Kindergarten at GDLS

May 24-28, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 28 May 2010 21:28:35 +0000

This week was a blast with all of our different spirit days! Check out all the photos to see what we looked like!

We focused our time on getting ready for our Art Gallery on Wednesday night. The children created their boards on Wednesday. THANK YOU for helping to pay for those! The children also created the programs we’ll hand out and helped choose what snacks and drinks to serve. We had a lot of fun planning the evening. The class will also perform 4 songs for you that night. They can’t wait to show you everything!

We read a book called Panda Kindergarten by Joanne Ryder. It is about the Wolong Nature Reserve in China. Giant pandas are an endangered species and the people who work at the reserve help to care for panda families. We loved to read about the young cubs and how they “go to school” while they are at the preserve. They play on a playground, eat lunch, and take naps just like we do!

Have a great, long weekend. See you on Tuesday for our final week of the school year!

In Him,

Mrs. Heifner

A Few Things!

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:09:53 +0000

Hi parents,

A couple things I’d like to share with you:

1) If your family is able, please don’t forget to send $8.00 to school so I can purchase tri-fold boards for the children. Thank you!

2) Field trip forms were due today. I am unsure if we received them all. Please bring it in on Monday if you forgot this week.

3) The Skippyjon Jones literacy bag is missing a board book called Skippyjon Jones Up and Down. If you locate it at your home, please bring it in. Thanks!

May 17-21, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:02:34 +0000

This week, we focused on the lifecycle of the ladybug. From egg, to larva, to pupa, to adult, the children now know much about these cool little creatures! They created a book that talks about the lifecycle and we read, Are You a Ladybug? It was fun to compare humans to ladybugs while we read that book.

I am going to keep the newsletter part short and instead remind you of our upcoming things for the rest of the school year.

Monday, May 24: Crazy Hair Day

Tuesday, May 25: Hat and Socks Day

Wednesday, May 26: Inside Out Day

Thursday, May 27: Pajama Day – bring pillows and blankets if you’d like! Breakfast at 8:30 am and families can stay and eat with us!

Friday, May 28: Free Dress Day – wear your “normal” clothes!

Wednesday, June 2: Family Night in the kindergarten room at 6:00 pm – snacks will be served since it is around dinner time. Students will bring home “invitations” for this next week to pass out to family members. Any family and/or friends are welcome to come. We’ll celebrate a great year in kindergarten.

Thursday, June 3: Chapel at 8:35am in the church and then field trip to Happy Hollow

Friday, June 4: Last day of school and BBQ at 11:00 am. Families are welcome to eat with us. Dismissal at 12:00 pm.

Sunday, June 6: Students sing in church at 10:30 am and kindergarten graduation for John, Kaitlyn, Jake, Jordan, and Lydia.

Whew! I know it is a lot for the end of the school year, but we hope you can join us for as many of these special things as possible.

Have a good weekend!

In Him,

Mrs. Heifner

May 10-14, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:08:36 +0000

We continued to be scientists this week. The class learned a lot of interesting things about ladybugs, or ladybird beetles. We used the book Ladybug on Orchard Avenue as one of our main resources. The book follows a ladybug around and the class was able to get a good idea of what it is like to be a ladybug, including all of the dangers.

The children designed their own ladybugs on Monday. They could use any colors and create any type of pattern, but they had to be symmetrical! It was a bit of a challenge, but the class did it really well! These ladybugs are currently crawling up our wall in the classroom. The children also thought about the ladybugs we released last week. What are they doing out in the wild now? They drew very detailed pictures wrote a sentence to go along with their picture. Later in the week, the class was introduced to the ladybug’s life cycle. We watched a short video that captured the transformation from egg to larva to pupa to ladybug!

Our focus in Christ Light was God’s forgiveness. We read about God forgave David for his terrible sins. We talked about how important it is to tell God we are sorry for our sins like David did. We are so thankful that God gave us the gift of his Son and eternal life in heaven despite the sins we commit each and every day.

In the afternoon, the children worked on finishing up their published books. Since their stories are longer now, illustrating them definitely takes more time! But their illustrations are great and really fill up each page of their stories. We also added more words to our word wall and the children had fun reading off the words on the wall in the dark. They read whatever the flashlight pointed to! Later in the week, they began writing in their new lined journals with the “grass, sky, and dirt!”

In math, the older children practiced counting nickels and dimes. Every morning at circle time we practice counting by 5’s and 10’s, so they are really quite good at this now! The younger children graphed how many of each coin they had in their cups. It was good sorting practice, graphing practice, and numeral-writing practice.

I hope you and your families have a good weekend!

In Him,

Mrs. Heifner

Important DATE CHANGE

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:55:21 +0000

The kindergarten family night was scheduled for Tuesday, June 1.

It will now be held on Wednesday, June 2 at 6:00 pm.

Thank you!

May 3-7, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:49:56 +0000

We kicked off this week by welcoming hundreds of ladybug friends into our classroom. Their home was set up all week and the students were able to observe them all week long. We examined them with magnifying glasses and recorded our findings. We counted their spots and made a huge graph of our results. We also learned that their red shells are wing covers and that ladybugs are symmetrical! The book we read this week was The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. On Friday after doing our experiment (see “Friday’s experiment) we released all of the ladybugs into the wild so they can go find their natural food to eat: aphids! We are going to continue learning about these interesting beetles for a few more weeks.

