Happy Holidays!

I hope you have a restful and enjoyable winter break.  Happy Holidays and see you all in 2012!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we did a lot of turkey crafts and even enjoyed some turkey snacks. Thanks Mrs. Hester and Mrs. Miller for the yummy turkey treats!

Wishing all my students and their families a happy and restful Thanksgiving break. 

Shaving Cream "Party"

The AM class filled their marble jar and earned their reward for all the compliments they have received.  They enjoyed their reward of a shaving cream "party"! Our tables were cleaned, our room smelled fresh, and the students had fun!

Thanksgiving Centers

The whole Kindergarten grade level participated in centers in each other's classroom on Monday.  The students enjoyed the activities in the other classrooms as well as in the computer lab. Thank you to all the parents who helped make this day possible!

Edible Art

Mrs. Belote was our Mystery Reader in the PM class and she read a story about a special tree named Steve after the story the students made an edible fall tree with pretzels, frosting, and trix cereal.

Book Buddies

Our PM class has begun reading with Mrs. Hartin's second grade class on Friday afternoons.  Ask your child about their second grade book buddy.  The students in both grades love this activity!

Fall Centers

On Halloween all Kindergarten students rotated though 9 fall centers.  They made spider hats, weighed and measured pumpkins, drew pumpkins on the computer, learned the life cycle of a pumpkin, and found out which fruits and vegetables sink and which ones float.  A BIG THANK YOU to all the parents who donated their time to make this a fun and educational day for the students!

Science Lab

On Monday we had our first science lab.  We explored our five senses with many hands on experiments.    This was such an amazing opportunity for the students to solidify what they have been learning about the five senses.  A BIG THANK YOU to all the parents and grandparents who helped out with our science lab, we couldn't have done it without you!

Mystery Reader

We have enjoyed having many parents come and be our Mystery Readers on Tuesday. It is a thirty minute time where our Mystery Reader reads to the class and often does a craft with the class that corresponds with the book they have read. The AM time slot is from 8:20-8:50 and the PM slot is from 1:30-2:00. We are booked through the month of December but if you are interested in coming in in 2012 please email me to let me know.  nikki.lister@vbschools.com

Buddy Reading

Part of our Daily 5 center rotations is Reading to Someone, we call this Buddy Reading.  The students are currently reading from their leveled book baggies to a stuffed animal.  They really enjoy sharing their books with their buddies.  Eventually, the students will be reading to each other but this is a great way for us to build our reading stamina.

Literary Pumpkin

This year at JBD all classes were asked to make a pumpkin based on a favorite story book character.  We chose to turn our pumpkin into Clifford.  Take a look at the final product! All pumpkins are on display in the library if you are at school check them out.

Sparch

Every Tuesday we have Sparch which is a combination of Speech and Art with Mrs. Rossetti and Ms. Ward.  We have been learning about fall.  Look at the pictures of our leaf rubbings!

Exploring Taste in Science

We have been learning about the five senses in science.  Today, we tasted red, yellow, and green apples to decide if they were sweet or tart.

Upcoming Spirit Day

Throughout the school year we will have spirit days at JBD! Our first ones are coming up in a few weeks!

October 21st is Black Out Day: wear black head to toe
October 31st is Orange, white, and black day

Picture Day

Tomorrow is picture day! Be sure to wear your smile and your favorite outfit!

Specialist Schedule

Here is a list of the specialists that visit our students weekly:

Monday: Guidance with Ms. Booth
Tuesday: Sparch (art/speech together) with Mrs. Rossetti and Ms. Ward
Wednesday: Music with Mrs. Hall and PE with Mr. K
Thursday: Computer Lab with Mrs. Carroll and PE with Mr. K
Friday: Library with Mrs. Hardesty and Gifted with Mrs. Law

* Remember on Wed. and Thurs. to have your child wear their sneakers. 
* Remember on Fri. to bring in your library book so that you can return it and pick a new one.

Estimation Jar

We are practice making educated guesses with our estimation jar! Look for it to come home this year and your child will get to fill it and bring it back in for the other students to make their guesses.

Working with iPads

Today we got to work with iPads! We learned how to trace letters, heard letter sounds, and praticed making words. Remember to send in headphones for your child so that they can use the iPads in school this year.

Daily 5

This week we are building our stamina as we learn to read to self for 15 minutes or more at a time.  Remembering the three ways to read a book are read the pictures, read the words, or retell a familiar story.  We have also been learning how to listen to reading on the computers with Tumble Books.  This is a program that all students can access at home via the JBD website, just scroll down and click on the dancing book for Tumble Books.  Happy Reading!

Read to Self

We are working on reading to ourselves and building our reading stamina.  Today we "shopped" for books and picked four books for our book bags out of Mrs. Lister's class library.  We are working on keeping our eyes on the book, staying in one place, reading the entire time, and reading silently.  This is part of our Daily Five classroom organization.  Stay tuned for more about Daily Five!