K1 Hair Salon Grand Opening 2010!

We have not had as much Dramatic Play as I had wanted this year in Kinder. Soo, one of my little darling girls (Thanks O.L.) :), asked if we could have a Hair Salon as a Free Choice Center. So, I said, "I would think about it". As I was thinking about it (a.k.a. 2 minutes later), she had already made a sign for the Salon, a list of things we could have at the salon and my personal favorite, a Circle Map brainstorming all the ideas of what we could do at the salon. So needless to say, I'm a sucker and couldn't say no!! I was thinking since the boys have blocks, legos and all the fun boy stuff, it was time for something a little girlie in K1. Along with all the fun of doing hair and makeup, we will be learning as well!! We will have an appointment book so they can practice telling time, phenominal fine motor practice and they will have pretend money to pay for their hair services of course!! If you have anything you would like to donate to the K1 Hair Salon, I would gladly take it off your hands!! Walk-Ins Welcome Moms! :)

St. Joseph's Village

I'm always a little anxious about this field trip every year, but this group of kiddos never seizes to amaze me! They were SO polite, kind and very friendly to the people of St. Josephs. I was so proud of them and just loved listening to the children interact with the elderly. They did an EXCELLENT job on their first field trip and we are looking forward to Thursday's field trip!

Project Linus

In Kindergarten, we are making quilts to give to needy children through the Project Linus organization. The children did a great job cutting and tying knots on the quilt. Thank you Mrs. Azhari for helping us and being very patient with us! :)

Ms. Frizzle!

Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus is one our favorite indoor recess friends AND she came to visit K1 just a few weeks ago! WOW! Amy was a hit last year in K1 when she came as Ms. Frizzle, so we decided she should make another appearance this year! Surprise surprise, the children LOVED her! Thanks for doing such a great job with the kiddos Amy, you're a natural!

Gobble, Gobble

Mrs. Wagoner is Thankful....

I am thankful for so many things in life. First, I am thankful for your children that I get to spend 8 hours a day with. What joy they bring to my life! I am thankful that each child is so different in their own special way. For Lakeside parents and faculty. What a great environment to work in everyday. I am thankful for my Mom and Dad. I am thankful that my Daddy calls me every morning on my way to school and Mom on the way home from school. I am thankful for my sweet husband that makes my life so incredible easy. I am thankful for my Kindergarten teammates. I have to say that I am blessed to be able to work with my good friends everyday. Lastly, I am thankful for God and the life he has provided for me!

Thank you parents for all of your hard work today. I could not have done it without you. The feast was perfect and stress free! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and if you're traveling, be safe!

Ready, Set, Teach!

This year I signed up to have a "Ready, Set, Teach" student come into my class from Coppell High School. This is a program for Senior students that are thinking about being a teacher. Her name is Miss Lauren. She comes 3 days a week and is in the classroom for about 30 minutes. She occasionally will be doing crafts and activities with the children but mainly she is here to observe me teaching in the Kindergarten environment.

Pilgrim Symmetry

We have had such a good time talking about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans, The Mayflower and MANY other topics. The Pilgrim activity (above), has to be one of my very favorite activities. Thanks to our stellar technology in Coppell, I used my document camera to set this activity up. When the children receive their paper, the only thing showing is half of the pilgrim outlined in black. We talked a lot about what symmetry is and I showed the children how I would draw the top portion, starting with pencil. After finishing the drawings, the children decorated their Pilgrims with markers. Whew, was this a challenging activity!! But, they did a fantastic job! They are hanging in our classroom right now and will be coming home soon! Ask your child if they can tell you what "Symmetry" means!

Space Cowboy??

You might of heard the term "Space Cowboy" or "Space Cowgirl" around your house lately. Last year, we decorated a craft stick and called it a "Space Man". This year, to go along with our cowboy theme in K1, I decided to rename them. The purpose of the Space Cowboy is to focus on putting spaces in between words when writing. This is REALLY helpful during Journal writing. Feel free to make your own at home!

Guided Reading

If you're wondering what Guided Reading looks like....this is it! Right now, I've been pulling children in smaller groups, either indivdually or 2 to 3 children. We work on a variety of skills during this time. Some are working on concepts of print, comprehension skills or phonemic awareness. I typically do Guided Reading during or Workstation time.

Veteran Reading

Mr. Wagoner came and read to the whole Kindergarten about the Naval Academy (book above). The children were very attentive to him and very interested in what he had to say. He talked about what his job was in the Navy, graduation from the Academy, the school mascot and various other facts. If you hear your children talking about a goat today, you will know that is the school mascot for the Naval Academy. Thanks Mr. Wagoner for coming and sharing your experience with us!

K1 Family Veterans

We had many special guests from our K1 family today. Mrs. L was here (pictured above), she served in the United States Navy. Mr. W (pictured above), served in the United States Navy as well. We had two other Veteran guests from our K1 family at the ceremony this morning.

Veteran's Day

Our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts did such a fabulous job today! Our fearless Room Mom did such a great job with the Boy Scouts as well!

Estimation and Measurement

In Math yesterday we were discussing "estimation and measurement". We drew our feet, cut them out and then this morning we measured them. We had a wonderful time, estimating who would be the longest, and comparing feet to each other and things in the classroom that were the same length.

Christmas in November???

