End of Year Blues...

Hello Kindergarten Families,

At this time in the year I always get some end of the year blues....but I want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Summer! I am so sad to say good-bye to these kiddos, I have loved getting to know your child  over this past year and watching them grow. It has been my pleasure to have them in my classroom and I hope they/you feel the same way! I cannot wait to see what they do in first grade and hope that they will all come visit me next year!

A few of you may have heard from your kiddo that I am expecting a baby!! Word travels fast, especially amongst 5-6 year olds. One of the kiddos overheard me talking to an adult and news spread like wildfire! I am pregnant and due in December! The kids have been very sweet and are sharing the news with everyone! It is a very fun time and I am happy to see their excitement! 

Have a wonderful summer and I will see you next year at Mt. Jumbo for an amazing first grade year!!!

Love,

Mrs. Baied

Game Day

Game day was a blast with all of the other kindergarten students!!!! We played Duck, Duck, Goose, Freeze Tag & Everybody's It!!!

Exercise Day...

Doing Sit-Ups

Yesterday we celebrated one of our final days in kindergarten with our ABC countdown. We wore exercise clothes and had a break in the middle of the day where we went  with all of the other kindergarten friends to the front of the school to sweat it out! We did a lot of different exercises, ran a lap around the school and ended with a cool down lap. It was a lot of fun!!

Lots of Push-Ups

Running the lap

Counting Down To The End of Kindergarten.....

We have started counting down to the end of Kindergarten with an ABC countdown. 

Each day we will celebrate with a different letter and activity. 

Tuesday was A and we became Artists and created an art masterpiece!!

Today was B and we went outside to Blow Bubbles!!!

We are having a blast counting down to 1st grade :)

Farm Field Trip

We just got back from our field trip to the farm and the all-abilities playground! It was a blast and there are a lot of tired kindergarten kiddos. They may hit the hay a little bit earlier tonight! :) 

The farm was a great experience and we were able to see so many different things. We saw 250 chicks along with three geese in a round tub. The teacher taught us about animal skeletons and showed us a cow skeleton, an ostrich skeleton and a pig skeleton. We were able to feed pigs and lambs and pet piglets, a Sumatran chicken and a cow. Our trip the farm was wrapped up with a tour of the green house,metal and wood shop.

We left the farm and went to the All-Abilities Playground the play and had a great time!!!

Thank you to Marin's Grandma, Thatcher's mom and brother, Talulah's mom and Steve's mom for joining us on the field trip, it was great to have you all along!!!

More Flexible Seating Options...

Hello!

I hope spring break is treating everyone well. Mine has been great!! I was in California for a few days then came back and prepared the classroom yesterday with Mrs. Griffith for Super K! It looks great and we are very excited for Monday to come :)

I also spent some time over break writing up a new project for Donors Choose, the program that funded the bean bags and pillows we currently have in the classroom.
I am hoping this time to get funds for some stools and different seating options so I am writing to ask you to share the website with family and friends, anyone who would be willing to contribute to our classroom. Thank you to those of you that have already helped! The kiddos are doing great with the options available at this time but the more the better.

Follow the link below to donate
http://www.donorschoose.org/project/additional-flexible-seating/1952848/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=proposal_message_via_donation&rf=email-system-2016-04-feedback_donationmessage_teacher&utm_swu=9681

Thank you!

Love Mrs Baied

Happy Spring Break!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful 10 days off with your family! I will be excited to see you on Monday April 11th to begin our Super K classroom :) I am off to California to see my nephew Jack and go to Disneyland!

Love Mrs. Baied

Spring Cleaning...

Subtraction Smash

Springtime Subtracition

I apologize for the delay in posts but the springtime sicknesses got the best of me! I thought I had recovered from the stomach flu but it was immediately followed by a chest/head cold..I think I have finally kicked it and I am hoping to stay healthy for the remainder of the year! 

Coloring a springtime crown

Listening to Splat the Cat

Today we learned subtraction but completing a subtraction smash!

Counting by 10's

We started learning about ducks this week as well as other spring activities!!

I can't wait to see everyone at conferences to brag about how awesome the kiddos are doing! :)

Love Mrs. Baied

Lucky....

We have had a fun week talking about St. Patrick's Day, completing sorting activities and discussing reasons we are lucky! Take a peak at some of our fun!! I am such a LUCKY teacher to have these amazing kindergarten friends!!! I cannot wait to brag about them to you during conference time :)

SUPER KINDERGARTEN!!!!

Hello Kindergarten Families!

We are excited to announce a new learning opportunity that will occur after spring break! Here at Lowell School we pride ourselves on being innovative educators that meet our students’ needs through engagement and dynamic teaching styles.  Mrs. Baied and Mrs. Griffith have taken the opportunity of a lifetime to further themselves as educators and pilot an innovative combined classroom or “Super K” teaching model.  Beginning after spring break, Mrs. Griffith’s class will be moving down the hall and into Mrs. Baied’s room which will be turned into a Super K classroom. It will provide all of your kindergartener’s normal daily routines with the added bonus of an extra teacher and more kindergarten friends.  Mrs. Baied, Mrs. Griffith, and Mr. Bessette are all excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to make the switch!  All line up areas, specials schedules, daily schedules, and folder routines will remain the same.  You are encouraged to still communicate with your child’s assigned classroom teacher, but know that they will now have TWO teachers to help them be their best each and every day.  The only change that will affect parents will be that Mrs. Griffith’s room number will now be #101 (just up the hall nearest the doors on the left), and the best phone number to use to reach both teachers will be (406) 728-2400 x4443. We are excited to extend our classroom communities to include more kindergarten friends and be able to meet the needs of more of our students.

