100 Days of School

We celebrated our 100th day of school on Friday, January 25^th, 2019.  The kindergartners have learned so much since that first day of school!  I am so proud of them!  Today we did many activities revolving around the number 100.  Hopefully it gave them a better sense of how much 100 is. Here are some of the activities we to celebrate 100 days of school.  It was a fun day!

1.     They assembled a 100-piece puzzle.

2.     They illustrated pages for the 100 booklet.

3.     They rolled the dice and colored in a penny for each dot trying to be the first to color in 100.

4.     They designed their own 100 headband. 

5.     We counted out 100 pennies on the 100 chart.

6.     They counted by 1s, 5s and 10s to 100.

7.     They were quiet for 100 seconds.

8.     They did 100 exercises.

9.     We wrote a list of 100 things they learned in kindergarten.

10. I read books about the number 100 and 100 days of school. 

11. They identified 100 birds. 

12. Then we ate a part of a giant, chocolate chip cookie!    It was a fun day!

Who knew that the giant American Goldfinch
would be a great place to story headbands?

Roll the dice and color in that many pennies.  Whoever
fills their chart first is the winner!

Winter Wonderland

The kindergartners and I marveled at the winter wonderland on the playground after the fog lifted one morning!  I was so pretty!

Table Talk

For Christmas, my family received three tins full of three kinds of popcorn.  I decided to bring one to school.  I spread paper on the table and dumped the popcorn out.  The kids washed their hands and we ate and visited.  It was really nice actually.  Without raising hands, they had a conversation as adults would.  I reviewed Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he wanted things to be fair for all people.  I reminded them that he wanted people to try to get along and not fight.  I told them that all people should work on that whether at home or in school.  They had some nice comments and I could tell that they also wanted to try to make the world a better place.  They were so sweet.

Some January Journal Entries

Learning Empathy

A friend of mine is very sick and he happens to be the author of the bird field guide that I read a bit from each day.  I told the kindergartners that he was sick and of course they wanted to make him a card.  I put a photo of Bill Thompson III on the Promethean Board and asked the children to try to draw him.  This one looked the most like him.  Then I had the students each draw a part of the card and I assembled it to look like this.  I wrote a letter to him explaining how we felt and I sent a photo of the kids and I like the one below.

Bill liked the card so much that he posted it on Facebook for all of his fans to see.  It was the only card he posted and he had been inundated with cards and letters.  His wife said that he laughed when he saw it and it made him happy.  We really made his day!  I made sure that the kids knew that they cheered him up.  In this way, young children learn empathy for others and how their acts of kindness can cheer someone up and make a difference.

Snow Art

The kids used potato halves cut like shapes to make a snow scene with white paint.  After it dried, they added colorful details.  This is a way to combine both art and math together since noticing shapes in his or her environment is one of their standards to meet for the year.

Christmas Bird Posters

We invited the 1st graders in to do an art project.  They cut out a Christmas tree and then added bird cut outs from a magazine to decorate their tree.  They were so happy as they worked with their 1st grade friends!

Christmas Concert Night

Here are the kindergartners all dressed nicely for the
Elementary Christmas concert.  They did such a
great job!

Christmas Party Day in School

The Christmas party was a really fun time for the kindergartners.  They played games like fishing for candy canes and Hershey kiss memory.  They did an activity where they decorated each other like a Christmas tree.   The lunch was delicious!  They loved opening their presents too. Before the party each child chose one of five movies to watch and they went to that classroom to watch the movies with other K-4 students.  They each were given free pop or water and popcorn from the school.  It was a really fun morning!  

Besides the bird feeder, I got the kindergartners
each a cool Christmas pen and notebook.  They seemed
to like it.