Yes, those are Christmas cards you see! I received an email from my sister in law that lives in Michigan about a little boy with Neuroblastoma Cancer that he has been battling the illness for 2 1/2 years. The family is celebrating Christmas next week and Noahs request is to get lots of Christmas cards. So....I told the children we had a sick friend that lives in Michigan that gets to celebrate Christmas early. We decided it would be a good idea to send him cards today. We decided to write "Have a great Christmas", but when one of my sweet kiddos wrote "I hope you feel better soon", on his own....I had a hard time holding it together. These kiddos have such good hearts and it makes me so proud!

50th Day of School...Guys and Dolls

I just wanted to share with you how cute...and tough my K1 friends are! They had so much fun posing for these pictures! I can't believe they have already been in Kindergarten for 50+ days! Where does the time go!??

Canned Food Drive

We were ask to make a design out of our cans we collected during Red Ribbon Week. Our class voted on the shape of Texas. I thought this was a great idea! Whew, little did I know this was going to be harder than I imagined! So, we battled through it and I thought our Texas turned out REALLY well! I just knew we were going to win, but we didn't. Oh well though, the children had fun and brought in lots of cans for a good cause. Thank you parents for your donations!

DEA Helicopter

During Red Ribbon Week, we had a special visitor to our school, the DEA Helicopter! I was trying to get out of our Spirit Assembly in time for our K1 friends to see the helicopter land, but I don't think most of them saw it. It was really neat to hear the DEA officers speak and especially neat to see the helicopter up close!

The Squash Family

Thank you for your squash family donations, we really enjoyed observing the different types. Science HAS to be our favorite subject around here! Take a look as we use our five senses to observe the similarities and differences.

Growing Patterns

Growing patterns are the new fad in K1 this year. We've made our patterns, extended them and now we are on to growing patterns. I have never introduced this concept so early in a school year before, but I could tell some of these kiddos were itching for something different! Some of them even made growing patterns on their "Thanksgiving Feast" mats. They amaze me more everyday!

Apple Weighing

During our study on apples, we had a great discussion on the weight of an apple. We made our predictions, drew a picture of our apple and then notated in our Science Journals how much the apple weighed and its measurements as well. Next time your in K1 feel free to take a peek at our Science Journals. We definitely have some future Scientists on our hands!

One Apple Up On Top!

To go along with our Apple theme this week, we read the book, "Ten Apples Up On Top." What a great book, the children just loved it! Each child drew a picture of themselves with "10 apples up on top". We couldn't quite get 10 apples to stay on our friend in the picture, so we just did one! :)

Sorting!!

In Math, we sort EVERYTHING, even our shoes!! We had such a fun time during our lesson on Friday discussing different ways we could sort our class. In this particular picture, we were sorting by "oldest" and "not oldest." If you notice, one child has a shoe on both sides! That is because she is the "middle" child. This brought on great conversation about where she should put her shoes! We had a lot of fun with this activity. You may have heard your child talking about sorting by different "attributes." This was a little confusing because we would sort beads and they would put all the purple together, all the little ones together and all the square ones together...all at the same time. What I are looking for is sorting by ONE attribute. Therefore, they would sort the entire junk box of beads by color OR by shape, etc. This has been a little tricky, but it has started to make more sense for the children. :)

Pop Tops Galore!

I'm sure you have heard about the "Pop Top" craze in K1! As you might have read in the Newsletter, we are collecting pop tops for the Ronald McDonald house as our Service Learning Project this year. This is something that is very near and dear to my heart. I think it is fun for the children to collect pop tops and yes we all want to "win" the competition, but it goes so much further than winning a party. I love being able to collect something that is beneficial for needy children that are sick. I think that this is really important to stress the importance of "why" we are collecting pop tops to the children. And, when you're collecting for something that is worthwile, it just makes it more fun!! Thank you for your contributions!

Trees!

Trees! Along with our Fall unit, we have been talking about Trees as well. We have been discussing what animals live in trees, how we use trees, where trees grow and different types of trees. Last week, we took a peek (with our magnifying glasses), at the tree "cookie." This is a slice of the tree trunk. We were able to identify and count the rings on our particular piece.

I can spell owl!!

I just love Fall! What a great time of the year with great learning opportunities for our little ones. In Science we have had numerous discussions about Fall and more specifically, Owls. Last week, we talked about Nocturnal and Diurnal animals. This was probably one of my favorite discussions yet. Ask your child to identify a Nocturnal and Diurnal animal.

Leaves are falling!

Friday is Grandparents and Special Friends Day at Lakeside. As a class, K1 decided that since some Grandparents and/or Special Friends will not be able to attend, we would record ourselves singing! This is actually one of our poems for the week and we wanted to not only sing it......but sign it as well! I hope you enjoy our wonderful singing and our excellent sign language skills! Please share this with your family members who are not able to attend.

Problem Solving

One of the MANY things we like to teach our kiddos in Kindergarten is "Problem Solving." We had a very interesting Class Meeting today concerning strikes, what causes strikes and how we should address them. So, to factor in our wonderful Thinking Maps, we decided to make a "Multi-Flow Map" to break down the Strike System (see above). We talked about the various things that can "cause" you to get a strike and then the "effect" of getting a strike. A few of my favorite "Effects" were no t.v. and not getting to order school lunch. Oh, the things that are inportant to our little ones! :) I just want to say THANK YOU parents for providing a Effect (consequence) at home! Losing priviledges and taking things away may seem harsh, but in the end it is helping to develop good character in your child. It shows them that yes, there are consequences to bad behavior. This to me, is just as important as learning to read. Thank you again!