Mrs. Sero's FIRST GRADE Superstars

Baby Names

2009-06-04T03:35:00.001-07:00

We had so many great name ideas for our chicks, and the children decided that they didn't want anybody's ideas to be left out. So each chick ended up with SEVERAL nicknames!

Chipmunk, Chippy, Chip, Skipper, Brown Peach, Dale, Alvin, Theodore, Salt and Vinegar Chips, Potato Chips, Fluff Bowl

Romeo, Brownie, Chocolate Chip, Simon, Wheat Bread, Happy Face, Cookie, Santa Claus, Chips Ahoy, Chocolate, Happy Feet

Sunshine, Throdore, Madeline, Cutie, Cheepers, Alv, Fluff, Lemon Head, Yellow Head, King of Cheepers

Sunny, Cheese Ball, Cheesy Sun, Goldie, Cheesy, Juliet, Cheese Sauce, Lemon Drop, Chicken Little

Caring for our Chicks

2009-06-04T02:39:00.000-07:00

We are taking good care of our chicks. Here is our advice for taking care of baby chicks after they hatch:

* Let them rest and dry and get fluffy in the incubator for 2 hours.

* Move them to a big cardboard box. Put wood chips in the bottom of the box to give them a warm, cozy bed.

* Shine a lamp on them to keep them warm.

* Give them food and water.

* Be quiet when you are near the box so they don't get scared.

* Give them lots of love.

"Our" Baby Chicks

2009-06-02T15:27:00.001-07:00

Here are our adopted babies, settling into their new home right at the beginning of the school day.

Two more adopted chicks finished hatching in our room shortly after the children arrived at school.

Here are the four little fluffy friends all cozy. Annabelle stopped by to visit them (and give them fresh water) after school.

Chicks Arrive!

2009-06-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Today is Day 21..."Hatch Day" for the baby chicks we have been raising in first grade. We didn't see any action in our incubator just yet (sometimes they like to hatch on Day 22), but check out what I caught during my visits to Mrs. White's classroom today!

http://mrswhitesfriends.blogspot.com/2009/06/our-baby-chicks-hatch-day.html

Fun on the Farm

2009-05-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

Check out these video clips from our visit to Springdale Farm!
Thanks to Mr. Rogers (no, not the famous PBS one, but our own classroom Dad) for sharing these with us!

The incredible robotic milking machine, which blew Mrs. Sero's mind (as a former dairy farm girl!)

Petting this absolutely adorable "kid" was the highlight of our visit, if you ask Mrs. Sero!

Tree Huggers!

2009-05-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

Children still take their job as "Earth Guards" very seriously! Here they are hugging a tree near the playground after marching around picking up litter!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2009-01-19T15:29:00.001-08:00

Here is a clip from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Sending Smiles Across the USA!

2008-12-29T16:34:00.001-08:00

During the month of December we learned about the parts of a friendly letter in a unique way...by writing to children from the Make a Child Smile website. These are children who are being treated for life-threatening illnesses. Each child created a beautiful illustration for the front of the card, and drafted a friendly letter for the inside. Our cards are sure to be the cause of many smiles this holiday season! Special thanks to Ellen Monroe, parent of a Sero star as well as a second grade teacher in Gananda. By partnering with her 2nd graders we will able to send a card to every child listed on the webiste!

World Famous Stream Team

2008-12-11T06:11:00.001-08:00

Check it out - the Stream Team got props from a 21st Century Learning GURU! He even links to our Stream Team wiki so people from all over the world will be visiting us online.

http://www.edutopia.org/collaboration-age-technology-will-richardson

The "First Family"

2008-10-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we will participate in the Klem South Mock Election. Children filled out their voter registration forms yesterday, and tomorrow they will have an opportunity to go to the polls to cast their vote for the next president of the United States. Today we spent some time visiting the PBS Kids Democracy Project website to learn more about the history of voting rights. We also enjoyed becoming "President for a Day." As we were making choices about how to spend our time as President, one of the terms we learned about was "first family." We were given the option to have lunch with the first family, and I asked the children if they knew who that meant we would be eating with. Immediately our friend "Dobrom" (secret code name from last year) replied "ADAM AND EVE!"

