Founder's Day

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!
This year it was kindergarten's turn to perform at the annual Founder's Day celebration for PTA. We used a musical from our new music curriculum based on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. The children just loved learning about Mr. Roger's and his characters. Some were familiar with the show and were even more excited to sing the songs. After weeks of practice the big night arrived! The children looked adorable as the characters of Mr. Rogers, King Friday, Queen Saturday, Daniel Striped Tiger, Mr. McFeely and of course Trolley. The rest of the children did a great job as the chorus. The next day some of the children were asking what our next show was going to be!

Party, party, party!

February may be a short month but it is full of celebrations!

On the 12th we celebrated Valentine's Day. The children in all the classrooms enjoyed special crafts, snacks and games. We are so thankful to the wonderful parent volunteers who organized all the fun. Every year it amazes us just how l o n g it takes to help the children pass out their valentines and goodies into the paper bags we decorate to hold them! But, it is a special time for each of them so we just can't rush them.

February 18th marked the 100th Day of School! This is always a huge milestone for kindergarten. We made crowns, necklaces and a 100 piece snack mix. The children worked on 100 collections at home and brought them into share. The highlight for me is always reading the letters parents wrote to celebrate their children's growth. I always get misty reading them! These children are very loved!

On February 19th we celebrated Chinese New Year. The children got to eat rice with chopsticks! This is always fun to watch. Making lanterns, dragon puppets and finding out what year they were born was also fun. Most of the children were born in the year of the Monkey. Monkeys are smart and funny according to Chinese legend. Most of the children were excited to be Monkeys but a few wanted to change their sign. I had one student who wanted to be a T-rex! Only in kindergarten :)

Groundhog Day at Scott Ave. 2010

On February 2nd, Groundhog Day, the children arrived eagerly awaiting the announcement from Puxsutawney Phil. The children knew he could predict six more weeks of winter or an early spring. We checked the webcast and Puxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. The children then wrote and illustrated about their favorite nocturnal animal, the groundhog.

Snow Day

Our annual snow day was a blast! Being that we live in warm Southern Ca, the teachers had to have the air turned on in the classrooms so the children could come bundled in snow gear. There was even a "snowball"fight with paper. The children took turns making "snowmen" by dressing their friends up in toilet paper and they also made edible snowmen out of marshmallows. What a great day in January!