3rd Quarter in Review!

We have had an amazing time in our room since Christmas. We lost a friend to another town, which made us sad; however, we gained a new friend as well. A week after we returned from Christmas break, we welcomed a student teacher from Arkansas Tech University to our room. She is AWESOME, and we love her!!!

Amidst many days where we have not been able to be at school due to this...

(ice and snow and ice and snow x 8 days)

Yes, amidst all of that slushy, frigid fun...we have had REAL fun doing so many things! Our class has been so fortunate to have had several volunteers from the community come and do lessons and demonstrations for us. Our special guests have included a local farmer, a mom (to read with us), two college professors, and a veterinarian who brought a dog! What have we done with these guests? Well, just look!

(Dr. Itza showed us the order of the planets in the solar system)

(Gus only likes Dr. Parker and kids...not teachers!)

(Dr. Parker and Gus)

(Dr. Parker showed us how he listens to hearts!)

(Gus loved this boy! He just flopped right over for a belly rub!)

We also have had a couple of celebrations since I last posted about our days in Kindergarten. The first was Valentine's day. Originally, we weren't supposed to have had school on the actual day, BUT because of all of that white stuff falling from the sky so often, we used it as a make up day.

(yummy dairy-free chocolate cupcakes)

(a card made especially for someone special at home)

(a little something from the teacher)

(the 'owl-dorable' Valentine bags we made the day before)

(having a great time, checking out all of the goodies)

(passing out our Valentine cards)

(There is our new friend, Mrs. Donathan!)

Then there was a Seuss-tastical time as we enjoyed a day in recognition of Dr. Seuss. We even had green eggs and ham!

(Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Donathan cooking our Seuss Special!)

(Green eggs and ham)

(Listening to Dr. Parker as she eats!)

(Not so sure about these green eggs guys...)

(Heading out with our hats!)

(I think they liked them)

Needless to say, it has been a big few weeks, full of a lot of laughs and a lot of terrific, hands-on learning! On top of all of this, we are all AR testing now. Time sure is flying by!

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!!!

Visitors!

The Agri students from the high school are always doing awesome things for our kinderbabies. Towards the end of the year last year, they began doing a 'pet of the month.' The Ag teacher would email all of the kindergarten teachers clues to give to our students, and it was up to them to guess what the pet was each month. At the end of the month, the pet made a surprise visit to our classroom. One of them was an alpaca that spit green goo everywhere, due to a nervous habit...who knew?!?! The building stunk like poo for days! Nonetheless, I am so thankful for the Agri teacher and the students for taking the time and making such an effort to interest the kinders in agricultural experiences.

This year the 'pet of the month' has started back up, and today we had some very special guests. The pet of the month was a duck. I didn't snag any shots of these guys because they were too feisty and wouldn't be still for their photo op. Tagging along with the ducks, though, was Edward. A 'tiny, miniature horse.' And he was tiny. And ever so soft. And adorable. Don't you just love this guy???

Student Quote: "Mom, you've got to see Mrs. Knight! She has blonde lines! In her hair! IT'S PRETTY!!! Mom, why don't you get blonde lines, then we won't see the gray!" (this came from one of my cuties' mom via email after I started straightening my hair again...my highlights must really show up now, because they all have gone a little gaga over the 'new' hair)

Meet the Food Groups

Our fantastic PE teacher organized a school-wide health and nutrition week with field day as the culminating event. Classroom teachers were asked to conduct at least a week-long unit focusing on physical health or nutrition. With this in mind, I taught the five senses last week and am teaching the food pyramid this week. Much of my material for this week has come from a really cute website that I found, so be sure to check it out here. It has great FREE reproducibles and interactive tools that work well on a Smartboard, and they are all accessible without a membership (although you do have a membership option). Today, to introduce the food pyramid, I combined a sort page that I already had with the pyramid printable from nourishinteractive to have the students create their own kid-friendly pyramids...involving color, cutting, and sorting! They had fun!!

Seasons of Change

Our class just finished a two-week unit on the four seasons. Since it was standardized testing week, I opted for the class to create the seasons by showing what trees look like as they change with the weather. The class seemed to enjoy it, although it was tedious for them at times. They had to show what the grass and sky looked like for each season, as well as what the trees should look like. This is what they came up with: