A Fun Holiday Tradition: Making Gingerbread Houses

Only some of the items we used last year.

We will be making Gingerbread Houses Next Week!!

Thursday December 17, 2009

8:30 to 10:30

We invite everyone to come volunteer and help spread the Holiday cheer!

Remember to bring your camera.

Each year my Kinder Kids enjoy making their very own Special Gingerbread Houses!  This year, of course, is no exception.  Today all students took home a note from Mrs. Y, who is helping coordinate this very special classroom celebration.  I attached an envelope for your convenience.  Please return all envelopes by Thursday December 10th, we will do all the shopping over the weekend.

Kids will be tempted by all the candy- it would be nice if we have a healthy and appealing snack, such as fruit/cheese kabobs and small water bottles, for our children to enjoy after making their Gingerbread Houses.  

If you can donate these, we would greatly appreciate it and best of all the kids will love it!

 Please email me at school.

Our FRIENDSHIP Feast

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

THANK YOU, Thank You, thank you...

Thank you for all the food that was sent in, our friendship feast was a HUGE success. Most kids tried a little from each food that was brought in.  Some kids even had seconds!

The tables looked great thanks to Mrs. Z, Mrs. L, Mrs. A, Mrs. C, Mrs. N, and Mrs. D who helped set-up and also helped with the turkeys.  

Mrs. Y thank you for organizing this event :o).

I am grateful for the help and support I receive from all the parents in our Kindergarten Class.

I feel very LUCKY.

Fruit Basket Kit and Adorn Loopy Frames Purchased from Two Peas in a Bucket

BEADS:

The kids spent a while in the morning decorating a medallion and stringing beads for a very colorful Thanksgiving necklace.

Pocket, Pocket, What's In My Pocket? & Much More

I used the extremely cute Happy Go Lucky free Digital Kit

from the Shabby Princess on all three pages on this post!

We read the book:  

Pocket, Pocket, What's In My Pocket?

• The kids had fun predicting what they thought would be inside each pocket.  
• Some clues were a little harder than others to predict and some were pretty easy.
• Each student had a chance to draw their own pocket with a little of their item showing at the top.  
• On the second page students drew themselves holding the item that was inside their pocket.
• The best part was that they got to ask a friend to predict what was inside their pocket, 
• they used the sentence frame: Pocket, Pocket, what's inside my pocket?  Something that's _____.

Goggles, Magnifying Glasses & Dinosaur Bones

I took these pictures about a week ago.  Students got to use our very cool goggles and magnifying glasses  to take a closer look at  12 different dinosaur bones.  All items are part of the learning materials we received from DonorsChoose.org.

Fun Workstations

Trains, Writing, Puppets, Doll House, Reading, Read Around the Room, Play House

More Cookies Anyone?

Language Arts

Letter for the Week: Ii

Identifying  the Ii sound at the beginning and also in the middle of words: insect, igloo, instrument, pin, brick, chin, chip

Words: review previous words...

Ask your child about Realism and Fantasy

Testing

I  am almost done with our Language Arts District Assessment.

I have started our District Math Assessment this week.

Conferences

I will be sending Parent Conference Notifications (time/date) on Thursday, please sign and return the following day.

Minimum Days 7:55 to 12:50 Friday Nov. 13th until Tuesday Nov. 24th (I will double check on the dates, and update this post if needed)

Birthday

We celebrated a birthday today!! Mrs. L thank you for the cupcakes, they were the perfect size. The kids really enjoyed them.  

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Students had fun exploring the insides of our four pumpkins!!! 

Thank you for the pumpkins Mrs. C :o)

Halloween Celebration!

All digital Papers & Elements for Halloween Layouts purchased from  Shabby Pickle Designs.

Kits: 1. Scary Kit; 2. Boo-Hoo-Hoo; & Fright Delight

The Halloween Parade was short & sweet.  

Students got to see other children in costumes.  

We took a class picture outside.

COOKIES

Once we got back to our classroom students decorated 

yummy pumpkin shaped cookies!

  Students used orange and black icing, sprinkles, 

& a lot of candy corn.

Thank you Mrs. B-N for the cookies and water bottles :o)

A BIG Thank You to all parents for your continued support.  

Many thanks to all the parents who came to help in our classroom 

during our first classroom celebration.  

Mrs. Y thank you again for organizing this event.

I will post pictures of our pumpkin exploration adventure at a later time.

Have a fun and very safe Halloween!!

Kindergarten Kids in Action...

So much learning, so much fun!

I want to share a few more pictures I took during workstations.

The drawing shows one of the cards we sent to one of the many donors that funded the "Ready, Set, Imagine!" project at DonorsChoose.org. The kids had a lot to say about how much fun it is to have the new learning materials that enrich their learning!

Read and Write the Room is So Much Fun!

Negative Frame Purchased from "House of 3"

As you can see from the picture students were more than happy to be Reading and Writing Around the Room!

