Graduation!

Graduation has come! Our kids looked so excited in the graduation caps they decorated themselves.

Each child received a special award honouring their unique talents at a ceremony attended by parents, grandparents, and siblings. A special treat was the poem we prepared; even the shyest kids said their lines loud and proud.

Here is the dress rehearsal of our graduation poem:

In case you missed some words:

We practiced writing our names and played math games.

We went on field trips along the way and read every day.

We're going to miss our friends and our teachers too.

But we're going to kindergarten soon!

It's been an amazing 5 weeks! We can't wait to see all our friends on the first day of kindergarten!

A Week of Special Activities

We've had so many fun, special activities this week!

Tuesday, we got to go to the fire station. We met a number of different firefighters, got to see the inside of a fire truck, and saw a firefighter slide down the fire pole. We even got to meet the fire chief!

Wednesday, we had a few special visitors. Our friends from Sycamore Farms brought us a goat, a sheep, a rabbit, and some one-month old chicks. We got to hear all about the animals, pet them, and even got to feed them a little bit!

Thursday, we got to go see the circus! Oddfellows Playhouse runs an annual circus camp at Macdonough School, and their final performance is Friday 8/2 at 5 p.m. We were lucky enough to get to see part of their dress rehearsal.






Friday is graduation! Expect pictures of the graduates tomorrow!

Our Day

We've started something new at circle time this year, and it's been so much fun! We've always known it was very important to make sure everyone knew our daily schedule, but Ms. Crissy had the great idea of prompting the kids to put together our schedule every day.

Ms. Crissy made a felt board and felt strips with our regular activities, and our kids pick out the activity that will happen next. We started with two choices: we would put out "breakfast" and "rest" for the first activity of the day, and one student would pick out the correct option. We would then ask them to trace the first letter in the word.

Over the course of the program, we've expanded to three or four options, and now ask students to trace a letter in the middle of a word. For example, we may ask a student to trace the "l" in "Free Play" or the "r" in "breakfast".

It's been a fun morning activity, and we're confident everyone's letter recognition has improved!

The GSAC Kickstart Reading List

In our 21 days at Kickstart so far, we have read all of the following books (in no particular order):



One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Dinner at Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
There's a Wocket in my Pocket! by Dr. Seuss
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
Countdown to Kindergarten by Alison McGhee
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner by Amy Schwartz
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr. 
The Jazz of our Streets by Fatima Shaik
Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss
Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola
If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
Baby Animals by Robert Garlock
F is for Flag by Wendy Cheyette Lewison

Ms. Kate shows us around Russell Library during our first week

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Oscar's Grouchy Sounds by Constance Allen
Corduroy's 4th of July by Don Freeman
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff by Dr. Suess
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Heroes of the Vegetable Patch by Ulf Stark and Charlotte Ramel
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss
The Sounds Around Town by Mario Carluccio
Drum City by Thea Guidone
I'm Your Bus by Marilyn Singer
The Lost Music by Kathryn Meyrick
Lyle and the Birthday Party by Bernard Waber
The North Star by Peter H. Reynolds
Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss
Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst
Play, Mozart, Play! by Peter Sis
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Jake Johnson, The Story of a Mule by Tres Seymour
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle

Macdonough and GSAC kids read together after a visit to the BookMobile

we love to read!