End of the Year Celebration

The end of the year celebration will be held on May 30 at noon. We have to have time to still have specials at 1:25 and Spanish at 2:05 , which is why the celebration is so early. We are not having a full blown graduation, but I would like to give the kids a day to celebrate all of their achievements this year. If you would like to help plan, please contact me at lwebster@access.k12.wv.us

Long Overdue Update

Sorry I've been MIA from the blog for a while. I've been busy, busy, busy! I feel like this year is ending very fast, and I just can't catch up! I just wanted to get on an up date you all on what is going on in the room. 
So far 14/19 students can read ALL of their popcorn words! That is HUGE! I am so proud of all of them. Keep practicing with your child at home even if they already received their goody bag from me. 
We have been learning about Earth Day and the desert habitat and on Tuesday our class will present what we've found out about the desert to the other kindergarten classrooms. Each class chose a habitat and will present three things we can do to help that habitat and 2 facts about the habitat. We have created a collage on a quarter of a circle. When all the classes are finished with their collage we will put them together and form a globe. I will post pictures of our presentation. The collage and facts will be on display for the science fair.
On Thursday we will take a trip to the WVU Farm. I haven't even had a chance to start my farm unit because of things moving so fast.
Next week we will begin a butterfly unit that I'm really excited about! The Spanish teacher and I will be working together to teach the class about the migration of the monarch butterflies. We will even be video chatting with a classroom in Mexico! And of course we'll have our own monarch larvae in our classroom to observe. 
After that we will be working on graduation stuff. I don't think that the other kindergarten classrooms  have graduation, so it won't be a huge event, but I'd love to do it for all of you and my class. They deserve to be recognized for all of their accomplishments! I have to say, and maybe I'm just bias, but all of my students have come so far. They amaze me every day at how smart they've become. 
As always, please do not hesitate to call the school or email me if you have any questions.

What's New

I worked hard in the classroom last week and have it almost ready for the class! I am so excited for them to see it. I also have one more new addition to the room...a class pet! She is a rabbit named Clover (I was going to have the class name her, but heard that they will respond to their name. I don't want her to go a week without one). I'm hoping she will make the kids a little less nervous about coming to school at Eastwood. If you are on here at all during spring break, please allow your child to comment on this post if they have any questions. I would love to talk to them while we're apart. 

Clover :)

Kiwi Crate

I found this website today while looking at lesson plan ideas. It looks like something the kids may like. Maybe something they can do this summer....

About Us

Our Story

Kiwi Crate was built out of a passion for hands-on fun that encourages creativity and curiosity in children. I had a deep appreciation for these projects, but often found that my greatest intentions fell short. It was tough to find the time to come up with engaging hands-on activities, let alone get the materials.

So, as I started to develop creative projects with my kids, I thought, “why not share them with friends, who are also busy?” At playdates, the kids had a bunch of fun, and the parents appreciated having all of the materials and inspiration for the projects provided. Several parents mentioned, "I wish I could do this at home with my kids!"

Kiwi Crate was created to fulfill that wish and to celebrate kids’ natural creativity and curiosity. We want to make it fun, easy, and delightful to spend time building, exploring and creating together. Since its inception, the Kiwi Crate team has grown. We've added creative parents who dream up the projects, valued experts who review them, and a community of kid testers who keeps us on our toes and ensures the projects are fun and engaging.

We love working on Kiwi Crate and cherish the involvement that our kids and friends have in bringing the product to life. We're excited about the opportunity to help provide these types of experiences for your family to share too.

Happy exploring!

Sandra

Founder, CEO, Mother of Two

3rd Quarter Report Cards

Report cards will be sent home on the 19th of March. A couple of changes have been made: I will not be assessing the ability to demonstrate and solve addition and subtraction problems or the ability to solve addition and subtraction word problems until 4th quarter.

As a reminder, this quarter, in addition to what I have been assessing, I am assessing the ability to segment and blend sounds in words, the ability to retell familiar stories,  demonstrate capitalization and punctuation,  and the ability spell simple words phonetically.  

Please continue to work with your child on the standards I have already assessed (especially id they had an NS or AS on their last report card) and the new standards that will be assessed this quarter. 

Eastwood Schedule

With an earlier start time and two schools consolidating, our schedule at Eastwood will be different than it is a Easton. I just want you all to be aware that your kids may have a hard time adjusting to all of the differences for the first couple of weeks. To ease their worries, please continue to have conversations regarding the change leading up to and following the move. All of the kids are excited, but I know and understand how uneasy kids (and adults) can get after such a huge change. 

