Good bye School, Hello Summer!

Here's to all the memories we've created through the year.

Here's to a wonderful group of kindergarten students.

Good luck in grade one!

Grade One Orientation for Raymond Elementary is:

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

8:30 am - 10:30 am

Hope to see you there!

Special Visitor

Kindergarten was pleased to welcome Dexter the Chameleon for a visit this spring. Mr. Heggie taught us all about how camouflage really works with these amazing reptiles, and we had a chance to see him up close.

Foot Long Ears

To prepare for Easter, we had funny kicking back, taking of our shoes...

And tickling our toes with paint!

St. Patrick's Day Chaos

Following St. Patrick's Day tradition, we left a shoe in our cubbies, hoping to find some leprechaun treasure. When we arrived at school today, sure enough, there was a quarter in each of our shoes!

....but this is what our room looked like! Those crazy little leprechauns were up to mischief again! And though we tried our best, we were not successful at catching one. Maybe next year!

I Am A Leprechaun

I am a leprechaun and I love to dance.

I am a leprechaun with ants in my pants.

I am a leprechaun and I love green.

I am a leprechaun and I'm not seen.

I am a leprechaun and I love gold.

I am a leprechaun and I'll never grow old!

By Lucy and her mom

Preparing for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is the perfect opportunity to get creative and use some problem solving skills to build and design the perfect leprechaun trap. Mrs. Thomson's kindergarten classes planned two different yet interesting models.

The first was a leprechaun playground. It came complete with a swing set, slide and jungle gym. Only problem was that the gravely bottom possessed a sneaky surprise - beneath the gravel is no floor. All the leprechaun has to do is come down the slide and down deep inside a hole, where he will be caught and held fast by a sticky amount of duct tape, till we return in the morning for our pot o' gold.

The next trap was based on the same principle, only, instead of constructing a playground, we designed a leprechaun swimming pool. Now just to wait and see what happens....

Reading Buddies and Acts of Kindness

February's Character Education trait was Kindness, and each class was assigned a secret 'buddy' class to surprise with three separate acts of kindness. Our first act was to scrub down desks and chairs, while grade 2 and 5 were away from their room. We almost got caught, but that just made it more exciting.

Our second act was a cookie and candy flower bouquet, which we left to be enjoyed, as well as dozens of paper hearts all over the other classrooms.

Finally we gave the teachers a much deserved break - by spending time reading with their students. We learned that not only is it easy, but it's also a lot of fun to treat others with kindness.

Who Said Dinosaurs are Extinct?

Steven Wright said that dinosaurs are alive and well in the imaginations of children - and he couldn't be more right!  We kicked off February with the all time favorite Dinosaur unit, and what a learning experience it was! 

We learned how to build dinosaurs using shapes, and then made some of our own.

We became paleontologist and researched dinosaur food and habitats,

We simulated the extinction of the dinosaurs with a explosive volcanic eruption!

And we even met a few of our favorite dinosaur friends!

Happy Valentines!

Roses are Red,

Violets are Blue!

Happy Valentine wishes

Especially for you!

Dinosaur Art

We put the ever popular play-doh to work to create our very own dinosaur sculptures.

Toothpicks add a nice touch...

But no dinosaur is complete without a splash of color!

Flashlight Spaceflight

In gym this week we took a flashlight spaceflight in our gym.  We put on our spacesuits, strapped ourselves into our rockets and blasted into outer space.

As we floated through the galaxy we kept our eyes open for alien friends.  We found a few, and chased them down.  Those aliens sure are fast!

But nothing is quite as beautiful as the universe when your flying through the stars!

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

We're going to the moon!

If you want to take a trip,

Climb aboard our rocket ship.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

We're going to the moon....

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Blast Off!

~Popular Children's Verse

Take a Ride on the Snowflake Express

I was sorting through some pictures yesterday and realized that I never posted our pictures from our Christmas pajama party.  We started out the day with a ride on the snowflake express.  We each received a ticket to ride on this special train, which was punched by the conductor.  Then all aboard!  We went down steep mountains, twisted, turned and bumped along the track.

We enjoyed warm cocoa...

It was creamy....

Chocolatey....

Delicious...

And when we reached the North Pole, we watched the movie Walle (in honor of our recent recycling unit)...

While munching on popcorn...

And on our way home, discovered a special treasure under our chairs.

Merry Christmas!

On The Open Road

Our theme to kick off the new year is Space/Transportation.  One of our activities was to make large road maps and use toys cars and other vehicles to drive around on our creations.  Here are some pictures of our hard work and fun drive, out on the open road.