HAPPY NEW YEARRRRR

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Gracie and Bentley sing out the old year and welcome 2010 in a howling contest!

We also count down the time until the new school year begins January 4, 2010. I hope your Winter Break was glorious!

Wishes Do Come True

Two snows during the Winter Break?!

Believe it.

So peaceful, so quiet, so lovely!

I really enjoyed the Texas White Christmas! Listening to holiday music, being with the family, seeing the lights glistening in all the neighbor's yards and then SNOW! Our dogs did not appreciate that cold stuff on their feet. The weather forecaster said it had been 83 years since this area had had a white Christmas. What a delight to see!

Happy Holidays from the Kindergarten Grizzlys in Room 13!

Peace, joy and love to all!

Enjoy this time with your kinder kid.

Practice the Winter Break parent survival skills packet and we will see you January 4, 2010!

Each child, each day, success!

The countdown to Christmas has begun. We are learning despite our enthusiasm for Winter Break. Our school project was to show the new Kids of Character Trait for December--Caring and Sharing. Here is the latest evidence of Kids of Character.

Thank you Grizzly's, family and friends! Today was the happiest birthday ever! I had a "shout out" on KGIL from Principal Crotty and crew. Which included the upbeat "YOU GO GIRL!" I was sung to numerous times, received many hugs, and even a mouth full of whip cream! To my dismay no pictures. Lots of fun and well wishes. THANK YOU AGAIN FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!

A picture is worth a 1000 words! Kinder quote of this day, "HEY! It's raining SNOW!" We "caught" snowflakes on black construction paper. Then of course we had to stick out our tongues and "TASTE" a snowflake. What a delightful surprise and we even had a science lesson as an added bonus! Only in Texas could it be over as quickly as it appeared. Lots of squeals of delight and then sadness at lunchtime when it was ALL gone. P. S. (yes that "big kid" in the back...that's their TEACHER!)

Each child, Each day, SUCCESS!

December Events

It's December! Only 2 more shopping days until my Happy Birthday!

We have a full agenda of events for December.

Our hallway looks lovely. Thank you parents for helping us make our Family Project Silly Stocking.

Today in Art the students made a really cute Rudolph with their hands being the antlers. Quite a show to see. They were so proud of their work that they held an impromptu art show all the way down the hall for anyone that would notice. You've got to love those Kinder Kids!

Gilbert's Food Drive ends this Friday. Kindergarten is responsible for 2 cans of fruit or 2 boxes of crackers. As a reward the kids will receive a "free jeans pass" for Thursday, December 17th.

We will have our special snack/celebration Thursday, December 17th also. We as a class will not have an exchange of gifts -- our potluck snack is gift enough for us as we will be practicing the Kids of Character trait "Caring and Sharing." Friday, December 18th is ALL SCHOOL PAJAMA DAY! Everyone will participate! Please be sure to wear your cutest, most fun, holiday, super hero, silly or precious PJ'S! Girls need to wear pajamas and not gowns. We all need to wear our tennis shoes and be able to go to recess or PE in what we are wearing.

It will be FUN!

Continue to help us practice some of our learning skills while you are having holiday fun...we need special help with deleting beginning and ending sounds of words, blending sounds to make words, rhyming words, knowing numeral names and amounts for that numeral and counting to 100.

Gilbert's motto: Each child, Each day, SUCCESS!

Room 13 had a wonderful Native American Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for food, family and friends. We are thankful Miss Lawson was there for our picture.

It's November, It's November

Let's give thanks, Let's give thanks

Pilgrims set the table, Pilgrims set the table

Indians brought the food, Indians brought the food!

Yes, that is the theme of November calendar time in the 'ole room 13. We are gearing up to be the Indians in a scaled down version of the Thanksgiving feast in that we will write our Indian name, make a "leather" vest, make a "bone" necklace, play the Indian game of Indians and sticks, and eat the delicious feast compliments of the "Pilgrims" in our cafeteria! All coming to a Kinder class near you next week.

This week we have BIG NEWS!!! For Kids of Character we had 241 paper tickets saying we show responsibilty and we won the necklace for November! EXCELLENT! Now we are already in hot pursuit of the next characteristic...Good Citizen.

Our journal writing today said, "THANK A VETERAN!" and we did! One of our fellow Kindergarten teachers served in the Army and we got to say thank you to someone we really know. It put meaning and substance to such a strange sounding word. Everyone drew themselves holding an American flag. WOW!