Our Classroom Makeover

2008-10-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

In my free time :-) I am working on a new blog to chronicle my classroom makeover adventure. Stay tuned to see how your remarkable children are inspiring me to transform our classroom into the learning environment of our dreams!

Mrs. Sero's Classroom Makeover

She LOVES our illustrations!

2008-09-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

I wrote back to our new author friend to invite her to check out our illustrations...

Dear Alison,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my first graders' messages. They are all thrilled that a FAMOUS AUTHOR would think they were important enough to write back to. They took your challenge quite to heart and decided to draw illustrations for you to show what they think the infamous "first grader" looks like in Countdown to Kindergarten. I have posted their drawings on our class blog. If you have a chance to check them out, we would all be honored.

And if I may be a gushing adult fan for a moment, I have read (and reread) Shadow Baby, Rainlight, and Was it Beautiful? and love them all. You are my favorite kind of author, one whose work makes me feel simultaneously heartbroken and hopeful. And I discovered Someday shortly after our daughter was born...I still can't read it without weeping. You have great taste in children's book illustrators, by the way! Peter H. Reynolds is among my favorites! Okay, thanks for letting me gush a bit. :-)

All the best to you and don't feel bad if you don't have time to keep writing back!

And she wrote back to tell us she LOVES them!

Dear JoAnna,

You're a doll! Thank you for your kind words about my adult novels. To be honest, the characters in them feel real to me, and I sometimes wonder what Crystal or William T. or Clara are up to these days. You might like "All Rivers Flow to the Sea" as well, because some of the same characters appear and re-appear in that one too.

Tell those sweet students of yours that I LOVE their illustrations. What a great job they did! Your website/blog is terrific.

And thanks, again, for mentioning Someday. That one is near and dear to my own heart - I wrote it after watching my older daughter sleeping one night.

Your fan,

Alison

Our Famous Author Friend (and what I love most about teaching)

2008-09-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

My absolute favorite thing about being a teacher is listening to children's ideas and questions and following them where they may lead. Over the past couple of weeks their ideas and questions have led us in an exciting and interesting direction. Here's the somewhat long but nonetheless awesome story:

Last fall at the beginning of kindergarten we read a book called Countdown to Kindergarten written by Alison McGhee and illustrated by Harry Bliss. It features a main character who is nervous because there are only ten days left until she starts kindergarten and she STILL CAN'T TIE HER SHOES! She heard from "a first grader" that you have to be able to tie your shoes all by yourself and you can't ask the teacher for help EVER. Fast forward to this fall and our first week of first grade...we read a book entitled Mrs. Watson Wants your Teeth in which a first grader is nervous about losing a tooth at school because she heard from "a second grader" that her teacher, Mrs. Watson, was actually a scary alien who STOLE children's baby teeth. Guess what - Mrs. Watson was created by the same fabulous author and illustrator, AND the children quickly realized it featured the same main character! This was very exciting to them. Last year when we read Countdown she was in kindergarten (like us!) and this year when we read Mrs. Watson she was in first grade (like us!).

So after making lots of connections between the two texts AND between both texts and our real lives, the children realized they had an important question that they could not answer by going back and rereading. They knew the main character was the same in both books...but what about "THE FIRST GRADER" who told her she had to be able to tie her shoes in kindergarten, and "THE SECOND GRADER" who told her Mrs. Watson would steal her baby teeth - was THAT character the same in both books as well? We just HAD to find out the answer to this question, but how?! The children's strategy: ASK THE AUTHOR! We "googled" Alison McGhee and found out that we could email her, so we did!

Here is our first message:

Dear Ms. McGhee,

We like your books very much. Last year in kindergarten we read Countdown to Kindergarten. Now we are in first grade and we just read Mrs. Watson wants your Teeth! We have the same teacher again in first grade. We were wondering if you are going to write 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade books. We think you should do all of elementary school. And make littler kids books too. We have a very big question: was the first grader in Countdown to Kindergarten the SAME kid who was the second grader in Mrs. Watson wants your Teeth? In case you don't know which kid we're talking about, it's the one who was telling her all the stories that made her so nervous. Please write back. Thank you!

