Turkey, turkey, turkey

Finally! A normal week!  Well, almost normal, aside from the Turkey Trot.  This teacher is ready for the students to be dressing in their uniforms for an entire week!  It is amazing what little changes can do to our students' overall behavior.  I know there was some confusion regarding dress code for students when we have non-uniform dress days.  Looking through the student handbook is helpful, but when in doubt, just think modest.  In general, the students are not supposed to wear super short shorts/skirts or anything that shows their shoulders or belly buttons. We always encourage shoes with laces and/or velcro (no slip-on's), but boots, sandals, flip flops, or open toed shoes are never allowed. These rules are for Kindergarten through 8th grade.  After teaching here for 8 years, I can tell you that the students still enjoy their non-uniform days even with such a tall list of rules to follow! Thank you for your support  = )

So this week was still filled with fun, educational activities.  I have started my one-on-one assessments with the kinder kiddos.  During PE and our morning circle time I've been assessing each kindergartner individually to see just how much they've learned in our 50 days of school- this includes their Phonics and Math skills, their prayers, and a few other items.  We will go over these assessments at our Parent Teacher conferences.  I am really looking forward to meeting with everyone, even if it is just for a brief fifteen minutes!  Please note that I really do have to stick to the fifteen minute time slot- if you are going to be late to our meeting, please call the school office and we will reschedule our time.  If you are a few minutes late, it will cut our time short, but we will use every little second!  

Our week started with a great morning assembly in which the whole school sang happy birthday to Father Jim!  But, Father Jim did not want to enjoy the spotlight by himself, so he called up another special birthday boy to join him!  Here is our kinder kiddo and Father Jim enjoying the special attention:

 
We also celebrated Mrs. Schulte's birthday with a giant birthday card signed by each of the kindergartners!  We love birthdays here at St. Jude! 

Tuesday found many of us at our school's book fair at Barnes and Noble!  Mrs. Schulte, Mrs. Garrett, Ms. Andrea, and myself enjoyed reading books to an excited group of children. Here are some member of the excited audience now:

 
We had a great time, and on behalf of the school librarian, Mrs. Doyle, and the entire faculty, we want to say thank you to everyone who was able to support our school by either showing up or purchasing books that day!

We had a great time at centers this week- we were so busy with learning activities that I didn't get a chance to snap any photos!  Bummer!  But we promise they were enjoying themselves while learning how to read, follow directions, take turns, color, cut, glue, play games, and learn about God!  

I did have a chance to take a few photos during our computer class this week.  We had a blast using the Paint program to show off our creative sides.  Using the mouse is an excellent way to reinforce fine motor skills in your little one.  So many things are "touch screen" now-a-days, but using a mouse is a whole other skill set that really benefits your child. Here are some wonderful masterpieces created by your talented artists... I think we should sell some of these to LACMA or MOCA as a fundraiser!

 

I also took a quick photo during Spanish class- the kids have been taking turns using puppets to reenact a cute Spanish song about uno burro (or donkey)

 We also had a lot of fun learning how to draw some plump turkeys on our whiteboards.  The kids are doing a great job following multi-step orally stated directions during our directed-draw activities.  See if your child can draw a turkey at home, too!  

Finally, we ended our week on a healthy note- with the Turkey Trot!  It was so great to see so many parents volunteering that day, along with some awesome weather, too!  The kids were pooped, but a little shaved ice and cool shade seemed to do the trick.   

Well, this week will be short thanks to our wonderful Veterans of the USA.  We have been learning about Veterans/Soldiers during our Social Studies lessons.  The kids and I had a discussion about superheroes, like Batman and Spiderman, and we learned why soldiers are just as brave, if not braver, than those caped heroes.  If you know a soldier, retired or still enlisted, please thank them for us on this Veteran's Day.  

In honor of our Veterans, our share topics this week will be things that start with our letter of the week (Ii), or anything patriotic.  

Have a fabulous three day weekend, and we will see everyone on Tuesday!

Take care!