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Lions, Tigers & Bears, Oh, My!!! (Zoo Pictures '08)
Meow, Classy Cat Parents,
Here are the pictures from our recent trip to the Atlanta Zoo! The Classy Cats had a wonderful time and saw soooooooooooo many neat animals! My favorite animal was the pink flamingo! Hmmmm...I wonder why!!! Be sure to ask your favorite Classy Cat which animals were his/her favorites. Be sure to check out the napping gorilla! Mrs. Reed gave him the "Best Rester" award for the day!!!
Meow for now!
Susan Kantis
Upcoming Events!!!!
Meow, Everyone!
We hope that you and your favorite Classy Cat have had a "purrrfectly" delightful weekend!! We had very busy week last week, so our little Classy Cats needed a bit of a rest. As the year begins to wind down, our days become a bit busier with so many activities, so our little Classy Cats are a bit tired. But, it's a good tired! Let me begin with a list of our exciting upcoming events!!
Upcoming Events:
*May 1st – Kindergarten PTA performance
*May 6th – Volunteer Tea
*May 7th – Field Day
*May 15th - Murdock's version of the Broadway musical the "Classy Cats" live in our very own classroom!! (Please feel free to bring your cameras or video cameras.) The "show" begins at 8:30 a.m. We will be singing our very own cat-related songs followed by the students' readings of their very best writings of the year. We will then celebrate with a light breakfast.
We have been really busy preparing for our program for y'all, and we hope you are going to LOVE it!!! The children are really excited about singing and sharing their writings with you, so it's going to be a really special day for them (and for y'all!!) We can't wait!!!
This Week in the Classy Cat Classroom
This week in science, we will be working on learning all about ocean animals! We will be reading about lots of different animals that we can find in the ocean. Also, almost all of our literacy centers for the next few weeks will focus on ocean life. In math, we will continue to work on adding sets of objects together. Next week, we will begin to separate sets. Wow! It's hard to believe that our little Classy Cats are already adding/subtracting! They are really growing up!!! (much too fast for me!!!)
In Writer's Workshop, we are putting the finishing touches on our special pieces of writing that we will share with you at our special program on May 15th! Our Classy Cats are working soooooooooo hard to make their stories just right! You will be so proud of them!!!
That's all the news we have for now! Have a "purrrfectly" wonderful week! If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to call us or e-mail us. We're always glad to hear from you!
Meow for now!!
Susan Kantis
Happy Spring!!
Welcome Back, Everyone!
I hope everyone had a wonderfully, relaxing spring break! It's so hard to believe that spring is here and that school is almost finished! Can you believe that your favorite kindergartener is almost a first grader? I can hardly believe it myself! Wow! They should all kiss their brains!!!
Wow! We're working really hard this week on so many topics! In math, we're practicing how to add objects together with manipulatives. We have been working in small groups to practice our addition skills, and we are becoming addition experts!!! Just ask your little one to show you how to add! They can do it!
In Writer's Workshop, we are working very hard preparing for a very special event! On May 15th, we will be hosting our very first Murdock Production of "Cats" in our Classy Cat classroom!!! We will be singing songs for you and sharing our very best pieces of writing with you. So, we are writing, writing, writing!!! We are using lots of "juicy" (descriptive) words in our stories and making sure that we are writing our very best pieces just to share with you on this very special day! It will be at 8:30 a.m. on May 15th. So, please mark your calendars! We will also be sending out a more detailed letter and more information on our blog about this fabulous end of the year celebration, so be on the look-out!! It's a glorious day in your little one's kindergarten life! We can't wait! We're planning to give Broadway's version of 'Cats" a run for their money!!!! Meow!!!
In Science, we are completing our unit on insects. We have ladybugs in our room!!! We have a ladybug land and we are watching the stages of the ladybugs as they grow! We will be keeping our very own journals about the life cycle of the ladybug as we watch these fabulous insects grow.
MONDAY IS ZOO DAY!!! We will be going to the ATLANTA ZOO on MONDAY, APRIL 21st. We are soooooooooooo excited!!! Please make sure that your little cat wears his/her Classy Cat shirt and tennis shoes because we will be doing a lot of walking. If you would like to meet us at the Zoo, you are more than welcome!! We'd LOVE to have you join us! We sent home a letter today in your little one's folder with our departure time and other important information about lunch, attire, etc., so please make sure you check for that today. If you'd like to meet us at the gate, we'd love to have you join us, so please let us know if you'd like to! The more the merrier!!!
