Teagan's Birthday Book Club

I felt good when Mom read the story "Peter Pan." I like the story because I like Peter Pan. By Teagan

Tommy's Birthday Book Club

My dad read the story "Sponge Bob the Art Contest No Cheating Allowed." I like it. We had fruit snacks that had Sponge Bob and Toy Story 3. By Tommy

Maggie's Birthday Book Club

Mommy read "The Velveteen Rabbit." It was very good. I liked it because it had a bunny in it. By Maggie

Austin's Birthday Book Club

I love my birthday because my mom read, "Patrick's Big Teeth." My mom read the story, it was fun, and the fruit snacks were tasty. -by Austin Witas

These are a few of our favorite things...

There is so much to enjoy about Kindergarten at John W. Garvy. We love being Bulldogs, learning about the calendar, building 2-D and 3-D shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks, counting money in our very own grocery store, center time, and learning about the life cycle. This year, we've investigated tadpoles, snails, fish, hermit crabs, newts, and now caterpillars. Ms. Rojas teaches us about tying our shoes. The students now know how to read and write stories, I'm obviously so proud of them! Regardless of all the curriculum...the kids favorite part of the day is, you guesses it, RECESS!

Worms Worms Worms

We love when Mrs. Hehn comes to Kindergarten on Friday afternoons. She is sure to bring something fun for us to learn about. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been observing worms. We have compared and contrasted between Night Crawlers and Red Worms. The kids used measuring tapes to find their length, magnifying glasses to get a closer look, and their hands to hold the worms. It might have gotten a little messy, but the kids LOVED it!

Here is a poem we wrote together:

Worms worms worms
Worms eat dirt
Worms are squishy
Worms don't have eyes
Worms don't have legs
Worms like the dark
Worms poop
And sometimes worms wiggle
Worms worms worms

Spencer's Birthday Book

Spencer was so proud to have his mom come and read us a story!

Earth Day with Mrs. Grossart

We were so lucky to have beautiful weather on Earth Day. In the Garvy Garden we listened to a story, learned about composting, and watched the Grossart's worms eat away at their garbage. We learned that the worms eat egg shells, coffee grinds, paper, and most of all they like to hide in the darkness of the mud. Here is a link to a cool website that shows you how to start and maintain a worm compost. Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did! http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html

Abigail's Birthday Reading

I was happy when my mom read a story. I liked how people were laughing at Amelia Bedelia. She is really funny. They said to undust the furniture, but she put dust on it. She dressed the chicken in clothes, but she really meant to take the things off of it. She always is funny to me because when she goes fishing and dusts the furniture. She's funny because she always does things wrong. By Abigail

Kohl Children's Museum Field Trip

Last Friday we took a school bus to the Kohl Children's Museum to learn about simple machines and explore the museum. Here are pictures of kids working with levers, pulleys, inclined planes, and gears. The kids especially enjoyed; the water room (jellyfish, moving the water, squirting water), face painting, grocery shopping, and Pet Vet.

Valentine's Day Party

Will you be my VALENTINE? We had such a lovely party. The kids decorated their red covered shoe boxes, passed out valentines, ate a snack, listened to a story and played freeze dancing. Thank you again to the Room Parents for organizing and running a wonderful party!

Hibernation

Today we watched a webcam of Lily, a female black bear, in Minnesota. She gave birth around 12:45. Here is a link to see it for yourself: http://www.wildearth.tv/static/wildearth/channels/we_bear_den.html?streamId=wwbearden01

Bears are sleeping. Bears are sleeping. Hibernation. Hibernation. When will they wake up? When will they wake up? When it's warm. When it's warm.

Here are the kids pretending to hibernate and then waking from their slumber.

Literacy Centers...We LOVE Them!

Here are the kids busy working during literacy centers. This is a great time to build social skills while adding to the kids literacy development. It also allows me to work with individual groups of students for Guided Reading.


Practicing writing sight words on chalkboards.



Reading a story and enjoying Jan Brett's book, "The Mitten."



Building words and reading decodable books.




Adding details to stories they've composed at the writing center.



Matching pictures cards that rhyme.



Enjoying a Grinch puzzle at the Dr. Seuss author center.

Following along to a story on CD at the listening center.

Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats with Mrs. Mary Zelasko

We are so lucky to have Mary Zelasko, Garvy's Speech Teacher, come to work with us once a week. During that time, she reads stories and helps the kids develop their sounds. Here is a picture of her reading and using props to retell the story.

Thanksgiving Pie Tasting

Mmmmm. Thank you parents for sending in pies for our celebration! Nineteen of the children chose pumpkin pie as their favorite. Blueberry, apple and "no thank you" all tied with 5 students. I was very proud of everyone for trying new kinds of food!