Week 30 Summary

Note the PEEPs are supposed to be BIRDS for the BIRDS nest.... we have to improvise!

In teaching/planning somethings just don't go how you would like. This particular activity.... well it did not go as planned, at all. We ran out of ingredients AND we were in the kitchen (where everything is LOUD and echos). That is just to small details I will tell you about. I guess that's just how the cookie crumbled that day. Any who... This week was SWAP and the kids participated in many different activities with Ms. Kim, Ms. Brooke, and Ms. Jaysa

Ms. Brooke's activity

Ms. Jaysa's activity

From Ms. Annie:

In science today we started a recycling program for our school! We read the book The Garden and talked about ways that we could help the Earth. Each class made posters to show that we are recycling cans, plastic bottles, and paper!

In music this week we practiced our songs for the Kindergarten graduation program. Our class is responsible for knowing the introduction poem, leading the pledge (attention, salute, pledge: I pledge allegiance....), She waded in the water (girls), and Take me out to the ballgame (boys). We are still discussing wardrobe and will get back to you on that.

We tried something new today... Watching a movie during nap time on our smart board. It was a true SUCCESS! The ones who do not nap were engaged the whole nap time. Those who do nap stayed up as long as they could before the sandman took them away :)

Next week is SPRING BREAK!!!!!! Enjoy your time off. I plan too.... headed to the beach this afternoon :)

See you in April

WeekTHIRTY

So.... we didn't have school yesterday because the whole town woke up to a water outage? Weird but hey... an unexpected day off, I'm not complaining.

THIRTY WEEKS OF SCHOOL completed! That is over half of the school year folks. So hard to fathom. Anyway, HAPPY SPRING! Hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather. We stayed out a little longer than usual during morning playtime. It was just SO pleasant.

If you haven't noticed already. I put the wrong letter homework sheet in the mailboxes... oops! We were supposed to be learning about W since we learned about V last week but, we are just going to stick with X and go back to W next week. Whew, that's confusing. I hope I didn't mess you up too much. We are also learning about the number 23.

Since we were out Monday we decided to move SWAP to tomorrow! Lots of fun pictures coming Friday. Enjoy your week.... 4 days until SPRING BREAK :)

Week 29 Summary

(This was supposed to be posted Thursday and it slipped my mind, so much for being ahead of schedule)

Since I will be out of town tomorrow I am posting today. This week has been a lot of fun. St. Patrick's Day is Saturday so we went ahead at talked all about that. You may have heard about a little "Leprechaun on the Loose!" The kids are convinced he is real and that he is gallavating through the school

Her are some pictures from our week...

March Sensory Tub: THANKS Ms. Jaysa

iPod, the Kindle was charing on this particular day

Computers!

Math Games

Math Games

Seasonal Art: 4 Leaf Clovers

Notice the projector? A couple of weeks ago I did some rearranging because of this guy and I have loved it. This little gadget allows me to use my white board as an interactive smart board. The kids can use a special pen and it allows them to write on the board. It is SO cool!

This is the monitor that connects us to the smart board.

I do this every year with my kids. They love it. We colored coffee filters with markers, sprayed them with water, attached them to this piece of paper and VOILA- presto-chango!

So that was our week in a nutshell, how was yours? Next week we will focus on more buildings, the letter W, the number 23, and SPRING. We will also have SWAP on Tuesday and boy oh boy do I have somethign cute planned. :)

Stay Tuned...

Week 29

Here we are at week 29. WOW! Our letter this week is V and our number is 22. Along with our buildings study we are also looking into St. Patrick'sDay and SPRING. I am so anxious for a new season.

We are really trying to buckle down on independence in our classroom lately. I strongly encourage you to incorporate this at home as well. Here are some examples how:

1. Let your child try to open his/her things (snacks, toys, etc) at home before you do it for them.
2. Let your child dress themselves. Button, zip, slip, tie, whatever... have them try it before you do.
3. Let them set the table.
4. Let them clean up their toys

1 and 2 are the two that we are focusing on at school the most. It's the simple things that allow them to gain independence gradually. They have to practice to make perfect and allowing them to do this at home will help.

