A New Year brings New Opportunities and Possibilities

We keep on moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.  ~Walt Disney Quotes

 

We have spent the last three days settling back into our routines and I loved hearing about what the students did over their break.  I am really excited and looking forward to this month.  We will be spending the month learning about Polar animals.  Mrs. Saggese will be focusing on the North Pole, and I will be focusing on the South Pole (actually all of Antarctica.)   Peter Penguin, my “friend” from Antarctica came to visit and he shared his scrapbook with the class about where he lives.  We have located Antarctica on the globe, and have colored our own map.  We have discussed the equator and even learned a song about the seven continents. 

 

We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.
We've got North and South America
In our hands.
We've got Europe, Asia, Africa
In our hands.
We've got Australia and Antarctica
In our hands.
We've got the whole globe in our hands.

 

We use music a lot in the classroom and the students love it.  You can go to youtube.com and see many of the Dr. Jean Feldman songs we like to use.  Some that are related to what we have done, or what we are doing are:

The Compound Word Boogie

Word Families

Who let the Letters Out

I can Write my Numbers

The Five Senses Song

Macarena Months

The Five Senses

(She has many more educational songs as well as just plain fun songs!)

 

We watched a short video of footage from Antarctica and the kiddos sat completely amazed by it for five minutes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwADGPfjerI

So, as Peter takes us back to Antarctica with him to give us a tour we will see many animals, and a lot of water and ice.  We brainstormed a list of thoughts we have about Antarctica and when we are done studying the continent, we will see how we did with our “thought bubbles.”  As we travel we will learn many interesting facts and we will be creating our own scrapbook when we return.  We will also embark on our first ever research project.  Each student will be working to complete a research project on one of the many animals we will meet from the North and South Pole over the next few weeks.  We hope to have these completed by the end by February so we can share what we have learned with other friends, and family members.  We will be using laptops, iPads, printed materials and books to find our information.  Interesting fact number one:  Did you know that Antarctica is a desert? 

 

Here is a picture of Peter Penguin…and his scrapbook.  Show it to your children and ask them the significance of each of the items in his scrapbook.  Stay tuned for photos of many of the great projects we will be working on.  (Of course my blog will focus mostly on the South Pole and Antarctica, however, I will be sure to take some pictures of the great things the kiddos are doing with Mrs. Saggese as well.)

 

Besides our adventures to the North and South Poles, we will be investigating many other topics in school.  In math we are continuing to learn how to add numbers together and how to solve when there is a missing number.  For example:  There were eight penguins in the water.  More penguins joined them and now there are ten penguins.  How many penguins joined them?  We have to identify the important information, set up the problem, and draw a picture to help us solve it.  Math is no longer about just memorizing the facts (though that will be important in the coming years) but is more about understanding the process and using it in different ways!  There are many great websites that offer free games to reinforce the skills we have learned in math.  One of these sights is: http://www.ixl.com/math/kindergarten  We have covered numbers through 10, patterns, comparing objects and numbers, sorting, ordering and organizing, and now addition.  (I believe this sight has a monthly fee but it will allow you to check it out prior to purchasing.) 

http://www.softskills.com also has many fun math games for kids that are free.  Please let me know if you have any other great math websites to share!!

 

In ELA this month we will continue working on blending words and learning meeting new Alphafriends.  The letters and sounds for this month will include /n/, /f/, and /b/.  Our words to know list keeps growing and many of us can already read more than the ten words on the list.  This month we will be learning the words: come, me, with, my, you, what, are, and now.  We will also talk about comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, and sequence of events.  This month is also the month for our Benchmark DIBELS assessments and the end of marking period 2.  For more information about this assessment you can go to www.dibels.com. 

 

These are some websites to help with our Alphafriends.  We have learned about Andy Apple, Callie Cat, Mimi Mouse, Pippa Pig, Sammy Seal, and Tiggy Tiger. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_cX4j_9fUU

https://teacher.ocps.net/janet.cahill/page7.html                                              

Holiday break...family, fun, and friends....

No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one. ~Elbert Hubbard

The holidays were busy here with plenty of last minute things to do and my parents arrived on the 24^th.  We had a great time playing games, chatting and just relaxing.  Christmas day you would have thought my 13 year old was 5 again with her anxiousness to open gifts.  It never seems like a lot of gifts, until you are waiting for the kids to open them, taking turns of course, so you can see their reactions to each item and take pictures (that my kiddos detest.)  After gift opening it was on to plenty of snacks and… for dinner, a deep fried turkey.  We had never done this before and Jim really wanted to try it.  It was good, but probably not worth the time and effort to make it happen.  Here are some pictures from our Christmas day:

So, what do teachers do on their vacation?  Well, hopefully many of them are traveling away from the snow, or relaxing with their little ones and family, however, my “little ones” are not so little and have schedules and agendas of their own.  There was no time to head anywhere warm, as my husband only had a couple of days off.  So, I did some planning and preparing for when I go back to work.  Between Jen’s dance schedule and her other activities, along with my commitments and playing taxi to my 17 year old, the school weeks are so busy.  I also decided it was time to use some of those recipes for freezer meals I had posted on my Pinterest page.  So, after many hours of grocery shopping to find what I needed, I was headed home to put more than twenty freezer Crockpot meals together.  I was over ambitious, and probably didn’t need to plan on making so many at once; however, with Jim’s help, we prepared, packaged, and cleaned up in three hours. I can’t fit one more thing in my chest freezer or in my kitchen freezer.  I feel like I actually accomplished something this vacation, besides the typical cleaning.  I was able to talk my 13 year old into going shopping with me (ok, I bribed her, knowing she wanted to go to the mall to have her brows done.)  Anyone who is familiar with me and my family knows that my husband (or my son) does most of the cooking here, so this was a major challenge for me.  In three hours time, Jim and I were able to put together all of the freezer meals and clean the kitchen.  Of course, no one said these freezer meals will taste good!  I guess I will have to update as we try them.  For now, a picture:

I seriously considered some crafting, and again, anyone who knows me knows this is a big challenge for me.  This is something I am as talented with as cooking; however, I have purchased many craft items over time with intentions of making some cute things.  Needless to say, the hundreds of dollars worth of items occupy blue storage bins, neatly tucked under the furniture in my office.  Of course, prior to beginning this, I would have to actually clean my office (that was used as the Christmas room this year) in order to get to them.  So, instead I turned to a book that was lent to me by one of the student’s parents.  It is definitely a book I would recommend.

I also prepared three pans of lasagna for a late Christmas celebration with my family.  I even made the sauce, all homemade (without the help of Jim or Justin.)  We had a great day with my brother and his family, my sister and her family, my parents and Jim’s mom…and of course my kiddos…and Jenna’s friend who joined us as well. 

 New Year’s Eve this year was a girl teen party at our house.  Jenna has been asking to have one and with no real plans ourselves, we agreed.  I was looking forward to her and her friends being here; however, it was a long night.  The girls wanted to go sledding the next day and were afraid if they went to bed that night they wouldn’t wake in time to go before all the parents came to pick up the kids.  At 4am I was awoken to the sounds of a rowdy game of hide-n-seek.  At 6am I again heard the giggling girls making pancakes, bacon, and eggs….all dressed ready to go sledding.  They were not happy when I told them they were not leaving the house until 8:00am.  When the last friend left, just after 11, Jenna headed in to watch some television.  It was ten minutes later we found her sound asleep and there she stayed until 6pm.  Justin was at a friend’s for the evening, because he had no desire to be here with a house full of giggling girls. 

I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday and best wishes for 2013.