Love,
Morgan Lucja Jonathan mason jaina Bailey Scott Sami Nicholas bryanna Nolan sean Luke catherine hannah christopher maggie Adam Jenna Alli kyle Shane

PS - Our teacher has read some of your grown-up books and SHE LOVES THEM!

Just a few days later we had a reply!

Good morning Morgan Lucja Jonathan mason jaina Bailey Scott Sami Nicholas bryanna Nolan sean Luke catherine hannah christopher maggie Adam Jenna Alli kyle and Shane, and of course, Ms. Sero too!

It's so nice to hear from you. Thank you for writing. And I'm glad that you like Countdown to Kindergarten and Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth. To answer your question, YES, the little girl is the same exact girl in each book. I haven't written other books about her yet, but maybe I will someday. The problem is that the illustrator, Harry Bliss, has stopped illustrating children's books - and who in the world could draw that girl the exact same way?? I have a question for YOU: Do any of you have a loose tooth??? Please tell your teacher thanks for loving my grownup books!

Your friend, Alison

Now we were really excited to get a message back, but we still didn't feel like we had the answer to our burning question. So...we just had to write back!

Dear Friend Alison,

Thank you for writing back to us! We love your books!!! We are wondering about that "first grader"/"second grader" girl - is she the same girl too? We saw what she looked like in Mrs. Watson Wants your Teeth, but we didn't see her in Countdown to Kindergarten, so we can't figure it out. We mean that girl that was telling her all the scary things. We saw her on the swingset page. [Side note from Mrs. Sero - they really want to know the answer to this question!] :-) We are really happy that you write books. Maybe we can help you draw that girl. We know some really good artists. Thank you for writing to us. We love getting email!

Love, Your first grade friends at Klem South Elementary School

Soon we heard back from our famous author friend, and we had our answer!

My dear friends,

NOW I know what girl you're asking about! The answer is no, she is not the same girl. There's not a picture of her in the Countdown book, but in my mind, they are different girls. Maybe you should all draw a picture of what that girl in Countdown looks like!

Your friend, Alison

Well now we had a challenge on our hands...and you know us - ALWAYS up for a challenge! We decided to create a mental image of the infamous first grader from Countdown to Kindergarten and share our ideas with Ms. McGhee.

I am proud to present the children's illustrations. Ask your child to tell you about his or her work. Click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can really see the details. Stay tuned to find out if we hear back from our famous author friend (and to see whether any of us gets an offer to become a famous illustrator). In the meantime, check out Alison McGhee's website and buy some of her books. She's a great author, and she must be a pretty cool person if she takes the time to write back to a bunch of first grade fans, not once, but twice!

Really Cool Side Note - One of our superstar first graders had recently borrowed the book Diary of a Worm from the Webster Public Library, and she realized that it was also illustrated by Harry Bliss (who we think grew up in or near Rochester!). This fabulous first grader even thinks she found THE SAME CHARACTER from Countdown and Mrs. Watson on one of the pages in Diary of a Worm. It's the page where the worm scares the girls and makes them scream and then says "I love it when they do that!" Could it be? Oh Harry Bliss, if you're out there, could you please let us know if it is the SAME GIRL?!

Patriot Day

2008-09-11T18:27:00.001-07:00

Today we read September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right, a book written by a first grade class in response to the tragedies of September 11, 2001. We had an absolutely incredible, heart-wrenching discussion - the children's thoughts, questions, and connections were truly amazing. They give me hope for the future of our country and our world, and I am so proud to be their teacher. Here are some of their thoughts:

* America is our place - please don't hurt it.
* Tell God to take care of all the people who went to Heaven on September 11th.
* People put up their flags to show that they love their country.
* They thought the flag wouldn't still be standing, but it was!
* Please don't bring the war to our world.
* Make friends, even if we're from other countries.
* We can be friends with kids who are in other classes, so why can't we be friends with people who live in other places?

