Kindergarten is the BEST place on Earth!

                      

After school I went to the Media Center to preview the selection of items for the Book Fair. We have A LOT of great books this year!! I took a bunch of pictures to put in the slide show and I even made up a Wish List of books for the classroom. :) Enjoy looking at the pictures!

Hope to see all of you on Tuesday, March 4 during our Book Fair Time (11:20-12:05) or at Family Night on Thursday, March 13 (4:00-7:00).  :)

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The students did a great job asking her questions and gathering research for our graphic organizer. The students asked her what types of things she liked to eat (sushi and french fries) and places she likes to visit (NYC). They asked her LOTS of questions about her family and how old each person was (we found out both her parents are 67.) Then we discussed how she looks... Everyone wanted to write how pretty and beautiful she was. :) This is when we really had to discuss facts and opinions. (Telling your children that we can not put emotions into our reports was hard... they wanted to write sweet things, because they love Ms.Godbold.) So we really had to buckle down and focus. We decided on glasses, her clothing (jeans/pants and t-shirts), a Gator's necklace, the stuff the students said, "she wears everyday!"

The students worked on these pieces for 3 writing sessions. Some sessions the students worked alone, other sessions were with a partner and some students had work sessions with me. :) Here is a slide show for you to see the students writing. Enjoy!

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Our Book Fair will run from March 3 - March 14. The Book Fair will sell books, along with stickers, pointers, posters, pencils and so more! Payment for the items can be made with cash, checks (made out to CLE) and major credit cards. A 7% sales tax will be added to every sale and all sales are final.

Our class will visit the Book Fair on Tuesday, March 4 from 11:20-12:05. If you are free at that time, come on over to the Media Center and visit the Book Fair! Then you can shop with your child!! :)  If you are unable to make it in that day, do not worry. We will have a Family Book Fair Night on Thursday, March 13 from 4:00p.m.-7:00p.m. Plus there will be open shopping times at the end of every Book Fair day.

Your child will be bringing home a Book Fair Flyer tomorrow. Lots and lots of books are listed in the flyer!! I want to note that limited quantities of each book are purchased for our Fair, so there is a chance that the particular book your child wants will not be available when we visit the Book Fair. In the event that this happens, the "Book Fair Helpers" will make sure to find a book that is a similar topic or price to the one they wanted.

I plan on previewing the Book Fair later this week and taking some pictures so the class knows exactly what to expect. Visiting the Book Fair for the first time can be a bit overwhelming for a Kindergartner... I'll post the pictures so you can see all the fun stuff and discuss them with your child!


If you have any questions or concerns, email me. :)

When choosing books to read at home this week, find books where the main character always sees the good in the world! Two examples of books are Mean Jean the Recess Queen and The Giving Tree. Even though both of the books have other emotions going on in them... both manage to see the good. In Mean Jean the Recess Queen a new girl comes to school and she sees past the meanness of Jean. In The Giving Tree the tree sees that he is able to help the boy in every stage of his life, even when he is only a stump.  After your read your book review the characters, setting and then discuss what good things were seen in the book and ask your child if they agree or disagree with the characters opinion.

Writing: We are beginning Report Writing. This week we will be writing a class report about Ms. Godbold, we will be doing Interactive Writing. (The marker will be in my hand and the students hands.) We will listen to her discuss her family, things she likes to eat, things she likes to do, etc. On Monday we will complete a graphic organizer to organize our thoughts. Then the remainder of the week will be spend writing about the facts she shared with us.
Although our writing genre has changed... we are continuing to focus on stretching words for sounds, punctuation at the end of the sentences and only using uppercase letters when necessary.

At home have your child pick a family member to write a report about. Have them write about the way they look, the things they like to eat, the things they like to do, etc. You may also want to use a graphic organizer to organize all their thoughts.

                                                   


Science/Social Studies:We will spend time reviewing the items we see in the Day Time sky and Night Time sky. We will watch our video on the different phases of the moon. Then we will take two days to complete our Science Test. :)

At home, review what items that we can see in the daytime and nighttime sky.

Math: We will spend another week discussing 2D and 3D shapes: hexagon, trapeziod, rhombus (remind your child in class we have a fat one and skinny one), cone, cylinder and sphere. We will use pattern block to make pictures with the 2D shapes and find real world objects in the classroom for the 3D shapes. Plus we complete worksheets on both.


           

    

At home review 2D shapes with your child and then focus on 3D shapes and having them find real world objects for each 3D shape mentioned above. It may also help to go back and view the Math Video's in last weeks learning post.

I need to start the post out by giving a HUGE THANK YOU to Mrs. Crystal Glass. She came to our classroom this week and made my vision of our fishbowl FCAT banner a reality. :) She made every child's fish hand print, plus she stayed during Resource Time and helped me make the decorations for the fish bowl.

I hung it during today's Resource Time, so I'm not sure what the FCAT Buddies thought of it... but every teacher I ran into up stairs commented on how cute it was. :) Then they put their hands against the little fish and awwwwed at how little their hands were. haha

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The class really enjoyed the Youtube Presidents video about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. :) I didn't hear to many voices sing along to it, but I had a whole class of heads that bopped along to the beat.

