Kollaborating With Katie: 2014

Monday, November 10, 2014

Jim Gill

Wow! Its actually been a full month since I posted!!! So bad!!!

Anyways I figured if anything would be worth being a "welcome back" blog this would be it. I got to meet Jim Gill.

Now he's not super famous or anything but if you're in the Early Childhood world he's kind of a big deal.

Were having a concert for our school tomorrow and after tonight I can't wait! He always does a "teacher training" the night before the concert because he talks about the importance of adult and child interactions for songs and finger plays.

We got a bit of a preview of some songs we would be doing with the kids but also about how to use his music in the classroom. We discussed a few of the songs purpose and learning benefits.

Over all it was a great night and I can't wait for tomorrow with the kids. Looking forward to how a few of his ideas work with some one my kiddos!!!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Chili Cook Off/First Of Many

Well I went to my first Chili Cook Off today. It was pretty fun! There were a total of 8 chilies to try. Then we had to vote for our two favorite chilies. And it turns out my best friend Michelle WON!!!

Then the fireball came out....

And it all went down hill from there. In a great way! We seriously had a blast. I mean we were super goofy...a few of us a bit drunk, some not so much. But a good time was had by all that's for sure

And on a work note, got a few deliveries from hatch today. Its just the first of many and I can't wait to open them. I added the bookshelf and a block area shelf already but a few pieces need assembly so I think those will wait a few days. But I seriously can't wait to get the rest of my furniture! Some new shelves and such are going to be GREAT for the classroom.

All the boxes... Or most that is!

My new bookshelf! Love it!!!

He new block area shelf. Love all the baskets and that it fits under my white board!

And this is only the beginning......

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Birthday Lovin!

Well work was a pretty good day. Thank goodness for that!!! I walked into the classroom to find these super cute balloons on my desk. Needless to say my assistant is super sweet!

She also gave me a Starbucks card! She really gets me!!! ❤☕

Then during our small group the kids all made me bracelets. It was so sweet.

And I even got a necklace...turned into a headband (guess who has a big head)

Then at the end of the day when I was giving hugs out to all my kids one of the uncles decided to give me a hug too...bit strange but it was kind of sweet in light of it being my birthday!

When I got home today I walked excitedly got to open a gift from myself. Some super cute booties!!! I was so excited. Couldn't believe they came today.

Then I was surprised by my neighbor who I call Grandma(because she raised her granddaughter who was 2 years older than me and we grew up together, she'll always be grandma to me) with a card and as always on my birthday something that is a cow. A while (probably over 10 years) ago grandma found out I liked cows and now EVERY year for my birthday she gets me something cow. This year was this adorable coin wallet.

Mom and dad took me out to dinner. It took a while to decide what I wanted but I chose Kyoto a Japanese Steakhouse. It has a hibatchi grill which is always so fun and the food was delicious!!! Loved the noodles and the rice. Plus the salad and soup are always great. They also would fling a broccoli in the air to catch with your mouth and it was pretty cool too. Dad almost caught his, I didn't even try. I knew there was no way I could catch it. I'm realistic.

But the best part of today was by far my present from mom and dad. I CAN'T WAIT to watch the alternate ending!!!

Speaking of, think I'll go watch that now.

Night y'all!

Monday, September 29, 2014

Spreading the Social Word!

Well its official I'm spreading it to Facebook. Who knows maybe one day I'll even branch out to instagram and twitter. But for now I'll just stick with the one. Its nice to be able to post little updates and share little tidbits from my post.

https://www.facebook.com/kollaboratingwithkatie

Well its been an eventful week but over all I must say we've done some fun activities.

My favorite part was making apple pies! So much fun!

We started by cutting the apples into slices using the apple cutter and then we put them in the all around chopper by Tupperware. (This is one of my favorite kitchen tools in the world!) The kiddo's each took turns turning the handle to chop up the apples. Then we went back to our tables to add apple pie spice to our apples. We took turns cutting out small pie crusts, added the apple mixture and then put one pie crust on top. Squish the sides together to make a nice little pocket and you have your pie.

Talking about how the blades work and how we can be safe with them. (only the teacher touches the blade part)

Turning the handle to chop up the apple.

Getting a good sniff of the apple pie spice.

Mixing the apple pie spice into the chopped up apple.

Cutting out the pie crust.

Smashing the two pie crust pieces together to seal in the apples.

I must say it was acutally quite tastey too!

It was such a fun activity. I can't wait to cook in class again!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Kid In A Candy Shop

One of my favorite quotes of the week....

"That's not my teacher."

It was the first time I had worn my hair curly. He was a bit confused at first. It was so cute!

