Mrs. Garrabrant's Classroom: Christmas Musical, PAX, Gingerbread Glyphs & More!

Of course we had another busy week this week in Kindergarten. We learned about PAX, worked hard in Literacy Lab, followed directions to create a gingerbread boy/girl glyph, practiced for and have a wonderful Kindergarten Christmas Musical, began working on a 5 senses Christmas book, read to our Preschool Reading Buddies, completed two TeachTown lessons, finished our Pink Mosaic and much more! Take a look below to find out more about our busy week!

Our school has begun using a program called PAX to help encourage positive behaviors in our classrooms and throughout our school. Our school PAX coach, Ms. Phillip, came to work with our class on what PAX looks like in our school. We discussed things that are PAX (such as taking turns, being a good listener, etc.) and glued pictures on the green poster board. We also discussed negative behaviors that don't demonstrate PAX called Spleems (such as shouting, not listening, etc.)

We hung the posters in our classroom to remind us of positive choices to make.

This week in Literacy Lab, we went through a reading lesson on iReady whole group. I have noticed students not taking their time to think about the answers, just guessing, playing, and not focusing while working on iReady. We thought this would help the students understand what is expected during a lesson and understand how important it is to show us what they know.

Also in Literacy Lab this week, the students listened to the story The Gingerbread Boy and colored a gingerbread man picture by number,

Ms. Roland worked with students on breaking words apart into different sounds.

Students showed us what they know on iReady.

Mrs. Arnold worked with students on recognizing and writing letters.

I worked with students on reading 2 different guided reading books. We used picture clues and worked on sounding unknown words out.

Students worked on a following directions activity to make a gingerbread boy/girl glyph. I read the directions one step at a time and students colored their gingerbread boy/girl according to those directions. For example, their gingerbread person was to have the same color eyes as they do and a blue nose for boys/pink nose for girls. Take a look below at the rest of the glyph instructions along with some of the finished gingerbread boys/girls. They turned out awesome and will be hung up on the bulletin board in the hallway.

Tuesday morning, all of the Kindergarten students practiced for our Kindergarten Christmas Musical in the ECC gym all together,

Thursday morning, all of the Kindergarten students got to ride on a bus over to the High School in order to practice our Kindergarten Christmas Musical up on stage. They did such a great job and couldn't wait to share it with their families Thursday evening.

Here are some pictures and videos from our rehearsal.

Mrs. Boxley began working with the students on a 5 senses holiday book called, "A SenseSational Christmas". The first page they worked on was about Christmas tasting like Candy Canes. The students got to work on crushing candy canes and gluing the pieces to cover every other space.

The students candy canes turned out beautiful and they smell so nice!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support our Kindergarten Christmas Musical Program on Thursday evening. We had a great turnout and the students sounded wonderful!

Here are some pictures and videos from their performance.

Friday the students shared our TeachTown lesson book and read a Winter guided reading book to their Preschool Reading Buddies. Then we sang some songs with them.

We finished our pink mosaic but I forgot to take a picture of it hanging up.

I will post a picture in next week's blog post of all our completed color mosaics.

You should've received this important paper home last week about the iReady diagnostic coming up this week. We will begin taking the reading diagnostic test this Monday during Literacy Lab and it will take a couple class sessions for all of the students to complete it. Next Monday, we will begin taking the Math diagnostic test and will also take a couple of class sessions to complete. There are some suggestions on this paper on how to help your child succeed on the diagnostic such as getting enough sleep, talking to your child about taking their time and trying their best, etc.

****Please do NOT have your child log into iReady at home during this 2 week period. As I understand it, the only thing their account can access is the diagnostic so they can not do any lessons until it is completed. Thank you!

Due to the students rushing and not trying their best on iReady, we set a class goal of 20 lessons that we wanted to pass this week. Even with QPT day on Wednesday and not including Friday's lessons, the students more than doubled the goal!! They passed 43 lessons in three days, so as a little reward, we will be having extra recess on Monday!

We did 2 TeachTown lessons this week; Be Nice When You Lose & How to Cheer Yourself Up.

We also completed a sight word paper for our color word yellow.

We read a holiday sight word book called My Christmas Book. We focused on touching each dot as we pointed to each word.

We also read some holiday books this week!

Friday Mrs. Hall did the Money Grab & Limo Lunch with students who raised a certain amount of money from the Fall Fundraiser. The students had a great time!

Thanks to everyone who supported our fundraiser!