Going Bananas in FIRST GRADE!

2008-09-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, a new post is LOOOONG overdue. We have all moved up to first grade, so we will begin a new blog for this school year. Stay tuned for updates when I catch my breath from THE BIG MOVE!

Why does Mrs. Sero have BLUE hands?!

2008-06-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

These would be my tie-dyed fingers, my friends! Yup, 40+ tee-shirts, all tie-dyed today in my washing machine. (Hopefully the bleach is working its magic as I type, so the rest of our clothes don't turn blue!)

My kindergarten friends and I will look "totally cool" in our tie-dye tee shirts on Field Day and the Last Day of School! Have to send out special thanks to Christine Franzese and her crew for rubber banding all of the shirts, and an extra special thanks to Mr. Sero who helped me remove all of the rubber bands tonight. I'm not sure which of the rubber band jobs is worse, but I'm sure glad I had help with both of them!

Far out, dude!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of our wonderful Moms!

Please enjoy these video clips from our Mother's Day Tea Party!

AM Class

PM Class

World Famous Kindergarten Earth Guards!

2008-05-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

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Mother's Day Tea

2008-05-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

Reminder!

Mother's Day Tea Party
Thursday May 8th
10:30 AM / 2:15 PM

Kindergarten Earth Guards

2008-04-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

Don't miss an exciting upcoming event to celebrate MOTHER EARTH:

Earth Day Parade
Friday April 25th
10:45 AM / 2:40 PM

Parade route will begin in the hallway outside our classroom and move toward the front entrance of the school (near the main office). You may wait for us in the kindergarten hallway or in the front lobby.

Scientists Make Exciting Discoveries (PM)

2008-04-04T15:58:00.001-07:00

Today we had a special visit from Miss Teresa, a science teacher who came to do exciting chemistry experiments with us. We experimented to learn about different states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. Ask your child-chemist to explain what happened when we mixed baking soda (a solid) with vinegar (a liquid). Ask about our color mixing experiment too! Here is what our budding chemists found most exciting and interesting.

Light Saber: I learned that if you poured a lot of vinegar into the baking soda it made bubbles explode!
Cars: I liked when the bag exploded!
Roselet: I liked when the bag exploded like a volcano!
Pirate: I liked mixing the vinegar with the baking soda.
Cinderella: I liked when the bag exploded. I learned that you put baking soda with the vinegar and it made bubbles.
Present: I liked when we mixed the colors together!
Belle: I liked when the bag with vinegar and baking soda exploded!
Ship: I liked when we mixed the colors.
Sarah: I liked when the baking soda turned to goo! I learned when you mix colors it makes a different one!
Knuckles: I liked when we mixed orange and purple together!
Princess: I liked when the bag popped. It had vinegar and baking soda in it.
Scout: I liked when the bag with baking soda and vinegar exploded. I learned that gas is clear.
William: I liked when we mixed the colors together!
Sleeping Beauty: I liked when the bubbles almost exploded from the cup.
Jack Sparrow: I liked when the bag kablooshed!
Rose: I learned that we discovered when we mix vinegar in baking soda it made bubbles.
Mommy: I liked when the bag popped.
Dobrom: I liked when we mixed all the colors together!
Ariel Princess: I liked the part when we mixed all the colors together!!!!!!
Spike: I liked when we mixed the colors together to make red.

Be sure to check out our Week 29 Slide Shows to see photos of the scientists in action!

Scientists Make Exciting Discoveries (AM)

2008-04-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

Today we had a special visit from Miss Teresa, a science teacher who came to do exciting chemistry experiments with us. We experimented to learn about different states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. Ask your child-chemist to explain what happened when we mixed baking soda (a solid) with vinegar (a liquid). Ask about our color mixing experiment too! Here is what our budding chemists found most exciting and interesting.

