SLIME!

In April, the 5th graders had a fundraiser for their yearbook. We were able to buy tickets at lunch time for the chance to be the one student per grade allowed to SLIME Mr. D! We were SO lucky that the WINNER was from our class!! Poor Mr. D! :)

Sooo exciting! :)

Our lucky winner takes a bow...

Here it comes...

Literacy Week

Sorry for the delay - so many pictures, so little time! :) In march, we celebrated literacy week by dressing up as our favorite book characters! It was SO much fun! At the end of the day we had a character fashion show, and the students voted on their favorite teacher's costume! Sadly, the kindergarten team didn't win as Pete the Cat, but Mr. D stole the show and we just couldn't compete with the Lorax! Check out the action below! :)

Even our governor couldn't stay away from the action! We felt like pretty important readers today! 

Birthday Treats!

The students were VERY excited to help me celebrate a milestone birthday (... ugh). We had spent the day participating in Eric Carle activities with each of the kindergarten classroom teachers, and were ready for a little treat. One student said, "Wow, Mrs. Smith... you're really nice on your birthday. And funny too." I'll take a compliment when it comes my way! ;)

Bouncy Fun!

Thank you PTA for donating the bounce houses for us to use at p.e. and health this week! We had SO much fun getting out our winter energy!

We Are Non-Fiction Experts!

We have been VERY busy learning about non-fiction texts in readers and writers workshop. We are learning lots of ways to tell "report" books from fiction books... from photographs to bold print, these kindergarteners are becoming very aware of the features of our new favorite genre of literature! Recently we went on a scavenger hunt in the room of non-fiction books hidden in our class library. Here are two students showing what they found, and how they were able to determine that their book really was non-fiction:

Now that we are experts at "report" texts, we are writing our own reports on topics that we are experts at! Students chose their own topics and wrote their own facts based on what they know about the subject. I have experts on everything from ladybugs to window washing to pretending! We can't wait to share our reports with you at Literacy Night in April - stay tuned for details! :)

Choice Time

We work hard in kindergarten every day in readers workshop, writers workshop, math and phonics. But we always try to get a few minutes of choice time in each day, too! It's important to put what we've learned to the test in meaningful ways, but it's also important to spend time learning how to interact with each other in a positive way. Here are three students working together to complete a number line puzzle. They are just so sweet!

Catching Up!

Wow, I was looking at some old pictures on my camera and found this adorable pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration when we made butter. I can't believe how much older the kids look now, 2 months later! Here's how we made butter... we poured whipping cream into our little Tupperware cups and shook our hearts out. Seriously. Our arms were TIRED. We sang a little chant as we shook: Shake it up, shake it down, shake it shake it, all around!

We were so relieved when the liquid finally changed to a soft solid chunk of butter. The kids LOVED sampling the butter on mini bagels. This was such a memorable day. Here we are, shaking!