Friday, December 17, 2010

A Festive Week

Everyone had fun this week.  Math topics such as lines of symmetry, equal parts, and fractions were introduced and/or reinforced. Besides  working on 'free write' stories, watching Brainpopjr. and Discovery Education videos, we sang Christmas Carols daily.  We ended the week with a holiday party.
A special thanks to all of you who shared goodie bags with the class. The children were thrilled with their heavy load that was to be brought home.

Mahalo nui loa for all your support you have shown to K-1 this year.We look forward to an exciting 2011.

Monday, December 13, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Hi Parents,
Friday, December 17th is the start of Winter Break. All HMS students will be released at 11:30am. Please pick up your child by 11:45am from K-1. Preschool and Kindergarten students may be picked up class side.


We are going to be celebrating our 100th day of school on Tuesday, January 25th. It is a kindergarten tradition to celebrate it in grand style. Brainstorm different items with your child that he/she would like to collect. After making a decision, your child is to count 100 of these items. He/she is to arrange and display the 100 items in an interesting and creative way. The items may range from Transformer stickers to Barbie shoes to dots. (Please NO food items.) Projects may be posters or self standing. Kindly have your child write the title and the numbers from 1-100. The students will display their 100's creations in class. This will also be a unique opportunity for other classes to tour the Kindergarten classrooms.I hope you and your child have special fun and memorable learning with this problem solving activity.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Kindergarten's Winter Program

Please enjoy this short slideshow of the program today.  The children worked hard and gave an an awesome  performance!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Our Winter Program is just around the corner.  Please let me know if you will be walking to our classroom afterwards to work with your child on the Gingerbread House Picture Craft. Kindly refer to the invite on this blog.

The schedule for Friday, December 10th is as follows:

7:50 - Classroom doors will be opened
8:00 - Please bring your child to school early as they need to prepare for their performance
8:15 - Students will leave class for the Social Hall
8:30-9:30 - Preschool and Kindergarten  Winter Program
9:30-10:15 - Gingerbread House Picture Craft Activity in K-1

All elves should come dressed in red shirts and dark colored shorts.
All trees should wear green shirts and dark colored long pants.
Each child is wearing a headband of  Christmas garlands made in class.

If your child would like to share goodie bags with the other students in K-1, please bring them in by Thursday, December 16th.  They'll be placed in the Long's recyclable  bags and distributed on Friday, December 17th. 

All the children have been most cooperative and so busy with holiday projects.  Besides listening and responding to Christmas stories written by popular authors Jan Brett and Dr. Seuss,  they created snowflakes, and wrote  about what made them happy (for Bodhi Day). 

For Math, molding play dough into solid shapes such as cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres was a fun activity.  They learned which solid shapes could slide, roll, and stack.




Sunday, December 5, 2010

Thursday, December 2, 2010

You're Invited

Please open this card for a special invitation from K-1.

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

On Friday, December 3rd,  Bodhi Day services will be held in the Temple.   This is to honor the enlightment of Siddhartha Gautama  when he became the Buddha, the fully awakened one. Please have your child dressed appropriately for the occasion.

Congratulations to our two students who received certificates of recognition for their fine creative writing that were displayed on the bulletin board outside of the Library.  Other students will have the opportunity to share their work in the future.

Everyone has been busy working on numbers: ordinals, even and odd, and skip counting.   Their practice  counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's at home and school has made them quite comfortable with it.

Show and Tell is always a favorite time to share new or old items.  Encourage your child to participate. It's a good way to practice public speaking.

There are always smiley faces when  stories are read, followed by artwork with writing.  I hear only positive comments about these assignments, which pleases me to the utmost. They are doing a super job with their innocent, spontaneous responses.

Our Winter Program, scheduled for Friday, December 10th in the Social Hall will be delightful.  The Kindergarten classes will perform their play at 8:30am. until approximately 8:50am.  Parking will be tight, so please plan accordingly.


