Last Day of 2007

Today was an excellent way to kick off our Winter Break!

Art: We started our morning doing our December Self Portrait, some chose to do a holiday theme in their portrait.

Literacy: After watching a short slide show of pictures from the year, students chose their favorite memory that we made in 2007 and created a page of our next class book.. "My Favorite thing in 2007 was..."

Spirit Assembly: After recess we entered the cafeteria for a special spirit assembly at which Choir performed. Geremy received our Lifeskill award for this month's life skill of Responsibility.

Holiday Celebration: After an extended recess we entered the room to enjoy our Holiday Celebration. We enjoyed a wonderful spread of (mostly) healthy treats and good company. We had a plethora of parent volunteers who helped students to serve themselves and enjoy the experience.

Reindeer Hats: After we had finished enjoying our feast, we completed our Reindeer Hat project.

I wish all of you a happy and safe holiday with your friends and families. I look forward to all of the great times we will continue to have in the year 2008. See you January 3rd!

Yellow Star, Yellow Star...

Art: We added glitter, and other special touches to our Snowflake art project.

Activity: We worked on cascading tree holiday cards for our loved ones.

Literacy: We read a book called "Yellow Star, Yellow Star". After reading several times and practicing together, students had a chance to make their own copy of this to add to their book boxes. Before we worked on this project, I stressed the importance of taking time during coloring, doing one's best work. I was excited to see that most students really took pride in their illustrations.

Science: Today we focused on the sense of SMELL and did a scientific investigation. We passed around 4 jars with cotton balls that had flavor extracts on them. Students had the opportunity to sniff and make observations about the smells as well as guess what the smells were. Jar #1 was Spicy Sauce - Jar #2 was Maple Syrup - Jar #3 was Lemon Extract - Jar #4 was Almond Extract.

Computer Lab: Today, we continued to make progress in the Jumpstart Advanced Kindergarten computer program.

The Nutcracker

Social Studies: This morning students had a chance to learn about the final holiday in our "Holidays Around the World" book - Diwali. Diwali is the "Festival of Lights" and students decorated and colored traditional diyas.

The Nutcracker: Our class had the opportunity to go watch Laurelwood's production of The Nutcracker. It featured 4th and 5th graders, including some of our buddies. We really enjoyed all of the acts!

Writer's Workshop: After returning from the performance of The Nutcracker, students had a chance to write an entry in their Sourcebooks about their favorite part. Many children chose the Mouse King, The Arabian Dancers, and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.

Art: We worked on a project that involved painting snowflakes. We will finish the project tomorrow to be brought home on Wednesday.

GiNgErBrEaD hOuSeS!

Flagpole Gathering: This morning we had our Citizenship Gathering at the flagpole. We did this because we have just recieved brand new American and State flags which were raised for the first time over our school this morning. Eva was our class' recipient of the Citizenship Award!

Holiday Rotation: Today for the Holiday Rotation, students visited Ms. Stryker's class where they learned about Las Posadas, or the Pointsetta and its significance in celebrating the holidays in Mexico. They created a beautiful Poinsettia to include in their Holidays Around the World Book.

Before recess we celebrated Nikhil's 6th birthday! We sang him our silly version of the "Happy Birthday" song and enjoyed a special snack provided by Nikhil and his family. :)

Gingerbread Houses: After recess we met up with our buddies and worked in Mrs. Robinson's room building and decorating Gingerbread Houses. Thank you to our many parents who contributed supplies and those who volunteered. The children had an amazing experience in creativity and all came out with products that looked both beautiful and appetizing. Enjoy the following which can capture only part of the fun:

Read Aloud: After lunch we returned to Mrs. Robinson's class for a read aloud of Those Mean Nasty Dirty Downright Disgusting but Invisible Germs. The kids in both classes really enjoyed it.

Stocking's hung by the whiteboard with care...

Writer's Workshop: Today we had a "Go Back and Touch Up" day where students could go back and improve entries from the past week.

Holiday Rotation: Today students studied the German origins of the Tennebaum with Mrs. McDermott. They created and decorated holiday trees to include in their holiday books!

Activity: We worked in partners on a Reindeer craft which will be brought home by some students next week.

Math: Students finished their "Book of Six" project.

Happy Birthday Stephanie! - Our Thursday afternoon volunteer and Room Parent Stephanie celebrated a birthday today! With her help, we sang our wacky version of "Happy Birthday"

Art: Today, Miss Ciampa's class joined us in Room 4 for a joint art project. We made Holiday stockings to help decorate our classroom. Students had to cut, hole punch, sew, and decorate stockings. After school they were glittered and are now hanging in our classroom.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

Read Alouds: The Last Basselope and A Perfect Day(big book)

Holiday Rotation: Today the students went to Mrs. Robinson's class and learned about Hannukah. They colored a Menorah to add into their books.

After recess we assembled our December quilt squares and constructed our December quilt.

