Geometry

This week we began our Math work in Geometry!  We have been investigating shapes using geoblocks and play doh.  Next week we will be working with geoboards.  To help at home make sure your child can identify shapes around the house.  Look for circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, oval and rhombuses (diamonds).

JCA Play

Our second field trip this year was a play at the Jewish Community Alliance.

  We saw the delightful Amelia Bedelia.  They even invited a few of our students up on the stage.

The play was funny and the children enjoyed the play on words.  When it was time to "call the role," only Ameila Bedelia would look for a bread roll and start trying to call it to come like a dog!  After the play, we ate right there in the Cafe-torium!

 It was a cloudy, wet day but it was sunny inside and it never did rain.  Thanks to the parents who were able to go with us. We had a great time!

Last Day Fun

Where, oh where, did the gingerbread man go?

Oh there they are!

How about a balloon relay?

Recognize any of these Christmas trees designed by their friends?

Merry Christmas! See ya next year!

The Polar Express Arrives

Thanks to the Church at Chets Creek, we walked to the church and watched the movie, The Polar Express, on the big screen in our pajamas!  We jingled all the way back to school.  You could probably hear us!   It was cold enough to our thin Florida skin (mid 50's!)  that we could even  imagine we were in the North Pole!  One day until Christmas... I mean, vacation!

Crafts and Gingerbread Houses!

Crafts in the morning...

Gingerbread houses in the afternoon...

Turkey Strut

At the end of each nine weeks Principal Phillips promises the children who meet their nine weeks reading goal a special surprise. In our class that means that a child has read a book at home each night to an adult, has logged the book in and has turned in the log. This nine weeks we had 28 students who met the goal. So... today the Principal dressed up like a turkey, read the chdren a Thanksgiving story, and the had them all doing the chicken dance... I mean turkey dance! Can't wait to see what she does for the next nine weeks, so keep reading!

Season of Giving

Our class will be supporting “Promise to Kate” for our “Season of Giving” project this year.  Some of you may know Mrs. Elizabeth Conte.  She has been a longtime K-1 Chets teacher.    Mrs. Conte‘s daughter Kate was born with myotonic muscular dystrophy which is an inherited disorder that the family was unaware that they carried.  After Kate was born, Elizabeth and her husband, Dave, founded “Promise to Kate,” a foundation that embodies their promise to raise money to cure the disease in Kate’s lifetime.    They are working with a “Dream Team” of researchers right here in our own state at the University of Florida.  The money they raise goes to fund research but also helps families who need the services of Wolfson Children’s Hospital.  Elizabeth and Kate joined our class today to tell the children about their work. This is an especially appropriate project for us, since our children at Chets see Mrs. Conte and her son, Charlie, daily and also see little Kate, who comes to Chets early in the morning before preschool to receive occupational and physical therapy along with speech and language services.  It helps our children connect the season to making a difference in someone’s life right here at the Creek.

For our part, we will be auctioning off some holiday items (including he hearts that each family will make!) by the class during the PTA’s silent auction that will be held in the school’s lobby.  We hope that you will want to stop by and support the silent auction.  What we hope to accomplish during this season of giving is for the children to begin to understand the meaning of service to others.  We appreciate your support and especially you speaking to your child about this very worthwhile cause.   We are very excited to be supporting something so close to home.

You can learn more about supporting this worthy cause or view a video about Kate .

Pow Wow: The Main Event 2013

What an incredible day!  I hope you were able to attend the event LIVE, but if you missed it, I hope you will be able to see the pictures.  The children were adorable in their Native American outfits, thanks to a group of moms that sewed, cut and glued and made out Mighty Iroquois tribe as authentic as possible.  The Pow Wow performance is quite the spectacle with our 200+ kindergartners formed into six circles representing six different tribes.  The songs and dances the children performed and then the story by Chief Jumping Frog reminding the children of their heritage and of the Native children that walked on our very land are quite the memory!

If you had to leave after the performance, I hope your child told you all about the amazing Centers that followed throughout the day.  We had a great tasting center where we tried foods that the Natives might have eaten.  We had dried and fresh fruit, items made with corn such as corn chips and popcorn,  and even dried meat!  We heard a new Native legend about the Rainbow Raven.  We enjoyed tribal games with a real fire that included a Scavenger Hunt.  The PE teaches had the children convinced that they had seen a black bear earlier in the day!  We made medallions with clay that will be fired and given to the children.  Many parents add the year to the medallion and put it on a holiday tree to commemorate this event!  The children painted with native dyes of beets and blueberries and cranberries and spices that were available in native times.  We learned a new native song with our music teachers and the children got to beat different types of drums.  We finished the day in the great tepee (you can see in the picture above).  As Peaceful Waters passed the Talking Stick to each of your children they told us that they were thankful for their parents and grandparents, for their brothers and sisters and new babies!  On child was even thankful for a new car but mostly you could feel that the children were so very thoughtful - that they knew they were loved and that they loved in return.  How thankful we are today to have shared this time with your children!

Building Family Longhouses

We were thrilled to see so many families out tonight for our annual building of the longhouses for our Mighty Iroquois Nation.  Not sure we got everyone's picture but loved having each and everyone one of you!  Thank you for caring so much to spend time with us tonight!