January 18-21, 2011

Whoa! What a crazy two weeks we've had! I can't believe kindergarten wasn't in session for an entire week due to snow!

Once again, this week everyone earned a 100% on their spelling tests. I am so lucky to have a class full of smart little cookes!

I hope to see everyone at Open House next Wednesday to discuss the plans for next year's Kindergarten and First Grade multiage class. I've already started a blog for that class as well: http://legacyacademymultiage.blogspot.com.

This week, we started an in-depth study about Polar Regious. We started to learn a little bit about the Inuit people and their customs. We also made a K-W-L chart to organize our learning about Penguins. Next week, we will create a K-W-L chart about Polar Bears, and on Friday we will use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast these two fascinating animals.

In Math, we learned all about coins and their values. I hope your child sang the coin song for you! We practiced counting pennies and next week we will begin learning to count nickles. Please help your child practice counting by 5's at home (for now, we'll only be going up to 50).

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

January 3-7, 2011

My New Year's resolution is to get back to keeping this blog current! We've been so busy learning that I haven't really had a chance to get on here! But it's now one of my top priorities, and i hope you enjoy an inside glance at our class in action.

We came back from Christmas break and hit the ground running. Our literary theme right now is "winter" and our story this week was "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. The children really enjoyed making predictions about this story, particularly about what happened to the missing snowball. We also enjoyed writing winter words in the writing center.

To go with our literary theme, we made "Winter Out my Window" projects during Art time. We used blue paper and white chalk to make a snowy scene, then used black construction paper to separate the "windows" into "panes". Check these out in the bulletin board in our classroom!

We had our very first spelling test this week and I am so proud to announce that every single student earned a 100! They are so proud of themselves. We prepared for this test during work centers by playing "Sight Word Memory" with partners. They really enjoyed this activity.

We worked with graphing concepts this week, making class pictographs and bar graphs and then making our own. These are hanging on the wall in our classroom as well.

In Social Studies, we are learning about American Symbols. Each student made their own American flag as part of this unit. Check them out in the hallway window!

I hope everyone had a fantastic week!

Niven's Apple Farm

We had a wonderful time today at Niven's Apple Farm. First, we took a hay ride tour of the farm.








Then, we picked apples in the orchard. This was a little challenging, since the season is coming to an end. Most of the apples were high, so Mr. Corey and I had to use apple pickers on long poles to get the apples. (Which explains why there are not a whole lot of pictures of this process)





Then, we got to visit the Farm Store, where we saw bees making honey, baby chicks, and lots of fall and apple-related items. After that, we got to choose our pumpkins.







After lunch, we got to play in the play area before heading back to school. We had so much fun!

Mauldin Fire Department

Last Wednesday, we visited Mauldin Fire Department. We learned all about what firefighters do at work.



Captain Brown talking to the class about what firefighters do.



Meeting the other firefighters.



We got to ride in a fire truck! We were able to talk to and hear the driver using these headphones.



We took a tour of the fire house. This one actually has a pole!



We learned about the different equipment that firefighters use.



We could all fit in the back of the rescue truck!










We had fun playing in the water!

Hollywild Animal Park

We had a fantastic time on our field trip to Hollywild Animal Park! We got to visit many of the animals that we discussed during our Farm thematic unit, as well as other kinds of animals such as zebras, lions, bears, and monkeys. Here are a few pictures from our trip!

A Visit from Roscoe

On Friday, we had a visit from Officer Doug and his partner, Roscoe. We learned all about how police officers (both human and animal) help our community.

Apple Picking Time!

For the next few weeks (until October 8th), our theme will be Apple Picking Time! We will be participating in many apple-related activities that will span across all aspects of our curriculum! To make the best of this learning experience, we need some help from you.
We will be making our own apple-colored tie dyed t-shirts. Please send in a white shirt with your child’s name written on the label whenever you get a chance. Sometimes people like to get a shirt that is a size bigger than their current size so they can last a little longer. I’d like to have the shirts no later than September 22nd. We will be going apple picking in October and we will use these shirts as our Field Trip t-shirts.
If you’d like to send in some apples on any day over the course of the next few weeks, it will be greatly appreciated! We will be using apples for sorting, graphing, language activities, art projects, and of course for snacks, so we will always need some!
Do you have any apple-related books at home? Have you been apple picking with your child? Please feel free to share any books and pictures with the class.
Do you have a favorite apple-recipe? Please send in an apple recipe so we can create a class cookbook related to apples for everyone to share! (If you don’t, there’s always the Internet ). Please send these in no later than September 27th.
As always, thank you so much for your help!