May 24, 2010

FUN!

"Playful" Mini Kit by Holly McCaig Designs @ 2Peas

Kinder Kids having fun during developmental workstations!

The Three Little Pigs

"Shabby Sugar Kit" by Laura Deacetis @ the Shabby Pickle Template from Simple Scrappers

We have been having fun listening to different versions of this classic tale! We have also started acting the story out using these very cool headbands that I made myself a few (10) years ago. We have not finished acting-out the entire story yet, but we will this week. These kids are great actors too, they deserve a round of applause.

In case you have these CD's at home you might want to practice our Graduation Songs:
Greg & Steve: Vol. 2 "It's a Beautiful Day" & Vol. 4 "The World is a Rainbow" (I might have switched the volumes)
Charlotte Diamond: "I am a Pizza" & "La Bamba"

May 22, 2010

A Fun Time at the Farm...


"It's the Little Things" kit by Michelle Underwood at 2Peas

In April we went on a field trip to Underwood Family Farm.  The kids, parents and I had fun picking yummy strawberries, and watching and feeding the cute farm animals. Our kids got to ride the trikes and wagons, jump on the jolly jumper and play in and around the playground that was equipped with a wooden truck and train. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day at the farm. A day we will all remember!

LOTS of Information!

In Class:
  • I have been testing, almost done.  The kids have all shown growth in all areas. They are doing amazing things. Their writing has gone from scribbles to string of letters to words and now to several related sentences.
  • We are continuing our exploration of addition and subtraction.
  • In science we are learning about life cycles, in particular the life cycles of plants and butterflies.
  • Six of our seven caterpillars are now chrysalises. We are waiting anxiously for them to turn into beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies!
  • We planted a variety of seeds inside our greenhouses, but some went bad.  We will try again though. The plants that are doing great are the ones we planted in the root view window planter. Kids love how easy it is to see the roots in this planter, every day they are eager to check how much our plants have grown. Our bean plants are probably a foot high!
Reminders...
Please continue to practice reading the little books your child took home inside the Ziploc bag. Remember to return these packs on Fridays along with the completed reading log. This past Friday only nine packs were returned.

A BIG Thank you to all the parents who contributed to our class' Bath Time Basket. See you all on May 26 for our school's Spring Festival.

Our end of the year Family Picnic will be held Thursday May 27 at 11:00. I hope to see you at this special event as well.

Kindergarten Graduation and Potluck will be June 10th from 8:30 to 10:50. The graduation will be in the cafeteria and the potluck in our classroom. I will send a note this coming week.

Field Day: June 14th we need your help in organizing games for our students to play. In the past we have had sidewalk chalk painting, bubbles, sack race, relays, etc. Email me if you can help.

Last Day of School June 15. It seems as if we just started yesterday...

Last but not least,
It is with great enthusiasm that I announce that our classroom project "We Have a Bad Case of Stripes!" was fully funded on Thursday thanks to generous donations from: classroom parents, classroom grandparents, a classroom uncle, and Barnes & Noble!!!! Our kids will be delighted, I am sure of this. They will each receive their own copy of their favorite book. Please keep it a secret ;-). I will let you know the details at a later time.

Two more things...
I will be making copies of our class' imovie for those parents who would like one. In order to have them ready on time please send a blank DVD+RW to class with your child. I have figured out how to add different songs- so you will not have to listen to the same song over and over like the one I made for open house. I see many smiles!

We will be decorating student memory book covers the first and second week of June. Please send 1 sheet of patterned scrapbook paper of your choice, 1 sheet of plain cardstock that coordinates with your patterned paper, and any decorations you would like for the cover. If you're able to come help decorate covers or if you prefer to make yours at home please let me know I will send the 9X12 tagboard home with your child- it will need to remain that size in order to fit.

I can't thank you and your children enough for all of your support and dedication!




Apr 11, 2010

***A Perfect Day***


We had a great Spring Celebration!
  
Over 150 eggs for our kinder kids to hunt made this day even better.
Thank you for sending in all those eggs.  I'm rarely in any pictures, I'm usually behind the camera =), so the one above is pretty special.  Plus, I'm making bunny ears with my {our} kids.


