King Colby

Colby was the King of the Jungle the last week in December and oh boy what a fun week that was. During his time as king he got to have lunch with both his grandparents and his mom. His mom even came and read to us a few stories from his favorite book Curious George! If I could describe Colby I would say that he is just so sweet and he is always in a good mood! Colby's favorite color is blue and his favorite movie is The Lorax. He loves basketball and baseball and when he grows up he wants to be a baseball player! His favorite food is mac and cheese and he loves bears. He also loves Luke Bryan, but who doesn't! Colby is a special kid because he always keeps his room clean and his smile can light up the room! Here is a video from Colby's week as the King of the Jungle!

                    

December happenings....

I can't believe this school year is almost half way over - oh how the time does fly by!
We have been busy with assessments for our second quarter report cards, getting ready for our holiday program and of course having way too much fun with Snowflake and all of our fun projects!
We also had three friends celebrate their birthdays in December. Happy Birthday to Royale, Kylah, and Junior! We all hope you had the best birthday ever!

                                                     Birthday Girl - Royale

                                                      Birthday Boy - Junior

                                                    Birthday Girl - Kylah

King Chase

This week our King of the Jungle was Chase. If I were to describe Chase I would have to say that he is a silly kid who works hard! He is known to his family as Chaser! Chase - I mean Chaser loves the color blue and his favorite book is How the Grinch Stole Christmas - it was super cool because his dad came in to read his favorite story to us! He also likes the movie The Gremlins and was disappointed when we couldn't watch it at school. He loves Nascar and hotdogs and more than anything he LOVES his dog - Bolt! His favorite song is Enter Sandman! Chase is a special kid because he is a good helper and when he grows up he wants to be a baseball player! Chase loved being the King of the Jungle and here is a short video of his special week!

                 

Our Practicum Students

Today is the last day our amazing practicum students will be here with us at Meadow Lane!
Ms. Nikki and Ms. Lexi have helped us so much over the past few months, we are so very lucky they were assigned to our classroom. Some of my friends don't understand why they won't be coming anymore so I had to tell them that they are going to college at UNL to become real teachers and they have to go and learn more about what teachers do and how boys and girls learn! They helped us learn so much and we will really miss them. We made a short video to say thanks for being so great!


              

Soo busy!

There are only 2 weeks left in the second quarter! Time is sure flying by and we have been learning so much. I will be testing all of my friends on all of the things we have been working on- I can't wait to see how much my friends have learned! Report cards will be coming home in January.

We have finally finished up our Sink and Float unit and oh man do my friends love to experiment! We made a book about objects that sink and objects that float, we had fun making predictions and testing out objects, we also made some scuba divers that are now on display in the hallway, we even made a short video - please check it out below!

We are working hard on zipping up our coats all by ourselves - please remember to send your child with a coat, hat, and gloves when it is so cold outside. If there is snow on the ground and we go out to recess your child has to have an extra pair of shoes to change into if they want to play out in the snow. If you have any questions about this please let me know!

We are starting to embrace the holiday season! We have a special visitor in our classroom that I am sure you have hear about... more information on "Snowflake" our class elf will come soon. Although you must know that he is keeping a close eye on all of my friends to make sure they are making good choices throughout the school day!
 
We are going to be traveling the world (a.k.a - the kindergarten classrooms) to learn about how different cultures celebrate the winter holidays this week. During our kindergarten holiday program you will find out about what we have learned on our adventures around the world. Please note our program will be on Friday, Dec. 20th at 2:00pm in the auditorium - we sure hope you can make it!


                            Our Sink/Float experiment video...
              

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I wanted to let you all know how very thankful I am...
I am blessed with a healthy family and a job that I love! I am so thankful that I get to work with your children every day! I found this poem and wanted to share it with you all and I hope that I can be the kind of teacher that teachers children the importance of being thankful...

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

Author Unknown

I hope you all enjoy the long weekend!  Please enjoy the video we made! 

