Happy Birthday Clifford

Last Monday, September 24th, Clifford (the Big Red Dog) turned 50

My kids had a blast with a day long birthday party celebrating this famous and oh-so loved pooch!

We read:

• Clifford goes to Dog School
• Clifford's Busy Week
• The Big leaf pile
• Clifford's Manners
• Clifford's birthday party

 Some fun activities:

color & cut out leaves (then made a giant pile on the floor and jumped into them)

color a birthday picture & made a birthday card for Clifford

played hot potato with Clifford (he was "the potato" hehe)

watched some clifford cartoons on DVD

I think the kids had a great day and we might just have to do it again next year when Clifford turns 51 :-)



Handwriting

Being able to write your letters correctly is one of the most important things that your child will learn early in life. Correct letter formation, at times, can seem complicated or to some, it might even seem that the ending letter view is the only thing that matters.
Bad habits can be formed early on and have children forming letters incorrectly. It is all a process and there is a right and a wrong way to form each letter. At the beginning of this week, I sent home a letter explaining how each letter is formed to help you work with your child to make sure their letters are written the right way.

Sometimes, kids can write the letters correctly, they just don't want to (or get bored with) constantly practing their alphabet letters with a pencil & paper. Here are some creative ways to get kids to practice their letter formations without using a pencil and paper:

• write letters with playdough
• shaving cream on the bathroom wall
• paint on paper
• sidewalk chalk
• salt or sugar laying in a cookie sheet

Throughout the year, I will be sending home activities to help your child write and identify their letters. If you ever have any questions or need more ideas for home, just let me know :-)

Virtual Tour

Wednesday night was our open house and I was bummed to see that I had about 7 "no-shows" but it was still a good time and I was excited to see the many new faces who will be my students or parents this year :-)
If you missed it (or want to look again), here is a little tour of my classroom (different from last year)

our lunch count station

coat and book bag hooks

storage space above sink

morning meeting station

our back to school book rack

Mrs. Eckenrode's desk (soon to be decorated with polka dots)

students' mailboxes (they already have mail in them!)

we sit at tables in our classroom

Luhrs Adventure

The past two years, our kindergarten class (along with other classrooms at New Franklin Elementary) has taken an extra field trip up to Luhrs Performing Arts Center  to see a play/musical. This has only been made possible because parents pay their own way and ride themselves up to Shippensburg.
Two years ago, we saw Click Clack Moo and last year we went to see Seussical.
A few weeks ago, I got the schedule for this season @ Luhrs and I about screamed out loud from excitement!! SkippyJon Jones, that adorable little Siamese cat that thinks it is a Chihuahua, is about to hit the  stage and we are going to be there as close as we can get.

If you are unfamiliar with the cute character of SkippyJon, now is the perfect time to get acquainted. Currently, Kohls has various SkippyJon Jones books and stuffed animals as their Kohls Cares promotion books. If you want to check out these books before purchasing, check out your local library shelves all written by Judy Schachner. He even has his own website :-)

Strawberry Hill

On May 10th, our school was blessed to be visited by the Strawberry Hill Association and they did a primary session on using our five senses to explore nature (on our own school grounds)



• For smell, we have film canisters filled with a cotton ball that had been doused with a particular scent. The 1st grown up that walked through the children had them smell the scent that the students then had to ID by smelling the rest of our canisters and matching the scent (the kids didnt particually care for most of the smells emitting from the canisters hehe)
• For taste, the kids were told about how the different zones of your tongue and how your taste buds taste different flavors then gave them Smarties to test out the zones

• For sight, we had the children walk through of the garden where they had to notice items that didn't belong there AT ALL! (they had hid a jump rope, rubber hand, stuffed animal rabbits & dinosaurs, plus much more!).
• For touch, we partnered the students up, blindfolded one, then had them lead their partner to a tree. When the blindfold off, the child had to go find out which tree their partner had led them to while they were blindfolded

• For hearing, the kids were told about "deer ears" and were asked to be quiet and hear everything in their environment around them



Renfrew or bust

On Monday, May 7th, our kindergarten class hopped on a bus (which we had ALL to ourselves!!) and headed over to Waynesboro where we were attending our annual trip to Renfrew Musuem & Park (a simply marvelous place if you have never visited Check it Out)
We were signed up for two sessions (Life on a farm 200 years ago and Discovering Nature with our 5 senses). For days (weeks actually), our kids have been super excited about our field trip, and let's face it, it was hard not to be excited! A whole day out of our classroom walls, exploring nature and learning at the same time?!?! Yeah, I was super stoked too (and this was my 3rd time visiting the place with a class) The weather was a little chiller than we had anticipated but there was no way that was going to dampen our experience :-)

Lily, Clara, Madison, Sophia, Riley, and Miss Chandace
(we are waiting our turn to go up the steps by the smokehouse)

sitting around our teacher to learn about planting our seeds
and how the farmers lived on the land 200 years ago

Mr. Jerry helping the boys get into their dress up clothes
(ah, Mr. Jerry you were a God-send on this trip!)