All the healthy food was yummy.  We were able to have our BIG spring celebration on Thursday and had more than enough left to celebrate on Friday!!  If you were to ask me, healthy treats are our kids favorites =).  They kept asking for more.


A BIG THANK YOU to: Mrs. "Z", Mrs. "M", Mrs. "Y", Mrs. "N", Mr. "A" and Mr. "W".  Your help makes celebrations a breeze!


I'll see everyone tomorrow, I'm sure you are fast asleep by now. 


In Class...


Language Arts
Letter/Sound: Kk
High Frequency Words: "little" "and"
Fantasy/Realism (revisit)
First, Next, Last
Writing: Complete a sentence(s) with spaces, capital, and period at the end.
Building Words with: -at, -it, -ig, -an, -op, -ot, -un, -et, and more
Listening for information

Math 
Addition (continue)
Numbers to 30 (practice correct penmanship, counting, making groups, etc.)
Estimating number of objects in a jar
ABCABC patterning

Science
Plants


Social Science
Symbols: California- flag, flower, bird, etc.

Mar 24, 2010

Try Them, Try Them & You May


Like Green Eggs and Ham...
Study Hall Kit available at 2Peas

Thank you Mrs. M for the green eggs.
Thank you Mrs. L for the very cool green ham.

As you can see... 
Some kids went for it right away.
Others were a little hesitant at first.
Yet others consulted with a friend.

But overall they enjoyed eating them or simply just inspecting them for a while!

More to come soon.

Mar 22, 2010

"Bring Music to My Ears" has been funded!

We were fully funded at DonorsChoose.org!  

Our materials for "Bring Music to My Ears" arrived at our school last week.

To make a donation or if you know someone who would be happy to donate please click on the link below.  It will take you directly to our classroom's projects that are awaiting donations:
A Place for My Backpack
Read and Write the Room

Only 5 Days Left!

Thank you :o)
Pictures of our kids listening to music coming soon...

Mar 21, 2010

Time for an Update!

Jog-a-Thon
Our most recent event was our school's annual the jog-a-thon.  As you can see kids had fun running, jogging, sprinting, walking.  At times you could see them stopping to wait for their friends, yet others kept zooming by us!  Mrs. and Mrs. "M", Mrs. "D" and Mrs. "A" thank you for all your help in making this event even more special for our kids.

Kit Available at Designer Digitals


Valentine's Day
Finally more pictures of this very special school event.  Overall, kids really enjoyed decorating their cookie with frosting, sprinkles, and candy DOTS.  The brownies and mini cupcakes were kids favorites too.  I think most importantly kids were able to share their Valentine's Day cards with their classroom friends.  By the way all the boxes looked great!  Thank you parents :o) 

"Love Bandit Kit" available at Designer Digitals

100th Day Smarter!!
Just wanted to share a few more pictures from our 100th Day Celebration.


one more...

Upcoming News:
  • We will have a classroom SPRING celebration this Thursday from 9:45 until 10:50
    • I'm asking that each student brings 20 filled eggs (candy or small prizes)
    • Healthy food items (apple smiles and dip, popcorn, orange slices, etc.) for a classroom party will be encouraged
    • We will send a note this week, hope you can join us.
  • Our Farm Field Trip will be in April, any parents wishing to join us will have to provide their own transportation.  We will need 5 volunteers- email me if you're interested.
  •  Look for a new list marked with items to practice at home.
    • Please continue to practice tying shoelaces :)
    • Read Daily and ask lots of questions.


Feb 12, 2010

Happy Early Valentine's Day!


Our classroom celebration was fun!!!! 

The goodies that were brought in were delicious and very pleasing to the eye.  The kids enjoyed frosting and decorating their sugar cookies as much as they enjoyed eating them!

So this post is about the food: brownies, mini cupcakes, and sugar cookies...

Layout made with Betsy Tuma's Free Mini Kit from Two Peas in a Bucket

Thank you for the: brownies Mrs. Z, mini cupcakes Mrs. K and the sugar cookies Mrs. Y.
Thanks to the parents who sent in the sprinkles, frosting, and candy that our kids used to decorate the cookies. 