I heard one student say "This is the most fun workstation!" plus they recommended it to their classroom friends.

Of course, they also think other stations are fun too!! the puppet stage, the doll house, the classroom library, the blocks, the dinosaur bones or fossils with a matching book, alphabet sorting, alphabet mystery box, linker cubes, the playhouse with the dress-up trunks, and so many others.

Overall, my students really enjoy writing...

Just ask them about the WRITING center- they love making books, cards and posters. They have different types of papers for them to use, they have blanks books awaiting a good story, they can staple their own papers into a book, and so much more.

It was great to see all this learning taking place and kids like always more than excited about our classroom learning stations.

This GREAT picture was taken with the new camera from DonorsChoose.org!!

Parade: October 30, 2009 @ 9:45 a.m.

Party: After the parade, we need a few parent volunteers :)

I would like to thank you for all the items that have been sent in for our cookies!! Thank you Mrs. "Y" for organizing this event.

Mrs. "M" and Mrs. "Y" thanks for all your help in the classroom!!

Letters and Sounds: Pp (week of October 20th) and Cc (week of October 26th)

This Week & Next Week

A few more "Apple Smile" pictures.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but they were yummy, something about the marshmallows I think.

My Camera is Acting Up

I have taken several pictures over the weeks, but for some reason these are not transferring to iphoto. I will try using a different camera tomorrow to show you the new learning tools that we have received from DonorsChoose.org. Thank you Mrs. Z for taking the Apple Smile pictures with your camera.

Another Project Funded!!

Today we had the "Capturing Learning and Getting Organized" project fully funded. I have also posted another project "Now I Know My ABC's..." please share with anyone you know :D. Please sign and return the Permission slip you received today. Thank you.

For Next Week...

Letter: Ss

Decodable Books: 1. Sock Sack (take home), 2. Sam and Tam (in class)

Words: 1. have, 2. is

Math: Sorting and Classifying

Enjoy your long weekend!!!

Apple Smiles and So Much More...

Students enjoying their apple smiles: Fuji Apples, peanut butter, and marshmallows- yummy!

I'll post more later...

Digital Elements From: Designer Digitals- School Days Kit and Shabby Pickle- Teacher's Pet

A lot has happened since the last time I posted!

DonorsChoose.org

I want to start by sharing that we had another DonorsChoose.org grant fully funded last week!! I am extremely happy for the opportunity our kind donors are giving our students. The title of this project is "For the LOVE of Reading." In a few days we will be receiving non-fiction and beloved classic books for our students to enjoy when they visit our classroom library. The collection includes books about animals, animal habitats, landforms and ecosystems, eyewitness nonfiction readers, as well as hardcover copies of beloved classics like Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, Five Little Monkeys, and Where the Sidewalk Ends.

I have a second project posted and it is very close to being funded, we only need $55.00 to go!! Thank you Mrs. C in our classroom for your kind donation to our project. If you would like to donate to this project please email me and I'll send you the link, using the link will help us in two ways. First, it will help us get funded and secondly DonorsChoose.org currently has a promotion that helps students in receiving more materials for the classroom. If 10 donors make a donation in any amount DonorsChoose will give the classroom a $100 gift certificate to use for student materials; 25 people give a donation the classroom will receive a $500 gift certificate, and if 50 people give the class will receive a $1, 000 gift certificate!!!

Language Arts and Math

We have started Unit 2 in Language Arts. We are practicing the letter Aa this week. Not only are we learning to identify words that begin with the letter Aa, but we are also learning to identify words that have the sound for "a" in them such as cap, map, bat, can, etc.

Our new sight words this week are "little" "is" and "have." Please look for these words in your surroundings and in books when you read to your child.

We continue to practice our penmanship, please practice at home. I have noticed a big difference since we began the school year.

We have started a second writing journal. We practice writing in them on a daily basis. Students are encouraged to write about their weekend, things they like, their family, pets and they are also encouraged to respond to our readings. I have noticed that students are now using letters, sight words we have practiced such as I, am, and little, and other environmental print in addition to their illustrations.

In math we finished Number Packets 1-10 and have started our math curriculum. Currently we are working on Sorting and Classifying object by color, shape, and size. The vocabulary words we are using are alike and different.

October Activities Calendar

• The journal provided is for students to have a place to do their Activities that require writing, drawing or gluing of items. For example if the activity is to look for pictures in magazines that begin with the letter Pp and cut them out- then you can have your child glue those pictures onto one page. If the activity is asking that your child practices writing his/her name and you have already used the sheet provided, then please use a page from the journal.
• Not all activities require proof- for example scissor skills.
• Please keep the journal at home until the end of the month.

SHOW your Sea Lion Pride...

The PTC membership drive is going on now. Please show your support by joining the PTC. There are a lot of perks to being a member and it only costs $6 to join!!

Great Things Happening in Kindergarten!

