St. Mary's School Kindergarten Class

Happy 100th Day of School!!!

2012-02-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

Our kindergartners celebrated the 100th day of school yesterday to everyone's enjoyment. Everyone brought in 100 items to count with the class. We took the time to count by 5's and 10's also. The M&M project allowed us to count to 100 on a map of numbers, as well as eat some delicious chocolate. Our 100th day stories and stickers added to the fun of the occasion. Congratulations to all the Kindergartners on making it through 100 days of School!

Water Color Fun! A great way to release some artistic energy.

2012-01-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

Occupy the Oven: A Ginger Bread Tale, performed by the Kindergartners for the School Christmas Show.

2012-01-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

A Time to Give Thanks!! A multi-cultural Turkey Stuffing Potluck for all Kinder families.

2012-01-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

Fun in Fall!!

2011-10-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

We did leaf rubbings this week and sang different poems that have to do with the new season of Fall. Please have your child bring in different types of leaves for us to compare and contrast. We have also begun singing some Halloween favorites to get us ready for the haunting season. We hope to see everyone at our Annual Fall Festival on October 29th at Old St. Mary's Church on California Street. If you have any small pumpkins or Halloween decorations to help us brighten up our classroom, please bring them in. Thank you and Happy Halloween!

Yoga Fridays with Ms. Jamila Bey

2011-09-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

We are so lucky to have Ms. Jamila Bey with us each Friday for Yoga. Her creative spirit enlightens us while we move our bodies to the gentle music. Our brains wake up, our bodies are refreshed, and our lives are enriched by each visit from Ms. Bey. Mahalo to Ms. Bey for her poems, gentle songs, and patience.

Please help make this years Haunted House a success by donating!! This is a big fundraiser for the school so please donate what you can. Mahalo!

2011-09-15T10:16:00.001-07:00

2011 St. Mary’s School Haunted House Donation List

Please send all donations to Mr. Ballesteros in Kindergarten

Large old White Bed sheets

Bags of fake spider webs

Bags of Fake rats and snakes

White lab/doctor coats

Red Christmas lights

Strobe lights

Bottles of fake blood

Science experiment materials

Large plastic trash bags

Old t-shirts for costumes

Zombie makeup kits (white, black, grey makeup)

Fake skin/fake scars kits

Bag of fake bones

Home Depot large black tarp role for walls

For more info check out:

www.mrbcryptofchaos.blogspot.com

2011-2012 Kindergarten Curriculum and Field Trips

2011-09-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Mr. Ballesteros' magical kindergarten adventure!!! It is here that we will embark on our educational adventure, thus setting the tone for a successful educational future. Step by step our class will venture into in depth studies of math, language arts, science, social studies, art, physical education, and catholicism. At the same time we will develop our socialization skills, cultivate our manners, and grow to love and serve the lord while forming a close knit school famliy.

Some of our cooking projects this year will include: Rainbow Salad, Pumpkin Seed Baking, Pretzel Making, Turkey Baking, Christmas cookies, ginger bread houses, and Ants on a Log.

Field Trips may include: Fairy Land, Picnics in the Park, Fire Station, Police Station, Fortune Cookie Factory.

Art Projects may include: Jackson Pollock Spatter Paintings, Georgia O'Keefe Flower Drawings, Picasso's Blue Period Look Alikes, Dega's Ballerina Paintings, Still life Drawings, Mosaics, Finger Paintings, Bead Necklaces, pottery decorating, etc.

Aloha and Welcome to the 2011-2012 School Year

2011-09-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

Our new Kindergarten Year is off to a great start! We welcome all of our new families and hope to have a wonderful and successful year full of action packed fun and fulfillment. Here are a few photos from the beginning of the school year. You can check this blog for up to date activities in the classroom and field trip information. School Announcements and important school function information will also be posted here. Best of Luck with the New School Year!!

A Few Tender Holiday Moments as we say goodbye to 2010! Halloween/The Grinch that Stole Christmas/Santa's Visit

2011-01-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

A few pictures of the kids from recent days leading up to Halloween.

2010-10-23T13:04:00.001-07:00

Fall Festival

2010-10-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

St. Mary's Chinese Day School will be holding its Annual Fall Festival and Haunted House

Saturday October 30, 2010
Old St. Mary's Church
California Street
10am-5pm

Games, Food, Bingo, and Mr. B's Crypt of Chaos Haunted House. Hope to see you there!
Happy Halloween to all.

A few pictures from Mr. B's Trip to Hawaii

2010-08-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

Over the summer Mr. B traveled to his homeland of Hawaii. During his time there he spend time with family and friends, went deep sea fishing, watched beautiful sunsets, swam with turtles, and ate lots of good Hawaiian Food. He also got a chance to learn how to cook a pig underground in an "imu."

