Friday, October 27, 2017

We've Got Spirit How 'bout You?

What a great spirit week we had in honor of Red Ribbon Week!  Monday was Pajama Day, Tuesday was Cool Day, Wednesday was team/sports day, Thursday was Crazy Day, and today (Friday) was school color day. 
Pajama Day!

Cool Day!

Sports Day!

Unfortunately I was unable to get pictures on crazy day and School Spirit Day.  The class seemed to have a great time dressing up and showing their school spirit.

Throughout this week, we also did two experiments on gravity.  In our first experiment, we saw how gravity pulled on two different-sized shoes, Mrs. Crook's shoe and one student shoe.  The shoes had rubber bands tied to them and then hung and we watched the rubber bands stretch.  The class determined that the shoe that had the rubber band stretched by more was heavier and that it was being pulled by gravity more than the lighter-weight shoe.

Our Observation Page

Our other gravity experiment, involved some painting.  the students held up papers as they painted and watched the paint drip down the page.  The class decided that the paint was falling because of gravity!  This was so much fun for the students to see gravity in action.


















Watch it fall!





One of our main focuses in class during these first couple months of school has been recognizing and naming our capital letters.  (We have also been working on recognizing numbers 0 - 20.)  We have been doing a lot of hands-on activities to build letters, say letters, and find letters.  Take a peek at how much fun learning our letters can be!
 

These little busy bees are very hard workers and love to learn so much. 

Important Information

As of this week, there is needing to be a change at the Kindergarten gate.  For the morning drop-off, you will need to drop your student off by using the main gate in front of the office.  Students who are going to the cafeteria for breakfast will enter in through the main gate.  Also, students who are being dropped off in Ms. Brown's room or Mrs. Torres' room will need to go through the main gate.  Parents are still allowed to walk their students onto campus, but will need to be off of campus by 8:00, or will need to get a visitor's badge from the office.  The kindergarten team is also asking that you exit in the mornings through the main gate.  
PICK-UP: This will be the same as it has been and parents are to pick up their child at the gate.  Please form a line going back towards the main part of the school as this helps things go smoother for families and students.
Thank you so much for your understanding in this matter.  This is being done for the concern of student safety.  Your cooperation is appreciated!

Upcoming Events:

Our class Halloween party will be on Tuesday, Oct. 31st and will go from 10am - 11am.  If you haven't already, please sign-up on class tag to help bring an item for our class party.
Oct. 31st is a minimum day and students will be dismissed at 12:20pm.
Oct. 31st - School-wide parade on the blacktop.  Parents are welcome to watch and take pictures.  Please do not post any pictures online if it is not your own child.  Parents please do not come in costume, as this is a safety concern for the students and staff.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, October 20, 2017

Field Trip Pictures....Pumpkins for the Little Pumpkins

Well, I didn't post last week since we were only in school for two of the days due to the smoke from the nearby fires.  My heart goes out to those that are suffering from this terrible firestorm.  However, I have to say that it felt so good to be back in the classroom for the whole week and run our regular classroom routine. 
Last week before school was closed we did manage to do a fun exploration on pumpkins with a pumpkin from our school garden.  We measured how tall our pumpkin was in cubes, made predictions about if it would float or sink, and made predictions about how many seeds were in our class pumpkin.
How many seeds do you think are in this pumpkin?


 Slimy...


Counting Seeds




Many students predicted it would be around 9 or 10, like when we counted the number of seeds in our apple.  After splitting up all of the seeds between the table groups and counting them out, we determined that our pumpkin had 224 seeds.  

To continue and extend our exploration of pumpkins, we went on our much anticipated (and postponed) field trip to Renker Farm.  On our field trip we enjoyed a wonderful tour of the entire farm and we learned about the 43 different items grown on the farm... .not just pumpkins!





















On our field trip we also went through the corn maze and of course picked pumpkins!


Scarecrow face!






We had such a great time at the pumpkin patch!  And believe it or not, we even managed to get in some learning of our letters and numbers between all of our fun and learning about pumpkins and harvest time.

Upcoming Events

*Spirit week - Monday, Oct. 23 - Friday, Oct. 27 for Red Ribbon Week
Monday = Pajama Day (no stuffed animals)
Tuesday = Cool Day - wear sunglasses, hats, etc. at recess
Wednesday = Team Sports Day - wear a team uniform or jersey
Thursday = Crazy Day - backwards, crazy hair, crazy socks, etc.
Friday = School Colors - Purple and Black

Please make sure for our spirit days that your child is still following our school dress code.

Tuesday, Oct. 31st ---
HALLOWEEN 
Parade in the morning at 8am - parents are able to stay for parade only unless you are signed in at the office.  Costumes are fine for the parade, but please no masks, scary costumes, or weapons.
Our class will be having a party that day; please sign up on ClassTag if you are planning on bringing a STORE BOUGHT treat/goodie.
This day is also a minimum day with students being dismissed at 12:20pm

Have a great weekend!