I'm Going to Count to Three....

Yes...I am just as surprised as you are that I've posted on our blog for the first time this year! Yay! The 2011-12 school year is in full swing and the duck class has been hard at work! We've learned so much already! Last week I snapped a few pictures of the kids on pajama day, during math. We were learning about the number three and making towers of 3 with linking cubes when I grabbed the camera to capture some grins....and other expressions. :)

As much as I desire to update our blog on a regular basis, I still haven't worked that out yet. Thanks for your patience, parents! I have lots of pictures to add to the blog...since Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is doing well since the tornado outbreak on April 27th. Dr. Harris has communicated so well with us through the automated phone alert system and Twitter during our time off. We received the call this morning that school will resume on Monday, May 9th. I look forward to seeing my sweet class then, and finishing out what has been a fantastic year in Kindergarten. I have some exciting things planned for the next 3 weeks!

I will email you all soon with changes to the schedule regarding Muffins for Moms and the field trip scheduled for May 10. Take care, and may God bless!

Mrs. Byrd

Book Character Dress Up Day--Oct 29

 OK, so it has been over a month since Book Character Dress Up Day--but its never too late to post the pictures! Thanks for helping your little readers with their costumes! We had some GREAT ones!

However, I decided blue isn't really the color for me...or my hair anyway.

Pumpkin Carving With Dads

What a fantanstic group of dads, grandads, and uncles! Thanks for giving your time to show us how its done! The pictures say it all...

ZOO!

What a great day we had together at the Birmingham Zoo in October! Thanks to you, the children had a wonderful experience. We wrapped up our two-week unit on animals and their offspring with this exciting trip, and couldnt have done it without your cooperation and assistance. Here are a few pictures from the zoo...and I really mean just a few! Parents, PLEASE send the pictures you captured as well and I will add them!! I must have been so charmed by the rest of the animals I forgot to take their pictures, so enjoy these of the lorikeets!

Number Bonds

We have recently begun to learn about number bonds in the Duck Class. What is a number bond you say? I thought this description from letsplaymath.net says it well..."A number bond is a mental picture of the relationship between a number and the parts that combine to make it. The concept of number bonds is very basic, an important foundation for understanding how numbers work. A whole thing is made up of parts. If you know the parts, you can put them together (add) to find the whole. If you know the whole and one of the parts, you take away the part you know (subtract) to find the other part.

Number bonds let children see the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. Subtraction is not a totally different thing from addition; they are mirror images. To subtract means to figure out how much more you would have to add to get the whole thing."

The accompanying pictures show us using "number bond bracelets" to make the number bond of 3. Children explored different ways to make 3 by manipulating the 3 beads on their bracelet, such as 1 and 2; 2 and 1; 3 and 0, etc. We will do this and many more similar experiences with number bonds through 10 this year.

Farm Day!

EIEIO! The students and teachers in Pod 3 had a wonderful Farm Day 2010 thanks to many parent volunteers. Furst, the students made their own farm-style trail mix, called Chicken Feed, with Cheerios, Peanuts, Sunflower Seeds, M&M's, candy corn, and raisins. Yum! Next, we went on a hay ride around the school courtesy of Mrs. Farr's kind husband, Farmer Bruce. Then we dug through a pile of hay for hidden treasures, and had our faces painted with pumpkins and apples. We went back to the classroom for a game of "Chicken, Chicken Where's Your Egg? It was a fun time for all!