Happy Halloween!

All Hallow's Eve

Cuties in Costume!



Happy Halloween to all the munchkins!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Mrs. Wishy Washy

Into the Tub!

Mrs. Wishy Washy is always such a fun unit!  It is a great story that gets the munchkins excited about reading and writing on their own.  We use it to explore all sorts of fantastic phonological awareness skills, including rhyme, blending three sounds, separating three sounds and writing three letter words.  We put many of these skills to work in some neat books that we make during this mini-unit.

We started off with choral & partner reading and we also used the pocket chart to practice some of our focus words.

After everyone was familiar with the text, we created three fun class books that followed the same text pattern that our main story had.

In our first book, we put the munchkins in the tub!

In our second book, we put all kinds of crazy, three-letter objects in the tub!  The munchkins did a great job of counting each sound, putting a letter with each sound they heard, and then writing the word conventionally on their own!

"One day she washed a hat."

"One day she washed a fox."

"One day she washed a nut."

In our third book, we developed our own farm...a farm with all sorts of three-letter objects living on it.  The munchkins got to practice those same skills again, only this time they composed the whole sentence.  They used several of the sight words we've been working on.

"I see one rug."

"I see one fox."

"I see one nut."

The munchkins wanted to be able to take some of their hard work home, so we also created two little books so they could share their great reading skills with Mom and Dad.

We made one that focused on retelling the story, using the animal words to match the characters.

The other focused on rhyme families, in particular, the "at" family.  The munchkins had to decode the "at" family words on each page in order to properly illustrate it...so this time, instead of separating the sounds, they were blending in order to read.  They did a great job!

 

We also took some time to learn about characters and setting, creating cute little stick puppets and a fun setting for a retelling of the story.

One of the more fun activities we did as we ended this unit was to decide who would like to play in the mud...like the crazy characters in the story!

We made a "person" graph to show the results.

Then we made mud!

Mixing...

Stirring...

Eating!
Oh! Lovely mud...

In the tub you go!

Such muddy fun!

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

Our Lady of Fatima

The Day the Sun Danced

Our Lady of Fatima falls on Saturday this year, and Father has a wonderful Rosary Rally planned for the parish...so to get the munchkins ready for this big event, we spent a day learning all about Francisco, Lucia and Jacinta.

We created a fun "dancing sun" and colored a beautiful image of Our Lady as she may have appeared to the children. 

We also watched "The Day the Sun Danced" with the First Grade.

(and shared some "dancing sun" cookies with them!)

Of course, being Friday, we ended our day with an all-school Rosary. 

Very fitting!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Christopher Columbus

In 1492

After our long weekend off, we spent the first day back learning why we were off in the first place! 

We took a whole day to focus on Christopher Columbus.

Our fun included a coloring page...

A dot-to-dot of one of his three boats...

A fun project of his flag ship (named after our Blessed Mother!)...

And a cute little boat to color in our free time.

We even tied Christopher Columbus into our snack!

(Yes, it's a boat.)

Interestingly, I discovered that I have several munchkins who don't like cheese!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

The Feast of St. Francis

Good St. Francis

We continued to work our way through the first week of October, celebrating each day along the way!  Boy that first week is filled (and next week promises to have several wonderful days as well!)

Today was especially special!

St. Francis is the patron of our Kindergarten classroom. 

And what a beautiful example of how to grow in holiness and live close to Christ.  That is why we study the saints!

We created a fun little woodland scene for St. Francis and all the animals of God's creation that he loved so much. 

The munchkins did a wonderful job making the trees and the setting.

  

  

Then they added all sorts of critters...stickers are sooooo much fun!

When finished, there was a little time for a coloring page, too.

And to end our day, we read the story of the wolf at Gubbio.  What a terrific story.  The munchkins always love it!

We enjoyed wolf paw cookies as a special treat and them we watched

St. Francis: Knight of Assisi

St. Francis, Pray for Us!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.