February 21-24, 2012

Mikey as the Magical Dew Fairy!

Eldrich and Alexa playing "Father" and "Mother".  Father is frightened as he has just learned the Hansel and Gretel have gone to the Ilsenstein Forest, where the evil Gingerbread Witch lives, to look for strawberries.

The Witch (Conner) popping out of her Gingerbread House to find Hansel and Gretel eating goodies from it!

This week was filled with Fairy Tales! 

In Language Arts the focus was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Students did story sequencing as well as writing story sentences with the correct grammar and punctuation. 

On Wednesday all received ashes at a special Ash Wednesday Mass. Religion this week was also focused on Lent. The children brainstormed ideas on how they could be more like Jesus - helping others, being kind, and praying for others. Next week we will go "fishing" for ways we can be more like Jesus and do one of these kind deeds each day.

We wrapped up Topic 6 with our Topic Test and got a taste of Topic 7 - Subtraction.

We also celebrated President's Day with an introduction to Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. The students made a Star Spangled Wreath as well as a fun activity book. 

On Friday we got a special visit from the SF Opera with their Sing-A-Story program. The children learned about what makes an opera (singers, an orchestra, costumes, etc.) and got to perform Hansel & Gretel. They had so much fun as you can see!

We also had a special assembly about litter. We learned that a plastic bag floating in the sea looks just like a tasty meal of jelly fish to a Sea Turtle. Unfortunately, a Sea Turtle only eats when it's hungry and if it's belly is full of plastic bags, it will starve to death. It was an informative assembly that hopefully will make everyone more responsible and conscious about litter.

Hope everyone had a good time at Cioppino!

February 13 - February 17, 2012

Happy Valentines Day! The kindergarteners had a great week! On Monday, we received a visit from Olive the Storyteller. She regaled us with stories about friendship, love, and taught us some new finger play songs. After lunch, we were able to see the fifth grade's American Revolution Museum in the gym. They did a wonderful job informing the kindergarteners about this important time in our history. Great job fifth grade!!! Tuesday was filled with hearts, love, and Valentine cheer. During our Valentine festivities, the boys and girls decorated their own Valentine bags, made cute Valentine message hats, and assembled delicious Fruit Friendship kebobs. Thank you for sending in the yummy fruits and marshmallows! The students had a blast!!

In Language Arts this week, the boys and girls continued the fun with Valentine's Day themed centers - Valentine Spelling Sticks, Valentine Beginning Sound Sort, and Journal Writing "Roses are Red". The students picked Valentine themed words written on spelling sticks, and matched each letter with the appropriate clothespin showing the same letter. They had fabulous time working together to find their clothespin letters! At the Valentine Beginning Sound Sort Center, the students needed to find pictures  that started with each letter in the word "Valentine". They cooperated as a group to find violin, vacuum, apple, lamp, and many other picture words. The kindergarteners started counting to see which letter in the word "Valentine" had the most pictures under it, or as they said, "which letter had won"! They loved it! The journal writing center allowed the children to explore their poetic side as they thought of people who they love in their lives. They wrote down their ideas to fill in the blanks to the "Roses are Red" poem. Many of them said that they love the people in their family. It was so cute!

In Math, the kindergarteners have been exercising their addition skills. They have been doing an excellent job! We completed their practice pages, and had fun solving problems on our white boards. We have been practicing solving each problem by drawing out counters, and then writing down the sum. They are really getting the hang of it! The topic 6 test is next week.

In Science, the students concluded their unit on the Five Senses with Smell and Taste this week. On Monday, the children were presented with six different smells. Each smell was in a covered container, and the students had to guess what the smell was. They had so much fun trying to decipher each one, and many of the students were correct in their guesses! The boys and girls also learned about their sense of taste. We went over the four main tastes, salty, bitter, sweet, and sour. The students were transformed into "taste testers", and were able to try foods that fell into each category. They then had to describe each food they were tasting as one of the four main tastes. It was fun watching their faces as they tried the each taste, especially the lemon slices! The unit was concluded with a Five Senses Game. Each student cut out the pieces to their game, and played with a partner. They had a spinner, and whichever sense it landed on, they had to find a corresponding picture to place on the game board. If you got three of the same sense in a row, you won! The kindergarteners enjoyed playing it over and over again!

