Today we began the day with reading books at our tables, instead of Center Time. After that, we had a short morning meeting, and then wrote two invitations as a class - one to Mr. Wold, and the other to Mrs. Wold. A couple of the kids brought them to their rooms, and after we read a couple of books, we had a surprise for Mr. and Mrs. Wold - and we gave them the baby advice book that we made (each child wrote a page of advice for the parents-to-be) and the fleece tie-blanket that we made for the baby. They were very surprised.

Then we had art class with Ms. Gilman -- the kids made sculptures with modeling clay.

Then we finished up a "secret project" and then watched a slideshow of all of the photos that I have taken so far this year while we ate popcorn. After that, it was time to pack up and go home.

Enjoy your breaks, and have a very happy, peaceful, and joyous holiday season.

See you next year! (That's a kindergarten joke that never gets old on the last day before Winter Break...)

Today was the first day when we were back to "normal" in kindergarten, after the 12 Days of Winter projects. We began the day with reading at our tables, and then had morning meeting. We worked to finish up a couple of projcts that we had lingering, and then we headed up the computer lab for our time there.

When we got back down to the room, we met a new High Hat friend in our phonics program -- Eddy Elf. We learned about the short /e/ sound (/e/ as in ten). We also did a bit of work with a new word family - words that end in -en, such as ten, men, Ben, hen, etc.

After our phonics work, we had Choice Time, and then packed up the sugar cube igloos (look for them in your child's backpack today...), and then it was time to go home!

Today was the 12th (and last) day of Winter in our series. Today, the book page read, "On the twelfth day of Winter, my teacher gave to me: 12 treats for tasting." Yikes! We had 12 different snacks to sample, and the kids did a fill-in-the-letter activity for each snack. It (along with any snacks that they had left over) should be in their backpacks today.

After the snacking, we went to the gym for our class there with Mr. Hill and Mr. Peterson. When we got back, we worked on a couple of projects. One I can;t tell you about -- it's a secret. The other was the Take-Apart Center with Nicholas' dad once again. The last was a writing project, that is something of a secret -- ask your child the people for whom they wrote advice today. Not everyone got to do it, but everyone will have written a page for the book we are making by tomorrow.

After all of that, it was time for us to bundle up and head home.

Today was the 11th (whew!) Day of Winter in kindergarten, so today we read, "On the 11th day of winter, my teacher gave to me: 11 cubes for gluing..." We made igloos out of sugar cubes by gluing them on to styrofoam balls. They took some doing, but turned out really nicely. I think that they MIGHT be dry by Friday, if we are lucky... :-)

After our craft, we headed up to the library for our time there with Mrs. Hennen. When we got back down to our room, Nicholas' dad came in to run the Take-Apart Center. he also brought in some worker safety equipment to show all of us, and then we drew names to go to the take-apart center to dismantle an electric drill.

After Choice Time, we got all bundled up and headed home.

Today was our 10th day of the 12 Days of Winter. Today, the page in our book said, "On the 10th day of winter, my teacher gave to me, 10 holes for stitching." We made mittens, that turned out very cute, if we do say so ourselves... The kids used large needles and yarn to stitch around the outsides of the felt mitten cut-outs, and then decorated them with buttons and pompoms. Check out their creation in their backpack today!

After our sewing, we headed up to the computer lab for our time there for reading and math practice. When we came back down, we had a very short Morning Meeting, and read our new Star of the Week poster (nice job, Sasha!). We then read two "mitten" books - The Mitten, and The Missing Mitten. After that, we had Choice Time, and then it was time to bundle everyone up and go home.

Stay warm!

Today was day number 9 in the 12 Days of Winter. Today, "my teacher gave to me: 9 worms for watching." We "worms in dirt", which was gummy bears and chocolate pudding in a cup. the kids had a good, and remarkably un-messy, time. After our treat, we colored in our 12 Days of Winter Books.

After our craft, we had art class with Ms. Gilman in our classroom - the kids worked with clay today.

After art, we met a new high Hat friend - Zoo Zoo, and talked abou the /z/ sound, especially that fact that both z and s can make that sound (liek in zebra and in eyes). After that, we had a short Choice Time, and then packed up to go home!

TGIF - enjoy your weekend!

Today was day number 8 in the 12 Days of Winter. Today, "my teacher gave to me: 8 bells for jingling." We made jingle bell bracelets, which I'm sure that you have seen (and, perhaps more to the point, heard) at home today. After our craft, we had a short morning meeting, and then headed up to the computer lab for our half hour of math and reading practice there.

After the computer lab, we had math class. We're beginning to talk about measurement. The kids built a measuring stick out of unifix cubes (they look like this), and then measured things that were shorter and longer than that, and recorded their findings on the page that they brought home today.

We then had Choice Time, and then packed up to go home.

