Friday!

We had many "deep" discussions today.  Lots of talk about what we do when we are angry and not hurting people with our hands or our words.  We decided that we are in Kindergarten, REAL school (not baby-waby preschool anymore) so we are smart enough to work things out without hurting our classmates.  Since it was brought up, we talked a bit about how adults can get angry and yell at each other but that doesn't mean they don't love their children or that they don't love each other.  It was deep, I tell you - they were really thinking!  I did stop your children from sharing what happens at your particular home - I took no comments from the floor!

Reminders:  Please let your child know what they are doing for lunch.  Some of them brought lunch and then decided they really wanted to buy lunch so they signed up!  It was pretty cute.  I reminded them that moms and/or dads get to decide if they buy lunch or not.  

We have learned a lot about taking care of books and how to choose a good book to read.  I squeeze in as many read-alouds as I can....there are so many I want to share with your little darlings.  They do love to listen to a good story - thanks for getting them in the habit!  Today we loved:  "How do Dinosaurs Say Good Night" by Jane Tolen.  Of course I swap out "he" for "she" to make the genders even.  It drives me crazy that even in books about animals, the characters are ALL males!  There will be balance in my kindergarten classroom!  Gender equity is important and kindergartners have a good sense of what is fair and right.  We have already discussed that ALL colors are for everyone, including pink and purple!  We also loved "The Cow Who Clucked" by Denise Fleming.  We will be reading many books by Denise Fleming throughout the year - kindergartners love them!

Your children have done such a great job during these first days of kindergarten.  I do ask a lot of them: use inside voices, be a good friend, push their chairs in, use inside voices, clean up after themselves, recycle, use tools (pencils, glue sticks, crayons, scissors, markers) responsibly, take good care of all kindergarten toys and books, use inside voices, line up, use walking feet, oh and did I mention use inside voices - "Did you forget you weren't at recess anymore?" asks Ms. Keller.  They have a lot to remember and they are already so good at it!

Our custodians love the rice tub - not quite as much as they love glitter though!  Actually, the kindergartners do a good job of cleaning this up with the "crumb sweeper".  It's almost as much fun as playing with the rice!