pumpkin pie and gingerbread men

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I enjoyed spending time with my family. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving kindergarten tasted and graphed pumpkin pie. I am always amazed at how many children start the activity reluctant to try the pie, but end up loving it and wanting more. We also had fun graphing whether we liked it or not. Not to mention the whipped cream, (what is pie without whipped cream?) We graphed that too! (of course) We read the story "There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie" prior to tasting our pie and we discussed the kind of pie she swallowed then we decided to swallow our own pie. So much fun.

Next week we will be starting our unit on gingerbread men, I will read many different versions of the story; some old and some new. We will finish the week tasting and graphing gingerbread man cookies and then on December 13, we will make our own gingerbread houses. This is such a fun day! I love how they decide to decorate their houses. (you will be amazed at how much candy they can fit on them.) So much fun!!!! The excitement on their faces when we are done is priceless! I can't wait to post pictures of that activity.

Have a great week!

This week in kindergarten

This week we will be discussing the Pilgrims and Indians and their thanksgiving feast. I have so many great stories to read to the students and we will be making our own Thanksgiving book. It is a huge project, but when it is done it is awesome. As usual when it is finished if they bring it back with two signatures they will get a sticker for their folder. We also have science day on Tuesday. We will be studing Eggs. It will be eggcellent! We will be testing their strength and exploring what's inside and I have a surprise "magic" trick.
I will also be introducing addition to the students. We will be using some fun smartboard activites and we will be doing some hands-on activities. It is going to be a busy week. Check back I will have some pictures posted.

Science Day- weighing and measuring

This past week we investigated pumpkins. The students weighed , measured and estimated their pumpkins. They also found out that pumpkins float. Boy were they surprised. It's because their inside is hollow and full of air. I love seeing the look on their faces when they expect the pumpkin to sink to the bottom and they don't. We were also able to taste the pumpkin seeds thanks to Mrs. Ordway who graciously volunteered to cook them for us. They were delicious. So many of the students didn't think they would like them and were pleasantly surprised to find out they did.

Check back again... The halloween party is Monday it's going to be a spooktacular time!

kindergarten news

There has been so much going on in Kindergarten in the last few weeks. We studied Johnny Appleseed and we graphed the apples we brought in. This month we have been learning about spiders, bats and all things Fall. We made some awesome bats and wrote some batty "at" words. and we learned some interesting facts about bats and spiders. Did you know that spiders have eight eyes but don't see very well? And there are over 30,000 differen types of bats.
We have had one one science day where we studied physical and chemical change and we made some Gak. This month we are studying pumpkins, we have some great activities centered around them. It is going to be fun.
We went to the pumpkin farm last week and had a great time at the pig races and got to bring home a pumpkin.
Halloween is just around the corner and I can't wait to see all their great costume. Please watch the buzz for information about their party.
Check back often... I promise I will be better about posting things on our blog. I will try to get some pictures up soon.

2011-2012

Welcome Kindergarten

We are looking forward to a wonderful year!

We have so much to learn and many new exciting things to explore.

This year we will be using our New Smartboard in class.

As a matter of fact we have already started using it to identify

our letters and ryhming words.

Come back often to see pictures and view the blog.

Mrs. Cherney and Mrs. Lessentien

Mothers Day Tea and other events

The Mothers Day Tea was wonderful... Thank you mom's for taking time out of your busy schedules to spend time with your child so they could honor you for being such special mom's. They were so excited about having you in class. I also want to say thank you for all your kind words about the Tea. I know May is busy, but it is such a beautiful event. I just love seeing how they interact with their mothers. They talk about you all the time, I know it meant a lot to them to have you there with them.

The VIP program is this week.... Please watch the schedule closely. Remember to send a lunch and drink on the day your child stays all day. Costumes on Thursday and Friday. Also early dismissal on Friday.

Field Days is on Monday, May 23rd. It is going to be such a fun day. (there will be so many tired little children at the end of the day, and a few tired teachers too!) Then finally, Wednesday is Graduation. A note will come home about the arrival time that evening. I just can't believe we are down to the final days. Where has the time gone? I am so excited for them, yet it always makes me sad to see them go on to first grade...... Hmmmm.... I must be doing something wrong... I never get to graduate to the first grade.

I will see you all at Graduation!!

Remember if you haven't turned in your tutoring schedule please get it back to me as soon as possible. Thanks.

Kindergarten zoo trip

Monday we had a great time at the zoo! We really lucked out; the weather was wonderful and the zoo really wasn't that crowded. I think most of the groups were able to find the Naked Mole Rats, and the Giraffe exhibit aswell as the Meerkats and Zebra's. As part of our zoo unit the students picked an animal to write a short report on. They are very excited about it. We are also working on our classroom zoo. I can't wait until it is done. They are so creative I know it is going to be great. Thank you volunteers for joining us on our trip. The students really like having their parents along on our field trips. I hope you had as much fun as they had.