You may hear your child tell you about a couple different things that we have in our classroom. Recently we were given a  Kindle Fire to use in our classrooms :-O so exciting, I know :) Thank you Dr. Chandler, dean of education at UWA. We also have 6 ipods that we use as learning tools. This week we will have a designated ipod station so that every kid can play with ipods everyday. YAY! Also new to our stations are MATH GAMES! I will be posting pictures of these later on in the week. We introduced them this morning so it is still a work in progress. And last but certainly not least, our puppet station. The kids have had a hay day with this. Thanks to Ms. Kim for letting us borrow some of her stuff this week!

Don't forget to keep checking those mailboxes! Have a great week.

Ms. Kaley

Not A Box

IMAGINE. That's what we did yesterday. Since we are talking about buildings Dr. Minear, our curriculum planner, suggested we read this book to our class. I am so thankful she did. It was loads of fun. As you can tell from the pictures it was all a blur.... a fun blur :)

After reading this book in whole group we made "boxes" a station. Like every other day we rotated through each station. I was sitting at what we call "my teaching table" doing small group and I couldn't help but chuckle when I heard all the silly/fun/creative things they came up with... Choo choo trains, beds, cars, towers, houses, etc.

Scholastic Book Fair

In honor of this years Scholastic Book Fair theme it is LUAU FRIDAY at UWA'S Campus School!



Caroline decided to dress (her show & tell) Mr. Wags for the occasion

W
e also had a parent luncheon this week to get our family members to come out and enjoy the book fair



We LOVE when the book fair comes to town. A big thanks to all parents, friends, aunts, uncles, professors, and everyone in between who supported us and donated to our classroom. We are grateful for you.

After much debate and competition.....

Ms. Brooke is the winner for One For Books!

Thank you for all who contributed!

The total amount raised was $75.92!

Ms. Brooke- $37.51

Ms. Jaysa- $7.31

Ms. Kaley- $11.79

Ms. Kim- $19.31

Because of your help and support I will be taking $75.92 worth of books to orphans in Africa this summer! That deserves a big WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO

Week 28 Summary

It seems I have been slacking on the blog, my apologies. Spring fever has got me!

We have been learning about buildings. Thank you to those who participated in bringing in pictures. The students LOVED looking at all the cool buildings.

Last week the students read and looked at books on buildings as inspiration for their drawings.

This week we are also learning about community helpers and how important they are to us. Hanging on our wall you will see this:

This particular work was done in September of last year. I thought it would be fun to do the same activity and compare the writing skills, you know to SEE how much progress we have made!

I'M SO PROUD! Oh how far we've come and will continue to go...

Next week we will focus on our new season, SPRING, as well as St. Patrick's Day and buildings. Our letter focus will be V and our number will be 22.

Thanks for all you do!

Read Across America

In honor of Read Across America we read a Dr.Seuss book everyday this week followed by a very special Dr. Seuss inspired snack. Most of the ideas I got from other teaching blogs or pinterest. No idea you see below is a "Ms.Kaley Original" ; ) BUT it is super cute and fun! Pick up a book with your child today and enjoy that special time. They grow up way too fast.

Monday: Green Eggs and Ham

Tuesday: The Lorax

Truffala Trees!

Wednesday: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

 

Thursday: The Cat and The Hat

Friday we had several visitors come and read to our class.

Even Ms. Annie participated in Read Across America

We also ate planned to eat birthday cake. However, due to threatening weather school let out for an early dismissal of 1:00pm. (Also that day, are cookie dough orders were supposed to come in and didn't, we started setting up for the book fair(with many of our wonderful parent volunteers), the installation for our smart boards was happening (it was LOUD), we had gymnastics, and multiple volunteers were pouring in to read! Yes it was as crazy as it sounds).

For all the volunteers who participated in our Read Across America at the UWA Campus School..... THANK YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS!