2015_04_30 Thursday

From reading club: On Tuesday, X and I read bob books and he played on the kindle. X and I read bob books and he practiced his sight words. The girls and I each read And Here's To You! We also went over flash cards. They also played with clay and molded different things. On Wednesday, we read Poor Puppy by doing round robin reading. I played number zingo with X. They all played roll the dice sight word bingo with X. X worked in numbers 1-20. X and Elise spent time on the kindle.  On Thursday, we played bunny hop with CVC words except this time they had to come up with a sentence with the words they landed on. This was a fun challenge for them. We went over flash cards and we also took turns on the kindle.

2015_04_29 Wednesday

From Elise's class: Happy Birthday to X! Today we had calendar time in the morning. We talked about plant
growth. We drew a life cycle of a Lima bean plant. We also drew what our plants look like from when we planted them up until now. I've sent some of the plants home because they need a bigger pot and are doing well!  They had French. We had indoor recess. We worked on writing our numbers 1-20 in our journals. They completed floor puzzles and played zingo with partners.

What does your family do to help the earth?
Elise- me and my brother try to clean up the park by picking up trash

2015_04_28 Tuesday

WHAT? my baby turns 5 today? how can that be?? We had so much fun at dinner at a hibachi place. She really liked miso soup (although not the mushrooms), Shirley Temples, and "shrimpies." A real fire in an onion volcano, how cool!

Jonathan did a great job letting E have her special day. He even told me what gifts to get for her, and he nailed them! We had cupcakes when we got home too.

Elise's school: Happy birthday to Elise!!  Thank you guys soo much for my lovely goodies today! Y'all are so sweet! Conferences are next week! sign up if you haven't already! Monday is still available ;) thanks Mark your calendars: graduation and spring pageant will be Friday, May 22nd!
Today we had a visitor from the Oak hurst garden come in. She read a kids book about a worm friend and then we got to use magnifying glasses to look and feel real worms! They had Spanish. We reviewed numbers and sounds and sight words. 

What did you learn from the visitor today? 

Elise- I learned that worms eat things that come from the earth. 

2015_04_26 Sunday

Happy Birthday Auntie!!!

We had our first ever professional family photo session today. It was a good hour away, but we won it at one of the kids' auctions, so we thought it would be fun to do. We all wore white shirts, but someone decided only to tolerate that for so long.

2015_04_24 Friday

Elise's school: Good afternoon! Today we talked about climate change, tornadoes, and global warming. We did a tornado- in a-jar experiment with dish soap. We also attempted a water cycle experiment with shaving. Cream and food color ;) We played sight word bingo. We played sight word bug splat. They had German. 
Tell me something about tornadoes or global warming: 
Elise- I learned that tornados are so strong that it can tear down a tree
NOTE: Opa had some choice words for the "global warming" part of the lesson plan.

Conferences are May 4th- May 8th Tuesday is booked 
Reading club: On Monday we worked on -in, -og , -en, -at families. We came up with real and nonsense words. X and I started reading the fat cat sat on the mat. X and I started that one too. X worked on color words blue and black. On Tuesday, X and X worked on reading CVC words. I also read a book with X . X finished the Fat Cat book. Elise played a phonics app on the Kindle practicing sight words. X and I went over sight words flash cards. X and I went over color words cards. X  and X played with popcorn sight words. On Wednesday, I worked with X on letter sounds and Sight words with X. X and I read BOB books. The girls put addition and subtraction cards together. X and X worked on CVC words. We all worked on flash cards. They also played number zingo.  On Thursday X, X and X worked on the -an family booklet. They also played dig for sight word carrots. Elise read Loose Tooth! to me. She spent time learning sight words on the kindle. We all played bingo. Elise and I and X and I started reading And Here's To You! 

2015_04_22 Wednesday

Elise's school: Good afternoon, We had a lot of fun at the Gardens yesterday. We learned about different plants and what they need to grow. We visited the edible garden and had a chance to play in the Children's garden area. Today we talked all about the planet Earth for Earth Day. We talked about what conservation is. We talked about ways we can save energy around our house, at school, and protecting the environment. We painted Earth. We made random things with recyclable things. We talked about reuse, reduce, and recycle. We read Earth Day, Birthday and The Earth Book. We also celebrated X and X's birthdays! We made some cool crowns!

Why do you want to help take care of earth? I want to help take care of the earth...
Elise - because I want the flowers to live so I can look at them in my garden

2015_04_20 Monday

Elise's school: Field trip tomorrow. I will need to leave the gardens at 12:45 to be back to school for reading club. And Earth day is Wednesday. If you would like to bring anything that relates to earth day to share with the class please do! 

Today we talked about the water cycle and terms such as evaporation and water vapor. We made a water cycle cloud craft. We checked on our plants and we saw some roots and even little sprouts in some cups! We sorted picture cards of people wasting or saving water. They had Mandarin today. We also practiced writing the letter Yy. We came up with words that start with letter y. 

What is a way we can conserve water? 