Rainbow Heart: I liked playing with and mixing the colors!
Boost: I liked to mix the colors and to see them change!
Flower: I liked when all the bubbles came up and spilled into our bowl!
Star Wars: I liked when we mixed the fizz!
Miley (formerly "Building"): I learned that if you put baking soda and vinegar in a cup it explodes!
Chicken Soup: I liked when I mixed colors!
Horse: I learned about gas and liquid and solid.
DJ: I liked mixing the soda with colors!
Hannah Montana: I liked when the baking soda exploded and when we added the colors.
H2O: I liked when I fizzed the stuff.
Lollipop: I liked to explode the vinegar with my friend.
Little Foot: I liked when we put blue and yellow - it makes green!
Lightning McQueen: I learned how to make different colors!
Snowy: I liked when the vinegar made the baking soda bubble.
Melody: I liked the experiment! I liked when the baking soda and vinegar exploded!
Tinkerbell: I liked putting the color in the vinegar.
Blueberry Worm: I liked mixing the colors!
Strawberry Worm: I liked the different colors in the baking soda.

Be sure to check out our Week 29 Slide Shows to see photos of the scientists in action!

Meme: Passion Quilt - Part 2

2008-03-21T11:25:00.001-07:00

This photo was shared by a PM Mom in response to my "Meme Quilt" post - if anyone else is inspired and wants to share, send me your photo and I will add it to our blog!

Who are these people?

2008-03-17T17:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you faithful readers who aren't the parent of a kindergartner, you may be wondering about the strange names you're seeing on our recent blog posts. Children chose "Secret Code Names" to use as their blog identities. Whenever a kindergarten friend adds an idea to our blog it will be identified by his/her secret code name. So which code name belongs to whom? Sorry - that's Top Secret information!

Things we Liked and Learned About...the Zoombile - PART 2 - AM

2008-03-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Blueberry Worm: I liked the alligator. It can grow!
Snowy: I liked the owl and kinkajou. I like how the kinkajou can hang on by his tail.
Hannah Montana: I liked everything, especially the snake and the kinkajou.
Tinkerbell: I like the kinkajou, how it hangs upside down.
Melody: I like the little kinkajou.
Chicken Soup: I like the snake - it was hanging on to the guy's arm!
Strawberry Worm: I learned about the duck - he is really cool. He has camouflage, and I like green and he has a green head!
DJ: I think the boa constrictor is cool because it looks cool with those stripes.
Pokeman: I liked Bodacious the boa constrictor - it was NOT all a tail!
Building: I learned that animals are very gentle.
Boost: I learned that the boy ducks show off for the girls!
Lollipop: I liked the kinkajou - he was so cute!
H2O: I learned that all sorts of animals can have tails.
Flower: I liked the brown animal, the kinkajou - I liked his brown eyes and the brown fur and that's all.
Horse: I learned that you have to be careful with animals. Don't play rough with them, sit down and don't move or it will scare the animals.

Palmer the Kinkajou

Granola the American Alligator

Othello the Barred Owl

Bernie the Rouen Duck

Bodacious the Boa Constrictor

Meme: Passion Quilt

2008-03-15T07:44:00.001-07:00

This week I was tagged by Wendy Smith for the Passion Quilt Meme. I've chosen to use a photo of Annabelle when she first encountered "the tunnel." You can see from her expression that she is interested in this new adventure yet a bit hesitant to take the first step (or the first crawl, as it were). But as soon as she got up the nerve to give the tunnel a chance, she was hooked!

One of the most exciting things for me as a new mom is the same thing I love about being a teacher: seeing the world through a child's eyes. For children, everything is new and interesting. Even the smallest achievement is a cause for celebration. And even when something looks a bit scary at first, children are willing to take a risk. Tasting a new finger food, writing their first AND last name, riding a bike without training wheels, using a touch pad instead of a mouse. Our brave children give it a try; it works or it doesn't, they love it or they don't...but they give it their best shot.

As a teacher and mom who is passionate about lifelong learning, I challenge myself to be brave and dare to try something new...in the classroom, at home, in the world. Maybe it will work, or maybe it won't...maybe I will love it, and maybe I won't, but at least I will give it my best shot. Take it from our children: take a risk!

