End of April

It is crazy to think this is the last week of April! My heart is starting to beat fast thinking of this school year being over and all the learning and fun projects we still need to do!!

Last week just flew by and we did not get everything done that I had hoped so we will definitely be playing catch-up this week!

In literacy this week we will be finishing up week 1 - and reading "The Elves and the Shoemakers", "The Variety Show", and in our crabby books "A Good Time For Luke". During guided reading your child will either read Animal Band or We Want Honey. We will be practicing writing our kindergarten words, and retelling the details from the stories we are reading!

We will be planting another vegetable seed this week and hopefully be working on another project sometime soon! If you have any tin cans you would like to donate to our next project please send them to school with your child - for example corn or green bean cans. Last week we learned about the word reuse and this is a great project to reuse our tin cans!!!

We will be taking our math test on two separate days. Yep that's right it will take us two days - but that is because we learned a lot so there is a lot to assess!! Then we will be starting unit 6 in math - where we will start learning more about money, time, and measurement!

This week we will wrap up our plant unit and hopefully get everything finished! We have loved learning about plants and how to take care of them!!! Our Lorax projects and movie night turned out great and hopefully I will get a video up sometime this week featuring pictures of our fun week last week!

Also please be watching for an important note coming home this week about our walking field trip to the park on Friday May 8th. I need to know again if your child will be bring cold lunch or ordering a sack lunch from school- so please send it back or let me know as soon as you can! Also you are more than welcome to join us at the park for lunch if you are free- but know that we will be having an end of the year celebration on the last day of school - Thursday May 21st in the afternoon (more details to come soon) and I would much rather have you come to this if you had to choose just one- because it will be a program similar to our holiday program as well as a little celebration/reception!

This Tuesday the 28th is a PLC day, and Wednesday we are going to an assembly in the afternoon and on Thursday we get to watch the strings and band practice for their concert on Thursday night! What another busy week!!

Knowledge is...

Last week one of our vocabulary words was knowledge and the definition is what you know about a topic from understanding or study.

I would like to think that I have a lot of knowledge about teaching and parenting but everyday I am surprised by all that I learn.

Today I turned 31 and it was a great and not so great day. Technology and me are not getting along lately as you all know and today was no different because I lost all my pictures on my phone including the dozens of pictures I took on the field trip today, my family pictures, holiday pictures, and the random cute pictures and videos of my personal children - I will admit there were many tears because you all know how I love pictures.... And the reason is because I love looking back on my pictures and remembering how much fun things were and the memories that were made- I can totally admit that I don't remember everything and my pictures help me remember.

 But luckily looking back on my day it was wonderful and fabulous because I got to be with my school kids in nature exploring and having fun and hopefully they will remember their first field trip- I did take pictures of all my friends on the bus at least with ms. Maddies phone  (also they go back in 1st and 2nd grade so they will have many more memories). My school friends got to be kids and had a fun day - we also got to wear our shirts that I am soo proud of. At home my family was so nice to me- I had super nice cards, flowers, smiles, cake, hugs, and kisses and I think lily sang me happy birthday at least ten times- and we had a dance party all night!! So overall wonderful day that I will never forget!

But anyways back to my knowledge...
*I know that life is too short and to never take things for granted and live life with no regrets
*dont be to grumpy because things could always be worse and it is okay to show emotions
*tell the people you care about how amazing, smart, and wonderful they are daily- it doesn't hurt anyone to say I love you and give a smile
*be organized or at least pretend to be and know it's okay to be flexible and go with the flow
*plan on things taking ten times as long as you think it will so you aren't shocked by the time things take (for example getting ready to go somewhere with three small children or how it takes many hours to tie-dye, write on, iron on, and paint t-shirts - but well worth it because of the end product)
*take pictures and back up immediately
*money is just paper but you have to work hard for it (or at least some people do) and it doesn't grow on trees unfortunately - and you have to play the lottery to win it
*the show Barney has wonderful messages and a few great songs
*Sometimes in life you have to do things you don't want to do and you need to be okay with it
*Dr. Suess is so smart and teaches kids to love books and reading
*positive role models, love, and encouragement are what every child needs and deserves
*a child's laughter is one of the best sounds in the world
*try your best everyday and be proud of the things you have accomplished and dream big

These are just a few of the things I have been thinking about tonight... I am excited to learn even more in the day, years, and decades to come as both a teacher and a parent ...

