Kindergarten is the BEST place on Earth!

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. :)

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 

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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! :)

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.
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)

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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. :)