Three Kings Day

This week, to continue our sharing of holiday traditions Mrs. May came in to share her family's traditions for Three Kings Day. Being a holiday observed in Mexico, Three Kings Day also connects with our Mexico unit. Students participated in a short skit to tell the story of the three kings, watched a short video and enjoyed Rosca de las Reyes,a sweet bread. Two students from each class were surprised to find a tiny plastic baby baked inside the bread and will not only have good luck into the New Year, but will host a party on Feb 2nd, or so the tradition goes. The Three Kings visited our class today and left behind presents in our P.E. shoes. Upon returning from our rehearsal, we found lit luminaries that led us to our gifts. What fun it is to learn about the traditions shared in our community! Enjoy these pictures.

Three Kings Day - slideshows

Happy Birthday Marc & Ryan!

This week we celebrated two birthdays! Marc and Ryan both shared with the class their favorite stories and something sweet. What a treat! Thank you to the parents for making these birthday celebrations so special!

Christmas - slideshow

Thank you to Mr. And Mrs. Thornton who shared with the Mighty Buckeyes their family traditions of Christmas. Students decorated cookies, baked with a family recipe, and enjoyed a treat after hearing the story of the First Christmas.

Snow Globes with our Fourth Grade Buddies

We spent some time with our fourth grade buddies this week. We created a snow globe with our picture inside. I will be bringing mine home over break. Just wait until you see it!

Snowglobles - slideshow

Happy Birthday Aashi!

We celebrated Aashi's birthday this week. Thank you for treating our class to a great story and snack. Happy birthday, Aashi!

Our Flight to Mexico

Thank you to Mr. Nolan, a real life pilot, who helped our K classes take flight this week. We boarded with our passports in hand, boarding passes and suitcases. We enjoyed an in flight movie and snack- tostadas! ¡deliciosa! We landed in Mexico City and began our unit.

Thank you!!

Happy Hanukah! - slideshow

Thank you to our kindergarten parents, Mrs. Alpert, Mrs. Gilbert, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Matros for an incredible sharing today. We really enjoyed the story of the latkes and listening to the traditions of the dreidel and menorah. We especially enjoyed the marshmallow dreidel treat. Thank you again for making this Hanukah a memorable one for all kindergarten kids!

Voice

In our Writers' Workshop we have been exploring 'author's voice' and what it means. The book, The day the Crayons Quit, helps us to understand how our words helps our readers understand how we are feeling. If you ever get the chance to read this, it is a must read! It's hilarious and has a great message to support creativity and establishing a voice- something even a kindergartner can do!

Our Star of the Week... Nicholas

Nicholas is our Star of the Week. Did you know that Nicholas' favorite food is pizza? Did you also know that he has an identical twin brother? Nicholas did an excellent job sharing and answering our questions. Great job, Nicholas!

Butter Boogie - slideshow

Mighty Buckeyes made butter today! We sang the Butter Boogie and passed a container of heavy cream with marbles bouncing inside. Later we enjoyed our butter with ritz crackers.

Busy Buckeyes!

11.22.13 - slideshow

Apple Peeling - slideshows

Today, after much recent discussion and books read to the class, we connect with our harvest theme by making homemade applesauce. It was absolutely delicious! The Mighty Buckeyes LOVED peeing and coring apples using this machine.We even enjoyed a little apple peel- ribbons of tartness! We will be doing a lot of cooking the next few days- I can't wait!

Pictographs

After reading The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, a story of a native american boy with a gift for drawing and recording stories, we spent our Writer's Workshop creating our own stories using pictures. This provided a great connection to the Wampanoag tribe we have been talking about related to homes and the upcoming holiday. Look for these stories in an upcoming class book that we will share with all of you.

Our Star of the Week

Jack is our Star of the Week. Did you know that Jack likes to eat fruit snacks? Did you also know that he likes to go to Target and play Hide and seek? Jack did an excellent job sharing his pictures and answering our questions. We learned so much about you this week, Jack!

Happy Birthday Grant!

Happy Birthday, Grant!!!

Today we enjoyed a special story and treat for Grant's birthday.

All Tied Up!!!

Today the Mighty Buckeyes participated in a cooperation building activity during our Morning Meeting called "All Tied Up" The Mighty Buckeyes were in a group of four or five and needed to work together to untangle themselves. We began by standing in a circle and reaching and holding a hand that is not next to you,but across the circle. Each student needed to move themselves around in effort to untangle, one at a time, and create a circle where everyone's hands were still linked. This was an excellent way for us to practice communicating our ideas, problem solving cooperatively and taking care of each other, keeping everyone safe.

Check out these pics! Many did untangle successfully. Try this at home!

Our Star of the Week...Mila!

Introducing Our Star of the Week...Mila!

