Happy Thanksgiving!

We have much to be thankful for: families, friends, health, shelter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Kindergarten families for their continued support both in and out of the classroom. Thank you for the little gestures that mean so much, supplies, and yard duty.

Thank you for all of your contributions to our Stone Soup. As you can see the children had a wonderful time peeling and slicing the vegetables and enjoyed the final product.

On Tuesday, we took the children across the street to the Church for the First Grade Thanksgiving Prayer Service. They were very well behaved and really enjoyed the Service.

December Scholastic Book Orders went home yesterday - as I mentioned, if any books are intended as Christmas presents, just send me an email and when the order arrives I will place them in sealed manila envelopes when sending them home.

We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

November 14-18, 2011

We had a very busy week - it all started with a visit from Olive the Storyteller! The children love listening to Olive's stories - ask your child to tell you which was his/her favorite. Last week the children were introduced to the High Frequency Word "the". This week, the children have been coming up to us and pointing out the word "the" in the books they are reading...perhaps you have noticed this as well?  "I" and "see" were introduced this week. An extra copy of the book came home to be read to you. Also, a copy of Stone Soup went home and we read and compared 2 different versions in class as well (one by Marcia Brown and one by Jon Muth). We will be making our own "Stone Soup" on Monday with the ingredients you send in - thanks for your participation. The children were very excited to learn that they will be chopping and measuring the ingredients in our brand new kitchen to which we had a formal dedication on Friday and celebrated with cookies and milk for the entire school!

We noticed this week that the children have been doing an excellent job writing their numbers.

We ended the week with a Thanksgiving art project to help decorate your home!

Apologies to those who came on Friday to hear the Kindergartners read their "Go Make A Difference" poster. Although it was scheduled to happen on Friday, Nov. 18th, it took place on Thursday the 17th. We've posted it up outside the classroom for you to take a look.

October 31 - November 4, 2011

Boo! The children had a frightfully fun Halloween at STM! The day was filled with Halloween activities such as cookie decorating, mummy making, paper plate monsters, trick-or-treat bags, candy bar covers and lollipop ghosts, spider and ghost hand prints. A big thanks to our Room Moms Melissa and Carol who organized all of these fun activities as well as the parents who volunteered at each center. Another big thanks to the Spiegel family for providing pizza for our potluck and to all of the families who sent in other goodies. There are a couple of bowls and trays left over - feel free to pop in and pick them up. The Kindergartners led the Costume Parade through the playground and across the street to Alma Via.

For Math this week we finished up Topic 2 this week with numbers 4 and 5, an intro to tallies, and our Topic Test. We began Unit 3 with More, Fewer, and Same As.

In Language Arts the children were introduced to Interactive Writing or "Sharing the Pen" where they dictate a sentence and the teacher writes it with some help with spelling from the children. Once we have a short paragraph, they come up and circle capital letters and end marks. Eventually they will be finding Sight Words.

We finished up our Apple Unit and got a taste of our Farm Animal Mini-Unit with the reading of 10 Red Apples by Pat Hutchins. One thing the children noticed about this book is that we were counting down from 10 instead of up like we usually do, much like a rocket launch. We also watched a video about Johnny Appleseed and discussed how he was a friend to the Earth and made a difference. This is tied into our School Theme this year "Go Make A Difference." You may have heard the children singing our theme song at Morning Assembly each week (Go Make A Difference by Steve Angrisano, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aopgV1o1Oo). On November 18th at the Morning Assembly, the Kindergartners will be presenting their poster to the school on how they make a difference. Mark your calendars and join us!

During Religion, the children made beautiful stained glass-like crosses that will be hanging on the windows - come and and take a look - they are gorgeous!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Remember to turn your clocks back Sunday morning. Next week is early release due to Parent/Teacher conferences. We look forward to meeting with you and discussing the progress of your child.

See you next week!