                           

PLC Day

Why do your kids get out of school at 2:18 the last Tuesday of every month? The answer is for something VERY important!!!  The teachers are meeting in professional learning communities. In these meetings teachers get to work with their grade level peers and in vertical teams (with teachers from other grade levels.) Each year the grade level teams set goals that they want their students to meet throughout the school year. We also have two school goals. The first is that we will comprehend what we read (READ, READ, and DISCUSS books with your child!!) and the second is that we know our basic math facts. 

If your kindergarten kid meets the expectation each quarter they get to put their name up on our hallway display!! Next time your at school CHECK IT OUT!!! I hope this helps you understand why we have PLC!! If you ever have questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to ask!! Thanks for being awesome parents to my kindergarten friends!
Check out the video of us working hard on our goals!
Happy PLC Day!

Birthday Boy - Caleb

On Sunday our friend Caleb will be 6! We hope that Caleb has a wonderful day! He was so nice and brought all of his friends a treat bag and a cupcake on Friday - thank you for being so kind!  Caleb's mom even came in and read us a story and we all loved it!

                                    What a perfect book for the birthday boy!

                                     Thank you Caleb for the treats!

                                         The birthday boy!

 

Happy Birthday Caleb!

King Casey

This week our King of the Jungle was Casey. If I were to tell you something about Casey I would have to say that he LOVES trains! He even brought a Thomas the Train to school.  Casey’s favorite color is red and his favorite book is Lightening McQueen – he even brought in a Lightening McQueen car to show all of us. He likes the movie Turbo and likes hockey! His favorite food is macaroni and cheese, which we all love as well! Casey’s favorite animal is an elephant. His favorite song is sung by the Fresh Beat Band and it is called “Rock Star” and we even got to jam out to it at school – we all had tons of fun dancing and singing! When Casey grows up he wants to be a doctor for animals. Casey enjoyed being the King of the Jungle and here is a short video of his special week! 

                    

Kindergarten Kares!

These past few weeks Meadow Lane has been collecting food items for the Lincoln Food Bank. We talked about why we needed to collect food and what it would be used for. As a class we decided we would try to bring 100 items and we were so close to meeting our goal. The friends in my room brought in 76 items of food, we even had a friend who brought items every single day - which is amazing! I was so very proud of the kids in my room for their efforts - I decided to donate $25 dollars towards our goal! All of my friends were excited to take the food down to the food barrels to help out those in our community! Here is a short video of us taking the food down to the barrels!


                   

Birthday Girl- Raegan!

On Tuesday we had another birthday girl! We hope that Raegan had a great day and that she enjoys being 6! She was so nice and brought each of her friends a treat bag - thanks Raegan for being so kind! Her dad even came to read our class two books this week!

                                                        Birthday girl - Raegan!
 

                                                Raegan's dad reading to our class!

                                                   How cool is Raegan's dad?

King Caleb!

This week our King of the Jungle was Caleb. If I were to describe Caleb I would have to say that he is super funny and smart and he is a kid that just makes you smile!

Caleb loves the color red and the book The Lorax. He also likes the movie Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs! His favorite sport is football and his favorite food is pizza!

His favorite animal is a lion and he even brought in a picture of him pretending to be a lion in the long grass. He also likes the song “How do Skeleton’s Dance”! Caleb is special because he has a great family and when he grows up he wants to be a scientist. Caleb loved being the King of the Jungle and here is a short video of his special week! 

                      

Veterans Day!

Yesterday we celebrated a very important day in our country, Veterans Day!

I talked with my friends about how much the women and men have sacrificed for our country to keep us safe and free. We are so thankful for all of the veterans and for all the men and women who are still serving our country! We are truly so lucky to live in America! Words cannot express our gratitude for all that they have done for us. We made turkeys with our handprints and footprints with the words "from our hands down to our feet we say thanks for keeping us free!"  and I will be taking them to the veterans hospital this weekend to share with them. Please check out this short video we made in honor of Veterans Day.

             

Already November!

