Bate Bate Chocolate

It's going to be a perfect day for some hot chocolate. Back in December we were lucky to have Savannah's mom bring in her Molinillo, a wooden container for mixing, from Mexico. She taught the kids of the tradition of making hot chocolate. First you put a chocolate disc into the bottom of the Molinillo. Then you pour in warm milk and mix it with the wooden stick. Last you pour it into the cups and enjoy! We enjoyed it very much. Thank you Mrs. Storr for coming and sharing this with our class.

Click here for a link to a short Dora video singing a song about this special treat.

Bears

Today we watched a live webcam of Jewel a hibernating bear. Click here for a link to the video. The kids LOVED watching her sleep and she was even moving around. They got to see her huge claw and she even winked at us. It was awesome! We'll be checking back in on her daily to see if she's given birth to a little cub. Thank you to Mrs. Neshawait for sharing the link!

While watching the live webcam the kids also wrote about bears. I wrote the words Jewel and hibernate on the board for students to use.

"Jewel put her head in." -Adam

"Jewel is hibernate." -Megan N.

"Jewel is going to have a baby when she goes to sleep and hibernating." -Elena

Estimating and Everyday Math

Estimating is an ongoing component of the Everyday Math curriculum. To support this concept each child made a paper chain that matched their height. We then looked at the paper chains and estimated how many links were in each chain. The kids wrote their estimates on their chalkboards and we counted the links. Check out the data below in our class chart.





Learning numbers and practicing writing them without reversals is fun in Kindergarten!

What's the longest paper chain you can make at home? Would you use a pattern? Would it be taller than your parents?

Kid in a Box

When I taught in Urbana, there was an amazing Kindergarten teacher named Jane. She was an inspiration to me because of her patience, interests, and philosophy on teaching young children. She once shared a game that was called "Kid in a Box." It's pretty simple, the kids close their eyes and then a student is selected to go into the box. There is no top or bottom to the box, I lift it up and in they go. Once safe and secure inside the box, everyone opens their eyes and observes their surrounding to to figure out who is missing. The kids at the carpet guess and when they figure it out, the hidden kiddo pops up. As simple as it is, the students love to play the game and request it on a daily basis. It kind of reminds me of "Heads Up 7 Up." Do you remember playing that game in grade school? What is one of your child's favorite games to play at home?

PS - Thank you to Garvy's security guard and janitorial staff for asking me if I'd want to save the big box from the recycling!

All About Penguins

We've been learning about penguins all week and have heard some really great stories. My favorite penguin book is Tacky, he's not like other penguins who can dive gracefully and who march in order. Tacky is an odd bird who often "saves the day" by being different from the other penguins. Check out the Tacky books by Helen Lester for yourself (look for the pengiun wearing a hawaiian shirt).

Miss Bridget, an AWESOME sixth grade student at Garvy, comes in each day to volunteer during her recess and the kids love her. Today she read through a Scholastic News with the students. She asked high level thinking questions, I am convinced that she will be an amazing teacher someday!


The kids have been waddling around the room and today completed a science experiment about the brood patch and feathers to keep them warm. Here are some pictures of the kids trying to move with the egg on top of their feet (the brood patch of a penguin).

After trying to move across the rug and meet their science partner, they came up with an idea to tuck the egg into their socks, boots, and even pants. This made moving with the egg much easier. These are some smart kids with great ideas!

The next challenge included moving the egg from one partner to another, similar to how the mother penguin moves the egg to the fathers brood patch while she goes to look for food.

Finally we learned about how feathers keep penguins warm. Each student held feathers in one hand and then placed an ice cube on top. They compared that to their hand without feathers that also had an ice cube placed on it. EVERYONE agreed that the hand with feathers was much warmer than the one without.

Here are some facts about penguins, straight from the kids;
"The mom passes the egg to the dad when the mom needs to get food for the egg." -Adam

"Penguins swim in the water." -Maggie
"They can slide on their tummies." -Lillian
"Rock jumpers can jump on rocks and they swim." -Ocelot
"I learned that penguins waddle." -Paul
"Penguins have the things that carry the eggs." -Farris
"If your egg cracks you'll have to wait another year for the baby to hatch out again." -Lynette
"Penguins swim like they fly." -Elena
"I learned that penguins put their egg in a brood pouch." -John
"Feathers keep a penguin warm." -Bobby
"Penguins there is a really much types (Little Blue, Yellow Eye, Emperor) of penguins." -Russell
What did your child enjoy during our penguin unit? Can you find more interesting facts about penguins?
Have a great three day weekend!

Scholastic Book Orders

If you are interested in ordering books this month I would like to encourage you to do so. Scholastic is offering MEGA bonus points if a combined class total equals $100 or more. I used these bonus points to add more books to the classroom library as well as to give gifts to students.

clubs.scholastic.com/

Class Activation Code HNH4V

Deadline to order is January 28, 2012

Donations

When cleaning up from breakfast at Garvy I use old plastic grocery bags (Target or Jewel). If you have a collection of these at home and would like to share, please send them in.

Thank You!

Six Simple Things to Smile About

1. The excitement in a classroom when reading "The Gingerbread Man."

2. Reviewing student reading progress on Raz-kids.com.

3. Listening to the kids explain the routines and expectations for independent work time.

4. Joe bringing three small packages of gummy bears to Lunch Bunch. One for himself, one for me, and the third for Miss Gilbert.

