Eric Carle Day!

Before Spring Break, we were so excited to finally have ERIC CARLE DAY!!  For several weeks, the Banairs have been doing an author study on Eric Carle.  We've read a myriad of his books, made connections, written responses to his literature, and even wrote our own pattern books!  On Eric Carle Day, we celebrated with crafts and fun activities!

 We participated in a fun relay race!  The race was inspired by the book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."  Students were divided into two groups: boys vs. girls.  The object of the game was to correctly sequence the book in the fastest amount of time. One at a time, students had to crawl through the tunnels, choose a puzzle piece, crawl back through the tunnels, and place the puzzle piece on the game board. 

 In another station, we read the book, "Mr. Seahorse," and then used tissue paper to create a beautiful seahorse.

Our students even enjoyed delicious pancakes, inspired by the book, "Pancakes, Pancakes."

We had a great day! This was definitely one of our favorite days in Kindergarten!

St. Patrick's Day

Top 'o the morning to ya laddies!!!  Our Kindergarteners had a VERY fun day on St. Patty's Day.  In the morning, they were lucky to have our fabulous principal, Mrs. Phillips, read a story about St. Patrick's Day to them!

We also had a surprise visit from a leprechaun!  The kids knew that it was a teacher trying to trick them, but they couldn't figure out who was behind that hat!

The rest of the day, we shared our leprechaun traps and participated in many fun activities.  We even made hats with beards!

This student shares her leprechaun trap with the class.

More leprechaun traps.

Students were able to pick a spot around the room to set up their traps.  The majority of students wanted to place them all over the floor. We're lucky they weren't teacher traps because we tripped over them constantly!

Kaitlin asked why the girls had to wear beards too!

Making necklaces with green and gold beads.

Creating mini-books about St. Patrick's Day.

Inspired by Eric Carle, our current Author Study, these students used tissue paper to make beautiful four-leaf clovers.

While we were out at Resource, someone trashed our room!! Can you guess who??

A Guest Reader Visits the Banairs

On Friday, we had a special guest reader: Christopher's mom!  Ms. Goodfriend came in to visit with the children and read "The Seed" by Eric Carle.  After reading the story, she helped the children "plant" seeds.  Instead of using soil, we placed a lima bean into a clear sandwich bag with a damp paper towel.  Then, we taped all 36 bags onto our windows.  Check back soon to see updates of our plants!

If you are a mommy or daddy of one of our students and would like to come read to our class on a Friday afternoon, please let us know! 

The Banairs Welcome Spring!

Our room has seen a lot of changes this year!  Our students arrived to our classroom at the end of Summer.  We changed our summer trees into fall trees with brown, orange, and red leaves in October.  In December, the leaves fell to the ground to represent the winter season.  Now, we are finally getting our room ready for Spring!  Our students helped trace and cut out green leaves to cover the trees' bare branches.  They also learned to use water color paints to make beautiful butterflies!  We also hung our watering cans back up and soon we will see flowers on our ceiling again!  We are so excited to bring out all of our colorful flowers to celebrate SPRING!

100 DAYS OF KINDERGARTEN

Counting to 100 is no problem for the Banairs. We have been keeping track of the school days, and February 3rd was the 100th day that we have spent in Kindergarten . We had fun counting by ones, fives, and even tens all day!

We made crowns with 100 "things" on them.

We know 100 words! Children were able to write words that they knew on a chart throughout the day.

                                     What is a 100th day of school celebration without a cake?

     We had to find 100 chocolate kisses around the classroom and place them on a hundreds chart.

                                 A first grade class came by to show off their 100 year old costumes!

                                               Yuuuuuuuum..... 100 snacks!!

                                                              We LOVE kindergarten!

Surprise Visit!

On Friday, students were surprised by six special visitors: baby chicks!  Our class was visited by four wonderful fifth graders who were able to tell us all about the babies!  They showed us diagrams and explained how the chicks grew in their eggs and then hatched.  We were so impressed by their knowledge!  What a great experience for both fifth graders and kindergartners at CCE!

Join the Club!

We have introduced Class Clubs as a way to encourage all of our students to learn important information.  For The Computer Club, students must be able to log onto the computer using their username and password.  We sent home your child's username and password a few weeks ago.  The children who join this club by May 20 will get to enjoy an ice cream party!  We also have four other clubs: The BFF Club (students who are caught being a great friend), The Phone Number Club, The Address Club, and The Shoe Tying Club.  When students master these skills, they are able to join the club!  The students who master ALL 4 of these clubs by May 26 will get a Pizza Party!  Help your child at home by teaching them their phone number, home address, and how to tie their shoes.  These are all important skills that will help your child in case of emergencies.