Week Three- School Families , Share, Español, and full days!

Well, Kindergarten survived their first week (almost a week) of full school days!  Were they tired? Yes! Was I tired? You bet!  I'm surprised I still have a voice!  But we did it!  They will probably be tired this week, especially if they attended the Parish Carnival!  But we promise, their bodies will adjust to the schedule... I keep telling myself the same thing = )  

This last week proved to be another fun-filled week here in Kindergarten!  The kindergarten kids brought in some "a"wesome shares this week that started with the letter A!  We had everything from avocados, to airplanes, to Alvin's, to antelope!  Very creative!  This week will be shares that begin with Bb.  Please remember to use a standard sized lunch bag with your child's name on the outside and three clues written down on an index card or piece of paper.  We're sending a reminder with their homework packet, so not to worry!

Here's a photo of a happy kindergartener with his share:

We had another visit from our favorite librarian, Mrs. Doyle!  She was once again impressed with our wonderful behavior while we sat and listened to another story about going to the library. Then we actually got to go to the library and pick out books to keep in our cubbies in the classroom!  Here are some photos of story time and of us reading our stories when we finished our work early:

We also got to meet our Spanish teacher, Señora Valtier!  She is working hard on helping us know our Spanish alphabet, as well our color words. We also practice using Spanish words for colors when we are looking at our calendar in the morning.  We definitely know that rojo is red and amarillo is yellow since our calendar has a red-yellow pattern this month!  Here is a photo of us listening to Señora Valtier:

On Wednesday, we had the pleasure of meeting our newest friend, Luci!  She will join us on Wednesday afternoons for about two hours.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Luci spending time with us, but I'll try and snap some photos this week!  The kids welcomed her with open arms!  She got to spend time with us during centers, which typically takes two to three afternoons a week to complete.  Here are some photos from centers this week:

Our Religion center- we learned about God's gifts and used white boards to illustrate the gifts.

We matched lower case letters to upper case letters on sentence strips using foam letters.

We sorted buttons by colors...

We practiced our fine motor skills by lacing beads- bonus points for my kiddos that laced beads with patterns or by similar colors!

We practiced tracing our upper and lower case Aa's, then shapes.  We are trying to remember that we always start at the top when we make our letters- pull down, but don't push up!

  Finally, on Thursday we got to meet with our School Families!  We each get our own School Family. Our Study Buddy from 5th Grade picks us up from the classroom, then we venture off to another classroom to meet with our other family members- an 8th Grader, 7th Grader, 6th Grader, 4th Grader, 3rd Grader, 2nd Grader, and 1st Grader!  We meet once a month and get to play games, create projects, or just get to know one another!  It's a St Jude tradition that everyone seems to love!  I know the families that stayed in our room had a blast!

     We can't wait to see what fun things will happen this week since we are celebrating apples all week long (In honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday on Friday)!  We will meet with our Study Buddies on Wednesday, then we will have our first Kinder Club on Friday! We will also attend mass this Friday with our Study Buddies.  Parents, you may want to pack some fun apple snacks this week for morning recess since we are going to be bombarded with apple activities!  Just a fun thought = )

    Please don't forget to help us out and sign up for morning recess supervision and lunch supervision!  We rely on parent volunteers for this so please come help out- it is a great way to hang out with the class while earning your service hours.

   I hope you are enjoying these weekly blog updates- I know I enjoy posting them!  If you do, please send me a quick little email or comment on the blog itself- I haven't received any feedback and I am curious to see how many parents actually look at the blog.  Last year we had grandparents and relatives all over the country looking at the blog just to keep up with the activities of their grandchildren!  

Here's to a great full week... I'll pray that our kiddos get plenty of sleep each night... meanwhile, I will be thanking God for the gift of coffee and pumpkin spice lattes with soy!  

Happy Fall everyone!!!