Welcome to New York

Field Day Fun!

2009-06-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

This past Monday we had our field day, and it was SO much fun! The theme this year was “Wii Games.” We played Cooking Mama with a relay race inside of refrigerator boxes. We played Tug of War, skiing, discus, and golf. Our favorite game was “Mario Soccer”, which we played with a giant inflatable soccer ball! We pushed it up and down the field and even got to be run over by it! Thank you to our amazing PE department and resource teachers for giving us such a fun day!

Glogster!

2009-04-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Our April Book of the month is Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski! We have been challenged to try new technology called "Glogster" as a way to express ourselves and respond to the book. As a class, we have decided to tell our class story! In order to introduce this new tool, Ms. Stewart created a glogster telling her story. Check out how it turned out:

Check back soon for our class story!

Baby Jilly

2009-04-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

Jillian Elizabeth Thomas has finally arrived! She came on April 15, 2009 at 9:41 am. She was 21 inches long and 7 pounds 7 ounces. Here are some pictures of the beautiful baby:

Mrs. Thomas' Baby Shower

2009-03-23T04:08:00.001-07:00

We have been waiting patiently for Baby Jillian to arrive. In order to celebrate her upcoming arrival, our class (and some amazing moms) threw Mrs. Thomas a surprise baby shower! We brought gifts, had cupcakes, and had a great time! Thank you to all of our parents for helping to make this a very memorable and special event for our class! We can't wait to meet little Jillian!

Passport Adventure

2009-02-20T12:56:00.001-08:00

Our world travels have come to an end!!! We have had so much fun learning all about different countries! Check out our video to hear some of the interesting facts and vocabulary that we've discovered!

We're World Travelers!

2009-01-29T16:33:00.000-08:00

Watch out world... here we come! Our January Book of the Month is P is for Passport: A World Alphabet by Devin Scillian. It introduces readers to traveling and all of the wonderful sights around the world. Each letter tells of a common experience from around the globe with beautiful illustrations of various locations. It is was a great way to introduce our students to the world around them and all of the exciting places that they have never seen before.

After reading this great book, our class decided that we would also love to travel to all of the places that we saw in P is for Passport. Our first step was to apply for our passports. Each student was given a passport application to take home to complete with their parents. It was a great opportunity to practice writing important information, such as their full name, address, and parents' names. After turning in their applications, each student was given their very own passport! And so our trip began...

For the next month, we will be "traveling" to a new country each day! We will be learning about each country's language, landmarks, location, and much more. We have already visited these amazing places:
Chichen Itza in Mexico

The Sphinx & Great Pyramid in Egypt

Mt. Logan in Canada

Your child is becoming a world traveler! Please make sure to ask where he/she traveled that day. Check out our Travel Map to see which countries we've been to and the interesting facts that we've learned. Here are a couple of links to share with your travelers to learn even more:
- Scholastic's Global Trek
- Time of Kids' Around the World

Flip This!

2009-01-23T14:14:00.000-08:00

Our class has discovered the coolest thing ever this week... a Flip Video camera! In October, we heard about a program called DonorsChoose.org which gives educators an opportunity to requests grants to fund projects in their classrooms. We figured it couldn't hurt to ask and gave it a shot. We wrote our grant requesting a Flip Video camera for our room.

If you have never heard of a Flip Video camera, you are missing out! It might be one of the coolest (and easiest) video cameras out there. It is about the size of a normal digital camera, only has 3 buttons (Play, Record, Delete), and records up to 60 minutes of video without any tapes or memory cards. And best of all, there are really no cords to lose! The USB plug simply flips out of the side when you are ready to load your videos to the computer.

So, we made our request and pretty much forgot all about it until we recieved an email on January 10th telling us that our grant had been funded! A generous donor named Jennifer from Chicago had read our grant request, thought that our project was a great idea, and paid to buy our class a Flip Video! You can probably imagine our joy and excitement over recieving such an amazing gift!

