Celebration Day!

We were very excited to celebrate our success in filling the popcorn jar!  Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Hoyt made it an extra special day!  We had a guest reader in to start the day.  Mrs. Perry, our School Psychologist visited and read the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Next we solved the mystery of what was in the final mystery stocking!  A special thank you to our room parents for the great goodie bags!  All were thrilled!

Discovering the contents of our Parties in a Bag was so fun!

                                       

Then we headed to the gym for a special activity with Mrs. Hoyt.  We used balls, scooter boards, jump ropes, hula-hoops and more!

Before lunch we played Bingo with Mrs. Parnell ............... a very special version in which we had to identify the beginning, middle and ending sounds of words.  It was so fun!

After enjoying the movie we played a math challenge with the 100 chart.  Try this out................I am a number more than 86 and less then 88.  What number am I?!

Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Hoyt wish everyone restful and joyous holiday celebrations and a very happy New Year!  We wanted to thank everyone for the generous holiday gifts!  Be sure to spend some vacation time writing in your new journal, reading books and practicing your flashcards.  12 days is a long time for our brains to have a rest!

Bingo!

Marvelous Monday

It may be just a few days until the holiday break but we continue to stay focused and working in room 101! Today our marvelous Monday was filled with math, writing and various projects.  Our favorite seasonal wrtiting activity ended today..........the Mystery Stocking.  We can not wait to find out what was inside it this time!

We worked on creating our January calendar pieces

We read the Scholastic News and compared various seasonal holidays.

Ryan's mom helped us make some reindeer heads.

The antlers are our handprints!

Computer Lab- Reward Time!

Room 101 filled the popcorn jar!  As a result students voted on a reward that they would like.  They chose between things like show and tell, more recess, a special art activity and time in the computer lab.  Computer lab time was the winner!  Mrs. A was very excited to hear that and planned something special for us to do.

Mrs. A spent a few minutes with students introducing the activities she had planned for us.

We made a computer generated Gingerbread House

We did more coding activities

We had free time on Symphony math!

Volunteer Schedule Posted

The volunteer schedule for room 101 has been posted.  Go to the Parent Volunteer Schedule tab at the top of this blog page.

We were Successful!

Attempting to make a circuit

After discussing what a closed circuit is we each attempted to create one with a light and battery.  It was a challenge but we were very proud of ourselves when we completed the task!

Mystery Stocking

Each year Mrs. Parnell and Mrs. Hoyt introduce the Mystery Stocking.  Something mysterious is hidden inside and students are welcomed to feel the stocking to figure out what it might be.  Then everyone must write and illustrate their ideas.  This afternoon we did our third Mystery Stocking reveal..........it was a tube of bubbles!  There was a tube for each student..........be sure to remove them from your backpack tonight.  Thank you Mrs. McCabe!

Bubbles!

Test

Hello Pine Glen Room 101 Families -

This is a test

- We are wondering who and how many people are reading the blog.  Please reply with a comment and let us know if you look at the blog.

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Thank you!

Electricity

The eyes light up so this must be a conductor.

Today we began our brief study of electricity.  We shared what we already know or think we know about electricity and then brainstormed things we know that use electrticity.  Students were introduced to the electricity owl  It helps us discover things that are insulators and conductors.   One of our stations tomorrow will provide us all the opportunity to explore this a little further.  We will also be learning and exploring with simple circuits and learning to use a battery to light up a mini-lightbulb.

Everyone quickly figuired out which items insulators and did not choose them.  The wooden ruler, piece of felt and plastic items were not selected.

Healthy Students

We are all doing our part in school to keep healthy.  We wash our hands frequently and remind students to wash when visiting the restroom.   Handsanitizer, Wet Wipes and tissues are readily available.   Teachers encourage students to cover and keep germs contained.

Please help us by adhering to the district's health policies regarding spreading germs.   Students should be free of fever or stomach issues for 24 hours before returning to school.  If given medication they should be given the medicine for at least 24 hours before returning to school to ensure they are not contagious.

Many germs spread quickly in school.  Thank you for your assistance in keeping everyone healthy!

Symphony Math on the iPads

We practiced logging on at school

Students in kindergarten are utilizing the Symphony Math program at school and now you can do it at home too!  The Symphony software will work with your home devices.  Students will be bringing home sign-in information later this week.

The neat part is Symphony Math adjusts to your child's learning style and skill level.  The material presented to them as they practice will be appropriate to where they are at.  Therefore, try not to help too much.  Direct them to use the Lifesaver button.  This button will alert the program that the student is having difficulty with a particular task or concept.

Pine Glen 4th and 5th grade Holiday Concert

Today we went to the Pine Glen Holiday Concert!  It was terrific.  We listened to instumental and vocal performances performed by students in grade 4 and 5.

Pine Glen Chorus

Front Row Seats!

Candy Canes

We made candy canes with beads with Kayleigh's mom!

