Christmas Visits to Briarwood & Ely Manor

We will be visiting Briarwood on Wednesday, 12/16 at 12:30 and Ely Manor on Thursday, 12/17 at 10:00. During these visits we will be singing Christmas songs to the residents and reading them a simple Christmas story.

These visits, as well as others we make this year, are part of an attempt to teach children the importance of community service. We are spending a lot of time this holiday season talking about how important it is to give rather than receiving at Christmas time.

Briarwood Trip Cancelled For This Week

We have decided to cancel our visit to Briarwood this week due to the number of children who have been out with various illnesses. We would not want to expose the residents to any illnesses. We will watch our attendance patterns to make decisions about going to Briarwood in the coming weeks.

PM Acts Out Story at Briarwood

One of the things we did to entertain the residents at Briarwood just before Halloween was to act out the story The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything. The residents seemed to have as much fun watching as we did performing.

Afternoon Class Sings at Briarwood

Although we go to Briarwood about twice each month, this trip was special. We sang a song, acted out a story, and read books that we colored to the residents. The most amazing thing - the residents were all in costumes when we arrived.

Morning Class Performs at Ely Manor

I hope you enjoy video of the morning class singing and acting out a story at Ely Manor. We had a great time performing, reading to the residents, and eating wonderful snacks - donuts, cookies, pretzels, and cider - WOW!

Learning Centers

We learned about bats at Mrs. Rogers' center,made goldfish art projects with Mrs. Cady,

and did simple addition and subtraction in a pumpkin patch math game. A student in each group stepped up and played the role of teacher when the scheduled helper mom was not able to come today. Mrs. Rogers was really, really, really proud of her little teachers!!!!!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes!!!

Can you tell how much fun the children had with these birthday cupcakes? Sometimes life is a little messy!

Reading at Briarwood

These are photos of the children reading with the residents and other students at Briarwood last week. I'm sorry it's been a while since I last posted - it has been a busy few weeks for me.

Worms!!!

As part of our Living Things Unit, the children learned about and handled live worms. It was fun seeing their reactions. Some even allowed the worms to crawl on their arms!

Guest Reader from Briarwood

Miss Catherine, a resident at Briarwood, came over to our classroom to be a guest reader on Monday morning. She and the children were having so much fun with her rendition of Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom that I had to pull out my video camera. Please note that I didn't start taping until about half way through the story.

Fair Field Trip

I'm sorry it took so long to post some of the photos from our field trip to the Fair. We went camping this weekend and I don't have internet access at the campgrounds. I hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed the trip.

Just Another Day In Kindergarten

Sorting Shells
Patterning with Barrettes

Yummy Bananas at the Let's Find Out center

Library with Mrs. Parker (our Librarian)

First Week of Kindergarten - Math Explorations

To continue practicing how to rotate and behave during center times, along with becoming comfortable with some of the math manipulatives we'll be using this year, we enjoyed Math Explorations on Friday. These were short centers where the children were able to just play with the materials.

Links
Unifix Cubes
Dominoes

Color Bears

First Week of Kindergarten - Learning Centers

We enjoyed Learning Centers this week as we learned how to get into groups, how to rotate from center to center, and the expected behaviors during centers in our classroom. The rules for centers are:
1- Quiet
2 - Share
3 - Clean Up

4 - Keep The Sand In The Table (no getting sand on other people)

Computers
Journals
Legos

Sand Table

Field Trip Photos

Here are a few of the photos I took on our field trip last week. It was a perfect day for a field trip. We enjoyed the movie (along with popcorn, pop, and Sixlets), the park (lunch, playing, ice cream sandwiches, friends), and the library (Charlie the Caterpillar was a great story). Thanks again to all of the parents and grandparents who helped chaperone this amazing trip.

Symmetry Lesson

Miss Ashleigh led a really nice symmetry lesson in centers last week. She talked with the children about how when you fold paper and cut a design with the center on the fold you end up with a full shape. With the cool spring shapes they created, Miss Ashleigh was able to make a really fun and bright bulletin board in our classroom.

Function Machine

We've been working on simple addition and subtraction a lot lately. The function machine is a way to make it a little more fun.

Quackers for Snack

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days. End of the year testing, data entry, and closing activities have kept me really busy. In the next couple of days, I will post a few of my favorite photos over the last couple of weeks.


I was stretching a bit for Q snacks. We enjoyed quackers (pringles in our mouths like a duck bill). This child spontaneously started quacking and flapping - fun photo!!!

Miss Ashleigh Reads A Story

Miss Ashleigh, a Cadet Teacher from the Vo-Tech Center, has been doing a lot of things to help in our classroom. She now helps all afternoon on Tuesday thru Thursday. Ashleigh read a really fun story (made even more fun by replacing the Principal's name with Mr. Dalm) last week. Hope you enjoy the story too.

AM Reads at Briarwood

The children love reading to the residents at Briarwood. In fact, Jake said he wished we could do it every day.

Unfortunately, there we a few residents who weren't feeling well and some who where with the doctor. The children enjoyed reading to each other when there weren't adults available.

Although we had rainy weather for the walk over, you can see that the children made the best of that situation also. Is that six children under one umbrella?

PM Reads at Briarwood

I think I finally figured out how to post a video!!!

This video shows afternoon students reading to the residents at Briarwood. It was very rewarding to watch the children read to the residents. They did very, very well and really impressed everyone with their reading ability.

AM Sings at Briarwood

We practiced our songs for the Spring Concert for the residents at Briarwood last week. I finally figured out how to post it for your viewing pleasure.

Inside Recess

Because of hearing screenings, we had to stay inside for recess this afternoon. After Aaron (my son who is in college) donated his Lego collection, the kids started hoping for inside recess. The boys especially love making interesting creations!
Some of the girls enjoyed reinacting Caps For Sale with miss Teressa. It was fun to see a mom enjoying inside recess as much as the children. Some of the girls found working with pattern block templates more interesting. You should have seen the detail in their work.