Fri, Feb 3 Early dismissal 12:45
Friday, February 10th, Rodeo Day
Thank you so much parents who were available to attend our little parent activity! I really appreciate the time you spent not only with your kiddos but also helping out their tablemates! I hope the kids liked their penguin hats!
Welcome to Kindergarten 2011-2012!!!!
We have many great activities planned for the upcoming weeks and I can't wait to meet all the new students and their families.
We had a wonderful turn-out for our Meet and Greet on Friday. Thank you so much parents for taking the time to come see the classroom!
Our official school time is: 8:00-3:12. The doors open at 7:15 - students will go first to the cafeteria and I will pick them up from there. Dismissal will take place to the right of the main entrance to the building. We will have to be patient due to the Metro Rail construction but we'll make it!
The kids do eat breakfast in the classroom-it is completely free for all students. They start serving at 7:45 or so, but as long as they arrive before 8:15 they can get breakfast.
This is the Kinder supply list:
12x18 Manila Paper (50count) 2
12x18 Construction Paper (colored) 2
16 count Crayola Crayons 2
Elmer’s Glue Stick (.77oz) 12
Elmer’s Washable Glue (Small Bottle 1, 25oz) 3
5” Fiskars Scissors (Blunt) 1
Facial Tissue 3
Pencils (No.2) 12
10x8 Composition Book ¾” Grade 1 10
Crayola Water Color 1
Washable markers 2
Antibacterial Soap w/pump 4
Purell Hand Sanitizer 1
Clorox Disinfecting Wipes 3
We do use community supplies (believe me it's much easier for the kiddos to manage their materials that way) so nothing needs to be labeled except for the Composition books-those will belong to the student.
Looking forward to meeting everyone and a great year!!! :)
End of the Year Luau-we danced the hula and did the limbo. Dined on fruit/marshmallow kabobs and punch. A good time was had by all!
Thank you so much parents for all your help on our zoo field trip. I know it was hot but we did have fun and more importantly got to see some animals up close and personal.
Our Perfect Attendance reward was a hit! All students who attended class every day for the month of April got to attend a little dance party hosted by our illustrious music teacher. He taught them the Macarena and the Hokey-Pokey and they danced their ancillary time away. We will be doing the same thing for May-so come to school every day!
Our Egg Drop Competition: there aren't many jobs in the real world where you don't have to work in teams. We wanted to have some fun and work on our collaborating skills at the same time. The students brought materials from home and worked in a team to make a blueprint, then construct an apparatus that would protect and egg dropped from about 5 feet. Some of them were extremely creative and 3 out of the 5 were successful!
Thank you again parents for supporting our Character Court presentations. I know you did your homework on the costumes and helping the kiddos learn their lines. I think they did a fabulous job! The assignment was to work with a partner in writing a debate based on an ethical dilemma 2 characters had in a story that we have read this year. They made the background and wrote a summary, ethics overview and a real-world application for this issue. Then they performed their debate at our presentation. Here are some pics from that project:
Thank you so much to the parents who were able to attend our "Author's Tea". I know the kids enjoyed sharing their autobiographies with everyone. It was a task that was completed over literally weeks. They would work on it a little bit each day. My only direction to them was to come up with a creative title and then make an outline listing 10 things about their lives so far. I was very impressed with most of the finished products! Excellent spelling and time taken to do detailed illustrations.
Well, our 50's Day was a success! The kids learned some new vocabulary like "records", "jukebox", "diner" and tasted root beer floats. They learned how to do the twist and the pony and most importantly-we had a lot of fun!
Can you believe we have been in school for 100 days already? We did lots of activities to celebrate the honored number. Here the students worked in pairs to be the first to count 100 manipulatives. The key some groups figured out was to separate the counters into groups of 10. The kids love a little friendly competition and if you can get math review in with that-then it's win-win for everyone!
Well, no snow! I know the kids will be disappointed. We did read the story "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. They made Double Bubble Maps which is another way to compare 2 things and compared a snowy day to a sunny day. Then they drew a picture of themselves ready for the arctic weather and wrote a story about what they would do on a snowy day. I can't believe how far their writing has come. I remember when they couldn't make a sentence and now stories with titles, punctuation, good spelling-I'm very proud of how far they've come! :)
We got another proposal funded from the Donorschoose website!!! This time for art supplies. So exciting! There are very generous people out there in the world. We had 19 different little donations that added up to enough to fund the project. The kids can't wait to start creating!
Learning About Civil Rights
The students learned about the contributions of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Susan B. Anthony in fighting for equal rights. They pretended they were either a snowman or snowgirl and made protest posters indicating the rights they were fighting for. I think it was a great way for them to apply what they had learned about history.
In math, we've been working on growing patterns. It's a pretty tough concept, but as you can see our little scholars have mastered it! We talk a lot about patterns everywhere, but it's particularly cool when you can find them in unexpected places-like a 100's chart!
Working collaboratively in reading stations! Who knew learning how to read could be so much fun! :)
Working hard in our Math Workstations!
Some photos of students in workstations:
This is our word wall. The students can remove a vocabulary word and use it in their writing.
Before pictures of the classroom. This is what the classroom looked like the week before school started. I had my work cut out for me-who knew you could accumulate so much stuff in 8 years! :)
Thanks for much for all you do to support your child's success!
If you have any questions or concerns please contact me-click on the mailbox below for a direct link to my e-mail address.
