Ladybugs and Flower Power!!

Well, it’s that time of the month again. Greetings from your friendly Texas Kindergarten teacher. Spring is in the air and man does it smell sweet! I really love Spring. We are studying ladybugs, plants and flowers right now. Our playground is covered with the most beautiful bluebonnets.

Ahhhh! Life. Is. Good!

I love to watch my students explore and observe our ladybug dome. They amaze me with their ability to remember the correct terminology of each stage in the life cycle. My favorite though was when a child said they found a “coopa”. I said, “That is great love but it’s called a pupa.” Haha! They are so sweet. 

The spirit of a child embraces creation and the mystery and beauty of new life, whether it is that of a bug or a flower. I love that! If we could only be so lucky to live our entire lives like that. J Here are a few fun pictures of what we are doing in Mrs. Radke’s room this week. 

Take a peek at our Science Center and our Ladybug Dome. We have watched 10 ladybugs life cycle through our classroom so far. Awesome!

We also made this chart and drew our own ladybugs to go with it. It is always best of students can add anything to whatever you make. It helps give them ownership of all classroom work. It is never just my work. It is always “our work” and that makes them proud. J

Here is a fun song that my kids like to watch and sing too. 


So, what is Springing up in your classroom right now?

                                

 

Keeping the FUN in Functional!

If anything, learning should always be FUN! Is FUN functional in today's classroom though? I vote YES!!

As a kindergarten teacher I am always looking for ways to put my own spin on the objectives I am given to teach.  Kindergarten today is not the same as kindergarten when I was a child (and we won’t discuss how long ago that was J).  Just because learning has become more rigorous doesn’t mean that we need to pull all of the fun out of it. When writing curriculum for my district, I was asked, “Is this a love unit?” Well, honestly all units are love units. Who doesn’t love all of the themes and extra activities? Unfortunately you have to be a magician to find time in your day to fit in everything that is expected of teachers today.  I honestly get frustrated with my students sometimes because we aren’t moving fast enough to meet the demands and expectations given to us…then I take a deep breath and remind myself these precious darlings are only five… Crystal, relax! This is one reason I started designing curriculum units. I wanted to create learning opportunities that follow all the rules of the objectives we are given by our district but still keep thematic learning part of our every day.  

So, how can you add more fun to your classroom?

Experiments

Science is an area that sometimes gets pushed to the wayside but kids LOVE it.  My goal is to do one experiment a month. I have a science center in my classroom that my students visit weekly too.

Hands on Centers

It is easy to worksheet your students to death but the best learning comes from hands on activities. This takes more time though.  Look on the bright side, once you make it..it is made! I keep telling myself that as I continue to laminate and cut and laminate and cut more games and activities for my kids each week. I am hoping that next year will be easy peasy and all of this time will pay off for years to come. J

Blocks & Home Living

It just saddens me that many schools are cutting out their home living and block centers.  Play is an important part of learning and social development.  Let the kids play. J Ask them to create menus and take “orders” in a play restaurant. Give them numbered flash cards and have them build something with the number of blocks on the card.

Art & Music

You can use art and music to teach every subject.  What a fun way to reinforce a learning objective!  Teach the letter “A” and paint with apples.  Have students sing Annie Apple while painting.

Thematic Learning

Thematic units help children make great connections to their learning and the real world.  Themes help motivate students and keep them engaged.  I also think it is easier to integrate literacy into all subjects when you are teaching thematically.

Here’s an example of classroom fun! When learning the letter Q, I taught my students the rule “never write q without u!”  Then, we had a QU wedding. Students made a Mr. Q and Mrs. U.  We wrote invitations, had a “ceremony”, ate cake, colored pictures, and cut out magazine clippings of things we would give to Q & U as a wedding gift.  This activity had a lasting impact on my students.  I am sure they will never leave out the “u” when spelling quilt, quiet, and queen. J

What is one way you have kept the FUN in functional in your classroom or at home with your kids? 

For the Love of Lesson Plans!

I am sure you are expecting a good ole lovey dovey Valentine’s post this bright and beautiful morning but instead I thought I would share with you something that I do NOT love to do…lesson plans! You too?  I feel like it is a great big juggling act that I must put tons of thought into because I have so much to teach but I also want my lessons to be fun and engaging for my students. How do you put all of that down on paper? 

Well, it is not always easy peasy like I wish it was. Sometimes, it’s written in tiny font and I feel like I need to bust out the magnifying glass just to read it. I think in education it is important to have a “plan” but I also believe in the teachable moment. Those are the moments when you see a child’s light bulb start to flicker and you seize the moment to turn it on. Now that makes my heart smile! Unfortunately, I feel like that can be tough to fit into lesson plans sometimes but if you are going to follow the child, you must make room. 

Today I thought I would share my schedule with you and a blank lesson plan sheet to show you how I plan out my week.  I have individual plans for each lesson, but this helps me to focus on each daily goal.  I am sure there are better plans floating around in cyberspace, but this works for me. J When teaching any grade level, I think it is important to have goals and then have a plan to attain them. This is a key part in measuring success. If you don’t know where you are going, how can you plan to get there? J How will you know that you are successful if you don’t have a goal? I know even on the pre-k and kindergarten levels we feel the pressure of standardized tests and school achievement goals.   When the pressure gets to you, take a deep breath, step back and look at the little picture. Yes, I said little. Our job is to love and teach our little darlings everything we possibly can during the short time we have them.  And, if we stay organized, take time to plan, and focus on what is going on in our own classrooms, we will make a difference in the life of a child. 

So, here’s to fabulous lesson plans and a daily schedules that meet the needs of your class family. J Happy Valentine’s Day and in case someone hasn’t told you today, thank you for the love you give to children every day. You are making a difference in our world!  

Stop by my blog and  say hi! If you are looking for something sweeter, I have several Valentine goodies posted this week. J

Teaching Diversity to Children

National holidays have a sweet way of bringing Social Study lessons to life.  I love the feeling of comradery knowing that teachers all around the world will be teaching their students about equality, love, and respect next week.  Our love for learning and one another bonds us together.  Could you imagine if we didn’t teach lessons based upon our founding fathers or great leaders, such as Martin Luther King? Would parents? I think my students' parents do a great job of teaching their children at home but as a parent myself I often forget about important dates in history that I want my children to know about and forget to really teach them everything I want them to know.  As parents, we are often burning both ends of the candle so as an educator, I think Social Studies lessons are just as important as English, Science, and Math.  Our role as an educator provides a wonderful influence to a child’s character and ability to understand the positive influence they can have on the world.

We don’t have school on Monday, so Tuesday we will be embracing all things Martin Luther King.  This is one of my favorite social studies lessons because the more diverse our world becomes, the more important lessons on respect, tolerance, and love need to become and remain a priority.  I think if you teach children early to love others and appreciate our differences, it can have a lasting impression on their life. 

Working hand in hand with parents, we can provide great learning experiences that enrich the lives of our students .  We are doing our part to help raise the next generation too.  It takes a village, right? Sometimes I feel more like the village idiot than the leader, but I know and understand that my role as a teacher is important in the life of a child. How exciting is that?!! J

If you haven’t heard already, I LOVE Pinterest. It is an amazing resource! (Yes that is exclamation point worthy!) Here are a few ideas I found to help me teach MLK Day next week.  These aren’t my own creations.  Like most teachers, I am a life learner and depend on the brilliance of all of you to help me to teach to the best of my ability. J

I love this art project.  Children can choose any paint color. I think the important lesson is that love is what holds us together, 

not the color of our skin. J

A Box of Crayons and The Crayon Box That Talked are great books to read and discuss differences. Using a crayon theme as a guide, the possibilities are endless when creating a lesson.  I like how this teacher created a giant crayon box and allowed each student to decorate a crayon.  Even if I gave my entire class all the same color crayon, they would each design it differently because they each are unique children. The lesson possibilities are endless! Here are a few other great books to help teach diversity:

                                                   

 My favorite lesson is the egg activity.  You would discuss how the eggs are different.  The most obvious answer will be that they are different colors. BUT…when you crack them open, the center is the same.  This is a GREAT visual representation of diversity.  Even though we are all different and unique, we are the same and share a common love and respect for the world around us.

You can find all of these pictures on my Pinterest Social Studies board by clicking the link below.  Happy Martin Luther King Day. May your students learn to love and value one another for the beautiful creations they each are! J http://pinterest.com/kreativekinder/social-studies/

Take a look at all of these other ideas from our blogging friends out here in cyber-space!!

Happy Holidays!!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Baby it’s cold outside! Feliz Navidad!
Ohhhhh….Can you feel my excitement? This is my favorite time of year. I’m crazier than crazy though. I put up two or three trees at my house, one at school, and in general deck the halls everywhere I possibly can.  Of course I can’t leave my classroom out of the celebration.

I am a fan of thematic learning.  I get wrapped up in the fun and enrichment of each theme.  In December, our unit is Christmas Around the World. This is a great opportunity to teach children that the world is so much bigger than what we are doing in our classroom. We talk about different countries and religious celebrations.  I believe that it is important to provide cultural experiences in our classrooms, embracing the diversity that makes our world so great.