Aloha and Welcome 2010-2011 Kindergartners

2010-07-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Mr. Ballesteros' magical kindergarten adventure!!! It is here that we will embark on our educational adventure, thus setting the tone for a successful educational future. Step by step our class will venture into in depth studies of math, language arts, science, social studies, art, physical education, and catholicism. At the same time we will develop our socialization skills, cultivate our manners, and grow to love and serve the lord while forming a close knit school famliy. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you on our first half day of school, which is Friday, August 27h. See you soon and get ready to have a lot of fun!! It is with great excitement that I await your arrival.

Some of our cooking projects this year will include: Rainbow Salad, Pumpkin Seed Baking, Pretzel Making, Turkey Baking, Christmas cookies, ginger bread houses, and Ants on a Log.

Field Trips may include: Fairy Land, Picnics in the Park, Fire Station, Police Station, Fortune Cookie Factory, and the Sf Zoo.

Art Projects may include: Jackson Pollock Spatter Paintings, Georgia O'Keefe Flower Drawings, Picasso's Blue Period Look Alikes, Dega's Ballerina Paintings, Still life Drawings, Mosaics, Finger Paintings, Bead Necklaces, pottery decorating, etc.

Christmas in Chinatown

2010-01-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

How many X-mas Rings long are you? A measuring activity. We also performed a song called, "Christmas Under the Sea" for the School Christmas Program.

Mr B's Thanksgiving and Christmas Fun

2010-01-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

Time to Stuff our Class Turkey and have our annual Thanksgiving Multicultural Potluck. We enjoyed treats from Chinatown and traditional food. We also learned about the history of Thanksgiving and how the Pilgrims and Indians put together their first feast. Our costumes were fun to wear as we ate until our hearts content. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Daily Happenings In Kindergarten

2009-11-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Chinatown Walk About

2009-11-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

Learning about our surrounding community is very important to us. After creating our own maps we decided to venture out to see what our own Chinatown Community had to offer. Our first stop was the local Police Station, where we learned about all the work Police Officers do and how they keep us safe. We got to go inside of a real jail cell and we also got to sit inside of a police car. Our second stop was the Chinatown Fire Station. Here we learned about how fire fighters work to keep people in our community safe and out of harms way. Each of us got a chance to sit in the fire truck and we even got to wear the fire fighters protective gear, which was really heavy. As the fire bell rang we watched as the fire fighters came down the golden pole and quickly jumped into the fire engine. It was very exciting to see!! Next it was time to go check out the fortune cookie factory and how they made those special treats. Seeing the large machine hard at work was very interesting. Tasting the fortune cookies was the best part.There were so many different colors and flavors to choose from. Our last stop was the Chinatown Hospital. Here we took a tour of the different parts of the hospital including the x-ray room, where they keep the blood samples, and where the patients lay when they are staying in the hospital. We ended our visit to the hospital by singing them our 5 Little Pumpkins Poem. Finally we were off to the local Willy "Wu Wu" Wong playground for lunch and some play time. Overall it was a very busy and exciting day.

Trip to Fairy Land

2009-11-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

We had a great time with the first and second graders as we ventured off to Oakland's Fairy Land. We played on different sets of famous Fairytale stories and participated in an animal show. We got to play ball with a donkey, feed a llama, and pet a furry pony. We had a great ride on the BART and loved learning outside of the classroom.

Back to School Night Wednesday Sept 16th

2009-09-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

We would like to invite all of our family and friends to come see our kindergarten classroom and meet our teacher Mr. Ballesteros. Our Back to School Night will be on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 from 6:15-6:55pm. Everyone will get a chance to see our schedule, curriculum, and find out a bit more about our everyday happenings. We hope that everyone can make it to share in our special day. Aloha from Kindergarten!

Welcome in coming Kindergarteners 2009-2010

2009-08-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

The Animals in the Zoo Go.......

2009-07-31T02:42:00.001-07:00

If you mixed a Seal and a bear together what sound would the Beal make?

Chinese New Year Dragon Creation

2009-07-31T02:36:00.000-07:00

Out with the Bad and In with the Good Luck
Happy New Year to All
Gung Hay Fat Choy

Jackson Pollock Spatter Painting

2009-07-31T02:29:00.001-07:00

Creative Minds Splatter as if nothing is the Matter
Care Free, Like a bird, No boundaries, Just Me
Throw it, Slap it, Spatter and Patter It
Painting with out limits..........

Green Eggs and Spam: Dr. Seuss Hawaiian Adaptation

2009-07-31T02:17:00.000-07:00

A bit of writing.....
A bit of coloring....

A bit of creative thinking
An alternate ending.....

A bit of reading....
A lot of eating........

