Never a Dull Moment...

Yesterday (Friday) was our annual spring field trip to the Nature Center.  The Nature Center is owned by our local university and is a place where we take our city-dwelling students to experience nature.  We go on a nature walk through the woods, visit the barn to feed the animals (donkey and sheep) and go to the pond to see any wildlife that may be out there during that day.

I have been on 16 field trips to the Nature Center, but none quite like our trip yesterday.  It was chilly (in the upper 30s) and I had a student come to school in a sundress.  A very cute sundress, but not the kind of thing one would wear for an outdoor field trip.  We fixed that with a pair of sweatpants under her cute dress.  We were off on our 15 minute bus ride to the Nature Center.

 We had a great guide, Mark, who started us out seeing some different types of trees and teaching us to not touch poison ivy ("Don't be a dope, don't touch the hairy rope" and "Leaves of 3, leave them be".)  Our walk lead us to the barn where we pumped water from a well into a bucket and fed the animals oats.  Mark then surprised us by taking us upstairs where the kids go to play in the hay bales.  They crawled through a hay tunnel and came out covered in hay.  We also looked for bats by sadly (thankfully!) didn't see any.

Our walk continued to the pond.  Mark informed us that we were going to feed the fish first.  We went to a deck that overlooked the pond, and he gave each child some bread.  The kids threw the bread in and were thrilled to see fish come and eat.  One student threw his glove in- no bites on that.  He thought it was funny- we didn't.  Mark, being a nice guy, fished it out with a pole.  We moved to the other side where we held tadpoles, crayfish and salamanders.  The kids LOVED it!  Our last stop at the pond was a little deck built that kids could lay on and look up close a the water.  All was going well until one student tripped over his own 2 boots and landed himself IN the pond.  Thankfully he went in standing up, however, felt over backwards and was wet from the waist down.  He walk out himself and we sat him down to dump out his boots (which were full of water).  I had Meg (student teacher) with me and all we could do was laugh.  My little buddy laughed too, but had to be a miserable mess because he was soaked.  Mark (and I) have never had that happen, but it certainly made for a memorable experience.  I found out back at school, that it didn't seem that most kindergarten teachers had not had the experience either.  I called my student's mom who at first was shocked, but in the end laughed too.  At dismissal, a different student's older brother said "Who fell in the pond"...word spreads quickly!

I"m glad that adventure is over and am interested in what our field trip next week has in store when we walk to the Haines House- a stop on the Underground Railroad.  Stay tuned...

Coming up: Insects!

We had a busy week of catching up and wrapping up the many things going on in our room!  It is our student teacher's last week with us- we are very sad to see her go, but know she will be an awesome teacher. 

This week we are moving on to insects. I love all things Eric Carle (the inspiration for my blog's name), so as much as I find insects "creepy crawly" at times, I think they are cool at the same time.  Our literacy and math centers this week will contain materials from my TpT packets about insects. Click on the picture to link to my TpT store. "Spring into Math" is the math packet.  The reading packet is called "Buggy About Reading" (word family sorting and reading games).  If you only want word family sorting, you can choose "Buggy About Word Families".  To only purchase the reading games, "Buggy for Reading Games". 

Our caterpillars arrived a week ago and are now huge!  We will focus on butterflies next week, discussing life cycles and completing some great Pinterest ideas at the art center. Pictures to come at the end of the week (if not sooner).

I finished a reading packet and a math packet with a safari theme.  We will use these when we prepare for our zoo trip in mid-May.  I am working on ocean-themed materials for the last week. I can't believe how quickly these last few months have gone!

Belated Easter

I'm a little behind on posting Easter ideas from my classroom, but better late than never!  Feel free to pin it and refer back next year :).

These super cute bunnies came from Kute Kinder Kids.

"I like Easter because I look for Easter eggs and I spend time with my family."

"Dear the Easter Bunny, I would like a hamster and a puppy and a surprise and a bunny."

The Easter Bunny is great with technology :).

Searching for our Easter baskets...the Easter Bunny is good at hiding things!

He found his basket!

Pictures created through Snapfish.  The kids LOVED them!

We are on to oviparous animals this week.  Pictures to come.... I'd love some new followers! :)

Teachers Are Human?!?

Kindergarten kiddos are always saying things that make me smile.  Here was the conversation in my Guided Reading group today after reading One Happy Classroom and talking about the different things in a classroom/school.

Student 1 (girl): "Miss Hennon, I know why there is a mirror in the girls bathroom.  It is because sometimes teachers forget to put their make up on or they are late so they can go in the girl's bathroom and put it on."

Student 2 (boy): "There is a mirror in the boys bathroom too."

Me: "There is a mirror in the teacher's bathroom, so if a teacher needed to put her make up on, she could go in the adult bathroom."

Student 2: "Do teachers go to the bathroom?" 

Me: (LOL at this point!)  "Yes, teachers have to go to the bathroom too."

Student 3 (girl): "There is a secret door in the teacher's bathroom so they can sneak in the girls bathroom and see if we are following the rules.  I saw it."

Me: "There is only one door to the adult bathroom, and it is in the hallway."

At this point, I took all the students in my group to see the staff restroom (it is right outside my room and I currently have a student teacher).  The looks on their faces were priceless when they looked in!

Kindergarten kids make me smile :).