I can not believe that it is already November. I came back from my leave last Wednesday and what a fun week to come back! The kids and I had tons of pumpkin fun! I sure hope they told you all about it. This week I am getting back in to the swing of things and am able to see how hard my friends have been working while I have been away - I am truly amazed at all that they learned while I was gone. I can't wait to show and tell you all about it, but for now all I have is a short video of our school day on Thursday. I will do my best to post more about all the things we are working on and learning in kindergarten this year!

Amazing!

Today Macy and I went to school and visited all of my friends and I can not believe how hard they are working for Mrs. Kring! She told me some of the things that they have been working on and let me tell you they have been very busy!

In literacy they have been working very hard on SIX high-frequency words!! They read, spell, and write them every day……and they have really COOL cheers for each word!! You can even do the cheers with your kids at home since you have directions on how to do them!!!! These words help us write sentences and read books…YES I said READ!!! They have been reading every day too!!! The kids are loving guided reading and working in a small group:) Our puppet Happy has also been helping them to blend words. He says 3 sounds like….c-a-t….and then they have to say the word….cat!! This is super tricky so you could practice with your kids at home if you have time!! 

They also have been learning about how tools can help us learn and work. They even discussed how we can explore using our senses!! As they read books they talk about what kind of text it is. Is it informational or fiction?? Ask you kindergartener to tell you what they know….they know about all kinds of books!! They have been working hard on nouns ( a person, place, thing, and animal) and they know these VERY well!! This week they even started learning about verbs (action words)!! I hear they LOVE to practice action words, like running, jumping, and hopping! Mrs. Kring said that they have LOTS of energy!!! I guess they are even sorting pictures by their first sound and ending sounds!!!

In writer’s workshop they are continuing to write stories from our lives. They are working hard on matching their pictures and words and trying to add lots of details to their pictures. Many of my friends are using turtle talk (sounding out words) to write their own labels and words!! I can't wait to see their stories.  They are using a lot of what they learn during literacy time (blending, alphabet letters, and high-frequency words) to write!! Please encourage your children to practice writing and drawing at home. They have AWESOME stories to tell you!!

In math they are working hard on building arrangements for numbers 6-10!! They even took their very first math test! They were also introduced to the 5-finder!! They are understanding that it is easier to count sets when we have groups of 5!! At home you can even find groups of 5.

In unit studies they finished up  American Symbols (and hopefully you have seen the awesome book your kids made) Below is a short video from Constitution Day - I am sorry that I am so late getting this up here!  Also thanks to everyone that returned their family constitutions - I loved seeing them today in the hallway!! 

Mrs. Kring also taught my friends about the five senses and did some fun activities with them and made another book and this week they have been learning all about apples! Today they were even tasting apple gum when I came in! I hope that your child will tell you everything they have learned these past couple of weeks with Mrs. Kring! 

I can not believe that the first quarter of kindergarten is over! Time sure does fly by! I am so proud of all the things your child has learned so far this year and I can't wait to come back and see how much more they can learn! I also heard that there is a special visitor coming to school today - so hopefully your child will tell you all about it! I hope you all have a great fall break! See you soon!

:) Mrs. Woita

 

                             

Baby update!

Mrs. Woita's World on the home front....
I am super happy to announce that Macy Rose Woita was born on Wednesday afternoon at 2:13pm, weighing in at 8 pounds 4 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. Both Macy and I are doing great. We are at home and trying to settle into things. Justin, my husband, is now a little nervous because the girls outnumber the boys, but he is now use to the idea... I think. Henry is a very proud big brother who loves holding his new little sister! He gives her kisses and hugs and tells me how much she likes him already, he even said Macy liked him more than she liked his daddy, because when daddy was holding her she was crying, but she doesn't cry when he holds her :). Lily gets excited when she first sees Macy and then she is off doing something else. Our dog, Olivia, is also trying to figure out what is going on. Hopefully we will all adjust well to our new addition. Justin and I are now officially in zone defense! Thank you for all of your kind words and wishes! Hopefully Macy and I will be able to stop by school in a few weeks to see all of my friends!
Here are a few pictures of the Woita family!

