Mrs. Zacherl's Kindergarten Tales

2009-09-08T19:28:00.001-04:00

2009-06-16T10:10:00.001-04:00

Fun on the Farm!

2009-05-01T16:07:00.002-04:00

Well, we lucked out and missed the raindrops and had a wonderful day at Griebel's Dairy Farm in Lucinda. We got to bottle feed the baby calves, meet some rabbits, kittens and goats and tour the milking parlor where a lot of the children had some really great questions for Susie Griebel-our fearless tour guide. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sunshine in front of the farm house. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a great field trip. See you next year, Susie!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-09T16:20:00.003-04:00

We had a busy and exciting today in K108! We made chick masks and our Easter baskets this morning in centers. We even listened to "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick" by Lucille Colandro and Jared D. Lee at our listening center. The Easter Bunny came to visit and hid some eggs outside in the courtyard for us! Regan, a 5th grader from Mr. Henry's room, came to read us an Easter story that she wrote and colored with us. It was very nice of her to volunteer her time and we all appreciated it. Happy Easter everyone!

Meeting With Our Prankster Partners!

2009-04-06T13:42:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, April 2nd K108 got to meet B-7 through some really cool technology. Mrs. Blazosky and I used Skype to call each other and we used webcams to see each other. Our kiddos got to meet their partner from B-7 as well as watch the interactions on our SmartBoard. Some of the questions and comments were so cute! The children were absolutely amazed at getting to meet their partner through the computer. I cannot wait to see what we come up with next!

B-7's April Fool's Day Pranks

2009-04-02T12:02:00.002-04:00

Mrs. Blazosky's 1st graders pranked us good yesterday! Listen to what her class pulled on us!

April Fool's to B-7!

2009-03-30T15:48:00.002-04:00

April Fool's everyone! K108 teamed up with Mrs. Traci Blazosky's first grade class at Clarion Area Elementary to pull some super pranks this April Fool's Day! To get us ready I read the book, April Foolishness by Teresa Bateman. The story is about a young boy trying to prank his grandfather on April's Fools day by making up all these crazy accusations about the farm animals on his grandpa's farm. A very cute story and it got us in the mood to plot our pranks on B-7! During Writer's Workshop we drew our prank and wrote a story about it, and then we used VoiceThread to load the pictures into and record our voices telling our prank. Enjoy!

A Very Special Guest Reader

2009-03-27T07:58:00.003-04:00

K108 had a very special guest reader yesterday! Mrs. Flick, beloved former 2nd grade teacher, read us Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, sang the song Six Little Ducks with us and gave eaach of us a bookmark with a farm animal on it! How lucky are we? We felt very fortunate to have Mrs. Flick come in and spend some of the afternoon with us! We always enjoy having visitors!

2009-03-24T08:15:00.001-04:00

To go along with St. Patrick's Day we also learned about rainbows in our classroom last week. First, we watched a video on our SmartBoard from Discovery UnitedStreaming
about what makes a rainbow. Then we did science centers! They made rainbows out of markers, paper plates, construction paper and green Easter basket grass to represent that there must be rain AND sun present to see a rainbow. We also played a game on the Smartboard where the kids were asked to fill in the correct colors in the rainbow and I did a science experiment with them with just milk, dish soap and food coloring. I out a dab of red, yellow and blue in three seperate sections of a bowl filled with milk. Then I added in the dish soap. The dish soap did not mix with the milk-instead it floated on top making the colors mix and swirl together to make all the colors of a rainbow! The children were amazed as they watched the colors mix and swirl together to see the different colors that were made.

Lucky Leprechauns!

2009-03-19T09:16:00.002-04:00

K108 was ransacked by a tiny and mischevious leprechaun on Tuesday, March 17th! Thank goodness that St. Patrick's Day is over and we have a whole year to be safe from such an attack again! He left footprint all over the floor and tables and he even peed green in our toilet! To top it all off he hung our beloved hot potato from the celining! What a sprite!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

2009-03-04T08:12:00.002-05:00

We had a very busy day for Dr. Seuss's birthday on Monday, March 2nd! We had guest readers come into our kindergarten classrooms to read to us-6 in all! We heard some really great stories from former third-grade teacher Tom Mould, Tye Elder's mother, Tammy Elder, former aide, Mrs. Young, former sixth-grade teacher Nancy Davis, former guidance counselor Danny Williams and Sebby's mom, Tina Siegel read for our class in K108! It was a great morning full of great stories, and it is always nice to see former familiar faces come in to visit!

Wordle

2009-02-26T16:15:00.002-05:00

At Wordle you can type any words that you want into the text box after you click in the "Create" link. Once all the words you want are typed in the text box, hit the "GO" button at the bottom left and your words will be beautifully arranged for you! But it gets better! You can also change the color, position and font of your words! K108 played with this today by typing in our sight words. We had a blast! Check it out for yourself!

