HELLO SUNSHINE!!!

Last week the sun finally came out to play!!! We were so excited!

We went outside for a little "nature walk" in our courtyard area, while we were out there we looked for some things to add to our soda bottle terrariums. We had everything from rocks and sticks to little mini plants growing  at the edge of the trees. 

 

Last week we were learning about weather and we talked a lot about the water cycle, the terrariums worked perfectly with our discussions too. 

We are still working on subtraction in Math, last week we learned a new game called Subtraction Bridge it works exactly like "London Bridge" but we keep track of how many students we start and end each round with.

It was also nice to finally get back outside for recess. I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids did.

 

Now that I'm all caught up on last week here's what's new this week!

We have some more readers getting excited about reading to the class.

Jace, Jasa, and Timothy all read to us on Monday! It is so exciting to see them picking new, more challenging books to read. 

Today was the first day of our Standardized testing, we took on the hardest one first Reading and Language Arts. The kids were a little unsure about the whole testing process but they did an incredible job! I am so proud of them!!

 Tomorrow we tackle Mathematics and I know they are going to knock it out of the park again. They are hard workers and super smarties!

Keep praying for us this week as we finish our testing we know that He will guide us and give us everything we need to succeed this week. We can do nothing without Him.

 We are going to do some fun science projects this week too. It's been nice being able to spend more time on Science activities since we aren't doing our regular Math and Phonics curriculum this week.

Stay tuned for Sciencey stuff later this week!

Classroom Song of the week:

Song of the week for the teacher:

 

 

 

Seders, balloons, and Easter parties...OH MY!!!

 We started our morning off with a special Passover Seder. It was very interesting to see the kids reactions to the food. (Spoiler alert: they will not be asking for these at home)

Then it was time to get our crazy day started! Because of all the special things happening we only really had time for our Bible lesson and what a lesson it was!! Ascension day!!! We started out writing notes to people we love in Heaven 

these were going to be attached to our...

 unfortunately I am a terrible planner (remember when I said I planned on posting every day last week? ooooops) and our notes were too heavy for our balloons and we just had to "think" it in our hearts as we let go of our balloons.

 As we watched the balloons float up into the clouds we discussed Jesus' ascension to Heaven and remembered that one day He will come back again.

In spite of the cold and the fact that we couldn't stay out for very long we had a great discussion.

After specials it was time for the big finale.

EASTER PARTY!!!!!

We had so much fun! Games, crafts, yummy treats galore!! Big thanks to our terrific parents for all the planning and help during the festivities. 

I hope everyone is enjoying spring break, I certainly enjoyed my extra 3 hours of sleep this morning. 

See you next week!!!

  

Lead Me To The Cross

This week we are reviewing the Easter story, we discussed it last week but I really wanted to find a way to make these lessons tangible for the students.

One element that I have always marveled at in the Easter story is how only a few days can change so much. This morning we discussed Palm Sunday and Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem and how happy the people were, how they praised Him and welcomed Him. Then only a few days later He was arrested beaten and scorned by those same people as He carried the Cross (the instrument of His death) to Calvary. That's a pretty big change from shouting "Hosanna!" and laying down their cloaks before him.

To make this Bible Truth even more real and relate able for them we then partnered up with the other Kindergarten class to walk through the school sharing the story of Jesus' journeys in Jerusalem.

Leading the way!

Sharing with Pre-school!

Even though our cross wasn't heavy it was still a burden trying to maneuver it.

Back to the room for some Praise and Worship!!

We had so much fun we decided to keep carrying the cross every time we leave our room. After all we want to take Jesus everywhere we go!

 It warms my heart to see these kids loving the Lord.

During our Bible discussion Andrew got very excited about something he JUST HAD TO SHARE!!!! I'm so glad he did too because what he shared with his friends was the story of the two criminals crucified with Jesus and how one had teased and mocked Him but the other man asked Jesus for forgiveness. This is one of the stories that melts my heart more than anything that this man knew who Jesus was and was so unafraid and unashamed to reach out to Him and Jesus gave him comfort, assurance, and forgiveness even as He was suffering and dying on His cross.

Today we're on the Friday side of the Cross, that means sorrow and sadness knowing He suffered for me; but Sunday is coming bringing Resurrection, Rejoicing, and Eternal Life.


"Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." John 14:28

Addition Superstars!!!

Whoops I have been away for far too long! Every time I would remember to post I would also remember that my memory card was at school, teacher blog FAIL!

We have been learning to add in kindergarten for the last couple of weeks, in fact tomorrow is our "chapter check-up" and I have to be honest I really thought this was going to be tough for my kinders. Alas, they have proven me wrong and have done MARVELOUSLY!!!

We have gotten to do some fun full body movement activities like this:

Acting out the problem.

Emily had the difficult job of solving the equation.

And she did a great job!! 

Number line hopping: we started at one number and counted on by hopping.

Then we put two friends on the number line and they had to figure out how many hops from point A to point B!

This week we also added a writing center to our room just under the word wall. 

The students can write letters, trace the alphabet, and use whiteboards and (the big favorite) chalkboards!

In other "my students are super spectacular news" Miss Jasa read us a story this week.

She did a great job reading the WHOLE book by herself!! 

I also really enjoyed getting to sit with the kids and have someone read to me for a change!!

In reading group:

We played a super fun silent "e" game!

Don't be alarmed that they are reading different pages, this was staged because I forgot to get it when they were actually reading. 

Here are some of the morning messages from this week:

I try to have a message for them each day, their job is to write the message and "butter" the popcorn words. This speeds things up when we go over the message during phonics because they have already found some of the words. They can also "butter" any other words they know how to read. It never ceases to shock me how quickly they notice the words other places, for instance Qwerty had a popcorn word on veggie tales last week and they went nuts when they saw it.

I am so lucky to have these boys and girls in my life they are going to do AMAZING things in the future!

Coming soon: Easter story review week. I CAN'T WAIT!!! I am going to do my best to update each night this week. It should be a very thought provoking week. (I hope)

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11