Friday, November 26, 2010

Reflections on Sea Life Park

Everyone was impressed with the sea creatures at Sea Life Park.  View their watercolor masterpieces with writing and  listen to their feelings.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Holiday Card Exchange

Hi Parents,
Various classes teamed with 24 other classrooms around the world to exchange holiday greetings.  Cards could be sent either by mail or electronically.  This is a sample of  our card shared via email.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010

A Day at Sea Life Park

We had a bright, sunny day to enjoy the animals at Sea Life Park. Besides having fun, we learned many things about the sea lions, penguins,dolphins, and sea turtles.




Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Fun Times

We have watched some videos and viewed several books about the Solar System this week.  The most interesting fact we learned was Pluto was not a planet, but a dwarf planet. It orbits the sun just like other planets, but it is smaller. A dwarf planet is so small it cannot clear other objects out of its path.

For Free Write, we watercolored anything that was related to Thanksgiving. Cornucopias, turkeys, and Native American Indians  were some of the things we painted with our stories written below it.

Skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's, took our breath away.  Some of us had to jump up and down, move our arms in circles, jog in place, or tip toe in a circle while the rest of the class skip counted.  Those chosen to do these movements were exhausted. Those who counted had alot of practice.  But, we still need to work at skip counting!!!


A Thanksgiving Service will be held at the Temple on  Wednesday, November 24th. We need to dress nicely for this occasion.  All of us in the Kindergarten classes are asked to bring one (1) canned good  as an offering.   Mrs. Lee said we could bring the canned good in earlier than Wednesday just in case we forget.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Career Day

What will we be when we grow up?????? We had a chance to dress up in an outfit of our future career. It was fun, especially since we could use some of the same costumes that we wore from Halloween.

We  listened to two parents who spoke about their jobs.  Mr. Ogomori, Jaden's dad,  is an attorney. He explained that when people have a problem and can not solve it, they hire him to help them settle their disagreement. Another guest speaker was Billy V., the news and radio personality.  He said he had about
4-5 jobs and loved all of them.  The best part of his day, though, was waking  at 3:00a.m. everyday. I don't know if I would want to get up that early to start my job!!!!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Voicethread

We had fun  making this voicethread for our friends in Massachusetts and our moms and dads. Mrs. Lee told us a voicethread is a tool for having a  conversation around digital media, like images, video, etc, and sharing it online. We think we'll be working on another voicethread soon.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Newspaper article about our Skype pals

Dear Parents,
Here is an online version of the story about our Skyping in the Daily Hampton Gazette. I am sure the children will be thrilled when they listen to this.

Kindergartners exchange ideas with Honolulu students
by Rebecca Everett

With help from technology and the efforts of two kindergarten teachers, 16 students in Gail Poulins kindergarten class at the William E. Norris Elementary School have the modern-day equivalent of pen-pals, even before they know how to write a letter.

Poulins class has been using a video-chat computer program called Skype to communicate with a class of kindergarten students at the Hongwanji Mission School in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I think theyre still in awe of it, Poulin said of the childrens reactions to the project. Students on both ends of the Skype sessions are asking and answering questions about the weather, what school is like and what life is like 5,000 miles away, Poulin said.
Theyre listening and absorbing a lot, Im impressed, she said. Yesterday we were making a list about our ideas about our Hawaiian friends, and almost every child contributed with what they know about where they live and what their lives are like.
The classes third Skype session was on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. which is 8:30 a.m. for the Hawaiian students. Poulin said that her students are starting to grasp the idea of different time zones, the different climate there and the different foods they eat.
They love that they can wear shorts and T-shirts all the time there, she said. Also, they talk about Spam because they like to eat Spam there almost everyday, so I know Ill have to let the kids try some soon.

Wendy Lee, the kindergarten teacher at the Hongwanji School, found Poulins name and contact information on a list of teachers who were interested in having Skype pen-pals and contacted her earlier this year. Lee said that the children in her class are awed by Southamptons autumn colors and snowy winters. They are gaining so much from this experience, which books can never replace, she said by email.

Poulin agreed that the experience is very valuable because the students are starting to get a bigger picture of the world outside Southampton. Anytime they can make a personal connection to something or to the world, it will help them down the road. Anytime someone mentions Hawaii, or that weather or even time differences, theyll have a stronger understanding of it because of their exposure to another part of the world, she said.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Hi Parents,
Thank you for submitting the Sea Life Park Parent Consent Form with payment.  The children will be thrilled to visit the Park  in about 2 weeks to observe the Penguin Habitat, the colony of California Sea Lions  waiting for herring handouts, the talented cast of bottlenose dolphins and sea lions at the Hawaiian Ocean Theater, and other amazing creatures which are part of the Park's Educational Program.

