Fun Week of Holiday Activities Planned!

This week the Busy Beavers will be as busy as Santa's elves! We will be making special gifts for our parents on Monday. Tuesday is "Pajama Day" when everyone gets to wear their p.j.'s to school for the Kindergarten Pajama Party! At 12:30, Mrs. Kornblum, our principal, will read us the classic Christmas story, The Polar Express, and then we will all enjoy singing Christmas songs together. On Wednesday we will make some special decorations for the students to take home. Thursday will be our Holiday Party! We will begin the party after lunch, at 12:30. We will be decorating Gingerbread men, having a Santa Relay as well as a Jingle Bell Relay, and singing lots of Holiday songs. Friday will be low-key with a typical day's schedule and some cleaning up of holiday decorations. Parents are invited to join in on the fun any day of the week! Just sign in at the front office and head down to room 105!

Thanksgiving Celebration

Before our parents and friends arrived, the students took turns posing with our visitor, Tom Turkey. Tom has been in the classroom for the last two weeks, learning about the First Thanksgiving with us. Here are friends Vishal and David.

Super students, Ty and Sarah.

Michael and Zachary showing off their artwork: Native American style.

Joseph can sure take a great picture!

Two Smarties: Grace and Leslie

The Thanksgiving Celebration was spectacular! All the guests were greeted and given Pilgrim hats and collars to adorn. The students, dressed in Native American vests and head-dresses, recited a Thanksgiving poem, "Thanksgiving Colors," and sang three songs, "Thanksgiving Day is Here" and "I'm a Little Turkey" as well as a class favorite, "Vinny the Volcano," from our Reading series. It has a country sound; Mrs. Beaver and the students love to "ham it up" while singing!

Crystina and Alana pose for a picture with Tom Turkey wearing their Native American attire.

Two cuties: Julianna and Brooklyn with Tom Turkey

Aidan and Lia smile for the camera.

They were both excited to have their parents join the class for the performance and lunch.

The students did a fine job during the performance. They looked at the audience, sang and spoke loudly and sounded great! After the performance, the parents and students helped set up the food on the picnic tables outside. Michael's Dad and Zachary's mom brought delicious turkey sandwiches. Mrs. Beaver's mom brought a treat: sweet potato casserole, and Mrs. Beaver's mother-in-law brought the delicious cornbread. There was also macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, chips, pumpkin pie and cupcakes. Everyone had plenty to eat! Thank you to all the parents that contributed! And the weather was PERFECT for the outdoor setting! We are all very thankful for having such a loving and supportive group of parents!

Thanksgiving Celebration Planned!

We have been reading and talking about the First Thanksgiving that the Pilgrims and the Native Americans celebrated together. So, as a cluminating activity for the unit, we would like to have a small Thanksgiving Celebration in our classroom, "Kindergarten-style." It will be held Tuesday, November 25, from 12:00 until 1:30. Parents and younger siblings are invited! Please look for the detailed information being sent home on this Friday. Responses are requested by Tuesday, November 18th. Hope to see you there!

Field Trip Pictures

The gorilla showed us a few of his tricks.

Silly Beavers!

We had a great time!

Smile!

Joseph touching a baby alligator.

These girls aren't afraid of snakes!

Grace said the rabbit was VERY soft.

We learned a lot at the Zoo School.

Field Trip

We went to the zoo on a cool autumn day, October 29, 2008. First we learned about animals and the five senses at the Zoo School. We got to feel a soft rabbit, a smooth snake, and a hard turtle. We also saw a beautiful owl up close! Next we ate an early lunch at the picnic area. Then we split into small groups and toured the animal areas! Mrs. Beaver's group really enjoyed looking for the animals on the Zoo Checklist and then taking turns counting and writing how many of each animal we spotted. Mr. Johnson's (Kendale's dad) got a special secret treat at the zoo - they rode on the train. Mrs. Brandon's (Zachary's mom) and Mrs. Lee's (Julianna's mom) groups both did a great job of getting along and following directions! Last, the class met back at the picnic and playground area to eat cookies and drink tiny cupfuls of juice before heading back to the school. What a great day of learning about our world! Thank you to all the chaperones . . . you made the trip so much easier for us! Thanks for the photographs, Mrs. Brandon!

Our Class

Our class is a community of seventeen "Eager Beavers": an inquisitive group of five- and six-year-olds who know the importance of learning about what great authors and illustrators do in an effort to develop our own writing and illustrating styles so we can effectively share our important ideas with others. In Math, we studied patterns for the last 9 weeks, and can challenge any Kindergarten class in making and copying two- and three-part patterns; so, we are now moving on to develop effective strategies to count objects and make representations of our findings in our daily Mathematics Investigations activities. We enjoy keeping BUSY with all of these activities as well as learning about our world through our Science and Social Studies inquiries. Our world is an awesome world, full of wonder and delight... the Busy Beavers will study and read and learn to find out more about it each day of this school year!

Welcome to a New World of Communication!

Boy, have I been busy adding wrinkles on my brain . . . learning about blogging this weekend! I have started this blog even before I know exactly what I am doing; I joined a blog group last night and spent most of the day reading blogs from around the world. There are some extremely intelligent and interesting teachers with blogs! So, I have jumped in with both feet and will "learn as I go" - not the first impulsive thing I've ever done :). I am excited about sharing with parents and students the photographs and thoughts I have about the important learning going on in our classroom.