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!