Summer Fun!

I miss you guys SO much! I hope everyone is having a great summer! Sally and I are relaxing and having fun in the sun.

This is Sally all wet after swimming in the lake.  Kinda funny looking, huh?

Michael, Gabriel and Richie went bowling together and it sure looks like they had a great time! 

What have you been up to?  Email and let me know and I'll post it here for your kindergarten friends to see.

Love you bunches!

Ms. Conway

Field Day Fun!

After a heat wave and a rainy day caused a slight change of plans, we had a terrific time at Field Day yesterday.  We played games with hoola hoops, frisbees and parachutes and did jumping jacks, knee slaps and relay races.  Everyone showed such great sportsmanship that we all were awarded with special Field Day ribbons.  Thanks to all the families who came to cheer us on!

Superstars!

We had a special ceremony to celebrate our hard work in the Math Superstars program this year.  We each got a Superstar medal and had a special treat.  Way to go K-C!

We Love to Read!

As our year comes to an end, it is inspiring to think about what great readers we've become. We've shared so many great stories this year and have read with lots of special people like our Reading Buddies and our Mystery Readers.  Thanks to everyone who has shared their love of reading with us!

We enjoyed the nice weather and read outside with our Reading Buddies. 

It was terrific making new fourth grade friends!

Ms. Conway's mom was a Mystery Reader this week!  We got to hear stories about when Ms. Conway was little and even saw a picture of her when she was in kindergarten!

It was a Great Night to Write!

It was so great to see such a big turn out last night for our Great Night to Write!  We've been working so hard on our poetry that it was terrific to finally share our poems with you.  Thanks for celebrating our writing with us!

And the Mystery Blogger Is...

Mr. D'Amico! 

All of the guesses we made were great and we would to have all of those people as mystery bloggers one day.  (We especially think it would be funny to see Snappy typing on a computer...)

Stay tuned for the next mystery blogger soon...

Extreme Makeover - Goldfish Edition

We've been studying the behavior of our goldfish, Spongebob and Patrick (S&P) and observing their reactions to changes in their environment.  When we redecorated and added gravel, a plant and a castle, we noticed that S&P were more active.  They love to swim around and hide behind the plant and inside the castle.

When we turned off the lights, S&P became very still, and when we turned them back on, they started swimming again.  We're recording all of our findings in our science journals.



Sailing Away in K-C

Scientists from the Science Center in Hartford visited on Monday to present an outreach program to Glenville Kindergartners.  The program was called Sail Away and was all about using wind to sail boats. We learned the following things: Wind is moving air. Sometimes air moves fast and sometimes it hardly moves at all. Wind speed can be estimated by observing the things that it moves, such as flags, tree branches or sailboats.  We got to experiment with sailboats in trays of water.  Blow, Mackie, blow!

New Friends in K-C!

It's been a busy week and we have three new friends in our classroom.  The first is Kelly Riley, a high school senior from Greenwich High who is during her internship with us.  Kelly will be heading to Loyola University in Maryland in the fall and we're excited to get to know her.  She'll be with us for four weeks so be sure to pop by and say hello.

You've probably heard all about our other new friends - Spongebob and Patrick.  These two spunky goldfish are part of our new science unit.  We'll be studying what they eat, how to take care of them and how they react to changes in their environment.  We can't wait to show you the science journals we're keeping to record all of our findings.

A Mystery Blogger...

We know all about Mystery Readers, but who knew there were Mystery Bloggers?  Someone left K-C a fantastic message - can you guess who it's from?  If you think you know, leave a comment with your guess...

Greetings Ms. Conway's Class! 
I just wanted to write a quick: THANK YOU!  I have noticed that you have been working very hard at getting ready for first grade.  I've noticed that everyone is taking their job very seriously!   I also wanted to let you know that I met your fish yesterday!  I hope you have lots of fun learning all about them!   Have a great day boys and girls!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

We had a fantastic trip to the Beardsley Zoo yesterday!  The weather was beautiful, the animals were playful and the bus ride was exciting.  We saw otters, peacocks, monkeys and prairie dogs.  Our favorite was the sleepy tiger who woke up to say hello with a few giant roars.  Thanks to all the parents who joined us for a super day!

Mystery Readers Wanted!

With our school year winding down, we invite anyone who hasn't had a chance to surprise us as a Mystery Reader to sign up for a turn.  We absolutely LOVE waiting to see who walks in the door each Friday afternoon to share a story with us.  We are even signing up ourselves to read books we've written during Writers' Workshop.  We're such great authors!  Email Ms. Conway if you'd like to come in.  Shhhh - don't forget - it's a secret...