What will learning look like in Super K? For the majority of our day one teacher will teach whole group mini lessons to introduce new concepts while another teacher will be either co-teaching, providing behavior support, or pulling small groups for extension or reinforcement activities.  This means that nearly each child will get small group or one-on-one instruction EVERY DAY!  Both classes already combine to do many activities together and follow the same progression of skills sequenced throughout the school year.  Super K will reinforce many academic skills as well as social skills such as sharing, character development, and allows for more developmentally appropriate centers and play time. 

Mrs. Griffith’s class will be making visits to our new Super K classroom, and both classes will engage in conversations about the changes in an effort to familiarize all students as much as possible before the transition.  In addition to involving students, both teachers will work hard to pass on information to parents as decisions are made. As with all changes nervousness is to be expected, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher with any questions and concerns.

Love,    Mrs. Baied and Mrs. Griffith

Projects...

Rainbow clouds using adjectives

Colors of Me

Ended the week with a rainbow snack

Q-Tip Rainbows

Rainbow week was so much fun! Take a peak at some of the projects we made...the kiddos loved learning about colors and the rainbow. Please keep an eye out in your students' folder, it is almost time for parent/teacher conferences again. A sheet will be coming home Thursday to confirm the time of your meeting. Please contact me with any questions.

Love Mrs. Baied

Rainbow Week

We started our Rainbow week of learning today by wearing RED!! 

A lot of the kiddos participated, great job! 

 Today we made a chart about rainbows; what we know about them and what we want to learn about them. On Friday we will add the things that we have learned!

We also learned a cool way to remember the colors of the rainbow, ROY G. BIV  (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Ask your child if they can tell you the colors of the rainbow!

See you tomorrow for some more kindergarten fun!!!

Love Mrs. Baied

Extra, Extra, Read All About It......

I will be at a meeting Wednesday morning from 8:00-10:00, there will be a guest teacher here but I will be back after morning recess.

Thursday I will be gone all day, I am traveling to Kalispell with the kindergarten team to observe some classrooms up there. Mrs. Meyer will be here to spend the day with the kiddos; they will have a fun filled day learning about the color green and having art with Mrs. Swanson. I will be back on Friday!

Drop Everything & Read + Throwback Thursday

On Wednesday we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with a pajama day!! At 8:40 every student in the school dropped what they were doing and grabbed a book....we lined the hallways with children reading! It was a great experience! The kindergartners all read Seuss books either alone or with a friend. Ask your child what their favorite Seuss book is.

Listening to what happens when we put the Pop Rocks in our mouths..

Thursday was Throwback to the 80's Thursday! We had a blast listening to 80's music, dancing, coloring bright pictures, experimenting with and even completing a math assignment that went with the song 867-5309 (Sorry I know it is now in your head :))  

It has been a very fun week in kindergarten, we will end today with Flannel Friday and get ready for our Rainbow Week!! See you in Monday in pink or red!

Love Mrs. Baied

Such a fun week full of rhyming, laughter and fun!! What was your favorite day??

Red Red Red

Today we kicked off Read Across America week by wearing RED!! Each grade level was assigned a specific color and ours was red, great job of wearing red kinder friends!!!! We read Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish today. We did some red fish/blue fish math, made oobleck with our buddies, made Dr. Seuss character puppets and talked all about rhyming words. It is going to be a fun week!! See you tomorrow in your tutus and ties ;)

Lowell Teachers LOVE Read Across America Week!!!!

Brush Your Teeth...Brush Your Teeth

Brush, brush, brush your teeth!!!!

Today we had a special dental health presentation from The Dentist of the Rockies. We learned all about brushing, flossing and healthy foods for our teeth. Some of our friends were picked to dress up as teeth and be the examples for the tooth brush activity. 

Ask your child:

How long should you brush your teeth?

How many times a day should you brush?

What is one type of food that is good for your teeth?

What do we put on our tooth brush when we brush?

Don't forget about Read Across America week next week!! See you in your red on Monday :)

A large piece of our STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum  focuses on how the design process and how to be an engineer. Today we talked about the design process for a paint brush, as well as its structure and function. After we talked as a whole group the students were given supplies including feathers, pom poms, Popsicle sticks, tape, and string and told to turn them into a paint brush. It was very interesting to watch the students make a paint brush. It took about 25 minutes for them to build their brushes and then the real test happened. The kiddos had to see if they could paint a picture with their brushes, most of them came out great! They are bringing their brushes home today and will bring home their paintings tomorrow (after they dry).

Today we also had Ms. Crista come from the Clay Studio. She is a teacher that is coming to integrate art into our classroom and she taught us how to use clay. The students played with the clay, made a pinch pot and then created whatever they wanted. It was so fun to watch their imaginations! They will be doing a few more projects with her and will bring all of them home when we are completely finished with the curriculum.

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