May 2, 2014

Aloha P2 'Ohana! As our senior kindergarten year is starting to wind down we are beginning to do get ready for first grade. We have been doing first grade math and this week we even got to change our desk arrangement to first grade seating! We are so excited and are loving our new class arrangement.

On Monday during writing we got to create our own "Would You Rather" questions for our classmates. For the first half of our period we thought of and wrote down a "Would You Rather" question with three options, everyone was so creative! Then, for the second half we all came back together as a class, and Ms. Jennings shuffled our papers and passed them back out. We then got to answer our classmate's questions. 

"Would you rather be a horse, a lion, or a clownfish" - "I would rather be a clownfish because I can hide in the anemone"

"Would you rather take a walk, a car, or a airplane?" - "I would rather take a walk because I could see everything."

"Would you rather eat an apple, or a banana, or a orange?" - "I would rather eat an apple because it has sweet juice."

"Would you rather be Hook, Frozen, or a king?" - "I would rather be a king because they have a castle."

"Would you rather be a bat, or Ms. Jennings, or a boy?" - "I would rather be a bat because I like to eat bugs."

On Thursday for math, we started to find missing numbers in equations. Ms. Jennings was so impressed that we grasped the concept so quickly, she even tried this hard problem, which we got correct! These would be really great problems to practice at home.

We also started learning about Australia this week. Ms. Ku'ulei taught us about The Great Barrier Reef. Did you know that the Great Barrier Reef is 1,200 miles long, the longest coral reef in the world? It is home to over 1,400 different types of fish. We got to watch a clip of the Great Barrier Reef on nationageographic.com (http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/oceans-narrated-by-sylvia-earle/oceans-barrier-reef), we were so amazed how beautiful the coral reef was and how many fish live there. We all agreed that we would like to see it in person one day. And on Friday, since we were learning about Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, AND we filled our marble jar, we got to watch Finding Nemo!

On Monday (5/5) we will be doing a special Boys Day project, and on Friday (5/9) is Aunty Carman's and Ms. Ku'ulei's last day with us. We hope everyone has a great week. See everyone on Monday!

April 25, 2014

Aloha P2 'Ohana! As always, we had such a great week. We started our week off by getting presented with a trophy from Ms. Samson and her dog-friend (puppet) Sippi, for having the best attendance last week out of all the kindergarten classes. Yay! Great job P2! We can't wait it win another one.

On Wednesday, we wrote about our favorite book, as well as tell what it was about. We found out that we all liked all kinds of different books! There must be a lot of great books out there. Some of us wrote about a fiction book, and others wrote about a non-fiction book. Everyone is getting so good at writing! We are so proud of all the students.

"My favorite book is Snow White. It is about Snow White and a old lady who killed Snow White with a poison apple, she came alive with a kiss."

"My favorite book is the Ugly Duckling. It is about a duck who was an ugly duckling. He was gray, at the end he was a beautiful geese."

On Thursday and Friday Ms. E subbed for Ms. Jennings (who was at a training). We had so much fun with Ms. E, she knows so many fun songs to help us learn about all kinds of things!  On Thursday, we learned about sea animals. We learned how to tell manta rays and sting rays apart, when an octopus is angry, and so much more! She also brought in a movie with songs and real sea life. We were captivated with the beauty of these sea creatures and realized how lucky we are to be surrounded with most these creatures in Hawaii.

We hope everyone has a great weekend! If you haven't turned in your permission form or money for our field trip to WHEA, please don't forget to bring it on Monday. See everyone on Monday.

April 18, 2014

Aloha P2 'Ohana! We had such a great week this week. On Monday, for writing, we got to create our very own "Would You Rather" cards. "Would You Rather" is a game that we have been doing in class that helps us with our opinion writing. This game teaches us that in order to write a good opinion piece we not only have to give our opinion, but also have to support our opinion by telling why we feel a certain way. Here are some of our creative ideas that the students came up with:

"Would you rather go to visit the Effiel Tower or go visit the Statue of Liberty?"

"Would you rather ride a dragon or an elephant?"

"Would you rather go to school or never go to school?"

"Would you rather have a pet dolphin or a shark?"

This week we also got to have a Healthy Lunch Party because we ran/walked the most miles out of all the kindergarten classes! Mrs. Blaber brought us 3 veggie pizzas from Costco, as well as a vegetables, fruits and orange juice. It was so yummy! We are still walking/running every Tuesday and Wednesday morning before school so that we can win and get another Healthy Lunch Party. So far as a class we have already have collected 122 blue tickets which is equivalent to 30 miles! Great job P2!

Lastly, this week we each wrote letters to a student in P-19. This 5th grade class is gearing up to take their HSA's. We wrote them letters of encouragement to do their best on their tests and let them know that we believe in them. 

"Be good at HSA and do HSA Jayson! I know you're going to do your best!"

"Do your best at math and do your best at math because I am going to be your B.F.F."

We hope everyone has a great three-day Easter weekend! We will see everyone on Monday. Happy Easter.

April 11, 2014

Aloha parents and families!

This week Ms. Ku'ulei did her third and final week of her student teacher takeover. (Don't worry! She isn't leaving us yet!) The kids learned a lot from her this week! 

This week Ms. Ku'ulei read the kids a book that is all about bats, who are pretty interesting animals. They are the only mammals that can fly! On Monday when she read the book the kids learned about some brand new words like echolocation, colonies, and pup. Ask your keiki if they can tell you what these words mean! 

On Tuesday Ms. Ku'ulei taught the kids about cause and effect using the bat book. For example, when the weather turns cold in the winter that creates two different effects for bats. One is that some bats migrate to a warmer location. The other is that some bats hibernate in caves.