Happy Birthday Cash!!!

Today we celebrated Cash's birthday - he turned 6 years old today! And what a fun day it was - we went to Chet Ager Nature Center for a field trip and had a wonderful time. Confetti and Snowflake were both in our classroom today because it was also my birthday! I hope Cash didn't mind sharing his birthday with his teacher! We hope that Cash had a wonderful day - here are a few pictures of the birthday boy...

 Birthday boy, Cash, with the elves!

 Cash with his present from his friends!

 Cash's friends singing Happy Birthday to him!

 Cash and all of his friends!

The elves for the double birthday!

Exploring the Earth

This week is going to be busy, fast and awesome!!!!

We will be starting our week with an awesome field trip to Chet Ager Nature Center where we will be exploring nature and the changing seasons! We also get to wear our cool shirts, ride the bus and eat lunch either in our classroom or outside when we get back to school! I honestly don’t know a better way to start our week! We will also talking a LOT about Earth Day (which is this Wednesday – April 22^nd) this week. One of my favorite books and movies is the Lorax written by Dr. Suess – he is such a smart, cool, talented guy and this story has such a wonderful message. A few years ago when the movie came out I wanted to watch the movie with my friends but realized it would not be the best use of our time during the school day so we started to have a movie night with this movie – of course I am sure you have all seen it – but if you are not busy on Thursday night you should definitely bring your family to come watch the Lorax with me in the auditorium at 6:30. We are making some Lorax pots and will be planting a seed in them this week and as well as making some posters for the movie night! It will be a great time and I hope you all can come! (Although I must warn you I know the words to every song so you might hear me and my kids singing along)

We will also be doing a lot of learning and we will have no time to waste to try and get through an entire week of learning in just a few short days – I have a feeling we might get a little behind so we might have to continue of a few of these things next week if needed!

In Literacy we will be starting our final Unit – yep that’s right Unit 10! My friends will be super pumped to see our last crabby book! We will be talking about what can happen when we work together! We will also be reading some great Earth Day stories and from our curriculum be reading “What’s the Big Idea, Molly?” We will be sequencing parts of a story and making, confirming and revising our predictions. Our vocabulary words are decide, marvel, opinion, ragged, and grateful. We will be focusing on the long u vowel sound and the words good and who and looking for sentence clues and questioning words. I am hoping to get a good start to literacy this week- but of course will have to see how much time we have! 

In Math we will be working on making two groups equal by either adding or subtracting, telling story problems, and getting ready for our test we will be taking next week!

In Unit Studies we will be continuing to talk about what plants need to survive – water, sunlight, and soil – and will be hopefully finishing up our flower book. If we are lucky we are also going to be having a little taste test with the different parts of a plant – my friends have been very intrigued by the different parts of a plant that you can eat! We will be planting a few seeds this week as well!

In writing we will be working hard on our stories. We are working hard on adding details to our words and pictures to match our stories and also using our best handwriting and taking our time. In a few weeks we will be taking our writing test to show the first grade teachers how awesome of writers we are!

There is no school on Friday, April 24th so we will have a fun, busy, short week again! 

King Xander

Xander was our King of the Jungle this week and what a fun week it was. Xander had two aunts come and read us some super cool books and stayed to eat lunch with him and then his mom, dad, and grandma joined him for lunch too! And his aunts were real troopers because they came to Meadow Lane not knowing what book Xander had picked out for them to read! What an awesome week he had with all of his special visitors! We all enjoyed learning more about Xander! We loved his toy that he showed us and his fun book that he brought - I sure learned a lot about Pokemon's and Power Ranger transformers! Now a little bit about Xander- he loves the color green and all Dr. Suess books! He loves the movie Transformers and the song The Touch (which I listened to on youtube because I didn't know what it was - but very cool). He also likes zebras, swimming, and pizza! He is a special kid because he is sweet and silly. When he is at home he likes to play football and when he grows up he wants to be a builder! 

