Grandparents = Book Fairies

What a fantastic week so far!

We have had so much fun visiting the book fair and have really lucked up! Thanks to MANY generous donations from YOU (our wonderful classroom supporters  parents and grandparents) we have added a ton of awesome books to our classroom library.  We now have the entire set of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid chapter books, almost the full collection of the I Survived books, a great new start to the collection of Who Was and Who Is series, and several other individual titles! The students in this room LOVE to read and boy did they show it this week!

         

The highlight of our week has been Grandparents Day, which we honored Tuesday morning with a special grandparents breakfast, classroom activity, and trip to the book fair.  I captured some amazing pictures of all the grandparents with their grandchildren (some grandparents were kind enough to adopt an additional child for the morning) and wanted to share them with you with a fun Smilebox Video.  Just click on the link below.  Enjoy!

Grandparent's Day Picture Video!

Change is Coming!

Well, it is with a nervous excitement that I share this news.  I am leaving first grade, to go back to the place it all started 10 years ago...kindergarten!  I was a kindergarten teacher for my very first year of teaching.  I was so young, fresh out of college, and not at all sure how to run a kindergarten classroom.  Looking back, I can say with a bit of humble pride that the year was a smashing success (with the help of some amazing veteran teachers).  I will NEVER forget those sweet faces or loving hugs (I can still list every child's first and last name from that class).  However, as the year ended, I approached my principal about moving to a higher grade the following year because I longed to teach a class with a more structured schedule.  I went to 3rd, and then 1st, and then 2nd, and then back to 1st, where I  have been teaching for 4 consecutive years!  Every move has been of my choice and I have just been incredibly blessed to have principals who have always supported my grade-level changes.  This change is perhaps the biggest one yet.  Not only am I switching grade levels but I will also be moving to a new school.  I am sad to know that I will not be able to see the smiling faces of my students from the past four years as they pass through the halls.  I am sad to leave the colleagues that I have grown close to over the years.  I am devastated about leaving my assistant of the past 3 years; she has truly been my partner. I swear I think we can finish each other sentences 75% of the time.  With this being said, I am incredibly excited about getting another chance to teach kindergarten.  I have grown so much over the past ten years, both personally and professionally, and I can't wait to use what I have learned in the most important grade-level....the foundation of it all.  I am also beyond excited about joining a new staff and learning more from all they have to offer.  So give me some time to settle in with my new kinders and keep your eyes open because we will be blogging this school year!  I just have to remember how to keep their attention long enough to participate;)     

"change is a reflection of our inner growth and empowerment."

— Robert E. Quinn

  

Our New Years Resolutions!

We have returned to school after a nice two week break. We started by brainstorming and writing our New Years Resolutions for the new year. This is what we would like to accomplish in 2012:

Piper - I will take the trash.
Zach- I will drink more sprite.
Katherine- I will be more nice to my brother.
Caroline- I will do more chores.
Rhodes - I will save my money to buy nerf guns.
Katie Grace- I will try to get along with my sister.
Grayson - I will my mom do the dishes.
Warner - I will get more exercise.
Rafa- I will be more nice to my cats.
Vivien - I will try to eat healthier so I can workout at the Y.
Sydney- I will help endangered animals.
Joel - I will clean dishes.
William - I will get along with my sister.
Katy D. - I will get along with my brother.
Harrison - I will play with my dog more.
Troupe- I will play outside more.
Maizie- I will be more nice to my cat.
Marcelo - I will start helping my mom clean my room.
Mrs. Ziegler - I will try to add pictures and videos to our blog!

*Parent Participation Requested* We would love to hear some of your own New Years Resolution! Please respond with a comment.

Gingerbread Week!

Today in art we got to watch a movie called the Snowman. (Vivien)
Mr. Echols was supposed to come today but he could not. (Katie Grace)
We finished our W.W.W. words for this week. (Katherine)
We wrote about our Gingerbread celebrities. (Caroline)
We played a fact family game on the active board this morning. (Piper)
We thought Mrs. Ziegler had gone home for the day but really she was just out of the room for a few minutes! (Marcelo)
We read some more of the Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. (Sydney)
We got to do some comparing numbers. (William)
We only have four more pages of the Gingerbread Baby left! (Joel)
Eleven more day until Christmas!(Vivien)
We went on the back playground. (Caroline)
We worked more on our social studies mapping project. (Caroline)

Our First Field Trip!

We went on our first field trip yesterday. We went to Historic Bethebara Park and learned a lot of really interesting things:

The Moravian's came to America by sailing on a ship called the Peace. (Vivien)
They used the bathroom in a pot. (Katherine)
The museum used fake food as examples of what the Moravian's ate and used in their kitchen. (Joel)
They rang a bell when there was a fire in the village. (Harrison)
The ladies had to milk the cows. (Katie Grace)
They had jobs when they were as young as three years old. (Warner)
Instead of a Christmas tree they had a Christmas Pyramid made of wood. (Rafa)
A red ribbon in your bonnet meant you were a young girl. (Troupe)
They had a ghost in the museum! (Zach)
Whoever was the last one to use the bathroom had to clean the pot out in the river. (Maizie)
In the dining room they had a bell that the teacher would ring when the kids were too noisy. (Marcelo)
Their clothes were different than ours, they had to wear one single shirt that was their night shirt, underwear, and their work shirt. (William and Joel)
The girls had a woman teacher and the boys had a male teacher. (Caroline)
The kids had to share a bed. (Rhodes)
The girls and boys went to school at different times of the day. (Sydney)
Their spoons were made out of cow horns. (Grayson)
We got to see the weapons they used. (Piper)
I you had a white ribbon in your bonnet it meant your husband had died. (Vivien)
After our field trip we came back to school and had a chicken nugget party from Chick-Fil-A! (Harrison)

Telling Time and Being Thankful

In science today Mr. Echols came in for a science lesson. He put a nut in a balloon and we shook it to make a sound. (Katherine)
In shared reading we heard a story about Native Americans and the things they were thankful for. (Katie Grace)
In phonics and word block we chanted and cheered who, house and old. (Vivien)
We learned about clocks. (Katy D.)
Today in science we also put nuts, rocks, Lego's, and marbles in balloons. (Harrison)
In math we read a book about clocks. (Joel)
In writing today we wrote about what we did with Mr. Echols. (Piper)
At the end of our shared reading lesson we drew pictures that showed the sequence of the story. (William)
When Mr. Echols was here he let us put these squishy balls and cubes in water and then he said they would change so we should look at them in the morning. (Sydney)

Tuesday, November 8th

We went to P.E and played Capture the Flag. (Katherine)
In Social Studies we listened to a story on Learn360.com about the Pilgrims. (Zachary)
In writing we shared our stories. (Katie Grace)
Today we got through everything on our schedule! (Joel)
In Shared Reading we heard a story on Tumblebooks.com called Caillou and Gilbert. (Katy D.)
The problem in the story was that Caillou had no one to play with.(Marcelo)
The solution to Caillou's problem was that he had to play cat games with his cat. (William)
Today in math we made shapes out of play-doh. (Vivien)
In phonics and word block we cheered and chanted our new word wall words and they were: too and two! (Vivien, Joel, Zach and Troupe)