Look what I made!

AND we did all this work with our PJs on!  What a fun, silly day!

Polar Express Day Projects

After our special reading and snack time we returned to the classroom for some fun project in honor of our Polar Express Day!

We worked on the holiday book page Christmas.

We made picture frames!

We wrote about the Nutcracker field trip!

We played a Dreidel game with Jacob's mom!

Fun with friends

Hot Chocolate!

Snack time!

In line ready to purchase snack!

For many kindergarteners this is the first and only time they make a purchase in the cafeteria during the school year.  Typically kindergarteners are not allowed to purchase extra snacks at lunch time.  Therefore the experience of going through the lines to make a purchase of snack food is a big treat! And the lunch ladies prepared a special treat of hot chocolate and marshmallows for all to enjoy.  What fun!

Hour of Code certificates

Mrs. Ardizzoni stopped in with certificates for all participants in the Hour of Code!

Mr. Lyons Read the Polar Express to Us!

Polar Express Day started with a reading of the story by Mr. Lyons.

The entire Pine Glen kindergarten came to school clad in PJs.  Even the teachers were in pajamas!

Mr. Lyons posed with room 101 after the reading!

Hour of Code Reflection

As a follow-up bit of information to the Hour of Code information posted earlier this week, Mrs. Hoyt shares some insights from a high school participant.  Her daughter, Cat posted feedback on Hour of Code on Thursday.  Her blog post is below:

Hour of Code Reflection: Challenging the Way You Think Posted on December 12, 2014by cathoyt This week millions of students and teachers alike logged into the Hour of Code websiteand completed several coding tutorials. The concept behind that was that by encouraging participation in just one hour of coding we not only demystify what this scary “coding” thing is but also teach that virtually anyone can do it. Burlington Public Schools decided to join in on the movement and encourage participation in ‘The Largest Education Event in History” during Computer Science Week from December 8th through December 14th. The link to the BHS smore for Hour of Code can be found here. Students and teachers where encouraged to tweet out images of themselves or their classes taking part in the coding tutorials this week and all of those tweets can be found through the #hourofcode twitter hashtag The Hour of Code tutorials that I participated in where Course 4: Stage 1: Tangrams, Stage 2: Maze and Bee, Stage 3: Artist, Stage 7: Play Lab: Variables and Flappy Code. I started out with Flappy Code because I’ve played the game before and thought it would be fun to work on the mechanics of it and after I had finished I wanted to challenge myself more so I chose different parts of the Stage 4 exercises. I used my Mac to complete each of the tutorials because I had heard that there were some restrictions on the iPad and I wanted to have as many options as possible. I found some of the final levels of each stage in Course 4 to be challenging. I enjoyed how the games I was playing and creating seemed childish but when you began to get into the mechanics of how even the simplest of games function it was challenging even for me. Looking at each problem I would instantly think “Oh that’s easy” and would end up being stumped on it for ten or fifteen minutes because it was making me think in a way I wasn’t used to. I found the instructions for my tutorials specifically to be very helpful. Being the kind of person who skips past instructions and tries to figure things out for myself, whenever I was stuck on a level I would go back and review the instructions and I would instantly understand. I also got the chance to assist Mrs. Chang’s class in their participation of Hour of Code. It was really cool to watch how tentative all the students were going into the tutorials and how reluctant they were to log out at the end of the period. In fact, the bell rang and every single student had made a premeditated movement to pack up or log out. Just goes to show that the world of Computer Science isn’t that scary after all. Having completed Hour of Code I don’t know if I would say I am more interested in exploring the field of Computer Science as much as I would say I am interested in exploring the ways that Computer Science and coding can develop me as a student and the way in which I learn. I think that being given the chance to participate in Hour of Code has allowed me to use my brain and think in ways that I never have before and that participating in this experience can be beneficial to students and teachers alike because it promotes new styles of critical thinking that can be applied in many situations aside from the field of Computer Science. All I have to say to future participants of the Hour of Code is Challenge Yourself! Find a tutorial that is interesting to you or seems manageable to get yourself comfortable with the concept but then begin to choose ones that seem difficult or interesting or unique. The experience is what you make it. If you go in there and pick the easy ones just to get it done you wont learn anything and you probably wont enjoy yourself. If you challenge yourself, there is a sense of accomplishment upon finishing and that cheesy digital completion certificate is more rewarding than you might think! Hour of Code Certificate of Completion Posted in Help Desk Posts, Weekly Reflections | Leave a comment

For more photos of Hour of Code and more information see Mrs. Ardizzoni's post from December 11:

Hour of Code

Students at Pine Glen, and thousands more around the world have been actively participating in the Hour of Code this week.  Coding promotes logical thinking and students' abilities to translate their thinking into step by step directions.   Take a look at our students coding and visit the Hour of Code website to give coding a try.  http://hourofcode.com/us