We had two of our Classy Cats to participate in WOW WRITING! today! Jeremy and Max visited Mrs. Richman and received a sticker, a special certificate and a charm for sharing their special writings this morning.Way to go boys!!! THREE MEOWS FOR YOU!!! We will try very hard to make sure that every Classy Cat has a turn to participate in WOW WRITING! before the end of the school year. Be sure to check below for Max and Jeremy's picture!!!
Have a wonderful week!!! As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to let us know. We always love to hear from you!
Meow for now!!!
Susan Kantis
Wow! Writers from the Classy Cat Room!!!
We are so proud to announce that Celina and Joanna were awarded the "Wow!" certificates for reading their stories to Dr. Stasiak this morning for "Wow Writing". They were treated to a shamrock charm for their bookbag chain along with a special sticker and certificate. We've attached a picture of our "purrrfectly" proud writers when they received their awards this morning! Way to go, Celina and Joanna! They even stopped by our first grade "cousin" class "The Kittens" to visit and read to them! 
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Happy St. Patrick's Day, Everyone!
It's hard to believe that today is St. Patrick's Day! Wow! This school year is getting away from us much too quickly!!! The Classy Cats are growing up much too quickly and they are just about ready for first grade! Mrs. Pepe, Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Gross and I are soooooo proud of our little Classy Cats and all of the "purrrrrfectly" wonderful progress they have made this year! They are smart little kitties! They are working so hard on learning so many new and exciting things for spring, and they can't wait to share them with you! So, let's get started!!!
Math: The Classy Cats are continuing to work on recognizing and reading number words. We work on this skill each morning in Calendar, but we are also working on this during our Math center time. The Classy Cats are breaking up into small groups of 2 - 3 children, and are working together to complete centers designed for learning to recognize number words.
Writer's Workshop: We are beginning a new series of writings called "functional writing" or as we say in kindergarten " how to" writing. We will be spending the next 2 - 3 weeks of our Writer's Workshop time learning how to use words such as 'first, next, then, last, finally, etc." to help us write stories that tell others how to do things. Some of the stories we will be writing about are our how to make our favorite foods, games, etc. We will culminate this activity in a few weeks when we actually practice these steps in making cupcakes in our classroom!! Yummy!!!
Science: We are learning all about plants, insects, and springtime! We are learning about the parts of plants, what they need to grow, and the life cycle of plants. We will also conduct lots of experiements with plants. Tomorrow we will plant lima beans and place one plant in the sunlight and one plant in the closet in order to see which one will grow the best.We will record the progress of the two plants over the next several days. Then Wednesday we will plant four lima beans in four separate clear cups labeled "water, juice, Coke, and coffee." We will add the liquids to the corresponding cups and compare the seed growth over the next few days. We will talk about why some liquids may prevent or slow seed growth. Next week, we will become entymologists!!!!! Don't be surprised when your favorite Classy Cat comes home talking about bugs!!!! Don't worry ~ we haven't gone buggy!!! We're just learning all about different kinds of bugs!!!
Phonics: In Phonics, we are learning about the letter "W". We just read the story about Winkie Walrus and how he loved worms!!! Be sure to ask your little one to sing Winkie's song to you! We will also practice writing upper and lower case "W w" letters all week!
Reading: While Mrs. Reed and I are conducting our guided reading groups, Mrs. Pepe will be monitoring our new literacy centers. The new literacy centers began today and include the following: a rhyming house, writing center, building words game, Lucky Charms graphing activitiy, bear/kitty graphing activity, plant sequencing book, stamp-a-word game, "Story of a Seed" booklet, parts of a flower booklet, and of course, the children's favorite ~ the computer center!
Computer lab: We will visit the Computer Lab #2 this Wednesday from 11:30 - 12:30. If anyone would like to volunteer to help during this time, we'd love to have you! *(This is our scheduled time each week, so if you'd like to help out any Wednesday, just let us know! Thank you!)
We have a new friend in our Classy Cat classroom! His name is Daniel Lin. He transferred to our classroom from Brumby Elementary this morning, and we are sooooooooooooo happy to welcome him to our Classy Cat Family!! He just fits right in, and is a great Classy Cat!! Meow for Daniel!!
Report Cards will be coming home this Thursday, March 20th. Please remember to sign the white signature card, but keep the copy of the report card. Speaking of report cards, can you believe that we only have one more grading period before the end of school? To be honest, I don't like to think about it! It makes me very sad to think about my Classy Cats moving away to first grade!!! I'm so proud of their accomplishments, but at the same time, I am a bit sad to think of them growing up and moving to another grade! They are so precious, and we've become such a close Classy Cat family, and I am so thankful for that. Meow!
That's all for now! If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail, call or stop by. Have a "purrrfect" week!!!
Meow for now!
Susan Kantis
Happy March!!!
