Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Yesterday was the 101st day of school. We got to meet an author named Alyssa Satin Capucilli. She is the author of the Biscuit books. We learned that sometimes illustrators need to redo their pictures because they want to be able to choose the work that they like the best. Mrs. Capucilli showed us an example of an illustration that Pat Schories made but never used, because she was looking for the perfect shade of green and didn’t like the one that she used first. We saw Mrs. Capucilli’s treasure book. That’s where she writes her ideas. She never erases anything because she never wants to lose an idea that might develop into a book later on. The things that she spoke about inspired us to use them with our writing. Later on, we wrote about what we learned from our speaker.

We are learning about new “tricks” or strategies that will help us with our math facts. So far, we’ve learned about drawing pictures, adding with zero, and adding in any order.

Today we had art. We have an assistant teacher who is in high school. She is watching to learn how to become an art teacher. Her name is Miss Laura.


We shared more Flat Stanleys. Flat Thomas went to Northern California to visit his cousin. He saw El Camino Real, redwood trees, missions, and his cousin’s school. Flat Aidan went to Sydney, Australia. His cousin, Jordan, took him to Bondi Beach, since she is on a six week “holiday” right now.

100th Day of School!

Today was the 100th day of school! We played lots of games that had to do with the number 100. We completed 100 math problems, jumped on one foot for 100 seconds, we were silent for 100 seconds, and we tried standing on one foot for 100 seconds. Some of us (Nicole, Ashley, Madison B., Alexis Jonathan, Lily Joseph V., Justin, Thomas, and Kelsey) thought that 100 seconds were faster than we believed. Jackie, Aidan, Julia, Conor, Joseph B., Mikey, Casey, Joel, and Nevin thought it was longer than they originally believed. Ms. Stern asked us to draw ourselves now and then draw ourselves in 100 years. Most people think that they are going to be old in the year 2108. The children in the class also wrote about what they would do if they had $100. Here are some of our responses:
-Jonathan: I would buy a monster truck and crush cars and crush other monster trucks.
-Joseph B.: I would buy an expensive car because most of the expensive cars are racecars. I would buy Corvettes, Mustangs, and Ferraris.
-Kelsey: I would buy a restaurant, a flat screen TV, and a Dell. I would buy a restaurant because I love to play restaurant with my mom, dad, and brothers. I would buy a flat screen TV because I love to watch TV. I would buy a Dell because it’s a laptop and you do not have to plug it in so I could bring it places.
Joel: I will buy a skateboard if I had one. I will go crazy if I had one. I will ride it every day! I will have to practice a lot.
Ashley: I would buy lots of jewelry and Sephora makeup and lots of cool clothes and live in a mansion with an indoor pool and a Jacuzzi and servants.
Conor: If I had $100 I would buy a castle so I could battle evil people.
Jackie: I’d give it to St. Jude’s Research Hospital. If I were there I’d really want people to find out more, quick!

In Art, we finished up our still life drawings. We are using oil pastels to color the vase with the flowers.

Friday, February 15, 2008

We read for almost 2 hours this morning. Today was the Rockland Read-In. Lots of schools in Rockland County also spent time reading in their classes. Everyone in Room 66 was allowed to bring in something comfortable, like a pillow, blanket, or stuffed animal since we could choose wherever we wanted to read around the room. We could bring in reading materials from home and also choose books from the classroom library, including 2 books that were NOT from our book bins. Lots of parents came. They also spent time reading. Some read newspapers. Others read grown up books. Ms. Stern started reading a new book (and stopped to take pictures). The moms and dads started reading with others. The kids were also allowed to choose a partner to read with. Not everyone was able to make, but that’s okay. We know that moms and dads are really busy. We stopped in the middle to have snack. Ms. Stern read Knuffle Bunny while everyone was eating. Cassie really enjoyed it because of the illustrations. They have photographs as the background, with illustrations on top of them. The book won a Caldecott Award. Erin thought the read in was fun. She liked reading with Madison B. Joseph B. also liked reading with a partner. His partner was his mom. They read a couple of different books. Thomas enjoyed being able to read for a long time. Julia realized how wonderful Disney movies are because she read a book that was about some of the movies that she has seen. Kelsey thought the read in was sort of fun because she thinks that reading is fun but sometimes not so fun. Everyone in the class had a great time, read a lot, and wants to have another read in again soon!

Today, during P.E., lots of classes were there. Usually, it is just Mrs. Yelin’s class and us. Mr. Gunther and Miss Owen’s students came to practice the dances for the dance festival. Aidan’s favorite song and dance is to the Blue song. Lily likes the Cha Cha Slide.

We celebrated Kelsey’s birthday today. Her actual birthday is on Sunday and we will be on vacation all of next week. She brought in “7” donuts to share with the class.

Jimmy just left to spend the whole vacation with Joel! Have a terrific February vacation. When we return, we’ll be celebrating the 100th day of school!

Valentine's Day! February 14, 2008

Today is Valentine’s Day! Lots of children got to deliver the valentines that they brought in.

We put them in the mailboxes that we made in class earlier this week. Ms. Stern read us lots of Valentine’s Day stories. We read Heartprints (again!), finished Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine (when we found out that Jim was Junie B.’s secret admirer), Roses are Pink Your Feet Really Stink, and Today is Valentine’s Day! (another P.K. Hallinan book)

We had lots of special sweets for snack today. We had ice cream, a cookie, and a donut! We made sure to save the treats in our mailboxes for later so nobody would get sick!
We discovered that we already have MORE than our goal of 100 heartprints…and it’s not even the 100th day of school yet! Everyone felt excited because we discovered that it feels good that lots of people in this class have done very nice things. We’re not going to stop, either!
This morning, we wrote about a person that we love. We had to write at least 4 sentences telling about the person. Nevin wrote about someone in the class. Lots of children, like Mikey, Julia, and Madison S. wrote about their brothers and sisters. Alexis wrote about her mom.
This afternoon we went to music. We were dancing to practice for the dance festival. The three dances we practiced were the hand jive, Shrek, and freeze dancing to “I like to Move it, Move it.” Mrs. Fox read a story called The Day it Rained Hearts.

What a great day! Happy Valentine's Day!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

This morning the kindergarten children wore their masks for the Chinese New Year parade. Madison B. saw her sister. They made different kinds of masks to scare away evil spirits. It was exciting watching the parade and it also felt weird since we weren’t in it this year.

We have been practicing a whole bunch with adjectives. They are words that describe nouns. Everyone had to think of a word that described the person sitting next to him or her. Some of the words we thought of were: fancy, interesting, fashionable, silly, and generous. Ms. Stern does NOT like dull words like: good, nice, fun, cool, or bad. She told us to use “colorful” words that are more interesting than the dull, ordinary ones. There is even a new bulletin board filled with colorful words, where we can borrow a better word to use in our writing. Ms. Stern gave us our papers back from yesterday to check our own work. People got smarter since yesterday because lots of children were able to correct their own work by finding words that weren’t adjectives or by finding dull one and replacing them with more colorful words.

During Reader’s Workshop, Ms. Stern taught us that good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. Together, we read Tooth Trouble. Ms. Stern wrote our questions on post-its as we thought about the events in the story. We know that good readers ask questions because good readers think about what they are reading. Sometimes it is hard to think of questions while you are reading. The more we do it, the better we get.
We have been sharing some of our Flat Stanleys that have been returned. Flat Erin returned from her trip to California, where she saw cows, artichoke farms, a rodeo, and then got a flat tire! Flat Mikey went to Florida, where he went to visit his cousins. He got splashed at Sea World, learned that Cinderella lives in a castle, saw dolphins, and went to the Kennedy Space Center. Flat Casey went to Orange County, NY. She stayed with her cousin and her aunt. She learned to play the violin, went to work at a doctor’s office, and went to her cousin’s class. Her teacher’s name is Mr. Berger. We looked on Google Earth to see our starting point at school and to see where our Flat friends ended up.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Today is Conor’s 7th birthday. We celebrated by singing Happy Birthday. Then he blew out the imaginary candles, and finally we had “7” donuts and apple juice. Conor got to say, “Bon appetite, you may eat.” This morning Ms. Stern told us that she received an e-mail from the author of Heartprints, P.K. Hallinan. She was SO surprised! Ms. Stern couldn’t figure out how Mr. Hallinan knew that we had read his book or that we are working on leaving heartprints behind in class. She e-mailed him back and asked that very question. Mr. Hallinan explained that his computer let him know when we wrote about him on our blog yesterday. Jackie figured out that it probably means that he’ll be reading this blog entry too. (Hi Mr. Hallinan!) How cool! So far, we have left 25 heartprints.

