May 29, 2020

Thanks so much, everyone, for coming to our car parade today.  We had some technical difficulties, so we didn't get everyone's picture, but here are the photos we were able to get!  We will miss all of your smiling faces.  Please come back to visit us next year, when it is safe to do so, and let us know how great you're all doing in Kindergarten!

May 17, 2020

Friends having fun!

May 12, 2o2o

Here are a few more photos of our friends having fun while staying safe at home.  Keep sending photos!

May 4, 2020

Because fine motor skills are so important to successful handwriting, I wanted to give you some ideas for extra activities to strengthen your child's hands.  I'll be sending home more ideas in future mailings, but here are a few fun ideas to do.
 - put together small beads, Legos or Tinker Toys
 - knead dough or clay and build an object
 - squirt a water bottle outside on the sidewalk - maybe draw letters with the bottle
 - use small marshmallows and toothpicks to form letters
 - string popcorn, buttons or beads to make a necklace

These are just a few ideas - more will be coming home in the next mailing.
Enjoy these photos sent to me this week!  Keep those pictures coming!!

April 27, 2020

I want to remind everyone that you can visit the other class pages on this website to get more ideas for fun things to do with your children.  All of the teachers are trying to post different ideas so these projects can be shared with everyone!  Some of you have begun to send me photos of your children doing the activities I'm sending home.  Please continue to do so, because this is another way for them to see their friends.  The photos you send do not have to be the activities I'm mailing home, they can just be fun activities you are doing (riding their bikes/scooters, doing a puzzle, playing a game with the family).  The purpose is for the children to see their friends.  Thanks for these and keep sending photos!

April 20, 2020

As I take walks in my neighborhood, I've been seeing all the beautiful trees and the flowers budding  on them.  A fun thing to do with your child would be for them to paint flower buds on a tree.  You can draw a tree on a piece of plain white paper.  I'm not very talented with drawing, but all you have to do to make a tree is make a big "Y" on a piece of paper. Then make more "Y's" coming out of that "Y" and you have a bare tree (no leaves).  Have the kids make the "Y" because they are practicing writing their letters also!   Then, have the children dip paint in some sponges and they can dab dots all over the tree (or you can use Q-tips to paint the dots on the tree).  These are the buds of the flowers on the tree.  If you don't have any paint, you could use food coloring, or visit, on Youtube, Art with Ms. Swann and there's a recipe on how to make fingerpaint by cooking flour and water together.  Your child will have budding flowers on their trees.  Again remember, it's not about the end result, it's about the process of them using their fine motor skills to do this and having fun during the process!

April 13, 2020

As the weather gets a little warmer, I wanted to send you more ideas of fun things you can do with the items you already have at home.  Of course, when the weather is nicer than it is today, go outside and look at all the different textures there are.  Collect some things outside that have different textures (flower petals, which are soft, blades of grass, which can be a little "spiky," sticks, which are hard and bumpy).  You can set up a science area in your house of all the different things you collected outside (maybe put these items on a cookie sheet).  You could then talk about all the textures as the children feel each item.  In rainy weather, you can do the same thing with items inside your house.  Collect things like cotton balls, which are soft, sand paper, which is rough, bits of ribbon, which can be smooth, plastic wrap, which is also smooth.  You can glue these indoor items of different textures onto a piece of paper and make a texture collage to hang.  Again, have the children talk about the items and what each feels like as you glue them on the paper.  This project isn't necessarily about the end result, but just to open up a discussion about the sense of touch and different textures they are feeling.  Have fun!

April 6, 2020

Since we are still under a "stay at home" order, I wanted to give you some ideas for how to do some art projects at home, using the materials you have.  My daughter is an elementary school art teacher and she has some great ideas on youtube.  You can go to Youtube Art with Ms. Swann.  Then click on videos and find what video you would like to watch.  Today, I'm giving you the recipe to make homemade finger paint (you can also watch the 3 minute step by step video on how to do this from her page which lots of details).

