Playground Fun

Once we got past the disappointment that we were not going on the playground with the big spider web, we started exploring and having fun on the kindergarten playground!

 Just hanging out!

We love the swings!

 Count to 20 and take turns!

The Teeter-Totter is a big draw!

Love this smile!

 Where should I run to now?

 Sling?  What sling?  I need to bounce!

Hanging on!

 Happy Smile!

Finding friends from Mrs. Zimath's class

Hold hands and stay together!

Gingerbread Man Caught!

The big excitement on Friday was our trip to Mr. Dragon's office to find the Gingerbread Man.

 Checking out Mr. Dragon's office and looking for the Gingerbread Man!

 

 Aedan and Shelly discover him on the table!

 

 Checking to make sure he survived his travels around the school.

 

Mr. Dragon tells us how he found the Gingerbread Man running in the halls.

 

He looks delicious!

All ready to eat!

The Gingerbread Man was enjoyed by all!

 

The Never Ending Week One!

We are off to a great start!  I don't know about the children but when I get home I am just wiped out!  I just want to sit in a quiet room and put my feet up!  Thankfully that is exactly what I am able to do!

This has been a week of getting to know each other and learning routines.  We are just barely scratching the surface of what we will be doing when we are what I consider up and running.  Even though most children have been in preschool before kindergarten, there are new rules, new routines, new playground, new friends and eating lunch in a big cafeteria.

Our three biggest hurdles this week have been leaving the cafeteria and walking back to the room quietly, cleaning up centers, and getting packed and ready to go home. Every day it gets a little better and I am sure in no time we will be sailing through our day!

Thankfully everyone seems to be adjusting pretty well.  I haven't had any major meltdowns and very few tears.  I have some wonderful little learners and I am so looking forward to seeing what they are capable of achieving this year!

We have been comparing different versions of the Gingerbread Man.

 

We started with a classic big book story

Then we discussed how the setting was different, but the fox still ate him at the end in this version.

Then we read another version.  This time the fox had a different way of tricking the Gingerbread Man.

 

We ended the day with this new version.  We discovered that in this book, the Gingerbread Man is chasing after the children and does not get eaten in the end!

Wednesday we made our big Gingerbread man and took him to the cafeteria to be baked but unfortunatley, he jumped out of the oven and ran away!  Today we checked in the library and in the clinic, but, all we found were the notes that he left behind.

Here we are getting the "bad news" that the Gingerbread Man has escaped.  I heard a couple of this is just make believe comments, but they weren't really sure and decided to play along to see what would happen...

So, we headed to the library to check with Mrs. Graph.  She told us she saw him but he ran away from her but he left another note for us.  Mrs. Graph read us the note and the clue sent us to the clinic.

The note he left in the clinic told us he would be in the office tomorrow.  We hope to catch him there!  Mr. Dragon and Mrs. Nations told us they would be on the lookout for him.

I love this activity at the beginning of the year.  It adds excitement to the first week and helps us learn our way around the school.  We also learn about folktales and different versions of stories.  It will also give us our first glimpse of Mr. Dragon's office.  Cross your fingers that we find him tomorrow and Mr. Dragon doesn't eat him first!

Meet Your Teacher Night!

Well, I think Meet Your Teacher night was a success!  I am so glad everyone was able to come, except for one student who is still away.  Everyone seemed happy about coming to school and seemed comfortable in the room.  Now the big test will be if  I am able to remember everyone's name on Monday morning.  I am usually pretty good with this.  Please be sure to read through everything in the packets that you took home tonight.  Please try to sign all forms and send them into school on Monday if possible.

Remember you can email me the letter about your child.  I have already received a couple.  I really do love getting these and learning about your children.

If you have any questions, no matter how silly you think they might be, please do not hesitate to email me over the weekend.  I know there are a few first time kindergarten parents, so don't worry, we are in this together and I am always here to answer any questions you have!!!

I think we are going to have a great year!  How can we not, when we start out with a note from a student like this...

Ready or Not!

Parents, Write me a Letter!

One of my favorite things at the beginning of the year is to receive letters from parents telling me about their child.  It really gives me a little head start in knowing the children.  So take some time and write me a letter to tell me about your child.  What are their interests, likes, strengths and weaknesses.  What do you hope they accomplish this year and what do they hope to accomplish this year.  Feel free to email me the letter at mwindom@verizon.net!  See you next Thursday at meet your teacher!

Class Lists are coming out

Letters are being delivered and class lists are coming out.  If you are in my class and know of others who are in the class, please spread the word to come to the blog and grab the supply list!  I have 20 students as of today, some names I recognize and some are brand new...And so it begins!

The supply list can be found above, just click on the tab and it will pull up the supply list page!

Pete the Cat

When I stopped by school yesterday, I got a peek at the Scholastic Book orders for September.  In it I found

 and

you could buy them separately or individually and they had cd's for both!  They also had my new Gingerbread Man book in paperback, I got it at Barnes and Noble in hardcover.  They also had the cd for this too!

Now here is the good part, I didn't have to wait for school to start and place an order with my students.  I want to use these books during the first couple of weeks of school. So I went online to Scholastic and  I ordered all three with cd's using BONUS POINTS!  Since I am a "Red Apple" customer I also get free shipping.

I will also be placing another September order with my students once school starts!

SWEET!

A Little Redesign!

I found a great site, The Cutest Blog on the Block, it had lots of tutorials on how to do different things on blogs.  They also had free backgrounds and banners and other fun stuff.  So I thought I would play around a little.  Three hours later, I had to move away from the computer.  I needed to get to school and get a little work done!  So we have a little redesign, I was going to make it more school like, but hey...I am still on vacation! Here is our "summer office" overlooking the Gulf of Mexico which might help explain my new blog theme choice!

Starting Over

Or...Here we go again!  I stopped by school last week, they had just cleaned the carpets the day before and the furniture was all pushed up against the sides of the room.  Hopefully the custodians were able to "semi-place" some furniture between then and now because I want to go in tomorrow, maybe want is too strong of a word, and arrange the furniture!

Here are the starting pictures...

I also need to be able to get into my storage room and sort some materials out for the kindergarten team tomorrow!

That is if I can tear myself away from here...

Reading Rainbow

You "gotta" love Jimmy Fallon...

I saw this on another kindergarten blog and just had to share...please don't tell me if you don't know who the Doors were!!!

Barnes and Noble Shopping

I am heading out to the beach again tomorrow to end my summer vacation, so I stopped by Barnes and Noble to spend a gift card that I got for my birthday.  I was just walking by the kids section when I spied this...

So excited to use this book this year!!!  I always start the year with the Gingerbread Man to show the different places in the school.  This is a really fun version where the Gingerbread Man is running to catch up with the class.

I also ordered this

and this

to help kick off our new science series and Science Notebooks!

I also got a couple of "Beach Reads" for me and after all was said and done...I forgot to use the gift card!  I hate when I do that!

August is Here!

I can't believe it is August already, what happened to July???

I am headed in to school today to check things out and drop some things off.  August is always my cutoff date.  I refuse to head back to school unless we have turned that page on the calendar to August!

I also want to make sure the AC has been fixed and it is no longer leaking...this way they have a few weeks to get it fixed!