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Give to Public Schools in Need! - Go to DonorsChoose.org  Last year I started a Donors Choose Project and for whatever reason... I didn't finish it. Well I decided to finish it today. :) I had to wait a little bit for them to accept the Project. But after only 2 hours... they did!! So now we can now start earning money to fund a new listening center, with headphones and Non-Fiction book sets. (Unfortunately do to my lack of planning and completion time... this years class won't be able to use the listening center, but next years students and all the students after that will be able to.)

Please tell anyone you can get to listen and even list the Project on your Facebook pages to get the word out to EVERYONE!! (I don't have Facebook or else I'd list it on my page.)  For the next 7 days, until June 2, when someone donates to my Project and enters the code INSPIRE... DonorsChoose.org will match the donation dollar to dollar (up to $100.00!!) Woohoo!!!



                      Go to this link to read all about the Project 
                          and maybe make a donation to too. :)
                                           

While searching through Pinterest for a fun under the sea craft to get the class excited about Water Day and our Beach Party... I came across some Youtube videos on blends and silent e.  They are catchy, so be ready to sing along with them. :) Especially the silent e one!


Enjoy! And in case you're wondering... I didn't find a craft yet. haha But I will. :)

                                 
            

I can't believe we are down to only 9 days left of the school year... This has been a great year. :) I have the best Kindergarten Class at Chimney Lakes!! (I tell the students this fact every day. :) Every single day! haha They are probably sick of hearing me say it. )


Anyway, before I tell the information for the week let me give some quick reminders:
NO HOMEWORK (please continue going on iReady and having your complete Math and Reading Lessons )
Kindergarten Awards Ceremony~ Monday June 2nd at 11:15
Water Play Day and Beach Party~ Wednesday June 4 ALL DAY F-U-N from 9:00-1:30! 
Pajama Party Day~ Thursday June 5
Last Day of School~ Friday June 6 (Dismissal is early and Extended Day is Closed! Also, bring snacks/ lunch to eat. We will not be going to the Cafeteria.)





Resources for the week are: 
Wednesday-MEDIA and Thursday- MEDIA.
 **Art on Tuesday had to be cancelled because of the Art CGA's for 5th Grade.**
Friday is Hat Day.  :)


Below is what we will be focusing on in class:
Reading: We will be reading books from the Vocabulary Tales Series about various topics: plant words, insect words, ocean words and environmental words. The titles are: A Plant of My Own, Katie the Caterpillar, Seymour the Scaredy-Shark and Protect the Earth!. We will be reviewing characters, settings and meanings of words.  Our Word Family is the -ick family, our blends will be the gr- and cr- and we will review all of the Sight Word learned through out the year. Here is a link to the gr- blend power point and another link to the cr- blend power point. :)       
At home, read your child a book and then have them compare the book to another one they read. Discuss the similarities and differences of the characters, settings, events, etc.


Writing: We are editing our Kindergarten Memory Books, because of last weeks CGA's we didn't have much time to go back and complete the sheets. Be ready to see them after the Kindergarten Award Ceremony... they are the most adorable books! :)
At home, please remind your child even to apply all the writing skills they have learned through out the year: spaces, capitalization, punctuation, using their sounds/ blends and sight words!


Science/Social Studies: During this time we will be practicing how to act during an Award Ceremony: walking into the room, sitting in the chairs, shaking with our right hands, putting awards under our chairs, walking out of the room.
I want to make you all aware that the students have been informed not to scream at you (their parents, family members and friends) when we enter the Multi Purpose Room. When your children enter the room they will be waving, winking and mouthing "Hello". :)  Also, all the students have been told to walk back to the classroom with me and the other students after the Awards Assembly. So you are free to join us in our line, but please do not pull your child out of the line. Thank you. :)


Math: We are continuing the review of vocabulary "Greater Than" and "Less Than." We should be finishing the topic and taking the test on Friday.
At home, continue to review the worksheets with your child and discuss the vocabulary.


We are definitely getting near the End of Year... :( Testing goes into full swing on Monday with CGA Testing for Reading and Math. This testing is all done 1-1, because of this Ms.Godbold will be helping to facilitate my review lessons. We need to keep the voice level as quiet as possible and movement to a minimum, so the students will be completing worksheets with a buddy before going to their Reading Stations and Reading/Math Centers.





Resources for the week are: Monday-P.E., Tuesday- MUSIC w/Broach, Wednesday-MUSIC w/ Taft and Friday- MUSIC w/ Broach again. :) 
Wednesday is an Early Release Day. Our Lunch is at 9:40.
Friday is Patriotic Day. 
I can't wait to see all the red, white and blue!! 
 

