Kindergarten news

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed their time with their families. 

So much has been going on in kindergarten!  We've been really busy!  

For art awareness we learned about George Rouault and created some art of our own in stain glass style!  Thank you parents for coming in to teach them about this artist.

In the afternoon class, Mr. Farr came in to teach the students about fire safety and let the kids try on his fireman gear! They had a ball.

For our science in October we learned about pumpkins and discovered they float. We also tasted the seeds from inside and many were quite surprised they liked them.

This week we are going to read several versions of the gingerbread boy, we are going to compare the stories and the authors.  I have so many different versions of the story it's so much fun to hear them all. 

Next week we will be making gingerbread houses.  I will need 5 volunteers for each class to come in and help us make them.   

Please keep working on sight words at home and continue to read to and with your child.  This week I will assess them on their words and numbers.

October news

Fall is in the air. We have been discussing the changes we have observed outside with the weather and the changes happening to the trees. This month for science day we will be exploring pumpkins, another sign of Fall.  It is such a fun day and the children will be amazed by what the see. The science day also ties into our science unit about Farms.  We spent some time in the last few weeks doing some research on crops that grow on farms and what they need to grow.  Pumpkins are just one of the crops we found grow on farms.  At the end of the month we will be visiting a pumpkin farm and will see them in the fields.  Plus there will be so many  other things to see and do there.  I am looking forward to it.  

We are going to learn about bats and spiders in the next few weeks, they go along great with the celebration of Halloween.  There are some interesting facts about both and I can't wait to share them with the kids.  

We started writing in our journals this week. The students were really excited about it and were a little disappointed that we weren't writting in them everyday! I just love their excitement about everything.

Picture day is Thursday October 17, the students do not have to wear their uniforms for the pictures.

We had our first Shelter in place/lock down drill on Monday. I can't tell you how proud I am of my students for the wonderful job they did.  I really believe the drill helped put some of their fears to rest. We discussed it  for a few days before and they had lots of great questions. They weren't sure what shelter in place meant, but when we practiced getting to our quiet spot and practiced staying quiet they realized it was ok. It's sad that we have to practice these types of drills. 

Have a wonderful long weekend! 

Johnny Appleseed and graphing

Well, we have been busy learning about Johnny Appleseed and how he traveled around planting apple seeds and because of him we enjoy many things made from apples.  In class we also graphed apples. We graphed them by color, size and by whether they had a stem or not.  Our giant graph is so much fun.  We started our science unit on farms.  We did some research in class about the type of crops grow on the farm.  The students looked through some trade books and post-it noted the crops they found.  Then we had a discussion about those crops and the students illustrated pages that will go into a class book for everyone to share.  They did an  awesome job!  This week we will read some of those books and find out more about crops on the farm.  In math we have been working on numbers 1-25, writing and identify them.  Students should practice these at home as well.  I apologize  for not updating my blog more often.  I was having some difficulty uploading pictures, but I think I have that worked out.  I have been sending home homework weekly, please make sure you sit with your child as the complete each assignment.  Make sure to look it over before they go on to the next page. Make sure they are forming their letters properly and are using the writing lines properly. I appreciate your help and support at home.  

Progress reports went home on Friday please make sure to sign and return one copy.  I hope you have had a chance to check out the teacher ease site.  I have had a few questions about it. Kindergarten has a grading scale of NI- needs improvement, M -meets and E excellent. It is a 1,2,3 scale.  I do not give E's the first few quarters.  I am grading things such as knowing their letters and numbers etc. and either you know them or you don't, you can't exceed in knowing them and home work is graded as handed in = meets or not handed in = needs improvement.  If your child is receiving an M or 2's that is like an A. The are getting the highest score possible at this point. As we get into reading and addition higher points  can be earned. I hope this makes sense.


A.M. class graphing by color

A.m. Class graphing by color



P.M. Class graphing whether their apples had stems or not

September in Kindergarten

It's been a busy month in kindergarten. We have been learning so much. The students have been going to Art, Music, and the LRC as well as all our regular class activities. The last two weeks we have been working on letters, rhyming, initial sound recognition and numbers. Everyday during circle time we have been working in our binders keeping track of the days of the week, the days in the month and we talk about the seasons and the weather as well. As the months go on I will be adding more to the binder. It makes the learning more hands on and they are not just listening to me they are participating in the activities and are engaged. We started the star of the week a couple of weeks ago and they get so excited on Fridays when it is mystery bag day and because the new star of the week is picked. We play a little game until there is one student left and that student is the star of the week. It's so much fun. The monday readers have been a big hit. Thank you for taking time out of your day to come in to read to the children. They really love it. I love how creative the parents get. This week we will have our first science day. We will be examining physical and chemical change. The students will be making gak and observing color change, it's a big hit. We will also be discussing Johnny Appleseed this week and start our Farm to table inquiry based unit. It will last several weeks and cover everything from growing food on farms to bringing it to our homes. We will also visit a pumpkin farm during the unit and our next science day will be centered around pumpkins. Johnny Appleseed will be a great start to the unit because he traveled the country planting appleseeds. In Math we will be graphing apples so watch the buzz closely the students will need to send in an apple. Check back again!

