Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The End of Year!

I have been preparing for the end of the year so hear comes the stress. I have a program this Friday so I had to teach both of my classes 10 different songs with actions. I was a little overwhelmed at first. I put the CD on repeat until I started to get the words down. The actions were a different story. But they are coming along and my students are learning faster than I thought. It is cute to watch them sing thier parts. This is the fun part of kindergarten.
Then the not so fun part of kindergarten is all the testing. We have been practicing for a couple months now for the Spring IRI. (the state test) They take each student and time them for a minute and see how many letters they can name and then a separate test to see how many letter sounds they can name. Some get really nervous and others don't even care. It is hard to motivate them to do thier best.
OH then the other part of the testing is I have to assess all my students individually in all the math and reading standards. there is about 10 different items on each. I have been doing it for a little over a week now and I am almost done. The end is in sight. I am so excited and plus the kids are tired of me asking them so many questions on what is this sight word, read this word, rhyme this word, count to this number etc... ha ha I try to make it as fun as possible. My students and I love to play outside, read books, and sing songs. That is when I get to play and that is best part. I think I never grew up in some ways.
OH then I need to do report cards, writing samples, permanant files, and portfolios along with my parent program (decorations and crafts needed).
I feel like my head is going explode, I have lost 5 pounds so far and can't remember a thing. I set something done can't find it a minute later. Then I can't remember little things that people tell me that need to be done. I have to write down everything! My last day is NEXT Thursday so it is so close to being done I can't believe it.
We are having a field day on the last day, we doing bubbles, ice cream, jump rope and the zoo is even coming! Everyone pray for good weather so it will be fun for eveyone. We got rained out with our baseball decoding game today. The kids still loved it.
I love to see the wonder in thier eyes with different weather with why and how. We walked ot the library last week and they noticed everything, the air, flowers, stores, banks, cars, cross walks ( well me trying to get them to stay in the cross walk was an adventure), oh the hair cutting places and all the books at the library. They loved it, plus it was a beautiful day for a walk and to play outiside. SO that that is what we did. I want to do this more next year. Maybe we could go to Pizza Hut.

3 comments:

Jenni said...

You are awesome! I can't even imagine how you kindergarten teachers do it....so this was fun to read and helps me appreciate all you do! :) I hope you stay there for a few more years....so 1 of my kids can get you as a teacher! :)

Ellen Davenport said...

Cim, I am just so glad you are blogging! I love hearing what you're up to. It was so so so good to see you the other day!

Stephanie said...

Hi Cim! How are you!? I can't remember if I told you I'm teaching kindergarten too. . . yes, this is a CRAZY time of year. I feel like I can't remember anything either! It's been fun though, and has gone by SO fast. I'm glad you're doing well!