Check often I'll be posting valentine's day cards, boxes, activities and just fun pictures including a whole group picture.

Thank you Mrs. K, Mrs. Z, Ms. A, Mrs. Y, Mrs. M for your help today!!

Feb 8, 2010

Sugar Cookies... Yummy!

A few of the pictures I took of our Kinder Kids enjoying the delicious cookies sent in by Mrs. K.   They enjoyed decorating and eating.  They tasted even better because they spread the frosting 100 times!

All elements for these Layouts are from The Digi Chick "Back to School- the Collection Kit"

Feb 7, 2010

The 100th Day Moms!

Thank you for volunteering your precious time in our classroom!  It really means a lot.

I was able to capture a few pictures of our classroom moms. I missed a few moms this time, but I promise to take a picture next time. I hope you like this layout.  I will continue to post some more during the week.

Black paper, apple paper, red dot paper on Alphabet, black trim from The Digi Chick (Back to School Kit)
Flower and Butterflies "So Caught Up Kit" by Michelle Underwood at Two Peas in a Bucket
DIY Alphabet Stickers by Pattie Knox at Designer Digitals

Feb 6, 2010

100 Days Smarter!!!

We Celebrated the 100th Day of Kindergarten!
All the Elements I used are from the wonderful "Back to School Kit the Collection" 
available from The DigiChick

The day was full of fun activities such as counting to 100 in many different ways, by far our favorite way to count was shared by one of our classroom friends 1, 2 skip a few 99 one-hundred!!


We practiced hoping, running, and keeping quiet for 100 seconds- hard to do.  We found out that 100 seconds is a LONG time.


We Made:

  • A YUMMY Necklace using 100 Froot Loops
  • A 100 day Snack- yes it had 100 items!! 10 of each of the following- Chex, raisins, m&m's, skittles, chocolate chips, marshmallows, goldfish crackers, pretzels, gummy bears, well I can't remember the last item.
  • A 100 day crown
  • 100 Day Glasses
  • We decorated a sugar cookie- spread the frosting 100 times! (Thanks Mrs. "K")
We had quite a lot of classroom volunteers for this event! A big thank you to Mrs. C, Mrs. W, Mrs. C, Mrs. Y, Mrs. Z, Mrs. M, and  Mrs. A!!  Your help made it all run smoothly :o)

We read a few books about the 100th day of school.



The kids also enjoyed walking through our door banner.

I will continue to post more pictures during the week- come back to visit and feel free to share the link with loved ones far away!

Have a wonderful LONG weekend.

Feb 3, 2010

Wanted to Share a Few Pictures

It's been a while since I posted...
First of all I want to share a few pictures that I took in December and January.

IN DECEMBER...
We celebrated two birthdays in early December. Cute picture!

We made stockings that were later filled with a few goodies.


We made pretty big TLC Gingerbread Men.


We said good-bye to a very special friend.  
We all miss her and wish her the best :o)




Having "Reading Buddies" is amazing, 
plus they are very attentive listeners!


IN JANUARY...


The kids made a HUGE birthday poster for me.  
According to My Kinder Kids I'm 24, but I'm still old 
because 24 is a lot more than 5 and 6 (their age).

We had yummy sugar cookies. 
Thank you Mrs. "Y" this was a 
first in my 10 years teaching!



I celebrated my birthday in Santa Monica with my husband and kids.  
We really enjoyed eating the See's chocolate truffles  on our way to Santa Monica (my favorite).
Here's a picture I took...




FEBRUARY 1st through the 3rd...


We have been in school 100 Days!! Can you believe it? Our kids are 100 days smarter today, but keep it a secret we will not be celebrating until Friday :o)


Thank you for all your donations...




"Treasures" Language Arts:

  • Letter this Week: Hh
  • Word this Week: are
  • Building words with "o"
  • Speaking in complete sentences.



Math: 

  • Addition 
  • Numbers 11-20 
  • Counting to 30



Practicing Writing: 

  • Penmanship
  • Simple sentences
    • capital, spaces, period at the end