Welcome to Kindergarten

Welcome to Kindergarten everyone! It was a nice start to the new year. We spent a lot of time going over some rules and procedures. They are quite excited to be at school and have been really eager to learn all about St. Joseph's. This past week the students went to the LRC, participated in Gym class and enjoyed their first spanish lesson. I am taking lots of notes so we can use some of the words throughout the day to keep up on it. Next week we will add art and music class to our days. We have a busy week ahead of us. Plese remember to sign the calendar each night and remember to empty their folders of all notes and papers. If you haven't sent in a binder with a pencil case that clips in or an art smock please do so soon. We will start using our binders on Monday. It's going to be an exciting new year. Remember to check back often. I will be posting pictures of activities on here as well. Also please refer to the kindergarten buzz for information and volunteer information. Thanks, Have a blessed week.

May happenings

Wow can you believe the end of the year is approaching.  Where has the time gone?  It's amazing how much they have grown.  This time of the year is always the hardest for me because in just a few short weeks they will be first graders and moving on.  I have really enjoyed all their stories and learning about their likes and dislikes.

As we come to the end of the year please make sure to watch the schedule I sent home.  The zoo trip and the VIP show will change our schedule a bit.  (Don't forget a lunch and a drink- see schedule)  Also  for the zoo and field days the children are out of uniform.    The day of Graduation will be a regular day, but he children will need to be back to school out of uniform by 6:00 in my classroom.  It's going to be a great evening. Bring your tissues.

This Wednesday the morning class and morning K-club will be attending Mass. (May Crowning) 
We will start presenting our zoo reports on Thursday. This project is always fun for the students.  If you are looking for an online resource you can go to www.worldbook.online.com .  Please see my kindergarten buzz for the passwords and login information.

If anyone is interested in tutoring  for the summer please let me know.

Have a great week.

Kindergarten news

The weeks are passing by too fast.

before you know it graduation will be here.  I will be sending home a schedule for the events coming up in May.  Please look at the schedule closely for changes in class times. 
In class we have been discussing spring, recycling and oviparous animals.  We have been writing in our journals and practicing subtraction.  We have been so busy.  We created some earth pictures and wrote about our earth day promises.  They will be hanging in the hall and look great.  While you are there check out our oviparous board.  The kids did a great job with their riddles.  We also made some chicks hatching out of eggs.  We read the story about Barney Bird and created him out of construction paper.  They are so cute. The students are so talented.

Science day and more

Last week we explored our senses during science day.  It was so fun to look, taste, smell, feel and listen to many different things.  The tasting part was our favorite.  (pictures to follow soon) I really enjoyed watching them put their hands into the sock to feel what was inside.  Their faces were priceless and their imaginations were quite wild.  One child thought a sock of balloons were worms.  I could hardly keep from laughing when she put her hand in and made a "eww gross face"  (because I knew they were balloons  I could laugh).  I don't know about them but I had a ball.

This past week we continued our unit on President's Lincoln and Washington.  We made some awesome presidents. They will be hanging in the hall soon.  Speaking of our hall, our penguins are finally up.  Come check out the facts we learned and wrote about them.  Plus they are so cute.

This week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss. We will be reading stories written by Dr. Seuss and we will be watching some movies based on these stories.  We made some Dr. Seuss hats which we will wear on Tuesday when we celebrate his birthday.

On March 7th we will be attending Mass.  We will have a special visit from the Bishop.  He will also visit our classrooms that day.

Our next science day is moved to March 12th.  I am in need of volunteers.  If you are interested please let me know.  We will be exploring physical change.  It is a yummy science day.

I will post pictures from science day soon.

Our 100th day! and a special visitor

Last week we celebrated our 100th day in kindergarten.  I can't believe we have been in school for 100 days.  They have really changed and grown so much.  For our celebration we had cupcakes, took 100 licks of a lolly pop along with 100 steps.  We filled in our 100 chart and wrote about what we would do if we had 100 dollars.  I think everyone had a wonderful time.  On the 101th day we shared our 100 day collections.  They did a great job giving clues and guessing.
During Catholic schools week we started an experiment with evaporation.  We read a story about Bob the snowman and how he traveled south, melted then he evaporated up to the clouds, traveled back to his home via the clouds and fell like snow from the clouds and his "family" built him again.
We filled a cup with water and have marked it weekly to see how much water evaporated.  Our cup is almost empty.  It's awesome to see how excited the students are to measure each week how much water has evaporated.

Also during Catholic schools week, Parker came to visit us on our crazy hat day.  He participated as well.

Gummy Bear Math, Bear Graphing



gummy bear math



Graphing our Teddy Bears



Teddy Bear Graphing

 We have been doing a lot of graphing in class lately, During our unit on Bears we not only learned some great facts about bears we also did some math about them too!  One day we sorted and graphed gummy bears.  I would say everyone had a delicious time sorting, counting and graphing.  In the next few days we will finish up our gummy math by using the graph to solved addition sentences.  We also brought in our favorite bears and graphed them in many different ways.  First we graphed them by size, then we graphed them by color.  Then we gaphed them according to whether they were wearing clothing or not.  We just love our large floor graph, it makes graphing fun.

pictures from January

science day exploring eggs

does it sink or float

magically getting the egg out of the bottle

what weighs more?

will it be the banana or the apple?

measuring the markers

measuring the chairs

what will weigh more the apple or the orange

learning about volume

snowman soup day