Here's an artsy one!

Happy Holidays from the Green Gators!

 

Past and Present Thanksgiving Feast

All of Magnet Kinder (Mrs. Moore and Ms. Yoerges's classes) celebrated Thanksgiving by comparing the first Thanksgiving of 1621 with the present-day Thanksgiving. We performed songs, dressed as traditional Wamapnog Indians and Pilgrims, and acted in our reader's theatre production of "Thanksgiving Mice." Ms. Turkall came to our feast and read, "Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving," --what a treat! Thanks to all the parents who helped cook and serve! We had a great day!Check out the pictures on the right-hand side of the blog.

Look how wonderful "I Am" Art/Writing Project

 

Each student created a name pattern to not only fulfill higher-level thinking math objectives, but also to express their creativity. We spent some time talking about characters and emotions and talked about characteristics of ourselves. They wrote their own poems about everything they are ("I Am Poems"). Look how creative your student is!

Trick or Treat!

Pumpkin Labs, measurement of pumpkin circumference, and spooky goodies!

Make a Smilebox postcard

It's PUMPKIN week!

Get ready for Halloween, it's pumpkin week! We will be doing pumpkin experiments all week, and doing lots of spooky activities. Here is one of the poems we have been acting out. You can recite it with your student at home!

Thanks for Gardening!

What a beautiful day for gardening last weekend. A HUGE thank you to all the parents and young gardeners who came out. Our class will have our own flower bed. We will be planting vegetables too!

 

We read the book, "Hello, Goodbye Window" and painted our own windows of wat we imagine outside our window. We then wrote short poems: Outside my window I see...
Outside my window I see...

To make the window we sketched with pencil first then put painter's tape lightly over the construction paper to make a window pane. Then, we painted the window with watercolors. Finally, we let the windows dry and peeled the tape off to reveal our windows! Ask your student what he/she sees outside the window!

 

 

 

 

Mr. Penton (Lantrip's awesome Literacy Specialist) came to teach our class about the book, "Hello, Goodbye Window." We talked about what we can see outside our window using our brains and our imaginations. He even brought his crazy monkey friend, Marvin! Your student came up with some SMART thinking!

Check out our adventure!

 

We visited Main Street Theatre to see the play of the beloved children's book, Click, Clack, Moo! Thanks to all the parents who came, we had so much fun!

Field Trip to Click, Clack, Moo!

October 13, 2009 Field Trip!

Events this week:

Monday, October 12th- Parent Workshop from 5-6pm. Come get some supplies to help you students at home. We will also discuss our goals for the upcoming 9 weeks.

Tuesday, October 13th- Field Trip to Main Street Theatre. We will leave school at 9am and head to Hermann Park for sack lunches. After the kids get their wiggles out and we eat, we will head to Main Street Theatre for the fabulous production of Click, Clack, Moo.

Theatre Address:
4617 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77006

Check out the website: http://www.mainstreettheater.com/youththeater/moo.html

Wednesday, October 14th- Early Release at 12:45pm

 

We made treasure boxes for our books at home. Put your treasure box in a safe place and open it each night to read your Open Court books. Also, check out some of our literacy workstations. We have added library, computers, syllable count, Hop Along letter sounds game, writing center, and rhyming. This week we will add even more!

We use our nose to smell...

What's going on this week...

Gators won this weekend and are still #1 in the country, just like our #1 Class!

Please bring an empty shoebox. We will be decorating them to put our Open Court books in. We have to start treating our books like treasures not trash:)

Important Dates:
Sept. 24- Kinder Planning Day--your students will all have subs but we will be in the building.
Sept. 28- NO SCHOOL

Science Home Project: A message from Mrs. Espinosa-
Parents, please work with your child to make a display of five different smells. Your child needs to be able to identify each of the odors or smells of each item. The materials can be placed in baggies or containers, or glued on a chart. The project works best when the class can not identify the items using sight. The students will present their project to the class on Friday, September 25th.

Fundraiser: Kinder will continue to sell paletas after school for $1. Help us reach our goal so we can go on our field trip!

