Mrs. Barnoski's Class is In Session!!

This picture was taken the day I took a few pics of my students sitting around the smartboard about to do our reading lesson for the day. I have a few pics of the kiddos' faces but don't want to put them on until I know the parents gave consent.
Here's a picture of one of my first reading lessons using the Smartboard, an electronic white board that is great for interactive lessons.

Here's a matching activity that I did with the kiddos, matching pictures with the correct beginning sound.

I love technology, especially when it works! :) I'm thinking about getting my PhD in technology integration in education... that's not for a while though.

My Artist

What I love about this latest piece of art by Wyatt is that you can actually see that he is making an effort at drawing people! That's more than I can say about a few of my students. Can you pick out the people in his picture? The early stage of drawing people is usually a big circle, some facial features, and then arms/legs protruding out of the circle. There's no body or neck, just the circle and appendages. And the letter up in the right corner, neither Jake or I wrote that! :) Way to go, Wywy!

Head Banger

tOne night, after Wyatt and Garett had laid down for the night, Wyatt comes out of his room screaming his head off. Turns out he had tried to get out of his bed some backwards way and hit his head on one of the dressers. The knot left on his head was quite the goose egg!

Getting Ready for Soccer Season

Our family (well, not really including Jake) are gearing up for our first season of soccer. I say that about Jake because he's not a fan of the sport... but he was willing to let Wyatt play this year! :) Thanks, honey! Anyhow, we went out and got Wyatt some cleats, socks, shinguards, a ball, and cones to practice with. He's in love with the stuff! Here's a few pics of him gearing up to play outside. Practices start in a few weeks. One practice a week, games on Saturdays.

Wyatt is working on his goalie/throw-in skills! Notice where his aim is.

Dribbling like a stud.

New Shoes... Kinda

Garett is growing so fast! Tonight, I figured out that only one or two pairs of shoes fits him, his feet have grown so fast. So I dug in a few bins of Wyatt's old clothes and found these... the first pair on Converse that Wyatt had. I think Gramma and Papa Wheeler bought them for him. Now Garett fits into them which is good since he needs to wear shoes more now since he is motoring everywhere!!!

Notice mommy's new do?! I asked for a little off my neck. Well, atleast I will definitely stay cooler now!

I had to switch the side Garett was on so he wouldn't suck his thumb... kinda worked!

Flying baby!!!!!!!

School Has Begun

A few quick notes (because I'm tired and my 3 year old has yet to fall asleep next to me in bed -- daddy is out of town)...

School started off well. I am at 16 students, mostly girls. Their personalities and characters are so interesting and I can't wait to get to know each one of them more and more this year.

Lunch time is not as crazy and stressful as I imagined. We took a whole morning practicing it, though!

One of my new boys managed to grab his backpack and bolt out of my room last week. I am not as fast as I used to be but I can still catch up with a sprinting child. I didn't think my class was that bad anyways!!! :) Actually, it's nothing personal -- he's just adjusting and has A LOT going on in his life right now.

I think sometimes my outgoing character in the classroom is too much for my quiet kiddos. They look at me with blank stares and I wonder if anything is getting in their heads. Or is it my crazy mid-west accent?!?!?!

Today I was talking with a young boy and I wanted to know what his parents do for a living. Conversation: Me- What's your dad do? Boy- Hits. Me (shocked) - What's your mom do? Boy - Cries. W-O-W!!! Not at all what I expected to hear... maybe something like "Works at McD's and mom is at home." Instead a red flag comes up in my head and I think, "Keep my eyes on this boy." Life is different here.

Some kiddos asked me the other day for hugs. So as I passed them papers, they came and gave me a hug. Today, the class asked again if we could do that same thing: grab a paper, get a hug! :)

I have 16 on a good day. Today I ended the day with 9! There must be a flu bug going around. I have lost my voice a bit today -- and not because I yell at the kids! ;)

But above all of this, I am still adjusting to waking up early! I hate the sound of an alarm clock. And if possible, I shower with the lights off... I am NOT a morning person!!!!!!

It's Go Time!

School starts tomorrow. I am super excited to meet all of my students... only five families came to Open House. I'm not going to say much tonight... Jake wants to go to bed now (so do I!). Wish me luck, say a little prayer, and I'll try and post about it tomorrow night.

Garett Feeding Himself

This morning, Garett was determined to feed himself some yogurt. I wanted to see how well he did so I loaded up the spoon and handed it over!

So proud of himself! Also, he managed to work on waving goodbye to Wyatt this morning. It looks more like the Hitler salute but he's still working on it! :)

The Thinker... Performed by the Stinker

I found this template online for a Thinking Cap earlier in the summer. I finally put it together last night. It's a little small still for a kid's head but Wyatt was eager to be my model -- we all know my noggin would be WAY too big for this hat!

Pondering a deep thought... chocolate milk or chocolate milk? Hmmmm...

Ready to Go Play

My wonderful son this morning asked me during breakfast (which, first let me say he let us sleep in! He played in his toy room and then around 8:30 told me so sweetly that he was hungry!! Of course I'll feed you sweetie!) if he could go play with Jude and Irie, our neighbor kiddos. I said yes but he needed to get dressed. He scarffed down his food (which rarely happens) and he ran to his room. He came out looking like this. His explanation: Mommy, my shirt is so I don't get cold (honey, we are in Georgia and it's summer time!); My hat -- no explanation needed; My shoes have baseballs on them so I can play; My shoes help me not to slip! LOVE IT! :)

By the way, those are swim trunks! He has his mommy's fashion sense... ZERO!

Water Time!

The boys LOVE bath time! Wyatt tries to swim in the tub while Garett splashes like crazy!!

The boys enjoy playing in the pool in the backyard. Wyatt mostly uses the water to fill up his noodle so he can shoot the water out. Garett does a lot of splashing. Notice a pattern? :)

Classroom Catch-up and Tea Pot Song

I have considered starting a blog about my teaching experiences, kind of keeping that seperate from the family blog. But we'll see... haven't made my mind up yet.

I'm getting more and more excited to start school. One week from today is Open House and then one week from tomorrow is the first day of school! Most all of my room is ready. My desk and kidney table area are still a mess. I just have to finish filing and sorting through office supplies. I had two days of Orientation last week. The first day was long and boring. But day two was full of some great ideas. Those great ideas got my brain going...

Last time I taught kinders, I had a chant that we said as we lined up (a fellow teacher from Kruse Elem in Fort Collins, CO made it up and passed it on:
I'm giving myself a great big hug, I'm standing straight and tall,
I'm looking right in front of me, I'm ready for the hall. *Put a bubble in your mouth!

Well, at Westview last year they adopted specific hallway procedures: hips and lips for K-2 and hands behind backs for 3-5. Still wanting a chant/tune to help us line up, I came up with this:
(to the tune of I'm a Little Tea Pot)
We are lining up to go into the hall,
Our eyes are to the front and we're standing straight and tall.
Our hands are to ourselves with the left one on our hips,
Our smiling mouths are quiet with a finger to our lips.

I might switch it to "I"-focused: I am lining up to go into the hall, My eyes are to the front and I'm standing straight and tall. My hands are to myself with the left one on my hip, My smiling mouth is quiet with a finger to my lips.

Which one do you like better???