Last week of Kindergarten!!!!

I honestly can't believe it!! This is the last week of school and we still have so much to do!! We will continue to work hard to finish all of our work and projects up!!  My friends have loved bringing things home and I promise there is still a lot to come so please be on the lookout! We will be working hard on our program and reviewing all the fun things we did this year in kindergarten!! Remember our program is on Thursday at 2:30  starting in the auditorium! I just know it is going to be another fast, crazy, fun, busy week!!

Junior Achievement

This past week we have had two volunteers come into our classroom and do Junior Achievement with us! Junior Achievement is a program that hopes to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. It is a volunteer delivered program for kindergarteners through 12th graders and we loved every bit of it! Every day Ms. Erica came and read us a story and did an activity with us. She even had a helper, Ms. Shannon, that came with her as well. Ms. Erica has been coming to my classroom for years and is always willing to come back to the craziness and I really appreciate her! I am sure you have seen the goodies that Ms. Erica gave us as well - we each got a certificate, a small book, a savings bank, a bookmark, and a magnet.  We talked a lot about how we can save money adn why it is important to save and spend wisely! My friends loved having the JA volunteers in a room! Here is a video of some of the fun we had when they were here with us in Woita's World!

Sooo Far Behind and soo much to do still!

This week we will be doing some assessments and reviewing everything we have learned in Literacy!  We will be talking about how we can protect our earth and make good choices. We will be reading "Panda Kindergarten", "Protect the Environment" and "Save Big Blue" and will learn more about baby animals. In guided reading we will either read "Help Clean Up" or "Let's Save Earth" and in our crabby books "Who Can Help?" Our vocabulary words which I know we will love are recycle, environment, protect, wisely, and encourage.  It will be a great review week! 
In Math we will hopefully be ready to take another test by the end of the week. We have been learning about money and time and this week we will be learning about measurement. We will measure with different manipulatives and will be comparing items in a group.  I am confident we will do wonderful on this test!
In writing we will also be taking a test - and it will take us two days to complete it. I have been talking to my friends about all of the things good writers do - we review the six writing traits daily and have been trying our best during writers workshop. We took a practice test already and will do one more practice and then we will take our real test to show Mr. K and the first grade teachers. I just know that they will be amazed at the great writers I have in my class this year!
In Unit Studies we talked about the Earth and the continent, country, state, and city that we live in! It was a ton of fun and we even made our own little maps! This week we will be talking all about the wonderful state of Nebraska that we live in and making a book about our state symbols!
We will also be trying to finish up some of our yearlong projects we have been working on. I have been collecting all of our art work so I apologize in advance for the big bag of artwork that will be coming home soon! We will also be practicing for our program - so please be on the lookout for your childs lines for the program that we would love for you to practice as well as the rsvp!

This year we went on three little field trips and we had a blast at each one of them! It was my intention to make a video and blog about each trip but the time got away from!
Our first trip was to the Hardware store where we got to buy some soil and seeds - we also walked through the store and the outside plant area and go to see so many cool things. We learned about seed potatoes from Ms. Sharon, we saw many different plants and vegetables, we learned about what seeds need. We even met a man who lost his arm and got to hear his story because all of my friends were very curious and had many questions! We also met a lady who couldn't start her car because the battery was dead - so we learned about how Triple A comes and helps you out! Then we learned about cement and construction and how they wear bright colors and helmets to protect themselves. It truly was a informational little trip to the store! We learned so much and had so much fun!
Then we got to go to Chet Ager - where we got to ride a bus and explore nature! We divided up into two different groups and had a leader take us different places and show us different things. We used our senses to find both plants and animals. We saw so many cool things there and wish we could have stayed all day! When we came back to school we ate lunch outside and played! The only negative thing about this day was that I lost all of the pictures on my phone - so my group doesn't have very many pictures of us out in nature and I am soo very sorry - luckily Sam's mom snapped a few (there is even a picture of me taking a picture which is kind of ironic)!
Our last trip was to Bethany Park to just have fun! We walked down and ate a picnic lunch and played and played and played! We have worked hard all school year and deserved a fun day! Although I will say we walked a lot faster down to the park then we did coming back - but it was a wonderful day!
You will also notice we had on our super cool Meadow Lane shirts that I just love and adore on each of our trips and I know my friends enjoy wearing them as well! They want to take them home and I promise on the last day of school they will get to wear them home and keep them!
Again we had so much fun and here is a video of all three of our trips!

