Catholic Schools Week

Hi everyone! I missed the kiddos these past two days!  I am surprised how often I've gotten sick over this school year, but it must be part of the switch-over to a grade with younger students...no fun, but well worth it!  I feel like I slept most of the past 48 hours, so I must have needed it.  Now that I'm starting to feel better, I thought I should blog a little!  Why not? 

I had trouble uploading some photos from the prior week, so let's begin there first.  Our letter of the week that week was Nn, so here is one of our kiddos with their real-life Nn share!

He found a nest in his backyard! What a fun, real share! We couldn't help ourselves and looked at it under the document camera.  

We've been having a lot of fun with some new songs to help us remember the days of the week and the months of the year.  We invite our Helper of the Week up to the front (if they want) to use our microphone (our whiteboard pen) and "rap" along with the song.  As this little guy said when he was done, "Well that was embarassing!" Ha ha! Love it!  

We love our whiteboard so much! We use it for our wiggle breaks every day.  By special request, here are the kiddos dancing to the YMCA on Student Appreciation Day:

Prior to last week, we had some fun at another School Pep Rally.  Those cheerleaders look like they've had a lot of practice lately- they really pepped us up! 

If I didn't know any better, I'd think we were watching high school cheerleaders! 

Something we would cheer about in Kindergarten would be centers and our wonderful parents that volunteer to run centers.  Without them, our centers would not be as fun or run as smoothly, so THANK YOU! Here are some photos from centers over the past two weeks:

Don't Break The Ice... with a learning spin on it!

a little phonics board game

We love our listening Center!

A great game to help our kiddos get to know their Sight Words

More Listening Center time

Tower of Power with some printing practice

So, Mrs. Frawley and I were blown away with our wonderful door decorations on Teacher Appreciation Day!  If you didn't get a chance to see, here it is!

Owls! Whoooooo knew?!?!? Very cute! Those owls are "flying" on our door via springs glued to each owl! How clever!  And each "o" on the door has a child's picture glued in the center, with thoughtful words about their teachers written around it.  Did we feel appreciated, or what?!?!? Thank you everyone!!!! We also enjoyed our Starbucks, pastry, flowers, and fruit baskets!  

My last two photos come from some helpers I found during one of our Math Lesson.  The kiddos have been working on counting up to 30, being able to identify numbers that come before and after a given number, as well as numbers in between two given numbers.  This is something that is easily practiced at home.  Just tell your child a number, let's say, 15. Ask them what comes before that number, then ask them what comes after.  Some students still get before and after confused, so make sure they are identifying the correct number.  Here are a few of my helpers putting three numbers in the correct order:

Alright folks- if everything goes according to plan, you will have those report cards in your hands by Tuesday!  Let's hope all of the students and myself are present on Monday in order to finish up these report card assessments!  

Oh, and before I forget, do you know what Friday the 7th is???? It will be our 100th Day of School!!! This is a BIG deal in Kindergarten and First Grade.  We are crossing our fingers that Zero the Hero will arrive! I hear he's made an appearance every year in Kindergarten on the 100th Day, so let's hope he shows up!  I've also heard he only shows up if the kindergartners are on their best behavior all week... = )

We will have some fun things planned that day, and, if you're around campus at 10:00am that day, meet us out on the big kid play-yard for a St. Jude tradition! 

Our share topic this week will be things that begin with the letter Pp- we love those share items that make us really think outside of the box!  Keep sending them in!  

I know Valentine's Day is starting to pop into everyone's mind... just a reminder- please don't address each Valentine with a student's name- just sign the Valentine's with your name so we know who the Valentine is from.  If you have separate Valentine's for boys and girls, please separate the Valentine's into a girl pile and a boy pile.  If you have Valentine's for your teachers or principal, then please address those as such.  Thank you for your help! This makes the process doable in a grade level such as Kindergarten! 

Have a great, healthy weekend everyone! Take care!