Spirit Day!

Everyone gets a brand new t-shirt!!!!!  I was feeling a little bit like Oprah this morning as I got the kindergartners all excited about our Spirit Day t-shirts.

We had a very fun party and I would like to extend a BIG thank you to Blair Keller, Blakely student alumni, and Stephanie's parents!!!!!!  We played Name Bingo, with cards made up of kindergartners' photos, made ants-on-a-log and raspberry smoothies, created stained-glass pictures with grated crayons and a hot iron, and molded beautiful, pink play-dough.  

Rainy Day Recess!

We experienced our first Indoor Recess - September?!?!?!?!?  Your darling children got to play in the library with all of their kindergarten friends.  For the last recess we went outside and we will always go out for at least one recess no matter how wet it is - that's why we LOVE it when you send coats with hoods!

We are reading many books about Night and Day, both fiction and non-fiction.  Loved these two:  "Kitten's First Full Moon" and "Moon Dreams". We have discussed how we get daytime and nighttime. The kindergartners were really interested in the spinning of the earth and thinking about where was it daytime and where was it nighttime.  Perfect timing with the full moon.

It was another VERY fun day in kindergarten!

Sugar alert - we decided we should have a party tomorrow.....a September Color Party! 

Mixed up Day!

I got to find out how flexible your children are!  Today we had an Earthquake / Fire Drill, we shared our Specialist time with a second-grade class in the library, and instead of Free Choice we had reading buddies with our third-grade class.  I thought our Specialist time was switched also so we went to the library at the wrong time and had to turn right around and come back to class!  These kindergartners took it all in stride and got right back in line to head for our class for Free Choice which then turned into our reading buddy time!

The reading buddy time was lovely - so cute to see all of these third-graders taking their jobs very seriously.  They read to their assigned kindergartner for thirty minutes!  I then gathered them all together to read a very funny (to them anyway) book titled "Dirty Joe the Pirate".  Ask your kindergartner about the socks and underwear!

We are continuing our tree study.  Part of our lesson today was learning about the various shapes of trees.  They put together tree puzzles with a partner.

Nursery Rhymes are still with us.  They have enjoyed working on the little books, which will come home next week.

We also decided to have some "Dance Party" time.  A good way to get our bodies revved up for learning!


I sent home permission forms for our field trip to Sunrise Hill Farm for those of you who haven't turned them in yet.  And I will need $5 to pay for the pumpkins that will come home with us.  Let me know if you want to come on the field trip.  So far I have only one volunteer.  It's a beautiful place and we really enjoyed it last year.


Blakely Picnic this Friday at 5:00.  It's a chance to hang out and get to know other parents.  Free ice cream!

Sunny Day!

Another fabulous day - gosh, your kids are great!

"The Cheese" was our all time favorite book today - another nursery rhyme theme and very funny!  I love seeing their faces when they "get" the humor in a book!

We stayed busy with Brain Dance, poems, handwriting, literacy jobs, number corner, science journals, Special Person interview and portraits, predictable sentences, wonderful art experiences and SO MUCH MORE!

                                                            

Lots of pictures will be coming tomorrow....there is a glitch and some of them are not rotating to the correct orientation and I am off to a meeting!

Full Week Ahead!

We have started a week of Nursery Rhymes.  Now I have to tell you, I was a skeptic at first, thinking that Nursery Rhymes were archaic, sexist and a bit violent.  But I have been won over - there's a reason we learn nursery rhymes as young children. They help us develop an ear for our language. Rhyme and rhythm highlight the sounds and syllables in words. And understanding sounds and syllables helps kids learn to read!  Read more: Why Nursery Rhymes?

This day flew by....we are so busy on Monday - getting back into the routine, (very easy for these smart students), sharing what we did on the weekend, learning what the literacy jobs will be for the week.  We sang a new song "Come on and Sing" and read books and a poem about dancing dinosaurs.  Our favorite book was  "The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster" by David Conway.

 

Thanks you for sending in forms, and supplies.  For those of you who haven't sent in your $10 for miscellaneous projects, it's okay, you can still send it in!  I am also looking for more Volunteer Forms, Disaster Relief Forms, Emergency Kits, and Field Trip Forms for our trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  I will also need $5 for that and some volunteers.  The bus will leave for Sunrise Hill Farm on Friday, October 15th, at 7:50.

Speaking of buses, please let your child ride the bus this week.  It is bus count week and the budget for the year is determined by ridership.

Don't forget about this Friday's Blakely Picnic starting at 5:00!  More information can be found in the Parent Bulletin or on the calendar tab on my web page: www.karenkeller.eboard.com.

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!

Ten Days Down!

It is hard to believe that I have had your children for ONLY ten days!!!!  They are really getting the routine down.....it feels like they have been here much longer!  Such smart children you have!  How did I get so lucky to have them in MY classroom!!!!!!!

I mean REALLY lucky!