Signing off like the KGIL staff (that's our school t.v. station) learn a lot, listen to your teacher and remember here at Gilbert each child, each day, SUCCESS!

Halloween is over. Pumpkin cutting is over. Red Ribbon Week is over. The Book Parade is over. Daylight Savings Time is over. (where did that "extra" hour go? what "extra hour"?) The sugar rush is still on! The countdown to Thanksgiving break has begun! (by teachers and staff) Reading, math, science and writing continue daily. This week we will be bringing home flash cards and a reading log to use nightly. This past week was full of extra activities, but now the push for excellence in behavior and academics is on! Parents please make an extra effort to check the red folder every night and ask your student to let you see it if he/she does not bring it to you first. We have a lot of remember to's: remember to 1. send a snack everyday 2. homework 3. red folder 4. Library books on Monday's and Thursday's 5. sight word practice and 6. go to bed early

COMING SOON: THE SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR IN THE LIBRARY

Meet Miss Lawson

It has been a busy month in Grizzly Land! Finally testing, station organization, and scheduling has been finalized. Now we can formally introduce our new Grizzly. We have another set of hands helping us (me). Miss Lawson comes to us from Irving High School where she is preparing to be a teacher. Miss Lawson is not new to me. I had the privilege of being Shelbie's Kindergarten teacher in 1997! Yes, I do feel old, however she was a delight then and still is. I am so proud of her. Even "back in the day" she would say, "I want to be a Kindergarten teacher when I grow up!" Here she is on her way to reaching that goal. I have seen her progress from being that little cutie doing cheers on the playground, wearing plastic high heels in the housekeeping/dress up center, coming to see me several times throughout her school years at Open House, showing me her first car and now seeing her mature into the Senior year of High School! I feel very blessed to have her want to be in my classroom (again) and see that she is determined to be an Educator. This is a real treat to have a former student involved in my life and our classroom. We love Miss Lawson!

Autumn

It is Autumn! It is October 1st and our class has "trick or treat" fever already! How can that be possible? It was all the buzz today. Some of us even wrote about it in our Word Work time. Amazing. It will be fun to get those pumpkins and have some science learning activities...a gross favorite last year was to watch our pumpkin decompose(rot--P U). Who knows what we can come up with this time? We took our October/November family project home tonight and I can't wait to see how creative our friends can be. Parent Conference Day is approaching quickly (Thursday, October 8). Look for your special date and time as that schedule came home tonight also. Our latest photo op for the Wall of Fame today was placing our head into Ms. Chambers foil sparkly leaf door decoration. We had some giggles with that experience. Remember the Gilbert motto...each child, each day, success!

Our school is practicing "Kids of Character". Every month we are encouraged to use good habits to form our character. This month the characteristic we are trying to portray is being respectful. We try to use these good habits everywhere we go and in everything we do. As this picture depicts we are so thrilled to have received the "Best Behavior Trophy" from our P.E. class, Coaches Alred, Perez and Rodriquez presented the trophy Monday. We hope that this is just the beginning. Yea team Wise! As the theme song goes..."Character Counts!"

Constitution Day

The preamble to the Constitution. Try that one for Kindergarten Kids. Mission accomplished September 17, 2009, 222 years after the "real" Constitution was written. We know this because we subtracted to get that big number! Luckily there is a great book entitled We the Kids which tells the story on a kid friendly level. We took that story to mean that as a government in which we live people make a promise, write it down, sign it and follow it. That's how our document came to be. The students brainstormed every possible thing you could imagine. It took a while for all to agree and narrow the thoughts down to five. Five?...because the majority of our class' age is five! That's how you get five promises. Logical huh? Then we all had to agree that these promises were ones we could keep AND were willing to sign our name to. Here is proof of our endeavors. The next best thing to happen to us was that Mr. Crotty our principal showed our poster to the ENTIRE school on KGIL (our school announcement/tv station). It really doesn't get any better than that. What a compliment to our class. As the Kindergarten teacher for Room 13 #4 and #5 on our preamble made my heart very happy! Maybe we should tell Washington!

Happy Labor Day Week-End!

The second week of school was filled with even more things to learn. A lot less "rule" orientation and a lot of work. We ended the week of reading, writing, and fact finding about bears with our annual Teddy Bear Picnic. Fun Friday had even more meaning this week with most of our students wearing their Gilbert Grizzly t-shirt, bringing a towel, sack lunch and favorite Teddy Bear friend to class to learn all about Kindergarten! Once all the Kindergarten classes were huddled on the patio for picnic time with their bear headband and Teddy Bear friend settled just right, all the proud Kindergarten teachers began snapping pictures of the event. While the students ate their lunch we noticed the digital images looked like a bevy of penguins sitting on the beach. Too cute! Most of the students in our class then took the time to write about their Teddy Bear friend at school once the patio was spotless as we are also conscience of our environment and how it is our responsibility to clean our own messes. The day ended with our Kinder Dance club on the patio. I am sure this week-end the parents will get a "re-cap" in their own student's version.

