Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and an opportunity to give thanks for the blessings in their lives.  I personally ate waaaay too much food, but cherished every minute I had with my family and made sure to tell each one of them how much I love them and appreciate them.

Since you've had a day to digest your Thanksgiving dinner and maybe burn some of it off with some Black Friday shopping,  I thought now would be an appropriate time to share all of the hard work the kids put into our "Week of Thanksgiving" at school.

We began our week reading and assembling our "First Thanksgiving Book."  This book told the story of the first Thanksgiving and answered many questions the kids had about the holiday - such as What is Thanksgiving? and Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?  I had the kids highlight all of our sight words in the story to emphasize just how important those words are.  They were surprised when I told them they were reading a book on a second to third grade level - even though  they don't yet have the reading skills to decode the entire book, they were able to read many of the words because they are sight words that we have practiced in class.

After reading about the first Thanksgiving, we worked on our ability to retell the story.  We made story bracelets that retold the story with different colored beads.  Each colored bead represented a detail from the story and served as a reminder of what happened next.  We read a Thanksgiving poem that was sent home so that the kids could retell the story of Thanksgiving to their families.  I hope they shared! :)

We discussed what it meant to be thankful and made a list to display in our room.  It's always amusing to see what is important to a kindergartener. 

We turned our list into individual writings, but needed a little gobble gobble to go along with it.  We created turkeys from a coffee filter -  and man was it messy.  We colored the filters with markers and as I sprayed each one with water, we watched the colors bleed together and create a tie dye effect.  The kids loved it.  I apologize for any dingy, brown fingers - just know they weren't the only ones who went home with them.

We also learned interesting facts about turkeys.  Did you know a turkey has 157 bones?  Or that turkeys have great hearing, but no ears?  Did you know gobbling turkeys can be heard a mile away?  Or that turkey eggs are light tan with brown specks?  Well...now you do.

 We put together a story sequence of the Mayflower and it's voyage to America...

For memory's sake, the kids made handprint art for each of their families with a Thanksgiving poem attached.  They also made Thanksgiving placemats. I hope these treasures will be kept safe so that the kids will have something to look back on later in life.

But the most exciting part of our week was our preparation for our own Thanksgiving feast.  The kindergarteners took on the role of the Native Americans while the first grade classes took on the role as the Pilgrims.  We designed our own tribal headbands and feasted on Thanksgiving staples such as turkey and corn (ok - more like turkey sandwiches and popcorn, but that counts, right?).  The kids LOVED the time shared together and that was the most important part.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!  SEE YOU MONDAY!

October Happenings

October came so quickly and we left rather quickly due to fall break - but in one week we accomplished a lot.

In October we celebrate Fire Prevention Week, which took place October 7th - 13th.  Due to our school schedule, we celebrated a week early to make sure our students received the important information they need to be fire ready and safe at home.

The Horry County Fire Department came out to speak with each of our classes about what to do if a fire broke out in their own home.  They also provided them with information to take home to their parents to insure their homes were as safe as possible - Parents:  Please look over the checklist to make sure your home is fire safe by clicking here.

October also began our "My Place on Earth" Unit in Social Studies.  The purpose of the unit is --> to talk about places and how to locate them.  The students will compare models and maps and learn about different kinds of land and water.  In addition, students will learn how to use map keys and map symbols.  They will also be able to distinguish between land and water on maps and globes.

To introduce the unit, we talked about where we were.  In the classroom?  At school?  In Conway?  In South Carolina?  In the United States?  On Earth?  They learned that all of these answers were correct.  To provide a visual representation, we made mobiles to hang in our classroom to remind ourselves exactly where we were...

And to keep with our fall theme, we used our color words and sight words and wrote about the new season.  I'm hoping all the kids will have the opportunity to observe the change in season over their break.

I hope you are all enjoying your fall break so far - see you soon! 

Weekly Update

Don't forget - fall break begins next week! Break begins Monday, October 8th and students will not return until Monday, Oct. 22nd. We can definitely feel the excitement in the air :)

 Please be working with your child on skills such as letters sounds, letter recognition, sight word recognition, etc. over fall break. These are important skills that only practice can strengthen. Report cards will be coming home the week we return from break so let's strive for the best possible report!