A bit of creating..
A lot of laughing...

Enjoying

Pretzel Making For Lent

2009-03-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Kindergartners had the pleasure of learning how to make pretzels with the 1st and 2nd graders. We read a story about the history of pretzel making and how each hole in the pretzel stands for, "the father" "the son" and the "holy spirit." Overall it was a blast getting to work with our friends and of course with the sticky dough. When all was said and done, we said a prayer, and got to eat our delicious pretzels.

The 100th Day of School

2009-02-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

The 100th Day of School brought lots of excitement to our classroom. We celebrated by bringing in 100 of our favorite small objects, doing M & M 100 Charts, reading 100 stories, building 100 Cup Towers, and eating 100 pieces of popcorn for snack. Overall we had a fun filled day!!

Sight Words and Decodable Words For Kindergarteners

2009-01-06T10:32:00.000-08:00

Your child should be able to read the following sight words and decodable words. Decodable means that the child is able to sound out each letter to form a word, therefore making the word decodable. Please practice these words with your child each week. It is necessary for them to be able to read these words in preparation for 1st grade reading. Thank you for your time and dedication to your child's successful educational career.

Sight Words/High-Frequency Words (Words most commonly seen in reading materials)

a, an, it, in, and, are, for, go, have, he, here, I, is, like, my, play, said, see, she, he, the, to, red, black, brown, black, yellow, orange, go,

Words with short a

at, bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, Nat, Pat, rat, sat, vat, an, ban, can, Dan, fan, Jan, man, Nan, pan, ran, tan, van

Words with short i

bit, fit, hit, it,kit, lit, pit, sit, wit, big, dig, fig, jig, pig, rig, wig, zig

Words with short o
cot, dot, got hot, jot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot, box, fox, ox

Words with short e

bet, get, jet, let, met, net, pet, set, vet, wet, yet, Ben den, hen, Jen, Ken, men, pen, ten

Words with short u

bug, dug, hug, jug, lug, mug, rug, tug, but, cut, hut, jut, nut, rut

A Merry Christmas

2008-12-31T01:44:00.000-08:00

December brought tons of good cheer as our class sang, "A White Christmas" for our school program. This month we discussed the birth of Jesus and the many characters in the Manger Scene. We sang Christmas Carols, learned Holiday Rhymes, and built Gingerbread Houses with the First and Second Graders. We also got to decorate cookies that Mr. B's grandma made for our class. Acting out the Manger scene was really fun as each of us took turns playing important roles as Jesus, Mary, Joseph, The 3 Wise Men, an Angel, and even farm animals. Again we discussed things to be thankful for during the holiday season. In the end we got a special visit from Santa at our School Christmas Program.

A Time to Give Thanks

2008-12-31T01:22:00.001-08:00

During the Month of November we discussed reasons to be thankful for what each of us has. Some of these things to be thankful for were families, God, teachers, friends, food, nature, and school. We took the time each day to pray for those that are less fortunate than we are. Our class also wrote and read different Thanksgiving poems and rhymes. We also sang a really funny song about Turkeys sitting on a Fence. Art projects and special Historical readings also paved the way to our Thanksgiving Feast at the end of the month in honor of the Pilgrims and Native American Indians. Each of us got a chance to stuff and taste our very first turkey. We would like to thank our families and Father Jim for joining us on this special
celebration. There is a bit of a Hawaiian Touch to our class recipe since Mr. B is from Hawaii.

Pumpkin Rolling and Number Line Fun: Pumpkin Carving and Estimation

2008-11-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

We started the month of October with some pumpkin math as we learned how to make a hypothesis/estimate. Every child brought in their own pumpkins to measure and weigh. We did observational drawings as well as measurements with string and rulers. The children were allowed to explore different aspects and methods of measurements. These types of measurements included measuring with: yarn, paper clips, rulers, unifix cubes, and even their own feet. While Mr. B carved our large pumpkin each of us made a prediction as to how many seeds would be inside of our pumpkin. We compared and counted the different numbers of seeds in different sized pumpkins. Surprisingly enough our medium sized pumpkin had more seeds that our large pumpkin. The children decided that this may be because it was a different kind/breed of pumpkins than the others as it was much heavier, had more sections, and was larger. They also thought that it might have been because of the sunlight and amount of water it got. Each child counted part of the seeds, added them all up, and graphed them. We also used a large number line to learn about the placement of numbers large and small. Our concentration was on numbers 0-20. Each child had a turn to bowl a pumpkin to their chosen number or numbers between 15-20. We ended the month of October with a costume contest, trick o'treating at Lady Shaw retirement home, and fun and games at school. We also got a chance to sing a song called, "The Five little Pumpkins" for the people at the retirement home. They enjoyed our singing and hand motions as we all looked great in our costumes. Thank you to all those parents that helped with Halloween Art projects and the Fall Festival.