We are completing our Math chapter on  Number 10-30 and will begin Math Patterns.Some of the goals for this chapter include:
  Count orally to 100 using a number chart
  Skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s
  Recognize even and odd numbers
It would be helpful if you could find some time at home to practice with your child .

In Science, the focus will be on Earth and Space.  We'll discuss and learn facts about the planets, as well as complete a  floor puzzle with graphics showing the whole solar system.

K-1 Skyped with our Massachusetts buddies on Thursday.  Our students learned that many families in Massachusetts have their own swimming pool, have fun playing in the Autumn leaves, and running around outside for recess, despite the cold weather, is essential  for their physical fitness.

Reminders:
Wednesday, November 10: Career Day: Your child could come to school dressed in the the attire of the career s/he career chooses, i.e. policeman, fireman, nurse, dentist, etc.

Thursday, November 11: Veteran's Day: No School

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Saturday, October 30, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Hi Parents,

Everyone received a Pizza Hut coupon which is valid until November 31st as a reward for completing their October reading requirement.  However, at this young age, I’d prefer to encourage ‘reading for pleasure’. The children are developing their personalities as they involve themselves in an imaginary world.  Books are great at doing this. So, instead of the Book Logs and Report, I’d like you and your child to just have fun together reading and sharing thoughts and feelings about books.

Everyone had a blast on Friday, celebrating Halloween. Many thanks for your generosity and thoughfulness in sharing treats with the children.  A special arigato to Shohtaro and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nunomura, who left goodie bags for everyone before his return trip to Japan 2 weeks ago.  We all miss him and wished he was here to join us in the fun.  We are waiting for  his return  to HMS in about 2 weeks.

Kindly return the Longs green recyclable  bag by Monday, November 1st.  They will come in handy in a few weeks.

Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire.  ~William Butler Yeats




Halloween Fun

Halloween is the one of the best school days since  so many fun things  are planned.  In the morning, grade level games were played on the grassy area.  There were games were teachers too.  Later, we created spider cookies using oreos, licorice,  and other things. Those were yummy. After recess, everyone was excited playing 'Pass the Spider' and 'Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin'.  The best part of the day was dressing up and showing our costumes at the Social Hall to our families and friends.

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Our Presentation of Learning

Mahalo nui loa to  parents who  attended the first Presentation of Learning.We had so much fun writing and drawing about our Skype buddies in Massachusetts.  Sharing our stories and pictures  to you today made us feel like the song we sang.  It's a world of laughter, a world of tears. It's a world of hopes, and a world of fears.  There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware, it's a small world after all.

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For moms and dads who  weren't able to come, we wish to share this slideshow that K-1 made especially for you.
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

 Dear Parents,
Tomorrow is Picture Retake Day.  If you wish to have your child retake their individual pictures, complete a picture retake form from the office and return the original picture packet.
Kindly RSVP if you plan to attend our Presentation of Learning on Thursday, October 28th. Your child would love to see you there.
Book Logs and one Book Report are due Thursday, October 28th.  Continue to read to them, or vice versa as this will improve their reading and writing skills.
HMS is celebrating Halloween with a school wide parade on Friday, October 29th at 5:30pm. Your child may bring his/her costume to school or you may bring it when you come in the late afternoon.  My classroom will be available for you to help them change into their delightful, charming, or captivating outfit after 4:45pm.  All children must be dressed and ready to leave my classroom by 5:20pm.  I will be leading them to the parade route.  We will follow the parade route one time, then file back to K-1 classroom, where you  may pick up your child.
Remember to log on to  http://k-1happytalk.blogspot.com/ for all the latest important news about our class. Your child would also enjoy viewing it, so please consider listing it under ‘Favorites’ for easy access for them.

Ciao,
Mrs. Lee


Grandparent's Day

Today was a special day honoring our loving grandparents.  By the looks on their faces, they thoroughly enjoyed our singing and special tribute to them. As  part of the celebration we ate chocolate shortbread cookies compliments of Michael and his family. A special thanks to Saito Sensei who organized this memorable event.

