Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and great New Year! I want to thank you all for the wonderful gifts you donated to the room and gave me. Thank you all very, very much!

K - 5 has been waiting for the first day of winter. We start each day with our morning meeting and go through the calendar. We say the day, month, year and season. The first day of the winter season is the day of the year when the Sun is farthest south (on December 21st). On Monday, Jan. 3rd, 2011, the students are going to be so excited to say it is Winter! They have all been saying, "It feels like Winter, but not yet!" Well, it definitely feels and is winter!

Our theme is "On the Farm".
This week K - 5 will be learning the letters "Gg" and "Ff".
Our sight words are: here and this
We will be using the vocabulary words anxious, huddle, moans, productive, idle and scrumptious as much as we can. The students hear their vocabulary words in each week's big books and library books. We go over each word and I am amazed at how the class remembers the meanings of the words. K - 5 does a great job on their vocabulary words!

We will be working in our centers this week. The students are learning how to work independently.

We will also be listening for the final sound in a word, making more lists and we will talk more about the beginning, middle and end of a story.

Our class Christmas Party was great!

We started with our book exchange.

Played Bingo!

Made ornaments you can put on your tree!

Made a delicious snack and then played more games!

Malia's Dad came in today to read to the class. He read Malia's favorite kind....a Fancy Nancy book. Thank you Mr. Velarde! You did a great job!

Please know that if you have sent me an email, I am not ignoring it. The school's Email hasn't been working today! I'm hoping anything sent over the last couple of days will make it in or out sometime over the weekend.

The students got to visit England today and learn all about how they celebrate the Holiday Season there.
Ask them:
What do the children in England call Santa?
What do the children in England do to the letters they write to Father Christmas?
What did Father Christmas toss down the chimney long, long ago?

After we talked about how they celebrate the holiday, out came the GLITTER! The students decorated their own stocking!

Folded Paper and Paint Symmetry

I gave each student a piece of card stock that already had a fold line. They painted just one side and then folded it in half. They rubbed the top of their papers carefully and then opened them up. Their pictures were great and perfectly symmetrical!

Mrs. Velarde came in today and demonstrated how to make the Scandinavian cookie, Krumkake. The classroom smelled wonderful all day long. She came in both in the morning and in the afternoon! She made all the Kindergarteners one! Malia was her helper! Thank you!!

"Christmas" the name the class gave our elf on the shelf is watching our class!

We have been talking about geometric shapes and today I challenged the class to make some! Wow! Their shapes were amazing!

Malia, our Star of the Week, shared her "All About Me Tee" Poster today!

Next week (Dec. 6th - 10th) K - 5 will be getting passports to travel to "Holidays Around the World". Actually we will be traveling just next door to the other Kindergarten classrooms. The students will be learning from all the different kindergarten teachers about holidays around the world. The students will love learning about other cultures and they will get to see the different classrooms for 45 minutes each day.

Today the students learned all about Star Fruit!

Some students were excited!

Some loved it!

Some were a little unsure....should I try it......maybe.....

and then almost everyone did!

and some students showed me what they thought!

Gavin's Mom, Dad and brother came in to celebrate Gavin being Star of the Week. They read "Green Eggs and Ham"! Gavin read the last page! We learned that Gavin has a Boxer named Rocky and that he is a great big brother!