Directions: Find or create an image that captures what you are most passionate for kids to learn about.

Post a picture from a source like Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn…and give your picture a short title.
Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Here are the lucky people I’m tagging:

Sadly, the only other educators I know who have blogs have already been tagged! If there is anyone I'm not thinking of who would like me to tag you, let me know! :-)

We're Famous (Again!)

2008-03-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

Our kindness movie was recently featured on 100.5 the Drive's morning radio show! Sadly I didn't hear it but I heard from some folks who did. They also posted it on their webpage - you can check it out here: http://www.mydrivefm.com/pages/julie.html

Things We Liked and Learned about...The Zoomobile PART 1 - PM Class

2008-03-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Jack Sparrow: I liked when Oliver the Owl flew away. I learned that owls don't like loud noises.

Sarah: I learned that you have to be quiet for owls.

Mommy: I liked when we touched the snake.

Dobrom: I liked when Oliver flew away - that was so cool!

Present: I liked when Oliver flew away. I learned that owls can fly silently.

William: I liked when I got to touch the snake and when they showed the Bushbaby.

Cinderella: I liked everything, especially the owl. I learned that you have to be gentle to snakes.

Princess: I liked the snake.

Light Saber: I learned that Bushbabies are very good jumpers.

Scout: I learned that alligators have a nose and eyes on top of their head.

Pirate: I learned that the alligator uses his tail to swim.

Cars: I learned that owls can fly away.

Knuckles: I liked when the Bushbaby jumped into the girl's hand.

Roselet: I liked it when the Bushbaby jumped onto the stick.

Rose: I learned that animals use their tails for jumping and swimming. Alligators use their webbed feet to swim.

Sleeping Beauty: I liked when the Bushbaby jumped on the girl's hand.

Ship: I liked when the owl ate the mouse.

Belle: I learned that when the alligator swims he uses his tail.

Spike: I liked it when Oliver flew away.

Junior the Bushbaby

Cheerio the American Alligator

Oliver the Tawny Owl ~ our Escape Artist!

Bodacious the Boa Constrictor

Pop It!

2008-03-09T08:59:00.001-07:00

Introducing an exciting new way to practice popcorn words...POP IT! ~ A Bingo style game packed with learning fun. Follow this link to find the game on our class webpage. Pop It!

Our BIG Book

2008-03-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

One of our popcorn words this week is BIG and we have been writing a class BIG book about things that are BIG. Here are some of the children's BIG ideas:

Space is big.

A monster truck is big.

A school bus is big.

A whale is big.

A classroom is big.

A mom is big.

A teacher is big.

The Earth is big.

A car is big.

An elephant is big.

A flat screen TV is big.

And many more!

We also talked about how funny it is that "big" is a little word and "little" (a future popcorn word) is a big word.

The Fever

2008-03-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

A fever seems to be sweeping through our afternoon class. So many of our friends have been absent this week. We miss you all and hope you are feeling better and can come back to school "lickety-split!"

Funny Lines Heard Recently...

2008-02-27T07:58:00.001-08:00

On whether we will go to Hollywood now that we're famous movie stars: "No, you can only go to Hollywood if you go on that singing show!"

On Mrs. Sero's drinking habits: "Mom, they must not have coffee at our school because all Mrs. Sero ever drinks is water!"

On Abraham Lincoln: "He kept his important papers in his hat?! I keep mine in my mail folder!"

On Richard Simmons (who the AM friends have been exercising with this week): "He is fantastico!"

How to Be Kind movie!

2008-02-14T13:57:00.001-08:00

We are BIG NEWS!

2008-02-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

Click on the link below to see the Democrat & Chronicle's video report about our Kindness movie. I am hoping this will remain a direct link to the article. Please let me know if you have any trouble viewing it!

Exciting stuff!

Kids make movie about kindness

This year's most important spelling lesson...

