Gingerbread Man

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break.  I was happy to see everyone back on Monday.  Next Wednesday is a Late Start day and school will start at 11:30. 

For the next 3 weeks, we will be working on our Gingerbread Man unit.  On Monday we read one version of the story.  After reading it, we created a Flow Map and talked about what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. 

Today, we read a different version of The Gingerbread Man.  After reading, we created a Double Bubble Map so we could compare and contrast the two versions of the story that we have read.  This was difficult because it was hard to remember details about the story from two days ago. 

Specials
Next week we will go to Art on Monday.  There are no specials on Late Start Days. 

Gingerbread Houses
Our gingerbread man unit will end with decorating gingerbread houses on Friday, December 16.  If you have any left over Halloween candy that we could use for that, please send it in.  Also, if anyone is available to come in and help construct the gingerbread houses the week of December 14, the help would be greatly appreciated.  We needs several boxes of graham crackers, mini marshmallows, m&ms, pretzel sticks, and frosting (several colors) to decorate our houses.  If you can contribute any of these, please let me know. 

Canned Food Drive
Our school is continuing our annual canned food drive.  We will be collecting food until December 15.  We will also have our mitten tree up. 

Report Cards
Report cards will be available on Friday, December 2 on Infinite Campus.  We do not send hard copies of the report cards home.  You will have to visit Infinite Campus ( https://ic.svvsd.org/campus/portal/stvrain.jsp )  to access them.  If you do not know your log in information, please contact Lynette Frank in the office.  I will be sending home Report Card Indicators on Friday.  These are the skills I consider as I fill out the report cards.  If you have any questions about the report cards and would like to talk about them, let me know. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving next week!  We do not have school next week, so enjoy the time off!  I look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday, November 28.

Halloween Candy
If you have any left over Halloween candy, please bring it to school.  We will use it to decorate gingerbread houses on December 16. 

Canned Food Drive
Our Student Council is hosting a canned food drive from now until December 15.  The class that brings in the most non-perishable food will win a pizza party!

Today was a very busy day in kindergarten.  We were making cute handprint turkeys (that were fun to make and adorable), working in our math journals, and doing floor puzzles.  We also spent time looking through a treasure trunk from the Longmont Museum.  One of our standards is helping children understand that we have different things than people did a long time ago.  We looked at items from the period that Longmont settled and compared it to what we see in our houses now.  The set included a bonnet and apron.  Most of the children tried it on and then wanted their pictures taken.  We had so much fun! 

We also read A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting.  This is my favorite Thanksgiving story! 

Since we were very busy having fun, the books and the games did not get exchanged.  We will take care of that when we return from Thanksgiving Break. 

Here are a few pictures from our time with the trunk today (I'm sorry I can't post all of them, but will find a way to get you the pictures). 

The week before Thanksgiving

Reminder:  We will not be in school next week.  We are off to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Lost and Found
If you have lost anything this year, and it could be in Lost and Found, please take some time this week to check for it.  Items in Lost and Found will be donated at the end of this week! 

Halloween Candy
If you have Halloween candy that you will not eat, please send it to school.  We will be using the Halloween candy to decorate our Gingerbread Houses on December 16.  This is a fun activity!  If you are interested in coming in to help with this project, please let me know.  I am looking for volunteers that will come in before decorating day to build the gingerbread houses and volunteers to help with decorating. We will also need various colors of frosting, and perhaps other supplies to help us decorate the houses. 

Pumpkin Pies
On Monday, we enjoyed our pumpkin pies!  Thank you to everyone that provided our ingredients!  The children put the ingredients in a bowl, helped stir, then put the mixture in the pie crusts.  They were delicious!  Let me know if you would like the recipe.  

Book Orders
I will be sending book orders home on Friday.  This will be the last book order before winter break.  If you are interested in purchasing a book for a gift, please let me know and we will make special arrangements to get the book to you. 

Today in Kindergarten
Today was a pretty normal day.  We spent the morning at centers.  After recess, we did fine motor activities.  After lunch, we did a graphing activity with candy corns.  I did not let the children eat the candy corns at school.  We talked about how it is difficult to count a candy corn you have already eaten.  Instead, I labeled everyone's bag of candies and said they could eat them at home if it is OK with the grown-ups. 

We also read Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons.  This book talks about the first Thanksgiving and how we still have some of these traditions.  We created a Bridge Map afterwards.  The Bridge Map allows us to compare our ideas.  We wear baseball caps, the pilgrims wore pilgrim hats or bonnets.  We use a stove to cook, while the pilgrims cooked over a fire.  Here are some pictures:

Classroom News

Pumpkin Pies
I think we have everything we need for the pumpkin pies!  Thank you for bringing all the supplies we needed!  I'm excited to make these with the kids on Monday!

Thanksgiving
Our schedule will be a normal schedule next week.  There will not be school the following week (November 21-25).  We are off for Thanksgiving break. 

Gingerbread Houses
After Thanksgiving Break, we will start our Gingerbread House unit.  As a culminating activity for this unit, we will decorate Gingerbread Houses.  This is always a fun activity.  We will make houses our of graham crackers and HOT GLUE (obviously these will NOT be edible).  We will decorate them with frosting and candies.  IF YOU HAVE HALLOWEEN CANDY THAT YOU DO NOT WANT ANYMORE, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE IT FOR THIS PROJECT!  We will decorate Gingerbread Houses on Friday, December 16.  If you can help make the houses in the classroom, or would like to come in and help during the decorating, it would be greatly appreciated! 

Pumpkin Pies

On Monday, in honor of Thanksgiving, we will make pumpkin pies.  This is a simple recipe using no-cook vanilla pudding and pumpkin pie filling.  It's very tasty!  We need some supplies to do this activity.  If you are willing to bring any of these items in, please let me know.

-Individual graham cracker crusts (25)
-Cans of pumpkin pie filling (4)
-Small boxes of Jello vanilla No-cook pudding (6)
-1/2 gallon of milk
-Cool whip topping (1 tub)

On Wednesday we reread the story The Little House.  It is a story about a little house that lived in the country, but dreamed of living in the city.  Before she knew it, the city was growing up around her.  Once she lived in the city, she missed being in the country.  After a while, her builder's great, great granddaughter found her and moved her back to the city.  This link will take you to the story as it is read on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YqlOJKt4-RA. 
After reading the story, we created a Double Bubble Map.  As we did this, we compared and contrasted her life in the country and her life in the city.  Below is a picture of our Double Bubble Map.