We received our Flip Video at school this week and were very quick to try it out. We have been working on becoming fluent readers (reading without breaks and watching for punctuations... basically trying not to sound like a robot) in Reader's Workshop this week. On Friday, we discussed punctuation and how a fluent reader looks ahead in their reading for punctuation marks. During our work time, students were partner reading to practice this new skill. We thought this would be a great time to try out our new toy! Here is a video of one of our students practicing. Notice how she goes back to reread when she realizes that she didn't look ahead for the punctuations.

During our closing, we were able to plug the Flip Video right into the projector to play the video to the class. They were able to see their classmate using the new skills correctly and incorporate that into their own reading. It was very exciting for our students to see themselves on "the big screen!" They can't wait until it is their turn to have a reading conference so that they can be filmed and share with the class.

This new tool will surely add a new dynamic to our classroom, and we are extremely grateful to DonorsChoose.org and to Jennifer for making this idea a reality for us! Make sure to check back often for more videos!

Employee of the Year!

2009-01-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Mrs. Barbara Ellis, our new Employee of the Year! We are so priviledged to have Mrs. Barbara working with our class this year. She works with some of our students in Reading Mastery and Great Leaps, and works very hard to help keep our classroom running! We love her so much and are VERY proud of her!

Tale of Despereaux

2009-01-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

On January 8th, we had a wonderful field trip to the movies to see "The Tale of Despereaux." It was very exciting to see the large theater filled with Chets Creek Kindergarteners! It was packed! After the engaging movie, we went to Sunshine Park to eat lunch and play for the afternoon. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time! Thank you to all of our parents (and grandma) who were able to join us!

Bully Busters

2009-01-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Nest week, we are having a school wide Bully Buster Week. We wanted to let you know ahea of time so you can discuss with your child about what it means to be a bully. We will be discussing this in class, as well. Here is a scedule of events for the Bully Buster Week:

*Monday the 12th-each student will get a "brick" and write about a time they saw someone being bullied or were bullied themselves. We will make a Bully wall that will be busted down during the assembly.
It is also Chik-Fil-A parent night from 6-8 and they are supporting this campaign 100%! All the proceeds that night will come back directly to Chets Creek for our Bully Campaign. If your child goes to the counter and says they are a "Bully Buster" from Chets Creek they will get a free ice cream!
WCCE will be doing short programs to demonstrate to the student body what bullying is and how to stop it.
*Tuesday the 13th- Thursday the 15th-WCCE bully broadcasts continue to teach short lessons about bullying and how to stop it.
*Thursday the 15th- Wear a blue shirt to show you are fighting the "Bully Blues". Our Bully Buster assembly will be at 9:30 in the dining room.

Unfortunately bullying happens even at the youngest level in schools. Let's work together to stop this in our school! We can contribute by ending it and preventing it in our classroom! Thanks for your help and see you at Chik-Fil-A Monday night!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone! We hope that everyone is having a wonderful winter break with lots of playing and fun! We want you to come back refreshed and renewed in the new year.

If you are looking for some things to do over the break, here are some ideas:

*Read every day!

*Practice counting up to 30... or beyond!

*Practice counting by 2 up to 30, by 5 up to 50, and by 10 up to 100

*Review your snap words

*Practice writing your letters and numbers

See everyone on January 5th!

Going Green

2008-12-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

If your child has come home recently talking about global warming and asking to recycle, don't be alarmed. They are asking because... our class is going GREEN!!!!

Our class has been studying our December Book of the Month,When Santa Turned Green by Victoria Perla. It is a charming book that begins with Santa's discovery that the polar ice cap is melting. He learns of the problem of global warming and develops a plan to save the world... and, of course, Christmas! It was a very festive way to introduce our young learners to the idea of "reduce, reuse, recycle." We have learned about the problems that are caused by pollution and what our students can do to help save the world!

