Thursday, April 28, 2011

Young Authors

5th Annual Young Authors 
Showcase


Every Spring, the kindergarten munchkins write, edit, type, illustrate and publish an original story all on their own.  This is quite the undertaking for them, but with time and effort, the finished products are always amazing and we take a day at their completion to share them with family and friends.  We call this our Young Authors Showcase.

As a bit of background...

One area of our Language Arts curriculum has us learning about story structure.  We learn all about how a story must have a beginning, a middle and an end.  We discuss that many stories have problems near the beginning that need solutions at the end.  We also learn the important aspects of character and setting.  

After almost a full year of reinforcing all those concepts, the munchkins used all that information as they thought about what kind of story they wished to create.  They each used a story planner to jot down ideas and help them compose the outline of their story.  And then they set to work.  We spent many a-day building the sentences that would become our stories.  Most of the munchkins created stories that had another interesting aspect that we encounter often in our classroom:  patterned text. 

That was really only the beginning, though!  After the story was written, the munchkins made several visits to our Junior High computer lab where they learned to log in, open a word document, manipulate text size and font, center, align, save and print.  Wow!

With illustrations added, they were nothing short of masterpieces!

And our family loved hearing them!  Be sure to visit our SchoolTube channel and listen to them all!

 
Our 2011 St. Mary's Young Authors

Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.

He is Risen!

He is not here!


It was so nice to see all the beautiful, smiling faces after our ten-day Easter Break and I think the munchkins were excited to get back into the swing of things.  We began, of course, with a day dedicated to The Resurrection.

We have a beautiful Atrium set for retelling the story of The Empty Tomb.  The munchkins enjoyed using the pieces to retell it themselves.


The munchkins added to their writing journals after hearing the story from the Bible.  We had some lovely illustrations of the scene that Mary Magdelene found on the first Easter morning, complete with the angel's proclamation:
"He is not here!"

(Be sure to click on each picture to get a close up that allows you to read the fantastic writing.  The munchkins do an amazing job with the conventions of writing a complete sentence all on their own!)













And probably the favorite, inspired by Lacy at Catholic Icing, was The Empty Tomb snack!  Too cute, too fun and waaaaay too yummy!













Alleluia!  Alleluia!
He is Risen!

Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Easter Fun!

A Funny Easter Bunny!


We had a very special treat from the family of one of our munchkins.  On the last day of school before our Easter Break, we had a visit from the Easter Bunny (or at least one cute pet bunny!)


Isn't he adorable!

We had tons of fun watching him jump around to each munchkins, getting to know us all!










And then everyone made sure they had on long sleeves, and each munchkins had a chance to hold him (if they wanted to!).  He was so very docile.  We didn't have any kicking or squirming.  He just snuggled right into everyone!








































Now, I wonder...Could this be the same bunny that left the eggs hidden throughout our classroom that very same day?

The munchkins had a blast searching for the eggs!

And opening their goodie bags!



















What a fun way to end our last day together!

Many blessings for a beautiful Easter Break and a wonderful and holy Easter Day!  We'll see all the munchkins back on April 26 for our last 5 weeks of school.  Yes...only 5 more weeks! 

It went too quickly...but it always does.

Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.


Living Lent: Part Five

We Prepare:  Holy Week

As we neared the end of our walk through the Stations of the Cross, we took some time to explore and learn about the last days of the life of Jesus.  Our last week before leaving for Easter Break was the perfect time to do this.

We began each lesson with Bible readings (The Catholic Children's Bible) and Atrium works for each of these solemn days.  Then we created a book page for each day, which was bound into a special little "Holy Week" book to take home.  Lastly, we created a fun craft to coincide with each day with a coloring page as well. 



Palm Sunday

Bible Readings: Pages 263 - 265
Atrium Lesson:  The City of Jerusalem
Book Page:  Jesus Enters Jerusalem
Craft: Hand print Palm Branches
Coloring Page: The Triumphant Entry














Holy Thursday

Bible Readings:  Pages 270 & 276-279
Atrium Lesson: The Cenacle
Book Page: Jesus has the Last Supper.
(from Catholic Icing)
Craft: Egg Carton Last Supper
Coloring Page: The Agony in the Garden







Good Friday

Bible Readings:  291, 295, 297-299
Atrium Lesson:  The Tomb
Book Page:  Jesus dies on the cross.
Craft: Flower Pot Cross
Coloring Page:  The Three Trees






May you all have a beautiful Holy Week.

Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.

Living Lent: Part Four

Crown of Thorns


OK...you knew there had to be a recipe in here somewhere, right?
Well...here is it!

Oatmeal Cream Pie Crown of Thorns.


I wasn't sure the munchkins would like the oatmeal cream pies.  Boy, was I all wrong!  What a hit!













YUM!

Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.