As promised, the pictures

Climb. Slide. Run. Throw. Yell. Repeat.
There was a high level (movement, volume) of excitement when we first got to the snow.
"Look! A snowball!" And yes, she was wearing a coat earlier... but this is what happens with Phoenician snow days - children get warm.
I think everyone is yelling "snow" or maybe "cold" or maybe just yelling as they try not to fall off the 'mountain'.
Notice the slider in shorts.
Some children discovered that if you kick the pile, it looks like it is snowing!

All the coats and sweaters drying in the wonderful, warm Arizona sunshine (and that's a compound word!)Gloves and mittens:
Very short video clip

Snow!

"I'm washing myself so I'm sparkly!" ~student rubbing snow on her arms

"Look! LOOK! Look what we found! Grass! We found nature!" ~student who dug a hole in the snow pile.

"Can we put some snow in a bag and take it home to show our families?"

It was an exciting morning. Now the children are warming up as they run around in PE, and their coats and gloves are all drying in the sun.

*Pictures coming this evening or tomorrow

One picture from the field trip

At the end of the field trip everyone was supposed to use what they learned (shape, color, line...) to draw a self-portrait. We got to look in some cool mirror paper to see ourselves.

Weather (Science Stuff)

We are learning about weather/seasons in science. Today's topic: wind.

We did this simple experiment that I stole from another teacher, but long enough ago that I don't remember who (sometimes I wish I was the creative teacher who thinks up simple yet age-appropriate and engaging activities, but I'm not, so I just blog stalk other Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade teachers).

Anyway, this is how it works: place the feather on the start line. Blow. Cheer. Mark how far it went. Surprisingly entertaining.
Then we made wind tassels. Here we are checking the wind outside. Not much movement, but more than when we were inside.
So we made some wind by running.
Earlier this week we were talking about rain. Sorry about the poor picture, but trust me, it was cool. We used cotton balls for clouds, soaked up some water, and then squeezed out the rain. We noticed that the clouds were heavier when they were full of water. Then we did it again. And again. And probably a few more times. Apparently it is fun to make a cloud rain. (Thanks to Mrs. Karen for the idea!)

Your smart children

Here is a picture of all the information your children came up with (there may have been a little prompting) as we compared/contrasted several versions of the gingerbread man/boy/girl/cowboy/baby :)
I think if you click the picture, you can see it larger. Or, ask your child something about the story.

:)

"Miss Vis, is E a vowel?"
"Yes."
"Miss Vis, do you know the vowel song?"
"I know a few vowel songs. Which one do you know?"
"The first one God made."

Thank you!

You may not all have gotten a chance to see it, so here is a picture of the picture your children all made. It is super cute and I love it! Thank you!

You are you.

Today for the letter Pp we wrote prayers. We started with Dear _____and talked about how God has different names. Then we wrote a descriptive word/praise. You are ______. We also finished the sentence Thank you for_______ and some children did the last sentence Please _____. Amen

The prayers are really sweet. The children actually came up with some good ideas for the 2nd part. God is awesome, cool, forgiving, nice, good. One child wrote You are you. That sums it up pretty well, doesn't it?

One child said they wanted to put the prayer paper by the nativity so they could read it every night. :)

I'll make sure they go home in the folders tomorrow.

"Best Day EVER!"

"Best day EVER!" One student proclaimed.
And others heartily (enthusiastically, noisily) agreed.
Why? You ask.
Because I got a big box in the mail.
And in the big box was a slightly-smaller-but-still-big box.
We read the word on top of the box that spelled MARKERS.
And the number on the side that said 200.
Of course we opened it right away.
Wow!
We are really excited to use these! Maybe tomorrow since today we were pretty busy with another art project. Also, I think it is great that they come with some extra lids. In case you were wondering why we got 200 new markers, I had entered a contest/drawing through Learning Magazine a while back. Whenever I see free contests etc., I try to enter - it just takes a little time, and you never know if you might win...

Okay, on to other news from this week. The reason we did not use our AWESOME new markers, was because we were trying out pendulum painting. This was something new to me (I found the idea on another teacher's blog this summer). Here is the set up from last night:
And this is what it looked like by the end of the day. The extra table cloth was turned into a walkway to the drying rack. (Hint: if you try this, do it outside if it's nice weather, or use disposable tablecloths underneath, not your nice splash mats that you have to clean after school!)
I have no pictures of children doing the project because my hands were getting rather black. Suffice it to say that everyone thought it was pretty cool. Some children let it swing one direction the whole time. Others tried a few different ways. Some came back to try again and then again :) I don't know how I survived without an art drying rack last year! Here are just 2 of the paintings which turned out really nice.
(We had available either large white paper, or smaller pink/purple - for the letter Pp, of course)
You can see that the paper got pretty wet from the paint below it on the mess mat, especially by the last few paintings. Also, the paint and water separate a bit as they dry; we'll see how they look tomorrow.

Earlier in the week we experimented with a larger pendulum. It was especially nice to have some new/exciting activities when we were cooped up inside all day due to all the rain.
And now you can say that your Kindergartener is participating in informal physics experiments!
Another rainy day treat was getting to play with the super fort.
"Look, Miss Vis! We made a cube! Come take a picture!"
I hope you have a BEST DAY EVER today or tomorrow. And then again after that. Experience life with the wonder and excitement of a child.

Christmas Fun (and some other things that start with Cc)

Sometimes it works out really well that our reading curriculum does the letters out of alphabetical order; we did the letter Cc this week, so we had lots of fun with Christmas activities this week, culminating with Friday afternoon's Christmas party with our 4th Grade Buddies.

Wednesday Ms. VP organized a field trip to see a Christmas teddy bear display. We saw bears that light up, bears that move, a bear nativity, big bears, little bears...
bears that sing
A Christmas tree with 500+ bears on it
Bears on a train
Also on Wednesday we had a guest come in who played part of the Hallelujah Chorus on the clarinet.
We learned that sometimes you can play music by reading notes on a page, and sometimes you can play be ear. Our guest played some familiar music so of course everyone wanted to sing along. Here's a little clip:

And now the party pictures:
Bowling! They decorated some bowling pins (cups) and we taped some lanes on the floor.

Drawing and coloring ornaments
Making snowflake or star ornaments
Yes, I am drawing on someone's face, because this party even featured face painting! (Want to try it at home? Soak colored pencils in water for at least 15 minutes, make sure they aren't too sharp, and be aware that some brands work better than others. We used Crayola.) We did give the disclaimer that neither teacher went to art school, and it was free, so no guarantees on the product.
A pink Christmas tree was requested, and I thought it was actually kind of fun.
This was probably my best work. :)
Here are some buddies showing off their snowmen.
Then all that was left to do was eat a candy cane, say goodbye, and leave for the weekend!

Merry almost Christmas!