Fishing Trip

We had a wonderful field trip to the IFAS Fisheries on Tuesday.  While the weather in the morning was a bit chilly, things warmed up after lunch, and it was a beautiful afternoon for fishing. 

When we arrived at the fisheries, we began by learning about the different kinds of fish.  Ms. Sharon showed the children some fish up close and even let the kids touch them.  After that, Ms. Kimberly showed the children how to go net fishing, and we learned about all different kinds of water critters.  Next, we had a break for lunch, followed by the main event: pole fishing!  While not many children had luck catching fish, we had a lot of fun trying!  The sun was shining, and it was so peaceful to sit on the banks of the pond and just wait for a fish to bite. 

Check out some of the sights from the day:

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St. Patrick's Day

Last week, we read lots of books about leprechauns.  The children were really excited about the idea of catching a leprechaun, so they decided to make some traps during center time on Tuesday.  At the writing center, the children made signs to show the leprechauns where to go.  At the art center, the children made arrows and other projects decorated with gold glitter to lure the leprechauns into the room.  In the blocks center, the kids build lots of amazing traps.  A few more kids searched the room to find anything shiny.  They discovered lots of gold buttons in one of our math tubs.  It was so amazing to watch the children all working together on this project.  They shared ideas and were full of enthusiasm. 


On Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day), they came into class to discover that leprechauns had come and visited our classroom in the night.  All of the gold buttons were gone, the traps were knocked over, three tiny green hats were found, and a trail of glitter led from the trap to the back door.  There was even a note left behind, telling the children "Better luck next year!"  The look on their faces as they discovered this mess was absolutely priceless!  What a fun morning!


For the rest of the day Wednesday, we did activities related to St. Patrick's Day.  The kids made leprechaun hats and shamrock pins to wear.  They decorated shamrock cookies for snack and learned how to draw a shamrock.  For our math activity, we graphed what green clothing we were wearing and practiced showing the results with tally marks.  It was a great day!

Enjoy the pictures below:

March Scholastic Book Orders

Scholastic Book Club's March order forms will be sent home in Friday folders.  There are lots of great spring books this month!  Please look over the flyers and consider purchasing some books for your child.

This month, I recommend the following titles:

SeeSaw:

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, $6.00

Fly, Monarch! Fly!, $4.00

The Easter Egg by Jan Brett, $18.00*

*I normally recommend cheaper books, but this is the brand-new hardback book by Jan Brett!

Firefly:

An Extraordinary Egg, $5.00

Not a Box, $4.00

The Jellybeans and the Big Dance, $3.00

You have two options for ordering: 

1. Select your choices, fill out the order form, and return it to school with cash or check (made out to Scholastic).
2. Place your book orders and pay with a credit card on-line by going to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs . Our class user name is Krank, and the password is books.

All orders are due by Monday, March 29th.

Chinese New Year

Today we celebrated the final day of Chinese New Year.  For snack, the children got to try using chopsticks while eating noodles.  They also ate some fortune cookies and yummy Chinese candy wrapped in rice paper.  After lunch, all of the kindergartners gathered for a Chinese New Year Parade.  Our class made dragon masks and red lanterns to carry, and Mr. Roberts (the music teacher) lent us some hand drums to play.  We marched behind Mrs. Donnelly's class and their amazing dragon (courtesy of Mrs. Feliciano).  As we marched up and down the hallways, classes came out to cheer us on.  What an exciting way to end the day!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Here's a very short video of the kids as the parade began:

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We had a great time celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday.  For our activities, we focused on his two most famous books, The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.  We've also been doing lots of rhyming activities.  What a fun day!

February Pictures

Here are some highlights from February: