Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!
We had a great day celebrating friendship, kindness, and love.

 The children made a great craft project using contact paper and tissue paper.  They had a blast and were very creative!  Then, they got a Hoodsie sundae cup.  Finally, a dance party began and it was so fun!

Wishing you all lots of love and happiness!

100th Day of School

We celebrated the 100th Day of School! What an exciting day!   We read the story, Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of School , by Joseph Slate, (click on the book to hear a read aloud of the story) and counted by 10's to 100! Then we read 100th Day Worries.  The children really enjoyed this story.  

We then made our 100 year old selves and even stepped into the "aging booth".  Check these 5 and 6 year old children looking much older!

We created an art project of what we would look like at 100 years old.

Then we wrote about how much smarter we are after 100 days of school!

During math, we explored 4 different math stations to explore 100.  First, ice cream cones to 100 by 10's, The second station was Race to 100 using 2 dice to add up.  The first one to reach one hundred wins! Third math station was counting 100 hearts to 100.  The children had to fill in the blank hearts to 100.  Great job indeed!  The 4th stations was building with 100 plastic cups!  This was by far the favorite of all!  The children had a great time building, cooperating,sharing ideas and work together as a team.    So much fun!!

Check out our Book Creator video!

Thank you to all of the families who donated items to the Middleton Food Pantry.  We were very successful and collected 192 items!  It feels so good to donate to the community and we are so grateful for your help and support!

WingMasters

The children got to experience WingMasters which is a presentation all about Birds of Prey.  They included 3 different owl and a falcon.  The children were enthralled with the animals and their attention was remarkable.  

EASTERN SCREECH OWL

First, an Eastern Screech Owl was introduced weighing only 5 ounces. She is nocturnal and has feathers on her eye lids.  She is a beauty. 

FALCON

Next a falcon was introduced to the children.  The children were asked how this bird of prey and the owl were the same and different.  She is a diurnal bird of prey hunting and active during the day. 

BARRED OWL

Then, the second largest owl in the area: the Barred Owl.

This Barred Owl weighs only 1.5 pounces and has over 10,000 feathers.  The feathers over her body even cover her toes.

He compared a turkey feather with the Barred Owl.  Look at how close they are!

To show what great ears this owl has he showed us this photo.  The owl heard a mouse under the snow, so the owl did a face plant into the snow and used its long, strong talons to grab the mouse for dinner.  How incredible!

GREAT HORNED OWL

The last owl he presented was the Great Horned Owl.  He was magnificent to look at!  This owl has over 100 bones in its neck to be able to turn its head almost 180 degrees because its eyes cannot move.  

Thank you to the MPTO for bringing this amazing show to the children today!

Snowmen Should NOT...

We have been working on a project with our First Grade Buddies in Miss Klipfel's classroom for a few weeks.  We started with reading Snowmen at Work and Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner.  The children also enjoyed listening to Olaf sing "In Summer".   Together with their buddies, students completed a sentence starter of what a snowman should NOT do.  In partners, the students used the app Drawing Box to illustrate a snowman in some very hot places.  We then used, Chatter Pix, one of the students favorites app and made the snowmen come to life. Check out our video below with everything a snowman should not do.

What do you think a snowman should not do? Comment below to share what you think a snowman should NEVER do.

Global School Play Day

Who had the best school day today???  

We DID!!!

Today was Global School Play Day.  The focus for today was unstructured play.

Though our play day was unstructured, it was supervised by me and other classroom teachers.  Throughout the day, we hosted many different classes and got to visit another.  It was not organized play and the children were allowed to learn and play with each other.

In the classroom, the opportunities to play were endless and the creativity, teamwork, fun, and imagination was bountiful! It was amazing to see the smiles, laughter, happiness and positive attitudes shine!

Our first visitors were from our First Grade Buddies in Miss Klipfel's classroom. The fun was just getting started!

Then came a visit from our 2nd Grade Classroom Connection, Mrs. Mulligan's class.  It was so wonderful to see the second graders and Kindergartners play and work together.  

Then, a visit to Mrs. Murphy's Kindergarten class was absolute perfection.  The children got to visit another Kindergarten classroom and play with their friends.

Last, we got a visit from our First Grade Classroom Connection, Mrs. Scharffenberg's class.  The giggles and creativity abounded.  Watching the children teach each and share ideas with each other was inspiring!

It is my hope that this one day of play will inspire families to plan for more unstructured play time during non-school hours and help children’s imagination and creativity to grow both in the classroom and beyond.

Share in the comments below how your child felt about GSPD and we will share them in class.

Can't wait for Global School Play Day 2018!!

Comfy, Cozy Day

It was an exciting day for Comfy, Cozy Day here in Kindergarten!

The children began their day with coloring a picture of themselves in their pajamas or comfy clothes.  

Then, we headed down to the library for a special reading of The Polar Express by 

Chris Van Allsburg.  Each child was greeted by a very special conductor, Mrs. Libby's grandfather.  He happily punched each Polar Express ticket and excitedly called out "All Aboard!" as the children began to watch a special reading of the story.  

After the story, the children each recieved a special  silver bell to wear.

Then the children made a magical Polar Express train and wrote what they would see on their way up to the North Pole.

Finally, the students use their math skills to create number sentences using "Five Silver Bells".

It was a magical and fun day in our comfy, cozy clothes!

Wishing you and your family the very best during this holiday season!

Teddy Bear Day

It was Teddy Bear Day on Friday! 

The children got to have a great day reading the last of 5 different versions of The Three Bears stories which was Godli Rocks and the Three Bears. Over the past 2 weeks, the children focused on different stories such as The Three Bears by Paul Galdone, The Three Bears by Jan Brett, Somebody and the Three Blairs and Tackylocks and the Three Bears.  We focused on retelling, characters and setting.  The children voted on their favorite version and illustrated and labeled their favorite part of their favorite book.

Then the children got to explore with their teddy bears or favorite stuffed animals!

The children got to measure them with cubes to find their height, compare weight on a balance, discuss texture and size, and fur length.

It was a great day celebrating the end of our Three Bears unit!

So much fun!