Hello Families!

October is upon us now, and Fall is officially in full swing (except for the sweater weather, but fingers crossed it comes soon!). We loved learning all about apples and are excited to move on to the next themes. The main topics we will be learning about are fall, colors, pumpkins, and bats. We will touch on spiders and owls as well!

I wanted to point out that under the class tab on the website are some resources that may be helpful for your child. Also, if any parents are interested in helping prep an art project at home, please let me know... I have things for 3 parents.

I also wanted to mention that Mondays are my main assessment day, so I will try to get to all the kiddos and assess on various things such as counting to 100 by 1's, 10's, and 5's as well as their Dolch words. Many kids passed list 1 on Monday and should have received list 2 in their Wednesday folder. Please be sure to turn those into flash cards and review daily. I appreciate the team effort!

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. Conferences are quickly approaching, and the conference schedule is posted on the door where I release the students. If you need to make a change, just send me an email and we can find a new time that works.

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Tomorrow is Johnny Appleseed's birthday, so in appreciation for all he did, we wanted to celebrate and dress up like him! Here are my Kindergarten Appleseeds! We also did a cute apple glyph and a writing about apples. Have a great weekend!!!

Birthday Wishes!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! You are the sweetest families! I felt so loved this morning when I was greeted by all my friends with flowers and gifts. I appreciate you all loving me so much and wanting to provide me with such a special birthday. I feel like the luckiest teacher ever, really, thank you for the thoughtful gifts. I love them all!!!

Buddies!

Wednesday was our first day of "Buddies"!  Mr. Higgins class and my class will be doing buddies throughout the year where half the group works on an art project in my class, while the other group works on iPads in his class.  Then we switch the next visit, so all the kiddos get both activities with their buddies.  Here are a few pictures from my group, we did an art project that incorporated some math standards as well!

Picture Day!

How cute everyone looks! I think I have the most adorable class ever!!!

Homemade Applesauce

Today we made applesauce in class!  It smelled so amazing in the classroom! Thank you for bringing in the apples, it was special having each person contribute to our ingredient list!  I also added some sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon as well and cooked it in the crock pot for about 4 hours.  The majority of the kids loved it, and would like to make it with you at home some day soon.  Here are a few pictures...Enjoy!

Chapman Hills Camp Out!!!

It was so great seeing some of my families at the camp out! I really enjoyed hanging out with the kiddos and seeing such a supportive family community, we are so lucky to have such awesome families as part of our school!

Apple Science and Art

The fun continues with our apple theme, here are a few more pictures of things we have been doing and there will be more to come!!!

Apples!!!

Thank you for all the beautiful apples that were sent in today, we are so excited for our upcoming activities involving using them. We will be doing a science experiment, using our senses to analyze how an apples tastes, smells, sounds, looks, and feels, making homemade applesauce, and doing an apple stamp project! Here are a few things we have been doing so far...more to come over the next week!!!

Bobby Bobcat!

Today I told the kiddos about "Adventures with Bobby Bobcat!" I mentioned it at BTSN but I hadn't told the class about it until today, and let me tell you, they were super excited. I showed them the journals my class made last year and read about many of the exciting things Bobby did last year (Disneyland, Legoland, Soccer games, Yogurtland, the beach, and more!). We will begin our adventures this week. When it is your child's chosen week, he/she will take home a bag that includes Bobby and the journal. These items will go home on a Friday, and then need to be returned the following Friday. Each Friday he will go home with someone different, so please don't forget to bring him back the next Friday morning. After lunch that day he/she will get to share the journal with the class and tell us all about their fun week with Bobby. So throughout the week, please take/print pictures or draw pictures of your child's and Bobby's adventures. I will make a master calendar and post it on our exit door so you can see when your child will be getting Bobby. Please remember to be careful with Bobby, try not to get him wet or dirty and remember that he will be shared with each student throughout the year. Any questions, please let me know! Have fun!!!

Patriot Day/Brown Bag Lunch Day

Gingerbread Unit

Gingerbread Science Experiment

We have been reading many stories about the Gingerbread Man. Today in class, we did an experiment to see what would have happened to the gingerbread man if he hadn't asked the fox to help him swim across the river. The kids had to make a hypothesis as to what they thought would happen. They thought that he would crumbled, sink, or make it across.

We also all had our own cookie to see what it felt like and tasted like. We noticed it was hard, crispy, tasted spicy and like cinnamon. We drew what the gingerbread looked like after 20 minutes and again after an hour. Our conclusion was that the gingerbread sunk and crumbled in the water.

Back to School Night...

Thank you so much for coming last night.  I really appreciate all your support and willingness to do what you can to make this an amazing year for your child.  I will be sending home the first Dolch list today, so please begin working on that soon.  I also will be sending the reading log and book report home.  You can do the report any time throughout the month.  I want it to be more child directed but you can help guide in the writing.  These will be due back the first week of October.  If you had more questions or would like more clarification on anything I discussed last night, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Thank you again for being such involved parents, and for taking all the apple's for class donations.  If there is anything you need from me, just let me know!

Welcome to my classroom!

Welcome Families!

  I am so glad you've found our class website and blog.  Here you will find many awesome photos and posts about what we do during our school days.  I have had families in the past print these pictures to form a Kindergarten scrapbook.  I want to make sure everyone knows that in order for their child to be photographed and posted on this blog, they have to check yes on the emergency form for consenting to having their child photographed.  You can update the form at the office if you checked no and would like your child on the blog, if not, I will know based on that form who is not permitted to be pictured.  On the same note, if you checked yes and don't want them on the blog, just let me know and I will put them on my list.  The majority of my students were on the blog last year and students and parents alike loved it.  The kids really enjoy seeing their pictures on the blog and many times they ended up being on the OUSD home page so they truly felt like celebrities!  It was a lot of fun doing it last year, and I am excited to start posting things about this new awesome class of mine!