Here are our ideas on what we can do:
-recycle paper and cardboard
-plant trees and flowers
-pick up trash
-reuse old things for art projects
-put a recycle bin in the lunch room
-turn off the water when washing your hands and brushing your teeth
-turn off the lights when you leave a room

Our class is VERY excited about doing their part to help the environment! Please ask your child about global warming. You will surely be impressed with their ideas. Also, don't be suprised if he/she is expecting a visit from Santa in his green suit! Santa is always popping in to make environmental checks around the world!

Holy Cow... What a Pow Wow!

2008-12-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

It has been a couple of weeks now since our Kindergarten Pow Wow and we are still amazed at what a wonderful experience it was. There was singing, dancing, cheering, painting, laughing, smiling, and learning happening all day long!

For those that may not know, each year the kindergarten students at Chets Creek embark on an extensive study of Native Americans. Each of our eight kindergarten classes was assigned a different tribe, which we studied in depth. Our class spent the month of November learning about the Iroquois tribe. We learned where the Iroquois lived, what they ate, what they wore, and so much more. Your child is full of knowledge about the Iroquois, so please ask them! We also had a Family Make-and-Take Night where we constructed models of longhouses like those in which the Iroquois lived. Thank you to all of our families that came to join us!

The culmination of our study was a spectacular day called Pow Wow. We began the day with our 11th Annual Chets Creek Kindergarten Pow Wow Ceremony. Each tribe was announced by our "Chief" and paraded into the ceremony. We circled around our tribe banner and performed our tribal dance. We then amazed the crowd with our Dance of the Skunk and Father Moon Dance. Our class did an amazing job!

Our day continued with eight different Native American stations to expand our students' knowledge. We played Native American games, practiced using natural dyes, learned all about wild animals (we even got to touch their skin!), and wrote stories with Native American symbols. We also tasted foods that Native Americans ate, molded clay, sang Native American songs, and even learned about Squanto inside of a huge teepee (seriously)!

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to each of our parents for helping with all of the supplies needed for our costumes and projects! We would also like to thank our wonderful parents that were able to take time out of their days to help us build our costumes! We would not have looked so great without you!

Chets Creek's New Business Partner

2008-11-20T15:02:00.000-08:00

Each year BJ's Wholesale selects a local school to sponsor as a business partner. This year BJ's has selected Chets Creek as their school for the year! We are very excited about this new partnership.

Tomorrow (Friday, November 21st) will be Chets Creek night at the BJ's at Atlantic Blvd and Kernan. There will be lots of holiday sales, and all proceeds from the food court will be donated directly to our school. Chets Creek's Recorder Club will also be performing that night.

Every year, Chets Creek collects canned food items in our Giving Tree event to donate to local families in need. BJ's has challanged us to collect over 1,000 cans this year, and as a reward for reaching that goal, BJ's will donate $1,000 directly to the school! What a wonderful way to help those in need and our school at the same time! Details will be coming home with your child soon!

The Votes are in... finally!

2008-11-16T15:58:00.000-08:00

What a busy month November has been! Like most of our country, we began our month with a very important election. Our November Book of the Month was Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio. This is a very endearing story of a young girl, Grace, who learns that there has never been a woman as President. When Grace's teacher decides that the class will hold an election, Grace is quick to begin her campaign.

On Election Day, our class learned about voting. We talked about who can vote, what people vote on, when we vote, and why it is important to vote. To introduce this historical Presidential Election, we shared a video of the Ron Clark Academy students singing a parody about the election called "You Can Vote However You Like". Our students were very excited to learn about the candidates and their families. To end our lesson, we held our own Presidential Election.

Each student was given a ballot and selected their choice for President.

They placed it in the ballot box and received their "I Voted" sticker.

Finally, we counted the ballots and... we had a tie!

How does Math Measure Up?