May activities

May is just around the corner.... I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. We have many activities coming up. Please check the special schedule sheet I sent home earlier last week. We will be going to the zoo on Monday. (May 2) Please dress your child appropriately. Rain or shine we will go. (Pray for Shine) We also have our Mothers Day Tea coming up.(May 9th) It is truly a special day for both the mothers and the children. VIP and graduation are how we will round out our month. We have been practicing extra hard for both events. We counted in class today how many days are left in kindergarten and we came up with 19..... It can't be... I have had such a wonderful year with your children and I am really sorry to see it end. When I told them that they have 19 days left of kindergarten then they get a summer break and then they will go to first grade they were just amazed. (some a bit excited and some a bit scared) It has been amazing how they have grown. I told them that we were going to have a visit from our preschoolers tomorrow (in the a.m. class) and I explained that as young as the preschoolers are, that is how young they were when they started kindergarten and look at them now......
One last note.. I uploaded many pictures to the Walgreen's sight. They are pictures I took throughout the year. As I take more will upload them as well.

Kindergarten News

This week we have been learning about clocks and we have started to learn to tell time. The kids took a pre-test on clocks before we started our unit "telling time" It was amazing how much they new already about clocks. They love telling me what time it is. We will be working on "time" until the end of the year.
We also planted our garden last week and they are growing like crazy. Every day they ask me about how big our plants have grown. Keep your fingers crossed they keep growing. We are also learning about the life cycle of plants. In science we took our last assessment about plant growth, the seasons and God's creations. I can't believe we are coming to the end of the year already. They have learned so much and are so excited about everything they learn. I am really having as much fun this year as they are.
Have a blessed Easter everyone.

Oviparous and spring time activities

Over the last few days we have been studying oviparous animals. We have read some funny stories and learned some interesting facts. We have also been talking about spring, and all the wonderful things we see as the weather changes. We wrote a book about spring and the things we see, some the the books have come home the others will come home as they finish them. We also made an oviparous page for our oviparous book. I am so impressed with how they illustrated their pages for their books. They are learning to add more and more details to their pictures and they are turning out fabulously. I love them!!!! The students are really excited about their work and I wanted to share some of them with you.

Have a wonderful day!

What's happening in Kindergarten ?

This week in kindergarten we started our unit on Oviparous animals. Ask them what Oviparous means. They are so smart. We read "Horton Hatches an Egg" and completed a story map. We have been learning about who the characters are in a story, the setting, aswell as what happened at the beginning, middle, and ending of the story. Their recall is excellent. They are really picking up on important details in the stories we are reading. You can do this at home after you finish reading a story. Their comprehension will improve greatly and will make reading more enjoyable. We just had our 131th day of school and when we looked at our tooth chart we discovered that between both kindergarten classes we have lost 54 teeth to date. Wow that is alot of teeth. I think I pulled about 1/3 of them in class. I can't wait to see how many more they lose. They tell me everyday how many loose teeth they have. I hope some of them fall out before the end of the year. There are many activities coming up, please look for information to come home in your childs folder soon.

Officer Patti

Last week Office Patti made a visit to our classroom. She talked about safety in and out of the car. She reminded us how important it is to sit in a car/booster seat and parents should wear their seat belts too. She sang a few safety songs and did a cute little dance. Officer Marion also talked to us about stranger danger. They remembered all the information that Officer Mary had told them a couple of weeks ago. Very impressive.

March madness!!!

Kindergarten has been a busy place this month. We went to a play "Peter Pan" , it was too cute. Abc soup company really does a great job and our students really had a great time. We also celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday, a Leprechaun visited or class and left some goodies (sorry I didn't bring my camera that day?) We read so many great St. Patrick's day books and did the kids look cute in their leprechaun hats or what? Science day was a hit, gas always amuses 5 and 6 year olds. It is amazing what a little baking soda and vinegar can do.
We made some changes in our class this past week, Our smart board is here and we moved a bulletin board to make room for it. It's not too pretty now, but once the Smart board is installed it is going to be beautiful!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am about it. So many opportunities await our class.
Remember to keep sending in your eye's (please cut them out before you send them in) and remember to put your child's name on it. I am looking more for Christ like behavior then chores, however I do realize sometimes doing chores does reflect Christ like behavior if they are done willingly and without argument. I am enjoying reading the comments you write about how you see Jesus in your child.
Have a blessed week

Science day Physical and chemical change

Kindergarten investigated chemical change and physical change this week in science. We made ice cream, volcano's, floated the m's off M&M's and blew balloons up. It was very exciting. I think hey liked the ice cream most of all. (who doesn't like ice cream?) I can't thank you parents enough for all your help this year for hands on Science day! The students really love having their parents share in the fun. Many of you have asked for the ice cream recipe, I will get it to you this week.

Peter Pan

Don't forget Monday (March 7) we are going to see Peter Pan at Lewis University. The students should come in uniform and if they are staying all day they will need a lunch and a drink. If you pre-ordered a special lunch then their lunch is taken care of. We will each when we return from the play. I am looking forward to it, they always put on a really cute show! See you tomorrow.

