"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." 

Tug of war at Ball Olympics....we look pretty tough in his picture, but not quite tough enough to beat Mrs. Smith's class! 

On Tuesday morning we were lucky enough to have Ben's mom read us a book through Skype all the way from Becker! You can see us below watching her on the SMARTboard. What a treat it was! Thank you, Anita! 

What a great day for a walk to the library! The rain and wind held off as we made our way downtown. Karla, the librarian told us all about the summer reading program and read us some neat poems and books. Afterward, we loved exploring the wonderful books there. We found many we want to come back and check out this summer! Click on the link below for hours of the public library as well as some great summer programming. You will also find some pictures below from our visit. 

Annandale Public Library

It is sure hard to believe these Beach Buddies are almost first graders! Wow! We took advantage of the first grade field trip on Friday and visited a first grade classroom. We read Nancy Carlson's book, First Grade Here I Come. It was refreshing to see many similarities between the first grade room and our kindergarten room. We also found some differences that we are excited to explore. We loved reading their word wall and felt good about all the words we could already read! We are ready for first grade!

"Pixie" has become one of our favorite programs on our laptops for creating. Below are some original pieces from the Beach Buddies using "Pixie". 

 Thursday was our "Writing Museum" where other students and staff from Bendix were invited to stop by and listen to our "All About" books. The kindergartners were spread out around the classroom. Visitors met with students individually and even shared a written comment with them. What a treat to look around and see kids sharing stories with teachers, book buddies, cooks, social workers, speech teachers and even Mrs. Reimer and Mr. Niklaus. I know our amazing authors impressed our visitors! 

My heart is warmed every time I hear one of the kindergartners talk about "what they should research next". Their strong reading and writing still shine through during this process. While we enjoy our individual research topics, we also continue to do some class research. Below are some of our findings on pigs and animals that come from eggs. Most recently, we have been learning facts about worms, flies, and spiders.