During independent reading everyone was focused. People are getting much better at staying on task and reading very quietly to themselves.

At P.E., we used the long jump rope. It is the long one called “Sammy the Snake.” Coach Hudson and Coach Steingasser were moving it on the floor. Then, they made it harder by having the jump rope come off the floor. At the end, children had a turn to jump into the jump rope while the two classes sang along. We sang, “Strawberry shortcake, cream on top, tell me the name of your sweetheart. Is it a…b…c…d…” Madison S. made it though the whole alphabet until she landed on C during the second time. Coach Hudson said he likes it when our hearts beat fast!

After lunch, Ms. Stern read a story called My First Chinese New Year. We made a Venn diagram showing how our New Year on December 31st is alike and different from the Chinese New Year. We also read Time for Kids. It was all about Patricia Polacco. We have read many of her books in our class. By reading the TFK, we discovered some other books that we haven’t read yet, such as Emma Kate, Oh, Look!, and Rotten Richie and the Ultimate Dare.

Monday, February 4, 2008

This morning, Ms. Stern showed us the video of Punxatawney Phil that took place on Groundhog Day on Saturday. He saw his shadow. That means we have six more weeks of winter!

We read a story called Heartprints, by PK Hallinan. “A heartprint is formed when you do something kind. Your love touches others, leaving heartprints behind.” Heartprints are kind acts that are felt by others. Our goal is to catch people in our class leaving heartprints for friends, family members, and even strangers. We are going to try to catch at least 100 heartprints by the 100th day of school. Some examples of heartprints that have been left are:

-Kelsey made me a mask and she put a lot of effort into it! –Jackie
-When I wore my boots, I got 2 scrapes and Julia picked me to sit on the thrown because I was having a rough day. –Madison B.
-Alexis picked up my wallet when I dropped it in the hall. –Joseph B.
-Kelsey made Madison S. feel better when she missed her mom last week. –Ms. Stern

We are going to continue to do kind things at home. If someone at home catches us leaving heartprints, we are asking them to write about it on a heart.

Today Ms. Stern told us that the people who get all of the words correct on the pre-test would NOT have to take the spelling test on Friday. Also, even though those people also don’t have to do their homework, the nightly activities are optional and can be turned in anyway.

We had Art today. We finished our hearts for Valentine’s Day by finishing our patterns around the border. Some people finished and some still need to keep working.

Mrs. Spiro checked everyone’s heads to make sure no one had lice. Everyone was in the clear. When we came back to the room, we talked about how lice can spread so we are going to make sure that we don’t share any hair accessories.

This afternoon, we had Talking Stick. Lots of people talked about what they did during the Super Bowl. Many children stayed up late and had fun parties. A few children brought in things to share.

Friday, February 1, 2008

We had our performance in front of our parents today. We had lots of fun because we had a cast party with lots of stuff to eat. There was carrot cake (which was Jackie’s favorite), brownies, donuts, cupcakes, muffins, coffee, juice boxes, water, munchkins, vegetables and dip, bagels, and cookies. Lots of people got to see their moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, au pairs, and siblings. Everyone told us how wonderful it was. We are kind of sad now that the play is over but we know we have lots of special events that take place in February.

Today we had P.E. Coach Aris stopped by to say hi. The school that he works at didn’t have school today because of the icy weather there. We were excited to see him since we hadn’t seen him in a long, long time.

We played Hangman on the Smartboard.

The words we were guessing were all from our spelling test. We also played Memory. Madison S. and Nevin each got 3 pairs in a row! We like doing it because it’s a fun way to practice our words. Today was our spelling test. The bonus word was performance. No one got it correct, even though it has been on our calendar during Morning Meeting.

This afternoon, we continued working on our writing.