Fairy Tales

We have been reading fairy tales. We read two different versions of the fairy tales and then see how they are the same or different.

This was one of our favorite books to read. We listened to Pam Tillis read the story of Goldilocks and the Three bears. It had music and sounds with it. It was really funny! Then Mrs. Martin read another version of the Three Bears. We had to compare and contrast the two books. We learned that to compare means how they are the same. Whereas, to contrast means how they are different. We made a Venn Diagram graphic organizer to help in comparing/contrasting the stories.

We really liked the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig! We laughed at Mrs. Martin because she had a hard time saying Big Bad Pig. She kept saying Big Bad Wolf and we would laugh. She finally got it right towards the end. Silly Mrs. Martin!

Mrs. Smith read us these fairy tales.

We all loved Cinderella but Bubba the Cowboy Prince was waaaaay cool! We read it several times. At the end of our unit, we made a TLC art project of the Three Little Bears. We then wrote all about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Mason wrote: First they ate porridge. Then she broke the chair. Last, the bears scared her away.

Macy wrote: First Goldilocks came to the house. Then Goldilocks came to the house she ate all the porridge. She sit in the chair. It broke. Last, she sleeped in the bed and the bears scared her. Goldilocks go away.

Abby wrote: First the porridge was too hot. Then, Goldilocks went in the 3 little bears house and ate baby bears porridge. Last the bears came home.

Dental Health

We had an action packed week all about Dental Health.

Cody is having his picture taken for our class book. The sentence was:
Did my tooth come out? Yes, it did! Or No, it did not!

On Monday, we started our science experiment. We used hard boiled eggs to simulate teeth. The calcium on the egg is similar to the enamel on our teeth. The eggs were then immersed in coke and one of the eggs was immersed in vinegar (plaque). We had to wait until Friday to see what happened. Many predicted that the egg in the coke was going to turn brown. A whole week of not brushing...

Friday we were so excited to see if our predictions were right. The eggs sure were nasty and brown. Now we had to see if we could get them clean with toothpaste. Colton and Caitlynn were trying very hard to get their egg clean.

Jose and Nathaniel tried hard too. But the eggs just wouldn't get come clean. Man, what if we didn't brush our teeth? Would our teeth look like this? Eek!

The tooth in vinegar (plaque) was amazing to us. When we took it out, the calcium was gone. The egg was squishy to touch. We decided to make sure that we brush our teeth 2 times everyday to get the plaque off. We don't want our teeth to be squishy.

We made toothy grins. Here is Martin.

Nathaniel has a nice set of choppers! Thank you to Caitlynn's family for providing the Funky Food ingredients.

Congratulations

Caitlynn and Taylor have both made a huge accomplishment. They have learned all of their sight words. All the basic list and 17 other lists in the sight word folder. Today they finished list 17 and got to go buy a candy bar and get a round of applause from the class. They will now will join Jacob and work on a new list of 1000 sight words. The more they know, the better they will be in 1st grade next year!

GREAT JOB, girls.

Abraham Lincoln

Last week we were learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The Spunky Monkeys made Abraham Lincoln while the Happy Hounds made George Washington. Each class wrote about what they knew about each President.

Taylor wrote:

Lincoln was tall. He was a nice guy too. He was good. He was nice too. Everyone liked him. He always told the turth and he was nice.

Several Lincolns and the writing.

Kason wrote:

Lincoln was tall. He was brave. He was on a state. He lived in a log cabin.

A whole wall of Lincolns.

Abby wrote:

Abraham Lincoln was good and honest. He loves books.

Some more Lincolns.

Emilee wrote:

Abraham Lincoln is on a 5 dollar bill. He likes to read.

Gold Award Celebration

BCPS was awarded the Gold Award from Governor Perdue on December 15th. This was due to our students making great gains in student achievement. To receive this honor, our school had to meet 3 criteria:
1. Make adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2 consecutive years;
2. Demonstrate that at least 30% of students exceed standards in all test areas as measured by the state assessment; and
3. Place in the 97th percentile or higher statewide in the greatest achievement gains.
Well, we did it for the 2008-2009 year! So we had a celebration. Mrs. Reiselt has been telling the students how proud she is of them and this award is HUGE for our school. So, to celebrate, she had each student write about an accomplishment he/she was proud of. We put these in balloons and released them today!

Here we are getting ready to go outside.

Walking down the kindergarten hall.

Making our way to the rest of the kids.

Waiting to release our balloons. Notice our "gold awards" on our shirts. My camera battery went dead as I was taking the release picture, so hopefully, I can get one from another teacher soon and post it! We had a great time!

Fireworks Experiment

We have been learning about Presidents and American Symbols. This week for our science experiment we made fireworks. We used water and oil. Watched them separate, then we added food coloring. Each child had to use a pencil to push the bead of food coloring through the oil and into the water. Then the fireworks began.

Here is Mrs. Smith adding the food coloring so Andy can make his fireworks.
Abby, Braison, Kason, Caitlynn, Jacob, and Nathaniel

Reyne, Jose, Martin, Logan, Taylor, and Emilee

Abby, Jacob, Andy, Nathaniel

Never Tell a Lie Cherry Pies

During our study of Presidents, we heard the story of young George Washington chopping down the family cherry tree and telling the truth. George's father asked if he chopped it down and George said, "I can't tell a lie, I did it." I asked the class what would they have done and everyone said they would tell the truth. After hearing the story, we made:
Never Tell a Lie Cherry Pies.

Zack loved to eat his pie. Going...

GONE!

Everyone enjoyed making them.
Martin, Taylor, Zack, and Aubree

The red team was very happy.
Emilee, Kason, Colton, and Caitlynn

Jose thinks it is finger licking good!
Macy, Jose, Reyne, and Logan

The green team couldn't wait to taste theirs.
Andy, Abby, Braison, Jacob, and Nathaniel