And then in the afternoon I screwed up and switched his name with another kids when parents were picking up. Yup. that was a bit embarrassing.

So anyways the point of the title.

I just got a bunch of books for ... FREE! Can you believe it, because I'm still in shock. I mean really! For free!! 3 whole boxes full!

3 of these! Filled with so many amazing books. It couldn't have been more perfect if it had tried. I mean who would ever complain about books like this...

Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon is possibly one of my favorites. It is so empowering! But then there's I Like Myself! Which is equally as awesome! And It's Hard to Be Five is absolutely perfect for a preschool class!!! Plus it's written by Jamie Lee Curtis and I love her books!

I can't believe how many great books were in the mix. And those are only the ones I recognized. I can't wait to start reading some of the ones I am not familiar with. It's going to be great!!! :)

Friday, September 12, 2014

I made it!!!

Well hard to believe I actually made it through the whole week but I did!!! And now it's time for some fun!!! Drinks tonight, baby shower, barbecue and more drinks tomorrow. When the week ends the fun begins right?! Well I'm calling it one to celebrate thats for sure!

So I must say I was a bit worried at the end of Monday. Lets just say it was a bit of a rough day. Kiddo's crying, no one listening. All I could think was it was going to be a long year if this is how it was any indicator. But it's okay because first day #2 on Wednesday went MUCH smoother. I'm not sure if it was because I was much more prepared or because it was just that different of a set of kiddos. Either way I now have hope. I had a blast with set number two. Most spoke great english and I was able to really play with them rather than monitor them. Also only had a few kiddo's who tried walking out of the classroom....into the next classroom. lol! Love that the classroom next to me has some cousins! Well in the long run I do, but it'll be a few weeks of "you can't walk out of the classroom," but I'm sure we'll get through it.

It's amazing how fast you forget what the start of a year is like. Last year is such a blur to me I thought I'd be so prepared for this year but it practically feels like my first year again. How does that happen?

Anyways, time for me to run some errand and try to get a nap in before drinks. Sleep sounds so a great!!!!!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Addicting Amazon

Wow! So it's been almost two weeks, guess I wasn't that great at updating more often. But I'll try to keep it quick so the last two seeks so end up as a short story! lol

I'll start by sharing the last of my two favorite purchases two weeks ago, and add another that I bought yesterday (I'm in love)!

The first is one of my favorite books. It's called The Shape Song Swingalong and it has a CD to go with it. It's such a fun song that goes with it. You don't have to play it, but if you play it once you will catch your self singing it rather than reading it. If you haven't heard it before it's one to check out for sure!

My next favorite it the Time Tracker Mini. You can set a time to go off and a time for a reminder. It took a while but I figured out that if you want a 5 minute warning you have to set the yellow one for five minutes after the green one. That took a while for me to figure that one out.

Well I haven't taken any classroom photos yet but I did get a few of my bulletin board and I can't wait to share. I really feel it came out awesome.

First I have to give props to my coworker who make the truffle tree's in the middle. I made the wording; I know super easy thanks to the Cricut but I still love the funkieness of it, random uppers and lowers. It's just so Dr. Seuss-ie!

So to go along with the saying I printed up a bunch of hot air balloons and put each child's name on a balloon. Sorry I don't have a close up of the balloons but I promise they are super cute! It almost makes me want to never change it. But I know the words won't last but a few days. Might need to make new letters to go up high above the bulletin board.

I've had a few nights of fun cutting out lamination. And by fun I mean yawn!!! It was so much I literally spent 4 hours cutting this stack out.

I though the pile would look smaller once I got rid of the extra stuff but I actually feel that it looks bigger. How does that happen. Anyways having 5 - 30 paged books, about 6 labels and 60 name tags cut out walking in on Friday felt great...until I left Friday afternoon and had yet another stack to cut out. Only 2- 30 paged books at 2 - 15 paged books.

I feel like this picture pretty much sums up my Target addiction. But this was an extra special day, 70% off the dollar spot for all teacher supplies. Don't have to twist my arm on that one!!! I got so much for classroom décor, class gifts and so much more!!! It's a teachers dream! Just wish I had been there sooner because It was already whipped out! but let me just say it's perfectly clean now! nothing left.

So I had a few projects for my Sunday afternoon. I was pretty proud at how productive I actually was today. I cleaned my room (long over do!), laminated these beautiful pages and worked on my chair all day (needed to seal it). The gorgeous "Cheer It Up!" cards are from Greg over at Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten. I am so in love with them I can't wait to use them with my munchkins! I know it'll be a few days before we can really start using them but it's going to be super exciting.

