Happy New Year

Thank you for your patience during this busy time of year. Be prepared for a lengthy blog post full of several pictures and updates.  It's hard to believe how quickly 2011passed for us in the kindergarten room. We are blossoming into beginning readers and writers.  Take a look at some of our best journal pages where we created sentences with our sight words. Excuse the sideways pictures.

We also really enjoy our literacy center stations.  We love working in small groups and choosing our activities.   Our new favorite book went along with our transportation unit in reading. It was called DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! by Mo Willems.  After listening to the story the students learned about thinking clouds and had to imagine what the pigeon would try and drive next.

 We love domino math. The students pick a domino, count the dots and create a story about their number.   These students wrote about balloons and apples.

 We enjoy creating patterns and demonstrating that we know how to make several different kinds.

We had a wonderful December learning about December traditions around the world. Take a look at some of the places we traveled to:

We visited Holland and made "wooden" shoes for Saint Nick to fill with candies. 

 We visited Sweden and made Saint Lucia wreathes.

 We visited Germany and made pickle ornaments for our tree.

 We visited the US and learned how to sew stockings for our fireplaces.

Perhaps our favorite activity was our grandparents/gingerbread party. It was wonderful to meet the many special relatives that came to help their student make a gingerbread house.  There was so much excitement in the air. I know that this will be a day that our students will remember forever. I took pictures of each student with their special guests and will be delivering those to you shortly.

I hope you all enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing time away from school with family and friends. I am looking forward to our many exciting adventures together in 2012!

I hope everyone enjoyed a long weekend at home with family and friends.  Thank you for your patience while I have been home sick.  Prior to break I tested positive for strep throat.  I spent my vacation not getting any better.  On Sunday I went back to the doctor and tested positive again for strep.  For whatever reason the antibiotics did not work the first time. I am at home today on a new dose of meds and working through the 24 hours of being contagious before I come back to school tomorrow.   I will have newsletters and calendars ready for you this week.  Always remember that you can check here to see the calendar and snack helpers at any time.  I can't wait to be back and see the kids. 

A New Week to Learn New Things

Good evening kindergarten families!

I hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful fall weekend together, and took advantage of the extra hour of sleep. It is nice to drive to school in the daylight, but it is hard to drive home when it is nearing dark. That must mean that winter is around the corner.

I have a few updates to let you know of. First of all...even though you all signed permission forms allowing me to post photos of your student on this site, district regulations only allow for me to post the backs of students and no faces.  All photos from now on will be taken in this way. I will be taking lots of face photos during the year and will send home CD copies of those photos at the end of the year.


Please remember to return homework book bags the next day your student come to school so we can pass it on to the next student.  Because we come to school every other day, the process really slows up if bags stay at home.  Thank you so much for your support.

We still have students who are missing art paint shirts.  Please send those to school with a labeled name on them ASAP.  I am noticing the students coming back from art with colored hands full of paint!

This week we have been focusing on the new sight word, LIKE.  Take a look at a few of the many super student journal posts. Can you believe what writers we are turning into??  Excuse the sideways pictures....

 

We also really enjoy our choice time at the end of the day. It is a great time for us to practice our friendship skills and our creativity.  Here are some of our favorite activities:

We love to play games on the computer. Especially Millie's Math House and Bailey's Book House. We are learning lots about how to take turns when we use the computers. 

We love our kitchen area and all of the recipes we can dream up to serve to our friends and teacher. 

 

We love to create and play with different kinds of families in the doll house. 

 

 We love to draw pictures on the white board easel.

 We love to do all different types of puzzles.  We are getting really fast at putting together this alphabet puzzle.

Stop in and visit our room anytime. We would love to show you what we are learning about.

Have You Been Wondering What Your Student Has Been Singing?

If I were to guess, I would think that your student has been coming home excited to sing and share the songs we sing with you.  I know that I have caught myself several times humming various songs during my workouts, drives home and grocery shopping trips.  Here are several links to some of our very favorite kindergarten tunes:

SAMMY


HELLO NEIGHBOR

TOOTY TA


DAYS OF THE WEEK


MACARENA MONTHS


APPLES AND BANANAS


I AM A PIZZA


PEANUT BUTTER

We are still here

Goodness! I apologize for the delay in my next post.  With conferences, report cards and Halloween upon us my days have been busy finishing assessments, updating portfolios and listening to several stories about favorite candy, costumes and pumpkins. 

We have enjoyed several wonderful days at school, filled with hard work and learning.  We are working hard every day learning new words, letter sounds and numbers.

Our Fall Festival was a huge success. Thank you so much to the families who volunteered their time to help set up and run the festival games and stations. The kids had so many smiles on their faces and it was fun to see them interact with the other kindergarten students. 

As you can see by the amount of pictures posted, the teachers had a great time as well.

We have been working hard to get our room ready for conferences. We are excited for our families to come and visit where we learn and play each day and have been working on a special project to hang in the hallway.  Here is a little sneak peek of what you might see....

Can you figure out what we are making??? Shhhhh...we won't tell.

November homework calendars were put in folders this week. Please remember to work on the homework on the pages provided in the calendar so your student can turn it in at the end of the month for a prize. Especially because we only come to school every other day, it is so important to work on the calendar and read every single day.

We just experienced taking our first reading and math assessment. You will see the results during your family's conference. The kids did well on their first "test." I think that you will be excited to see all that they have learned.

I am looking forward to meeting each family during the three conference days. I can't wait to share all of the wonderful things we have been learning at school.

Fire Safety Photos

We could not believe how many different pieces of gear the firefighters have to wear. The gear they put on is heavier than we are!

We learned that underneath all that heavy gear, mask, hat and air pump are friendly firefighters who are there to rescue us and keep us safe. 

We loved to look at the truck.  We even forgot how chilly it was outside because seeing a firetruck up close was so cool.

Remember to ask us what we know about STOP, DROP and ROLL! 

Fall Festival

Our Kindergarten Fall Festival is October 31st from 1:45-2:45 pm.  Because this is on A Day and the entire kindergarten team will be participating together, our B Day friends are invited to attend the event and come to school for that one hour only. Students will be allowed to wear their costumes--please see the sheet I sent home in folders about appropriate Halloween attire.  I am in need of volunteers. Let me know if you are willing to run a station, help set up, clean up, etc. We are really looking forward to this special event to celebrate Fall in kindergarten.