Music today was led by myself and Ms. Stryker. We sang some excellent holiday songs about Hannukah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, and Christmas. Some of my favorites included jingle bells (which we were able to have each student use a bell to participate).

Holiday Workshop!

Read Alouds: Today we read two stories about hedgehogs One Winter's Day and The Happy Hedgehodge.

Holiday Rotations: Today the class went to Miss Ciampa's class to learn about Kwanzaa.

Holiday Workshop: With the help of several parent volunteers, we were able to complete our holiday workshop rotation. The three projects were - a Gingerbread Man door hanger, an icicle ornament and a holiday card. The child made excellent products and had an amazing time.

Science: Today we did an introduction to the Five Senses, listing "smell, see, touch, taste, hear". We drew icons that coincided with these sense (nose, eye, hand, mouth, ear)

Computer Lab: Students continued to navigate through the Jumpstart Kindergarten Advanced, attempting to earn enough carrots (which they earn by completing a game successfully) to unlock the newest activity.

Holiday Rotations Begin

Readers Workshop: Again, we practiced reading and identifying sentences. We point out the beginning that has a capital letter and the end that is a period.

Holiday Rotation: Today, students went to Mrs. Chiappe's classroom to learn about Ramadan. They completed the first of their pages for their "Holidays Around the World" Book.

Math: We talked about the concepts of shorter and longer. We used a sheet of paper and sorted various sizes of yarn pieces by whether they were shorter or longer as a whole class. Students then returned to their seats and created their own yarn measurements.

Library: We enjoyed Imogene's Antlers and checked out new library books.

Snowman Countdown

Read Aloud: Hop on Pop. After reading this story we played with the -at word family (creating words like bat, cat, sat, that, etc.) and the -op family (bop, drop, stop, etc.)

Reader's Workshop: We discussed and worked on identifying letters, words, and sentences. We reviewed that sentences start with a capital (or uppercase) letter and ends with a period.

Math: We created a Snowman Countdown to Winter Break. Students wrote the numbers 1-10 on the snowman, decorated, and created a linked chain which they are supposed to color in and rip each school day.

The Potluck: To go with the pages we had created earlier in the week, we drew patterns around the borders of plates and mounted our pages. These will be bound into a class book that will begin to be sent home in the new year.

P.E.: Unfortunately, due to the weather, P.E. was canceled today.

Red Mystery Book Bags: Every student had returned their book bags and was able to check out a new mystery book. Remember that these books do not need to be returned until the next Wednesday and should be read several times while at home.

You do the reindeer pokey and you turn it all around...

Social Studies: We had a short lesson about St. Nicholas Day. It's origin is in Holland and traditions for celebrating include placing out wooden shoes at night in hopes that St. Nick will find them on his visit. Children leave carrots to feed his horses, during the night he comes and while the horses eat the carrots, he fills them with candy, coins, or treats. Legend has it that if you have been a little naughty, he instead leaves coal.

Art: Students created and decorated wooden shoes out of construction paper which we left overnight, hoping that we will be visited by St. Nicholas while we are home tonight.

Math: Today we continued work on our Book of 6. We made our cover, tracing the title and creating a pattern along the border. Those who finished their covers continued to create unique formations of six on the remaining five pages of their book.

Music: Miss Casselini and Miss Ciampa led music today. We sang "The Dreidel Song" and did the "Reindeer Pokey" (similar to the hokey pokey).

Rain rain go away..

Writer's Workshop: Today we reviewed the layout of Sourcebook (pictures on the top and words on the bottom) and wrote another entry. Some children chose to write about the Elves and the Shoemaker field trip while others found the rain to be an inspiration.

Math: We discussed the number 6, practicing formation by doing a rainbow tracing sheet. We also began work on our "Book of Six" which will be completed over the course of the week. Using grid paper, students create various different formations by filling in six squares that must be touching.

The Potluck: We read Potluck which is a book that uses the alphabet to create a tale of children who are bringing items to a potluck. The rule in the book is that each page is for a different letter, on that page the child's name and the name of their food item starts with that letter. After reading the story, we brainstormed some foods that we might be able to drink if we were to have a potluck in our class. We will be making a class book with these choices (which students used to create their own page).

Computer Lab: Today in Computer Lab students were introduced to three new applications in the Jumpstart Advanced Kindergarten program.

Elves and the Shoemaker

Field Trip: We boarded the bus and headed to Fremont High School to enjoy a production of The Elves and the Shoemaker. The acting was great, the play was comical, and the students really seemed to enjoy their experience at the theater.

Library: As soon as we got off the bus, we headed straight to the library. We listened to Twas the Night Before Christmas and checked out new library books.

Read Aloud: After lunch we read The Elves and the Shoemaker. We had a discussion and made a Venn Diagram of things that were different and the same in the book and the play. The students came up with plenty of excellent examples to fill our chart.