Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all of the wonderful families and kindergartners in our class! Thank you for the wonderful months we have spent together in 2010, and I am looking forward to 2011.

Enjoy the winter break, spend time with your loved ones, and thank you for all you have done for your children!

Miss Kimpton

Cookie Baking Song

Snowpants Song

Music Program Tomorrow!

The students are so excited for their Holiday Music Program tomorrow! They will be wonderful.

Morning Meeting: Greeting, Rhyming song, new Word Wall words: "a" and "I", matching Christmas words and pictures
Writer's Workshop
Christmas music and videos
Reading Buddies: "The Polar Express", draw/write the main ideas in sequence
Centers

See you all tomorrow for the program!
Miss Kimpton

Winter Program Rehearsal Today!

The students had a dress rehearsal today and performed their songs for the whole school. They were fantastic!

Morning Meeting: "Hello Around the World", "M" Greetings, Christmas Word List
Reading: "The 12 Dogs of Christmas", "Can I Pet Your Dog?"
Centers
Music Rehearsal

The Penny War!

We were so fortunate today to listen to a special presentation. Rebekah Redetzke, whose mother is a teacher at Sandstone, is going to Swaziland, a small country in Africa, in May during her summer college break to donate her time and work. Rebekhah is taking a team of 11 college students to Swaziland to help the children who have felt the impact of AIDS and HIV. They will be doing soccer day camps, spending time with orphans, and taking necessities to them; scarves, hats, shoes, tooth brushes etc. They will be working with the Swaziland people for 14 days... mainly in the political capitol of Mbabane, but also moving for a few days into a city called Manzini. They will also be doing service projects to help improve care points, which are facilities designated to help feed and educate the orphaned children of Mbabane. Each care point has 150-200 students. They will be working with 18 of these different centers. Care points meet children's medical needs, provide daily education, and supply one meal a day; often the only meal the students receive. There is a huge need in Swaziland, and the more money they can raise, the more they can take over/purchase there.
Rebekah gave us shocking statistics today about life in Swaziland, and the students want to be able to help the children over there. Our school is having a a "Penny War", and children are encouraged to bring spare change to school to donate. I know that resources are stretched during this time of year, but any little bit helps. We will collect change until Winter Break.

Morning Meeting: Syllable Greeting, "Hello around the World", Discussion about countries/globe
Reading: "For You Are a Kenyan Child", "Olive the Reindeer", "Can I Pet Your Dog?"
Math: Christmas Patterns
Social Studies: Life in Kenya and Swaziland (Rebekah's presentation)
Centers

Some of the children were pretty unsettled by our discussion today about life in different countries. We talked about ways that we are the same and different from people. I focused on the positives about how we can help other people and how Rebekah is going to be helping them, but this will probably bring up interesting discussions around your house. Please listen to your children, answer their questions to the best of your ability, and ask me to help in any way.

Welcome to the Week!

Reading: "Can I Pet Your Dog?", "The Twelve Dogs of Christmas", "My Christmas Tree"
Math: Writing 9, Dog Spots (Counting/Writing Worksheet)
P.E. with Mrs. Trollope
Cutting out the mittens for Art
Writing: Christmas Words
Practicing Songs for Music Program

Have a pleasant evening,
Miss Kimpton

I Am Thankful For....

I am spending the day at a technology class, and I was finally able to figure out how to post this to my blog and make it public so you can hopefully hear it! I am sorry that it is so many days after Thanksgiving...but it is still wonderful!

Holiday Program

I am so sorry for my misinformation about the music program. The performance will be the same students at 9:00 and 1:00 on Friday, but we will be featuring the different grade levels during the different performance times. So, Kindergarten students will be singing at each performance time, but they will have special focus on them at the 9:00 a.m. performance. Please email me if you have any questions, or ask me after school.

Art Friday!

Important Holiday Program Note:
This year, different grade levels will be performing at different times! Kindergarten, 2nd, 4th, and 6th Grade perform at 9:00 a.m., and 1st, 3rd, and 5th perform at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, December 17. This is different than years past when each grade level performed at each time. Please remember this. Kindergarten will ONLY be performing at 9:00 on Friday.
Please make sure your child dresses appropriately for the program. They have been working so hard on learning their songs, and they can take pride in their performance. You do not need to purchase a special outfift, but send them to school in clothes suitable for a performance. Holiday colors (red, green, black, white) or appropriate holiday apparel will give us a united look.

Morning Meeting: "Is it a Word?" Song, Painting demo
Art: painting mittens and characters from the mitten
Music with Mr. Small
Math: Counting/Writing

Please make it a habit to check the blog at least 2-3 times a week, if not every day. I put important notices and the day's review that you need to know in order to support your child. I do not send home newsletters or reminders other than what is on the blog in order to limit the amount of papers you receive. If there are other things you would like to see on the blog, please email me or make a comment and I will be happy to put it on here!

Have a great weekend!
Miss Kimpton

It was a Pablo-riffic day!

The students learned a lot about dogs today, and they really enjoyed having Pablo in the classroom. The three kindergartens joined forces today as I introduced them to Pablo, talked about and showed how to take care of dogs, and modeled how to safely approach and pet a dog. I hope your children can use these techniques to be safe around dogs. Throughout the day, I had the opportunity to talk to kids about keeping their faces away from dogs' faces, staying quiet and calm around a dog, and being aware of what a dog is feeling.

Reading: "The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy"
Math: Writing 8, Position Words with Pablo
Dog Safety
Handwriting: Write sentences about Pablo using Word Wall words
Centers

Have a pleasant evening!
Miss Kimpton

Dog Safety Tomorrow!