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day Week! Enjoy the long weekend!

Reminder: Next week, the students will be attending Ash Wednesday Mass instead of the usual Friday Mass.

100 Days Smarter! February 6 - 10

100-Day Trail Mix

100-Day Fruit Loop Necklaces!

Stella having a good time!

Alana with her 100-Day Crown!

Stringing 100 Fruit Loops!

One Hundred Days of school have come and gone! We cannot believe how fast the year is flying by! Thank you, again, to our wonderful room moms, Carol Cristobal and Melissa Radoc, and parent volunteers for all of the fun activities the kindergarteners participated in on Tuesday. Also, thank you to the Spiegel family for donating the delicious pizza lunch! You all really helped make the day special and memorable for the boys and girls.

This has been a very busy week for our students. They started off the week with the Family Mass on Sunday. The kindergartners did such a wonderful job at church. Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered during the mass, as well as all of the families who were able to join us in celebration. We really appreciate your support!

The boys and girls have been working very hard in the classroom as well. In Language Arts, the students used their "stamping skills" and participated in centers focused on beginning sounds, spelling, and handwriting. The students picked out stamps with different pictures and only the ending sound of each word. They then had to figure out the beginning sound and write out the whole word. The kindergartners also used letter stamps in the "Graffiti" Center to spell out different words, write the word, and draw a picture. They came up with a lot of great words! The students continued working in their handwriting books, as well, practicing uppercase and lowercase letters "F" and "E". They are really excelling in their letter formation!

In Math, the kindergartners took their Topic 5 Test, and have now moved on to addition. They are having fun joining two groups of objects and figuring out how many in all!

We wrapped up our Lunar New Year Celebration with our own parade around the school. We had  dragons and lots of Chinese Lanterns, and made a lot of noise with musical instruments.

Parading around STM for Lunar New Year.

In Science this week the students focused on the sense of Touch. We came up with a lot of words describing how things feel. This helped us to describe what we felt in the "Mystery Bag." It was so much fun to see them cautiously put their hands into a paper bag to feel a "mystery" object and then see their faces light up when they discovered what it was! Ask your child about some of the objects.

On Friday, the students, along with the 1st graders, received a visit from the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, and participated in an activity called "Terrific Trash". We had a guest speaker come to our classroom, and show us extraordinary works of art made entirely of simple, everyday materials. The kindergartners were "Ooooooing and Aaaahing" at each slide she put up. They  loved it! During the activity portion, the students were able to make paper bag hats using a variety of materials. Thank you for sending in the bags and materials! The students had a blast creating their own works of art!

We truly appreciate all of your support in and out of the classroom! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Reminder: Tuesday, February 14 is Valentine's Day. Please have your child just sign their name on thirty-five valentines (one for each student). They do not need to be addressed individually. More to come... Thank you!

Special Visitors: Jan. 30-Feb. 2 2012

We've had a lot of special visitors in our classroom in the past 2 weeks! First, Author Michelle Diaz Cannon came to our classroom last week to read her book Ben Not A Puppy! The children enjoyed the sweet story and Mrs. Cannon was very impressed with how the children were engaged and asked great questions. Everyone got a coloring page and a sticker!

This week we had some visitors near and dear to our hearts - our Grandparents! When they arrived we headed off to the gym for our hot dog lunch. Afterwards we went to recess. When we came back into the classroom, we made hand print flowers! And then up to the library for some shopping at the Book Fair. I think the Grandparents had as much fun as the kids!

This week in Language Arts the theme was mittens. We started by reading The Mitten by Jan Brett. Our center activities included cutting and pasting and writing the names of the animals that squeezed into the mitten, The Mitten puzzle, Winter Sight Words, and some extra activities such as Color Mitten Match, Alphabet Mitten Match, and Mitten ABC's.

Math this week consisted of 2 More and 2 Fewer. We will finish up Topic 5 with our Topic Test next week and then onto Topic 6 - Addition!

We've been practicing and preparing for our Kindergarten Family Mass on Sunday, February 5th. We hope to see all families there. Don't forget to stop by the classroom for Open House after Mass. Hope you enjoyed the lovely weather on your day off.

Next Week: 100 Day Celebration on Tuesday, February 7th!