Today was the 7th Day of Winter for us, and today "my teacher gave to me: 7 flakes for snipping" -- we made tissue paper snowflakes! They turned out really nicely - ask your child if they can teach you how to make a six-pointed snowflake!

After our craft, we headed down to the gym for the Family Fun Run with Mr. Hill and Mr. Peterson. It was really fun -- the kids all ran for 15 minutes, some of it with the lights down and the disco ball going. The kids thought (and many of the parents, I suspect) thought that it was pretty cool. In case you were wondering, I also ran for 15 minutes.

After gym, we had a quick clean-up time (picture 25 kids all making tiny tissue paper scraps at the same time), and then Ryan E.'s mom, Ms. Barb cam in to read to us again. She read Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, and The Mysterious Giant of Barletta. After all of that, it was time for us to pack up and head home!

Today was day number 6 of the 12 days of winter - "On the sixth day of winter, my teacher gave to me: 6 socks for stuffing, etc...). We made sock snowpeople, using bird seed to fill the bottom, and fiber fill to make the two upper parts. It was great fun - and the kids got to take home the snowpeople today.

After our craft, we headed up to the Media Center for our weekly time there with Mrs. Hennen.

Back down in our class, we had a quick version of Morning Meeting, and then Lisa Mellas (a fellow kindergarten parent) came into to present Art Adventures again. The Art Adventure program, once again, is from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (for more information on the MIA, click here, and to see some of the works that we looked at, click here -- we saw the fresco from Italy, the beaded crown from Africa, and the transformation mask from Canada). The kids also made a transformation mask of their own out of a paper plate, whcih they also brought home today.

After all that, it was time for us to pack up and go home!

Today we continued with the 12 Days of Winter -- today was day number 5 - "5 gold stars." We cut out small stars, covered them with gold foil, and pasted them into our books. It took a (un)surprisingly long time for all of us to cut and paste and cut again -- but the pages in our books turned out remarkably well.

After our craft, we headed up to the computer lab for our time there. when we got back to the room, we had a very short Afternoon Meeting (it's the 60th day of kindergarten already!!), and we read our new Star of the Week poster (nice job, Sebastian!). Then we met a new High Hat friend in our phonics lesson - Ollie Octopus (the short /o/ sound, like in 'octopus.' We also talked about a new word family - words that end in -op, like hop, mop, pop, top, and stop. Then we had Choice Time - and the kids discovered that the new dramatic play area is a Puppet Theater - they had fun doing and watching puppet shows. There were also paper bags on the art center for puppet making as well.

Today was day number 3 in the 12 Days of Winter - three penguins. We made a cute little penguin from construction paper to glue into our books. The kids traced and cut, and then assembled them. (Thanks to Regan Hartney, who cut out all of the little tiny feet and beaks for the penguins!)

After our craft, we had Morning Meeting, and then it was off to the computer lab for our half hour there. when we got back to the room, we worked on math with the 100s chart, and then had a little bit longer Choice Time than usual, since we have missed it for the past 2 days.

Today we continued with the 12 Days of Winter sequence. On day 2, "my teacher gave to me: two teddy bears, and a bird feeder in a snowy tree." Today we colored another page in our 12 Days of Winter book, and the added a hibernation cover for the bears on the page. We read a couple of books about hibernation (The Bear Snores On and Time for Sleep). We also played a hibernation game, in which the kids covered their eyes and pretended to 'hibernate'. While they were all 'asleep,' I covered one of them with a sheet. Then I said "Springtime!" and they opened up their eyes and had to try to guess who was still hibernating. It was great fun!

After our game, we headed down to the gym for our time there with Mr. Hill and Mr. Peterson. When we got back, we read Ryan M.'s Star of the Week poster (nice job, Ryan!!), and them Ms. Barb, Ryan E.'s mom, came in to read to us. She read There's a Wocket in my Pocket and Paddington Bear. By the time she finished, it was time to pack up and head home!

Today, we started our 12 Days of Winter celebration. We are basing the next couple of weeks on the picture book The Twelve Days of Winter, and doing a craft or activity each of the next 12 days. Today we made (as you probably discovered in your child's backpack) a pinecone birdfeeder. It was really fun, and a surprisingly small mess.

We spent the first part of the day doing that, and it went right up until it was time to go to the library for Media with Mrs. Hennen. After media, we came back down to the room, and Lisa Mellas (a kindergarten parent from Mr. Wold's room) came in to teach an art lesson as a part of the Art Adventure program from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (for more information on the MIA, click here, and to see some of the works that we looked at, click here -- we saw the portrait of the woman by Vigée-Le Brun, the Hmong ceremonial skirt, and the Ojibwa beaded cape). Art Adventure is a really cool program that brings works that are a part of the permanent collection at the MIA to schools, and invites kids to really take a close look at the works, and think about them. The kids also had a chance to make beaded bracelets, to get a sense of how the beading on the vest worked.

By the time we finished all that, it was time to pack up and head home!