Celebrations and Pajama Day!

We had such a good, but busy week!  We learned about family traditions and celebrations.  It seems like lots of our families have special ways to celebrate together all throughout the year.  You will see that when our class book visits your house, if it hasn't already.  We read many stories, completed projects and wrote about the celebrations of Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa.  Here are some photos of those activities…

We read the story Night Tree by Eve Bunting and made our own night trees.  In this story, a family decorates a tree in the woods every year with treats for the animals that live there.

   

   

We read the story Hanukkah Lights, Hanukkah Nights by Leslie Kimmelman.  It told us about a family and how they celebrate Hanukkah.

   

We each got a copy of the book Germs are Not for Sharing! from Minneapolis Children's Hospital and Kohl's Department Stores.  YAY!  Hope you can read it at home, too.

We continue to work hard in Writing Workshop.  These little authors are writing their stories in booklets now.  They are doing great and loving it, but the highlight is the wonderful sharing we do at the end of each Workshop session.

   

   

   

Mrs. Radermacher was our Guest Reader on Pajama Day!

And, of course, we loved wearing pajamas to school!

We did have a little time at the end of the day to watch Frosty the Snowman with the other kindergarten classes and our stuffed animals.

We love to make silly faces in our group photos, too!

I hope you all have a safe, relaxing winter break.  Whatever your family traditions, enjoy your time with your family and friends.  See you next year!  :-)

Hand Washing

Today we had a special visitor in our classroom.  Lauren Cumming from Minneapolis Children's Hospital came and taught us about the importance of proper hand washing, especially during the cold and flu season.  This very cool program is funded for Children's Hospital by a grant from Kohl's Department Stores and we are very lucky she came to visit with us today!

   

Miss Lauren taught us four easy things to remember during the cold and flu season.  They are:

1.   Wash your hands.

2.  Vampire Sneeze

3.  Don't Share Food and Drinks

4.  Flu Shot

Miss Lauren showed us how to do the Vampire Sneeze and we even practiced it!

   

She read us the book "Germs Are Not For Sharing!

   

Then we did this really cool experiment.  She gave us some pretend germs to rub on our hands.  

Next, we rubbed the pretend germs all over our hands and held them under a special light.  This light showed us where all the pretend germs were.

   

Next, we went to the sink and washed our hands, following all the directions Miss Lauren gave us.

   

When we came back, we checked our hands under the special light to see how well we had washed our hands.  Some of us did a great job and some of us were really surprised and discovered we need to do a better job!

Special thanks to Miss Lauren, Minneapolis Children's Hospital, Kohl's Department Stores, and Mrs. Hannasch, our school nurse, for arranging this informative event.  We are ready to do our part to fight colds and flu this season!

Gingerbread Houses

What a fun day in Kindergarten!  Our gingerbread houses turned out just perfect.  Special thanks to Mrs. Radermacher for all of her hard work coordinating the volunteers and helping us out, like she always does.  Many thanks to all of our parent volunteers who came early to set up and distribute the goodies.  A special "shout out" to Mrs. Town, Mrs, Bunker, Mrs. Buresh and Mr. Ball for their help and support, too.  And of course, thank you to each of our special guests for attending.  We hope you enjoyed this day as much as we did!