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

Classroom Rules

We spent a long time talking about rules and brainstorming. I worked with the children to come up with 3 rules for the classroom. If you notice, we did not use the word "no" in our rules, all are in the positive form.

Our 3 Classroom Rules are:

Keep your hands and feet to yourself.

Be your own boss.

Be friendly and respectful to everyone.

Fire Drill

We had our first practice fire drill today. The kids did great! Everyone was quiet and followed directions. I am expecting the firemen to come and do a real "practice" sometime soon. There are typically 2 fire drills in the Fall and 2 in the Spring.

Pictures from Center Time

Second Step Lessons

We are still working to brainstorm our classroom rules. These should be finished on Monday.

Today we had our first Second Step Lesson. The description of the program is directly from their website-

The new SECOND STEP lessons for Kindergarten and Grade 1 begin with Skills for Learning and Listening Rules, which set the stage for future academic success and later lessons on identifying feelings, managing strong emotions, solving problems, and getting along with others.

Activities, Brain Builder games, and partner work keep children engaged and help them practice their skills. Puppy and Snail puppets, now in both grades, encourage children's participation, and Be-Calm Bunny helps kindergartners wait for their turn to speak.

We practiced these rules for Second Step. Eyes Watching, Ears Listening, Mouths Quiet, Bodies Still and Raise Your Hand.

Computer Lab

We took our first trip to the computer lab today. We are scheduled at the end of the day on Thursday and I hope to do Library at the same time. The library is not ready for books to be checked out yet though. We played on a site that I found many years ago. It is a French site, but has English and some other languages as well. Please feel free to check it out with your child. http://www.poissonrouge.com

Scholastic Book Clubs

Online Ordering Information Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs Class Activation Code: H8DPR Dear Parent,

Now it's easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child -- shop our NEW online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay.

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.*

It's so simple! Here's how it works:

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

. Book Orders are due online or in class by September 23. I will be happy to answer any questions on Orientation night.

Pete The Cat

We met a new friend called Pete the Cat. He has two stories with very catchy tunes. You can see these stories by following the link. We will be doing some reading with these books including the color words.

Pete The Cat

Pete The Cat Rocking In My School Shoes

Today we had a cultural event called: Bucket Fillers

We learned all about filling a bucket to make ourselves and others happy.

The author of Have You Filled a Bucket Today- Carol McCloud gave a presentation to all students in the cafeteria.

Here is the link to The Bucket Filler Website http://www.bucketfillers101.com/

What's Up in Kindergarten

By now, I hope your children are telling you a bit about what they do in Kindergarten. If this is not happening, I am sure you are not alone in getting the "I don't know" answer.

I am here to answer that question! We have been learning routines in Kindergarten. The first routine is our morning routine. Every day, we unpack our backpacks and get out our green folders. After that, we sign in by writing our name next to our picture. Then, we order lunch or say that we brought a lunch from home. The last step is getting morning work. This is usually a short review in the form of a worksheet that takes about 5-10 minutes to complete.

We have jobs in Kindergarten. There are 10 all together. You have a different job for each of the 10 days then you have a "vacation" as we rotate through everyone in the class. We have Morning Meeting every day. Some of the jobs during Morning Meeting are Calendar, Weather Reporter, Mathematician and Morning Message. I will give you more information about these during Orientation Night.

Carroll School Treadwells Night

I had a great time seeing everyone at Treadwells Friday night.  I'm sorry if I missed some of you, but the mosquitoes started nibbling on me and I had to leave.  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  See you Monday.

September 11 Assembly

We had a school wide assembly done by Mrs. Foster and Mr. Vasconcelos. One of the students sang the National Anthem, we pledged the flag and saw a video featuring the song "God Bless The USA". Mrs. Foster talked a bit about 9/11 and we heard from the safety officer of the Peabody Police Department.

Red, White, and Blue Day

We will be having a patriotic assembly tomorrow *Thursday* in the afternoon. Students have been asked to wear red white and blue tomorrow.

A Very Busy Day!

We were awfully busy in our classroom today! We learned how to unpack our backpack, get out our folder and order lunch. Tomorrow, we will learn how to sign in (to practice writing our name). Some of us even had jobs on the job board today. We got our "supplies" which included crayons, pencil and a name card (to help us practice our first name and last name. We even read a book called "The School". Each of us got to color it in and store it in our very own "Browsing Box". I will explain more about browsing boxes at parent night in a few weeks. We also worked in small groups building our names with magnetic letters, learning about the book center and listening to a story on our wireless headphones. Phew! I am just tired thinking about it... I wonder if your children were tired when they got home. Just think, it is only the second day of Kindergarten.

It Was A Great First Day!

We had a wonderful first day in Kindergarten. We learned where our cubbies and mailboxes were, took a tour of the school, practiced a fire drill and even went on the playground to play. It was so nice to finally meet all of my new students. I am really looking forward to a SUPER year!