Homemade Finger Paint
1 c. water and 1/2 c. flour.  Whisk over medium heat stirring constantly until you have a smooth paste.  Remove from the heat and add a pinch of salt to preserve it.  Add approximately 1/4 c. cold water and stir to desired consistency.  Pour into individual small bowls and add food coloring to each bowl to get the colors you like.  You can store this in the refrigerator indefinitely.  It will take a while for the paint to dry, so find a space to put your painting while you wait for it to dry before hanging it up!  

March 31, 2020

I'm looking forward to our class Zoom meeting tomorrow and hoping to see everyone!  I thought I'd post the play dough recipe here in case you don't have a copy at home.  It's easy to make and you should have everything you need right in your kitchen pantry,  Many people don't have the cream of tartar, which is a thickening agent, and it's located in the spice section of the grocery store.  You can also order it online, or through Amazon,  Your child will love playing with the play dough, and it's something they are used to doing at school, which will help keep things a little "normal" right now!  

Play Dough
2 c. all purpose flour
1 cup salt
4 T. cream of tartar
2 T. canola or vegetable oil
2 c. water
food coloring (any kind of food coloring works)

Combine flour, salt, cream of tartar, oil and water.  Once ingredients are mixed, add food coloring.  Cook over medium heat.  Stir constantly until mixture forms into a ball.  Cool and knead until smooth.  Store in a gallon plastic bag.

March 18, 2020

As our school is closed these next few weeks, here are some suggested activities to do with your children to keep them happy and learning.  You can visit classrommagazines.scholastic.com.  There are many suggestions for fun things to do with them.  You can also visit gonoodle to find some fun activities.  Other fun activities may include setting chairs up in a row to create a school bus, or a train.  The children can take turns riding and driving the bus as well as their stuffed animals and dolls also riding along with them.  Have the children help you make a favorite family recipe.  It's a great way to incorporate Math and Science into your day.  You can also go on  a letter search around the house to see who can find the most designated letter of the day.  Make a tent by draping a sheet over your dining room table.  Let the kids put pillows under the table and give them flashlights so they can camp out with their stuffed animals.  Reading a book together, or doing a family puzzle is also so much fun!  The time will fly by and, if it's a large puzzle, you could glue it together and frame it when it's completed!    

Week of March 9-13, 2020

We continued learning about community helpers and this week we focused on construction workers, zoo keepers, farm workers and fire fighters.  We matched community helpers to the tools they use to do their jobs and focused our journals this week on the tools that construction workers use and how they use them.  We also had a great time celebrating Lutheran School Week with Hat Day, Sock Day, Crazy Hair Day and Pajama Day (forgot to take a photo of Words on a Shirt Day though!  In Language Arts, we worked on beginning sounds and matching objects that began with the letters Y, L and M.

Week of March 2-6, 2020

This first week of March had the Owls learning about Dr. Seuss and "National Day of Reading."  We also began our unit on Community Helpers.  This week, we pretended to be doctors, learned what hats community helpers would wear in their jobs, and pretended to be scientists.  As scientists, we talked about and made predictions about what things could be moved in the wind and we used to a fan to help move things on the carpet.  Next, we used the wind we have in our bodies to move different types of balls to see how far they would go.  We had "races" in the church social hall to make the balls move faster across the floor. In Math, we went on a shape hunt around the school to find different shapes hidden throughout the building.

Week of Feb. 24-28, 2020

Our last week of learning about Nutrition and Healthy Food kept us really busy!  We categorized healthy and unhealthy food, tasted different kinds of grains and then voted for our favorite, We painted with waffles and had a great time in our Music class with Ms. Karen.  To continue with our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, we wrote the letter "U" and" labled"Ms. Angie.  Then we read the story of the "Little Red Hen" and took turns reenacting the story.  We made rolls, just like the Little Red Hen did, but since we helped to make them, we got to eat them!  They were yummy!  We ate alphabet cookies for snack on Friday, and had to identify the letters on the cookies before we ate them.  The Owls had a great month of February!

Week of Feb. 17-21, 2020

Another fun week in the Owls class.  We continued our study of healthy food and nutrition.  Some of the things we did this week: painted with vegetables, wrote the letters U and V, estimated how many conversation hearts will fit into a small heart, played some board games to learn the importance of taking turns, and listened to a guest speaker, a dental hygienist, teach us how to keep our teeth healthy. It was such a busy week!