When I began making my George Washington faces on paper plates, the class was a little skeptical. haha  I glued on the blue hat, added some cotton balls... then when I drew the face (with all the facial details! Your kids don't ever let me forget eyebrows on anything! :) haha) they finally accepted that it was George Washington.  The class did great making theirs. They helped each other and shared supplies. :) Everyone's George face look good. Then I added some glitter and hot glued them to paint sticks from Home Depot... and viola! We had the CUTEST George Washington masks I had ever seen!! Watching the kids enter the room on Thursday and see the masks was the cutest thing ever!! They held them up to their faces and they pretended to be George. :)  Well then I informed them we would be making an Abraham Lincoln mask and they would be glued on the back of the George Washington mask.... their eyes lit up like it was Christmas time! :)

Here are pictures of the glass with their George masks. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures with the Abraham Lincoln masks... but your children brought them home today. So hopefully everyone got to see how cute they were. :)
       

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I was taking pictures off my camera tonight and I noticed that I had never taken off the Valentine's photos... I'm so sorry. :(   Things have been so busy with testing, that I have completely forgotten about my camera.

Anyway, because Ms. Godbold and I were helping the students pass out valentine cards, we didn't get to take pictures of the passing out process. But I was able to take pictures of the super cute Card Boxes that came in. Plus I took pictures of the tables covered with "Love"~ love from cards, candy, pencils and a lot of chocolate!! :)

Also, I want to say a BIG thank you to everyone for all the goodies and sweet notes Ms.Godbold, Mrs. Williams and I received. You all spoiled us... and we loved it!!  :)

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The first test we will be rooting them on for is the FCAT Writing Test. They will be taking this test on February 25 and 26. I'm not sure what we will do to encourage them before this test... it may be something simple this first test. But then we will work up to making some very cute things!! (Pinterest will be helping me with ALL the cute things. haha I don't ever do anything without consulting them first!) If anyone is willing to donate any treats/ money, please write me an email. I will need certain treats to match the adorable sayings I have found. :)

Towards the end of April, they will be taking the Reading and Math FCAT Tests. The testing window is from April 14- May 2. I'm not sure of the exact dates at this time, when I find out I will let you all know. :)


I will try to plan a day to meet up with them and hopefully get a few pictures of your child with their FCAT Buddy. :) (It's always my favorite thing to do. I just need to double check that every child in their class has a signed Media Release Paper or I am unable to use the photo without blurring out their face.) Here is a link to last years class with their Fifth Grade FCAT Buddies. The kids LOVED when they would come down to the room and visit.

                             

Writing:Response to Literature- We took a little break away from the Eric Carle books, but it is time to return to them. The students will be editing and revising their work. They will be making sure any sight words that are used are spelled correctly. They will be making sure that unknown words are stretched and that spaces separate each word. Finally they will make sure to end the sentences with correct punctuation.

At home have your child write a sentence or two, then ask them to edit their work. Sometimes the students don't notice their mistakes, so bring it to their attention. Also, if there are any letter reversals discuss them too. (Backwards letters don't affect their writing piece grade, but it makes it difficult for them to read their pieces to me.)
                           

Science/Social Studies: Due to testing this week, we will not be spending a lot of time on Science... But  I will take time to review the  daytime Sky and nighttime sky for our upcoming Science test.

At home, review what items that we can see in the daytime and nighttime sky.

Math: We are finishing up our Topic on Shapes. We will review 2D shapes (square, rectangle, triangle, circle) and discuss 3D shapes (sphere, rectangular prism, cube, cylinder and cone). We will discuss the properties of each shape (ex. cylinder~ It is flat at the top and bottom and round on the side.) We will also discuss the face of each 3D shape, that is the flat surface of the shape.

At home review 2D shapes with your child and then focus on 3D shapes and having them find real world objects for each 3D shape mentioned above.

                       
                            

                            

When Boosterthon began everyone at school had to decorate their Classroom door for a 'Boosterthon Door Decorating Competition'. We decorated ours to be a 

Everyone made a tent in a color they liked and decorated it with their favorite things. Some even added a school picture sticker on the tent too.  


Well today Jaguar James announced each of the grade level winners and... we WON!!! The class cheered really loud and all the classrooms in our pod heard them. haha It was cute. :) Oooh we also won a very yummy prize from Peterbrooke. Ms. Godbold broke it down into the different chocolate parts (chocolate lollipop, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered popcorn, chocolate covered cookies, chocolate covered potato chips. It was chocolate heaven! haha) and we added them to our Treasure Box. (They were the first things picked up by the students. Most even brought their chocolate to lunch to eat as a treat.)


I also wanted to share our Bulletin Board with you. We used our Boosterthon Team sign as the title on the Bulletin Board and the class wrote their opinions about the Fun Run. Everyone agreed they enjoyed all the running outside and the water station... but some said they were bumped into and that the kids that did it didn't apologize, and they DID NOT like that at all.  :(

Here's a picture of the board, if you come by school make sure to stop and read all the different opinion pieces. :)

Free slideshow generated with Smilebox Our Team Name was Finocchiaro's Fish. I wanted the kids to stand out a little during the race, so I decorated each of the bags to match our team name. :) Here are our cute, I mean FAST (haha) little fish before the race, some pictures taken during the Fun Run and after the Fun Run too. Enjoy!  (Thank you Ms. McNab for taking the pictures during the Fun Run.) A free slideshow design by Smilebox Our Team ran their hearts out today!  Here are the results of the Fun Run by lap:  1~ 35 2~ 24 3~ 25 4~ 35 5~ 28 6~ 32 7~ 35 8~ 35 9~ 27 10~ 25 11~ 31 12~ 35 13~ 30 14~ 34 15~ 31 16~ 35 17~ 31 18~ 34 19~ 30 Ms. Godbold and Mrs. Smith~ 24 Also, I want to thank the parents that stopped by the race to cheer on  our Team and to help mark the laps on the sports cinch bags. :) Mr. Tokarek, Mr. Nord, Ms. Hutchison, Ms. McNab, Ms. Bailey, Aunt Krystal and Mrs. Smith.