This is Kindergarten

What do you all think of the book? It's great isn't it?! We were in the middle of watching The Lorax (in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday) for S.O.A.R time on Friday when it came in, and the class was definitely more interested in looking at their books than watching the movie.  That being said, I want to talk about the publishing party with all of you....
I've shared it before, but here are some ideas;
Party Ideas

Your hard work, and your students’ hard work have paid off!

The published books will be a treasured keepsake for years to come. Make sure you celebrate this momentous occasion with a party!

Book Signing Party:
Feel the pride and excitement in your classroom when students get to sign each other’s book. They are now real Published Authors!

Ice Cream Social:
Perfect way to end the school year on those hot days. Ice Cream and reading, it’s a wonderful way to end the school year!

Write Night:
Roll out the red carpet, here come your published authors. Students can dress up like real stars as they show off their books.

Do you all have any other ideas? I know some of my students asked about signing each others books. Maybe we could do a book signing party along with something else. I think the celeb one is cute!

Planetarium

The students absolutely loved the planetarium! They definitely proved to a college professor that they knew way more than he thought any 5 or 6 year old would know about space. I loved getting to show off how smart they are! The planetarium offers shows for the public.  I know that they are free, you just have to make reservations. If you think it is something your child would like, check out their web page:
http://planetarium.wvu.edu/planetarium_shows/public_shows/schedule 
Also, be sure to check your child's red folders. There is an exciting letter inside (hint-Eastwood opening date!)

Solar System PBL

I have a solar system PBL planned for next week and would like to take the students to the WVU planetarium as part of the lesson. I have planned a trip there for next Thursday, February 28^th. PLEASE try to keep it a secret. I am basing the whole unit off of their love of The Magic School Bus and kind of want the trip to be like something Ms. Frizzle would take them on. I sent home a permission form. It is folded and stapled with a pink "please sign and return" sticker. I have quite a few students in my class that would be able to read the note and tell everyone in the class where we're going. I know it might be silly to keep it a secret, but imagine the look on their faces when they find out next week.

100th Day of School!

      Can you all believe that we have already been in school for 100 days?! It's definitely flown by! The students were so excited to day to see how far we've made it. I wanted to take some time today to give you just a quick update of some new things in our classroom and a reminder about our Valentine's Day party.

       First of all, I have started letting the students sign up for read aloud. They are amazing! The students took to the idea so well. We actually have a student on the calendar for every day in February! If they come home and tell you they are doing read aloud, this is why. I told them they needed to practice a lot at home and school too before reading their book. 

     Second of all, I don't know if your children have told you or not, but we have started doing something called story time yoga to calm ourselves down and get ready for the day. This is also something the students have taken to really well! It is called Cosmic Kids. You can find the episodes on Youtube. Check them out! The kids have even been randomly asking me throughout the day if we can do yoga.

     I have been reading a book about Responsive Classroom (this is something we will be using at Eastwood), and have decided I will probably start implementing "positive time out" in the classroom. You can read more about those things by scrolling over the underlined words and use the links. If you read about the positive time outs, leave a comment and let me know what you think about it. What are some things you do at home to help your child calm down and get back on track?

     Our book is almost complete, and it is amazing! The kids got to see it with illustrations today and each of them read the page they wrote. I was almost in tears. I cannot wait for them to share it with you!  Once I get the book turned in to the publisher, we will all discuss a publishing party. I'd love for you to hear them read it.

     Next Thursday, the 14th, is our Valentine's Day party. The party starts at 2:00. Make sure you stop by the office to sign in and get a pass before coming to the room. 

Popcorn Word Game

We played this game as part of circle time today and the students really liked it. They wanted me to put the link on here so that they could play at home.

http://www.fun4thebrain.com/English/popcornWords.html

What Kindergarten Teachers Wish Parents Knew | Scholastic.com

What Kindergarten Teachers Wish Parents Knew | Scholastic.com

Side Note

About a week ago (I think), I let you all know about my trip to Africa this summer. I am going through an organization called International Volunteer HQ. I have volunteered with them before and taught English in Thailand for a month the summer of 2010. I have entered a photo competition with the organization using a photo I took in Thailand. (I'm also a photographer on the side lol). If I win for the month of January, I will win $100 to put towards my trip to Africa.  If you get a free second one evening, please visit http://www.volunteerhq.org/volunteer-photo-competition/65457 and vote on my photo before February 1st. Thank you!

