Christmas Time Is Here!

It doesn't seem like it should already be Christmas, but it is! We have been busy making gingerbread houses, learning about the North Pole and Community Helpers, and doing LOTS of writing!

This is just a little glimpse of what we have been up to...

 

(Hard at work in our writing spots)

Making Candy Canes at our Christmas party.

Thanks to all the parents who came by to have fun with us!

You helped make it a good time for all!

 

 

Miss Rodery was even able to stop by today. YAY!

 

We had a great time. More pics will be uploaded later,

including pics of Pajama Day and pics of our gingerbread houses.

Have a very merry Christmas!

Busy days...

I am so ashamed as I look at this blog and realize that it has been ONE MONTH since I last posted... I'm sorry. All I can say is it has been incredibly busy in the lives of your kindergartener, as you can plainly see from the following snapshots of our day.

Students creating Scarecrow Glyphs with our Second Grade Book Buddies.

Students at a pumpkin patch, learning about Native American ways of life.

Our class Jack-O-Lantern... We first took out the "guts" and counted all the seeds.

We had over 475 seeds in this pumpkin! WOW!!!

A student bowling with a pumpkin at our October birthday party.

Thanks to all the parents who came and helped !

 Our class also learned about Native Americans, their way of life, and then created their own "Native" name, such as Rainbow Princess or Shining Owl. The students then earned feathers for good behavior to create their own personal headdress.

(This is a class picture with Miss Rodery, our student teacher)

 

 

Miss Taylor's "Native American" kiddos at our feast. They enjoyed dressing up!

 

 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are gearing up for a fun filled Christmas with family and friends- I know we are! We have many upcoming events planned, so stay tuned! I will try to post pictures as they happen... HOPEFULLY!

It's Pumpkin Time!

Fall is in the air! I love this time of year... Well, actually I love all the seasons because each one has such different opportunities! With Fall, our class gets to learn about apples and pumpkins! What fun.

We have been incredibly busy, trying to squeeze in testing for the end of the nine weeks while still doing all of the regular classroom learning! How do I make it through the crazy days lately? Well...

Let's just say Sonic has been getting lots of orders for Vanilla Dr. Peppers! Ha!

 

 

We have also added going to computer lab to our routine! Every Thursday afternoon, we spend 40 minutes working on literacy through the Lexia program. The kids love working on filling up their "towers" which means they have completed an entire learning program!

 

To finish our apple unit, we tasted things we could make with apples (Homemade applesauce, apple juice, and different colored apples). The students then wrote about what they would do with an apple.

Last week, we spent the entire week learning about Pumpkins, Life Cycles, and beginning/middle/end of stories. On Friday we painted "pumpkins" for our hallways. Miss Rodery was loving the art time with the kiddos!

And so was the fabulous Mr. Dobbins, our Watch DOG dad who spent the day helping several kindergarten classes paint! Thank you Mr. Dobbins!

 

The next week is full as well! To name a few...Pumpkin Patch, Picture Day, Red Ribbon Week, Parent Teacher conferences, School Wide assemblies, and our Fall Party! The fun never ends! Stay tuned to see what all we "get into" this week!

Where did the time go?

Oh My Goodness! Time has flown by! I can't believe that the blog has not been updated since August. All I can say is "I'm sorry!" We have been so busy that the blog has just slipped my mind. Here are just a few pics of the things we have been doing lately!

We went to the fair to see the animals...

We also had a nursery rhyme parade, where the students dressed up as their favorite nursery rhyme character. (Miss Rodery is the spoon who ran away with the dish, from Hey Diddle, Diddle)

There's also a LOT of work going on around here! You would be amazed at what your child can already do! These are a few pics of the things we have been learning...

 

Again, I am so sorry that I have neglected our blog... but trust me, it is because we are staying busy in the classroom and I have been searching and creating for countless hours at home each night! I promise to try to do better! :(

Another week of fun!

Wow! This week has been packed full of fun things. The students "wrote" stories all about themselves, learned about author's and illustrator's, and did some graphing.

This is our birthday graph!

 

We also wrote some stories this week. These are just a few of our authors!

 

 

We also worked on the poem "I am Special".

 

Song and movement are very important in our classroom! We have been learning a lot of new songs that teach valuable skills, as well as just some silly ones to have fun. One of the kids new favorites is the "Tooty Ta" by Jack Hartman. They think it is hilarious!

 

Next week we begin color week, so stop back by to see what we create!

 

 



A Few Tears, A Few Giggles, and A Lot of Fun

Today was our first day of school, and what a day it was! I am so proud to say that the students seemed excited to begin their school journey, and we began with very few tears (on the students part at least). Hopefully the parents fared as well when they left our room! :)

We went to P.E. and G.T. today, had a wonderful time at recess, played some games, and read a few books. Our favorite book of the day was "The Kissing Hand"

After we read the book, we talked about our feelings for the first day of school. Some of the students shared that they were excited, while others said they were shy or worried. I shared with the students that I was nervous, because I am always afraid I will forget someone's name.