2008-02-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

The first four letters in the word Kindergarten spell KIND. :-)

World Famous Kindergartners

2008-02-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a reporter from the Democrat and Chronicle came to Klem South to do a video story about our kindness movie. She spent an hour with me and 5 of our afternoon friends, and she will use that footage to create a ONE-MINUTE video report. (One minute?!) As soon as I hear that the report is online I will post a link so you can check it out!

This is the "movie about the movie" but you won't want to miss the REAL movie - remember the WORLD PREMIER will take place in our classroom next Thursday 2/14 at 10:50 AM and 2:50 PM (same movie at both showings - come whenever it is convenient for you!).

TWO periods AND an exclamation point!

2008-02-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

Writing with kindergartners is so much fun! The best is when they start to learn about and use punctuation (especially the exciting exclamation point, their favorite!). Yesterday we were making a book of birthday wishes for one of our friends. The children draw their wishes and then dictate the words for me to write down. I always ask them what sort of punctuation mark they want at the end of their sentence. One child told me yesterday that his sentence needed to end with "TWO periods AND an exclamation point!" Classic.

Kids really do say the darndest things...

2008-02-01T16:21:00.001-08:00

Well I will just admit it right up front, your poor children have been suffering all year with a VERY sleep-deprived teacher. Annabelle is the most delightful baby in the world (besides all of yours, of course) but up until about two weeks ago she was also the worst sleeper in history. Okay, maybe not, but that's what it felt like to her tired Mommy. For the past nine months, if I got 2 1/2 or 3 hours of sleep altogether I thought it was a great night! Teaching kindergarten is lots of fun and great motivation to drag yourself out of bed in the morning, but you need ENERGY to keep up with a class full of 5 and 6 year olds!

So now that you have the back story, let's get on to the funny part. On a particularly tired day I shared with the afternoon kiddos that I was very sleepy because Annabelle woke me up so many times in the night. Compassionate children that they are, and with memories like a bunch of elephants (they NEVER forget a thing you say - watch out!), they have asked me on and off since then about how Annabelle is sleeping. The news was never very good until a couple of weeks ago when (thank my lucky stars) we finally turned a corner and she started SLEEPING!!!! When the afternoon class overheard me sharing this news with a parent volunteer, M. called out, "Wow, Mrs. Sero, you must really be catching up on your sleep!"

School is WAY more fun when the KIDS are there!

2008-02-01T16:18:00.001-08:00

Today was a Superintendent Conference Day which meant that the children did not have school but the teachers did. It was a very productive day working with all of the kindergarten teachers from across the district, but I have to say that school is a lot more fun when the kids are there. I missed them today!

Thoughts on the 90th Day of Kindergarten ~ Part 2

2008-01-31T17:30:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-31T16:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-30T17:16:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-30T14:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-20T07:25:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-01-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-01-15T05:12:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

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! :-)

And the Winner Is...

2007-12-21T16:26:00.001-08:00

This week we completed our Gingerbread Man book study. Over the past 3 weeks children have read, discussed, retold, and acted out numerous versions of the well-known tale.

This year's versions included:
The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone
The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth
The Gingerbread Man by Eric Kimmel
The Gingerbread Boy by Richard Egielski (a New York City version)
Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
The Cajun Gingerbread Boy by Berth Amoss
The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires
The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

In a landslide vote, both classes decided to award the 2007 Gingerbread Man story Grand Prize to...The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst. Congratulations ~ YOU GO, Gingerbread Girl!

Runaway Cookie!

2007-12-21T16:11:00.000-08:00

If you didn't hear about this from your child yet, you'll definitely want to ask him or her to tell you the story! (Their versions will be WAY better than mine!) :-)

Yesterday our class gingerbread person ran away!!!! She (yes, both classes made Gingerbread GIRLS) left us clues to follow her all around the school, but we just missed her at every stop! Finally we returned to our classroom where the last clue was accompanied by gingerbread cookies and the movie version of The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.

The Morning class could NOT relax and enjoy the cookies or the movie until they knew their gingerbread girl was safe and sound and hanging back on the wall outside our classroom door! E, our teacher's assistant this week, reported that she was "shaking" when I asked her to check and see if our Runaway Cookie had returned. It was a nerve racking but exiting chase.