Teddy Bear Clinic

2009-02-19T16:28:00.004-05:00

The teddy bear clinic was a great success! The children had a great time learning about taking care of themselves, how to call 911 in an emergency and that the doctor really isn't that scary. We did have some beat-up bears, though, and thank goodness for those kind nurses that helped us fix them right up!

Honest Abes

2009-02-17T20:40:00.003-05:00

Hahaha....I got such a chuckle out of this activity! We talked about Abraham Lincoln today in kindergarten and all the great things he did as President. We watched an animated Discovery UnitedStreaming video about him, did a slide puzzle of his face on our SmartBoard and made our own Abraham Lincoln masks! The kids enjoyed it so much that some of them insisted on eating snack while holding their mask up to their faces! Then at the end of the day we walked to the busses wearing our Abe Lincoln faces! We looked like a parade of Presidents! Check back soon for more about George Washington and our brand new president, Barack Obama. We are also going to talk about what we THINK a president does, what we KNOW a president does and then we are going to talk about what we would do as president. I am excited to hear what a 6-year-old has to say about this!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-17T20:26:00.000-05:00

I thought that their mailboxes were so cute! I love how creative and different they all turned out! We had lots of fun at our Valentine's Day party on Friday. We passed out our Valentine's, played some online Valentine's Day games on our new SmartBoard, watched a Discovery UnitedStreaming video about the history and traditions of the holiday, made that nice poem Valentine for our moms and dads and began to make our Valenine's into a keepsake book. I made all my adorable Valentine's that the children gave me into a book, decorated it and am getting it laminated as we speak. After I get it back it will be in our class library to enjoy for years to come!

Hip Hip Hooray! 100 Days of School Today!

2009-02-10T08:14:00.002-05:00

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We have been waiting for this all year long and Thursday was finally the big day-the 100th day of kindergarten! Even with the two hour delay we still got some of our activities accomplished. We made 100 day glasses, made 100 handprints, shared our
100 day collection and glued it to a 100 piece grid!

Webinar with Robin Moore

2009-02-02T14:17:00.003-05:00

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Today we spent the morning listening to award-winning storyteller and author Robin Moore speak about the history and legends behind Groundhog's Day. We used Elluminate web conferencing software, the Internet, and our new projection system called a SmartBoard(which was graciously awarded to K108 by the Keystone Education Foundation for a grant I wrote this past November) to join the webinar along with over 100 other classrooms across the state. The webinar was sponsored the the PA Department of Education. I hope to find more age-appropriate Webinars for us to participate in, and we are all very excited about the endless ways that we can use our new SmartBoard in everyday instruction.
Robin Moore is an award-winning author and storyteller who grew up in and still lives in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He comes from a long line of storytellers. He has actually visited Keystone Elementary in the past to share his stories and books. As we all know, Phil did indeed see his shadow this morning so that means the dreaded SIX MORE WEEKS of this already loooooong winter. Think spring anyway!

SNOW SNOW SNOW

2009-01-22T16:03:00.002-05:00

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Wow! We have gotten quite a bit of snow in January, but it has been much too cold to go outside lately and measure it! Finally, today it was "warm" enough to go outside...at least the sun was shining! We had a blast today measuring the snow that fell on the playground-we almost didn't recognize it-there was so much snow! We have been learning about measurement in math class so all this snow could not have come at a better time because we really got to put our best measurement skills to the test-and we got to go outside for a little bit! :)

Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!

2008-12-11T16:25:00.003-05:00

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Mrs. Nesta took K108 caroling during their music class on Wednesday throughout the whole school! It was so exciting! Their lovely voices filled the halls with the classic song "Jingle Bells" accomponied by real live jingling bells! Do you recognize any of these elves, reindeer and even SANTA!??!?

2 Hour Early Dismissal

2008-11-20T13:57:00.002-05:00

The students at Keystone Elementary will be dismissed two hours early on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008. The children will be dismissed at 1:35 that day. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Thanksgiving Feast

2008-11-19T13:22:00.002-05:00

We will be having a Thanksgiving feast in our room on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008, in the afternoon. We are going to make a friendship stew and I will be asking each student to bring something to add to the stew. Please send your child to school with the item that I have requested on Tuesday. We will mix it all together in my crock pot and let it simmer all day until we eat it at snack time. I am looking forward to that delicious smell in here all day long! We have been learning about the first Thanksgiving and are looking forward to our own feast!

