Kindergarten is the BEST place on Earth!

The year is officially over... The room is all packed up and the walls look a little drab. :( Here are a few pictures to showcase the sad little room.

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and that next year is just as great as this year was!!! :) Chimney Lakes has lots of wonderful teachers! So I know you'll be happy with who ever your child receives. :)

I was checking my email and I came across this email from the School District. I wanted to share it with all of you, just in case you don't have any plans for this coming Saturday, June 7th.

Jacksonville Sharks Education Night and birthday celebration - June 04, 2014 The Sharks are inviting elementary school students to celebrate Chum’s birthday party during the game on Saturday, June 7 at 3:00 p.m. Students may receive a free ticket to the game with the purchase of at least one adult ticket (up to two free children’s tickets per paid adult). Fans may visit jaxsharkstickets.com/chum, or call the Sharks Ticket Office at 904-621-0700 (subject to availability). In addition, all teachers, administrators and employees are eligible to purchase Buy One, Get One Free tickets to the Education Appreciation Night game on June 7 with the presentation of a school ID at Will Call. To take advantage of this offer, visit jaxsharkstickets.com/education, call the Sharks Ticket Office at 904-621-0700, or simply bring their school ID to the arena box office. Tickets purchased online or over the phone must be picked up at Will Call with the presentation of a school ID.

Great weather, great kids and great activities! The class loved being outside and having the freedom to visit 14 stations outside during Water Play. :) I believe their favorite stations were walking through the car wash and sitting in the swimming pool... but it could have been spraying a plastic duck with a water launcher and playing with shaving cream... To get the true favorites, you'll probably have to ask. :)

Our Beach Party had the yummiest food. The kids ate "octopus hotdogs," fruit skewers, goldfish and veggies cups. We drank "ocean water," (blue Kool Aid). Then they have Bella's Birthday cupcakes for dessert. :) The cupcakes had bears laying on beach towels under umbrellas. They were so cute! After everyone ate and cleaned up we went to six different stations: painting, coloring, decorating, F-U-N! (tomorrow the students will bring home three of the projects... they were still wet from paint and we wanted them to dry.)







I want to give a HUGE thank you to all the parents that showed up and volunteered today: Mrs. Conner, Mrs. Parker, Ms. Jennifer, Mr. Nord, Mrs. Nord, Mr. Tokarek, Ms.Hutchison, Ms. Smith and Ms. Navarro. Plus another big thank you to Mr. Tokarek and Ms.Navarro for taking pictures of the students.  :)

Enjoy the pictures!!

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Today was a great day!! Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to come to school and see all the students receive their awards. :)  If you forgot your cameras or your batteries died during the Ceremony... no need to worry, Mrs. Conner sat up front and took lots of pictures of the students shaking the principal's hand. :) 

Enjoy the slideshow!

This picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

I hope the children have enjoyed their first year of school. :)  I know I am tough Kindergarten Teacher and I expected ALOT, but I hope they had lots of fun in the process.  (Ms.Godbold would tell me at least once a week my expectations were too high and my response was always, "No it isn't. They can do this! They are a bunch of smartie pants. Just watch and see... And the students always made me proud.) Also, I hope the blog helped many of you to follow along with the school year and get a little sneak peek of our school days. :) The blog was a lot of work for me!! Teaching sometimes was easier than making a blog post... haha. But the comments that were left always kept me going. (Thanks so much to all the parents that left comments, especially Mrs. Tokarek. She was our Number 1 Commenter!!!)

Anyway, before I start to shed a few tears... let me get on with what our week will be like:
MONDAY: Award Ceremony at 11:15 in the Multi Purpose Room and a Cookies & MIlk Celebration to follow in our Classroom.
TUESDAY: A (somewhat) Regular Day... reviewing all of the skills we've learned throughout the year, going to LOTS of Centers :), discussing our Water Play Rules and eating any leftover cookies. :)
WEDNESDAY: Water Play (outside from 9:00-11:30) and Beach Party (in the classroom from 11:30-2:00, or when all stations are completed).
THURSDAY: Music w/ Ms.Biernacki. Pajama Day!! Wear your pajamas to school, bring your favorite stuffed animal, even bring your slippers. :)(If you have any questions, please write me a note or email me.)
FRIDAY: The Last Day of the 2013-2014 School Year... The official dismissal time is 12:00, but I surmise that Car Duty will begin about 11:30. Please note~ We will not be going to the cafeteria for lunch. Please send snacks for your child, we will be eating them in class. The Extended Day Program is not open on the last day.



Now that I have saved my tears, let me go ahead and post the slide show that shows the students beginning of the year picture and their end of the year picture... Make sure to have a tissue or two handy, you might need them.

Personalize your own free picture slideshow

The first was a visit from Ms. Bailey (a 2nd Grade Teacher and our very own Jacob's~ Aunt Nini). She came to our classroom and allowed us to be part of the Butterfly Release with her students. :) She has had 14 butterfly eggs in her class and her students have watched the butterfly eggs go through their life cycle.  Our second surprise was seeing Mrs. Hardage, Mrs. Elliot and Mrs. Walker's (all 4th grade teachers and don't forget Ms. Walker is our FCAT Buddy) classes perform the Shakespeare play~ A Mid Summer Nights Dream. The students loved watching the sword fighting and seeing glitter everywhere, but I must admit they all really loved when one of the characters pretended to die and a fairy kissed the mask of a donkey. haha (Also, the play meant A LOT to Gavin because his big sister~ Abigail was in the play. She was one of the Narrator's.)

This free photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

 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. :)