The Afternoon class had many theories about where the Gingerbread Girl had gone during her brief stint as a runaway. Most popular theories included:
* She wanted to meet all of the teachers in the school
* She ran away to ask everyone in the school not to eat her
* She was trying to learn to write so she had to practice by writing all those clues
* And finally they settled on...she ran away to Wegman's to buy the gingerbread cookies for us! Later an addendum was added to this theory, stating that in order to get back so fast she must have "borrowed" a teacher's car, probably Mrs. Sero's, and the children then warned me that I better look for my keys right away. [Happy to report that the "mommyvan" was still parked in my spot without a scratch on it - she's a good driver for a cookie with such short legs!]

Thankfully both Gingerbread Girls are safe and sound and have resumed their posts outside our classroom door. At least, that's where they were when we left school today for our winter recess!

Happy Holidays Everyone! Enjoy the time with your delightful children!

Exclamation Points

2007-12-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

We have been working on sequencing and retelling stories. Last week during our Writing Club children sequenced and wrote a story about how to make a snowman. During the mini lesson at the beginning of Writing Club we worked together as a whole class to model writing the story. H provided the first sentence: "First make one snowball." She said that sentence should end with a period. M provided the next sentence: "Next make two snowballs!" He said that sentence should end with an exclamation point because "when you get to two snowballs it's way more exciting!" :-)

Pint-Size Problem Solvers

2007-12-11T16:43:00.000-08:00

Over the past several weeks we have been hard at work in our school's Math/Science/Technology Lab with Mrs. Smith. The children have worked together to solve a REAL LIFE problem for Mrs. Benz ~ What kind of books do kindergarten children prefer - fiction or nonfiction? After brainstorming a variety of ways to tackle the problem, children decided to invite all of the kindergarten classes to vote. Each kindergarten student had the opportunity to record his/her vote using the Smart Board. Our data showed that 49 kindergartners prefer nonfiction books while 33 prefer fiction. Children then used the Smart Board along with a program called Create-A-Graph to create graphs to present our data to Mrs. Benz. She was so impressed with our professional looking graphs!

But then Mrs. Benz came back to us with another problem: Which titles should be purchased for kindergartners to check out of the library? Children were given a choice of two fiction and two non-fiction titles. We were given the cost of each title and a "wallet" with $10 to spend. You would have been amazed at the teamwork and problem solving skills children demonstrated as they worked together to determine which books would be the best ones for Mrs. Benz to purchase. Impressive stuff from 5 and 6 year olds!

Out of the mouths of "babes" ~ here's what children had to say about their work:
* I'm a thinker!
* I'm even smarter than the Smart Board!
* I just used my math brain to figure it out.
* My table always has good ideas for solving problems.
* Everyone should read non-fiction so they can learn about real stuff.
* If you want to know the answer, you just keep thinking in your brain and then you'll know it!
* Now we've solved ALL of Mrs. Benz's problems!

What a pleasure to learn with your children!

The Story that Inspired the Blog

2007-12-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

The weekly newsletters and slide shows on our class webpage give you some idea of what is happening in our classroom, but there are always cute and funny stories that don't get shared with families...brief exchanges that I may forget if I don't write them down, or things that may seem like "no big deal" that are actually amazing teachable moments. I hope to use this blog to share some of these sweet stories with you, the families of the Superstar Kindergartners I am privileged to spend my days with.

So here's the first story!

Today we read our third version of the Gingerbread Man story, and afterwards we were comparing and contrasting the different versions. M raised her hand and said that all of the stories had a cow, but one was "a chocolate cow" and the other two were "black and white cows that give regular milk." I said to the class, "Is that how you make chocolate milk? You milk a brown cow and she gives you chocolate milk?" EVERYONE said "yes!" Not a single child disagreed with this delightful idea! :-) So I said, "Oh! I thought you got some white milk and added Hershey's syrup to it!" And S replied, "That's only when you make it HOMEMADE!"

This is why I love teaching kindergarten!