Week of Feb. 10-14, 2020

Our week has been filled with lots of fun.  With a partner, we made two and three color patterns using conversation heart candy.  Our snack on Tuesday was pizza, that we made together and it was one of our favorite snacks!  We celebrated Valentine's Day by mailing Valentines cards that we made home to our parents, and we estimated how many days it was going to take for the cards to get to our homes.  Mr. Bill, one of our church volunteers, came into our room and played a great game with us, helping us match upper and lower case letters.  We also used the conversation heart candies to predict how many of those candies Ms. Angie could hold in her hand and also how many we could hold in our hands.  Then we counted the candies to see how close our predictions were.  

Week of Feb. 3-7, 2020

Our first week of February was really busy.  We talked about the groundhog, and then played with shadows.  Writing the letter "L" was really fun because we used chalkboards, white boards and salt to write our letters.  We also began our unit on healthy food and nutrition and played grocery store bingo and categorized different foods into healthy foods and treats.  In Math, we played a game to guess which numbers were missing in a sequence and also worked on positional words (under, over, beside and in back).  Pajama Night was fun and we got to listen to some fun stories and do some crafts.

Week of Jan. 27-31, 2020

This last week of January was so much fun and filled with lots of great activities.  Here are some of the things we did;  wrote the letter K; did a science experiment to find out how polar bears are protected from icy water.  We first put our hands in icy water-only if we wanted to do it-and then covered our hands with a layer of fat-Crisco-and put our hands in rubber glove and put them back into the water.  We discovered that since the polar bears have a protective layer of fat, as well as heavy fur coats, they don't feel the icy, cold water!  We also used our Handwriting Without Tears wooden pieces to form many different letters, and heard the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  After reading the story, we got a chance to retell the story by reenacting the story for some of our friends.  What a great week!

Week of Jan. 20-24, 2020

Our week was filled with lots of information about Winter.  Some of the highlights were: building "caves' for animals to hibernate; a discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.and his March to insure equality for everyone, regardless of the color of their skin (we did this by cracking different color eggs into a bowl and discovering that even though they are different colors on the outside, they were all the same on the inside); painting with ice cubes, picking out clothes that are appropriate to wear in different kinds of weather; and making "cookies' for the birds so that we can continue to feed them during the Winter.

Week of Jan.13-17, 2020

Another busy week in the Owls class!  We did a few science observations -(1) predicting how fast  ice will melt (sprinkling ice blocks with sugar, salt, plan and in water) - the salt melted the ice the fastest; and (2) making an indoor snowflake - we mixed boiling water with Borax and then put a snowflake we made out of pipe cleaners in the water and watched as crystals formed on the pipe cleaner.  Science can really be fun!  The Zoomobile came to our school on Friday, Jan. 17 and we learned that animals have some of the same senses we have.  We saw a corn snake, a porcupine and a lion head bunny.  The Zoomobile was so much fun and we loved seeing all the animals.  We even got to pet the bunny, who was really soft!  What a fun week!

Week of Jan. 6-10, 2020

Our week has been really busy!  We practiced writing the letter "N" and learned about animals in the Winter.  Our class sorted animals that like the Winter and snow and animals that do not like Winter.  The Zoomobile from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore came to visit us.  We talked about different animals and their different tails.  Then the zookeepers brought out three animals for us to see and learn about.  We saw a snake (a boa snake) and learned that they actually smell by sticking out their tongues.  They eat mice and rats, so we didn't have to worry about the snake wanting to eat us!  Next, we saw a parrot.  The bird actually talked to us - said "Hello" and then spread her wings for us.  The last animal we saw was a lion headed rabbit - named Cinnamon. She was eating pretzels and we got a chance to pet her, if we wanted to, and she was REALLY soft!  It also snowed this week, so Ms. Angie and Ms. Jeanette brought some snow into our classroom for us to play with.  We had such a great time making mini snowmen and snowballs in our sensory table!