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Halloween Cheerios Counting

Learning to recognize and write the numbers 14, 15, and 16 are fun, especially when we glued Cheerios to pumpkin cutouts. The best part of this activity was eating the extra cereal on our plates.

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Dear Parents,

The children had another opportunity to Skype with our friends in Mrs. Poulin's Kindergarten class in Massachusetts. It was such a wonderful experience for both classes. They showed us some huge pumpkins that they brought back from their field trip to a pumpkin patch earlier that day. And both classes had questions and answers about life in Hawaii and Massachusetts. The children are so spontaneous with their responses. It would make anyone smile.

Later in the day, a streaming video was viewed about the life cycle of a pumpkin from seeds to harvesting. The children were impressed since we don't get to experience the seasons, nor see a pumpkin patch too often.

Several educational websites, as resources for children, are available so we have the opportunity to view and discuss them. Various resources are designed to motivate children to read with phonics, or to learn about various topics in Science , Social Studies, Health, etc. What a wonderful and engaging way to share and absorb new information.

Next Tuesday, October 26th, is Grandparent's Day. Attire is whatever suits their fancy. Headbands, created in class will be worn. The program begins at 8:30am and will be in the Social Hall. Parking is tight, so please make arrangements to arrive early.

On Friday, October 29th,  the Kindergarten  students are encouraged to dress in orange and black. The Student Council has a game planned for class representatives  in the morning.  After morning recess, K-1 celebrates Halloween with games and a cookie creation activity.  At the end of the day, each child will be  given a 'Longs' recyclable bag with his/her name tag  filled with goodie bags from their classmates. We hope that they don't eat all the goodies by the time you pick them up from school!

These 'Longs' recyclable bags will be used throughout the year for special holiday goodie bag  treasures, so kindly have your child return the bag to me on Monday, November 1st. Thank you.

Please note:
Monday, October 25th - Fire Safety  Guide Pledge due.  Please discuss fire safety with your child. Return the last page of the Fire Safety Guide, signed by you and your child.

Wednesday, October 27th - Picture Retake Day.  Please complete a Picture Retake Form (from the office) and return the pictures taken, before or on Wednesday.

Thursday, October 28th - Book Log and 1(one) Book Report due. Your child should reflect on one book s/he read. Drawing and coloring a picture of a character, setting or anything about that book, then writing freely about that picture would be a perfect  voice with a choice.

Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.
-- George Evans


Much aloha,
Mrs. Lee

Performance Plus

School is so much fun.  There are so many activities to work on but so little time.
The story Where the Wild Things Are  was a hit especially when we created our own monster using  paint instead of markers on white paper.  Paintbrushes and washable paint are the best because it is so messy.
We can't seem to get enough of the iTouches .  Typically we use it about 10-15 minutes  twice a week. All the apps  are fun and helps us learn. Some of the titles are '4 Letter Words', 'F_ish', 'Shapes', and 'ABSea Creatures'. Other apps haven't been used yet, but we need to get familiar with a few of them first.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Hi Parents,
The days have just been whizzing by.  Before we know it, Christmas will soon be  here. All the children have been busy having fun and learning through group and individual hands-on projects, etc.

We started a 'Weather and Seasons' Science Unit.  The children started to explore the  types of weather, such as: windy, rainy, snowy, and sunny.  We had discussions about activities that they would do and clothing they would need to wear for each kind of weather.  They shared their wish for snow on Oahu, but alas, the only islands that would experience the white stuff are the Big Island or Maui.  The art activity today was to create a scene they'd enjoy when it was a sunny day.  The results were fabulous.

The students will begin counting, recognizing and  writing numbers 10-30.  Counting forward and backward on a number line is another learning concept that must be mastered and applied to real-life situations. You could ask your child to count or write the number of cars, people, toys, etc.  to practice  the skill of counting.


 I know many of you might be concerned since there isn't any blue Japanese folder in their Homework Folder. But..... there will no Japanese homework this weekend, October 14-17.


Shohtaro returned to Japan until mid November. We hope him well while he attends an International School  in Tokyo.

