Mrs. Sabine’s Kindergarten class

Thursday May 20

The children are looking forward to the class picnic (permission slips on Friday), but we a have a few more exciting experiments before the school is over for the year. On Tuesday (about 9:00 AM), we have an“event” planned with 5th grade to study the human body in relationship to gravity, adhesion, and inertia.
Problem: How many feet of duct tape will it take to tape a Kindergartner to the wall for 5 minutes?? We have two teams of 5th graders competing for time and feet. We have only two Kindergartners fully suited in protective clothing (11 back-ups for just in case someone gets sick!) just waoting to “hang around”.
Questions to consider: What would be the best position for the body? Home Depot duct tape or Nascar-type? Are any fix-its allowed after the stoll is removed? Can a harness be incorporated into the duct tape as a structure (NO).
The children fashioned the volcano for another experiment today…it is pretty awesome. Friday (28th) the siesmic gurus tell us that pressure will be just right for a few major lava flows,maybe even a catastrophic blow-out!
Please join us for either or both events.

Friday, April 30
Our friends in the fifth grade class helped us with dirt today!! We started our seedlings for the outdoor garden. We will also start seedlings for the home gardens but closer to the end of school. If you have a preference for your garden (like heather) send in a packet of seeds with your child’s name written on it and we will create our gardening magic.

It is hard to believe that it is the end of April although the children were commenting about the heat this afternoon and some even complained about “almost dying” from the heat during lunch recess!

Have a great week-end and congratulations to the First Communion recipients.

Friday, April 23
The classroom was filled with lions, and tigers, and bears (oh,my!) this afternoon as the children made great progress with their puppets.

If your child has a reading part for Thursday’s Mass, please help him/her practice the line(s). Also practice genuflecting (!) as the gift bearers need this skill at the altar. We will practice in the church on Tuesday as a group and Sister Roseanne likes to do a quick run through with the child doing the introduction (Tommy) and the reading (4th grader Colletta).

Enjoy the week-end and soak in the “rays”.

Tuesday April 20 The dirt cup sale was a huge success and a real learning experience for the Kindergartners…who can make change for a dollar? Is this a nickel or a quarter (especially the new nickels!)? How many dimes in fifty cents? We raised $125 for Father Roosevelt in Haiti. That is a lot of dirt cups!!
Our last Kindergarten Mass is Thursday, April 29. I will hand out the “speaking parts” this Thursday. This time we will create a banner or poster.

Tuesday, April 13 Welcome back to the real world!! The children excited to share their time-off-tales whether they went away or stayed in town. They seem very relaxed and ready to forge ahead to June…they also happen to be VERY chatty but then they have many things to share with their friends!
We will start our seedlings for our outdoor garden and need either a gallon milk container (I will cut them to shape.), one of the tall muffin containers (plastic w/ a lid), or a 2 liter pop bottle to “greenhouse” our seedlings. Just send it in whenever you have an empty.
Next Tuesday will be our last fund-raiser for our Father Roosevelt and Father Ram in Haiti. We are selling dirt cups for 50cents during the lunch hour. I asked the children whether they thought that dirt cups would be a good treat and over half of the class were sceptical (at least!); the others knew the secret of the dirt cup and explained to their friends. The worm was a hit! Please let me know if you could bring in a tray…I can borrow a few of the metal food trays from the kitchen – not the big serving trays! just the thin metal ones.

Thursday, Maech 25 Wow, It is actually mid-March already!
The Toy sale went well today and the children took their cues from their 4th grade buddies and really started selling the goodies on their table like carnival hawkers! We have very few toys left this year…which is wonderful. Barb K. counted the money this afternoon and I will get a total from her tomorrow. Thank you very much, Barb.
We had a rather laid back afternoon as the children were tired. We painted the backdrop for the puppet show and tried out some new puzzles. More exciting though was measuring with rulers and Mr. Sabine’s rolling measuring tape…it is “really, really long”! but not as long as some of the biggest dinosaurs.
We are praying for good weather for spring break…

