Fantastic Friday: April 17th Edition

Every Friday, I will be posting what made this teaching week great. When I say "every Friday" I mean as often as possible. So here is my first Fantastic Friday list...

1. I finally (and I say finally because the mail took really long to get it to Hawaii) received my SLANTbox from Erin. She did such an amazing job and I love, love, LOVED the box she put together for me. Everything was SO me. Thank you Jameson for hosting. I definitely recommend checking out their blogs and signing up for the next SLANTbox if you are a teacher.

2. One of my Pre-K kiddos got accepted into a prestigious private school for Kindergarten. This had nothing to do with me, but I am so happy for him.

3. We are having our first ever fundraiser tomorrow and I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the parents at our school. We asked them to donate drinks for us to sell at a rummage sale and now my office looks like the drink aisle at a grocery store.

4. I stumbled upon the 30 day teach happy challenge from Sheila Jane this week. I love the idea of it and will definitely be participating soon. Thank you for posting this challenge! 

Happy Fantastic Friday!

-Miss Kapua 

Book Review: Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan

I have finished reading this book months ago, but have been struggling on how to review it. In turn pushing all my book reviews back. Boo! Like many (if not ALL) teachers out there, I don't have a lot of free time. So what I choose to do in my free time is very important and I try to do things that make me happy and or fulfilled. Reading this book was neither of those things. For me, this was one of those books that I finished reading just for the sake of finishing it.

Commencement is about four girls who meet during their freshman year of year college at a Women's College. The book included all of the things you would expect for book about a group of girls at a Women's College...a little drinking, rape, protests, lesbians, and friendships. The only things in the book I could relate to were the friendships and parties. Everything else was not in my college experience. What I can appreciate about this book is the way the friendships are portrayed. It was very realistic and I found myself taking sides during arguments.

Verdict: Not my cup of tea and I can't think of anyone I would recommend this book too. It was a bit of a slow read for me and ended in a very weird way.

St. Patrick's Day

This post is a recount of some of our St. Patrick's Day activities. Holidays are a fabulous time in preschool! We get to be goofy and have a lot of fun. We get to dress up...and we always have the "I'm a teacher" excuse. I have used this excuse many times when justifying why I am buying something. (See: outfit below)

We started our St. Patrick's Day celebrating off by doing a craft I stumbled upon on Pinterest. The children made a rainbow paper chain that led to a pot of gold. The pin for the craft can be found here. How happy does this picture look with all the colors?

Our next activity to prepare for St. Patrick's Day was our door decorations. We talked about what we would do with a pot of gold. Each kiddo cut out a yellow circle and drew what they would do with a pot of gold. They wanted to include a rainbow of hearts...which they all helped to cut. 

The day before St. Patrick's Day we prepared for our school-wide parade. We made hats and wands for the children to march around with. We had to improvise a little with the hats since all we had were styrofoam bowls that couldn't be painted. The children cut out three hearts to make each wand. We secured them to green straws and added white and green curling ribbon. 

 

In the afternoon before the children went home, I read The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing. The children loved that the leprechaun played tricks in the book. 

Finally St. Patrick's Day arrived! The leprechaun played a trick on us...

GREEN MILK for morning snack! The children loved it. 

They also loved my festive outfit for the day...

How could I pass up the opportunity to buy something with Mickey on it?! See what I mean about using the "I'm a teacher" excuse. But who am I kidding?

-Miss Kapua 

Pre-K Library

Our theme for the month of February was Community. During this is theme we learned about our communities, what makes a community, who makes a community, and different community helpers/careers.

For the culmination of our Community unit, we made a library in our classroom. We learned about authors, illustrators, and librarians. The children worked hard all week on making their own books. They each told me a story, which I typed for them. The children illustrated their story throughout the week. At the end of the week, the children made library cards and we set up a library in our classroom. We left it up into this week because they are so proud of their books are still enjoying "checking out" books. 

 

The books they are oh so proud of!

Library check out desk

Pre-K Library is open for business!

Pre-K Library Cards

Pre-K kiddos enjoying their library and books.

We had so much fun with the books and library. I only hope that they will continue to enjoy reading and will use the public library more often. 

-Miss Kapua 

Teaching Conference Task: Bring Inspirational Quotes

I am attending a teaching conference tomorrow about positive engagement tomorrow. We received an email today saying that we should bring inspirational quotes for an activity we will be doing. We are also encouraged to bring copies for our tablemates. Here is the list I quickly compiled this morning...meaning most of them were saved to my various Pinterest boards.

I just wanted to share some of the quotes I enjoy. Please feel free to post some of the quotes you find inspirational. I will post more about what these were used for at the conference and more about the conference later.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. –Aristotle

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.  –Dale Carnegie

A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. –William Shedd

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. –Dr. Suess

Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s a great balancing act. –Dr. Seuss

Either you run the day, or the day runs you. –Jim Rohn

You can never be overdressed or overeducated. –Oscar Wilde

Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together. –Liz Taylor

Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better. –Walt Disney

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. –Winnie the Pooh

What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create. –Buddha

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.       –Carlos Castenada

You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. –John C. Maxwell 

-Miss Kapua 

Valentine's Day Mail

This year for Valentine's Day, I set up all the supplies to make valentines in our writing center. Last week, the children created their own valentine holders to hang on the door. Throughout the week of Valentine's Day, the children were able to make and deliver valentines for their friends. 

Valentine Holders: 

The children painted a paper plate for their holder. I cut out the letters on different colors of paper to spell each child's name. They had to look for the letters to make their name. They were also given valentine stickers to decorate it. 

Children decorating their valentine holders.

The children loved making and delivering valentines. I supplied them with letter cut outs, valentine stickers, valentine stamps, colored masking tape, heart print duck tape, scissors, and pencils. Many hours were spent this week making valentines. I will definitely be doing this again next year. 

Bonus: I got to make valentines and surprise the children with them in their holders. The children insisted that I make and hang a holder so they could make me some too. How sweet are my kiddos?!

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Miss Kapua 

Book Review: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The second book I read for the 2015 reading challenge was Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. It is a fiction novel following New Yorker Rachel and her crazy rich boyfriend, Nick. Nick takes Rachel to his home town in Singapore for a friend’s wedding where Rachel learns just how crazy rich her boyfriend’s family is. This novel is the epitome of the “mo’ money, mo’ problems” mantra as it paints a picture of how the high-society socialites live.

I was definitely wowed by this debut novel from Kevin Kwan. I couldn’t put this book down. It was very funny and I loved how he made footnotes to explain certain words, places, people, or anything that needed a bit more of an explanation. I found that the footnotes added more humor to the story. Some of the footnotes were rather long and I just skimmed those, but for the most part they were helpful. I was entertained throughout the entire story, but I was really emotionally drawn in towards the end.

I would absolutely recommend this book to someone looking for a funny read. I loved reading this book at the beach and on the bus ride to and from work. I am looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation of this book as well as Kevin Kwan’s next novel. 

-Miss Kapua