Herding Kats in Kindergarten: A Little Of This and That

I went shopping today and spent most of the drive with tears in my eyes as I listened to all the patriotic songs in remembrance of 9/11. Tonight I'm sitting down to watch Alan Jackson perform at the Washington National Cathedral.

I'm planning a big Veteran's Day unit this year, because I really feel our children need to understand and show gratitude to those who serve or have served. I was in the Army for 3 years and one of my big things is teaching children to be respectful during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem. My husband (who is still active duty) has volunteered to come in and show the students proper care and respect to the flag as well as how to fold it into a triangle like they do at funerals. I'm also going to teach the children to sing:

and Veteran's Day by Dr. Jean. It is a very sweet song, my kinders loved it last year and I think this year my firsties will get even more out of it. Click here to go to Dr. Jean's site for a download of the book to go with it. The song is on this cd,it also has songs for Thanksgiving and Columbus Day as well. There are 51 songs spanning each season and many holidays, so you get a lot of use out of it.

In other news, I stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up the pumpkin ice cube trays I saw on Nicole's blog The Kinder Kid, but what really made me squeal were these babies:

Yep, those are the wooden cars for your block center! What a fabulous deal!! I ~~grabbed~~ selected one of each, although I'm thinking of going back for more fire trucks and police cars since those are usually the most popular with my kiddos. Of course this year in first grade we don't use block center as much, but these will be great for indoor recess!

Also, if you have kids of your own, next weekend Lowe's is having a kid's workshop to make wooden fire trucks! While I was at Lowe's yesterday buying more wood for crate seats I saw some children with the police cars they had made. They were so neat and even had a working light on top! Once I found out that next week was fire trucks I promptly signed up my 3 oldest to attend! How perfect will those be for our Fire Safety week?! (I promise I will return them to my kids after I finish using them in class lol)

I also made some crate seats this weekend. The 2 that I have in my classroom were such big hits that I decided to make a couple more. Then I found some gorgeous fabric at JoAnn's and bought so much I will probably be making crate seats for the next several weekends lol. Oh well, they are functional as well as fun, so it's all good! Here are some pictures: