Tuesday, November 22, 2011

More Thanksgiving FUN!

Here's our Native American Pow Wow Celebration in class...A BIG "thank you" to every parent who helped make this a successful and fun day.

ENJOY!


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Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving Memories and "Fruit Salad Fun"!

Today we shared our amazing family turkeys (see them in the slide show) and we made "Friendship Fruit Salad" with Grandma and Grandpa Nations!

The kids LOVE it when these two come into our classroom---shoot, they love it when any of you come into our classroom.  Since Grandpa spent the better part of the weekend editing and reviewing a paper that I had to write, I promised him he'd have MORE FUN in Kindergarten making fruit salad!

Today we all brought in some fruit to share. We used a simple recipe and we made fruit salad during center time. Here are some pictures of that fun followed by a slide show of some of the family turkeys and amazing family photos from our pie and cookie feast on Friday.I cannot say enough how thankful I am for EACH OF YOU and your amazing learners!! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!













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Friday, November 18, 2011

November Fun and Learning...


I LOVE my Pinterest account!  I saw these cute wreaths on there and decided we had to make them in the Learning Garden.  We painted our paper last week and thanks to the help of a wonderful Mom, got all the other pieces traced and cut this week.  And, if I do say so myself, THEY ARE ADORABLE!  


 Then this afternoon we had our Pumpkin and Cookie FEAST...and I do mean FEAST!  There was PIE aplenty and Cookies galore!  Here's my sweet darlings getting ready to go down to sing for their parents.
 And then, when we realized we forgot collars, we hurried and put them on...but there was no organizing at that time for another picture.  This was our best attempt!

 And, as I've come to learn, my lovely kiddos will always sing with GUSTO!
 Proud of my "Pilgrims"!
Two more days of learning  fun before Turkey Day! Be sure to check back and see what we're up to NEXT WEEK!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Firefighter Visit

We read this book yesterday in preparation for our visit from the Firefighter today.  The book shared just how much these first responders do for us and how they have to put their own schedules on hold to help out in the community.

Today we had the pleasure of hearing Firefighter Rob speak to us about fire safety.  We learned what it would sound like if a firefighter was looking for us in a burning building.  He reminded us not be afraid of the mask or the oxygen tank.  We also learned about all the special things he has on his uniform to keep him safe in a fire.  The kids enjoyed seeing him "suit up".
Here he is showing us what the air feels like when it blows through his mask.  
And he reminded us that if a firefighter is looking for someone in a fire, they might be crawling to stay under the smoke.  
He let some of our helpers take his equipment to the other class.



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I Know an Old Lady...Retelling

One of the best ways to know if a reader is comprehending is having them retell the story they heard.  Today we spent time recreating the Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie.  This was a VERY FUN activity!  Your reader should be able to use the pieces they made to retell the story to you at home.

There are nine pieces in the story:
a pie
some cider
a roll
a squash
a salad
a turkey
a pot
a cake
some bread.

Be sure to ask your reader what happened to the Old Lady after she swallowed all that stuff!

Here are some fun photos of their work:






Here we are practicing our retelling this afternoon in class.  
 And check out all these hungry Old Ladies!

Happy Reading!

Jog-a-thon

We had a great time at the annual Jog-a-thon yesterday!  Here's our sweet class after it was all over.  If any of our parents have extra jog-a-thon pics, don't forget to send them and we can use them in our blog or in an album.

Monday, November 14, 2011

And the Mosaics GROW...

 It dawned on me tonight that I haven't posted the latest pictures of our Mosaic work.  Here we are putting the finishing touches on our small "take-home" mosaics. For a full explanation of our project, visit this post.  
 And then we got to make the "big" ones with our artists' help.  Lindsey and Chitra, we think you ROCK!  We worked in teams of three to put the stones and glass into our mosaic tiles.  The artists reminded us that mosaics should have space in between the pieces.  They also let us put in the stones that we painted.  Mr. Dragon even stopped by to look at our handiwork.  These beautiful pieces are going to become part of our Courtyard at school.  We are excited to share them with the rest of the Southside community!