Kindergarten - Mrs. Young

Here are some June 'Happenings' that you should be aware of:

June 5 - Volunteer Breakfast.   Please join us in the Library for delicious food and good company. We SO appreciate everything you do!

June 5 - Woodburn Open House

June 12 - Field Day This year Field Day falls on a P.M. Wednesday but I do encourage you to bring your A.M. Kinder to the Field Day and accompany them through all the fun activities. (Approx. 1 hr.) Remember to dress your Kinder appropriately!

June 14 - Hina Matsuri   Your child may bring a doll to school. More info next week.

June 17 - Japanese Festival    Food, Fun, and yes! Origami!    Helping hands needed A.M. 11:00 - 11:55
             P.M. 12:45 - 1:45    Thank you!

June 18 - Last day P.M. Kinders

June 19 - Last day A.M. Kinders    Buses depart at 11:00.

Note to self - ensure a plentiful supply of Kleenex!!!!!

June 15, 2013

I have been so lucky to have Mrs. Keller as the other member of the K-Team.   She is more than willing to run with an idea and she finds ways to bring these ideas to life. Case in point - the Japanese Festival.   The Kinders could hardly wait to run over to Room 209 to see what was going on there and then they'd scoot back to our room enjoying the crafts, games and just being with their friends.   Of course, it doesn't happen without our wonderful volunteers! We are grateful to every single one of you.

You know that I have struggled to find a.m. parents to help out at our Happenings and I understand that work and caring for a family must come first. The a.m. Kinders have benefited this year from the staff of GVE who have come to my rescue and allowed me to run Reading Groups, assess the Kinders, and do special projects like the Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts.

Mrs. Joni Wells, mom of A. in the p.m. crew, has given up her time to ensure that the a.m. Kinders get to participate in our Happenings. She brought along A.'s Grandma today and we are truly grateful for their support.   It was so much fun!

Here are some of the photographs I took.

The Zen gardens

The Tanabata game

Origami

Fan making

Learning the Japanese names for colors.

Not exactly the way to eat with chopsticks!

Hand kites

Headbands

Thank you again, volunteers.

Mrs. Young

June 14, 2013

Hina Matsuri! We learned about the celebration of Hina Matsuri - Doll's Day in Japan. We looked at a picture of the beautiful dolls arranged on a red stand and added our dolls to our classroom stand. Y brought a Japanese doll to share but I didn't get a picture.

We read the classic story "William's Doll" and had a very interesting discussion about baby dolls!!!! It would seem that those boys who have a sister are much more comfortable with the idea of playing with a doll than only children or those who have just brothers. Makes sense, I guess!

At Station Time, the Kinders wrote the lower case 'w' and colored and cut out paper dolls. (No problem with the boys cutting out the boy doll and his karate outfit! LOL) They wrote Japanese words and had free choice painting with the last few boxes of water colors.

The A.M. crew watched a magic school bus video in the Library and the P.M. crew said goodbye to Mr. Hughes. (He's taking a year sabbatical and the Kinders almost bowled him over as they mob hugged him!)

We enjoyed our rice cakes and green tea - green Hawaiian Punch - and the Kinders wrapped their Father's Day gifts. (Can you tell they wrapped them? LOL!)

Monday is our Japanese Festival and we have plans for food, headbands, fans, origami, games, hand kites, zen gardens and more. We do need your help to make this day a success!   A.M. 11:00 - 11:55,   P.M. 12:45 - 1:45    TIA!

Tuesday is the last day for the P.M. crew and we will celebrate summer!   Wednesday is the last day for the A.M. crew (and the rest of the school.) We will have an assembly, sign our Friendship books and roll out the buses at 11:00.

Well, I'm off to 'baby chicken proof' the orchard so that the new chickies don't get under the fence or through the sides of the gate.   Have a great day!   Mrs. Young

June 12, 2013

Field Day! It was such fun despite the weather! A big thank you to all the volunteers who ran the games, to all the 5th Grade buddies who did such a wonderful job of escorting the Kinders around the stations, and to those parents and grandparents who accompanied their a.m. Kinders to the activity. I WISH there was a way for both groups to participate.

Here are some of the photos I took. The quality is um, sadly lacking, because I had to borrow my DH's camera for today. Here ya go:-

The parachute was very popular!

The Kinders loved throwing the rubber toys around! See the tug o' war in the background?

Teachers, Moms, and little sisters were there to cheer the 'athletes' on!

I could NOT get a good shot of the Limbo - and this game is the reason your child is singing "Limbo Rock!" as it played constantly for 90 minutes!

It was fun to meet up with friends.

But there was a lot of waiting in line!

A couple of soccer stars in the making!

And last but not least - the plunger relay race!

   Mrs. Young

June 11, 2013

Ms. Wurzer came in today as Guest Teacher so that I could listen to a last few readers and then work on my Report Cards. I can't believe these are my last Report Cards EVER!

I'm still feeling a little down about retiring and I am treasuring each moment that I have left at school!

We are busy making our Father's Day 'stuff' and thinking about what Dads do for us. Given the diversity of our families, this is a tricky subject!

Don't forget Field Day tomorrow and dress the Kinders appropriately. Hopefully the predicted rain will not materialize.   I will take pictures. Back to the Report Cards!

Mrs. Young

June 6, 2013

The neatest thing happened this morning! You probably know that the Kinders have been using a few Japanese words throughout the day. They shared the Computer Lab this morning with some 5th Graders who were very helpful in logging on, etc. The Kinders thanked their buddies in Japanese and a huge grin spread over the face of one of the students. He replied to us in Japanese!!!!!!! Cool!

The Kinders were working on www.starfall.com

May I suggest that you put the Kinders on this web site regularly as a way to maintain their Reading skills? TIA

Mrs. Young

June 4, 2013

I had a desperate plea from Maria Mansfield for help in manning the activities at the Wacky Olympics / Field day on June 12th.   If you can help, please sign up at

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0A4EA8A62BA75-field

Thank you SO much!

As you might imagine we are not in mastery mode right now, but we are working on review and preview. So, after we read "The Little Engine that Could" we talked about the purpose of the Author. I wish you could have heard their insights. Amazing! Then after Recess, we watched the end of the Big Bird movie and talked about what inferences we could make and how could we support our claims with reference to the dialog in the movie. Again, they did a really good job!   (I must explain that there is a sub plot in the movie involving the Japanese lady who is helping Big Bird find his tour group. She may, or may not be a Bamboo Princess from the Palace of the Moon.   "How could she breathe?" asked one literally-minded young man! He was thoroughly over-ridden by those more willing to suspend disbelief!)
Last full Wednesday for the A.M. crew!   We will have a last Binder sing - a - long and their binders will come home.

   Mrs. Young

June 3, 2013

The Question of the Day was "Have you traveled on a train?" We discussed some of the 'train' vocabulary in Gail Gibbons' excellent information book "Trains"   and then took a look at the attraction and repellent forces of magnets as we talked about the Japanese Bullet Train.

I have a collection of magnets and magnetic games available for those Kinders who finish all their Stations. (What an incentive!)

At Station Time, there was a mad rush for the "I go, you go, we go" board game which is at least 20 years old!!!!

At Math time, the A.M. worked on Story Problems and the P.M. practiced what they had learned as they wrote number sentences for 2 more problems. It was tough!

We'll finish our Train Stations tomorrow. (Sorry, couldn't resist!) Hopefully, we'll also see the last part of "Big Bird Goes to Japan."

Mrs. Young

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Kindergarten - Mrs. Young

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