Jan. 2-3, 2020

Our class had a great time the first few days of 2020.  Everyone was very excited to be back at school and especially to happy to see all their friends again! We talked about our calendar and how we have a new month, a new season and a new year.  We wrote the letter "R" and talked about animals in the Winter.  We made bagel bird feeders for everyone to take home and hang outside to observe the birds as they ate a tasty treat.  It was fun to be back together again!

Week of Dec. 16-20, 2019

This last week in December has been filled with lots of fun!  We filled the bird feeder, played Christmas bingo, practiced writing the letter "B" and acted out the Nativity.  The Owls also had a great performance at the Christmas Program.  Looking forward to a fun time now with our families!

Week of Dec. 9-13, 2019

The Owls had a great week!  Some of the highlights of our week were:  writing the letter "P," decorating Christmas cookies for snack, using our fine motor skills to pick up straws with tweezers, practicing for our Christmas program, observing blocks of ice as they melted by sprinkling them with salt and going on a treasure hunt  (we had to listen to clues to find our treasure - candy canes)!  Wow, we really had a busy week!

Week of Dec. 2-6, 2019

Our first week of December was filled with Christmas surprises!  Our class tree has lost all of its leaves and now has lights on it.  We eat our snack by the light of the tree.  We used our fine motor skills to decorate a Christmas tree and our science table is filled with different things that are attracted to magnet wands.  We learned the true meaning of Christmas as we heard the Christmas Story (the birth of Jesus) and used our math skills to solve a Christmas symbol "sudoku" puzzle.  Not many pictures this week, since we also spent lots of time making gifts for our families (a surprise)!  Still a fun filled week with the Owls!

Week of Nov. 25-29, 2019

This was a short week for our school.  We still had lots of fun and learned the true meaning of Thanksgiving.  On Monday, everyone contributed an ingredient to make a big pot of "Stone Soup."  It was delicious, and we loved sharing it with our parents.  On Tuesday, every family brought something to school to share for a giant feast that we all shared together with everyone in the school.  What a great Thanksgiving week this was!

Week of Nov. 18-22, 2019

This week our class worked on our fine motor skills by writing the letter "E" using white boards, chalk boards and fingerpainting.  We also worked on our listening skills by following a set of directions Ms. Angie gave us to build stacks of blocks, using different colors and sometimes only using two colors (that's where our listening skills came into play).  We took advantage of the great weather to play outside and we also learned about syllables.  We clapped out the syllables in our names and also counted the syllables in the names of some of our toy animals.  It was another fun week with the Owls!

Week of Nov. 11-15, 2019

This week we used our listening skills a lot!  We went on a treasure hunt to find things about Fall.  We had to listen to the clues, make a guess where the next clue would lead us, and work to find a treasure (small packs of Oreos for each of us)!  It was such fun!  We also did a Science experiment to see what would happen if we mixed an acid (white vinegar) and a base (baking soda) together.  We put popcorn kernels into a glass jar with water and food coloring.  Then we added the baking soda.  When we put in the vinegar, it bubbled up and then the popcorn kernels began to "jump" up and down inside the jar.  Wow, we were really excited to see that!  We then had popcorn for snack that we made with an air popper popcorn machine.  It was a great snack!  We continued working on our Math skills by measuring different animals and placing them in order - large to small.  We then used our loc blocks again to measure the animals.  Using our fine motor skills, we used small hole punchers to punch holes in paper - and we found it was really hard to do for some of us - we really had to use the muscles in our hands.  Writing the letter "F" was great fun and we got to do it this week with a wet sponge, with chalk, on a white board and in fingerpaint.  Another busy week for the Owls. 

Week of Nov. 4-8, 2019

The Owls had a really fun and busy week!  We worked on our math skills by measuring the length of things, and our friends, using loc blocks.  We made rainbows, also using the loc blocks, and talked about positional words like "before and after" "on top of and on the bottom."  Using our cutting skills also kept us busy.  The school had some really exciting news this week - the baby chicks hatched!  We got to observe them and even hold them, when they visited our classroom.  We also began practicing writing the letter "F," which we will continue to do next week. On Friday, we learned about Veteran's Day and had a parade to celebrate all the people who help keep our country safe.  Our class had a great time and learned lots of new things this week!

Week of Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 2019

The Owls had lots of fun this week.  We used our math skills to measure ingredients to make pumpkin pancakes for snack.  We practiced  taking turns and played the memory game. Our class had a great time, and used lots of math and science skills as we cut open a pumpkin and got to see and feel what was inside the pumpkin.  We estimated how many seeds were inside and then counted all the seeds!  We voted on a hat and a name for our pumpkin (her name is Ursula and she had 295 seeds inside).  As we learned about curves, we made the letter "O" and used our blocks to measure one of our friends to see how long he was! Halloween was lots fun and we loved sharing our costumes with our friends. We also played Halloween Bingo and "pass the pumpkin" and had to pick an item that began with the letter "p" when the music stopped and we were holding the pumpkin.  On Friday, we did a science experiment by putting whole milk and food coloring on a plate.  We then dipped Q-tips into dish detergent and touched the food coloring with the q-tip.  We learned that the fat in the milk "reacted" with the soap in the dish detergent and caused the food coloring to "dance and move."  It was really fun!

Week of Oct. 21-25, 2019

What an exciting week for our class!  Two chicks arrived at school!  We got to observe them in their home (the brooder) and also 6 eggs arrived.  They are in an incubator now, and we will keep observing them and waiting for baby chicks to hatch.  We worked on our fine motor skills by hammering golf tees into pumpkins.  We also made some beautiful mosaic leaves using glue and tissue paper.  In math, we measured several pumpkins and then placed them in order - smallest to largest.  Ms. Angie also introduced us to a 10 frame.  Each day, we will practice making the number 10 by adding different numbers together, and then writing out the number sentence.  We are having such a great time with all of our new friends as we continue learning about Fall.

Week of Oct. 14-18, 2019

Our class had another busy week.  We worked on our fine motor skills by practicing lacing.  We talked about apples and cut them open to see the seeds inside.  We tasted three different kinds of apples (Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Ginger Gold) and voted for our favorite.  We had a fun math lesson by working with a 10 frame and had fun practicing different ways to make the number 10.  Another math game we played was with clothes pins.  We had to pinch the clothes pins and place them on a hanger, using our counting skills to count from 1 to 20.  The Owls had a great time this week!

Week of Oct. 7-11, 2019

This week the Owls were very busy.  We talked about the size and measurements of items and made predictions about which items would fit into a small space.  We opened our listening center and had lots of fun listening to books.  We also worked on our fine motor skills by writing in shaving cream and measured small toys and put them in order from smallest to largest (using many different math terms).  We were still able to enjoy the great weather outside and had great times on the playground and taking nature walks.  It was a fun week!

Week of Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2019

The Owls have been busy learning about Fall and settling very nicely into a routine.  We've been practicing our fine motor skills by lacing, writing in our journals and playing with play dough.  We used our Handwriting Without Tears wooden pieces and made Mat Man, which will help us learn how to draw a person.  We played alphabet bingo to use our letter recognition skills and also learned how to play dominoes.  We talked about Fall and made a web about all the things we know about this season.  In Science, we did an observation to find out what would happen when we placed pine cones in water (would they sink or float; would they stay open, or would they close up).  We also talked about positional words - top, middle and bottom, and made traffic lights with snap blocks.  It's been a great week!

Week of Sept. 23-27, 2019

We've had a great week!  We continued to work with our wood pieces, followed more two-step directions, and practiced more directional words (top, bottom, beside, behind).  We also began writing in our journals - the kids did such a good job with them!  We voted on a name for our class owl - the that got the most votes is Cinnamon.  We also make some new play dough for the classroom and voted on a color to make it - blue!  Our class has had a wonderful first month of school!!!

Our first few weeks

Our class has had lots of fun getting to know each other!  The weather has been great, so we've been having great fun on the playground.  We've been building with blocks, making patterns, practicing directional words (in and out, above and below) and following two-step directions   We also began working with our "Handwriting Without Tears" wood pieces that will help us write letters.  Please be sure to check back every few weeks to see how much fun the Owls are having!