Enjoy your break!

There is no school December 24th-January 4th.  School resumes January 5th.  Have a Merry Christmas and see you in the new year!  :)

Merry Christmas!

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Grinch Cookies

We had to improvise the "hearts".  :)  Thanks to everyone who brought in supplies!  Here is the recipe if you want to try at home.

Star of the Week

#staroftheweek pic.twitter.com/YYDUbH2jkd
— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 22, 2014

Christmas Projects

A BIG thank you to Miss Heather and the 4th grade helpers for coming in to our class and helping put together lots of Christmas projects this afternoon.  The kids had a great time - we hope you enjoy them!

Thank you for the Books!

A huge thank you to United Way of Yellowstone County and First Interstate Bank for coming to our class this afternoon.  They read us the story "The Hat" by Jan Brett, and then presented each kindergartner with their own copy to take home.  We were also joined by Brenda Koch, who is the Executive Director of School Leadership Support. The kids really enjoyed this!

Winter Program 2014

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Pajama Day!

On Tues. December 23rd we will have a visit from Santa, make Grinch cookies and watch The Grinch (cartoon version).  Kids can wear pajamas, if they'd like.  However, we will still go outside for recess so be sure they have snow gear and boots.  Thank you!

What Should We Name Our Elf?

Created with Padlet

Star of the Week & Student of the Month

#studentofthemonth pic.twitter.com/xvNJD2VpTd

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 15, 2014

#staroftheweek pic.twitter.com/pkV7MisDS3

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 15, 2014

Coding

To celebrate the Hour of Code, we are using Kodable (a free app) in our class this week to begin learning how to code.  The kids are really enjoying this challenging problem solving activity!

Reindeer Live Webcam

You can watch a live webcam of reindeer and read reindeer facts at Animal Planet!

Reindeer Facts

Fun Gingerbread Activity

Cute activity to make an Elmo gingerbread man online.  http://www.sesamestreet.org/games/art?c=xmas&t=xmas

How Candy Canes Are Made

Today we were using Wonderopolis to wonder about candy canes.  They have this cool video showing how candy canes are made by hand at Disneyland.

Skype with Children's Author in England

We just Skyped with children's author Jonathan Emmett, who talked to us from England!  He read his story The Santa Trap.  The kindergartners loved his story and the beautiful illustrations.  Check out his website for more information about Mr. Emmett, and for more stories & games.

Practicing teen numbers

Heights Middle School Ideas

We are brainstorming ideas for the new Heights Middle School name, mascot & colors.

Stars of the Week

#staroftheweek pic.twitter.com/oUgxIjhjt2

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 8, 2014

#staroftheweek pic.twitter.com/clNWF6BEbW

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 8, 2014

Gingerbread Story Retells using the Shadow Puppet Edu App

Today we used the app Shadow Puppet Edu to create "puppet shows" of a retelling of the gingerbread man story.  The kindergartners illustrated their own puppets.  The students who finished their shows published them to their Kidblogs.  You can watch them if you have QuickTime player installed on your device or computer.  They really did a great job, especially considering this was their first time using this app!  Here are a couple of great examples.

Gingerbread Activities Online

Click the image below for a great collection of online learning games and activities with a gingerbread theme.

Gingerbread Stories

After reading Deanna Jump's Gingerbread Man story, where they keep their cookies in a jar, we talked about where we would keep our cookies.  Check out our Kidblogs for our stories about where we would keep our gingerbread boys and girls!

@KidblogDotOrg after reading @MrsJumpsClass gingerbread jar story. pic.twitter.com/RdZwFzY78K

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 4, 2014

Winter Concert 12/18/14

Our Winter Concert will be on December 18th at 9:00 and 1:15.  Parents and families are encouraged to choose only one time to attend (because of space issues).  Our kindergartners are singing songs from Frozen.  Students are encouraged to dress nicely and can wear Frozen costumes if they have them.

Gingerbread Science

Today we conducted an experiment to answer the question "What would happen if the gingerbread man tried to swim across the river?"  We found these great printables at the blog Babbling Abby.  The kids had to predict what would happen, then write and draw their predictions.  We put a cookie in the water and observed what changes happened, then recorded our observations.

Friendship Feast

We had our #friendshipfeast last week! It was really nice that everyone helped bring food. And the parents were nice. Brayden

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 1, 2014

The Gingerbread Man Story

Gingerbread Men

If you didn't have a chance to decorate your gingerbread boy (or girl) over the Thanksgiving holiday, you can finish and send in any time this week.  Have fun!

Star of the Week

#staroftheweek pic.twitter.com/aIvGYeiqGH
— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) December 1, 2014

Gingerbread Project

In your child's Wednesday folder you will receive a paper gingerbread boy (or girl).  Please have fun decorating it with your kindergartner, and return to school the week of December 1st.  This should be a fun project for your family over the Thanksgiving break!

We Love Pumpkin Pie!

Today we used our 5 senses to investigate pumpkin pie.  We made a Popplet of our observations.  We ate pumpkin pie and graphed if we liked it or not.  We LOVE pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin pie #5senses. Yummy! pic.twitter.com/qw9VADYuR9
— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) November 21, 2014

Who Will Carve the Turkey This Thanksgiving? Book in iBooks

We used the Book Creator and Draw & Tell apps to create another book that students can read in iBooks.  This book was inspired by "Who Will Carve the Turkey This Thanksgiving?" by Jerry Pallotta and David Biedrzycki.  Parents, you received an email with an attachment.  To read the book, download the attachment on a device that supports iBooks.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Food Drive

Thanks to everyone who contributed food for our Food Drive!  We collected 36 items for the Food Drive.  Today we sorted them by their 3-D shape and added together all of the pieces of food we collected.  We collected a lot of cylinders!

New Centers

Playing and learning at two new centers, the QR code center (students scan a code and see a picture, then they have to find the letter that the picture begins with and color it on their recording sheet.  Great activity from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard blog.)  We also have been lucky enough to get two Osmo devices through grant funding.  This is an awesome tool for hands-on play and learning with the iPad!  Wish I would have gotten a picture of their faces the first time we used ... priceless!

Making Butter!

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Some Bread & Butter Tweets

We baked bread and made butter like the #pilgrims. I ate the butter off the stick! Jacob

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) November 18, 2014

We baked bread and made butter like the #pilgrims. I had fun hearing the marble and tasting the bread it was so good! Trenton

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) November 18, 2014

We baked bread and made butter like the #pilgrims. We used the snow to help make our butter more solid. Reese

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) November 18, 2014

Bread & Butter

We baked bread and made butter like the #pilgrims. Here are our observations while we watched our bread rise. pic.twitter.com/NuJTZn2RA3

— Mrs.Piltz' Kinders (@MrsPiltzK) November 18, 2014

Billings School District 2 Educator for a Day program sheds light on new projects | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana

Billings School District 2 Educator for a Day program sheds light on new projects | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana



KTVQ2 spent some time in our classroom this morning while the kids were blogging about Thanksgiving!

$1 Hat Day to Support Riverside Middle School Jazz Band

This Friday, November 21st, bring $1 to school and kids can wear their favorite hat throughout the day.  Donations will support the Riverside Middle School Jazz Band travel to Helena to play for the governor at the State Capitol!  What an exciting opportunity!

Roll & Color

Today we are using the Dice Roll app to Roll & Color this pilgrim.