Below is what we will be focusing on in class:
Reading: We will be reading books from the Phonics Tales Series about the short vowel sounds. The titles are: That Cat Max, The Best Nest, The Little Pink Pig, Todd's Odd Day and Lucky Duck. We will be reviewing characters, settings and why the Illustrator chose the particular pictures they did for the book. After the reading we will discuss the short vowel words that were in the book.  Our Word Family is the -ag family, our blend is fl- and we will review all of the Sight Word learned through out the year. :) Here is a link to the fl- blend power point I made. :)           
                 
 Here are the covers from two of the books. :)
 (It is a great series! Plus they have other series too: Beginning Letter Sounds, Blends and Digraphs, Vowel Blends. I own a lot of books from them... haha)

At home, read your child a book and review the characters and setting. Then ask them why they think the Illustrator chose the pictures they did for the book. After that discuss the meaning of words used in the story. Ex. We read a book in class where the main character felt puzzled. The students had a little trouble at first, but then they figured out it meant he was confused. :)


Writing: We are continuing our Kindergarten Memory Books. We haven't had much time to go back and complete the sheets... so this week we will be doing just that! :) The students will be making their pages perfect and making their pictures beautiful!
At home, please remind your child even to apply all the writing skills they have learned through out the year: spaces, capitalization, punctuation, using their sounds/ blends and sight words!


Science/Social Studies: We will be reviewing the motions push and pull. Using a T-chart the students will be deciding if the items can be pushed or pulled safely. :) Below is a short little song to get the students excited in acting out  the two movements.
         
At home, discuss the movements with your child and then ask them if a ______ can be pushed or pulled. Be prepared for your child to say both and when that happens ask them to explain. Ex. The chair... they will need to explain and possibly model why they are saying both movements are acceptable.


Math: We are going back to review vocabulary "Greater Than" and "Less Than." I found Topic 4 still on the shelf and this is a great time to break it out. :)  Not only does it review the vocabulary it also asks them to make groups that have one more or one less, than the group they are given. (So secretly we are reviewing addition and subtraction too... but I'm not going to mention that to the students. haha)
At home, review the worksheets with your child and discuss the vocabulary. Have your child bring out a toy that they have lots of (barbies, race cars, ninja turtles, etc) and use the toys to make groups. Then ask your child how many there are, after that ask them, "Without recounting, how many would there be if I added one more?" Next do this with one less and if it is easy... increase the difficulty by saying 2 more or even 3 more. :)



**While searching for songs I could you to make our lessons more inviting... I came across this video for the song Tooty Ta. We have danced to this song many times on Fun Friday's. haha I thought you would enjoy watching it with your child and maybe acting it out too. No worries if you have trouble, your child can help you out. :) The video is a little over 3 minutes, but the song ends at 2:30.   Enjoy!
          

Today was a great day!! The fun started at 8:00 when the students entered the classroom. :) (I brought the students in early so that they could change into their International Day T-shirts.) The students were full of talking and laughter about what they thought today would be like.  Then at 8:40 we all piled outside our room into the hallway to watch the parade. Walking with our Principal, 
Mrs. Knott, was our very own Bailey and Carmen. :) Then right behind them was Hannah and Santana. The four of them all looked adorable in the parade!! (My pictures were a little blurry from the fast walking... so I recorded the 2nd loop of the Parade.)  Next we all traveled  down to our first presenter and then real fun began! We saw four different presenters and we walked the whole school, about 3 times. (The class got a lot of exercise in! haha) We didn't end our "traveling" until 1:50. Everyone was pretty tired, so we relaxed some: Fun Friday Snacks, Treasure Box and then ANY Math Center of their choice. :)

Hopefully all the students went home with lots of stories and if they didn't... show them the slideshow and I'm sure they'll start talking about all the fun they had real fast! :)

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I walked all around the "WORLD" after the dismissal bell rang today :) and took lots of pictures!! I took pictures of things hanging on the walls, set up on the floor, hanging from the ceilings and stapled on the bulletin boards. :) It was A LOT of picture snapping, but totally worth it... the decorations around school look BEAUTIFUL!!! Everyone did a great job getting our school together for our Annual International Cultural Day.

Here is the Continent list to figure out what each grade level had as their Continent of Study. 
Kindergarten~Africa 
First~ Australia
Second~ Europe
Third~ Asia
Fourth~ North America
Fifth~ South America




Enjoy the pictures! :)
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Today our PTA President, Tia McDaniel, came down to our room so that she could take the Teacher/Student pictures for our Kindergarten Memory Books.  
(Ms. Godbold and I both wanted to be in the pictures, so we recruited her as an honorary photographer.)

