St Patrick's Day and Lent

Hi again! I know I didn't blog last weekend, but believe me, things were a little busy on campus and blogging was pushed to the end of the to-do list = )  Our recent WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation visit took priority over everything else. This is a culmination of a two year process of assessing the school, our goals, and our accomplishments- nothing to scoff at!  We teachers were extremely busy and stressed out preoccupied over the last few weeks, and we needed our classrooms to look their best, our lesson plans to truly reflect our ability to teach, and our children to be on their best behavior!  Well, after a few little bumps (earthquake, excitement of a holiday, etc), we came through with flying colors! Amen! Thanks be to God! 

Speaking of God, we have been learning about Lent here in Kindergarten.  Here are a few snapshots of some Lenten activities/art projects:

We have learned that the Holy Trinity is three beings in one God. Like St. Patrick, we reinforced the concept with the use of a shamrock.

We made these beautiful "stained glass" crosses with our study buddies. They are currently hanging in our room. They look especially pretty when the sun shines through them!

  

 

 

We have also been using the theme of St. Patrick's Day in our classroom to do some learning and even more art projects with our Study Buddies!

Here we are making some rainbow paper-chains with a pot of gold!

I think these two buddies enjoyed their project!

Here is a little color-by-number activity. The Kinder Kiddos needed to read the color words on their own to know how to color this sheet... they did very well!

 

During centers, each child had a chance to write down what they would do with a pot of gold if they found one at the end of a rainbow... some children wanted to purchase a fancy race car, while others wanted to donate the gold to the poor!

At another center, we worked together to put the words of a sentence in order, then copy the sentence down.

Mrs. Frawley helped the Kinder Kiddos write about the colors of the rainbow.

Ms. Marilyn helped our Kindergartners work on some graphing skills at this math center.

Speaking of Math, we have moved onto our subtraction skills!  This is a little tougher than addition, but we will get the hang of it! Right now, we are trying to show subtraction problems using our fingers or counters. At home, promote your child using fingers or any small objects they can count.

Remember our St Patrick's Day wake-up call? (aka Earthquake) We decided to practice our earthquake positions to be sure we were ready for any other movers and shakers! Obviously being under a table is ideal, but on the carpet we practiced rolling into a little ball and protecting our important necks.

At our Kinder Club we had fun making Leprechaun traps!

We also enjoyed some delicious rainbow fruit kabobs!

Yum! A meal fit for St. Patrick!

Here is a our Helper of the Week using our "microphone" to lead us in a song about the 12 months of the year.  Future cheer captain???

This week we read the fable, "The Lion and the Mouse".  We discussed the concept of main idea, and we illustrated a picture to show an important part of the story!

Finally, I'm sure you may have heard that we played a school-wide game of BINGO with our student families last week!  It was a lot of fun, and one of our Kinder Kiddos was one of the winners!

Well, that's it for me- I need to get some much needed rest this weekend- what a week! I realize now that our homework letter does not tell you what our share topic is.  Please bring in an item that begins with V or has to do with the season of SPRING.  If you pick the Spring topic, please tell us what letter your item begins with. 

Have a great weekend, and take care!