Today was exhausting, not just for the students, but also for me! Two programs in one day-- what was I thinking? I'm glad we did it, though. The music program in the morning wonderful, but the gym was so crowded. I hope you felt like the afternoon program was more intimate. Thanks for bringing treats, cups, plate, napkins. It was nice to have some social time with families at the end of the program. There's a special ornament in your child's backpack -- a gift from me. I wish you all a very happy holiday.

Your child may have volunteered you to bring treats, paper plates, or plastic cups for our performance tomorrow afternoon. If you can't bring it, no worries. When we get back from the holiday break, we will have a buddy room! Each Thursday afternoon, the fourth graders will come to our room to read and do special projects. I'm really looking forward to this.

This morning the entire student body assembled in the gym for a dress rehearsal of the general music program. The kindergartners did a great job and I know you'll enjoy their performance on Thursday morning. This afternoon we checked out the computer lab and used a keyboarding program to learn about the "home row." You can access this program from the Rose Park web page (rosepark.weebly.com). Go to "Learning Links" and then scroll to the bottom for the only link under "keyboarding." I worked very hard to keep the students from using the hunt and peck method. Just imagine what fast typists they'll be by the time they get to high school if they learn the correct method now!

We had some out-of-town visitors today. Jenasee's aunt from Utah came to help with some Christmas projects and Abbie's big sister from California read a story to the class at the end of the day. Students wrote letters to Santa today. Before mailing them to Santa, I made copies of the letters in case families need additional gift ideas. (wink wink) We read the book The Snowman last week and today students watched the video. Although there is no dialog whatsoever, students were very engaged during the movie.

Gingerbread Houses

As you can see, students had a great time using their creativity to decorate their gingerbread houses. Thanks for all the donations of candy and icing mix and especially for the assistance! Fun projects like this don't happen without the support of parents.

We started working on our own version of a gingerbread man story this morning. It is going to be very silly. We decided that our gingerbread person will be a cowboy, the bad guy will be a pumpkin instead of a fox, and the gingerbread cowboy will escape by using rocket packs attached to his feet.

This morning both kindergarten classes practiced getting onto and off of the risers which will be used for our upcoming concerts. We practiced adding groups of objects together. Students shared with the class their math thinking for adding to 6. Some students are able to count by 2s so that was their strategy and a few others know their doubles so they know that 3 and 3 is 6. Very few had to count by ones to find the answer (that's the goal).

We read still more versions of the gingerbread man story. I have a new favorite -- The Gingerbread Cowboy. I read it with my very best Texas drawl. The students decided that since so many authors have written their own versions that WE should write a new story. I promised to bake a gingerbread man for each student on Thursday night and bring them on Friday. Since we'll have icing and candies for our gingerbread house project on Friday anyway, they can decorate their gingerbread man at the same time. I will photograph each of the decorated gingerbread men and then we can work on our story next week. Sounds fun!

We started addition today in math. Students used two-sided counters to show different ways to make the numbers 4 and 5. Working with partners sometimes turns into silly time, but I must say that they did a great job today of using math words and actually doing what I wanted them to do.

We used the computer lab again today and had some problems such as dead batteries and no spare laptops to use as back-up, but most students were able to create an avatar for the Starfall computer program so I can track their progress. Thanks so much to Sonya Craven for helping out!

Thanks to everyone for picking up your butter braids and for donating candy for the gingerbread house project. Tomorrow is library day so make sure your child's book is returned.

We read 2 versions of The Gingerbread Man and talked about the similarities and differences. Students practiced some words from the word wall by "rainbow writing" them. They chose 4 words and had to write each word in 4 different colors. For social studies we learned about the different ways that Americans celebrate the holidays.

We played a math BINGO game in which the calling cards said things like, "1 ten and 5 ones" and students had to know that it meant "15" so they could cover the number. They did a great job! For art we made snowflakes out of Q-Tips. You'll have to see the picture to appreciate it.

Mrs. Mayes came to visit today and she taught a fun math lesson on teen numbers. Students were so engaged that we missed morning recess and didn't even realize it! Thank you for sending your child to school with the proper snow clothes! They are getting a little faster at getting all those extra clothes off and on for recess. One thing that stands out, however, is the need for many of them to learn to tie shoes. This is not something taught in kindergarten so I encourage you to teach it at home.

Sam, our VIP, brought his dog Sophie for a visit at the end of the day.

Tomorrow is the deadline for Scholastic book orders. If you are sending in a paper order form, please have your child hand it to me as they come into the building in the morning as I will not have an opportunity to dig through their backpacks at any point tomorrow.

Students interactively wrote labels for a picture of Rudolph that hangs on a classroom wall. They used clues to guess the letter of the day. See if you can guess--here are the clues: The uppercase letter is made only of straight lines. The lowercase letter is made of curvy lines and has a hook that dips below the line (we say it "dips into the water"). Students drew pictures earlier this week to tell about a time that they got hurt. They used the format "beginning/middle/end" to tell their story. Today they added 3 sentences to tell their boo-boo story and shared it with the class. You will find this paper in your child's backpack. Take a look at the right side of this page for some upcoming events.

We learned the words and signs for the vowel song this morning. We also read 2 Corduroy books. Students made a text to text connection between one of the Corduroy books and Knuffle Bunny -- both were about a stuffed toy that got lost at the laundromat. Students worked at their tables during math, building teen numbers and identifying the matching numeral. We checked out the computer lab for the first time. Each student took a Mac laptop to their table, learned to turn it on, learned the terms "desktop," "icon," and "task bar" and learned how to properly shut down the computer. They opened a paint program and learned to draw and choose different colors. Thanks for Rex's auntie for helping us! Students did a great job and I look forward to doing a weekly computer lesson. Next week I want each student to create their own account in the Starfall program that we use in class so I can track their progress. They will get to create their own avatar and learn what "avatar" means. The vocabulary words learned today were: drowsy, insisted, and panic. Let me know if your child uses any of these words at home. If they do, I'll give them a small treat!

Today we worked on vowels. We practiced letter formation of each of the vowels and listened to a vowel song which students will learn tomorrow. I introduced addition as we were working on making teen numbers. Your child should be able to tell you that 17 is 10 and 7 more. For writing, I introduced the concept of "organization" in writing. I read the book Buzzy's Boo-Boo. Students also told stories of times they had gotten hurt and required a Band-Aid, stitches, or a cast. I asked them to tell me, through pictures, what happened first (what they were doing before they got hurt), what happened next (how they got hurt), and what happened last (how they were cared for after the injury). They did a great job and tomorrow they will add words to go with each of their pictures. In the afternoon, when the wind chill went above zero, we went outside for about 5 minutes.

For math, we practiced evenly dividing objects (1 for you, 1 for me), counting objects, and comparing amounts (more versus less). For art, students did a guided drawing of a rocket and then painted it. The results were great! I wish I had brought my camera with me today. Next week will be very cold so dress for it! Have a great weekend.