Open House

2008-10-27T11:37:00.003-04:00

Open House at Keystone Elementary will be held on Thursday, November 6th from 6:30pm-7:30pm. I will have a sign-up sheet available for those of you interested in meeting with me on conference day which is scheduled for Friday, November 14th. Your children will also have lots of work proudly displayed for you to see! Please come and take a look! I hope to see you there!

Halloween Party

2008-10-22T16:15:00.003-04:00

K108 will be celebrating Halloween on Friday, October 31st, 2008. At 9:30 we will be going to the gym to watch a Red Ribbon Week Assembly put on by 6th grade. The Halloween Costume Parade will be at 2:45. Just a reminder that children should dress up as what they want to be when they grow up, and that the outfit should not be distracting during school. If the outfit will be disruptive during school, the outift can be changed into before the parade. Also, remember that non-food items, such as pencils, stickers or some other Halloween gift would be appreciated more than sugary snacks. Under Keystone's Student Wellness Policy, we emphasize healthy eating and snacking as a choice towards a healthy lifestyle, and this is still upheld during holiday celebrations.

Red Ribbon Week

2008-10-21T16:26:00.002-04:00

Red Ribbon Week will be celebrated October 27-31. The theme this year is "Drug Free I Can Be Anything I Want to Be!" A team of energetic sixth grade Keystone students have planned our contests and activities for the week. These activities include an assembly from the Clarion University Health Science Education Center, as well as a closing assmembly on October 31st, where students will hear from our sixth grade team about the importance of staying drug free. In addition to these great activities, all students are invited to take part in Theme Days throughout the week. These include:
Monday-"Red Day"-wear red clothing
Tuesday-"Team Up Against Drugs"-wear a favorite team shirt or jersey
Wednesday-"Put a Cap on Drugs"-Wear a favorite cap or hat
Thursday-"Operation Drug Free Day"-wear camouflage clothing
Friday-"Drug Free I Can Be Anything I Want to Be"-Dress in Career Clothing

Wanted!

2008-10-16T12:01:00.002-04:00

I would love to have some parents volunteer to come in and help out with activities in our room! I would love to have parents come in and read to us, help out with centers or help out with Kid Writing. You could come in and read anytime at all, centers are from 12:00-1:00 Monday-Thursday and we do Kid Writing on Friday mornings from 9:30-10:45. If you are willing to volunteer your time to have some fun with us, please send a note in your child's folder, give me call at the school or e-mail me right here at the bottom of our blog. I look forward to having you come in!

Scaredy Cat Glyphs

2008-10-08T20:44:00.003-04:00

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Happy Fall! Today K108 finished their Scaredy Cat Glyphs! We have been learning about patterns and graphs in math so I thought a fun Halloween activity would be to apply what we have learned about graphs and make glyphs. Here's the key for our glyph:
Green eyes-Girl
Yellow eyes-Boy
Red Nose-Oldest Child in Family
Black Nose-Middle Child in Family
Pink Nose-Youngest Child in Family
Number of Whiskers-How old he/she is
Fangs are present if Halloween is the child's favorite holiday-which for most of them it was! I told them that we will wait and see what they say whenever Christmas rolls around!

Picture Day

2008-10-01T14:21:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 1st is Picture Day! Please remember to send in your child's order form and their prettiest smile! We are going at 10:05 in the morning tomorrow! I cannot wait to see them dressed in their best!

Art Shirts

2008-10-01T11:51:00.003-04:00

Art is going to get messy this year so, if you have not done so already, please send in an art shirt so we have it for Art class this year. Any old shirt would do, but I have personally found that men's long-sleeved button shirts are the best because the kids can wear them backwards with a couple of buttons in the back holding the shirt together. Once I get all the shirts in, I will send the box to the art room for use this school year!

Daily Schedule

2008-09-04T08:40:00.005-04:00

K108 Daily Schedule
9:00-9:30 Arrival, "mystery word", breakfast
9:30-10:00 Circle Time
10:00-10:45 Language Arts
10:56-11:26 Lunch
11:30-12:00 Recess
12:00-1:00 Centers
1:10-1:45 Special Class
1:50-2:10 Snack
2:10-2:40 Quiet Time
2:45-3:15 Math
3:15-3:35 Afternoon Wrap-Up
3:35 Dismissal

This is schedule is tentative and is adjusted regularly to accomodate special events, restroom breaks and children's needs.

Welcome to K108!

2008-09-04T07:45:00.002-04:00

I am very excited about a new year and looking forward to getting to know your child and watching them grow! We will have a very exciting year with lots to learn and do. Very soon I will be busy updating this site with pictures, news, information and upcoming events so please check back often to see what is new! You could also subscribe to my blog if you look over on the left hand side and enter your e-mail address where it asks you to. This way you will be e-mailed automatically whenever I add something new to our blog. Happy new year!