5. Receiving a box of books from Scholastic. I love passing out the books and seeing what titles the kids choose to build their home library.

6. Being offered a book for read aloud time by a former student. I'd love to read it to my class next week Dehne!

A Great Idea...

This week I've been doing my best to fight off a nasty cold. I even took a sick day on Wednesday, this rarely happens because I don't like missing school. It eased my mind knowing that Miss Gilbert was there to teach and that our daily routines would continue. I've been resting, drinking hot tea, and poking around on Pinterest.com (my social networking guilty pleasure). Today I found the most adorable idea that I want to pass along to all parents. It's a gift for you to give your child at their high school graduation, but at the end of 8th grade could be fun too! Click here for a link to the original post.

Start by getting a copy of "Oh The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. At the end of each school year, have your child's teacher write a note and sign the book. Then at graduation this is a special gift and a fun way to remember all their hard work throughout the years. Someday I hope to remember this idea and do it for my own kiddos too!

If you are a former parent and would like to backtrack a book like this for your child, just bring it in. I'd be happy to sign the book and write a nice note!

50th Day of School

On Wednesday we celebrated the 50th day of school at Garvy. It was a fun way to mark our 1/2 way to 100 celebration. We dressed similar to the way people did in the 50's, had a Sock Hop and hula hooped in the gym, did the Hand Jive dance, patterning with pink and black, used a scale to weigh our collections of 50 objects, everyone tried to blow a bubble with gum, and the kids learned to differentiate between then and now. They didn't recognize pictures of Elvis Presley, but they did know Justin Bieber and Salena Gomez! Miss Gilbert even brought in record to show the class! Ideas for this event came from other teacher websites/blogs via my newest favorite source of inspiration Pinterest.

She's a natural.

The kids LOVED to Hand Jive!

Showing off his excellent hula hooping skills.

Miss Gilbert dressed up like a Pink Lady.

I'm Thankful For Raz-kids.com

This long weekend has given me a lot of time to reflect on what I'm thankful for as an educator at Garvy School. As a candidate for National Board Certification, I am being asked to make meaningful connections with families, the community, and most importantly provide evidence of student achievement. "How does it impact student learning?" is a constant question in the certification process. I've already written about the energy that the Kindergartner's bring with them and their passion for learning, but in addition I must provide EVIDENCE of achievement. It's easy to go on and on about how much I enjoy working with this age group, their innocence, and I could describe how I see them all growing throughout the year. At the same time, National Board is forcing me to provide concrete evidence. As a result I've been setting goals and collecting data to prove that the instruction I provide is working.

Just last week, Mrs. McGlade purchased an online subscription to Raz-kids for all K-2 classrooms at Garvy. This website is an amazing resource for all students to make progress in reading. I am so thankful to have it as a home-school connection. Already 15 of 25 students have logged in and have collectively spent 544 minutes listening to books, recorded themselves reading books, and taken comprehension quizzes. This website allows me to listen to their reading and respond with personal messages. Students can move from one level to the next as well as explore higher level books that can be shared with their families. My favorite part is that Raz-kids provides me with charts and graphs as evidence of student achievement. I'm so pumped to see continual reading growth throughout the remainder of this school year. Thank you Mrs. McGlade for funding this fun and engaging resource, we're all very thankful!

If you haven't tried it yet here is the login page;

http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login

Search teacher: bchristinaa

Find your user name and click on the correct password icon (it was sent home on a note card and I will send another home this week).

Have fun reading!

I'd love some parent feedback! What do you like best about Raz-kids.com? Is it easy to use? Does your child work on it independently or do you work together?

Author's Celebration

Today was a great day in Kindergarten at Garvy! The kids started with a lesson about showing others we care with Mrs. Callan, had library class, RECESS, got to see a movie about dinosaurs in the Dome Theater, and then shared their writing with families and friends at the first Author's Celebration. Thank you to all the families who came and provided the students with compliments and positive feedback on their writing.

Science Fair

On Tuesday morning, Kinderfamilies were invited to come and participate in the Garvy Science Fair. During this time the kids showed their knowledge of building a boat that could hold 5 rocks. It was a really fun time for both the kids and families!

These two students put their efforts together to make an unsinkable boat. Well done!

Six Simple Things

This week was full of good times, I'm having a hard time keeping my list of moments that make me smile to just six.

1. Taking a break from academic "rigor" to give students time to engage in developmentally appropriate activities like playing with Play Doh and building with blocks.

2. Excellent Room Parents to plan, coordinate, and carry out an amazing Halloween party.

3. Hearing from parents that their child pretends to be a teacher at home with their siblings.

4. Notes from Mrs. Neshawait delivered by extremely polite kiddos.

5. The ease of motivating a 5/6 year old to do extra homework. Simply host a "Lunch Bunch" with participating kids at the end of the month.

6. When Calvin gave his dad one last hug before entering school and sweetly told him, "I love you."

Halloween Party

The kids in Room 108 had an amazing afternoon filled with games, a healthy snack, a craft and parade around Garvy. Excitement and energy filled the air as everyone TRANSFORMED from students to super heros, vampires, witches, princesses, animals, a doctor, police officer, army man, cheerleader, ninja, and even a professor. Thank you Room Parents for putting together a fun party!

What was the best costume you saw this year? Did you get to go Trick or Treating?