Our Teacher Mr. Ballesteros

2008-10-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mr. Ballesteros comes to us from the Big Island of Hawaii. A long way from home, Mr. Ballesteros grew up on the beaches of Hawaii, though much of his time was spend playing competitive soccer, tennis, baseball, and golf. When not in school he spent much of his time doing community service projects and serving his local parish as an altar server and greeter. A tennis scholarship brought him here to San Francisco to attend Dominican University of California. After graduating with his degree in Elementary Education Mr. Ballesteros worked in the first and fourth grade classrooms of West Portal Elementary School. In 2003 Mr. B headed off to Lopburi, Thailand to teach English for two years. While there he instructed Elementary, Secondary, and University students in Listening and Speaking as well Conversational English. In his spare time he taught at private institutions as well as Thai Army Bases, and a Chicken factory. Two of Mr. B's most memorable treks through Thailand included riding elephants down the Bridge over the River Kwai, and hiking into underground Temples in Northern Thailand. Upon his arrival back in San Francisco Mr. B excepted a pre-kinder position for Marin Day Schools. That year he received the "Most Creative Curriculum" award for the Western Regions Pre-K program. In 2007 Mr. B taught Kindergarten at St. Anthony Immaculate Conception School in the Mission district. It is now that we welcome Mr. Ballesteros into our St. Mary's Chinese Day Community. Welcome to Mr. Ballesteros

Clay Creations with Mrs. Quock

2008-09-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

We were honored today to have Justina's mom, Mrs. Quock in our classroom. She brought a wonderful clay project that allowed us to use our imaginations and cultivate our thinking skills. Each child had to visualize what they wanted to make, think about the shapes that were used in the object, and then form their creation. When the clay creations were done the children were allowed to bring them home to bake in their ovens at 275'Degrees for 20 minutes. Mr. B welcomes all the parents into the classroom on Friday mornings to do art projects, read a book to the class, or prepare a cooking project. Please feel free to email Mr. B to schedule a date to volunteer.

Open House and Meet the Teacher Night!

2008-09-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

We would like to invite all of our family and friends to come see our kindergarten classroom and meet our teacher Mr. Ballesteros. Our Open house will be on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 7:00pm. Everyone will get a chance to see our schedule, curriculum, and find out a bit more about our everyday happenings. We hope that everyone can make it to share in our special day. Aloha from Kindergarten!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2008-09-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

We started off our week with the reading of Eric Carle's, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Each of us played an important role in acting this story out and bringing it to life. We each took turns being the caterpillar while the rest of us imagined that we were pieces of fruit or junk food. By acting out this story we learned about characters in the book, the setting, and the parts of the story. When we read new books in our class we will usually try to re-enact them to gain a better understanding of the characters and the plot. Overall we enjoyed this task tremendously and can't wait to do it again.

Our First Week was a Blast!!

2008-09-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

Our morning schedule consists of Morning prayer, The Pledge of Allegiance, Calendar, The Weather, and Mr. B's Morning Message. We got a chance to act out, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." It was really fun as we inched along the classroom floor and pretended we were eating lots and lots of fruit and junk food. We also had a chance to draw our self portraits and paint with watercolors. Each of us took turns working in small groups to complete puzzles and pattern necklaces. Our Chinese class with Mr. Maa was interesting as we challenged ourselves to find out our Chinese names. Our classroom jobs were given by Mr. B. These jobs included teachers helper, chair helper, supply helper, plant helper, fish feeder, snack helper, Pledge helper, and calendar helper. During outside time we got to play with puppets and play basketball. Next week we will begin studying our phonemic awareness and letter writing. Starting next week we will be getting homework everyday in our red folders so stay alert and check our folders please. Also please try to read to us every night before bed as we begin to learn reading skills and left to right directionality.

The First Day of School. August 25- Half Day

2008-07-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome incoming Kindergarteners and Families! As your teacher I am delighted to have each and every one of you in my class. Your first day of school will be an exciting one as you will get to explore a new environment and meet new friends. Please remember to go to sleep early the night before and eat a healthy breakfast that will allow your brains to flourish at St. Mary's Chinese Day School. A sensible bed time would be 8pm. Don't forget to have someone special read you a book before bed time each night as it will help you to build your reading skills. Families, don't forget to be energetic and positive and be sure to talk to your child ahead of time about their first day of school. Allowing your child to know what's going on will assure them that everything is going to be okay, lessening their stress levels, and providing them a chance to shine and be engaged. I trust that everyone is having a fun filled summer of academic growth, sports fun, and precious family time.

Aloha and See you Soon!

Mr. Ballesteros
dballesteros@hotmail.com