Happy Holidays!

Well, it is officially vacation. I hope the kids made it home with everything they needed. After I take a breather, I will try to post some pictures of Polar Express Day as well as the goings on over the last 2 weeks.

We have been participating in a holiday card exchange. We sent cards to 29 schools across the US and we in turn received cards from them. I did not get a chance to take a picture of the cards, but someone did actually post their cards on display. Included in that video is our card! Look closely for the card with 4 fingers made into snowmen. Above it will say Peabody MA.

Click Here to see the video!

Our New Center

Many thanks to the Frost family for the contribution of the My Little Ponies.  The kids were thrilled to finally open the castle.  There is now a waiting list to go play there. 

Portable North Pole

I am not into the Santa Websites...but this one caught my eye. You can make a video for your child and have Santa comment on something you want him/her to do (get along, clean your room, try new foods etc..) Santa is able to show a picture of your child (that you supply) say where you live (the state) and even talk about what they want from Santa. Check it out!

Portable North Pole

Carroll School Craft Fair

The Carroll PTO has been kind and given me a table to raise money for the Autism Speaks Walk. I walked in September, but can fund-raise until the end of the year. I hope to meet my $1000 goal by then. I have been busy sewing up Capri Sun recycled products- they make great holiday gifts. Come to see me at the fair!

Some Pictures From Class

We did these really great alphabet watercolor painting to practice our uppercase letters. The kids wrote the letters with crayon after blocking out each section of the paper. Then they watercolored each section with a different color.

I challenged the kids to make 3 dimensional letters of the alphabet with the legos. This proved harder than I thought but we had a few successes. A lot of the children were trying to lay the legos flat to form the letters instead of building them tall.

It's Been A While

I feel like it has been a while since I have posted other than the Turkey pictures. It is a busy time here in Kindergarten both with report cards and us working on special holiday presents to bring home. I will try to post more often but I would guess it will get better after December.

Coming up in December- Our Polar Express pajama day. This will be on the Friday right before the holiday break. We will send more detail home in the next week or two. Also, Mr. Vee is having his Holiday Concert. Each grade sings 2 songs and it's a packed house so get your seats early!

Happy Thanksgiving

A very happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope you enjoy these turkey centerpieces that we created this morning.

The 50'th Day of School

Boy was it busy today in Kindergarten. I want to tell you all about it...

First, this crazy lady dressed like someone from 1950 greeted us at the front door. Some of the kids were not too sure just where Mrs. Hewitt was.

Then, we looked at pictures from 1950 and today and got to listen to a REAL record player. You know those cds that are big and black.

We worked on some 50'th day activities then after lunch we went to the gym for a Sock Hop.

We played with Hula hoops, hopscotched, and also jump roped. After, we did a few old dances then headed back to the classrooms.

Back in the room, we made predictions as to whether or not ice cream would sink or float in soda. Then, we got to taste a popular drink from 1950- the Root Beer Float. 17 children liked them and 5 children did not like them.

Last before we went home was our bubble blowing contest. Only 3 children actually could blow bubbles.

We all took home records that we decorated as souvenirs of the day!

Veteran's Day

We had a school wide assembly to honor Veteran's Day. Mr. Rigol came to speak to us as a veteran himself. He challenged the kids to draw American Flags and return them to school on Monday. Mr. Rigol has been to Iraq 3 times!

We also read our Let's Find Out which was about Veteran's Day. The kids took these home today.

My Angry Bird Costume

I had a few people ask me to see it...so I am putting it up here in case people wanted to check it out.

Pete The Cat

I had to do a separate post about our latest bulletin board. Pete the Cat is still our favorite book to sing/read. We created our own Pete the Cat with colored shoes from SCRATCH! That means no stencils. They really came out awesome and each child chose their color shoes and built the sentence- I love my ____ shoes.

It's the Weekend

I finally have a chance to sit down and think about how fast this year is going by. It's hard to believe that we are almost to day 50. That's almost 1/3 of the year gone. Here are some of the bulletin boards the kids have worked on... I don't think I had a chance to post pictures of them.

This was our "Great Pumpkin" pumpkin patch. The kids did a great job creating their own Jack-O-Lanterns

This was our owl glyph. A glyph helps us with data and we build our glyph by answering questions. We will be analyzing the data from upcoming glyphs to learn more about each other.

Halloween

I hope all of the Haunted gingerbread houses made it home in one piece. THANK YOU to all of the families who provided materials for us to build and decorate with. The kids had a BLAST. Also thanks to Jacob and Leanna's moms for coming in to lend a hand with costumes!
Here are a few shots from today. I will put more in the slide show on the class picture page.