Richie was a Mystery Reader and read the ABC book he wrote - we loved it!

Nature is Calling

We began our new science unit by taking a nature walk around Glenville School.  We noticed things like grass, trees, birds and flowers.  We recorded our findings and then discussed whether the things we saw were living or nonliving.  In the upcoming weeks will be studying bean plants and goldfish - all live in our classroom!  Stay tuned for our observations...

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the K-C moms!  We hope you enjoyed the gifts we made for you.  We especially liked decorating and filling the "Breakfast in Bed" bags - were they as fun to open as they were to make?

Three Words...

I have just three words to say about Lilly's new puppy, Axel,

who popped in for a visit one day after school. 

Cutest - Thing - Ever!

Tired Teachers!

On Saturday, a team of Glenville teachers woke up early, put on their work clothes and gathered up their tools.  They worked for an entire day at a Stamford Habitat for Humanity worksite.  They installed insulation, wrapped pipes with foam and even hammered on the roof!  It was VERY hard work but it felt REALLY good to help a family that needed help.

Symmetry, Socks and Sight Words

We worked with symmetry during math this week.  We created beautiful butterflies that had symmetrical wings.  Whatever we did to one side, we had to do to the other...  Aren't they lovely?

We took our shoes off and did some "stinky feet" math.  Working around the circle, we skipped every other foot, so our counting sounded like, "2, 4, 6, 8..."  Now we're counting everything by 2s!  Ask your kindergartner to show you.

We joined the other kindergarten classes for an energetic game of Sight Word Bingo.  First we had to fill in our Bingo boards with the words and then we had to mark the words when they were called.  Great listening and hard work led to lots of winners - BINGO!

You Did It!

Congratulations to all the readers at Glenville School!  Your goal for the Spring Build was to read 2011 books.  Not only did you meet the goal, you crushed it and read over 2500 books!  This Saturday, a team of your teachers (including Ms. Conway) will have to work an entire day at a Habitat for Humanity building site - that's a lot of hard work!  K-C brought in so many red bricks that Ms. Conway just knew that she'd be doing a whole bunch of hammering, nailing and sweating. Thanks to all of the K-C families who donated a Golden Brick, we'll be bringing a very generous check to present to Habitat on Saturday.  Way to go, K-C!

Happy Earth Day!

I hope everyone has been enjoying the week off!  Although the weather is not terrific today, I hope you're all outside celebrating Earth Day.  In case it rains later (or Mom and Dad are just looking for a fun activity to keep you entertained after 7 days at home) here is a fun Earth Day game to play.  Just print it out, get out some scissors and glue and enjoy!  See you on Monday!

Click here to download

Popcorn Words

Popcorn Words are words that "pop" up everywhere: in books, magazines, newspapers, signs, cereal boxes, TV - you name it!  Also known as sight words, these are words that we should be able to read quickly, without having to sound them out.  We have been working with the kindergarten list of 25 words that we'll need to know by the end of kindergarten.  To practice our popcorn words, we've been playing games, working in literacy stations and writing them in many different ways.  We even write them in shaving cream - what a messy way to practice!  Working with these words at home will help reinforce what we're doing in school.  Let's all get popping!

Quite A Cast Of Characters!

We've spent the last few weeks studying some favorite characters.  We've explored the feelings and actions of various characters and we've made connections between these characters and ourselves.  We worked with the following stories during Readers' Workshop, Literacy Stations and Writers' Workshop. 

Take a look...

      Mrs. Wishy-Washy

       The Meanies

        The Little Red Hen

Fancy Words for Fantastic Writers

We've been working hard during Writers' Workshop to improve our writing by using a rubric (a fancy word for "a chart with expectations.")  We use the rubric to help us remember all of the things that we need for great kindergarten writing.  The rubric also helps us know what we need to work on and what we can do to make our writing even  better than it already is.  We meet with our friends and with Ms. Conway to get feedback (a fancy word for "ideas") and suggestions for our writing.  What fantastic authors we're becoming!

Spring Has Sprung!

Finally!  We've been enjoying the beautiful weather every day - no more inside recess for us!  Please remember a light jacket or sweatshirt when getting ready in the morning because it can still be a little chilly when we go out before lunch.

Welcome to Our New Blog!

We're going to try something new - a classroom blog.  Check in every week or so to see what we've been up to in K-C.  We'll post pictures, curriculum highlights and other classroom news, so stay tuned...