Xander was a wonderful King and here is a short video of his week...

                          

busy crazy times...

We are going to be in serious t-shirt making mode this week. Hopefully your kindergartener came home on Friday and told you about our tie-dyeing experience we had already - so technically it has already started! I was very pleasantly surprised on how smooth it all went – I showed all of my friends how to make the dye bath and then my friends each came over and helped get there t-shirt wet then we rung it out a little then I had them twist up their shirt and put rubber bands around it – Briley’s mom and I were there to help out a few times but for the most part they did it themselves and did a very good job – from there we put the t-shirts into the big roaster to soak for awhile. After the soaking was done Briley’s mom rinsed them all out and I took them home to wash them. Now I am working on making all of the stencils (this process is taking a little longer than I had expected but will be well worth it in the end when all of my friends get to paint the mission statement on to their shirt). My husband of course just doesn’t understand why we didn’t order t-shirts – but that would not have been any fun – remember I am all about making memories and hopefully my friends will not forget this one! J After we get all the stencils cut-out we will get them ironed on and my friends can paint – before that step they will also be writing with a fabric marker on the front – so we can keep them separated. I will be keeping the t-shirts at school and will be taking them home to wash them in Dreft. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this. Your child will wear them on our field trips and maybe a few other days and then on the last day of school and then will finally get to wear them home! I am super excited about this project and can’t wait to see the finished product! I will try to let you know when we will be wearing them!

We will also be learning a lot this week as well! In Literacy we will be talking about how things in nature can be used to make new things – which will be awesome because we have been talking about being good citizens and next week is Earth Day and it fits in so perfectly! Our vocabulary words are natural resources, create, designs, weave, and knowledge. We will be taking a test over the kindergarten words we have learned so far this week and we will also be learning two more words “where” and “look”. We will be focusing on blending sounds together and the long o vowel sound as well.  We will be reading “Bread Comes to Life”, “Spider Woman Teaches the Navajo”, and “Nature Artists”. In the crabby books we will read “Look a Home” and during guided reading either “Look Where It Is From” or “What’s for Breakfast?” This week we have a lot of informational texts and I just know we will be learning a lot!

In Unit Studies we will be learning about plants and the different parts to a plant and what they need to survive! We know that water, sunlight, and soil are very important!! We will also be planting a few things over the next week or two and will be taking a walking field trip down to the hardware store to buy some seeds and soil. This little trip will depend on the weather and I am hoping that we can do it when all my friends are here, but we will see! It will be super fun!

During writing we will continue to work hard on making our stories the best that they can be. We are enjoying adding our thoughts and feelings to our stories! I love reading my friends stories every day- they are becoming such good writers!!!

In Math we will be graphing and comparing numbers. We will also be looking at two groups of objects and figuring out how to make them equal by adding or subtracting! Of course we will also be talking about teen numbers and story problems. Please practice telling story problems at home if you can – my friends are doing really well adding but subtraction is tricky!

Important Dates to remember…

Thursday, April 16^th is the Art Fair

Monday, April 20^th is our field trip to Chet Ager

Thursday, April 23^rd is our Lorax movie night (bring the whole family)

Friday, April 24^th there is no school

Friday, May 8^th we are eating lunch in the park (parents are welcome to join us)

Thursday, May 21^st end of the year celebration and program

Also please think and send me all of your good, positive, everything is going to be okay thoughts please. On Friday my computer wouldn’t turn on and is now currently at the LPS computing services office trying to get fixed. I told the guys who took it I just need my pictures and that I didn’t care about anything else – just my pictures!!! So I am hoping for good news….. but if your child tells you that I was crying and couldn’t stop you will know why. And no I do not have anything backed up – and I know I should! My uncle gives me the talk every time I see him. I promise Uncle Jim that I will start if I get my pictures back and even if I don’t!!!! Again any positive thoughts you have I would greatly appreciate….

