Friday, December 20, 2013

Change Collection Success!

Thank you to everyone who donated their change over the past month! I am very proud of our class for collecting a total of  $170.37 to buy holiday presents for some less fortunate families. We have been learning all about thinking of others through random acts of kindness this month and this was a great way to end the month! That is a new record for us! Hopefully next year we can raise even more!

Thank you!

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped out at the winter celebration today! Whether you sent in supplies or gave us an hour of your time, I really appreciate it and the kids had a blast! Thank you for the Yankee candle, Lindt chocolates & gift card! That was very generous and thoughtful of you! I hope you all have a restful, healthy holiday break and a happy new year! ~ Miss Flynn & Mrs. Lundberg

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I have created an account on remind101.com where you can sign up to receive classroom reminder messages to your phone as text messages or emails. Your phone numbers as well as mine, are anonymous and confidential. All you have to do is text (339) 368-5342 (this is the number that the website generates for our classroom account.) Text that number and type "@missflynns" into the message part to sign up. You can text that same number "unsubscribe" at any time if you no longer wish to receive messages.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Amazing Hero Art

We had a great assembly yesterday, a famous artist named Rob Surette from Amazing Hero Art came in and painted some amazing portraits in front of the whole school. He has been seen on shows like Oprah, The Tonight show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, Good Morning America and more! He would finish a great big portrait in just a few minutes! He painted a picture of Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa and Albert Einstein while we were at the assembly. Then he talked to us about how we can do anything we set our minds to and that each and everyone of us can make a difference in the world!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Pirates Past Noon

The fourth Magic Tree House book that we read was "Pirates Past Noon." I was crafting away one night at school trying to make these pirate ships for the kids to use during dramatizing, they were a hit!

 Here's "Jack" with his glasses and backpack on checking the book to see what they have to dramatize next...

 Here are some pirates using the spectacle to see if they can see land!
For our "Fun Friday Art Project" we made these beautiful pirate ship scenes. First we had to paint a layer of dark blue then a layer of a lighter shade of blue on top. Then we used a fork to scratch in some waves. 


 We glued on the ship shape and some masts and sails and added our initial and a jolly roger to the flag.





 Didn't they come out great?


Here is another "Fun Friday Art Project" that we made, pirate masks!


We started using iPads on Tuesday's and Thursday's for "write along" to write our "message of the day" from the previous day. We have to use our working memory to remember the message from the previous day and write it down.

There was A LOT of excitement when we put the new December calendar out...the kids were amazed at how many "home days" we have at the end of the month!

 This is our "buddy reading" time on Wednesday's and Friday's, we read our facts & chapter summaries to our buddy on these days. The other days we read different themed books, one theme is the theme of the latest Magic Tree House book we are reading, some of us also read books in our browsing box that we have learned to read!
Here is one group doing a "can-do" after they dramatized the story. They are playing Number BINGO







Random Acts of Kindergarten Kindness (R.A.K.K's)

This month we have been learning to think of others through random acts of kindness. Each day we open up our R.A.K.K for the day and we try to remember to do that Random Act of Kindness throughout the day, ...and hopefully again other times :o). I got this great idea from another Kindergarten blog that I follow Pre K and K Sharing




Mummies in the Morning

Our third Magic Tree House book was "Mummies in the Morning." We worked together with our group to make pyramids and sandy landscapes for our props to use during dramatization...



 We wrote facts that we learned about Egypt on whiteboards during "Write Along". Here one student wrote "Mummies were wrapped in linen strips." We are becoming quite the writers!

Halloween

We had so much fun at our Halloween celebration! Thank you to all of the parents who helped out and sent things in! We enjoyed yummy snacks...
 We did some arts & crafts...
 We played Halloween BINGO!...


Pumpkin Day! (a little late)

Just getting around to upload some photos from "pumpkin day" back in October! We did all sorts of fun activities with our pumpkins that we got while we were on our apple picking field trip. We measured how tall and wide they were with unifix cubes, we weighed them, put them in the water table to see if they would sink or float...I always love this activity because the kids are all so amazed that the pumpkins float even the BIG one!


















Market Farm

We have been playing a new game during math centers called "Market Farm." The "manager" (the person who has the check mark card) picks a number and marks their order amount on the order form and circles what type of food they would like. They put the order form in the envelope and pass it to the "farmer" (the person with the hand card).

 The "farmer" has to fill the order they receive from the manager by counting the amount of cubes that the manager marked on the order form, into the bowl. Then they have to deliver the order to the Market.  The "manager" has to check the order to make sure that the "farmer" gave them the correct amount. the "manager" uses the counting board to place one cube on each dot for the appropriate number to check the order. Then the "manager" tells the farmer whether or not the order was correct and the "manager" makes one more order before the partners switch roles.