Thoughts on the 90th Day of Kindergarten ~ Part 2

The 90th Day of Kindergarten is an important milestone. Since there are 180 days in the school year, we are now HALFWAY TO FIRST GRADE!

Here are some 90th Day of School thoughts from the Morning Friends:

I'm excited!

I'm nervous.

I'm very, very excited to go to the lunch room.

I'm going to be scared.

I'm going to miss Mrs. Sero.

I'm a little scared of going to first grade.

I think Mrs. Sero will remember me.

My friends are coming to first grade with me!

I can sit at my lunch table with all my friends and wave to my brother!

I'm going to sit with my friends in the cafeteria.

I think I'm going to like everything about first grade, but especially eating in the cafeteria.

I'm excited to go to first grade and eat in the cafeteria!

I'm excited to go to the gym and the cafeteria.

I'm excited about gym and the cafeteria, AND art and music!

The "I Challenged Myself" Award

Today we had a special Thursday edition of our weekly writing club, since there is no school for children tomorrow. Today's writing task required them to write a sentence about something they have (using popcorn words "I" and "have"). As always they were asked to use at least 5 "real life" colors and include lots of detail in their drawings, and to make their pictures match their words.

You would be AMAZED at the writing your children are doing!

I was especially impressed by the work of C., a boy in the AM class. He wrote 2 sentences and used 7 realistic colors in his drawing. I held up his paper as an example to the rest of the class and praised him for challenging himself to do even more that what I asked for. I showed his work to the PM children as well. Many children were inspired to challenge themselves to do more than they were asked to do.

In honor of the children's extraordinary efforts I created a new (and now very popular) award - the I CHALLENGED MYSELF award. This has been added to our collection of highly coveted awards, along side the recently added "Kiss Your Brain" award. Please be on the lookout for these awards and give plenty of praise when your child brings one home!

We really ARE going to be FAMOUS!

Well, folks, our movie is very close to being finished, and it's official: We're going to be famous!

The world premier of our movie WE CAN BE KIND will take place in our classroom on Valentine's Day at 10:50 AM and 2:50 PM. And we really ARE going to be famous because Mrs. Sero got a phone call today from a Democrat and Chronicle reporter who wants to write about our movie! We hope you can join us for this exciting event, but if you can't come to the premier don't worry because we will post our movie on our class webpage and right here on our blog!

We Can Be Kind
World Premier
Thursday, February 14th
Mrs. Sero's Classroom
10:50 AM / 2:50 PM

Thoughts on the 90th Day of Kindergarten ~ Part 1

The 90th Day of Kindergarten is an important milestone. Since there are 180 days in the school year, we are now HALFWAY TO FIRST GRADE!

Here are some 90th Day of School thoughts from the Afternoon Friends:

I'm excited!

We're almost to first grade and all of us are happy. We can eat in the lunch room!

I'm scared.

I think it's going to be pretty fun.

I think all of my friends will be there.

I think everyone will love first grade. I think this will help everybody, if they're afraid - I do this sometimes, I just shake my scares off my body. You just start with your head and keep shaking everything on your whole body. Sometimes when you do it you get a little hungry and sometimes your lips get a little dry from the air.

Everybody in my whole class will be smart. Kindergarten gets you halfway smart, and then first grade gets you all the way smart. In second grade you need all of the smarts you got from Kindergarten and first grade!

I'm going to be happy when I meet new friends!

I can't wait until we eat in the cafeteria!

I'm feeling a little shy, like when I first came to Kindergarten. But now I feel better here so I will probably feel better there too.

We get to buy our lunch!

Ed the Elf

Early in the school year when we found several toys and supplies put away in the wrong places, I told the morning friends about "Ed the Elf." Ed lives in the holes in our ceiling and comes down to mess up the room after we go home from school. (Ed also helps up learn the "short Ee" sound).

We all had a good laugh about this funny story, and then I asked the kids "who really makes the mess in our classroom?" Their response? "The AFTERNOON FRIENDS!"

Of course.

Well, the story of Ed the Elf lives on and he is frequently blamed for any misplaced materials. This week several children spontaneously declared a need to TRAP him, and worked together feverishly in the Building Center to construct the trap pictured below (which included a glue-covered paper in the middle on which Ed was intended to get stuck).

Who will get the prize?

Okay, I am secretly very curious to find out who (if anyone) is reading this blog (besides my mom and my sister).

So...if you have been checking it out, and you have some free time, leave us a comment!

The first 200 comment-leavers will receive an exciting prize!

Okay, I don't really have any sort of prize to give away, but you will receive my lifelong appreciation and I may even invite your child to choose a sticker for you from our treasure box!

We're going to be famous!

Well I can't tell you all of the details because it will spoil a great surprise, but we are working on a very exciting project and your children are convinced that fortune and fame are on our horizon. Their exact words included "Are we going to Hollywood?" and "We're going to be FAMOUS!"

Stay tuned for more details as this exciting project continues to develop...

Super Duper SILENT Cleaner-Uppers

Afternoon Parents -

Ask your kindergartner about our SILENT Clean-Up Time today!

Mrs. Bryson and Ms. Cahill were calling children over to do an assessment, and of course we wanted to be respectful of our friends as they tried to concentrate and do their best. But Clean Up Time is a noisy process...what to do?

Enter Mrs. Sero's SILENT CLEAN UP CHALLENGE - children were asked to clean up all of the centers in the classroom without saying a word! They could only communicate with each other using hand motions. You would have been AMAZED at the "sign language" they invented to get this job done. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen from a group of kindergartners! AND they thought it was SO COOL!

(In case you're thinking of trying this at home...I'm sorry, but I'm afraid this kind of trick may only work for teachers, and probably only once or twice at that!) :-)

We Love POPCORN (Words)

POP! POP! POP! Our popcorn words POP right out when we see them!

I have been interviewing the children this week to find out some of their thoughts about school. Numerous children informed me that the most important thing they have learned at school so far is the "popcorn" words.

In fact, I found out that you parents love them too! A. (a girl in the PM class) told me:
One more thing I want to tell you about school is... "I like to bring home popcorn words. My mommy likes them! She wants more!"

Musical Patterns

We are busy rehearsing for our Pattern Band performance coming up in late January. The children are learning the names of the instruments and trying out each one. By the end of this week each child will choose which instrument s/he wants to play during the performance. We have practiced many different patterns and we are learning to play along with the beat of the music. We can't wait to dazzle you with our musical patterns!

Pattern Band Show Times
Friday January 25th
10:50 AM / 2:45 PM

Be there or be square! :-)