Wow! That was a fast break!

Wow! Where did the time go? I cannot believe we are in the homestretch of our wonderful Christmas break!  I hope this blog update finds everyone healthy and happy, probably recovering from all of the excitement that happens during a Christmas break.  Did you travel far?  Or did you invite friends and family to your sunny Southern California home?  I can't get over how great the weather has been down here... it really is great weather to be outdoors, say, at the beach?  I say that because we have a wonderful opportunity for you and your kiddos to be outside at the beach, all while helping the environment.  After school on Friday, the Kindergarten class is sponsoring one of our beach clean up days!  Please go to our Shutterfly website to sign up.  Friends and family are welcome, too!  Please do me a favor- if you do go, take some photos and email them my way! I wish I could join you, but I will be indoors at a staff meeting instead (not outside at the beach... I think you can guess how I feel about that!) Any questions can be directed to Mrs. Hitch.  Thanks! 

I had a great, relaxing, low-key vacation... just what the doctor ordered!  I was able to get away for a little bit on a camping trip out to the desert.  I enjoyed friends and family visiting out here for the holidays, and I got to spend some time with my sister, my 9 year old niece, and my brother-in-law.  Definitely spent some time baking, cleaning, and I loved my morning walks!  I can't wait to hear what all of you did over the break! (And I know I will hear allllll about it! They love sharing!)  By the way, Santa left a few presents for our Kindergarten class under my tree Christmas morning, and they will be waiting for the Kindergarten kiddos to see at school Monday morning!  Here's a hint: it is something they will be using during Centers that will help with their listening and reading skills... 

If your kiddo is curious, Hootie and Owly spent some time with their teacher over the break.  I will be sure to share those photos and stories with them at school on Monday!  They had a great Christmas and New Year's!  

Since we last blogged, I showed some photos from the week before the last week of school for 2013.  Here are some photos from that last week, including some fun photos of our Advent Program... by the way, I was blown away at their wonderful LOUD singing that night... there might have been a few proud-tears being held back by yours truly.  = ) It's such a wonderful feeling to see all of that hard work paying off!  I hope we get the same results from them at the end of their Kinder year during our Paraliturgy program and graduation!  Here are some photos from that last week of 2013:

Here are the kiddos working on their Christmas Story books. This involved a lot of drawing, coloring, and printing practice!

 

     

We read this hilarious story and then wrote about ways we would help Santa if he was stuck in our chimney! They had some clever ideas!

Here's a kinder kiddo writing about her idea to help Santa out of the chimney.

Here are some kiddos playing another round of Tower of Power during centers. They love this game!

We love directed-draw activities!  Here we are after we learned how to draw reindeer!

Here are our little rockstars getting ready to head out to the Church for their big performance!

 

Our kiddos watching the other grades so patiently

 

The kiddos showing off their Christmas wreaths at our Christmas party. Did you hang your wreath on your front door?

 

2014 will bring some changes to the Kindergarten curriculum, particularly regarding their homework.  You will begin to see a weekly reading log sent home in their homework packet. Directions will be included with the reading log, so be sure to read it carefully.  
I know your Kinder Kiddos are excited to take home their school library books one day, and it will happen soon enough!  We will see how they treat their library books this week, and then, maybe next week will be the week they finally get to take them home and show us how responsible they can be with a borrowed library book!  Big hint for the parents- keeping the library book in the Kindergarten backpack is a FANTASTIC idea... library books have been known to disappear in home book shelves, in the car, in the toy closet, etc... never to be seen again!  Then the kindergartner parent pays the school a fine for the lost book. No fun!     

Well, that's going to do it for me.  This week's share will be things that begin with the letter L.  Don't forget that Friday is a noon dismissal with an all-school mass, so try to remember to send your little kinder boy to school in pants, not shorts. Looking forward to seeing those kiddos' smiling faces nice and early Monday morning!  I missed them! Happy new year!