We also learned a new phrase today. It is "Spoiler Alert"! hahaha. We discussed that being a "spoiler" is when you tell the class the ending of a book before we read it. I explained to the students that even though you have heard a book before, you can still hear it again and listen for things you didn't hear before. So, if your child comes home talking about not being a "spoiler", that is what they are referring to.

We had a fantastic day! I am looking forward to tomorrow!

Welcome to Ellen Smith Class of 2024-2025! Monday begins the first day of a long journey for you! I am so excited to be your teacher! I can't wait until the fun begins!

Another Year Has Come and Gone

Wow...so much has happened in this past month. We have grown plants, had toad races, Crawl, Drag, and Squirt, Toad Suck....the list goes on and on. With this crazy busy month we have had, I have not had time to blog as I should. So tonight, I play "catch up".

 Meeting Mr. Marc via Skype

 We labeled the parts of a flower, and what it needs to grow

 We had Toad Races... Thanks Coach Sullivan and Coach Moore!

 We had Teacher Appreciation Week. This is but one of the beautiful gifts I recieved this week! Thank you to all boys and girls (and parents) who sent things! I have loved being your teacher this year! You made me feel very appreciated this week!

 And finally, our Luau.

The kids enjoyed playing water games outside with Mrs. Fason's class. It was a blast!

I just want to say that I have loved this year. It has been exciting and I am going to miss you! Feel free to stop by and say "Hi"... For those of you going to the "new school" (Carolyn Lewis), I will miss you tremendously and can't wait to see you in the grocery store, at a local restaurant, or maybe at a ball game. Who knows...

To quote Dr. Suess, my favorite doctor of all time ;-)

An excerpt from Oh The Places You'll Go

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

I will miss you all!

Time Flies

I can't believe that I have just finished working on May's calendar, already! It just seems like last week I was meeting 20 new, excited, nervous kindergartners. And now, I am preparing to send them to 1st grade! Where does the time go?

This week we are studying plants. This is the beginning of the best 6 weeks of kindergarten, in my opinion. We will study plants, bugs, butterflies, frogs, Mother's Day, and Eric Carle over the final 6 weeks of school. These days are filled with fun projects, crafts, and exploration.
Today we planted flowers and practiced recycling by using empty soda bottles...pictures to come. Special shout out to "Mr. R" for volunteering as a Watch DOG and bravely helping us today!!! The kids really enjoyed planting their seeds and are journaling as we go about plant growth.

We also received a "letter" today from Beatrix Potter (OK, so I fibbed a little...it was me in disguise). Anyways, we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit and then, miraculously two hours later, we had a letter addressed to Miss Taylor's Kindergarten Class! Wow!
"Mrs. Potter" asked us lots of interesting questions about the book, and we wrote a letter back to her. The kids got really excited about it and formed some of the best sentences all year! YAY! (I wonder what author can write us next?!?!?)

Parents, I just want to take a minute to say that it has been a wonderful year! Thank you for letting me have the privilege of teaching your child, your baby... I consider it an honor to be a teacher, and do not take my job lightly. I worry about them, fret over them, celebrate with them just as you do. And sadly, my time of teaching is about to come to a close with them. Always know that your children have a special place in my heart, and I will always remember "Miss Taylor's Kindergarten Class 2011-2012"

Spring

It has been a wonderful but busy two weeks since spring break! We have continued learning about the continents, vowels, shapes, and greater than/less than.

This week we have begun work on antonyms! Check out our new song:

Tune of London Bridges

Antonyms are opposites

Fast and slow

Stop and go

Antonyms are opposites

They are different!

The students love this song too! We are still learning, so it may take a few days for them to rememeber all the words, but they are catching on fast.

We use songs during instruction because it helps the kindergarteners learn the material faster and retain it longer. We have found that if you can set educational material to a tune, the kids will be more interested, retain the information, and have the desire to learn more! (Bet you can remember a song you learned from your childhood too!)

That sneaky little leprechaun!

The leprechaun came and destroyed our classroom today! 

 He left silly string, where he climbed all over the walls...

 Messed up our leprechaun traps.... (He's so sneaky!)

 Left footprints all over our tables...

And then got away!

The kids loved seeing the mess that the leprechaun made, but were disappointed that we didn't catch him. We wrote some awesome stories about our adventure though! Be sure to check them out when you come to parent teacher conferences on

Tuesday, March 27th and Wednesday, March 28th!

Have a great spring break! Happy St. Patty's Day!

To Catch A Leprechaun

Today we worked on our higher order thinking skills, building leprechaun traps.

Below are a few of our creations! Enjoy...

 A castle for the leprechaun...

One group of students created a maze for the leprechauns

to go through, before they can get to the gold!

Mrs. Greer at the BMX Bike Show... The kids were super impressed by this!

This week we have also been working on shapes... The students were making shapes out of play-doh as I called them out. When we come back from Spring Break, we will be working on making 3D shapes and recognizing shapes regardless of size or orientation (upside down, flipped over, rotated, etc).