                                                                 First family picture!

                                   Proud big brother, Henry, and not quite for sure big sister, Lily

Smart Kids!

Hello everyone!! I really can NOT believe we are already half way through September!! I am having such a great time with all of your kids. I hope they are telling you about all of the fun stuff we have been doing!

In literacy we have been working on making text-to-text connections.  We have also been working on the high-frequency words ‘can’ and ‘the’! We are becoming great readers already!!  We are working on rhyming and beginning sounds too. This week we got introduced to Happy, he is our dog puppet that helps us read. We LOVE Happy!! We learned about the letter ‘M’ and the sound it makes…ask your kindergartener to tell you!! In writing we have been working on telling stories from our lives. We have begun to write words and match our words to our pictures!

 

Our new friend Happy!!

This week we started talking about American symbols. The symbols we will learn are the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the American Flag, the White House, and Bald Eagle. We are making another awesome book and doing some cool crafts. On Tuesday we will celebrate Constitution Day. Please be watching for a family project that will be coming home that day. If possible, please have your child wear red, white, and blue to help us celebrate this fun day!!

Also, I wanted to say thank you again for coming to parent teacher conferences these last few weeks. I always enjoy conferences and am happy for the opportunity to talk with you about your child. I am so glad that you were all able to come to conferences early for me. Please know if you have any questions you can always contact myself or Mrs. Kring. 

Speaking of Mrs. Kring, she will for sure be starting this Wednesday, Sept. 18th, because if Baby Woita does not come in the next day or two I will be going to the hospital Tuesday night to get induced. I plan on being gone for 6 weeks if all goes well. I know that Mrs. Kring is super excited to start and hopefully my friends will do a great job  I hope you all have a super great week!

Love- Mrs. Woita

Already September!

What another busy week we had and it was even a short week!
My kindergarten friends are working so hard and I proud of all the things we are learning about.

We started getting homework in math and I am so happy to say that my friends are excited to get it! Please make sure your kindergartener writes their name on their paper so I know who returns it. I keep track of the homework that is turned in and every once in a while we will hand out rewards to those who are turning in their homework! We continued to work hard on our numbers and even started to find things that were alike and different. We even started learning about 2-D and 3-D shapes!

There will also be literacy homework that will start coming home. Please know I very much appreciate you taking them time to do your homework with your child, but please remember that they should be able to do it independently! They might just need a reminder to actually do it! Also try to read every night with your child, even if it is just a short book - I promise it will help them develop a love for reading that is important for their success in school!

We also had a birthday girl in our class this week! 

Happy Birthday again to Megan! 

We all hope she had a great day!

This Sunday, September 8th is Grandparent's Day and so we made a special hand print for our grandparents. We want them to know that we love them! So please wish all grandparents that are still with us a very Happy Grandparents Day! 

We also finished up our safety unit, so please take the time to look through your child's safety book and talk to them about it! This week we learned about signs that help us stay safe when we are driving and walking. We also made our own stop lights, went on a safety walk, and even made a stop light snack that was delicious. Special thanks to Chase's mom and dad for donating the items needed for our special snack. Please check out our video that includes pictures from our stop light activities and safety walk! 


                            

Special Kindergarteners!

Hi everyone!! Another week of kindergarten is behind us!! Can you even believe how fast it is going? We have been working so hard I thought I would share all of the stuff we have been learning!

 In literacy we have been discussing some important questions about who is in our family, why we are special, and what we can do. We have also been learning about reading left to right, the number of words in a sentence, syllables, nursery rhymes, and of course reading LOTS of books!! We have also been introduced to two new words; CAN and I!! I see how much smarter the kids get every day and I can not wait to watch them develop into awesome readers!!

In math we have been learning about numbers from 1-10 and even about graphing. The kids love to show off the big words we've been learning, like vertical and horizontal. We continue to draw scenes in our counting books and read Anno's Counting Book!! We just LOVE it!!

