It's Christmas Time!

Thank you so much to all of the students and parents that sent gifts, goodies, and books for our book exchange yesterday! The kids all loved their books and were so proud to take them home and get started reading. Merry Christmas y'all!!!

Love their faces!

Christmas Break is A Week Away!

The kinders are so excited! I don't think they really KNOW what is going on, or why they feel the way they do...but I can tell that they are super pumped about something. Christmas is in the air! There is a feeling of anticipation everywhere. I know that I am certainly excited about two weeks at home!

We have been up to a lot of Christmas type things this month, such as learning to draw snowmen and Christmas connect the dots. The classes all gathered up to watch the 1st grade students present a program about Christmas Eve that was very cute. On Tuesday, we will be taking a trip to the movie theater to watch a Christmas movie on the big screen! Talk about exciting! We also decorated a little tree to make our classroom have a bit of Christmas cheer. The kiddos made their own ornaments to hang on it for our decorations. They turned out so cute...I hope they survive until I can send them home to your trees!

A Big Fat Turkey!

To teach our kinders about Thanksgiving, we put on a program each year that tells the story of how the Pilgrims came to America. The students begin practicing lines and scripts immediately after Halloween. It is a LOT of work! This year, I had more Indians than Pilgrims, so I had to do a little costume creating. I also made myself a new costume. It all looked a bit like this...

This is what all the Indian costumes looked like before.
Now they are the Indian boy costumes.

Supplies...yes, those are chocolate drops with vanilla creme...necessity.

The basic shape. The fabric was this great fuzzy stuff...no clue what it was called!

Finished!!! They were so cute!

A few of the wild Indian Boys!

And the adorable Indian maidens!

I had plenty of Pilgrim costumes for the boys and the girls. They don't change much anyways, so I couldn't spruce them up any. My cute lil' Pilgrim kids looked like this...

Finally, there was a Turkey Hunt in our play. The Big Fat Turkey was one of my sweeties! Wouldn't you love to catch this Turkey?

The kinderbabies did such a fantastic job! We performed twice, once for the school as a dress rehearsal and again for the parents in the evening. They all did great on their lines, songs, and motions. It might have been the best year for our Thanksgiving play yet!

It's Never Too Late...

to say, "Thank You." Today was our belated Veteran's Day program at school. I am not completely sure why it was done today instead of Friday, but it was so, and it was very touching. I love hearing children tell Veterans thank you. It is so important to teach our students about respect of person, property, and country. The kinders are always in such awe when the soldiers come in. What a blessing it is to have such great role models for them to look up to, and for these soldiers to take time out of their lives to attend an elementary school program in the middle of the morning. We have several students in our school that have parents in the military, many of whom spent extensive time away from their babies so that they might serve and protect our country. Check out one of my favorite days from last year here, and a heroic homecoming here.

PJ Day at School?!?!

To encourage good behavior all of the time in our students, our principal began an incentive 'program' called the 50 A's. Each classroom has a chart with 50 boxes on it. Mine looks like this...

Whenever a class travels from one place to another on campus, the chart goes with them. If someone in the class is caught being extra good or doing something wonderful, or if the entire class is just on their best behavior during the time that they are away from the teacher, another teacher might give them an A on the chart. When it is full, the class gets to do something to celebrate. Typically, in kindergarten, when the first chart is 'all fulled up' (in the words of the kiddos), the class has a pajama party! Other parties have been a dance party, board game party, Disney party, beach party, a fiesta...you get the idea. So Friday was our day to have our pajama party. It went a little something like this...

A movie they'd never seen!

And popcorn, since we have worked hard on the sound Pp makes!!!

Fabulous Fall FUN!!!

Fall is officially here! Well, it has been for a good bit, but on Thursday of last week, those terrific Agri students at the high school hosted "Kindergarten Fall Fun Hour." They had set up a petting zoo...

They also had sliding ducks...

And the kiddos got to meet 'Llama, Llama' while they listened to "Llama, Llama Red Pajama," by Anna Dewdney...

There was also a pumpkin hunt...and the kinders (and the teenagers) drew faces on the pumpkins they found!

I truly am thankful for the Agri teacher and these awesome 'big kids' who so often take time out of their day to teach and show our 'little kids' a thing or two!

Sorry it's so dark...and some kids are cut out of the shot...one of the kinders took the pic for us!

It was definitely a long walk back to kindergarten! Thankful for beautiful weather!!!

Fall Carnival!

Last night, our school put on its annual fall carnival. There were lots of kiddos there, of all ages! Different activities were a Pickle Walk, Prize Walk, Hair Painting, Bingo, a Silent Auction, various raffles, an indoor Bump-N-Jump, and of course...the Kindergarten Cake Walk. Parents of kindergarten students donated a variety of baked goodies for the event...and it looked something like this...

Three tables loaded down! Thanks, thanks, and more thanks to our wonderful bunch of parents!!! We definitely could not pull off something like this without your help!

Dressing Up Against Drugs

Monday: Use Your Head, Wear Red

Tuesday: Team Up Against Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco

    (no photo, it was one crazy hectic day!) Most of the kiddos were in Razorback gear!

Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday (have you ever read that book? It's fantastic!)

They are backwards because their clothes were on backward...they are showing off the front of their shirts!

Wacky enough for ya?

Thursday: Join the Fight Against Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco 

Friday: Don't Fall for Drugs (wear black and orange...school colors)

     ~no photo for this one...I stayed home with my daughters...the oldest had to take her driver's exam to get her permit, and they are only available for testing during school hours on Wednesdays and Fridays. Seriously...What are people supposed to do when they can't get away from their jobs to run their kids everywhere they have to be? Practices (for school functions, held immediately after school, but be sure to be there by 4:15 to get your kid...most people around here work til 5), hair appointments (always booked up for after school), driver's tests, monthly tightening of braces...it never ends!  

Recess!

All kids love recess! Well, most do. I never did. I remember asking if I could stay in to help the teacher...filing papers, straightening books, cleaning the chalk boards, etc. Every now and again, one of my kinders will ask if he/she can stay in with me, but for the most part...

Even a broken arm can't slow this one down! :-)