Dr. Bronke

This week Dr. Bronke (Mrs. Wind) came to our class to talk about dental health. She brought us so many great things to take home. (masks, gloves,dental mirrors and tooth brushes) She also talked to us about our teeth and why it is important to brush them at least 2 times a day for 2 minutes and floss at least 1 time a day. She brought her extra set of teeth that we all got to practice brushing on. Thank you Dr. Bronke for all the information on dental health.

The Cat in the Hat

This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday. We made some really cool hats and read so many fun books as well as watched a few crazy Seuss movies. Ask them about the Lorax. We read the story and watched the movie and compared the similarities and differences between the two. They are so smart, they picked up on so many little things, that I didn't notice at first.

Exciting News!!!

Kindergarten is getting a Smart Board!!!! I am so excited about this. There are so many great interactive activities we will be able to do. The learning activities are endless!.
I am not sure when the installation will be complete, but I hope it is soon!
I will keep you posted!!!!

February Activities

Wow, I can't believe this is the end of February

We celebrated so much this month: our 100th day, Valentines Day, Presidents Day and Science day. I apologize for not updating our blog, it has been a crazy month, but now that things are back to normal I promise I will update each week.

Our 100th day celebration was so much fun. We celebrated by doing several 100 day activities and eating cupcakes. My favorite activity was to lick a lolly pop 100 times. I think they enjoyed it too! Didn't they look cute in their crowns and glasses. We looked forward to this day all year. We finally had 100 straws in our bundle pack, and we put a $1.00 bill in our piggy bank. How exciting.

We celebrated Valentines day with a party, I am sorry I had to miss it, but I heard the kids had a great time. I would love to see pictures if anyone has any. Thank you for the special valentines Mrs. Lessentien and I received from you.

We also celebrated Presidents Day by learning about George Washington and Abe Lincoln. We learned so many great facts, created a class book about them and made some really cute Presidents that are hanging in our hall.

Finally, our science day this month was exploring our 5 senses. I love this science day, we learned about out taste buds, we had fun feeling the objects in the socks, and we got to taste many different things. The lemon tasting was priceless. Thank you parents for all your help with our science days. I couldn't do it without any of you!

Teddy Bear Math

Well, as most of you have heard we have a snow day for Wednesday, February 2nd. I hope everyone stays indoors and stays safe!

Last week we talked about Bears, we will finish up our unit this week (if the snow allows). We had lots of fun the day we brought our Teddy Bears to school. So many different Bears! We decided to graph them. We discussed their size, their color, and how they were dressed (or not). We got out our big graph and went to work! It was so much fun!!!! We really love our floor graph. Its fun to gather around it and be part of the graphing.

Penguins, mittens and math!

As January draws to an end I am amazed at how much we have learned. If you walk through the kindergarten halls you will find artwork, writings and math! We have read so many great stories about mittens, winter, penguins and snowmen. We made some mittens like in the story "THE MITTEN" by Jan Brett and we wrote about what we found in our mittens. W also learned some great facts about penguins. There are 17 different species of penguins, they live in warm and cold regions. They can swim 15 mph, and they can stay underwater for 18 minutes. To learn more come see our penguins hanging on the wall with all the facts that we learned. The kids are really doing a great job with their handwriting and they loved creating their penguins.
We have been taking our weekly math test on addition. I am amazed at how much they look forward it, they ask everyday "is it Friday?" When I ask why? they always say they want to take their math test! I love it! Speaking of math, you will also see our snowman math, we created snowmen and gave him buttons, then we added the buttons and wrote a math sentence.
Stop by there is so much to see!!!!

Snowman soup

Snowman soup? What is snowman soup? After fininshing our unit on winter and snowmen we enjoyed a nice cup of Hot Chocolate! (snowman soup) We added water, chocolate mix and marshmellows. Before I told them what snowman soup was I asked the students what they thought it was. Their reply: a little bit of snow and some soup, maybe some veggies or maybe some stones????? How about some noodles! I told them we would not use noodles, but we would use marshmellows!

After we enjoyed our nice cup of hot chocolate, we graphed whether we liked hot chocolate or not. We also graphed if we liked it with or without marshmellows. (I think I can find a way to graph any type of yummy food) I just love (food) math!

The students are getting really good at reading our graphs, and enjoy guessing how our graph will end up! We discovered: more students in our class liked their snowman soup with marshmellows then without!

Science Day- weighing and measuring

Kindergarten has been busy the last few weeks! Thanks to our volunteers we had another successful Science day! I think the parents had as much fun as the kids. This time we weighed many different objects, we estimated how much things would weigh, and what would weigh more. We also investigated volume, which cup would hold more water. I tried to trick the students with cups that were tall and thin and ones that were short and fat, but they were too smart and didn't fall for my trickery! We also measured items with our rulers. I just love how involved they get with science day. It is so much fun for them to have the hands on experience.

Welcome back everyone!!!

Well, it is good to be back at school. I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas break!
Kindergarten has started the New Year off by talking about winter and mittens. We have read the story "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and created our own mittens. In the next few weeks we will explore snowmen, bears and penguins. We have some great activities ahead of us.
This Tuesday is Science day. The kids really love science day, so thank you so much to all the parents who volunteer to come in and help. I will post some pictures soon!
Enjoy your weekend!