In unit studies we have been talking about safety!! We practiced calling 911, we discussed what a real emergency is, how to stop, drop, and roll (Mrs. Woita even tried this:), good thing all of my friends now how to roll because I just had to pretend), we know how important it is to learn our address, and about stranger safety. Please continue to discuss these things with your child at home. I want them to always be safe!!

We've also been doing LOTS of singing!! We learned a Days of the Week song, and lots of cool math and abc songs!! We have some great singers and dancers!!

Just a reminder that we are having conferences this Thursday, Sept. 5th and next Tuesday, Sept. 10th. My long term sub, Hannah Kring, will also be joining us so you will have a chance to meet her before I go on maternity leave. Please return your forms and try to bring your kindergartener to conferences with you!

We have been talking a lot about why we are special so please check out our awesome video that shows some neat pictures we made and some pictures of us working hard!


                       

First Week of School!

We made it through the first full week of kindergarten!!! YEA for us here in Woita's World!

We have been very busy learning the routines of school and all of the rules here at Meadow Lane!

We know we have to BE RESPECTFUL ~ BE RESPONSIBLE ~and BE SAFE at all times! 

All of the kids were very excited to get their keys to kindergarten success! 

Thank you all for taking the time to go over our school rules with your child,

 it is very important that we are all on the same page.

We are going to continue to work hard on becoming the best learners we can be! 

All of the kids know that Mrs. Woita's job is to teach them and keep them safe while they are at school, and they also know that their job is to listen and follow directions and learn so that they can get smarter! We are already learning so much!

Please check out the short video with pictures from our first day of school!

                        

2013-2014 School Year

I can't believe another school year is about to start. I have been working hard trying to get my classroom ready for another group of kindergarteners that will joining me soon! I am looking forward to meeting my new friends and their families at Open House this week. 

This year is sure to be fun and I can't wait to get started! 

We will hopefully have another wonderful year in Woita's World!

Summertime!!!

I honestly can not believe how fast the summer goes. Only a few weeks left and it is back to school! Of course I love the start of a new school year but will for sure miss the pool and sleeping in with Henry and Lily!
This week you should be finding out who your child's first grade teacher will be and I will be meeting a new group of kindergarteners this week at our potluck picnic. I wanted to let you all know that I will be taking your names off of my blog today that way you won't get the emails anymore - of course you can always sign back up if you would like to know what is going on in Woita's World!

If you have time I have a few short questions I would like you to answer about my blog - as you know this was my first year and I already know a few things I can do to make it better, but would like your suggestions as well. Please just go to my blog, answer the questions and click submit!
Thank you so much again for being such amazing parents and hopefully I will see you around Meadow Lane!!!!
 

Field Trip to Chet Ager

We had so much fun on our field trip to Chet Ager Nature Center! I hope your child told you about all of the cool things they saw when we were out exploring in nature! We were seeing signs of spring everywhere! We all hope that spring is here to stay! We even had a blast eating lunch in our classrooms when we got back! Please check out our video!

                        

Leprechauns...

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and a fabulous St. Patrick's Day!
As I am sure you have heard, Mrs Woita loves St. Patrick's day and every year those silly leprechauns come and play tricks on us at school and even at Mrs. Woita's house (this year the milk was green and now Henry won't drink it)! It is a good thing we had a week off after the leprechauns came because I don't know if Mrs. Woita could have handled any more excitement here at school! :)
Please check out our video of our super fun day before break!

Also we are so excited that it is now the 4th quarter of kindergarten and we are working hard everyday on making good choices and getting ready for 1st grade! Thank you all again for coming to conferences - I enjoyed all of our conversations! Please know that you can contact me at any time if you have questions! Can you believe your child is almost done with kindergarten? The year has been going by so fast and we still have so much to learn and do!


                        

Dr. Seuss Fun!

