Class Christmas Party

Our class Christmas Party will be this Thursday from 12:35-1:35. All parents are invited to attend! (I do ask that you please not bring other siblings, however, as we have very limited space.) The students will have food and drinks and will participate in a book swap. Please bring your wrapped book by Tuesday, labeled for a boy or girl and the name of the child whom the item is from. After the book swap, parents will be participating in a fun christmas craft with their child. I hope to see you all there!

Merry Christmas,

Ms. Taylor

The Reason for the Season

Boy, I love the Holidays!

Our room is now warmly decorated with christmas lights and trees, ornaments, garland, Santas and snowmen. Holiday piano and string music is playing lightly in the background as we write in our journals and participate in individual and group work. All the work was well worth the effort when I received a big "Thank you, Ms. Taylor!!" as the students got their first glance of the transformation.

This week we will be remembering the reason for the season as we look back at the history of Christmas and other winter Holidays around the world. We will be focusing on the winter holidays celebrated in the U.S., Mexico, France, Sweden, and Canada. We will be "visiting" these countries to learn about their holiday traditions and will be documenting information in our Christmas Around the World Passports. If you have particular winter holiday that you would like for us to study in class, please email me and I would be more than happy to address it!

Happy Holidays!

Ms. Taylor

Report Cards

Parents,

If you have any questions about your child's 1st report card, please contact me to arrange a conference. Along with the report cards, I also sent home a Skills Agenda for the 2nd 9 Weeks.

The 2nd 9 Weeks Report Card Checklist is now inside your child's blue folder. Please keep this inside the folder for the entire 9 weeks and become familiar with the skills that will be assessed at the end of the grading period.

Thank you so much for practicing these skills at home. I'm looking forward to another spectacular 9 weeks with your kindergartener!

Ms. Taylor

Apples, Apples, Everywhere!

Last week, we began our unit on Apples. I was suprised to see what incredible learning experiences apples lent themselves to! Because of the variety of apples the incredible parents brought in, we were able to sort, count, compare, taste, investigate, and vote on our favorite apple color.

Did you know there is a star inside every apple? Read this story to find out more! http://www.thevirtualvine.com/thelittleredhouse.html

We also learned about Johnny Appleseed and the part he played in planting apple trees all over America.

We followed an apple's life from seed to tree to fruit and learned that it takes a lot to grow an apple! Thank goodness, because we wouldn't want any growing inside our tummies if we accidentally swallowed one! :-)

We will finish up our Apple unit this coming week. Hopefully my camera will be up and running again so that I can post some brilliant student work and offer you a peek inside our busy, busy beehive.

4 Seasons

During our Four Seasons unit, we learned about what happens during the summer, fall, winter, and spring in our state. We focused on the seasons of an Apple Tree and illustrated the seasons of our own apple trees (inspired by the book Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree).

Test your knowledge with this shape recognition seasons game!http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/games/game_can_you_place_me.html

5 Senses Unit

5 Senses Teddy Bear

We had so much fun exploring our 5 senses last week! Check out the precious '5 Senses Bears' we made to illustrate our learning.

Ears/Hearing = Jingle Bells

Eyes/Seeing = Googley Eyes

Nose/ Smelling= Cotton ball sprayed with perfume
Tongue/Tasting= Chewing Gum

Paws/Touching= Sand Paper

SMELL: We smelled 6 mystery bags (cotton balls soaked in vinegar, garlic, baby oil, pickle juice, perfume, and mouthwash). Our favorite scent was the perfume, but mouthwash was a close second!

TASTE: We had a tasting party to see which flavor we preferred.....

Most of us chose the sour candy over the salty and sweet treats :-)

SIGHT: We used our sight to classify items by color, size, and shape!

HEARING: We listened to mystery sounds and guessed their source!

TOUCH: We touched different fabrics and described them (soft, rough, prickly, smoothe)

Welcome to KinderStreet!

Thank you for visiting KinderStreet!

I will be using this blog to serve as a resource for other teachers, to provide kindergarten students a safe, online playground where they can easily navigate using my kid-friendly links (to the left), and also to communicate with the parents of the students in my class.
Please keep in mind that KinderStreet is a work in progress!