Mila is our star and did an excellent job telling us more about herself. Did you know that Mila likes to play babies, go to Flordia and speaks two languages? Mila loves the water and has one older brother at CA. Thank you, Mila for a great presentation today!

A Tribute to Veterans

Our very own veteran and Kindergarten teacher, Delia Hoch, treats us to a song to help us remember those who have served for us this Veterans' Day.

Turkeys with our Seniors

Turkeys with our Seniors - slideshows

This week our Mighty Buckeyes carried on a Senior buddy tradition around this time of year, the apple turkey! Students of all sizes worked together to use the candy materials provided to create an original turkey. Check out these pics!

Yurts

This week students learned more about yurts as part of our homes unit. We learned where they are built and who build them. We began building our own yurts using craft sticks, foam board, fabric and toothpicks. This was a great activity to not only build those cooperation skills, but also spatial skills. Students had to figure out how to go about laying the craft sticks and orienting the quarters to create a yurt roof. I can not wait to see how these turn out! They did such a great job!

Yurts - slideshow

New station activities

 In the Overhead Station, Mighty Buckeyes work to practice their own level of sight words and pattern blocks on the overhead. 

In the Game Station, Mighty Buckeyes build words using beginning consonant sounds, blends and digraphs within word families

In Creation Station, Mighty Buckeyes create rangoli patterns to recognize the Divali holiday. These will be displayed for us to enjoy and bring us good luck in the new year.

Trap the King!

Today the Mighty Buckeyes were introduced to another strategy math game called Trap the King. With unifix cubes and a checkered board students moved their 'king' and added cubes one at a time to try to avoid being trapped and trap in their opponent's king. Quickly, these kindergarteners developed their own strategies to win and avoid being trapped. A great and incredibly cheap board game of strategy. We will be sure to send a copy of this board home so that you can play at home. Use cheerios, noodles or anything you might have around the house to mark your board. Move over Tic tac toe! 

EEKK!

EEKK!! Elbow to elbow and knee to knee, I will read to you and you will read to me. Elbow to elbow and knee to knee, book in the middle so we both can see.

Star of the Week...Luke!

Our Star of the Week....Luke!

Luke did an excellent job sharing with us today. Did you know that Luke loves football, speaks Dutch and is incredibly fast?! Luke also shared that he likes to go to Chuckie Cheese. He made lots of connections today with our Mighty Buckeyes. 

Igloos Under Construction

Mighty Buckeyes have been learning about igloos this week as part of our Homes unit. They learned how the Inuit people lay snow blocks to create a warm home safe from the winds of the tundra. We used sugar cubes to make our igloos and for mortar, a little bit of royal icing. Students worked in pairs to design and construct an igloo.

Igloo Construction - slideshow

Dia de los Muertos

In Spanish class and in our classroom we have been learning more about, El Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. Students were busy preparing decorations and items for the 'ofrenda'. This week they made paper tissue flowers, decorated calaveras and calacas, and made pan de muerto, bread of the dead. Check out these pics!

Dia de los Muertos - slideshow

Our Star of the Week....Griffin!

Griffin is our Star of the Week! Did you know that Griffin likes to paintball? He also LOVES to swim golf and eat ice cream! Griffin did a great job sharing his pictures and we are looking forward to his SPOOKY estimation. Great job, Griffin!

Happy Halloween!!!

Ask me about...

After reading. Mousekin's Golden House, we decided to place our class jack O'Lantern in the kinder-garden outside to observe the changes first hand. In the story, the pumpkin begins to decompose, but the author leads us to believe the mouse's house, the pumpkin, is alive! Closing his eyes and changing his expressions. We will be watching to see these changes in our very own pumpkin. With this warm weather...it won't be too long before our pumpkin closes its eyes.

It's Symmetrical!

Mighty Buckeyes worked with pattern block stickers to create symmetrical designs.

Campfire Stories with our Buddies

Campfire Stories - slideshows

Pumpkin Decorating Fun

Pumpkin Decorating - slideshow

Pumpkin Fun!

Pumpkin Math Fun - slideshow

It all started with a story, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara. Check out these photos where we...

•  Estimated the number of seeds in our class pumpkin
•  Estimated its circumference
•  Estimated its weight with and without seeds
•  Estimated its height using unifix cubes as our unit of measurement
•  Separated seeds from pulp
•  Counted the number of seeds, by 1's and 10's
•  Recorded our pumpkin data
•  Tallied the number of cups filled
•  Compared our own pumpkins' circumferences and weight
•  Estimated and measured our own pumpkin's height using unifix cubes

Phew!!! We have been busy Buckeyes!!

A REAL LIVE ARCHITECT!!!

On Monday, Mr. Bean came to visit our class to talk to us about being an architect. He shared his designs and the many steps in building. He explained to us the many people involved when building and the many steps that must be followed. He stayed to answer our questions and we were so fortunate to have him. Thank you to our room mother for suggesting he visit. We learned so much!