Queen Sopheigh

Sopheigh was our Queen of the Jungle this week and she had a great week! Her favorite color is blue and red and she loves Ninja Turtles. Her favorite ninja turtle is Michelangelo and she even brought in her Michelangelo mask that we all loved! She loves the movie Little Rascals, chicken nuggets, and her favorite animal is a lion. She loves basketball and can even dribble two basketballs at the same time! She loves the Lego Song and we enjoyed dancing to it this week a few times! When she is at home she likes to play basketball and when she grows up she wants to be in the army! We enjoyed learning more about our friend Sopheigh this week and here is a video of her as our Queen...

First full week of April

I hope all my friends had a Hoppy three day break and are ready to get back to school!
This week we will reviewing what good writers do and will also be talking about how we can add our thoughts and feelings into our stories!
In math we will be making a teen number book and focusing on the ten in each teen number. We will be continuing to work on addition and subtraction and using different strategies to solve different equations as well as telling story problems! We will also be making a drawing of partners of ten for a classroom display!
In literacy we will be talking about how we can be good citizens. Our vocabulary words are citizen, respect, tidy, hauled, and necessary. We will be reading "Hen Hears Gossip", "The Little Red Hen", and "Team Up To Clean Up" and focusing on rereading and making connections! In our crabby books we will read "We Can Play" and in guided reading either "Mike Helps Out" or "Clive and his Friends". We will be learning the words "play" and "has" and focusing on the long i vowel sound too - it is so amazing to see my friends pick up all of the letter combinations that make the vowels long- although the combination we see most often is vowel/consonant/silent e.

Also remember the LPS backpack walk is this Saturday, April 11th at 10:00.
And this week please look for information coming home about our field trip on Wednesday - if you would like to donate to help with the cost of our tshirts you can go to this link or you can talk to me!

http://flps.fund-it.org/grants/view_grant.php?gid=3554

King Sam

This week Sam was the King of the Jungle and he had a great fast week! Sam loves the color red and spaghetti. His favorite book is called "Marley Messy Day" which we all thought was super funny! Sam also likes the movie Monsters Inc and likes to play golf. He also loves dogs and the Happy Birthday song! He is a special kid because he is a good helper and when he is at home he likes to play with his brothers and when he grows up he wants to be a golfer! We loved learning more about our friend, Sam, and were super excited when his mom came in to talk to us about him. She told us about how Sam has Down Syndrome and what that means. She did a great job of explaining things so that we could understand it better and believe me when I saw that we all learned a lot! She also told us that Sam is diabetic and has celiac disease which we now know means he needs to eat all gluten free food items otherwise he gets sick. We also couldn't believe he had to get his finger poked so many times during the day - he is so tough and brave! My friends and I learned so much about Sam and had so many questions she was able to answer. It was so awesome that his mom came in and talked to us! Sam had a great week as King of the Jungle. Here is a little video of him...

Happy Birthday Ms. Laura

Today was Ms. Laura's birthday today and it was no April Fools! I can't believe it is already April and I along with all of my friends were surprised and super excited to see Confetti this morning in our classroom! Ms. Laura turned 29 again today.. my friends didn't quite understand what that meant :) but that is just fine! We all had a very easy time coming up with words to describe Ms. Laura because she is always helping us be the best learners we can be! 

We hope that she had a wonderful Happy Birthday! Here are a few pictures of her during the day...

 Birthday girl, Ms. Laura, and Confetti just relaxing!

 Singing to the Birthday Girl!

 Ms. Laura and all of her friends!

 Everyone excited to see Confetti and the note he left for Ms. Laura!

Birthday girl - Ms. Laura