In Christ Light, our focus was on being kind despite how you are treated by others. In our story on Tuesday and Wednesday we learned that Saul wanted to kill David, but David always spoke to Saul with kindness and never once hurt him. “Be kind to one another, forgiving each other” was certainly something we saw David do. We also read about David becoming king over the Israelites and how kind he was to Saul’s family, even after Saul died.

The children also spent some time creating something special for their mom’s. Happy Mother’s Day to all of the kindergarten mom’s. I hope you have a great weekend with your families!

In the afternoon, the class was excited to find out that they get new writing workshop journals next week. This time, the journals will have lines in them to help the students with correct letter formation and placement on the lines. They learned that some letters are tall and reach into the “sky” (the top line), some letters like to hang out in the grass (letters such as: a, c, e), and some letters like to get dirty and go into the dirt (letters that go below the bottom line such as: g, j, p). The lines in the journals will be coordinated with these: blue for sky, green for grass, and brown for dirt!

In writing workshop, the class continued to learn about vowels. We also practiced recognizing word families such as: bat, hat, mat with –at endings, or pin, win, sin with –in endings. This helps the students with spelling and reading! On Friday, the class published their favorite stories. After typing their stories, they illustrated them and put them into a “real book.” We have saved all of their published books throughout the year, but at the end of the year, they will all be sent with the children to be enjoyed at home!

In Him,

Mrs. Heifner

April 26-30, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:42:00 +0000

Our ladybugs arrived on Thursday! The children were very eager to welcome hundreds of new friends into our classroom. However, they will remain in the refrigerator until Monday. Once we put them in their ladybug home on Monday, they will only last about five days until we have to release them. So, this week, we spent time thinking about what we already know about ladybugs. The children drew pictures and shared with the class facts they know. We realized that like with many things, there is a lot we can learn! On Thursday, we went onto the National Geographic for Kids website and looked up some information about ladybugs. Did you know there are 5,000 ladybug species? That was one thing we learned!

In Christ Light, we really loved hearing the David and Goliath story. Goliath was a giant and David was brave enough to fight against him and win the battle for the Israelites! David’s trust in God was so strong. With God, we do not need to be afraid! On Friday, we talked about showing love towards our friends, just like Jonathan did for David in our second Bible story. The children created a friendship quilt together that will be hung in the classroom to remind us that we are “Friends in the Lord!”

In the afternoon in math, the children worked with pennies and nickels. They have become really good at counting by 5’s. They played a money game that helped with money recognition, counting, and even doing “trades” (i.e. 5 pennies for 1 nickel). They completed a journal page that will be put into their math journals.

In writing workshop, I taught the class the final way in which they can end their stories: by rewording the beginning. Some of them were naturally doing this already, but for those who were not, it serves as another good option for them. I am so proud of the work they are doing and their accomplishments. Their stories are full of so many good details.

We are also well into our study of vowels! The children now know that every word needs a vowel and they know what letters are vowels. We even found a vowel song on one of our CD’s that will help the children remember the two sounds each vowel makes.

Have a great weekend!

In Him,

Mrs. Heifner

Pictures from April 19-23, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:18:34 +0000

Please remember…

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:39:05 +0000

to check the “upcoming events” tab at the top of the page. I have added some new things for the end of the school year. Thank you!

P.S. I am sorry there are no new pictures. I tried posting them twice and was having problems with getting them to show up

April 19-23, 2010

mrsheifnersclass — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:37:08 +0000

What a great week in kindergarten! The highlight of our week was our trip to the San Francisco symphony on Tuesday. We were so fortunate to have been seated in the seventh row! The concert was very interactive. The children were involved in nearly every song and the conductor did a great job of sharing bits of orchestra information with them.

We focused on learning about the Earth this week (a continuation from last week) because Earth Day was on Thursday. We did two small experiments that demonstrated how the Earth changes with water and wind. Then we talked about how people change the Earth, and not always in good ways. We brainstormed ways we can change the Earth in good ways, such as not littering. On Thursday, with gloves and garbage bags in hand, we walked around the school property with Miss Petrie’s class and cleaned up the Earth! We found a lot of trash along Ralston Avenue. The children were so eager to help and felt really good about it when we were done!

Next week, we are going to start learning about ladybugs! Hundreds of real ladybugs are arriving on Thursday from the company, Earth’s Birthday Project. We can’t wait!

In Christ Light, the children talked about how they can be workers for God, even when they’re not old enough to have a job yet! Some said if they grow up to be soccer players, they can work for God by playing fairly. Others said if they are teachers, they can work for God by teaching their students about Him! We also talked about showing our love for God by obeying our parents, helping others, and more.

In the afternoon, the children learned about nickels. We compared and contrasted them with pennies and also did a fun activity with them and recorded how many times they land heads up.

In writing workshop, the children were introduced to one of the vowels: a. It can make two different sounds! The children also each had individual “meetings” with me to discuss how they feel they are doing in writing workshop. We reviewed their goals they set for themselves back in January. It really seemed to motivate them to keep working hard and meet their goal if they haven’t already!

Have a good weekend!

In Him,

Mrs. Heifner