Mrs. Kranzlein's Koalas

Week 17 in Review...and Looking Ahead

Week 17
What a fun week we have had!  The koalas love getting mail.  Our Holiday Card Exchange has been a huge success.  We have received cards from Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and even Calgary, Alberta.  We have another stack of cards to open on Monday.  We will be using Google Earth to see the schools and cities that we have received cards from.

On Thursday, we started learning about "Holidays Around the World".  Our students visited Mrs. Kantis' class and learned about Greek traditions and worry beads.  On Friday, they traveled to Italy in Mrs. Libardi's class.  When they finished they discovered candy in their shoes that they had left in the hall.  Next stop will be in our own classroom.  I have already given them a little preview.  Ask them about Six White Boomers and other favorite carols from Australia.

Looking Ahead...
The last school week of 2008 will be a full one.  We will continue to tour the world and explore holidays in Israel and Germany.  We will need tuna or cat food cans for one of the activities so please send in any empty, clean cans this size that you have.  On Tuesday, we will make our last trip to the Media Center to return books and listen to a story.  All books must be returned to the library before the break.  You should have received a note in the folder about our book exchange on Wednesday.  On Thursday and Friday, our lunch times will be changed.  As we wind down, I want you to know that it has been a wonderful first half of the year with lots of growth.  I will have much to share with you at conferences at the end of January.

Weeks 15 and 16 in Review...and Looking Ahead

Week 15 and Week 16
The weeks before and after the Thanksgiving have been jam packed.  We have transitioned from harvest to holidays.  Thank you to everyone who attended our Writer's Workshop.  Our students were so proud to share the writing process with you.  As we reach the end of the second nine weeks and the midpoint of the school year, there are many assessments that we are doing to see how your child is progressing and where we need to focus future instruction.  It is exciting to see how far they have come.

In addition to all the testing, we used gingerbread as a theme for many of our activities last week.  We read, summarized, compared and contrasted several "Gingerbread Man" stories.  I think the Gingerbread Mouse might have been the class favorite.  We made gingerbread house holiday cards and sent them to schools all over the US and even one to Canada.  So far, we have received one card back from Iowa.  The kids are really excited about getting mail.  We got together with our book buddies and decorated puzzle pieces that formed a 3D gingerbread house and we sampled homemade gingerbread.

Our candy family project was a huge success.  Thank you for assisting your child with this project.  Thank you also to Sophie's mom for creating our gingerbread house in the hall to display our candy on.  We also appreciate all the classroom help you give us.  Thank you to Ben's mom and Clemens' mom for helping prepare our holiday centers.    

Looking Ahead   
We will continue with testing in Math, Science, and Social Studies this week and next.  We will be learning about holidays around the world including doing a rotation with Mrs. Kantis and Mrs. Libardi's classes three days this week.  Local fireman will be coming to do a fire safety lesson.  Finally, we will be making several holiday crafts.  Please make sure your child is here on time each day so they don't miss out on any of the activities.

Look for information this week about our book swap that we will do during our class holiday party.  And finally, one last request, we need some empty tuna or cat food cans...20 of them to be exact.  If you can send any in, please clean them first so they don't stink up your child's backpack.

Thanks again!!!

Writer's Workshop

Thank you moms and dads for your fabulous participation in our Writer's Workshop today.  We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did and that you feel more informed about the writing process in kindergarten.  Here is a photo recap!  Don't forget to ask your child to share a "Secret Story" at home tonight.