Elise-you can conserve water by turning off your bathtub water when you are done using it 

2015_04_17 Friday

Elise's school: Atlanta Botanical Gardens field trip will be next Tuesday

Today we talked about South America. We also talked a little about how we should take care of Earth. We made a wind sock that shows the water cycle. We played earth day bingo. We read Re-Cycles and discussed a tree's life cycle and the water cycle. 

South America fact: 

Elise- I learned that you can go to Machu Picchu to hike and it's in Peru 

2015_04_16 Thursday

Elise's school: This was the first week that Elise got to visit the Kindergarten class! She spends the entire day with them; above and beyond what I had hoped for. It does also sound like she is very challenged there and even gets to be frustrated (yeah!)

Reading club: On Monday, we worked more on syllables. X worked on color words purple and yellow. We all went over sight words. The girls and I read readers. On Tuesday, X worked on color words orange and brown. We went over flash cards at the end. We played sight word bingo. Elise and I read a fly guy book about firefighters. X and I read Just Go to Bed. X and I read Max's checkup. On Wednesday, X and X read stories in Starfall. X also practiced CVC words on Starfall. We played a game of I have..who has... Elise and I finished reading the fly guy book. X and I read the 1st Fly Guy book in the series. They also all took turns playing sequencing, rhyming or letter sounds games on the floor.  On Thursday, X and Elise played a game of I have Who has ..X  and X played that...X practiced some sight words on the kindle..X also practiced spelling words on the kindle. Elise and I read Hi Fly Guy! X worked on color words red, blue. 

2015_04_15 Wednesday

Elise's school: Good afternoon, Today we talked about Europe. We talked about Hadrian's Wall and we built a long wall with Legos and blocks across the room. They worked in teams. We also worked on patterns and counting. We also talked about the Indian Ocean. They had Spanish.

Bring seeds for show and tell

Which wall do you like more? Hadrian's or Great Wall 

I like the....

Elise- is the Great Wall of china

Elise's school: Today we talked about Asia. We read Japanese Traditions and talked about Japanese traditions and how they differ or are similar to some traditions here. We made sushi rolls and practiced picking them up with chopsticks. We drew pictures for x in our folders. We sang our continent song. They had French.

Japanese tradition or fact:
Jack E - that they have a boys day --they play games and eat rice cakes

2015_04_14 Tuesday

Elise's school: Hello! Today we talked about continents and Africa in particular. We discussed the land, animals, climate, cultural differences. We also worked on our letter of the week Xx. We made bead bracelets with 3 color pattern. X also put lowercase egg letter cards in order. X practiced sorting from small to big and patterns. X and X dug up sight word carrots. Elise and X put numbers 1-20 in order individually.  Bring in plant seeds for show and tell any time this week. We will try to plant some and talk about the growing process in the next few weeks. 

Africa fact: 

Elise- I learned that you can find gems and gold and diamonds in the south part of Africa.

2015_04_02 Thursday

Today, I was finally able to put my accident behind me. I had my court date and got my hefty fine. What a crazy process, but it's over.

Elise's class: I will not be there tomorrow. Buggy will be in the class. Have a wonderful Spring Break everyone!! :) See you all on the 13th! Happy birthday to X! And happy early birthday to X! Field trip to the botanical gardens Tuesday, April 21st

Today we talked about islands. We discussed that Antarctica and Australia are islands and we talked about the 7 continents. I read a book about Antarctica. We looked at a globe and discussed which continent we live on, etc. They made an island scene with paper and felt. We practiced handwriting-- letter Ww. Some friends practice some individual work with handwriting. We had an egg hunt in the classroom! And we celebrated X's birthday at the end of the day!

I discussed what deserted meant and then asked..If I was on a deserted island...

Elise- I would build an igloo.. with sand 

Reading Club: On Monday, X caught up on some vowel sounds work. We also caught X and X up on what syllables are and did some practice with that. On Tuesday, X and I worked on syllables (did great). The girls and X worked on the mice syllables worksheet independently. We all did some work and then enjoyed the nice day on the playground where X and I read the first BOB book to me :) On Wednesday, X and I worked on sight words flash cards. X  and I read BOB books. X read 2 books to me also. X worked on 2 reading booklets. Elise and the other girls played a digging for carrots sight words game.  On Thursday, I worked one-on-one with Elise, X, and X. X and I practiced sight words and we read 2 BOB books together He also put numbers 1-20 cards in order. Elise and I used a large Judy Clock and discussed the basics of time. We also read a BOB book. She also put lowercase letters in order. X also did this independently. Xalso read 3 BOB to me. They got to play a Frozen matching game when they were done. 
Have a wonderful and safe spring break everyone!! :)

2015_04_01 Wednesday

Elise's school: Hello and welcome to April! (Soo many birthdays this month :D ) 

We had a great Wacky day! This month we will talk about Earth and geography. Today we talked about mountains. We talked about how they are formed. We drew pictures in our letter folders for w. We read the book Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest. They made mountains and volcanoes with clay and playdoh in 2 groups. We also worked on counting and graphing Easter eggs. They had French. 
Something from our book: 
Elise- the wettest place is in Colombia.