Meow, Classy Cat Parents!
I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's surprise snow!!! The Classy Cats certainly did!!! Be sure to check out the "Let it Snow!" pictures on the "PAGES" side of our blog to see what fun your little cat had trying to catch snowflakes on their little tongues! They were tooooooooo precious!!! Meow!!!!
First of all, please remember that this coming Tuesday, March 4th, is an Early Release Day. Your little one will be coming home at 12:20 this day. Our Early Release Days are usually Wednesdays, but this time is different, so I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of the date.
Secondly, don't forget the annual MESF Gala at the Sheraton Galleria this Saturday evening, March 1, 2008, from 6:00 - 11:00 p.m. This is our largest fund raiser of the year, so please try to come if at all possible. There will be lots of scrumptious food, fun and lots of wonderful goodies to bid on!! We hope to see you there!!! (*Be sure to check your little one's book bag for a flyer of important information regarding the Gala today!)
We cannot believe that March is just two days away!!! Gracious! Where has the time gone! Just think ~ your favorite kindergartener will soon become your favorite first grader!!! It's just so hard to believe that we have already completed our 124th day of school! Wow!!! The Classy Cats have learned so much this year already, and we plan to learn even more before we're finished!!! So......here are our plans for next week!
- Literacy Centers: We will be working on computer skills, recognizing number words games, free-choice writing in our new writing center, free-reading time in the book center, writing words with stamps, Dr. Seuss activities, and more!
- Math: We will be learning our number words 0 -10. We will be using various center activities which will be monitored by Mrs. Pepe, Mrs. Reed and myself to help the children learn how to read, write and spell their number words.
- Writer's Workshop: We are continuing to focus on the narrative genre of writing. We will now move from writing our points of view to writing about the beginning, middle and ending of a story. One of our favorite projects over the last couple of years has been to read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and each student makes a tri-fold palm tree and writes about the beginning, middle and ending of that story. It's a really cute project that will surely become one of your "keepers" of kindergarten treasures!
- Science/Social Studies: We will begin our unit about plant/seeds. We will be learning about the parts of a plant and what plants need in order to be able to grow. We will study about plants for the next 2-3 weeks. (Hopefully the weather will cooperate!!)
- Computer Lab: We go to the computer lab each Wednesday from 11:30 - 12:30. (*If anyone would like to assist us during this time, we would be "purrrrfectly" happy to see you!) We have so many choices of programs!! We are currently using the program entitled "Storybook Weaver" in which the children can create their own pictures and write about their pictures. When they're finished, they can print them and bring them home!
- Phonics: We have learned sooooooooo many letters/sounds, and we are so proud of our little Classy Cats! We always review what we have previously learned, and then we focus on the new letter/sound. Next week we will be learning all about the letter "Ii" and words with the short "i" sound. We will also practice writing uppercase and lowercase letters as well.
That's all the news we have for now! Have a "purrrrfectly" wonderful weekend, and we hope to see you at the Gala this Saturday!!
Meow for now!
Susan Kantis
New Pictures for our Blog!!
Happy President's Day Weekend, Everyone!
I hope everyone has had a wonderfully relaxing weekend! Meow, it's been a long one, hasn't it? I just uploaded a few pictures that I thought you might enjoy! The first picture is of our Pope High School intern, Miss Victoria LaPonzina, or "Miss Torie." She comes to our classroom each morning to help us with our literacy centers. She plans to major in education when she attends college in the fall. We LOVE Miss Torie! She is a wonderful asset to our Classy Cat Family! *Look under the "PAGE" section on the left side of the screen and scroll down until you see "Meet Our Intern" to read about Miss Torie!
The second set of pictures that I uploaded to our blog are of Wizard the Cat. Wizard belongs to Karli, and her Mom brought him to visit us for a few minutes the other day! He was too precious, and was such a good kitty to let everyone pet him and talk to him. He even walked around the room for a little while before it was time for him to go home for a cat nap (and hopefully, kitty treats!!!) *Look under the 'PAGE" section for "Meet Wizard the Cat!" to see his "purrrfectly" precious pictures!
Don't forget our field trip tomorrow to the Center for Puppetry Arts. We will be seeing Duke Ellington's Cat. We also have materials to make our own cat puppets next week as a reminder of our trip to the show. We should be leaving around 10:15 and returning in plenty of time for dismissal. Be sure to ask your little Cat all about it tomorrow!!
Due to the short week this week, we will not be sending home our guided reading folders. We will start with those again next week. We will be working as usual on our literacy centers, math, writer's workshop, etc., but the guided reading folders won't be coming home this week.
