Saturday, March 23, 2013

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 :)

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

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

Monday, March 4, 2013

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!