_Thursday, March 18

The children and I have started a new project that includes a puppet show. Each child is choosing an animal that s/he is interested in learning about…where it lives (general and detailed habitat), what it eats, Friends and foes, and any other facts that the class might think is interesting. We are doing computer research and I will send home any books that I might have on the animal (anyone have a book on rats?!) After the break, I will send a sheet with questions and/or ideas, The children will make hand puppets of their animal and we will set up some kind of interview show so each child can tell the class about their special animal friend.
Enjoy the week-end,
Mary Kay Sabine
Tuesday March 16 Happy St. Patrick’s Day I will miss the children tomorrow especially since it is Wacky Wednesday! The hair and clothing ‘outfits’ are a hoot. So much imagination.
For the Mission Gently-used Toy Sale on Thursday, March 25…all the children are welcome to stay until 12:30 or so to participate in the activities. Just pack a brown bag lunch for them so s/he does not starve to death. We usually eat with a 4th grade friend whenever there is a lull in the customer traffic.
Enjoy the sunshine!

Friday, March 5
Today’s Stations of the Cross were illustrated on the big screen by hand-drawn pictures of each station. I noticed that these pictures really caught the children’s attention and made this service more meaningful to them. They do understand that this is different from Mass and are beginning to understand why we go each Friday. There were NO complaints today…pretty impressive for Kindergartners on a bright, sunny Friday afternoon,

We had a “stuck-in the mud” incident on the playground this noon which resulted in boots and snowpants coated in mud. Luckily, she annoeched it before she squished down the hall! Please put an extra pair of socks in your child’s back pack throughout the spring! With any luck, no one else will need to use them.
Have a great week-end and soal up as much sunshine as possible.

Tuesday March 2 Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!! We joined our 5th grade friends to add a few more pages to the classic Green Eggs and Ham – with some clever results. Seuss wpuld be proud!
We also completed our celebration of Chinese New Year (a bit late) by whipping up a batch of veggie fried rice which many of the children Kindergarten and Preschool really enjoyed. The children sawed away at the veggies, preparing carrots, celery, peppers, and sugar peas for the electric skillit. The small wafted into the hall and made the other students’ mouth water.

Friday February 25 Our first attempt at testing the strength of an egg shell was a bust—literally! I used an old egg and it only held 26 books. However, a fresh from the grocery store egg was able to support 73 classroom books before it collapsed. The children were very proud of our egg because last year’s egg was pretty puny in comparisaon with only 51 books before the collapse. So now we understand just a little better why birds’ eggs don’t break when the mom sits on them…even an ostrich mom!

Tuesday February 23
Thursday we will celebrate Chinese New Year with our friends in afternoon preschool by making Dragon Dancer masks and “dancing” our way throught the school…maybe, even the parish office. The children will also help Mrs. Couture and me cut up vegetables for our own version of fried rice, a staple in some parts of China.

Please remember to save dryer lint for our spring paper-making project…especially if yopu have a red load! It adds a beautiful pastel tint to the paper.

November 3
Please check your child’s backpack for the newsletter and an update on this week’s Eucharistic Service. It is Kindergarten’s first time in the liturgy rotation and we are doing a very brief scenario with a Good Shepherd and the flock. Four of the children will read the petitions with a 6th grade friend. I have sent each short line home attached to the newsletter. We practiced in the classroom and they did seem comfortable but please run thru the line a dew times with your child.
I have sent a copy of the newsletter home with each child this week as I am still having trouble with my computer at home and wasn’t certain that I could upload to my website.

Kindergarten_News_October_5.pdf

Kindergarten_News_October_12.pdf

Kindergarten_News_October_19.pdf

Happy Halloween party! I will be subbing for Joanne tomorrow as she needs to spend time with her Mom.
The parade and party should go smoothly and without a ripple…OK, I might be in just a bit of denial but it
will be terrific and the kids will have a good time. We will start the parade around 9:30ish with the party
right after. Pray for dry weather in the afternoon as I plan to “reward” them with an extra special outdoor
recess just about the time the sugar hits their systems. Pray hard!
Many of the children are coming in their costumes which is just fine but please send a change of clothes
along for the noon recess…and the afternoon recess as I would be very upset (not to mention the children)
if someone destroyed their princess or clone costume swinging from the zip line.

Please save glass spagetti jars and their lids for science. Send them in any time…I think the plastic
Mayo or Miracle Whip jars might work also. I need bigger openings and clear containers. Thank You.