2008-10-30T18:32:00.001-07:00

During the study of pumpkins in our pumpkin unit, we found interesting ways to use pumpkins to help us begin to learn about measurement. We compared their weight, used pumpkins and cube trains of ten to begin discussing height and using language such as shorter, taller, or equal, and we have even learned about circumference. We took our exploration of measurement to the next level and used pumpkin cut outs to decide how many pumpkins tall each student was. The students had to fill in a graph with the number of pumpkins tall they were and 3 other friends to compare heights. It was a great lesson enjoyed by all!

Can you change Matter?

2008-10-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been studying matter- solids,liquids, and gases and their traits or properties. On wednesday, we conducted an investigation to see if we could change matter in any way. We had 4 stations to explore:

1. Making hot cocoa: Is it a solid, liquid, or gas after heating and mixing

2. Sculpting and bending playdough: can you change the shape of a solid?

3. Gas filling a space: Blowing up a balloon: what goes inside? What happens when you let the balloon go?

4. Can a liquid become a solid or a solid a liquid: looking at ice and water

Bossy E!!!

2008-10-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

In Skills Block, we have been studying the sounds that vowels make. In the beginning of the year, we learned the short sound for the vowels and recently we have been studying the long sound for the vowels. Long vowels simply say their names, but when do you say the short sound and when do you say the long sound when you are reading? One strategy we have taught our friends is looking for "Bossy e". "Bossy e" is just another way for saying "silent e" that is at the end of most long vowel words and it tells the vowel to say it's own name. Of course, words like come, love, and one do not follow the rule so they are "rule breakers", but most words that students will be reading right now should follow that rule. When you are reading with your child, see if they can find and read a word with "bossy e"!

Literary Pumpkin Week

2008-10-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

What a fun week! We have just finished celebrating Literary Pumpkin Week at Chets Creek. Each Fall, every class at Chets is given the task of decorating a pumpkin (or more) to represent their favorite books. This year our class decided to use the September Book of the Month, Amazing Pop-up Picture Atlas. Our excited children helped to paint our pumpkins and watched as they turned into our book's characters: Earth, the Statue of Liberty, coffee beans, the Tower of Pisa, an elephant, a panda, a penquin, and a shark. Each of these represented each of Earth's seven continents. Late on Thursday afternoon, we were excited to hear that our class won the Best Book of the Month (primary) Award!

To cap off our busy week, our students eagerly walked into the room on Thusday dressed as their favorite book characters. We saw characters from all kinds of books from Caps for Sale to Peter Pan to The Wizard of Oz. As the entire school lined the hallways and parents gathered in the cafeteria, we joined the other kindergarten and 1st grade classes to parade around the school. It was very exciting to have everyone cheering and clapping for us all! We then spent the rest of the morning working on many Fall activities. We bobbed for apples, decorated fall trees, made scarecrow stick puppets, decorated treats, and made pumpkin picture frames.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers that helped with our fall stations and ran our festival booth! We couldn't have done it without you!

Our First Field Trip!

2008-10-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

After a week of anticipation, our the first field trip of the year finally arrived! On October 16th, we excitedly boarded the bus for our big adventure! We began our day at Kids' Kampus at Metroplitian Park. We climbed on the jungle gym, played in a make believe town, and played catch with footballs. We also enjoyed the wonderful cool weather while we ate lunch.

Our next stop was at the Florida Theater to see the stage production of "Harry the Dirty Dog." This book is our current Star Vocabulary book. It was wonderful to see the amazed looks on our students' faces as they watched Harry come to life on stage.

Another amazing moment was when one of our boys turned around in the middle of the play, pointed to a stage prop that read "My Family," and exclaimed "Ms. Stewart! I see a snap word up there!" It is wonderful to see the excitement of our students when they begin to use the knowledge that they have learned in classroom!

Thank you to all of our wonderful chaperones for making this a smooth trip!

Does a Pumpkin Sink or Float???