This coming week parents have the opportunity to come to Kindergarten for

"Meet the Teacher".

It is a very important meeting where a lot of questions can be answered and parents and teacher get to know each other better. It is recommended that parents attend this event without children. Kindergarten-2nd Grade will meet with their teacher promptly at 5:30 and end at 6:15. Sorry, but there will be no "do overs" or "re-starts". This gives parents with multiple children time to visit each classroom. The teachers will not discuss individuals at this time. Insight into curriculum and expectations are the focus of this event.

Kindergarten quote of the week heard by Mr. Crotty: two girls walking in the bus line to the gym to meet the buses..."What bus do you ride?" ...." I ride the yellow one!"

It is official! The first week of Kindergarten has come to a successful end! Whew!

It was a week of many "firsts", but we made it. The first week in the cafeteria we had our "Big Buddies" from 5th grade help us. Fun times for them and less nerves for the Kinder crowd. Breakfast in the classroom is always fun too! (Ha)

At this time we have 16 new friends, but our school has not had the after Labor Day crowd arrive yet, so there is always the possibility of more to come. Friday was our first spirit day and this year all the students had the advantage of purchasing the new Grizzly t-shirt (we call it the year of the happy motorcycle motif). We all looked really "cool dude"! Friday is fun hat day and Kinder dance club on the patio. So to end the week with some fun activities is always a plus. Next week....Teddy Bear picnic. Each child, each day, success!

BACK TO SCHOOL

Have you seen the Staples commercial? The Dad is dancing in the aisles and the children are dragging along so very sad, they can't even look at the school supplies. Guess what? I can relate to those children! It is the cutest commercial, but O, O, O, O, O no more late night movies---I've got to get up early. I can already hear those new grizzlies growling to come to Kindergarten. We have staff development Wednesday and Thursday with "Sneak A Peak" on Friday (that's where you come see your teacher scrambling around to make your classroom the best one on the block) while greeting you and your grown-up. The school has been a buzz for quite some time with all those dedicated teachers sweating in the Texas heat. That would be me as the air conditioner decided today was the day to say, "no way, you can't make me"! Lucky for me all my hall friends left their doors open so a fan could push their cool air my way. Whew what a way to start the new year. This too shall pass. Decorations, disinfecting, and table washing must go on! So as I have the picture of that Dad sailing across the aisle on his shopping cart with a HUGE smile on his face ---- I have got to go to bed!

continued Kinder cuties

Three days of district staff development - check

Now ready to go to Grizzly land and sort books, get name tags, student "tool boxes" loaded and see new Grizzly t-shirts - tomorrow a check

Saw an excited ready to be a Kindergarten student in the teacher's store today and heard the cutest conversation when she saw a teacher that her Mom teaches with..."Guess what? I'm ready for school, I get to go 'cause now I'm tall!" Once again a heart warmer! I so needed that after three days of information.

Soon there will be Grizzly Growlings from the Class of 2009/10.

I am feeling like an expectant mother with that "nesting" feeling--you know got to clean it up, get it ready, sort it out. I have been elbow deep in listening to some neglected cd's and making big books to go along with them. Rodney and I made a trip to Grizzly land to shampoo my circle rug, unstack furniture, move tables, and see the new painting. The school looks amazing. However, who thought WHITE WALLS would be a good idea for an elementary school?! I guess zip ties would be out of the question for all those inquisitive hands. (really I'm kidding) Seems like all that packed up stuff swells and there is no place to put it and of course schools do not have storage for teachers. Monday begins three days of teacher inservice so I guess the rest of the week I'll begin room preparation in earnest and then the next week all the "magic" happens--campus inservice and classroom readiness. As an old friend once told me, "they're coming, ready or not"! I'm thinking it's time to get ready!