I thought for this post I would share a few of my literacy centers along with a fun activity we are doing in class right now. My literacy centers are on a ten day rotation so I have twenty centers going at a time, each group goes to two centers a day. In an effort to not overwhelm you, I will just post a few this time. 

Sight Word Center: This is a paint tray from Home Depot attached to the back of a shelf. J I laminate di-cuts and write sight words on them. Students use magnetic letter to create the sight words. Then, they read them to each other. J 

Art center is always a favorite. For these centers, students trace patterns, cut, and glue to make a Santa or a cookie jar with a gingerbread man. We actually made gingerbread men last week. J

Poetry Center: Each week students learn a new poem. This poem, Ten Little Elves, is from my Christmas Around the World Unit. Students are to draw ten elves and circle the letters r & b, our letters of the week. 

Write the Room: Students get their worksheet and a clipboard. This week they had to find words that began with the letters in Candy cane.

 Writing Center: We just wrapped up our colors unit so I wanted us to make this book now even though it isn't Christmas related. I like to buy various notepads at the teacher store when I find them on sale and use them to create “books” in the writing center. My students have made five “books” this year using this method. They really like them. J

This is my new favorite activity. I purchased bingo dot thingies (I’m not sure what they are called) at the Dollar Store. They take the dot markers and give each sight word a color. Then they “dot” every word with that color. So if “she” is red, all “she” words will have a red dot on them. I hope that makes sense. The kids really like this center. J

Last but not least, meet Snowflake our class Elf from the North Pole. He arrived wrapped in a frozen package (I put it in the freezer the night before) with a return address of the North Pole. My students were so excited. We watched the movie, Elf on a Shelf the day before so they had already sent up wishes to Santa that we would get an elf. We read the book and named him. He moves all over our room every day. When our class is “naughty” he heads back to the North Pole until we can make better choices. One day we got back from lunch and Snowflake was “sleeping” on my desk. My students were so respectful and whispered so they didn’t wake him. It was great! They have really loved having Snowflake and I think it has helped tame their holiday excitement a little so we can still learn every day. J

Snowflake was swinging from our projector screen. He went all Tarzan on us. We had to be super careful though because if you touch him he will lose his magic. 

Shhh! Snowflake is sleeping!

Thanks for popping by to read my post. I hope you found something that you liked. Come by and see me sometime. I have lots of holiday and Elf on the Shelf printables posted this month. I am so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful group of educators and bloggers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! J

Welcome to my WORLD!!

Greetings new friends! I am thrilled to be a part of this collaborative blog. My name is Crystal Radke and I am a Kindergarten teacher. I am also the author of the blog Kreative in Kinder. I love my job! I couldn't imagine doing anything else.  I am a Texas born and raised wife and mother of three and I like to think my heart is as big as my home state.

If you were to go back in time and take a peek at my kindergarten classroom when I was a sweet five year old girl (that’s my story at least), it would look much different than today.  If I had a quarter for every time I heard the saying “Kindergarten is the new first grade!” I would be rich! In all seriousness, you won’t see a big open play area, a classroom of 12 students, nap mats or even a half day program in my classroom in Texas anymore.  I could only find this statistic, in 1999 61% of U.S. schools had a full day kindergarten program. I would think there has been a major increase since then. 


In Mrs. Radke's class, we hit the ground running as soon as the classroom door opens, ready to grow and learn, hoping to meet the increasing expectations set for Kindergarten students. Yes, they want them reading...I mean REALLY reading among so much more. I teach in a Title 1 school. My class consists of 22 sweet kindergarten students coming from all walks of life. We don't have class or grade level  teacher's aides but there are a few school instructional aides that provide interventions if necessary for each class, 30 minutes a day, four days a week. Our day starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends promptly at 3:00 p.m. Most of my students fall alseep on the way home for the first few months as they adapt to starting out their educational career of working and learning to achieve expectations set for them that are beyond their understanding. The very least I can do is provide an environment that is filled with imagination, exploration, and fun. Take a peak...

    

As you can see, you have entered the jungle. It’s such a fun place to be every day. I always tell my students that “This is OUR room”. I want them to take pride in taking care of the place they spend most of their waking hours. I want them to feel at home and loved. As educators, we spend more time with children than their families do so providing an exciting, enriched environment is an important part of their learning experiences. 

Thanks for taking time to visit my room. I look forward to learning and growing with you in the future. Want to know about something specific, leave me a comment. I can’t wait to tell you more about the great things (and struggles too) that take place in my world…my Kindergarten WORLD!