And I can't forget making magic dough for all of my munchkins for their first day! If it changes color were going to have a great year. But let's not mention how making it made me break a spoon in half. lol I actually ended up "stirring" the rest with my hands. Thank goodness it was at the solid stage already.

Let me just say so hard to make even halves....

And even harder to make 20 the same size. Lets hope they don't notice or complain.

I am so thankful to my wonderful mother who helped me fill them with color and bag them up real quick. I just hope they don't change color just sitting there over night...or 3 nights for my group B who starts on Wednesday.

Well I've had desert (as I worked on this post, sorry it did end up being long. Maybe one day I'll get better at updating more often) and it's the first day tomorrow so I'd say it's time to get some sleep so I'm nice and refreshed to handle all the tears I am expecting.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Back So Soon

You know I was really quite excited about heading back to work. I love consistency in my life and as relaxing as vacation was I'm happy to have the consistency back in my life. However it has not been easy getting back into the alarm clock aspect of it. While I was always up early between Flip Camp(VBS), waking up with Jack and being up early on vacation I wasn't really 'sleeping in' but there is something much different about waking up for work and waking up to go explore a vacation spot (or snuggle with your adorable nephew).

Best CPR Trainer Ever!!!

Last week was rather crazy. Monday I had my CPR training and got my class list...mostly. I had one spot open and a parent coming in to register at 3:30. Normally this is only a 30 minute process. Parents fill out the emergency car and family information sheet and we make a few copies and that's it. Except this did not turn out this way I was there until 5 with my boss and the mother. Talk about a long day!

I then followed my first day up by becoming a secretary for Tuesday morning. My boss asked if I would step in because she was registering people all day and needed the doors and phones taken care of. Yup, teachers can truly do anything!!!

The rest of the week I got to spend meeting all of my little kiddos and let me be the first to brag about how ADORABLE they all are. It is most definitely going to be a fun and energetic year. I have 12 boys and 4 girls. So if anyone has had any experience with a mostly boy classroom I would love any suggestions available. Last year I was the exact opposite so I think I'm in for a rude awakening.

There is chalkboard paint under all that newspaper.

I also spent a big portion of my week and weekend finishing up my awesome chalkboard table. I am so excited with how it came out! My painters tape wasn't sealed so great so I have a few spots that I'm not 100% happy with but to the average 4 year old it's perfect!!! I'm working on letting it go, because I am not sanding that bad boy down again.

Take Two

I had to repaint the chalk board the first time I did it because I didn't sand down to the wood like I though I had. When your chalk starts turning black something is not right! lol!!!

The Never Ending Project

I've also been working on my new rocking chair. This guy is taking a really long time to sand down because I must admit I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I want to make sure I'm down to the wood as must as possible. Which if you notice from the picture means getting into every one of the grooves and everything! Like I said taking a really long time. But I am finally onto just the bottom part and basically just the grooves of it too. I'm hoping to be able to take it in on Tuesday. Here's to hoping!!!

This past week I have been doing a bit too much online shopping thanks to Amazon. But I've gotten a few great gems! Deciding which is my favorite would just be way too hard. Plus I haven't gotten a few yet so I'll only show you what I have.

Loving The New Update To My Wheels

My awesome bike basket is just down right awesome. I can put my teacher bag, my purse and my lunch in so I have zero balancing to deal with. I don't have any back sweat from a backpack. Life is so much better with a basket. I love biking to work. Its not a long ride but I like to think about all the exercise I'm getting plus not having to drive my car and waste my gas is an awesome bonus!!! I actually haven't put gas in my car since I've been back from vacation (almost two weeks now) which is AWESOME! And lets face it whatever I can save on gas I'll probably just end up putting back into the classroom. Lets just think of all the great goodies I get with just one gas tank! Cameo Silhouette come to momma!

For The Office Supply Junkie

Plus thanks to a fellow blogger, The Clutter Free Classroom, I snagged a personal laminator on super sale!!! I can't wait to take it hope and use it. I'm resisting the urge to just laminate something because I want to use it! I'm sure I'll have a holiday before I know it but I must say it's just so darn tempting!!!

Well it is a school night and like I said before I'm not used to these morning just yet so it's bed time. Sorry it's been so long. I won't disappear again hopefully.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Lesson Planning On Vacation...What Am I Thinking?

Well today had been one of those productive yet I feel like I've done nothing kind of days. I started the day by cleaning out my email... the work one. 😥 Such a daunting task, considering I've neglected it all summer. Sure I've checked it for the important things (after all you can't exactly ignore your boss) but other than that it was pretty full. Oh the joys.