Happy Mother's Day!

We hope all of our mom's have a wonderful day! This week at school we talked about how we are all so lucky to have people in our lives that love us, take care of us, and keep us safe and we talked a lot about our moms! I know that I am personally so thankful to my mother for being the most amazing person I have ever known. 

Moms - please know how much you are loved today and everyday! I hope all the moms like the LOVE boards we made for them throughout the year and I hope you can hang it up somewhere and display pictures or projects that your children have made! I also hope that you all get to relax and enjoy spending time together with your family today. 
 Please check out this special video we made especially for our moms!         

King Zach

Zach was our last King of the Jungle and his reign as King lasted a little longer than most because of a few technical difficulties. But Zach was such a great and patient King that it worked out great! Zach did have a wonderful two weeks though! His favorite color is orange and white, and his favorite book is any Dr. Suess book! He likes the movie E.T., basketball, pasta, and cheetah's. His favorite song is Happy and we even got to dance to it this week with his silly minion! He is a special kid because he is silly and when he is at home he likes to play with his brother! When he grows up he wants to be a doctor! Zach was a great King and here is a short video of his week!

MAY ALREADY!!!!!

We are in serious "let's get things done mode" from now until the end of the school year! I can't believe it is May already and there are only 14 school days left with my friends and then they will be in first grade!! Oh boy oh boy- do we have a lot to do!!!!

This week we will be talking about our end of the year program that will be held on the last day of school- Thursday, May 21st in the afternoon - I am thinking it will be around 2:30 but still need to double check availability of a few things first and finalize our speaking parts and songs- it sure is hard to narrow down our favorite songs  because we have too many, so we are not for sure how long our program will be yet! Last week we were able to see the band and strings practice concert and this week we will get to watch the chorus practice concert! I hope my friends get more excited about our program after this week!!! I promise I will send out exact details in a note home! Again we will be having our program with Mrs. Schroeder's class like we did for our holiday program!
Also this week we will be going to the park for lunch as long as the weather cooperates! A note will be sent home with exact times on Wednesday or Thursday- although I am thinking we will be down at the park around 11:15 if you would like to meet us there!

In literacy we will be starting week 2 of unit 10 and will be discussing how things are alike and how they are different! Our last two words we will learn are "come" and "does" and we will be focusing on the long e vowel sound. Our vocabulary words are sort, familiar, perfect, endless, and experiment. We will be reading "All Kinds Of Families", "The Perfect Color", "Good For You", and "We Come on Time". We will be focusing a lot on comprehension and remembering key details from the story and asking and answering questions as we read to get ready for all of our 4th quarter assessments!! During guided reading your child will either read "My Box" or "Let's Make a Band".

In math we will continue to learn more about coins and their value as well as start talking about telling time to the hour! There are quite a few workbook pages that we are not getting to because they are not on the test so please know I will be sending home some papers for you to do in the summer that will help your child get ready for first grade!

We finished up our plant unit and this week we will start our social studies unit on Nebraska and where we live!!! We will talk about cities, states, countries, and continents! We will also learn a lot about the state that we live in and some of our very own state symbols which I know my friends will love learning about!!! It is sure to be another super great, busy week in kindergarten!!!

Ms. Taylor and Ms. Fisher

Yesterday was our practicum students last day at Meadow Lane and we will miss them very much. Ms. Taylor and Ms. Fisher both go to UNL and are studying to be teachers! We were very lucky to have both of them in our classroom this semester. They helped us learn more about numbers and story problems and even helped us during literacy, writing, and unit studies! They also helped a lot with our t-shirt project and a few other special projects as well! We wish them both the best of luck with the rest of their college classes! Here is a picture of their last day with us!