We Love Our Families!

The monthly theme for September in Kindergarten is "All  About Me".  This week in we are learning about our families!  In our classroom we discussed how much we love our families, how each family is different, and about how pets can be important family members as well.  Yesterday we drew pictures of our families, and today we counted the number of people within our immediate family.  Most of us had four people, but a few of us had five or three.  Tomorrow we will have a special Show and Tell where we will share family photos with each other!  We can't wait!  Take a look at some of  our drawings!

We Love Fall in Kindergarten!

I love the Fall!  The school year is fresh and new and exciting!  The students are ready and eager to learn.  I love to get out all of my special Fall books and start right in on Fall art projects.  One of my favorite art projects is making leaves!  This week in Kindergarten we talked about why leaves change colors and we did two different leaf projects.  Check these out on the wall in our classroom!  

Week One in Kindergarten

Last week was the first week of the school year!  Everyone has adjusted well to having a more structured setting.  As well as sitting down and doing official school work, we also had some fun working with manipulatives, and using shaving cream!  Here are some pictures to show just how much fun was had!  We look forward to the rest of the year being just as fun as week one!

Pre-Preschool's Last Day of Summer Camp!

Hello Parents!

Today was a very special day, as it was the last day of summer camp!  Next week we will be starting the academic school year through June of 2013.  We are very excited about the new school year and have many fun and exciting activities planned :)

This morning, our class enjoyed a few bowls of some hearty cheerios, bananas and milk.  After breakfast, we found our way back to class, being able to freely choose our activities for the morning.  Dramatic play was a popular area.  Our girls and boys enjoyed taking down and using dishes, food and dinosaurs for teacher-guided free choice!  After the early morning free curriculum choice, the kiddos were able to explore playdough in Ms. Annie and Ms. Kelly’s room!  We have the same kind, but apparently its much more fun to play with playdough in our old room :)  On the large table, new puzzles were available.  The three puzzles included “ABC puzzle”, “Dinosaur puzzle”, and the “Automobile puzzle”.  Wouldn’t you know it, the fire engine was a favorite puzzle piece (which reminds us, please look on your Shutterfly for the field trip to the Firehouse)!

During the last little bit of free activity choice, children went potty, then came back to clean our room up a tad :).  For our Summer Fun Day, we decided to listen to Frogtown, dancing at the song times, then our Lullaby Collection (getting out our blankets and sleeping buddies.  And finally, going on our last buggy for a while!  Next week we will have a full class of friends, some new, some not, and we couldn’t be more excited!

We took lots of pictures on our buggy ride, and had a lot of “going fast” times, since it was our last one :)  The kiddos had an awesome time watching Ms. Kelsey and Mr. Tim sweat from running and pushing the buggy so much! :)

We came back into our room after the buggy ride, found stories from our library, got out beds, blankets and bed sheets, and had a VERY relaxed reading time (most of the young ones were sprawled out on the floor, ready for nap:).  But we were more excited to eat lunch.  We lined up, sang our ABC’s, counted to 20, using the poster on our door, and said our blessing as we marched quietly into the cafeteria.  After ham, turkey, cheese, break and milk were gobbled up, a special treat was handed out for our fruit portion!  Fruit Pizzas!!!  Most of us picked off the strawberries and blueberries, leaving the crust (shortbread) alone :)

Nap is going great.  We are getting a lot of rest for the long break :)

A special note- All six of our girls were dry for their late morning potty trip!  Way to go girls!  And our boys were only damp :)  Good job class!

Kelsey and Tim

What is our favorite part about summer-

(Collected during conversations over the last two weeks, including all summer enrollment kids)

Clara- Seeing horsies

Eli- Sunshine hi-yahs

Erin- Buggy rides

Evie- Baby brothers coming in summers

Gabe- Walking with Mommy

Grace- Drinking lots of water!

Jackson- Basketballs

Jane- Swimming with Daddy

Hailey- Water on my shirt and splashing

Kyler- Outside and throwing balls

Mason- Getting wet and lots of water.

Pre-Preschooler's Day of Water

Hello Everyone!

Today was a very exquisite day :)  Mondays usually are a little difficult to get started, however, this Monday was very different!  We started our Monday with free play in the morning, choosing blocks, dolls, dress-up, cars, magnet board (with letters and numbers) and books.  This was soon after a delicious breakfast of yogurt, granola and milk! 

Ms. Kelsey arrived, which meant potty time!  We took our girls potty first, then followed with a boy trip down the hall.  Our kiddos are one more day closer to being potty trained :) 

After potty, our class helped put fresh water into the sensory table, along with aquatic animals and bowls.  While children explored and learned in the water, Mr. Tim and Ms. Kelsey spoke of animals they had seen that live in the water.  Mr. Tim explained that he was at Seaside this weekend and saw great big seals!  They thought it was very cool that Mr. Tim was able to feed them :)  We discussed how water felt, and whether or not the water was warm (we decided it was:).

Around 10:00AM, we headed outside to enjoy the nice weather, before it ends!  Our other friends were already out by the time we got outside.  But we joined in the fun right away! 

After coming in, we took out beds, along with bed sheets, blankets and pillows.  After setting up beds, our class began reading books, stringing beads and pictures, or relaxed on their beds :)  Ms. Kelsey and Mr. Tim helped friends string beads, until book reading became suddenly popular :)  So, Ms. Kelsey walked over to the teacher area, grabbing a big book from the teacher area.  It was “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”!  They listened and enjoyed.  Then walked to the kitchen for their yummy Beaver Tailgate lunch!  Sorry, I meant just Tailgate lunch :)

As a reminder, school will be closed for teacher in-service day and Labor Day weekend, from Wednesday, August 27, 2012 through Monday, September 4, 2012.

We will reopen on Tuesday, September 5^th, 2012 :)

Have a great day!

What our kiddos had to say about bugs today when we caught some special ones:

Jane- He can go for a boat ride! ( Then found a toy boat to hold him in)

Eli- That's funny!

Grace- Whoa! That bug's too fast!

Kyler- Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!

Clara- Where'd his head go? (He was an odd sort of bug!)

Erin- Where's his mommy?

Evie- He should make some wings to fly.

Mason- Is he for squishing?

Hailey- He wants to live in the grass please.