We are working really hard this week to earn a pizza party on Friday. Any class that ends the week with no referrals will be honored with a pizza party. So far, we have it in the bag :)

Congratulations to Nyla Avant, this week's Star Student. Nyla has demonstrated wonderful behavior and really tries hard to move up on the behavior chart. All students will now be honored in a Friday afternoon assembly for their "star" behavior. They receive a certificate and a prize from our classroom prize drawer. I hope everyone has a safe fall break! Enjoy the time with your child/ren. I know I will! :)

Weekly Update

I hope to see everyone at our Open House tomorrow night (Tuesday) from 5:30 pm - 7 pm.  The event is "drop by" style, so feel free to come by at your convenience during that time.  Refreshments will be served in the cafeteria and all classrooms will be open so that you have the chance to visit your child's teachers and take a look around the school.

Please remember that Friday, September 21st is a teacher workday.  There is no school for the students. 

Congratulations to Ambrielle Johnson, this week's Star Student.  Ambrielle is a bright girl and loves to tell stories.  She is a wonderful helper in class and gets along with all of her classmates.  Yay to Ambrielle for a well deserved honor.

And just a few pics of some of our outside play...

Happy Easter

Mrs. Stinnett's bunnies are ready for Spring Break!

Week 29

Thank you so much for those who attended the parent/teacher conferences I scheduled last week.  If there were any times that conflicted with your schedules and you would like to reschedule, please let me know.  I will be happy to meet with you any time.

We are currently planning the Festival of Hope, which will be held on Apr. 28th, 11am - 2 pm.  We really need volunteers to help with games, set up/clean up and other various duties.  If you are able to volunteer, please let me know so we can utilize you.  We are also auctioning off themed baskets at the festival.  Each classroom is responsible for organizing a basket - our theme is sports.  If you're able to donate a sports related item to include, we would GREATLY appreciate it!

Spring Break starts on Friday.  The kids will not return to school until April 16th.  I hope you all enjoy this time with your child/ren.  We will be ready to go full blast once they return - only 6 more weeks!!!

Congrats to Jonathan Galloway, our Student of the Week.  Jonathan is extremely active and LOVES P.E.  He works hard in the classroom and enjoys being engaged in classroom activities. 

Week 28

I'm a little behind in getting my weekly update out - better late than never, I guess :)  I have all parent/teacher conferences scheduled for today (Wednesday), tomorrow and Friday.  I realize some of the times are not the exact ones you chose, but if there are any conflicts with your time, please let me know.  I will be happy to make myself available next week as well.

Spring break is quickly approaching - March 30th thru April 15th the kids will be out of school and will return Monday, the 16th.  That leaves 6 weeks until the end of the school year!!  We will be giving end-of-year DIBEL assessments towards the middle of May so stay tuned for updates.

Shayla Lacey is our Student of The Week.  She is one of 10 siblings, 3 of which attend our school.  She and her brothers are very close.  She enjoys drawing and playing with her friends on the playground! 

Week 9

This is the final week of the first quarter!  Important reminders:  students will be released at 1 pm on Friday and will not return to school until Monday, October 17th.  If you need child care during this break, Cherry Hill Baptist Church is providing this service.  You can contact the church or school for more information.

As we prepare for a three week break, I would like to stress the importance of reinforcing the concepts that we have been learning the last nine weeks at home.  This goes for procedures and policies as well.  ***Speaking of policies and procedures, I am thrilled to hear that many of you have implemented our behavior plan at home.  It's fun to hear the kids come in during the week telling me they were on "blue." This makes our classroom management plan that much easier to enforce when parents have the same expectations at home.

For our final four days we will complete our first class story which we will publish into a classroom book.  The book will be added to our classroom library so the kids can read it during centers.  We will also learn two new high frequency words (go, we) that will assist in our class pursuit of high level reading.  Math will be devoted to shapes - 2D and 3D and where they exist in our everyday life.

Congrats to Zakiah Gregg - this week's Student of the Week.  Zakiah has made an unbelievable turn around in regards to behavior and her improvement was applauded by the entire class on Friday.  There was not one student that didn't smile when her name was called out.  Her entire week was blue and purple other than one green day.  AMAZING job!