We Went Bananas For Our 100th Day

WOW!  I cannot believe we've already had 100 days of wonderfully fabulous fun!  Most of our day was based on the number 100 and we had a  great time!  Enjoy the pictures of our day ----

Modeling our 100 day crowns and glasses

                                               

                                                     Our 100 link chain

                                     Working on our 100 acts of kindness

Here is the final product!



100 happy faces!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                                                       100 tractor pictures

                                      100 kernels of popcorn

100 pennies

                                               

                                              A house made from 100 Q-Tips





A house made from 100 Legos



A necklace made with 100 beads and a bell



Draped with 100 colorful paperclips




A box decorated with 100 stickers




A volcano made from 100 pebbles
and one inside to make it rumble

                                                                                 

A beautiful picture made from 100 art foam pieces




                                                 

100 peanuts

                                                                    

100 pictures of Derby cars




100 marshmallows



A necklace made from 100 Fruit Loops

100 macaroni shells

100 Fruit Loops in this yummy necklace



 

100 pennies!

                                                

                                            

Our 100 Hershey Kiss hunt. We matched
the numbers on the bottoms of the Hershey
Kisses hidden around the room. 
We even got to eat them later!

                                         
                                                 

A surprise visit from Zero the Hero!!
Other activites from our day included reading 100 words, receiving 100 day pencils and stickers, melting 100 ice cubes, listening to stories about the 100th day of school, and counting to 100 by ones, tens, and fives with Miss Heidi

                                                               
Not only did we go bananas over all the fun, we enjoyed banana splits with a lot of yummy toppings at the end of our day.  Sorry there is only one picture but the teachers decided to finally join in and have our own tasty treat! 

A Box of Crayons

"We are a box of crayons

Each of us unique

And when we get together

The picture is complete."

The book The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf, was the perfect springboard for introducing the lessons taught by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  We read several books about the life of Dr. King which led to many great discussions with the boys and girls.  They instinctively knew people were treated wrongly and were genuinely confused.  We also talked about bullying others and how we as people should handling bullying situations. We ended our week long mini-unit as I gave each student the book The Crayon Box That Talked to remind them how even though we look differently, we need each other to help our world be a better place.  We even turned our own Kindergarten class into a box of crayons which is displayed outside our classroom door.

One of the most wonderful things about being a teacher of young children is how they see the world.  I am proud to say our class sees each and everyone of us for who we are - not what we are.  The boys and girls are caring to all in our class - no matter their color - no matter their special needs.  We should all be so lucky to see the world through a child's eyes.

Your child's very proud teacher,                                         

Mrs. Straight

Growing Snowflakes

As I have mentioned many times before, there is nothing like hands on learning.  When we came back to school after Christmas break, we had a little fun in Kindergarten with penguins and snowflakes.   On that Friday before we left for a very long and snowy weekend, we started an experiment growing our own "snowflakes".  Through many great books, we learned a lot about snowflakes.  We discovered that even though all snowflakes had 6 sides they were all unique and different.  We also learned that snowflakes were made from water that turned to crystals due to the cold, cold air in the clouds.  We decided how great would it be if we could make our own snowflakes from a different kind of crystal.  We started with a basic snowflake shape made from a white pipe cleaner.  We tied it to a Popsicle stick to help hold it in our jars.

We added one quarter cup of Borax laundry soap to the jars and some very very hot water.  We carefully placed our snowflake forms into the water to let the crystals form onto the pipe cleaners. 

 We let them set through the weekend plus a couple of snow days. By Wednesday, we had some wonderful and unique snowflakes to take home and share with our families!

Snow Days

Winter has arrived as we all hibernate in our homes and wait out the snow and wind.  I, unfortunately, am hibernating with a few Christmas goodies left over (cookies and candies) from the holidays.  So I have taken this opportunity to clean out a few closets and drawers and organize a few things.  Lo and behold, I came upon a few pictures from our Thanksgiving feast!  We had a great time that day sharing yummy food with our "Native American" First grade friends.  We had so much food to share that our feast lasted three days just like the real first Thanksgiving !  I hope you enjoy the photos.....