I can't believe how time flies when you are having so much fun! You know doing laundry, walking dogs, reading some good books and floating in the pool. I just happened to look at today's date and noticed that in about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks the school grind will begin for teacher's with inservice and then the following week school starts "for real"! It is always a nerve racking time no matter how old you are or how long you've been going to school. Some things become routine -- like starting now to go to bed early, getting clothes cleaned and a few "school supplies" at the local sales. Why is it that I always have to get at least one new thing for school each year? It's not like I don't have 25+ years of "stuff". Packing all that "stuff" before school was out for a school wide painting would make you want to cut down on things-----nah! Got to stay "hip" and up to date. I can't wait to see the new faces coming and what kind of new adventures we will get into. One thing that always keeps me going is the funny things they say. I was at the hair stylist recently and a five year old was there with the most incredible vocabulary and maturity I haven't witnessed in a while. She patiently waited for her Mom to be styled and then explained their day to all of us who sat mesmerized by how precious she was. Her Mom shared with us that her children do not eat "junk food" and therefore that was why Miss L had requested that they go to Starbucks for a fruit drink and then to the Farmer's Market for fresh vegetables because they are the "bestest" for you! Then that night the neighborhood was having movie night on a big sheet in their backyard. "Oh, are you having candy?" "Oooo, no candy is bad for you, we are having popcorn...airpopped is better for you!" Wow! and yes she was the oldest of 4 with #5 on the way. See why Kindergarten is the BEST!

"Food for Thought"

GIVING by Bill Clinton

JANTSEN'S GIFT by Pam Cope with Aimee Molloy

As an educator your (my) immediate goal is to meet the educational needs of each student. After reading both of these books my heart wants to instill in even the youngest of students how fortunate they are to receive a "free" education, then take that gift and become a power agent of change in our world.

No matter what personal opinions you may have both of these books are powerful and thought provoking. I can not imagine reading them and not being changed, challenged, or moved to action in some form or fashion.

CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF! (amazon.com)

Fun, food, family and the Fourth of July...what could make the summer more glorious?! How about a funny movie called Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs? Who could resist those zany characters and the added thrill of 3D with your very own pair of "RayBan like" glasses? Yes, husband Rodney and I were there the first day just two fun loving childless older than ten year olds popcorn, coke icee, and glasses ready adventurers seated in the middle of the middle for added viewing pleasure as the family crowds appeared. We were not disappointed. Scrat (the always looking for the acorn squirrel) came through for us as usual! We are the same two-some that have been known to watch the previous Ice Age movies back to back on a Sunday afternoon laughing in between "knod off's and snores" awakened by Roxie the Jack Russell barking at Scrat in his earlier antics. Too bad we couldn't sneak her into the movie theatre as "our child". Oh well there's always the hope of DVD! I even kept my glasses just in case. Hey, before you judge all the other "kids" did it! (the cleaning guy said, "oh go ahead we just throw them away!")

Dog Days of Summer

Monday night...10:30 p.m. time for all good dogs to do their nighttime potty run. AHHHHH what's that smell? SKUNK! An experience you and your poor dog never want to have. However, if the incident should take place the "cure" is not the old myth of tomato juice. The first thing to do is grab the dog not with your hands, clothing or anything sacred to you. Flush the dogs eyes with water immediately as skunks have a dead aim for the eyes. While Rachael flushed the eyes the search for the real cure was taking place via the internet. Needless to say it was an ORDEAL! The next day we were still airing out and had to rewash the one major player in this event - good 'ole Bentley. He was quite the good dog and we finally won the battle of Wise family versus "skunk-itis"! (P U)

Here is the secret recipe that WORKS. Mix the following:

• 1 quart 3 percent hydrogen peroxide
• 1/4 cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
• 1 teaspoon liquid soap or dish detergent
• Mix these together and bathe ("shampoo" in or rub down) the spray victim thoroughly.
• Be sure to use this mixture immediately after it is created, as it is unstable.
• Rinse with tap water afterward, and repeat if necessary.
• For spray in the eyes, flush with water as soon as possible.

Clean Dog = Happy Owners!

A Birthday Celebration

Summer is going great! Yesterday we celebrated my oldest daughter, Robyn's birthday with a fun dinner party that Rachael (my youngest) and I planned for her.  We ate at hattie's, in the Bishop Arts District in Dallas.  It never disappoints.  We always start dinner off with their fabulous tomato bisque, and mini grilled cheese sandwiches.  Then, for dinner our favorite is the catfish.  
   

No birthday dinner would be complete without birthday cake, so after a lovely dinner, we retired to the house for coffee and cake.  What are some of your family birthday traditions? 

Hello World!

Welcome to shout outs and musings from room 13.  After a great close to the school year, I am enjoying my first days of summer.  Congrats class of 2009! I am so proud of you!