Welcome to Kindergarten!!

Welcome to the 2016- 2017 school year! I am so excited to get to know you  all and see where the year takes us. After we had Kindergarten screening and open house, we had 2 days of phase in days. Thursday half of the students came to school and Friday the other half came. Tomorrow, they will all meet each other! Last week, we learned how to be in Kindergarten, the school expectations, and my expectations. Take a look at some pictures from our week below!

Here are some pictures of our classroom! 

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to our open house! Here are a few pictures.

When the students first came to school, I was waiting to greet them in the gym. After all of our friends arrived, we walked down the hallway to our cubbies together. We discussed how to hang up our book bags, enter the classroom, make their lunch choice, and breakfast procedures.

We learned hallway expectations and how to have control of our bodies as we walk in the hallway. Here you can see a picture of our friends with "a bubble" in their mouths to show me they are ready for the hallway!

Before it was time for lunch, we went down to the gym to practice so the students knew what to expect when it was lunch time. We walked through the line, found our table to sit down, listened to Mr. Doyle discuss with the class about the lunch room expectations,  practiced throwing our trash away, and lining up. Below are pictures from our "practice lunch" as well as our real lunch time. 

Here are the 2 stories that we read this week. Ask your child to tell you about them. We will be discussing being bucket fillers all year long so you will hear more about this!

We took a tour of the playground and learned how to use our playground equipment. The students enjoyed exploring the playground and were excited to get to go outside twice! 

On Friday, the students found a caterpillar and were excited to explore it further!

At the end of the day, we explored some of our science, and math manipulatives such as blocks, legos, connecting cubes, seashells, and marker lids. We learned how to treat our classroom materials, how to be respectful and share with our new friends. 

 Here are pictures of some of our friends that I met at screening. I still need to get a few more pictures tomorrow and I will post them in next week's blog. 

I am looking forward to seeing everyone all together tomorrow! Hope you all had a great weekend and I look forward to a great week. Make sure your child dresses cool, it's going to be hot! Check back next week to see what we worked on this week.

Have a great week! 

Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant

Meet Your Teacher!

Mrs. Garrabrant

Hello everyone, my name is Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant and I am excited for another great school year! I am looking forward to getting to know you, your children, and your families throughout the school year. I hope to make your child's learning experience a fun and exciting one, and instill a love of learning that will last throughout your child's educational career. I really enjoy teaching here at Walter Shade Early Childhood Center and I know your children will love it just as much as I do. This will be my fourth year with my own classroom but fifth year at the ECC as I was an assistant the year before.

I graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2011 with my Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education. I also received my Master's Degree in Literacy from the University of Dayton last fall. I grew up in Kettering where I was a cheerleader for most of my life. Now I currently live in Miamisburg with my husband, Micah. We have been married for 4 years now and have two beautiful black lab puppies. Their names are Malli and Natty, they are 4 years old and they are great dogs! Here are some pictures of my husband, Micah, our dogs and I.

Malli has the pink collar. When we first got them Natty had a green collar but was often mistaken for a boy so we switched it to red. 

Family is very important to me and I talk about them to my students a lot! You will definitely be hearing a lot about my mom (Mrs. Boxley) throughout the school year as she volunteers in my classroom often.

My family: My grandmother Marilyn, father Howard, mother Denise, Mrs. Garrabrant, husband Micah, brother Brian, and brother James

Micah and I love traveling and along with visiting fifteen states here in the U.S., we have also been to Hong Kong and St. Lucia. We are looking forward to traveling and continue seeing the world in the future. 

              Left: Cedar Point; Right: Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Florida

Left: Ohio State Buckeyes game; Middle: Cincinnati Bengals Game

              Left: Kayak Cruise in Chicago; Right: Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco, California

Left: The Incline in Colorado;       Right: Pike's Peak in Colorado

Left: Chihuly Museum with the Space Needle in the background; Right: On the 4-wheel drive beach in North Carolina

Hong Kong with the Big Buddha in the background

Here are some of my favorite things:

Sport: Football (I am an OSU and Bengals fan)

Season: Fall (I love the cooler weather and all of the autumn decorations!)

Color: Pink & Light Blue

Flower: Calla Lilly & Orchid

Foods: Pasta, Strawberries & Mashed Potatoes (not together!)

Drinks: Hawaiian Punch & other juices

Animal: Dogs & Dolphins (My biggest dream is to swim with the dolphins!)

Book: Harry Potter

Hobbies: Watching football, spending time outside, scrap booking, playing with our pups, roller coasters, board games and DIY projects. 

I can't wait to learn about your family and child's favorite things as well. I look forward to teaching your child and working with you to help your child achieve their full potential. I encourage you to contact me if you have any questions or concerns at any time. You can stop by the school, send a note to school, email me at bgarrabrant@wcsd.k12.oh.us or call me at 937-859-5121 ext. 4410.

Hope to see you all at screening on Tuesday & Wednesday! I will see your child's smiling faces on our phase in days which are: Thursday (Students with the last name A-K) & Friday (Students with the last name L-Z). 

                                           Mrs. Garrabrant in Kindergarten

Looking forward to a great year with you all!

Mrs. Garrabrant