Digital Kit {Teacher's pet} from the Shabby Pickle, cute isn't it!

We had a great turn-out at our school's first family picnic!!

The kids loved being able to enjoy lunch with their parents, they were more than happy to see their parents at school and many did not want to say good-bye. I was also happy to see parents again :D. We had beach balls and hula-hoops for the kids to play with, but many still opted to go to the swings and slide. Thanks for coming to the family picnic.

I'm more than happy to announce that our class had another project fully funded through DonorsChoose.org last week. We received all the Dramatic Play Learning Materials from this project on Thursday. Our Kindergarten Kids were excited when they saw the content of the seven boxes inside our classroom- which included a fully furnished giant doll house and Lincoln Logs!!! I encourage you to share this site with family and friends. I currently have two other projects posted, if you would like more information on these please send me a note and I'll be happy to provide you with the details.

Reminder:

Back to School Night

Thursday September 17, 2009

Time- 5:30

The STAR Words for this week are:

I, am

The letters for this week are:

Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee

The Pattern for this week is:

ABABABAB

The Numbers for this week are:

1-5 Penmanship and Quantity

Counting 1-20

Exploration...

Word Exploration font: CK Ali Edwards official handwriting

It's amazing to see how creative Kindergarten Students get when exploring. They LOVED the idea of getting their hands on new math manipulatives that I have available for them. They had the creepy crawlers crawling up their arms, they also counted and sorted by color, shape, number of legs, etc. The bats were a big hit- they played, divided them evenly, and made patterns. Even though students have used the linker cubes in class before- they showed their creativity by building different animals like the camel pictured above.

bubbles dancing magically in the air...

relaxing

amazing

soft

White Rounded Frame from House of 3

Simply a perfect ending to the second week of Kindergarten!

A few more things...

• On Thursday we made a self portrait- they came out great!
• We finished the book- My School. Students are excited about being able to read this book.
• We have been practicing writing in our Kindergarten Journals. We talked about different kinds of writing from Kid Writing to adult writing and everything in between. Students are excited about their writing! Please keep a journal at home and see the progress.
• Please read daily to or with your child.
• We are continuing to practice our classroom rules and procedures- we started the Second Step Program and we are teaching our friend Impulsive Puppy how to behave during circle time: eyes watching, voices quiet, ears listening, body still, raise your hand to talk.

We had a Fabulous First Week!

We have done so much...

On Thursday two of our learning centers included reading and illustrating a book titled "My School"(students practiced using their Magic Reading finger to point at the words in the sentence) and at the other center students explored the Nuts & Bolts manipulatives where students got creative sorting by shapes, size, color, + and -. Some students even "built" with them!

On Friday we had a lot of fun! After lunch students got a chance to enjoy the outside while letting their artistic side shine through their wonderful chalk drawings. Here you can see only a few- girl, snowman, a second snowman, a spider. We also had rainbows, people, letters, numbers, dinosaurs, an egg with a baby chick inside, a huge roller coaster, and a hopscotch or two. Some students even labeled their drawings with the picture's initial letter!

I did not get a picture of this but...

I read the book "A Bad Case of Stripes" to the class and they LOVED it!!!! I highly recommend that you read this book to your children again :D. As promised students got to make their very own A Bad Case of Stripes bracelet today using pony beads.

One of our students proudly showed me the fantastic work she did in coloring and sequencing the "Humpty Dumpty" nursery rhyme. Great Job!

Other Books read this week:

• The Kissing Hand (Parents I hope you liked your gift- I will try to post a picture)
• Ruby the Copy Cat
• Wemberly Worried
• Shubert's Choices
• Bono Goes to School

First Day of Kindergarten!!

Ali Edwards frames from Designer Digitals

Today was a magical day- it was our First Day In Kindergarten.

This day also marks the beginning of my tenth year in teaching- ninth in Kindergarten!! Time sure does fly.

I took a few pictures from around the classroom to give you a snapshot of what our classroom looks like on this our first day together. Students were more than excited to be in class, some said they felt a bit nervous, but were fine after a few minutes.

These are only some of the things we did today...

• We sang Tooty Ta! (Dr. Jean), The Monkeys and the Alligator (Dr. Jean), Little House (Cheri Moraga), and our good-bye song.
• We listened to the following stories- "The Kissing Hand," 'Bono Goes to School," and "Brown, Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?"
• We learned how to STAR- Smile Take a Deep Breath and Relax (Dr. Becky Bailey)
• We stamped our students' hands onto a puzzle and added a heart. It went home inside an envelope with a special poem.
• We listened to Mozart during our quiet time.
• We did so much more :D

Getting Ready!

I've been a bit busy getting our classroom ready for the new school year. I can't believe it just around the corner! It's always an exciting time of the year. Setting-up the room is fun too- new room arrangement, new crayons, new pencils, ...

Can't wait to meet all my new students on Tuesday!

I know you're excited but remember to rest, see you on the First Day...