The pictures are ADORABLE!!!  :)

So adorable... that I have to share them
 with all of you right now! haha




(We watched the slideshow two times in class, but be ready... your child will probably want to watch it again. :) They loved it!!)
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Today I had a meeting with the Kindergarten Team about Water Play Time. :) I was so excited thinking back to all the fun the students had last year... that I jumped ahead and showed the class the pictures from last year. haha I then told them the paper wasn't going home yet to Parents, but I figured I should give you all the heads up I gave your children...





Kindergarten Water Play Time
 is scheduled for 
Wednesday, June 4th
(9:00a.m. – 11:30a.m.)

There will be water and outdoor events for the students to participate in. Here is a link to pictures Mrs. Hope and I took of our students last year.

Please help the Kindergarten Team by donating one or more of the following items by May 28th. :) Most of them can be found at Dollar Tree.
-       * Sand pails & shovels
-       * Sand toys
-       * Car wash sponges
-       * Barbasol shaving cream
-       * Miniature rubber ducks
-       * Ice cube trays
-       * Corn Starch
-       * Food coloring (any colors)
*   * Sidewalk chalk
-       * Watercolor Paint (individual paint colors in tubes)
-       * Paint drop cloth/canvas
-       * 2” wall paint brushes 
*   * 3 ring blow up pool from Walmart  
     (The picture is below of the one we had in mind.)
3-Ring Kiddie Swimming Pool, Blue




***We will be looking for Volunteers.***
~   (BIG SMILE!!)   ~
** Volunteers will need to arrive by 8:15am to help assist with setting up the stations.**

Resources for the week are: Monday-P.E., Tuesday- Music, 
Wednesday-Art w/ Phillips and Thursday- Art w/ Miller. 
Friday is International Cultural Day! Woohoo!!
We begin with a Parade and then we set off visiting presenters around the school. Our Continent of Study is Africa.
 (I held on to the t-shirts the students painted. I will call them into the classroom to change as they arrive on Friday morning. :) Be prepared for lots of stories when your child gets home... It's a very busy and entertaining day for EVERYONE!! )
 

Below is what we will be focusing on in class:
Reading: We will be reading the book How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots by Barbara Knutson. It is a Swahili folktale about friendship. We will be discussing the vocabulary in the text and the meanings of the words. The we are making story maps for the guinea fowl and ending with creating our own guinea fowl characters... with white spots of course. :) (I tried finding a reading of the book on Youtube. However I was not lucky... so I chose another African Folktale for the students to enjoy. ) Our Word Family is the -an family, our blend is sl-, our vowel focus will be letter u again (short sound & long sound) and we will review all of the Sight Word learned through out the year. :) Here is a link to the sl- blend power point I made. :)                                    
                             
At home, discuss African Folktales with your child and possibly watch videos of them on Youtube. A few of my favorites are Anansi the Spider and Zomo the Rabbit. **The video above is a variation of the Anansi story.


Writing: We are continuing our Kindergarten Memory Books. :) (Again, I need to repeat to you that I LOVE THESE BOOKS and everyone is working very hard on them.)
At home, please remind your child even to apply all the writing skills they have learned through out the year: spaces, capitalization, punctuation, using their sounds/ blends and sight words!


Science/Social Studies: We will be working on projects for International Cultural Day again this week. The animals we will be making this week are giraffes and zebras.
At home, discuss the animals with your child. Ask them to tell you the steps for making the animal heads. :) Then ask them/ teach them facts about Africa.


Math: We are finishing up the Topic on composing and decomposing numbers. This time around our numbers are larger~ 11-19. When discussing the numbers, your child will be asked to make a number by having the ten frame and then ask how many ones are needed.
We will be taking the practice test on Wednesday and the real test on Thursday. :)
At home, go over the same type of questions with your child. If your child is having trouble go back to composing and decomposing up to 10. Then when they seem more comfortable with the process, go on to the larger numbers.


~~ Here are two links (link1 and link2
to the Blog Mrs. Hope and I had last year... 
I want the students to start getting excited 
about International Cultural Day and 
I thought looking at a few pictures might 
do the trick. :) ~~

I want to wish all of the Mom's a
 VERY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
(I'll be busy tomorrow spending the day with Mom :)... so I had to post this a little early.)

By now I am sure your child has given you their adorable gifts. A few Mom's may have received their presents on Friday. :)It was very hard for the children to be told Mother's Day was not until Sunday... it seemed like lifetimes to a few of them!
Anyway, Ms. Godbold and I had a ton of fun having your children wrap the gifts and answer the survey questions about you. :) My favorite question was when I would ask them how tall you were. Then I  would add I am a little over five feet tall and they would respond with, "My Mommy is a lot taller than you Ms. Finocchiaro!"haha  Ms. Godbold's favorite question was when she would ask what is one thing your Mommy always says to you... their responses were hilarious!! haha  The children all pretty much agreed they are told to clean their rooms and have green days at school. :)



~ Here area few pictures of me and Ms. Godbold.~
Ms. Godbold and her Mom



Me with my Mom

Ms, Godbold with her children~ Jenna and Tyler, plus her daughter's boyfriend David



My Mom with my nieces~ Katie and Lily (My Mom adores them, so I had to include them!!)






