Recap of Moon Week and that thing called life!!

Whoa
me! The week or so have been a whirl
wind! We will go back two weeks ago…I
was desperately trying to stay “ahead of the game” and prepare for the upcoming
events! What events you ask…well it went
something like this …pack for our move, zoo field trip, fly to California to
celebrate the upcoming big day for Miss Kindergarten, fly back to Missouri,
move into our temporary place of residence, go back to work, close on our old
home, fly back to California for the BIG day, and fly back to Missouri…which is
the part I’m working on right now!

As
stressful as it’s been…it has also be equally rewarding and I only cried once
and it was only because we are temporarily staying in apartment until we close
on our new home…and it’s been too long since we last lived in an
apartment. I must have blocked out the
memories of how we can hear e.v.e.r.y thing going on above us! This too shall pass and it will be all worth
it in the end!

I wanted
to share with you a few pictures from the past week! Then, I promise to get on
with the show already HA!

Girls weekend!!!

Last night at our old home #sadsville #thenewhomewillbegreattoo

Train ride to San Diego with Miss Kindergarten

Such a fun night celebrating Miss Kindergarten’s special day! @ateachableteacher @applesandabcs @misskindergarten @crayonsandwhimsy @ateenytinyteacher @sailingintosecond @dragonfliesinfirst

Kansas City Zoo field trip!

The hubby at I at the wedding…

Rehearsal night….

Okay…onward we go! Two weeks ago are close read introduced us to not only the
Moon, but we ventured out to the solar system as well. I’m telling you…every week I fall more in
love with close reads… and just how they’ve turned my teaching upside down and
inside out! Social studies, science,
life skills, reading, writing, and even math at times…they are all so wound
around our close read for the week!

This week
was a shorter week…we had our field trip and no school on Friday {good Friday},
but we got so much learning into those 3 days!

Here is a
look at our vocabulary for the week! The
kids did really well with these words!
It was nice seeing them take their prior knowledge on words like rock
and neighbor, but then apply it in the capacity of the moon close read!

Our
essential question…how does the moon appear to change? Oh yeah…we have that down! We didn’t go a lot into the moon phases, but
I think that they would have eaten that up too!

And a look at our week’s schema chart!
We tried something a little new this week …we added an “intrigued with”
column…here I charted questions the students still had about the moon. We then researched those!

A look at our shared reading poem for week…

In
writing this week we linked our stories to the close read as well! This week we wrote fiction stories about the
moon. Their stories cracked me up! This past week one boy in particular asked
everyday if he could make this a fiction story…he has quite the imagination 😉

I’ve
mentioned it a time or two before, but the way we dismiss from the carpet back
to our seats during writing is that the students wait for the “music” to
start. Each week I’ve found it fun and
exciting to link the sounds to our close read.
So, during storm week we listened to rain and thunder…and this week we
flew through galaxies during writing!

I really wanted to have some fun with close read and a quick pinterest search landed me on Kroger’s Kindergarten blog with this awesome space craft! It was an *easy enough* craft for me the handle and the kids were in LOVE! Now don’t judge me…but it was the first time we have pulled out the glitter and paint brushes! We had finger painted, but not with brushes. The craft required students to listen and follow directions, but in doing that they learned even more about the moon, sun, and Earth!

I think they turned out PERFECTLY!

We ended the week with …. MOON PIES, of course!

Okay…this
week was also the week before Easter so we did a little fun-ness in that department
as well! We read the Easter Bunny’s
Assistant and a nonfiction selection about Rabbits! This paired set of texts will be available as
a close read next year!

We also joined in with sweeties around the world and did Jennifer’s guided bunny drawings! I mean could they be ANY cuter??

Alright…that’s
it for now, but I feel I have my groove back and will have lots more for you
this week! Have a great week and enjoy
the moments…the good and the UGH moments…I’ve realized that they all add up to
this thing we called LIFE…I’m trying so hard to live in the moment and be
okay with whatever lies ahead for us!

Comments

Lauren Shirk says

April 12, 2015 at 11:42 pm

I don't know how you do it all…and do it all so WELL!!! I love the moon pie idea – too cute!

Stephanie Seigel says

April 12, 2015 at 11:53 pm

Hi Tara, I was wondering where in Missouri you are…I teach in Kansas City, so we must be close!
Stephanie
First Grade Bangs

- Anonymous says
  
  April 13, 2015 at 12:35 am
  
  Stephanie- I teach in Sedalia! 🙂
  
- Stephanie Seigel says
  
  April 13, 2015 at 4:15 am
  
  What a small world! I went to high school in Warrensburg and just passed Sedalia yesterday on my way to visit my daughter in Columbia! 🙂
  
alwayskindergarten says

April 13, 2015 at 4:56 am

My word, you've been busy! We have LOVED your close reads this year. They have really helped me to incorporate them on a regular basis. I feel like my kinders are getting so much better at using text evidence and building much stronger vocabulary. Thank you so much for these!
Andrea
Always Kindergarten

- Anonymous says
  
  April 13, 2015 at 5:44 am
  
  That is so awesome to hear Andrea! I'm shooting for a close read post this week so hopefully you'll get some new ideas then!
  
  Tara