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.....

Waddling into Kindergarten

Penguins are popping up everywhere in Kindergarten!  January is an awesome month as we've begun learning about those cute cuddly birds of Antarctica.  We started off with a few art projects.  Adelie penguins greet all those who walk in the hallway.  Penguins dressed in bow ties and stocking caps adorn our classroom and a very beautiful January quilt the boys and girls made from hand prints turned to penguins along with their own snowflakes can be seen from our doorway.  We also measured each boy and girl and compared their heights to that of an Emperor penguin.  We could tell that the Emperor was very tall but we soon discovered many of us we not too far behind.  We then compared our measurements to a King penguin, Chinstrap, Macaroni and the smallest penguin Little Blue. We will continue to delight in learning more and more about the penguin as the month progresses - so stay tuned!

Reversible Change

We've had a little fun coming back to school after Christmas break.  Sid the Science Kid made an appearance as we learned all about why things melt and freeze.  We did a little class survey as each child drew what they knew about why things melt.  We then viewed an episode of Sid the Science Kid, as Sid and his friends with the help of Teacher Susie, melted an ice block filled with fruit.  They soon discovered that the melted ice block could be refrozen and melted again.  This was called "reversible change".  On Friday, we had our own ice block of fruit and did the same experiment as Sid and his friends did.  Hands on learning has so much more meaning as the boys and girls saw first hand what they viewed on Sid the Science Kid.  Our kiddos then drew in their Science Journals what  they observed.  We then made some fruit pops (bananas and orange juice) and put them outside in Mother Nature's freezer to enjoy  at snack time.  The boys and girls did me proud later that day as I read them our afternoon story about a snowman and a little girl who saved him when he melted and froze the liquid to reuse him as a snowman.  Almost in unison my very observant Kindergartners told me "Hey Mrs. Straight, that's reversible change!"

My New Year's Resolution

OK OK I admit I have been slacking on the blog lately.  I have discovered technology is like a new child.  With your first born, you take pictures of every yawn, smile and hiccup but as you get more children the amount of pictures begins to dwindle until you are reminded that you do have other children.  Unfortunately, our blog site was like my "first born" as I dutifully blogged once to twice a week but then the amount of time spent on the blog site became less and less.  For that I apologize.  Many of you have expressed how much you enjoy our blog site and I do have fun as I write and try to let the "voice" of our wonderful classroom shine through.  So my resolution to you is to keep our blog updated as we explore more and more in Kindergarten.  My other resolution is to remember to get those birthday cards out to my nieces and nephews on time.  Do you sense a pattern here....

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday.  I spent it with my daughter, son-in-law, three beautiful granddaughters, two dogs, pneumonia, bronchitis and had a fabulous time despite the illness.  The Christmas magic has left Nana's house and is tucked away in totes on basement shelves.  Now I am ready and excited (as I am sure you are) to get back to my Kindergarten Kiddos! 

Your child's teacher,
Mrs. Straight

A Season for Giving

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED TOWARD OUR FOOD DRIVE AND FOR ITEMS FOR HAVEN HOUSE.  YOUR OVERWHELMING GENEROSITY IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Polar Express

This is probably one of my most favorite days of the year!  The wonderment and excitement of the holidays through a child's eyes is such a perfect thing!  We started off our afternoon getting into our PJ's.  I arranged the chairs into rows for our "train ride".  Each child was given their ticket to board the train as I dawned my conductor hat as everyone found their seat on the Polar Express.  With lights out, I read the story to the boys and girls.  At the end of the story, I pulled out my own silver bells and we listened to it's wonderful sound to all our enjoyment.  Then low and behold, we heard bells outside and there next to our playground door was a bag from old Mr. C. himself.  Inside the bag he had a silver bell, a train whistle and some magic reindeer food for each of Mrs. Straight's good little boys and girls.  After the squeals and smiles, we had hot chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, and candies while we listen to some Christmas songs.  After all the excitement, we grabbed out rest time towels, laid them out on the floor and watched a little Christmas video.  Soon it was time for all the fun to come to an end as we changed back into our school clothes but I hope the memory stays with them for a lifetime as it will with me.

Your child's teacher,
Mrs. Straight

Gingerbread Houses

Boy, did we ever have a good time letting those creative juices flow!  The boys and girls worked so hard building and decorating their own gingerbread houses.  The project took two days.  On the first day, we used our graham crackers and our "glue" the yummy frosting to build the walls and roof of our houses around our milk cartons.  We let the delicious smelling houses dry overnight and the next day we divided up all the goodies donated from home to decorate the houses.  The kiddos had such a great time - however - I'm not sure if it was the licking the frosting or sampling the goodies that brought about all those smiles!

Your child's teacher,
Mrs. Straight