This week the kids got to try out something new and exciting for reading. Ms. Ku'ulei gave them each an illustration and she told them that the author forgot to write the words to match! So the kids needed to help. 

Once upon a time I saw three ants going into the basket and I named them Tippy, Wennady, and Cose Cose and they stole my sandwich!

L

I see 3 ants climbing my basket I don't like it.

The kids got really creative and they did so well that Ms. Ku'ulei had them do the same activity again on Thursday, this time telling them their story needed to include a beginning, middle, and end. The class got really into and developed some excellent stories. What a great group of authors we have in P2!

One day Puppie got dirt all over his feet because he rode over the dirt. I put him in the tub. He come to me.

Once upon a time there was a dog in the bath. The dog was bathing. The dog was stuck in the bath.

Our class also won best attendance for Kindergarten last week! That means our class had the highest percentage of kids in kindergarten come to school every day and on time last week. Greats job parents getting your kids to school!

Hope you all have a fun and safe weekend! See you on Monday!

April 04, 2014

Aloha family and friends! We had so much fun with Spirit Week this week. Thank you to everyone who helped their child get dressed up each day. For "Twins Day", we were twins with Ms. Encarnacao's P1 class. We all wore blue jeans, a black shirt, and our hats sideways. It was so much fun to match each other.

On Monday, since we've been learning about Hellen Keller, and interested in Braille, Aunty Carman brought a worksheet that had the entire Braille alphabet on it. We had so much fun trying to decode Braille words and learning to spell our own name:

Can you use the braille alphabet to decode these animal names and one of our classmate's name?

For writing this week, we wrote an opinion piece about if we would rather be deaf or blind. Many of us wrote that we would rather be blind because reading Braille would be really cool. Others of us wrote that they would rather be deaf so that they can still be able to see beautiful things.

"I would rather be deaf because I can sleep good."

On Thursday, we finished our last chapter of our a kindergarten math curriculum! We are now starting our "Getting Ready for First Grade" portion of our math book. In this section, we will first review some of our math skills that we learned earlier in the year, then we will begin adding doubles, subtraction, numbers 20-50, and even beginning to tell time! We are going to be so prepared for first grade next year!

We hope everyone has a great weekend! See everyone on Monday.

March 28, 2014

Aloha P2 'Ohana! We hope everyone had a fun-filled spring break! On Monday, we took some time to share what we did over spring break. Some people shared that they went the beach, others told us that they went to the bowling alley, and some people even got to go to Oahu. Ms. Jennings shared with us that over spring break she got engaged! Congratulations to Ms. Jennings and Mr. Kawai! 

On Tuesday, we filled our marble jar all the way to the top, so we got to have a party! We had to write about what kind of party we wanted to have in the afternoon. We had to add good reasons why we wanted a certain kind of party so that we could convince Ms. Jennings that our idea was the best. 

"I would rather have a ice cream party because it's hot outside and it's cold to eat ice cream"

"Dear Ms. Jennings I would rather have a f field party because I want an extra recess."

"I would rather have a playground party because we can play together"

After reading all of our ideas and reasons, Ms. Jennings decided to pick a playground party because she liked the idea of all of us playing together. It was so much fun! We can't wait to make more good decisions, show more respect, and solve our own problems so we can add marbles to our jar again.

This week in math we started learning about classifying and sorting. We classified by shapes, colors and sizes. 

We also learned two chants that will help us remember our doubles facts and our "make 10" pairs. We really enjoy doing these chants everyday with the hand motions! This is going to help prepare us for first grade. Here are the words so you and your child can do it at home together. (Thank you Ms. Encarnacao for sharing these with us!)

This week we also started reading a book about Helen Keller. We learned from reading this book that Helen Keller was a woman who was both deaf and blind, but was still able to inspire people. We learned that to help her learn words her teacher would spell out words on the palm of her hand. We also learned that Helen Keller learned how to read Braille. While walking to the library on Friday, we found out that some of our signs on campus have Braille on them! We enjoyed getting a chance to feel  Braille and imagining what it must have been like for Helen Keller to read.

Lastly, we would like to congratulate Mahea and Jennifer for being recognized at our "perfect attendance" assembly for being at school everyday and on time during third quarter! Congratulations!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun-filled weekend! See you on Monday.

March 14th, 2014

Aloha P2 Ohana! This week our student teacher Ms. Ku'ulei did her second "take over" week in class, and what a fun and exciting week she planned for us!

We have learned about two European countries this month so far: France and Germany. On Monday the kids had to write an opinion about which country they would rather visit and why. Many of the kids wrote that they would want to visit France because then they could see the Eifell tower!

"I would go to France because you get to see the Eiffel Tower."

"I would rather go to France because we can go up the Eiffel Tower."

"I would go to Germany and France because in Germany they (have) ballerinas and in France I can see the Eiffel Tower."

Ms. Ku'ulei also planned a fun science lesson for us this week. We explored a special "goop" by using our senses (minus taste!) just like scientists. We then had to figure out what this special goop was made of. You can experiment with this at home for yourselves! All you need is corn starch, water, and food coloring.

Congratulations to Marianne and Janet for being this week's Kindergarten C.A.R.E. kids winners! Way to go girls!

The counselors are organizing a Career Day Fair for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders on Friday, April 25th, from 12:30-2:05. They are currently looking for professionals interested in having a booth/table at the event. Some suggested professions (but not limited to) are:
Law Enforcement
Culinary
Medical
Animal Care/Medicine
Performing Arts
Fishing/Ranching/Farming
Laboratory Science
Fire
Military
Education
Home Construction

If you are interested in having a booth/table at our career day please contact Dann Walker at 327-4781.

Hope you all have a fun and relaxing Spring Break! We will see you all on Monday, March 24th!