For The Little Ones

In light of last week's tragedy in Connecticut, 

I sought out a few links that address talking to children 

after a tragedy. 

• From CNN:  5 Tips On Talking To Kids About Scary News
• From Aha!Parenting...an excellent article 
• From RSD:  Talking To Kids About Violence

Kindergartners will benefit from a TV that is NOT tuned into the news, or documentaries about the tragedy.  Five- and six-year-olds are not able to process the total truth of what has happened; they are not equipped emotionally to handle this information.  In the coming days, you may see your child process what they have heard or absorbed by incorporating it into his/her play.  Today, I watched quite a few students look for places to hide during indoor recess....I also heard stories of nightmares and trouble sleeping.  I am glad that the children feel assured in a way that enables them to share their hearts with our teaching staff.

My heart goes out to the students, staff, and families at Sandy Hook Elementary.  Please keep them in your prayers this Christmas and as the new year arrives.

Catching Up With Weeks 15 and 16

Writing words, measuring area and perimeter,
crafting vocabulary words with play do

Our Gingerbread Boy!,
counting jewels for the Christmas trees,
sorting money, measuring

Gingerbread Science
We worked our way through the scientific process
with giggles of enthusiasm!

The Author's Chair
We shared our Thanksgiving Books.

Graphing sight words, sorting manipulatives,
creating beautiful things, counting cookies by the dozen

Countdown To Christmas!

Seeing ourselves in the Nativity

We are good sports!

Weeks 13 and 14~~Thanksgiving!

Turkeys In Disguise
Great job, everyone!
More pics coming soon.

We had a great discussion regarding the meaning of a name.
Each child named his/herself!

We made Thanksgiving cards!

Week 12~~ Patriotism (& Turkey Info)

We said The Pledge Of Allegiance at the veteran's breakfast.

~Buouancy~

What will sink?  What will float?

We used foam stickers to count and add sets.

The playdo smells like pumpkin pie!

The reporter uses a pointer and a pair of frames 

to read sight words and phonograms.

Turkeys In Disguise

Princess Turkey picture is HERE!

A variety of turkeys can be seen HERE!

Turkeys are due on 11/19, 

but may be sent to class whenever they are completed.

There is a display board prepped for them!

Week 11: 50th Day & Pumpkins

We celebrated the 50th day of school with costumes, 

bubblegum blowing, and root beer floats!

We were all able to lift our pumpkin!

We also estimated the circumference and 

examined the rind, pulp, and seeds.

We measured ourselves against the "pumpkin" plates, 

then measured the length of our animals with unifix cubes.

Our stamina for Read To Self is now 13 minutes!

The window glass and sunlight cast a gorgeous rainbow
around a corner of our room.
We dropped everything to look, question, discuss, document!

November Memory Verses~Psalm 100:1-5

Please check the Memory Verses Page Link 

for the actual breakdown of memory due dates and verses.

Weeks 9 & 10: Bats & Spiders

We added words to our book about nocturnal animals.

We know the beginning sounds of words.

We wrote a mission statement!

We made mini smores and ate them around our 'campfire'.

marshmallows/chocolate bars/teddy grahams

We choose quiet spots to read together.

We match numerals with ten frame cards.

We created owl booklets during Writer's Workshop.

Mrs. Platts squealed with delight when she found this spider.
It's alive!

We added sets of numbers in the spider webs.

We stretched the sounds to form words.

We have spider schema!

Week 8: Nocturnal Animals & Field Trip Pics

We read together.

We "Write The Room":  we searched for nocturnal animals!

We measured bats with nonstandard tools.

We used our writing journals and learned to draw a bat!

We strengthened our fine motor skills by crafting owls.

We listened to worship music during Art... and we sang!

We painted leaves with watercolors.

We took our first field trip to a pumpkin farm.

Some of us flew on the zip line!

Some of us shot potatoes at scarecrows!

We toured the farm on a hay wagon.

We enjoyed the carpool ride!

We earned a class reward--dress up day!
Pictured:  Peter Parker, Spiderman, Superman, a fierce creature, a Cardinals player