What I love about Kindergarten...

I LOVE Kindergarten kiddos!  Their hearts are so sweet and they just soak up EVERYTHING...including vocabulary words.  Today, my kids presented me with two very special gifts during afternoon centers.  The first was a book about gardens and vegetables and fruit.  They said it was their gift to me because they loved me and they love the Learning Garden.  I'm telling you, they know just how to GET TO MY HEART!  After me tearing up a bit, and us sharing a group hug, I continued my work only to receive another surprise moments later.  

Before I show you that little gem, enjoy a few pages from this precious book the kids made.  The best part in my mind is that they collaborated and did it all on their own--without me knowing!  I love that.  

 

 Then these two other little creative authors snuck over to see me.  When they held their creation up proudly for me to see, I saw the opening words (which you might be able to see when you enlarge this photo below). 


 It starts with the words "wut a dscras."   I have been reading kid writing long enough that I immediately thought, "Wow, does that really say 'what a disgrace'?"  I started churning through my kid writing rolodex trying to figure out what word they MIGHT have been writing.  Then I decided to just ask them to help me out.  


When I asked these giddy young writers to read it to me, they confirmed that it did in fact say:  "What a disgrace.  You are so nice.  Wow!  I love you.  Cool, Cool, Cool"....then my mind started rolling...what else might they mean besides "disgrace"?  


And the truth is, I have no idea!  It made me chuckle inside.  We also shared a group hug and I thanked them for thinking of me during center time.  

By the way, the green part in the first picture is a mask that I "can wear" when I want to.  Maybe when I'm being a "disgrace", I'll put it on!  ;-)  

Seriously, there aren't many people who can say their jobs fill their lives with laughs and smiles like mine does.  I am 100% BLESSED to be able to spend the day with these amazing kiddos and their amazing little creative minds.  And, that, my friends is just a bit of what I love about Kindergarten!

A busy place...

Our Mystery Reader fun continued today.  I only wish I could have a hidden camera in the hallway to capture this moment even better.  It's so sweet to see their faces light up!  Of course, it's also resulted in a few tears for those who find out today's not their parent.  Soooo I've talked to them and tried to help them understand that we're continuing into January and we'll get everyone in somehow!

I'd say our Mystery Readers are helping us read voraciously this week! Our day is FILLED with text and thinking about them...which I absolutely LOVE.  Today's morning book was The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. It was fun to find out that the author visited our Mystery Reader's school when she was in the second grade. What a special memory!

Two other (non-mystery) guests came in our room today to help us finish a fun handprint ornament. You can see them hard at work here in the art center.  We hung them from our line to dry and they are going to be SO CUTE when they are finished. I hope to have pics tomorrow to share.

  

Of course, we're having a blast with all this holiday FUN, but there's STILL learning to be done.  One book (and song) we've enjoyed this week is The Marvelous Toy by Tom Paxton (performed by him as well as Peter, Paul and Mary). This is a very fun story of a toy that the writer received when he was a child and passed on to his little boy later on. Today our thinkers created their OWN marvelous toy in their reading journals complete with its own sounds. So cute!

  Here they are coming up with their toys....

And we also practiced reading the sight words "I see the______" and matching the sentence with a picture.  This is a little hard for some of us because we have to think about what the holiday word might look like.  It was fun to watch the kids problem solve this activity.  Some asked neighbors.  Some listened for the first sound. Others pointed and tried until the word popped out! These are all good reading strategies.

And since it was a handprint day, we made these cute little reindeer too!

 Here's the herd....is it a herd? Or is it a "team"? Anyway, here they are!

 This afternoon we played Roll a Tree where we practiced counting and trying to be the first to fill in our holiday tree.

 And we capped off our day with another Mystery Reader who shared the book "Snowmen at Christmas". This is a GREAT book.  If you have it at home, did you know there are hidden pictures in it?  Check it out and let us know if you find any.

  We discovered that the author and illustrator, Carolyn Buehner and Mark Buehner have written another Snowmen book.  We pulled it out and read and compared them.  It's so fun discovering all the text to text connections that can be made with these books.  Then we talked about that great vocabulary word:  similar.  Have you found books with your reader that are similar?

Tomorrow we will decorate our Gingerbread Houses with our families.  It should be a fun time.  Watch this space for details!

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!