All You Need Is Love, and 100 things

What a great Valentine's Day/ 100th Day of School we had!  In addition to our regular routines, we enjoyed painting a GIANT 100, counting, sorting and playing with our 100 things, writing and exchanging Valentine's, listening to stories about the number 100, and of course, hugging.  Thank you to Spencer for delicious lips (apple and peanut butter slices that looked like lips!) for everyone.  Also thanks to Eli for some amazing mini cupcakes... it isn't Valentine's Day without some sweet treats!

What a fun day!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Painting away...

We ALL enjoyed these!

All dressed up to write some Valentines!

Don't worry parents, we didn't eat them!

In groups of 10, these 100 elastic bands were easy to count.

Opening our "mailboxes" at the end of the day... finally!!

100 star beads, 100 googly eyes, 100 pennies= art!

This says it all!

Working with 100 marbles below our 100 painting!

Best day ever?

Today was just plain fun!  Looking back on it, I'm not quite sure how we fit it all in... a Read Aloud "gift" from Mrs. Gaston's 4th Grade first thing in the morning; a story, special snack, and gingerbread people art project with our 3rd Grade Reading Buddies; and an end-of-the-day yoga session with some awesome parent-teachers!

creative poses in kids' yoga!

Miss Pickers (3rd grade) reading about gingerbread pirates!

Busy boys at this table

A glimpse into why our classroom looked like a tornado hit it

Great teamwork!

Tomorrow I'll be out all day due to a conference in Northeast Harbor, but will be back on Wednesday to hold our classroom holiday celebration, which will consist of decorating real gingerbread cookies (as opposed to the paper ones we made today) and putting the finishing touches on some special gifts :)

Just a reminder that Thursday is the last day of school until 2012- wow!  Time flies when you're having fun in Kindergarten...

Happy Holidays and TGIF!

Chart to go with our Mouse Count activity; we used mice in jars at our seats (fake, of course!)

Our classroom is covered in glitter and bursting with holiday spirit.  We've been working on holiday cards, surprise holiday gifts and a number of art projects to decorate our classroom!  Even our Share time has taken on a holiday twist.  We have had a lot of fun with Math this week, using the story Mouse Count to talk about decomposing numbers.  There are a lot of ways to make 10: 1+9, 5+5, 7+3... the possibilities are [almost] endless!

Great listeners today!

Thanks to Max's dad for visiting and reading an awesome story about wolves, and inspiring some great informational writing this morning!

We have a busy week coming up: a visit to the computer lab, 3rd grade reading buddies and an art activity, a read aloud "gift" from the 4th grade, and a classroom celebration on Wednesday!  We will be decorating gingerbread cookies, so there is no need for parents to send in anything except their child and some holiday cheer!

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

Today's "Share" included a Christmas Carol book and performance!

 

 

Writing up a storm

In just three months of school I have seen SO much progress in the kids' writing.  It is really exciting to watch and listen to them strategize and confidently take risks in their drawing and writing... look how focused they are!  We have written narratives this trimester, and they have really taken off.

Some of the children don't want to stop writing!  Others find it a little bit more tiring, but in small increments of time manage to get a lot of ideas out, and revisit them quite well later in the day at our writing conferences. 

With the holidays coming up, we have begun talking about celebrations in our country and around the world... today we read "A Kwanzaa Miracle" and talked about the ways it is similar to Christmas and Hanukkah.

Tomorrow you'll be receiving an interesting and exciting note from me in your child's backpack, so keep an eye out!  Today they should be bringing home the newsletter and the November weather graph.  It would be a great extension for you to look it over with your child and ask him or her some questions about the information.

Have a great night!

~Mrs. Fournier