In my exciting mailbox clean up I stumbled upon the lesson plan schedule. I got very ambitious at this point and decided to work on some of my lesson plans.

(of course I had to use pretty pens)

Now at my school we have a rotating schedule where each teacher does 3 or 4 weeks of lessons at a time and then rest of the year you are given your lessons from the following teachers. I know what your thinking? Only 3 or 4 weeks. That's a dream! How are they able to do that? Well we just have that many preschool classes in our small school system. And yes I do mean small. Each graduating class has no more than 150 students. Being from the Detroit area that is pretty small for a district. Anyways...Its nice in many ways but it also has many disadvantages. First and for most for me its challenging because those other teachers don't know my kids, the supplies I have and my schedule. When I get a lesson plan it ends up getting a LOT of tweaking, or even being changed completely. I tend to just take the main theme and come up with my own ideas. Thankfully we don't have to turn in lesson plans but being in a GSRP (Great Start Readiness Program) I have to make sure that my lessons are at the ready for my PQA observer to view.

Which leads me to another issue I have with our lesson plans. In GSRP we HAVE to use the High Scope Curriculum. Which means planned two months in advance is not following the High Scope Curriculum. Two very contradicting concepts there. So like I said while it sounds like a fantastic plan over all not the biggest fan. Plus I really just like writing my own. I know my kids. I know what I have in the classroom to work with. Heading into only my second year in a brand new classroom (third year teaching) that was started from scratch means I really don't have much at all. Tough to do a lesson when you don't have the supplies saved up over the years.

But I'm working on my collection. Slowly but I am working on it. In fact found a few key items to my classroom at the Dollar General.

(6x9 clip boards and mini dust pans with broom)

I was so excited to find the 6x9 clip boards with the kind of clip they have. The old school style clips are too hard for my little kiddo's to handle on their own and believe it or not these are not that easy to find... at least at a reasonable price. And the mini dust pans with broom are a steal! I seriously spent 7$ last year on a set that they broke in about a month. Mind you it had a longer handle but still...only one month!! A bit expensive you have it break and have to use it like the ones above.

Oh well, lesson learned. 1$ dust pans are the way to go. And I bought two one of each table. I like making my kiddo's accountable for their actions at all times. This includes breakfast, lunch and snack. All of which are eaten in the classroom.

Any Dollar Store finds you'd like to share? I'd love to hear what else is hiding on those shelves that I've yet to find.

~Katie

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Just The Begining

I'm new to this whole blogging thing but I think I should give it a try. I've been very into following a bunch of teacher blogs in the last few weeks and feel that I have a bit I could put out into the world as well. I plan to do most of my posting about my teaching strategies, struggles or surprises, (sorry couldn't resist being cutesy with the wording there) but I will also be sharing the up's and (hopefully less) down's of my personal life as well. I'm incredibly excited to start this journey and hope you are ready to kollaborate with me. I am always up for constructive criticism as well as any idea for sharing too! Happy Blogging!

As for this official post it will mostly be personal. It is summer break after all. As stated in my about me section I love to travel... which is exactly what I am currently doing. I have about a week and a half left before I go back to work (three weeks before the kids start) and I am lucky enough to get to spend the last two weeks on vacation. I'm currently spending the week in Savannah Georgia with my sister, brother(in-law) and nephew (also previously mentioned in my about). I love being here with them. I get to spend 100% of my time with them and have no distractions. Its always wonderful when they come up to Michigan to see us but because I'm home things always come up and it feels like I'm only getting to see them at dinner. Not nearly enough time in my book. But down here it's all them 24/7 (except for Josh because he does have to keep working unfortunately).

We tried to go to the pool today and boy was that an ordeal. First of all we had to get two toddlers(my sister babysit for someone during the summer) ready to go plus ourselves. Then we get down there it's perfect, we have the whole pool to ourselves. Best way to have it when swimming with two toddlers. About 10 minutes after the boys jump in with my sister we are told we have to get out. We can't swim because they put chemicals in the pool. We need to rinse off immediately and should probably go use soap. Tons of fun telling that to two toddlers who were so excited to swim. We were able to get them out after a bit of struggle and we had them going for a "swim" in the bath tub. They loved it, we gave them bubbles and all. Such fun to a 2 year old and 3 year old.

Can't wait to see what the rest of the week will lead to but I'm sure when the day is done it will be a blast! I just hope that my little man lets me sleep in a bit more tomorrow. Especially because he didn't actually go to sleep until after 10:30!!! That does mean he'll sleep in right? Here's to hoping!!!

Until my next post....

~Katie

P.S. Hoping to get some personalization with the design up here soon... assuming I can figure out how to!!! I'm not the best with coding. Help anyone?