Winter Carnival

Morning Meetings (this week)....
Hula-baloo, hula-baloo, this is what I say to you..."walk like an elf." "move like a snowflake." Etc.
Counting, counting, counting! By 5s and 10s and 1s. So great to hear all the voices participating in counting and then to hear them counting throughout the day at random. 

Winter Carnival...

We saw Santa, went for a ride on the Santa Simulator! Made snowmen out of pom poms. Made cookies of all kinds. Had hands, face and nails painted. Played basketball, lacrosse, soccer and threw snowballs. "Oh what fun it was to be in Kindergarten today! Hey!!!"

 Ok, so there were a lot of treats! But man was it fun!!!!!

What's the News?
Taber "My dad ordered the tree an we decorated the tree and we first put lights on and I put on a beautiful ornament and it was glass and I broke it."
Nora "I'm leaving in 4 days.
Sail "I was with my dad and I was at Church and saw Beth and after church I got my Christmas tree and we decorated it and put lights on first."
Willow "My kitten looks like an alien."
Luca "I hung up y lights and have an advent calendar."
Lenora "One time when I was waking up at night time. My mom said come in her bedroom and there was a puppy and I let her down stairs and then I woke my brother."
Stella "Mom let me go to sleep all night."
Jack "Me Sky and Oscar had a play date."
Else "I am almost with the bigger girls in gymnastic."
Baden "For Christmas I got a new Drone. I was also the star of the show at church."
Ashlyn "I have a new karate class."
Thayer "I went to see the Nutcracker with my cousin and my cousins mom and my mom and my grandma."
River "After tomorrow I am going to leave and go to my cousin's houses for Christmas."
Zoe "I wanted to hang my stocking but mom said no. We have to use staples this year so we have to wait."
Skyler "I went to the Nutcracker and I also went Sledding."
Beth "I went to church and saw Baden, Nora, River and Sailor yesterday."
Connie "I watched my son play hockey and I had a great hike and ski with friends."

Math....
Finger flashes! The idea is they can recognize numbers added together using one or both hands holding up fingers. They are to recognize them as quickly as possible. We also took turns counting by 10's up to 100. We also started a new unit about measuring. Recognizing what is shorter or smaller and longer or taller. We demonstrated with Connie and Beth. Beth is taller. Then Connie stood on a chair and we asked who was taller. "Connie!" But she is only taller because she was on a chair. We did a worksheet around shorter and taller. Circling what was shorter on one page and taller on the other. As well as making objects that were shorter or taller than another object.



Language Arts.....
New letter, Zz! We then reviewed all the letters we have learned. We counted that we have learned 24 letters! We also reviewed objects starting with the letter Z. Zebra, zucchini, zig zag, zinnia, zip, zipper, zoo. Some of the kids recognized they have learned all the letters in their name.
We also learned Hh. Horse, hat, hot dog, hamburger, helicopter. We have one more letter to learn when we come back from break! The kids are so excited that we have learned all these letters. It's been so fun to watch them soak up all this knowledge.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL!

We hope you have a wonderful break with family and friends. Enjoy the extra time to rest, relax and be healthy. 

We will see you next year!!

Show a little kindness

Morning Meeting....
We took turns reading the chart. Counted our number of days in school. We did a new greeting. We pretended to be an elf and said good morning to our neighbors.

We read Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. "Mouse is ready for Christmas. His tree is decorated, His presents are wrapped, his stocking is hung; he is ready for Santa to come. But what about his neighbor the big, hungry Bear. Bear loves presents, but he never gets any because everyone is afraid. What can one little mouse do to help Bear have a wonderful Christmas?"

Math....

On white boards we practiced drawing shapes. Recognizing shapes called out and drawing them on the board. Also being able to identify how many sides the shapes have. 

We also played the dice game. Roll two dice add them up and write the number on your board. This is for practice writing numbers correctly, adding and subtracting too. 

Language Arts...

Letter matching game. Walking around we look for our partner. Today we added a twist! You couldn't just hold your card up showing it to the group while walking around, you had to give a clue that identifies your letter and see if you can find your partner that way. Easy peasy!

We read The Very Snowy Christmas by Diana Hendry.  "It's the night before Christmas and Big Mouse and Little Mouse are putting up decorations. Little Mouse scampers out to search for holly but finds big white flakes falling from the sky."

Kindness continues.....

We did a project making snowmen with cotton balls. These will go in our baskets of cheer for the Elderly folks who appreciate a little "pick me up" during the holiday. Today we made some snowmen pictures with cotton balls. 

Free Choice....

Boy pack! Who doesn't like legos.  

Zoe and Else being teachers.

To end the day, we read Friends Forever .  Who doesn't love Snoopy and the gang. This book is all about showing kindness. 

Fox

Bucket of Cheer!...
As a whole school we are still collecting change for the Bucket of Cheer. If you have any loose change laying around (in your car, on your bureau, etc.) and are willing to send it in with your child, your contribution will be greatly appreciated.

Concert tonight. Starts at 6:30p.m. Please have your child in the classroom at 6:15pm. Thank you.

We read, Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene. "This playful picture book answers the age-old question: Just how does Santa shimmy up and down chimneys? Not very easily sometimes! When the rotund fellow with a sweet tooth overdoes it on the snacks, he gets stuck inside a chimney."

Math....

We learned about the dreidel. 

A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in many European cultures.

We played many games in small groups and had a great time doing it. We then switched to shape review. Looking at 3-D shapes .... Cone, cylindar, pyramid, cube, sphere, prisms.

Language Arts....

New letter Xx. Now if learning all the letters we have done isn't tricky enough we have to throw in the letter X! We reviewed how to say the sound that X says. We also thought of some words that had the letter X.  Fox, Fix, Ox, Axe, Six, Trix, X-Ray, Box, Lynx, Flex.