Busy Day

I know it has been a while since I gave you a look into the classroom. Today I took some pictures of our morning activities.

We did some Halloween patterning using foam Halloween shapes. The kids made abab patterns which mean two objects repeat such as pumpkin, bat, pumpkin, bat.

The kids played candy corn memory with Mrs. McCabe. There were upper and lower case letters and they had to match them.

We are working on making spiders with 8 wiggly legs. They are not finished yet...hopefully soon.

We listened to some Halloween sounds and then drew what we were listening to.

Parent Teacher Conferences

It was great seeing everyone yesterday afternoon and evening. I know the time was short and I apologize for that. I hope I answered everyone's questions and gave you just an overview as to how the beginning of Kindergarten was. Of course, if you need more information or have questions at any time, don't hesitate to contact me. Have a great weekend!

Fire Prevention Week

Last week was Fire Prevention Week. We talked about Fire safety at school and at home. During computer lab we watched some videos about Fire Safety. You are welcome to check them out with your child by going to the "glog" page and clicking on October glog.

This week for homework students will be working with you to create an escape route and a family meeting spot. I do this more so you can discuss this with your child, not because I want to know how you will get out of your house.

If you already have an escape route- SUPER! This homework will be a refresher for your child.

Here is a link to some fire safety information: FIRE SAFETY

Just a reminder that book orders are due tomorrow, October 14.

I know that next week is the book fair so if you choose to shop there that's fine also. Here's the information on book clubs:

Scholastic Book Clubs Online Ordering Information Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs Class Activation Code: H8DPR

SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the "Register" button in the "First Time Here?" section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.

SELECT the books you'd like to order -- choose from thousands of titles -- many more than in our monthly flyers.

SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child's books will be delivered directly to my classroom

Don't forget- Pete the Cat is on the book order this month. It comes with a book and the cd for $7

O.R.E.O. 2011

We participated in an internet project called OREO. We each had to stack up Oreo cookies to see how tall we could get before they fell down.

After we each had a turn, Mrs. Hewitt added the totals up and averaged the height of our towers. The average was submitted to the Oreo project. Oreo 2011

All of the results will be posted after the weekend, but on average Kindergarten students stacked towers of 14 Oreos. Guess what our average was? 14- Can you believe it?

Reminders

Just a reminder that picture day is tomorrow (Friday). You need to send in your picture form with money in the morning.

There is a new book order form out that is due back on Friday October 14. You can always order online. Thank you to all the people who ordered online. We received 18 dollars in book $ as well as $20 in free book picks AND 6 free books sent by Scholastic! Wow! We love to read in Kindergarten. Pete the Cat is in this book order and it comes with a cd of the song. Also, another favorite- Skeleton Hiccups can be found in the order.

We saw the Tanglewood Marionettes this afternoon. The name of the show was Perseus and Medusa. The kids really enjoyed it.

Apples

We have been talking about apples and will be talking about Fall this week and next week. I asked the kids what their favorite color apple to eat was. Most said red. We painted the apples in our favorite color and built the sentence- I like _____ apples.

Then, we had a blind taste test of red, yellow and green apples. Students labeled their plates with numbers 1, 2 and 3.

I gave them the 3 mystery apples and then we graphed which their favorite was. Check out the results- Yellow (golden delicious) was our favorite color by a landslide!

Happy Friday

Thanks for all those great book orders. I will be finalizing the order and sending it. We should have books in less than 2 weeks. If you ever decide to purchase them for a present, please let me know and I can get them to you without your child seeing them. September orders are great- we are due to receive about 75 dollars in free books. They always have great giveaways at the beginning of the year!

Be sure to check out the page with class photos. I think I figured out how to lower the jpeg size so I can put more in there all the time. It will run like a continuous slide show.

Today we ran out of Lysol Wipes for the tables. I am trying to use them often to keep germs away. Anyone who can send some in- it would be GREATLY appreciated. I could also use Baby Wipes for wipe ups after things like stamping with ink pads or sticky lunches.

Scenes from a Kindergarten Class

Here are some shots from today as we worked in small group centers in the morning.

The kids are using our "Ellie Elephant" puppets to play a math game. The Ellie Puppet allows the kids to use only 2 fingers to form a proper grip. We are working hard on gripping pencils, crayons and markers the right way.

This group is stamping the color words that go with the story, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?

This group is having belly time to strengthen upper bodies. They are matching lower case magnetic letters to the alphabet chart.

Today we looked at parts of our name and how it looks in lower case form. We used star stickers to start our letters from the top and form them.

Stars of Kindergarten

This is our section from the front bulletin board. Every class did their own stars. Be sure to see it at Orientation Tuesday Night.

Look Who Is Popping Into Kindergarten