Purple Day - Epilepsy Awareness

PURPLE DAY!

Students reviewed what epilepsy is and how they can help someone who is having a seizure.  Prizes were handed out for the most purple.  Then we released purple balloons over the church this morning after a prayer.  We were treated to purple cupcakes, purple juice, and purple cupcake bath bombs.  Thank you Teresa Logsdon!  Our prayers are with Hudson and all people who experience seizures.

Thank You, Grandparents!

The Kindergarten Class with Jamie's grandma, Ann O'Sullivan

The Kindergarten Class with MacKenzie's grandpa, Bob Kassing

Jackson with his nana, Linda Christiansen

Thank you to all the grandparents who responded to our letter requesting information about your kindergarten or early childhood experiences.  The information we are gathering is giving us a clearer picture of what life was like in the 1950s and 1960s.  Thank you especially to the three grandparents above who came into the class to be interviewed.  We wish we had time to interview everyone, but hope you all will have a chance to visit our class on Grandparents Day, May 1st.

We Choose the Moon

We Choose the Moon

This website simulates the Apollo 11 mission with eleven animated stages.  Along the way there are pictures and videos to view.  We will be visiting this site several times.

Free Writes

John Kennedy went to the moon.  And he landed safely.  He waved to everybody.  He
took his suit off.  He went to his office.  He died. (With help from Lauren)

During the last two weeks we have really intensified our free choice writing.  Everyone is doing so well being brave spellers, spelling sight words correctly, and getting their ideas on paper.  All of the students are working very hard.  Above is one of my favorites.  Clearly, we need to revisit the timeline.

The Moon Over Star

Rarely do you find a story where history, family and faith are so delicately woven as in the picture book, The Moon Over Star.  This book, beautifully illustrated by award winning artist Jerry Pinkney, follows a young girl's day in the summer of 1969 when she is first inspired to dream by man's landing on the moon.  I found this book quite by accident last summer at a discard sale and love it so much that I have shared a recorded reading of it below.

JFK Challenge

JFK Challenge

The JFK Challenge is really a wonderful FREE iPad app.  Students have the opportunity to dress an astronaut, fly the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the moon while trying to avoid asteroids,  and land the Eagle spacecraft on the moon.  The missions are challenging, but not too difficult for kindergarten students.  The activities are introduced by plenty of narrative about President Kennedy.  There is also a section on the Peace Corps.  This app has been a favorite for many of the students last week.  If you don't have an iPad at home, look forward to having your student show you around this app on St. Mary School's Curriculum Night, April 15th at 6:00 PM.

Saving Pringles Cans

Do you eat Pringles?  If so, please collect empty cans for our classroom.  We need 14 of them to make time capsules for our Decades Unit: What was life like in the 1960s? Oh, and by the way, Pringles were introduced in 1968.

Green Eggs and Ham

Here are some of the student reactions to green eggs and ham...

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conferences will be next Wednesday evening, March 18th.  If I have not contacted you about a conference and you would like to speak to me about your child, please call the office to set up a conference time.  If this time is not convenient for you, please call me and we will set up a time that is convenient for us both.

Trivia Night and Shamrock Dinner

If you haven't  yet registered to participate in Trivia Night, March 14th, make sure you do before it is too late!  If you don't have a team,  consider asking other kindergarten parents.  It is a great night out!

Grandparent Interviews

Please share our gratitude to grandparents for their response to our What Was Kindergarten Like For You? Questionnaire.  Their responses have been wonderful, thoughtful replies that will enhance our study of the 1960s richly.  Even if grandparents didn't go to kindergarten exactly in the 1960s, their responses show us that the past influences people’s lives.  (Illinois State Social Studies Standard 16.A.Kb)  I have not shared these with students yet, but will begin next week.

We made a list of ways that we can find out more about the 1960s:

• Siri
• iPads
• books
• internet (computers, phones, electronics)
• people (librarian, Mrs.Weronko, grandparents)

Since we named our grandparents as one source for finding out more about the 1960s, we will be interviewing 3 guest grandparents who went to kindergarten during this time period.  Today students worked with a partner to write at least one question to ask our grandparents that would help the students learn more about their grandparents' kindergarten experience.  As you can see from the pictures below, they took this task quite seriously.

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Thank you also for returning the kindergarten student questionnaires so quickly.  We have compiled much of the information on a chart so that we can make a comparison with our grandparents.  The questionnaire may be one of our items we put in our time capsule to be opened in a decade in the future.