                           

Monday, October 11, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Many thanks to:
>Mrs. Nagamine for creating and updating the Family Contact list.
>Families who donated books to the class from the Book Fair
>Everyone who submitted the Halloween RSVP  and the Grandparent's Day Program
>Mimi Paule and family who will donate 2- 5 pound pumpkins for our pumpkin seed counting activity.

Just a few reminders for the upcoming weeks:
> My Bedroom Map  - due Wednesday, October 13
> Fire Safety Booklet - due Monday, October 25- Please discuss and submit only the last page
> Book Log and 1 Book Report - due Thursday, October 28

Saturday, October 9, 2010

iPod Touch Fun

We had such a super surprise the other day. Many iPod Touches, which is the most popular game player in the world, were brought out for us. There were 10 iPod Touches so some of us shared and others got one for themselves to use. We played two games so far. One was building 4 letter words and the other one was matching the shapes. I wish I had one to use at home. Maybe I'll put it on my Wish List for Santa.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Kids Vote Rally

The entire school was involved in a Kids Vote Rally in the Social Hall. Special guests such as David Chang and Mrs. Vasquez, who are running for the House of Representatives and Ms. Lyla Berg, the founder of Kids Vote Hawaii, were invited to our morning assembly to talk about the importance of voting. Our HMS student body learned that voting is our responsiblilty and will become a habit since we are the leaders of tomorrow. We must wait till we're 18 years old to do that, but that is only a few years from now. The most fun was singing the Kids Vote song to the tune of 'Y.M.C.A'. There were many news teams from KHON and Hawaii News Now tv stations who visited, took videos of us, and spoke to some of the Student Council officers. I hope I see myself on television tonight.
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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Our Storybird - The Eyeball Story

We were giggling so much when we created our Storybird, which is a short story with pictures that we all made together online. We decided to pick a monster theme, so different monster images were chosen. Our friends added ideas for the story and in a wink, our story was ready to be published. It would be nice if we could read this together. There are more published Storybirds from other children that we can read and share together.

The Eyeball Story on Storybird

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Our Skype Experience

Early this morning our class Skyped  with a Kindergarten class all the way from South Hampton, Massachusetts. With Skype, we  could really see the students and talk to them using the computer. It was so exciting.  Reise showed them what a musubi looked like since they didn't know what it was. They had never eaten Spam too.  We sang them the song 'Leis' and they liked it.  We learned some things about them. Right now, the leaves are turning red, yellow, and orange colors.  Very soon the weather will be very cold  and even snowy.  They like to eat pizza and most of them bring home lunch.  They live in a rural area so there aren't  tall building or many cars.
We hope to Skype with them again really soon.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Our Honolulu Theater for Youth and State Capital Field Trip

On Wednesday morning we were so excited to ride the yellow school bus to Tenney Theater to watch a play about Dinosaurs. After that, we walked across the street and toured the huge State Capital. We learned all about the statues, the pillars, and why it is shaped like a volcano. I hope our parents take us there again to walk around.

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Who Can Stack the Most Oreos?

We went to our grade 4-8 buddy classroom today for an Oreo Stacking Contest. It was a wild and fun time watching our friends trying to stack the most cookies on top of each other. Two boys were the best stackers, as they had 19 Oreos all stacked before they came crashing down. After we all had a chance to stack and count the cookies, we got to eat them. Yummy!!!!

National Dot Day

We celebrated National Dot Day on Wednesday, September 15th by wearing dots or polka dots, and holding paper dots.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

How 'Bout Them Apples

Do you really know which apples have the most seeds? Our class activity was to find out which apples had the most seeds inside. Each of us got to choose an apple - Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, or a Granny Smith apple that was on the table. We had to guess which apple had the most seeds. Most of us really thought the Red Delicious would have the most seeds. It was so much fun to put our fingers into the flesh of the apple to find all the seeds in our apple. The surprising part was when we learned that the apple with the most seeds were the "Golden Delicious" apples. The best part of this activity was, of course, eating our apple.

K-1's First Day of School

Our first day in K-1 was filled with many smiles, much eagerness and a little bit of fear. We realized our old and new friends were here to share a journey.