{I know It's a Little Soon} Ways to Celebrate Book Publishing

I've been on http://www.studentreasures.com looking at ideas for our book and found this and got super excited. I want this to be a really good experience  for them! I'll work on getting the book finished, if you'll help me out by talking about it a lot at home. When they're reading books at night talk about genre (non fiction, fiction, poetry), why the author wrote what they wrote, and how nice the pictures look in the book. Give them a lot of examples. I will be doing the same thing at school. Let them know that we are all standing behind them and support their journey. I had a couple nervous students because they're worried about their writing. I've explained that we will be editing and everything is going to be great! I want them to have something that they're proud of and don't want them to give up on themselves before they even get there. After our think tank yesterday those students seemed a lot more excited, I just want to keep that up. After the book is finished, we will all talk about celebrations! 

Ways to Celebrate

Party Ideas

Your hard work, and your students’ hard work have paid off!

The published books will be a treasured keepsake for years to come. Make sure you celebrate this momentous occasion with a party!

Author’s Tea:
Read aloud from your book(s) while serving tea and cookies, a classic celebration for a special event.

Grandparents Day Celebration:
The perfect way to bring amazing accolades to your students. Every student wants to show off their accomplishments…what better way than in front some of the most important people in their lives.

Book Signing Party:
Feel the pride and excitement in your classroom when students get to sign each other’s book. They are now real Published Authors!

Ice Cream Social:
Perfect way to end the school year on those hot days. Ice Cream and reading, it’s a wonderful way to end the school year!

Write Night:
Roll out the red carpet, here come your published authors. Students can dress up like real stars as they show off their books.

Poetry Reading:
Publish Poetry books? Make sure your students have a chance to shine by having them read in front of the school, or other classrooms.

Animal Party:
Did you write about animals? Have students come dressed as their chosen animal that they wrote about. This would be great to incorporate with the Halloween celebration.

Career Party:
Did you write about what your students want to be when they grow up? Have them come dressed in that chosen profession. Watch the excitement as they read, and dress the part!

Penguin Measurement Photos

Wrapping Up the First Half of the Year

I just wanted to make a quick post about how proud I am of your children. They have grown so much since the first 9 weeks. I'm sure you'll all be happy with their report cards. They are getting so smart. I talked to them all today, and, with the exception of a couple, they all seem really excited about getting a book published. I think we will probably start the pre-write process on Thursday.
Report cards will go home Wesnesday. Let me know if you have any questions after you see them.
:)

New Goal

While working on lesson planning this morning, I came up with this idea to have the class write a book and have it published as an end of the year sort of thing. I want them to see themselves as authors and illustrators. I happened to stumble on this page that would allow me to get the work published for free and our school will be entered to win a $1,000 grant. The only thing is, that we would have to have the work published by Feb. 28th to be entered. That doesn't give us much time to write and illustrate a book. I'm going to talk with the class on Monday about it and see what they think. I don't want to stress them out, but I really think they would love to see their work published. What do you all think?

Live Penguin Cam

We have been watching a live penguin cam based in California all week. The web address for the penguin cam is http://www.calacademy.org/webcams/penguins/  I thought the estudents may want to watch it some this weekend since they seemed to love it so much. There is a 30 yr old penguin there named Pierre that Ms. Johns read us at the beginning of the year for read aloud. His story is pretty amazing. We will continue to talk about penguins for a couple days next week and I will upload more pictures. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Blubber Experiment and Ice Cream Day

Seeing what it would feel like to have a layer of blubber.

Sophia and Johnny shaking their bag of       

                                    ice cream.                                                                                            

finished product!

Enjoy!

Ice cream!

As part of my penguin and measurement lessons, we are going to make ice cream tomorrow for math/ science. If any of you have any empty coffee cans (metal), could you send them our way? If not, no big deal. We can use freezer bags. I just heard it works better in a coffee can.

Also, I have been accepted to volunteer in an orphanage in Africa this summer along with my sister. We are hosting a pasta dinner fundraiser on January 20th at Spruce Street United Methodist Church. Dinner is from 6-8pm (you can stop in anytime). Adults eat for $8 and children 12 and under eat for $5. If you would like to come, please just email me and let me know how many you'll have with you. lwebster@access.k12.wv.us

New Popcorn Words

• we  
• three  
• four  
• five  
• six  
• black  
• white  
• green  
• off

Welcome Back!

I am so excited to see all the kids tomorrow! I seriously cannot wait to get back in the classroom with them. 
Coming up: 

• report cards will be sent out this month. All of the students are improving and I think you'll be happy with what you have to see.
• January 9th is a two hour early dismissal.
• Penguin unit
• Solar system unit
• I would like to do another student-led PBL with presentations to kick off the second half of the school year. We may wait and see when the move will be. I'll keep you posted!
• New read aloud sign up!
• Please sign up for Read Aloud - here's how it works in 3 easy steps:
•  1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/4GBLmo
•  2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot) 
•  3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Please, please only sign up for one date at a time to give other parents a chance to sign up too!