Fire Safety and a Give Away!

This week we had 2 Fire Fighters come in to talk with our class about fire safety!  They discussed when to call 9-1-1, what to do if there is a fire in your home (get outside or if you are trapped inside, make a lot of noise so they can hear you), and what to do if your clothes catch on fire (stop, drop, cover your face, and roll).  They also talked about what fire fighters do and then showed us his uniform and explained each part.

Then, he gave each child an "assignment" that I believe is very important.  The first thing is to go with a parent to make sure that each smoke detector has a battery and is working.  The easiest way to do this is to push the button on it and make sure it makes a noise.  The second job is, as a family, talk about where your safe meeting place is if there ever is a fire.  Decide on a place that everyone knows how to get to and that is far enough away from your house to be away from any danger. 

So, because this is such an important assignment, I thought I would do a give away along with it.  I have a Fire Book for one family.  All you have to do is leave a comment stating that you checked all of your smoke detectors and state where your family meeting place is (next to the mailbox or under the big oak tree is fine).  That's it!!  I will be drawing a random winner next Friday, November 4, so make sure to do your fire homework by then!!

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

You may have heard your child talking about filling buckets or being a bucket filler and been a bit confused.  We recently read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and the students really took the book's message to heart.

The book states that everyone has an invisible bucket.  Each bucket is to hold kind thoughts and actions from others.  In order to be a "bucket filler" you need to say and do kind things to others.  This in turn also fills your bucket as well.  (There are such things at bucket dippers too, but we are of course bucket fillers in kindergarten!)

We have been practicing being great bucket fillers by using our manners, smiling at others, using kind words, and giving hugs.  Ask your child what else they can do to fill someone's bucket!

We are so lucky at Knapp that the author of Have You Filled a Bucket Today? is coming to our school on November 15!!  We will let you know what time the presentation will be; I am sure it will be great for all families to attend!!

So, don't forget to fill a bucket today!!

The Apple Orchard!

Last week we had a perfect day for the apple orchard!!  The weather was beautiful, the donuts were delicious, and the students were having lots of fun!! 

Excited for the orchard!

Cider and donuts...a great way to start the day!

Petting the goats.

Playing in the corn silo.

Jumping into the pile of hay...then running around the barn to do it again!

How many kindergartners does it take to milk a cow? :)

Picking the perfect apple.

 

Found it!!

 The pumpkin patch!!

The AM Class.

Feeding the goats.

The Afternoon Class enjoying their snack!

Feeding the goats...surprisingly they were still hungry after all of the food that they got in the morning!

Walking through the apple trees.

Holding and petting bunnies!

We love the orchard!

Picking out some great pumpkins!

The Afternoon Class!

Thank you again to all of the parents who came with us!  We had a great time!

A Little Behind...

I apologize for the lack of blogging this past week.  I was busy preparing for the Chicago Marathon!  It went better than I could have imagined...I felt great the whole time and had amazing support from everyone! 

Before the race with my 2 aunts.

Half way and feeling great!

Mile 25!  So happy to see my family out supporting me!

Cabbage Caterpillars!

We have more pets!!  My husband was out mowing the grass and came across some caterpillars on a weed.  He thought I might like them for my class so I set out to find out what type they were.  I stumbled upon this website that has a gallery of caterpillar pictures where I discovered what he had found were Evergestis rimosalis or Cabbage Caterpillars.  I looked further and found out that they will turn in to moths (pretty boring brown moths) but I thought it would be neat to compare the monarch caterpillars with these little guys.

So far they have been pretty interesting.  They move around a lot and have shed their skin multiple times.  We even had some escape artists get through the top a few times.  Now that their cage is a bit more secure, we are hoping for some neat cocoons!

Here is one coming out of his (or her) skin.  He is coming down out of the skin...the skin stayed attach to the cabbage leaf!

Trying to escape!

They curl up when they are not crawling around...pretty cute!

 Sleeping/relaxing on a cabbage leaf :)

Butterfly Release!

 This week, we had our butterfly, Scooter, come out of our chrysalis!!  The students were so excited that everything "worked" the way I had been telling them it would!  Sadly, I think we are only going to have this one butterfly, the other chrysalis didn't fully form.

In order to have both classes see a release, the morning class joined another class for their release of Buddy and Beauty.  Here they are in the cage.

 We opened the top, but they didn't want to leave!!

Beauty is somewhere in this picture :)

And this is Buddy!  (look closely, near the center of the picture)  Buddy flew around for a bit then landed in the tree right above us!

 Waving goodbye to Buddy!

Here is Scooter!  Flapping his wings, getting ready for his trip to Mexico!

About to release him...

He didn't want to leave either, so I had to put him on my finger...but he didn't want to leave my finger.  We figured he just loved Kindergarten so much :)  He finally flew off and we were able to see him fly for quite some time!! 

Goodbye Scooter!!  We will see you in the spring when you return from your "vacation!"

Fund Racer!!

 Last Wednesday, we had a great day running around the track and raising money for our amazing school!!  The kids all had a great time and many asked, "can we do this again tomorrow?"  Here are some pictures from both classes.


Getting ready for the race!!

So excited!!

And they're off...

Meeting some new middle school friends!

So tired after an hour of running!

The PM class ready to go!

Some future track stars :)

Thank you to everyone who made this such a great success!!