Boys & Girls in their dress up clothes

Our whole class
(with full bellies from lunch, ready for our afternoon session)



I taught the kids that when you are using your listening cups in the woods to hear sounds if you press it around your ear, you will actually not have to hold it with your hands anymore

Miss Bergan took pictures of our whole class around the circle trying this advice out

The pictures are totally priceless

I love looking at Maddy in the bottom photo on the end.

The angle shows straight into the cup displaying Maddy's ear for all to see :-)

It's been awhile

Well I guess you can all tell that it has been a few weeks that Miss Miller has been done teaching: now I don't have all the free time to blog our classroom's events like a good, little diligent teacher ;-) haha
Things have been going fantastic though (aside from all our moping around missing Miss Miller!) We just started a new ELA (English Language Arts) unit where we are going to be discussing fact vs. opinion and learning how to write persuasive writing.
In math, we have begun learning how to master addition, which they are REALLY good at, and have just finished up a mini unit on shapes (2D and 3D)

I look at the last 4 weeks we have in front of us and while a small part of me cannot wait for summer vacation (you dont want me to lie, do you? haha), the bigger part of me just wishes that our time together would never end! (nobody minds if I just stay on and become their 1st grade teacher do you? hahahahaha)

We have many memory making opportunities left, though, and we will do what we do best: have the time of our lives!

• our field trip to Renfrew on Monday, May 7th (did you see how much fun we had last year?)
• 5 senses puppet show on Thursday May 10th
• field day on Monday June 4th
• kindergarten graduation on Friday June 8th

New Children's Literature

Last night (just like last year New Children's books) Miss Miller and I headed over to Andrew Buchanan for a marvelous presentation on "The Year's best books in children's literature" by Susan Berrier (the librarian of Andrew Buchanan and Lurgan Elementary in the Chambersburg Area School District)
First of all, I forgot how much I LOVE listening to this woman read aloud!! Seriously, if I taught at Buchanan or Lurgan I will totally be going to library with my kindergarteners instead of using the 35 minutes as a prep period :-)
I saw some great picture books that are definitely worth sharing...

Belive me, Goldilocks Rocks! (as told by Baby Bear)

written by Nancy Jean Loewen and Tatevik Avakyan

Bailey written by Harry Bliss

a great read aloud for the 1st or 2nd day of school. Shows the events of a school day from the morning before school through going home at the end of the day, with Bailey the dog as an enthusiactic student

How Rocket Learned how to Read by Tad Hills

An endearing white dog with black spots loves chasing leaves and chewing sticks. He also loves napping under his favorite tree. Then his sleep is interrupted one spring day by a tiny yellow bird that designates him her first student. Rocket wants no part of her lessons, but the bird is determined to teach him to read.

RRalph by Lois Ehlert

The narrator describes discovering how Ralph the dog can talk, appropriately saying words such as "roof, rough, bark, & wolf"

Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian

funny first-person "journal" of a goldfish in his bowl, which is getting more and more crowded

Dog in Boots written by Greg Gormley

Dog keeps going back to the shoe store to find the perfect pair of shoes to do all of the things that a dog needs to be able to do

Easter Activities

What a great celebration our class had for Easter
We had a great morning of Easter activities :-)

Miss Bergan played a game "Find the Chick" (sight word practice)



Miss Miller had the students create bunny ears headbands

Lily & Luke

 

and they dyed Easter eggs at the table with me :-)

Hunter and Myleigh

Marissa, Levi, and Trai

Josue & Issac

Overall, it was such a fun day! We ended with an Easter Egg relay race

Xander

Gavin



On Thursday, we had an Easter egg hunt outside (thank you to the 5th grade students who helped us hide 190 eggs!)

"Oh your mark, get set, go!"

Riley

Here a peep, there a peep

It has been an absolute blast bonding with the chicks this week....
All week that little girl from the movie Despicable Me has been playing over & over again in my mind
"IT'S SOOO FLUFFY!!!!"