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Today may have been a very warm day... but because it was Play Day at Chimney Lakes... Our day was VERY COOL!! :) haha

About an hour before it was time to go outside and begin our FUN, we discussed all the stations that would be going on and the Pirate Names for each one. :)   (We don't play 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'... we play 'Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate.' ) There were 23 different stations planned by our P.E. Teacher Mrs. Gordon. I tried to take as many pictures of the students as I could, but with 23 stations... it was tricky!! haha 

Enjoy the pictures!!
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We had an Assembly this morning with a very FAMOUS Guy... RONALD MCDONALD!! Before going to the Assembly we discussed why he might come to our school and what he might bring with him... A lot of people said French Fries. haha A few said toys for our Treasure Box. :) haha and then others just said, "I have no clue!" 

We we found out he came to our school to make us Go Active!! He had the students up and moving all around! We discussed different sports we could play to stay active. He did tell the students that

video games were okay, but not to play them too much. He said TOO MUCH of anything is BAD! :)

Here is a picture of Ronald McDonald. Enjoy!!
 




Resources for the week are: Monday-MEDIA, Wednesday-MUSIC w/ Biernacki and Thursday- P.E. Monday we have an Assembly with Ronald McDonald. 
Tuesday is PLAY DAY!!! Please make sure your child is wearing sneakers on Tuesday and it is supposed to be warm, so have them wear shorts too. :) 
Friday is Sports Day. 

Please send in a solid color t-shirt for us to decorate for the International Culture Fair. 
The shirts must be sent in by this Friday, May 9th or they will not be decorated in Class. :)
 

Below is what we will be focusing on in class:
Reading: We will be reading the book Miss Nelson Has a Field Day by Karen Beaumont. I chose this book to get us excited about Tuesday's Play Day. :)  We will be discussing the meaning of words in the text, along with the main topics of the story. Plus we will sequence the events and discuss various Author/ Illustrator type questions (Why did the author right the words "rushed the ball" or why did the illustrator choose that picture for this text?)  Our Word Family is the -and family, our blend is sh-, our vowel focus is letter u (short sound & long sound) and our new Sight Words are than, way, could, may, these. (This is the ending of our sight words. The rest of the year will just be a review of the words.)  Here is a link to the sh- blend power point I made. :)     
                             
At home, read your child a book and ask them about the vocabulary in the text. Then discuss the main topic of the text and ask them author/ illustrator type questions.


Writing: We are beginning our Kindergarten Memory Books. :) (I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!!  It's great to hear the students responses about the teachers, field trips and holiday activity days.)
At home, please remind your child even to apply all the writing skills they have learned through out the year: spaces, capitalization, punctuation, using their sounds/ blends and sight words!


Science/Social Studies: We will be working on projects for International Cultural Day. We are making animal head on plates. The animals we will be making this week are lions and elephants.
At home, discuss the animals with your child. Ask them to tell you the steps for making the animal heads. :) Then ask them/ teach them facts about Africa.


Math: We are going back to composing and decomposing numbers. This time around our numbers are larger~ 11-19. When discussing the numbers, your child will be asked to make a number by having the ten frame and then ask how many ones are needed.
At home, go over the same type of questions with your child. If your child is having trouble go back to composing and decomposing up to 10. Then when they seem more comfortable with the process, go on to the larger numbers.

The whole class was presented with the challenge of Reading ALL the Sight Words taught in class. There were five students who were able to complete the challenge. They have spent all this week eating lunch with me in the classroom. :)
It's been a silly time!! They have giggled and talked with me, plus played with their food... more than they ate their food. haha All five have told me how much fun it is and secretly... it's been a lot of fun for me too. :) (My lunches are never that much fun and entertaining. haha)


Enjoy the Slideshow of some pretty silly pictures! :)
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We are going to be decorating solid colored t-shirts for International Cultural Day. :)
This activity is not mandatory, but it is TONS OF FUN! 
We went through all the possible symbols that I would be willing to draw on a t-shirt (to the best of my ability). :) To see all the symbols, go to this link. When the students bring a shirt to school, they will be asked what symbol they want and it will be drawn on their shirt. During Recess time the students will have the opportunity to paint their shirts.

You can go to this link to check out some of the t-shirts decorated by the students in the Kindergarten Class I co-taught with 
Mrs. Hope. :)