An Exciting Week in February Coming Up!

Hello Families,
     It's the week of the 100th Day and Valentine's Day coming up and the excitement is high for both days in B-3!  Please remember to have your child bring in his or her collection of 100 items on Monday and Valentines for the class on Thursday.  I sent home a list of student names last week in the red folder.  Let me know if you need another one.  We want every child to be included on the special day.  Our School Counselor, Julie Cleary, also let all the teachers know it is Random Acts of Kindness week so we will be talking about that in class and working on filling a jar with pompoms when we catch each other doing random acts of kindness. 
    There is no school next week for our February Break.  In March, there is an Early Release Day on the 7th and on the school calendar, it shows March 8th as a No School day for Parent Conferences.  I prefer to do my Spring Parent Conferences a bit later, since we just sent home the midyear report on February 1st.  So you will see a note from me later in March to sign up for conferences.
     After break, our class will start a week long unit with Mr. Flint, our STEM teacher here at Mary Hogan.  We will be using what we know about force and engineering to build bridges.  In literacy right now a big skill we are working on is tapping and reading 3 letter words, like cat, log and fun.  The students use their fingers to tap out the 3 sounds and blend them to read the word.  Have your child show you how they are progressing with this skill.  Our February calendar has the students comparing the number of red and blue dots each day and building a vocabulary of comparison words (all, none, more, less, equal, etc).  Also tied into the calendar this month, we are learning the value of a penny, nickel, dime and quarter, with the help of a song, of course!  Here are some photos from last week.  Have a good week...we will be celebrating big numbers and love this week in B-3!
 
Working on our 100th Day crowns

  

 
Busy with literacy stations: Partner work, individual reading time, small group work, word building


After reading Sneezy the Snowman, the students developed a writing piece telling why their snowman melted.  They are hanging in our hallway.

Peace

Hello Families,
     Last week felt like a very mixed up week with the Monday and Tuesday break from school then the day off on Thursday.  Here's hoping we have a full week of school this week!  We finished up our unit on Pushes and Pulls, are working on correct letter formation for upper case letters, practicing tapping and reading 3 letter words and getting ready to write about melting snowmen and learn a new math game that uses adding skills.  As we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and all the important messages he wanted to spread, we made Peace Plates and discussed what we think PEACE means.  Some of the Kindergarten ideas were....Peace means love, working out problems with friends, staying calm when you're mad about something and being a kind person.  Here are some photos from that project.





This project opened up great dialogue around different ways to express yourself in art and how unique our individual ideas are.  As the students sat at the table revealing their designs, I heard comments like, "I love the dots on yours."  "Wow, I know you like blue!"  "I might try that flower design next time."  We learn from each other every day in Kindergarten.

Some photos to share....

Hello Families,
     The Kindergartners have loved having some snow to romp around in on the playground!  Here are some photos of what we have been up to....


Our Nature Art we created after looking at Andy Goldsworthy's work.....

 
Creating the art with Mr. Paul.


We are learning about Force and Motion....


Time with our Big Buddies.  (See the calendar in the background?  Ask your child about the pattern on the calendar this month!)


Our Big Buddies helped us make Name Snowmen.


Playing a letter/word game with a partner.

Happy New Year!

Hello Families,
     Together again in 2019!  After watching a short video and learning a new song about the New Year and different ways to celebrate, we had a class discussion about wishes for the new year.  Here is what the Kindergartners had to say about that....


We welcomed a new student to B-3 and started a nature art project by walking out in the woods behind school.  I shared some pictures by Andy Goldsworth and the students talked together about what he used to express himself while out in nature.  We will be creating something next week with what we collected....

We are approaching the halfway mark of the school year and our classroom could use a few things to resupply our Kindergarten cupboards.  If you would be willing to send in some small plastic or paper cups or ziplocs of any size (snack, sandwich, quart, gallon) it would be greatly appreciated.  Also, if your child doesn't have a sweatshirt and extra socks packed in their backpack, please put those items in for them.  It can get chilly at times in the classroom and a sweatshirt can come in handy.  After a wet, snowy recess, socks can be wet and soggy and uncomfortable so extra socks would be great.  On that note, when I was in the nurse's office to borrow socks for a student one day, Nurse Becky commented that she doesn't have a good supply of smaller socks for Kindergartners.  A donation of small sized socks would be helpful for our school supply.  Thanks!

A Busy Week Ahead.....

Hello Families,
     Just a quick note to tell you about the fun-filled week we have ahead of us in Kindergarten!  Monday afternoon we will be walking down to see the Gingerbread House Exhibit at the Folklife Center.  Tuesday is our Holidays Around the World celebration in all 4 Kindergarten rooms.  Tricia will visit with a story and craft on Wednesday.  Friday is our annual Mary Hogan Holiday Sing Along at 10:00 - families are welcome.  We will also see our Big Buddies on Friday to share books and wish each other a Happy Vacation!

December Fun and Learning

Hi Families,
      We gathered as a whole school on Friday for our Readathon Closing Ceremony.  We laughed and cheered and felt great pride as readers and as Mary Hogan Hawks. 



The excitement was high...we knew the school had read enough minutes to beat the goal of 350,000 minutes read by the end of the Readathon.  That meant we would get to see Mr. Lindemann and Mrs. Urban compete in the Principal's Challenge!  It was very fun to watch!



On December 18th, the whole Kindergarten group will take part in a Holidays Around the World learning event.  The classes will rotate through all 4 Kindergarten rooms to learn about a holiday celebrated in a different place in the world.  Would anyone like to come in for that afternoon to be a classroom helper?  It is always helpful to have some extra hands for the crafting part of the afternoon.  Let me know if you would like to volunteer to help on that day.  It is from 12:00-2:00. 
Here are some photos from our week.....


Making strawberry frozen yogurt pie....it was a hit!


Mr. Pratt was our last Mystery Reader.


We've been learning to count by 2's....this is our hallway bulletin board.


Working together to build marble mazes.


Our classroom quilt....

Sledding Fun

We had a great time sledding with our Big Buddies today!