2008-10-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

One of the exploratory lessons in our Pumpkin Unit is a Science Lesson where the big question is does a pumpkin sink or float? We have been learning about matter (solids, liquids, and gases) and their properties and this was a perfect experiement to understand how this happens! We began the lesson by posing the question to the students and writing down their predictions on a T-chart. Then we headed to the science lab to conduct our experiment with Ms. Stressen-Reuter's class. The students watched to see if many different sized pumpkins would sink or float, along with some other objects. When we were finished, we headed back to our room to explain our observations and decide how a pumpkin could float. This experiement was great because the students really got to begin using the scientific method in the basic form of predict (hypothesize), observe, and explain. The students were asking me to cut the pumpkin open so they could see inside it and they discovered that it was empty (hollow) and from there we led them to discover that it was full of air and that made the pumpkin float! It was a great experiment enjoyed by all!

The Beginnings of Reader's Theater

2008-10-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

As the students become more familiar with a story, the more they begin to recognize certain parts of the story, character development, and dialogue. We acted out a star book, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and a poem, Five Little Pumpkins. Here is the product!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

"Trip, Trap, Trip, Trap, Trip, Trap"

"Who's that tripping over my bridge?!" roared the Troll.

"Oh it's only I, the middle billy goat Gruff and I'm going to the meadow to make myself fat."

"No you're not for I'm coming to gobble you up!"

"Please don't take me, I'm much too little! Wait for the big billy goat to come. He's much bigger."

"Well then be off you!"

Five Little Pumpkins

GRAFFITI!!!

2008-10-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

As you know, our theme this year is all about going around the world. Our first book of the month took us around the world already! Our book of the month for September was a pop-up Atlas and in Reader's Workshop we have been looking at the differences in Fiction and Non-fiction books. Because Kindergarten is the continent of North America, we really focused our study of the Atlas on that continent.

The students learned some cool facts about the countries that are in North America, their flags, the different animals in each country, and different foods and places that are significant to each country. When we were finished with the book we did an activity called Graffiti and it's something I had to do with the other Kindergarten teachers during the introduction of our book of the month! The students had to work collaboratively and draw items to represent North America. They were drawing things like flags, statues, food, and animals! Here is some of their work!

Star Vocabulary

2008-10-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

We have a list of texts that we refer to as STAR books. We read these books over and over and we pull vocabulary words from these books to teach the students. We have already completed Caps for Sale, The 3 Billy Goats Gruff, and now we are working on Where the Wild Things Are. Here are some vocabulary words your students should know! Ask them what they mean or have them draw you a picture to represent the word!

Caps For Sale
disturb

ordinary

imitate

refreshed

finally

mischievous

The 3 Bill Goats Gruff
meadow
gobble
creak
villain
hooves
wise

Look for the Vocabulary words that we will be studying from Where the Wild Things Are!

Dry spell!

2008-10-05T08:05:00.001-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! I lost the cord that connects from my camera to my computer! Good news though...I found it today so I will be making a post daily this week!

Open House

2008-09-30T14:11:00.001-07:00

Open House for Blog

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Open House for Blog

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Snap Words and Book-in-a-Bag

2008-09-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

Each week we are learning a new nursery rhyme and with that rhyme we are doing things with rhyming, beginning sounds, segmenting sounds, syllables, sequencing, and learning "Snap" words. These words are high frequency words, but we refer to them as "snap" words because they are words that the kids should be able to read in a snap! These words are pulled from our poems and added to the word wall; a tool that the students use for reference of the word. The words we have learned are:

and
all
the
like
to
You can go over these words nightly with your child!

I also wanted to stress the importance of the book-in-a-bag homework assignment. This is HOMEWORK! The book should be read at least once a night and then returned in the bag the following morning!!! Thanks very much!

Friday Morning, Sept. 19th

2008-09-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Parents! Friday Morning will be the Pancake Breakfast, so the students will be coming to the classroom at 8:30! Just wanted to give you a heads up!