High Frequency Words: Please make flash cards and practice with your student at home. We need these words to read! This week: are, you at. Letters and sounds: Hh and Tt.

We are a Blue Ribbon School!

Congratulations to Lantrip Elementary We are EXEMPLARY AND a BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL!
On September 15 2009, the 2009 National Blue Ribbon Schools were announced by U. S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. 314 public and private schools will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., November 2-3. Two people from each school, the principal and a teacher, are invited to the ceremony. Each school will receive a plaque and a flag to signify their Blue Ribbon School status.

More info. on Blue Ribbon: http://www.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/index.html
This is an INCREDIBLE HONOR making me so proud to work at Lantrip and even more proud of your kids! Give yourselves and your students a HUGE high five...we did it!

Science Projects: Sense of Touch

Check out our awesome science projects! Here are a few--click the Flickr link on the right sidebar to see all the pictures in an album.

Important Dates

THIS WEDNESDAY: September 16th- Early Release (12:45pm)
TPRI Testing: Until September 29th
September 28th- NO SCHOOL
October 14th- Early Release
October 15- Field Trip to Main Street Theatre

Green Gator in Training!

Ashley's baby brother came to get her sporting Alligator gear! He's got a few years before he's in kindergarten but he's already supporting his sister. Go Gators!

Meet our Magnet Science Teacher Mrs. Espinosa

Mrs. Espinosa has been teaching in HISD for 16 years. Her love for teaching began when she started as a special education teacher assistant. She received her degree from Texas Southern University in Bilingual Education. She has taught 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades. She is excited to be part of a wonderful school and can’t wait to make a difference at Lantrip. Mrs. Espinosa believes in developing students’ knowledge, social consciousness, and their ability to be stewards of our great planet Earth. Science is part of our everyday experience and something that students enjoy and can connect with while developing their critical thinking skills. Her goal this year is to create active learners who succeed not only in science but in their lives. She encourages her students to be creative, engaged and active learners.

Birthday Bonanza!

Happy Birthday to Natalie and Antony! We had so much fun celebrating! The kids were covered in florescent icing and happy as can be.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I can't wait to see the Green Gators! I had a wonderful time at the wedding and the Gators (UF) won the first game of the season 62-3!

Our Frist Week!

Our first week was WONDERFUL! The students are quickly making new friends as we explore a community based on friendship, sharing, listening, and kindness. I am currently conducting diagnostics with each student to assess their present skill levels in math and literacy. The data from these will give me an idea of how to pace the class, and set rigorous standards. Please talk with your student about all the fun things we did this week and ask them about our team and how we treat each other. Check out the pictures of us practicing sharing, keeping our hands to ourselves, raising our hands, saying nice things, respecting each other, and walking slowly. Show your student these pictures and constantly go over the rules.

How we Line up, How we Check/Move the team, and Our Rules

We "check the team" 5 times throughout the day. Each student has a star and if they followed our rules, worked hard, did a good job in line/bathroom breaks, and used kind words, they get to move with the team. If the did not do one or more of these things, they have the opportunity to join us on the team the next time with check it if they have changed their behavior. If your student is not on the team at the end of the day, you will receive a note home.

Each student has a number and we line up according to number. This helps us practice our numbers and makes lining up quick and easy! Ask your student what his/her number is!













We read the book, "No, Bono!" and talked about rules in the classroom. Kids came up with these rules all by themselves! We added pictures to help demonstrate those rules.

Google Calendar

If you gave me your email, I sent you an invitation to our Green Gator Google Calendar. It is a great place to find:
1. Important Lantrip Dates
2. The day your child can bring in snack
3. Classroom dates/field trips, etc.

I will also print a snack calendar every month for you.

Welcome to our mean, green, kindergarten machine! I am beyond excited for this year and can't wait to get to know each of your little ones and your families. I will see you all at the meet and greet on Friday, August 21st from 1-3. Please add the Open House date to your calendars--September 2nd from 5:00-6:30. Contact me with any questions.