Mrs. Glaze's Class: All Aboard the Polar Express

Big Spring Lake kindergarten began the week of Christmas celebrations with a field trip to see The Polar Express! We wore our pajamas, ate popcorn, and enjoyed the movie. When we returned to school, Santa dropped by for a surprise visit and gave us all a special bell to remind us of the magic of Christmas. We even finished the afternoon with hot cocoa and ornament making. BSLK is a very fun and special place to be, especially during the holidays! 

BSLK Family Night

Jingle bells were ringing and Rudolph noses were shining on Tuesday night, December 5^th, as kindergartners and their parents enjoyed a fun night of holiday music at the annual Big Spring Lake Family Night.  The night began as parents gathered in the gym to listen to strategies they could use at home to help their child be successful in kindergarten.  Tips included working on counting to 100, such as counting their cereal as they eat or counting houses or signs as they ride in the car.  Emphasis was put on reading to children daily which is imperative to help them be exposed to the necessary vocabulary and help them grow into lifelong readers.  Big Spring Lake gifted each family with a copy of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats so they would have a special book at home to read together.   Parents also received a copy of the school’s Essential Rules, which help children learn manners and etiquette.  After the presentation, it was time for the show!  Students wearing reindeer antlers and glowing with shiny red noses marched in with their bells ringing.  They entertained the audience with a variety of fun Christmas songs which included Jingle Bells, Up on the Housetop, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Feliz Navidad.  It was a fun night for all!

Mrs. CN Chamblee/Onofre's Class: I is for Ice Cream!!

Mrs. CN Chamblee's and Mrs. Onofre's class made homemade ice cream for the letter I. The kids each made their own ice cream in their own zip lock baggie. They mixed together the ingredients in a bag and then put that bag in a big baggie with ice and ice cream salt. They shook their baggie up until it froze and made ice cream. The kids had a great time and really enjoyed making ice cream for the letter I.

Mrs. C. Chamblee's Class: Reader's Theater

Mrs. Chamblee's class has been learning how to do reader's theater and they recently entertained us with a short play.  As Mrs. Chamblee read the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, the students used props to act out what was happening in the story.  The rest of the class made the sound effects to go along with the book.  They did an outstanding job!!

Mrs. Cavannah's Class: ESL

The ESL students at Big Spring Lake have been very busy this year! In addition to learning their ABC’s, sounds and numbers in their classrooms, in the ESL classes they have been learning a lot of vocabulary and expressions to describe things around them and daily routines.  Some of the topics we have studied are: school vocabulary (for survival in their new environment), their body (so they can tell someone what hurts them), and what they do to get ready in the morning to come to school.  Pictured is one of the classes with the big book that is used to introduce the unit on “Getting Ready”.

Mrs. Bryant's Class: Downtown Field Trip

Mrs. Bryant's class and the rest of BSLK went on a field trip downtown.  They got to play on the playground at the park.  While there, they got to pet Conrad and Fluffy, two sheep being kept in the community garden (thanks Mr. and Mrs. Penney!).  After the playground, Mrs. Bryant's class got to visit the library.  There they listened to a few books and met the three library guinea pigs.  The students also got to visit the bakery at Foodland and learn about food prep.  Thanks Foodland for the yummy cookies!  At the post office, the kids got to check out the mailboxes and learn all about how to post office works.  Finally, everyone got to visit the fire station. There we learned about the firemen's gear, the fire truck, and explored the fire station.

Mrs. Bouldin's Class: All about M

September was a fun and exciting month in Kindergarten!  Mrs. Bouldin's class learned all about the letter M.  Her students loved using macaroni noodles to glue on the letter Mm and charting their favorite color of m&ms.  

Mrs. Baugh's Speech class: P is for Pirate!

Students enjoyed a pirate theme in speech this week. They have been practicing articulation sounds, following directions and using sentences to identify objects in the classroom.

Kindergarten Vision Screening

Our yearly school-wide vision screening took place on September 19th and 20th. There were 395 children screened this year. This is always a great opportunity for our students to get a first-time vision screening. We have many students each year that are found to have vision problems that may not otherwise be recognized. Best of all, this a FREE service provided by Vision Research Corporation. We’ve had an amazing screener for the past three years, Mary Jones. She is always patient and kind to our kindergarteners. We are very fortunate to be able to receive this service for our students.

Mrs. Barclift's Class: Working, playing and learning together!

Working, playing, learning together. . . that is our Big Spring Lake Kindergarten school motto.  You can see Mrs. Barclift's friends doing all of those in these photos!  We are learning how to take turns, resolve conflict using the Peaceful Classroom strategies, be a great student, proper usage of our school tools, all in the first few weeks of Kindergarten!  We will continue working, playing, and learning together this school year!  Off to a great start!

Mrs. Armstrong's Class: Working with 5!

Mrs. Armstrong's class has been learning lots of routines and rules since school began!  Mrs. Armstrong's favorite is working with math tools!  Her students have learned to count to 5 and manipulate 5!! They are having fun learning about numbers!!!

Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the jungle at BSLK!!! Our kindergarten students get to eat lunch each day in our beautifully decorated lunchroom!!  Thank you to our great CNP staff for making our lunch time fun!!!

A Special Reading Buddy

This week students from Mrs. Mayas and Mrs. Lee's class had the opportunity to read to Cheyenne the therapy dog.

Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Mayas' Class: Jammin' with Jack!

The students of BSLK enjoyed going to the Jack Hartmann concert at the Albertville Fine Arts Center.  Pictured below are students from Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Mayas' class.  Jack Hartmann is a children's musician.

Mrs. Mosley's Class

Mrs. Mosley's class had a lot of fun learning about insects this week!! They worked together to make up their own insect. It's called the Flinger Stinger!! With six legs and eight wings... it's the fastest insect around!! By the way, watch out for its stinger!! Ahhh!!  The students also wrote about their favorite insect!!! They also had a blast dressing up and reading Dr. Seuss books.