We will finish up our literacy centers from the past couple of weeks this week, and then next week we will begin a new set of centers. We have some very special science & math centers planned for next week, so stay tuned for more details as to what will be coming your way! It's going to be really special!!! Your favorite Classy Cat will be sooooooooooo excited with these money/science centers!! Shhh....it's a secret as to what they are until Monday, but they are very special and very exciting! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on our blog as we participate in these centers. You will love them, and your little ones will, too!!!
We will mostly review this week in phonics and practice our handwriting skills for the letters we have already learned. Next week, we will learn all about the "Ch" sound and hear the story about Chauncy Chipmunk chopping chunks of cheddar cheese!!! Sounds like an opportunity to eat some chocolate and cheese, to me!!! Yumm, yum!!!
We are finishing our money unit this week. Our Classy Cats are turning into "little bankers," and we are so proud of them! Wow! They have done a "purrrfect" job learning to identify coins and their values. They can even make fair trades! We will be sending home their work booklets for you to see their progress on Friday, and you will be soooooooooooo proud of them! There's even a short little quiz at the end of the booklets, so you can see just what a great money expert your Classy Cat is!
Well, that's all for now! There will be lots more information next week since we will be on a more normal schedule. Have a great night! Give your favorite Classy Cat a hug for us!!
Meow for now!
Susan Kantis
IT'S GALA TIME AGAIN!!!!
DATE; SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2008
TIME; 6-11 P.M.
PLACE; SHERATON SUITES GALLERIA
This will be a "purrrfectly" fabulous and glamorous event! There will be copious amounts of food, friends, and fabulous auctions items! This is MESF and Murdock's biggest fundraiser! All proceeds benefit Murdock students, so please help us educate, equip and excel! We hope to see you there!!!
Classy Cat News for February 4 - 8th
Meow, Everyone!
We are having such a "purrrrrrrfectly" wonderful week in our Classy Cat Classroom!! We are so busy learning soooooooo many terrific things to help us be the best kindergarteners we can be! By the way, did your favorite Classy Cat tell you that we have our very own Classy Cat cheer that we recite each morning during calendar? They can even tell you what it means! Here it is:
We are a family! We are the best!
Friends are fair because they share!
The more we listen, the more we learn!
I have just posted a new power point on our Classy Cat blog entitled "The Classy Cat Bank Money Lesson". Be sure to turn the volume up as your go through the presentation with your little one because they just might recognize the voice narrating the power point lesson. You guessed it....it's me! You can find this on the left side of the web page under the PAGE heading. Have fun!
Here's a preview of what we are working on this week in the Classy Cat room!
- Phonics: We are learning about the sound "th" makes. We have discovered lots of words with the "th" sound this week! Be sure to ask your little one to share some of these words with you.
- Reading: During guided reading, our literacy centers will focus mainly on recognizing community helpers, recognizing & counting coins, identifying beginning sounds, and celebrating the Chinese New Year! We even learned how to say "hello" and "good-bye" in Chinese today! Celina taught us how to say those words today! Thanks, Celina!! You were a great teacher today!!!
- Math: We are continuing to recognize coins and make fair trades. We are working at small centers with Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Pepe and myself as we rotate centers to identify coins, their values, and how to make fair trades.
- Social Studies: We are continuing our unit on community helpers, goods/services, and identifying wants and needs.
- Writer's Workshop: We are continuing to focus on the narrative standard of writing. Currently, we are working on writing stories that reflect our opinions. We are learning that our opinions are part of who we are and something that we are entitled to have. We are also learning that everyone might not always agree with our opinions, and that this is OK. Yesterday and today, we wrote about what we liked and what we didn't like and why we felt that way.
Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and we would love for you and your little one to create a Valentine box for them to store all of their cards, candies, goodies, etc., from the big day! A shoe box or any manageable size box for your child will be great! Please decorate the box any way you like and make it as festive as possible to celebrate Valentine's Day. Then, send it in with your child's name written on it and we will use this for a "mailbox" for the Valentine cards and other goodies. You can start making/sending these boxes in as soon as possible. Once you and your favorite Classy Cat are finished, you can go ahead and send it in and we'll store it in a special place until the day of our Valentine's celebration. Speaking of celebrations, if anyone would like to send in silver bells, candy hearts, cookies, juice boxes or any kind of special treat, we would be such happy little kitties!! Please keep in mind that we cannot have anything with peanuts or peanut products due to our peanut allergies. Thank you so much!
That's all for now! Please don't forget to check the PAGE section of our Classy Cat webpage for the new money lesson! I've also included some other websites that might interest you and your favorite Classy Cat!
Don't forget our Early Release Day tomorrow at 12:25!!!
Meow for now!
Susan Kantis