Last Friday on March 1st we celebrated Dr. Seuss's Birthday! We started our day with a school wide book parade - it was so much fun to see all of the books and characters! We then continued our day by reading lots of Dr. Seuss books and in the afternoon we met the Cat in the Hat!!!! We even got to eat some green eggs and ham - okay it wasn't really green eggs and ham - but we made pudding and turned it green and topped it with a vanilla wafer and white and brown sprinkles for the people who like salt and pepper on their eggs!
Check out the video of our fun day!!

                 

Valentine's Day Video... Finally!!!!

                                                            Check out our video!   
                           

Fast February

Math Night!
A few weeks ago we had family math night and it was AMAZING!!! I sure hope the families that were able to attend had as much fun as I did. We got to play math games with our families and have fun with our family and friends. We had guessing jars and prizes for everyone who came!
I have started to send out both the math and literacy bag activities for you to do at home. Please keep the bag until you have time to complete the activities, once you are finished please make sure everything is returned to the bag and sent back to school! It is my hope that you will have fun learning and playing together!

Parent Teacher Conferences!
I can not believe that we are having conferences next week! I am looking forward to the conversations we will have! Please bring your kindergartener with you to conferences if you are able to! As always, please let me know if you have any questions and return your conference sheets as soon as possible!

Valentines Day!
We had so much fun on Valentine's Day! We decorated cookies and boy oh boy did we have fun with the sprinkles!!! We also played some different games in the afternoon. We wrote down the words we found on conversation hearts, we raced with plastic hearts, we used valentine stamps and stencils, we dug for words to make the phrase "I love you", we ate one of our delicious cookies, we played tic-tac-toe, we got to guess how many pieces of candy were in the bag and the winner got to keep all of the candy and we had fun with our very own photo booth! Mrs. Woita is working on a video and will hopefully have it up on the blog sometime this week!

100th Day of School

We have had so much fun in kindergarten this year and we can not 

believe that we have been in school for over 100 days already!

On the 100th day of school we celebrated all day long...

we made a picture with 100 squares, we did the 100th day olympics with 100 different exercises, we made glasses and hats, we made necklaces with 100 fruit loops, we thought about what we would do with $100, we made a snack using 100 of each item, we read 100th day books, and had fun all day long with the number 100!!! Please check out our video!

                   

Martin Luther King Jr.

We remember MLK, 

Honored on this special day.

He had a dream that we would stand

United together in this land, 

That we would strive to find a way

To live as friends in peace today.

He wanted each of us to see

The beauty of equality.

He taught that right overcomes wrong, 

That hope can turn the weak to strong, 

And showing love instead of hate

Would make our country truly great.

His message, meant to set us free, 

Was filled with hope for you and me.

So on this day let freedom ring, 

As we remember Dr. King!

Please watch our Dr. King video!

Fun in the Snow!

We have had a great start to our week and our picking up right where we left off
and we know that 2013 is going to be amazing! I loved hearing about all of the fun and exciting things all of the kids did over break!
This week we started learning about the weather during science and we have been talking about the different kinds of weather Nebraska has! We have also talked about the things you can do when it is sunny, rainy, windy, and snowy. Yesterday we decided to make a snowman!
And it is official!!! We all love to play in the snow!
Speaking of snow.... I am sure most of you know that the kids need to have boots AND an extra pair of shoes if they want to play in the snow during recess, otherwise our pants and floor would be a mess! Please make sure to send you child to school in appropriate clothes - layers are always good because you can always take things off if needed! An extra set of gloves and a hat are always good to keep in the backpack too! 
Please check out our little video of us making our snowman!

New Year's Resolution!

Hi everyone!

So sorry it has been awhile since I have blogged, December sure does fly by...

especially when you are having fun like we are in kindergarten!

I wanted to let everyone know that it is going to be my "New Year's resolution" to write on this blog once every two weeks - so that way you can stay updated on the latest kindergarten news! Of course I would like to exceed my expectations but we will just have to see how that goes!

I hope you all had a wonderful break with your family and friends and that you got to relax and have some fun! I am looking forward to seeing my 22 little friends on Monday morning and are hoping they are ready to come back to school to see me! 

I just know that we are going to have a great start to our New Year!  :) Mrs. Woita