Catholic Schools Week 2017

Last week was Catholic Schools Week. We had so much fun.

Sunday was parent appreciation day and open house. Each of my students made their parents a frame and I took a picture of each child and put it in their frame. The parents loved their gift. 

I had many prospective kinder students and their families tour my classroom during open house.

Monday was Spirit Day. Each class chose a color and the class wore that color shirt to school. My Kinders chose teal. We had a spirit competition. Each class had to make up a cheer and perform it for the whole school. 

The cheerleaders performed a cheer too.

Tuesday was Sports Day. The kids were allowed to wear sports jerseys and we had a relay race and a bubblegum blowing contest.

Wednesday was Crazy Sock and Crazy Hair Day. Two winners from each grade level participated in a fashion show.

The teachers even participated!

Thursday was Teacher Appreciation Day. The kids gave the teachers flowers and home made cards. The teachers had a lovely catered lunch in the hall (I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures!).

Friday was Grandparents Day. Many grandparents joined us for mass and visited their grandchild's classroom. Lifetouch took pictures of the students with their grandparents. It was an awesome day. We had our book fair this week and Clifford was there too!

Slime

We made slime last week. We used glue, water, glitter, and Sta-Flo to make our slime.

First, the kids dumped the glue into a big bowl.

Then, they added water to the glue to thin it a little bit.

Next, the kids added glitter to the glue mixture.

Then, the kids added Sta-Flo to the mixture and they stirred it a lot.

When it looks like this, it is done.

Finally, the kids got to play with their slime. 

This was so much fun that I made it at home with my own kids. 

Election 2016

Today is election day. We learned about voting. We visited the polling place that is always at our school. The poll workers gave the kids "I Voted" stickers! We made patriotic hats.

We had elections for our favorite Disney character (Dumbo, Bambi, or Stitch).

Each student voted.

We ran out of time to count our votes. Tomorrow morning we will tally the votes and see who won.

Pumpkins

We have been learning about pumpkins. Here are some of the fun things we did. We read about pumpkins and drew life cycles of a pumpkin.

We did pumpkin math. Each group got a small pumpkin. The kids counted the ribs on the pumpkin.

They measured the pumpkin's height with Unifix cubes.

 They measured the circumference of their pumpkin with a string.

They figured out that pumpkins float.

They counted the seeds inside their pumpkin. I made a lot of circles on their white papers and the kids put ten seeds in each circle. Then we counted by tens to see how many seeds were in the pumpkin.

Letter and Number Recognition

Our Kindergarten homework asks students to practice letter and number recognition. Here are some fun ways to practice letters and numbers. These activities also help with fine motor development. Write letters and numbers in chalk, salt, sand, or shaving cream. Tell the students a letter or number and they write it. You could write the letter or number and ask the kids to identify it.

 

Make letters and numbers out of Play-Doh.

Write letters and numbers in finger paint.

 Make letters out of pipe cleaners or Wikki Stix.

Make sticker letters and numbers. First write the letter or number with a marker, then have the students cover the lines you drew with stickers.

 Use scissors to practice cutting out various shapes and lines. You can find learn to cut books like the one below at Dollar Tree or the dollar section at Target.

Use flash cards to practice identifying numbers and letters. Start with five numbers or letters and practice those until the students have them memorized. Then add five new numbers and practice those until the students have them memorized. Make sure the cards are in a random order; this way the students will learn the letters and numbers, not the order they are in.

Play with a Play-Doh letter or number bucket ($5.00 at Target).

 Get write-on, wipe-off books to practice letter writing. This also saves paper. 

Get a magnetic writing board to practice letters and numbers.

Use a number die to identify numbers. Roll the die and identify the number that is facing up. 

Practice counting to 10. Use a number line to point to numbers as you count. 

Watch the following on YouTube:
- Phonics Song 2
- The Big Numbers Song
- Lets Get Fit Count to 100 Jack Hartmann