Pablo will be visiting school all day tomorrow to help teach the kindergartners about dog safety. Today, the students learned the safe ways to approach a dog and ask for permission to pet the dog. Tomorrow, they will practice what we learned today as well as learning dog body language and generally being safe around dogs.
These are steps to approach a dog:
1. Walk to the dog.
2. Ask if you can pet the dog.
3. Let the dog sniff your hand.
4. Pet under the dog's chin and on the head.
5. Walk away from the dog.

Morning Meeting: Song, Dog Safety
Writer's Workshop
Math: Write the number 7
Story: "Polka-Dot Puppy", "Monkey Fun"
Art: Watercolor painting

Thank you for snacks! We should have plenty to last through the end of December.
Miss Kimpton

Morning Meeting: Greeting song, Rhyming Song, "Pp" poster
Writing: Introduce Writer's Workshop (compare to Santa's Workshop and find "tools" around the room to help kindergarters write)
Math: Journal (write 5/draw 5 objects), Calendar, Class Advent Calendar
Library with Mrs. Mayhall
Reading: "Monkey Fun", "The First Dog"

Reminder: We need snacks in our classroom for snack time. If possible, please send a healthy snack (whole-grain cereal, crackers, Cheez-its, Fruit Snacks) to school. We have a plentiful supply of animal crackers!

Reindeer Lane Is Open!

Reindeer Lane, our school gift shop, is open this Tuesday-Thursday if children want to buy presents for family or friends. All items are $1. This is strictly voluntary, and children do not have to purchase any items.

Morning Meeting: Rhythmic Greeting, Pictures for Ff poster
Handwriting: Diver letters: r, n, m, h, b, p and Magic C letter: c, a
Math: Journal - write 4, draw 4 items, Write 6 in Handwriting Book
Reading: "The Mitten" - identify characters and introduce story elements
Science: K-W-L chart about dogs

Enjoy the rest of your Monday,
Miss Kimpton

Fantastic Friday

We had a great day filled with learning! Your kindergartners are bringing home their purple poetry folders tonight, and they have two new songs to share with you. Thank you so much for reading these with your children. They have become a valuable learning tool. I have heard from so many of you that your kids love to read them! Also, I introduced to new words to learn for our Word Wall: can and the. Rigt after that lesson, the students were already finding the two new words in their new poems!!!!!!!!!!! I was as excited as the kids were.

Morning Meeting: New Greeting, Song "Hello Around the World", move like to the Word Wall (yay!), introduce can and the
Reading: Poetry Folders, "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell"
Math: Review writing 1, 2, 3, 4, write 5, counting 15-20, Domino Quickdraw, Number videos
Handwriting: lowercase and capital Pp
Centers

Our snack supply is beginning to dwindle. If you can send a box of snack with your child, that would be fantastic. We have plenty of animal crackers, but some other ideas are healthy cereals, cheez-its, crackers, fruit snacks, pretzels, goldfish, etc. It is best if you send a healthier version of snacks that have whole-grains or less sugar. Thank you for doing this!

Enjoy your weekend!
Miss Kimpton

And the experiments continue...

We had a science treat today with our melted snow! The students are determining what is in snow, and in order to do so, we filtered the water through a coffee filter which revealed tiny specks of dirt and even hair/fiber. They used magnifying glasses to see the dirt, and while they are still perfecting the technique of looking through a magnifying glass, most were able to see the dirt.

Our story today, "A Snowy Day", informed us that snow comes from clouds, which of course led us to the question "What is a cloud?". Some anwers that students gave are: cotton candy, fluff, fog, water, something fluffy, and ice. So, we covered our cups of water with plastic wrap, and tomorrow/Monday, the students will see what happens as the water evaporates. While these ideas are definitely difficult to understand, the experiments are allowing the kids to learn how to develop questions, propose hypotheses, and begin to understand the physical world. The kids are also finding that it is EXTREMELY important to be careful and follow directions in order to have the experiments work.

We had a guest in our classroom this afternoon, Mrs. Hetland, and she brought some dry ice in for us to see. As dry ice is actually frozen Carbon Dioxide, it does not melt but rather sublimates into gas form. The kids loved watching it "disappear", and, in the second experiment, blow up a balloon!

Science: See Above
Reading: "The Mitten" (and an activity to prepare them for Writer's Workshop tomorrow), "A Snowy Day"
Centers and Reading Tests to determine Reading Level
Math: Counting, Number Clues, Number Writing

Miss Kimpton

Science with Snow!

Yesterday, the students brainstormed questions they want to know about snow, such as: "How is snow made?" "Can we make snow castles" "How much does it snow?" "How much water is in snow?"

Today, we did an experiment to find out how much snow is in water by collecting snow in plastic cups, hypothesizing how much water would be in the cup when it melted, and then observing as the snow melted. The students learned that a cup of snow does not make a cup of water. They also learned that it is okay to have an incorrect hypothesis, and that is how we learn! This concept brought on a whole discussion of whether or not scientists can be wrong.

Morning Meeting: Focus test Level 3 (ask your child), naming random lettters and numbers
Science: snow experiment
Math: Solving Story Problems
Reading: "Where is Piggy", "The Hat" by Jan Brett
Reading Buddies: websites - Starfall, PBS Math, PBS Kids

Please note: The students are having difficulty with being respectful (interrupting each other and me) and listening and following directions. Please reinforce with your child that the reason he/she comes to school is to learn, and he/she can't learn if they are talking and not listening. We are losing a lot of valuable time practicing school skills and routines.

Enjoy the evening,
Miss Kimpton