominated them

Now I just need to search for my nominees!
This will be my goal in the next week!

JILL'S QUESTIONS FOR ME:

1. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

I love strawberry cheesecake ice cream! Especially from Cold Stones!

2. What is your favorite type of music to listen to?

I love all types of music so this is hard to answer. Funny, but I actually love "techy dance" music, especially when I am by myself in my car.

My husband laughs because every time he gets in the car after me, the stereo is up so loud!

3. What is your favorite subject to teach?

I like teaching writing to my kiddos. It's hard for them but I love putting on calm music and watching them write in their little "offices".

4. Where did you go to college?

I got my bachelor's degree and master's degree from National University. I will probably be paying off my school loans forever now haha!

5. Do you prefer sweet or salty?

SWEET!!!!! Sweets (chocolates) are my weakness! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE chocolate chip Pazookies from BJ's restaurant! My favorite candy is Reeces Pieces.

6. Name 5 things that are currently in your purse.

1. Tic Tacs (I drink so much coffee I feel like I always have coffee breath)

2. Two Starbucks gift cards (my favorite place!)

3. My cute cheetah wallet (full of receipts and needed to be cleaned out)

4. My new I-phone!!!! 

5. A to-do list of things to get at Target (my favorite store)

7. Where is your favorite vacation destination?

Anywhere tropical!! I have been to Cabo and Cancun twice and I have loved every minute of those vacations! The water is so clear and it's a perfect getaway!

8. How long have you been teaching?

I taught preschool for 5 years while going through college

and this next year will be my 10th year teaching in public schools.

So all together, 15 years!

9. What is your favorite children's book?

My all time favorite children's book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It's so sweet and tender and teaches so much about unconditional love. This last year though, I was obsessed with Pete the Cat!!!

10. Do you prefer the mountains or the beach?

BEACH! BEACH! BEACH! NO question! I live in San Diego and my favorite thing to do is to get a cup of coffee and go to the beach! I love the sand, water and beautiful sunsets. Nothing makes me feel closer to God than being at the beach! 

11. Name one special thing about the town you live in.

One special thing about the city I live in is the weather! There is no where else in America (in my opinion) where the weather is more perfect! San Diego weather is always great!

11 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME!

1. I am a fraternal twin and I am married to an identical twin!

2. I am currently pregnant with TRIPLETS!!!!! Yes! It's true!

 (2 identicals and one fraternal)

3. My favorite stores are Target and Victoria's Secret!

4. I am a reality TV junky! 

5. I love sushi, diet coke and coffee!

6. I am very sensitive (which is my strength and my weakness)

7. I love throwing parties and having people at my house. 

8. I've always wanted to open up a bed and breakfast on the beach!

9. I can stand on my head forever! Honestly, if all the blood didn't drain to my head, I could stay on my head for hours.

10. My favorite color is pink!

11. I still sleep with my blanky from when I was a child. Silly, I know.

QUESTIONS FOR MY NOMINEES:

1. What is your favorite thing to do?

2. What are your 2 favorite stores?

3. What two words would best describe you?

4. What is something new you want to learn?

5. If you weren't a teacher, what else would you do?

6. Who is in your family?

7. What is the hardest part about blogging for you?

8. What do you do to relax?

9. What is the last movie you saw?

10. Would you rather have an appetizer or dessert?

11. How long have you been teaching? What grades?

Mother's Day Tea!

PHEW! We made it through our Mother's Day Tea today!
It was so much fun!!!!

You can purchase a lot of the little "goodies"
in my BEARY SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY TEA UNIT HERE.

Here are some pictures of our day:

This was our main food table.

We had muffins (donated by Mimi's Cafe),

croissants, grapes and water (donated by Costco),

scones (our amazing Vice Principal made them for us, along with her homemade butter!!!!),

hot tea (donated by Starbucks)

and cold tea (which I got at the Dollar Store).

I brought in a lot of my own platters and pitchers.

I put doilies under everything to give it a real tea feel.

I made the little bear signs (which are all in my Mother's Day Tea TPT Unit).

I used white linens for the tables

 (you can use regular plastic table clothes as well, I just have a lot of my own).

Since our theme was TEDDY BEARS and TEAPOTS, I had each of the kids bring in a teddy bear from home. This was an easy and CHEAP way to decorate the tables.

I used recycled jam jars for the centerpieces and put PICKED BOCA-VILLA flowers inside them (again easy and no cost at all)!

I put doilies under the jars.

This is the BEARY SPECIAL BOOKLET each of the little love muffins made for their  mommies, grandmas and aunties. It is full of cute gifts. Again, it is all in my TPT unit.

The boys wore homemade ties and the girls wore bonnets. 

The bonnets were made from paper plates and bowls.

I cut a large circle in the center of the plate and stapled a bowl to it. 

I hole punched to holes on the sides and added yarn.

The kiddos decorated them with ribbon, flowers and stickers.

I set up 2 photo areas.

My daughter has all this tea stuff in her room so I just grabbed it. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful, hard-working mommies!

Mother's Day Tea! Teddy Bears and Teapots

We will be having a BEARY special and 

TEA-RRIFIC Mother's Day Tea!

Click here to get my 

TEDDY BEARS and TEAPOTS PACK on TPT!

 Here is a sneak peak of what is in this pack. I will be posting more pictures of our actual tea party later.