Math Counts

2008-09-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

Everyday in school we do Math Investigations and Calendar Math. In Math Investigations, the students have a mini-lesson, followed by about 20-30 minutes to explore what they just learned and finally our closing where we share different strategies students used. In the first couple of weeks of school, the students have lots of opportunities to do a free explore with the manipulatives that they are going to be using throughout the year. Recently we have been delving into counting and representing the amount we count. Here's what a typical day in math investigations looks like:

The picture above is of a small group using the Counting Jar. This Counting Jar will be used as a center for the next few months to continue to help establish the ritual of counting, double checking how much they counted, and representing on paper the amount. The chart shows 3 different strategies that students used to show the number of items in the counting jar. Some students simply wrote the number, while others drew pictures, and some even drew a picture and put a number inside the object to show one-to-one correspondence; meaning that they counted 1 at a time.

The students are also just exploring the manipulatives in many other ways by seeing how they fit together, counting them, and even beginning to explore addition and subtraction!

A student made this flower by seeing what shapes
could be manipulated to fit together.

Another student said, "Look Mrs. Thomas! I made a puzzle!" So I asked him how many he had and he said, " Wow I have 30!"

When I was finishing up walking around and conferencing with the students about what they were doing, a student said to me, "Mrs. Thomas I have 20 blocks and you know what? If I take 4 away then I have 16 left." I was blown away by this! On his own, during his exploration with the geoblocks, he was counting how many he had left when he took some away---the beginnings of subtraction!

I'm so proud of my little mathematicians! I can't wait to see where the year takes us!

2008-09-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

What are you working on at home?

1. reading
2. letters and sounds
3. recognizing numerals
4. writing numerals correctly
5. writing a story
6. rhyming words
7. beginning sounds

I'd love to hear what you are doing at home, so please let me know what you are working on! The kids get so excited when I can talk to them about what they are doing at home! Thanks so much!

Things You Can Do at Home

2008-09-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have had several parents ask me what they can be doing at home to help their student, so here are a few ideas:

1. Definitely read every night and ask them questions about the book. Students won't be ready to read on their own until they have good comprehension of a story, therefore discussing the story with them is very important.
2. You can go over the alphabet with them. Ask them to find certain letters on their cereal box, ask them what sound their favorite toy begins with, when in the car you can ask them for words that begin with certain sounds.
3. Practice writing their name.
4. Go over rhyming words. You can use some of the same activities for going over the alphabet.
5. Go over numbers 1-20 and maybe ask them to count objects for you. If you allow them to be in the kitchen with you when you are preparing dinner ask them to get you 3 napkins, 6 forks, 5 apples, and things like that.

If you have any other thoughts that you would like to share please post a comment! Here are some websites that may help as well!
http://www.reading.org/
http://www.starfall.com/
http://www.kidsknowit.com/
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/tablek.html

Supplies and Wish List

2008-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sure all of you have heard that Duval County has made several budget cuts this year, one of those cuts being supplies! It would be so GREAT if I could get your help with supplies this year! Items we still need off our wish list are:

1. 12 single metal hooks for hanging backpacks on
2. plain white copy paper
3. colored and white cardstock for the monthly calendars that go in their folders
4. a 4 step, step stool (I'm short and can't hang charts high on the walls!)
5. books by Kevin Henkes (one of my favorite children's authors)
6. Books by Laura Numeroff (another of my favorite children's authors)
7. Gift card to the BOOK FAIR!

If I think of anything else or you think of anything, let's be in touch! We can ALWAYS use supplies and thank you in advance!

2008-08-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in learning a little bit more about New York please visit these websites!
http://www.nyc.gov
http://www.iloveny.com
http://www.state.ny.us/
Enjoy!!!

Tidbits about Kindergarten

2008-08-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

Resource Schedule: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 1:20-2:00
Lunch Time: 11:45-12:15
*Please be sure to label everything with your child's name and room number!