Wednesday

This morning we had the pleasure of listening to three different stories read by Pattie, our Elementary Teaching Assistant. On Wednesdays, our Literacy Specialist, Autumn, will come in and read to our class. However, today Autumn was out so Pattie filled in for her. Pattie read Bring in the Pumpkins by Dahlov Ipcar, Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London, and Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. I was very proud of our class. They were great listeners for Pattie.

We also had our Early Learners music class with Kim this morning. I heard the children singing a song about jellybeans, so ask them about it! We also continued a center for letter recognition and fine motor control. The children are doing a fantastic job putting beans on the letters of their name.

For now, I have put a small hold on our Show & Share. We have the possibility of welcoming a new student into our room. I would like to include our new student on our October calendar, but am waiting on the official word to do so. We will most likely start back our usual Show & Share on Tuesday, Oct. 6th. I should have a calendar to you by the end of the week.

Fall Festival F.Y.I.'s have been sent home! Please check your child's folder for this VERY important newsletter! For your convenience, I have also posted it at the bottom of our blog, so scroll down and take a look! Please read it over and let me know if you have any questions.

Tuesday

Tuesdays are always lonely for me - the children have all three enrichment classes! We did start our morning with our morning meeting. The class is getting really good at recognizing their names when we do attendance. Soon enough they will recognize their friends' names too. Later in the year, I will have attendance stars with their first and last names. We then had math workshop. I'm working on spatial relationships with the children. I'm using a lot of words like "in between", "under", "beside", "over", etc. We finished a little bit sooner than planned for, so we looked at books and put puzzles together before washing up for fruit break. Drama, Spanish, and Music quickly followed along with recess and lunch. Before we knew it, it was time for quiet rest and dismissal. We had a great day!

• Quick Notes came out today. Be sure to check out these important dates. Can't remember how to get to them on the school's web page? Click our link on the right hand side of our blog that says "Click For Quick Notes".

• Scholastic Book Orders were sent home today. Please let me know if you have questions. This is a great way to get affordable books for you and your child to enjoy.

• October's Show & Share Calendar will come home tomorrow.

• Details on Fall Festival will come home tomorrow. Please send in $10 to me by Tuesday, October 6th. This money will cover the cost of our events. More details will come tomorrow.

Monday

We had a bit of a mixed-up Monday today. We did a quick morning meeting and began our literacy workshop. We will soon be starting our cooking/food activities on Mondays. We continued our work on our names by gluing beans on our letters. We then went to have our pictures taken. Our class did a wonderful job of being quiet and waiting our turn. We were the first group, so the photographer waited to work out lighting and whatnot with our children. After they had their photo taken, they got to choose something out of the photographer's treasure box. Some of them picked bracelets, while others got bats and frogs. Many of them were lost on the playground that followed right after pictures, but some of you may see an extra little toy come home today. It is theirs to keep. :) We then had music class with Kim followed by a little later than usual fruit break. We then worked on puzzles and looked at books for a few minutes before heading out for recess. We had a great day!

REMINDER:

• Tomorrow we will have sibling photos taken ONLY if you have called Connie and put your children on the list. Please call the school (540)560-5036 and put your children on the list for sibling photos. The photographer will not take photos of children not on the list. Rain date for sibling photos is September 30th.

Friday

Happy Friday! We welcomed a visitor into our room this morning. Andy came to visit with us for a little while this morning and I was so proud of how nice and kind the children were to him. They were very helpful and sweet. We took a few extra minutes to play in our room before starting our morning meeting. We then read the story Boomer Goes To School by Constance W. McGeorge. This is a cute story about a boy who takes his dog to school for show and share. The story is told from the dog's perspective instead of the little boy's. We then scooted off to Spanish with Elena and our Seminar buddies. When we came back we worked on literacy by gluing beans in the shape of the letters that make our names. This is a great fine motor and letter recognition activity. We also did a bit of science. We discovered the different ways and speeds that different objects move in mediums like rice, sand, water, and air. We discovered that a toy car doesn't move as quickly in sand as it does in water. We also discovered that it is harder to push a rock in sand than it is in the air. After we cleaned up from our explorations, we had an indoor recess. The children were mainly interested in our dress up area. I tucked the photo below in every child's folder today. The children were so proud of how they dressed up that they wanted their picture taken (I never say no to a photo op!). It was a great day!

REMINDER:

• Sleep items are coming home today, please bring them back on Monday. Thanks!!

Getting All Dressed Up! 9/25/09

Thursday

What a busy Thursday! This morning started off with our morning meeting, but a bit later than usual for we had a few friends we were waiting on to join us. We then took the time to do Alessandra's show and share. She brought in a wonderful feather that she found on the beach. The children were amazed by it so we had a mini science lesson to learn about birds and why their feathers are important. The children used words like "soft", "long", and "black" to describe the feather. Because of our late start and a longer than usual show and share, we read a quick story from our Treasury for Four-Year-Olds and washed up for fruit break. After fruit break and fruit break recess our buddies from Betsy's class came to our room. To get to know each other better, we traced each other's hands and wrote something we learned about them on each finger. Betsy's class was very willing to help their little buddies trace their hands and write on their traced fingers for them. They then colored them together and cut their hands out. I've put them up for display on our window. Before recess, we had a few minutes to play together in our room with our floor toys.

Wednesday

This morning we started with our morning meeting. We then had Tallulah's show and share and listened to Greg & Steve's "Going on a Bear Hunt" and acted out the parts. We then had a special guest in our room. Holly came in and read two books to us. The first book was Piggies by Audrey Wood. The second story was Whose Garden is it? by Mary Ann Hoberman and Jane Dyer. The children were a great audience for Holly! We then had Early Learner music with Kim and played with toys in the room. While in our classroom, the children are working on sharing and using kind words. We've talked a lot about how the tone of our voice and our facial expression can change and alter what we're trying to tell someone. If you all could support this at home, that would be a great help! Thank you for everything you do!

REMINDER: Don't forget to check out this week's Quick Notes! Each week's Quick Notes have important dates and information.

Click HERE to view this week's.

Tuesday

Tuesdays are a bit lonely for me, for the children have all three enrichment classes. We started this morning with our morning meeting and then switched to math workshop. The children rotated through two sorting centers. While at one, they sorted tiles by color and at the other center, made creations out of blocks using only one color at a time. They also rotated through a "sink or float" center, where they hypothesized if they thought the object would sink or float. A few of the objects were : cork, mini pine cones, a sea shell, paper clips, stones, rubber stamps, and a small ball. Most of them were surprised the cork floated! Soon afterwards we had fruit break. We then had Drama with Julie, Spanish with Elena, and Music with Kim. Throw in another recess, lunch and quiet rest and you've got the rest of our Tuesday!

Monday

This morning we had just enough time to finish our Name Skits before the rain kicked in. We did fantastic! If you were unable to make it, we performed with Ruth Ann's and Tulie's classes. The three class names are “Wynken”, “Blynken”, and “Nod”. Together, as the Early Learners, we're “The Wooden Shoe”. We were a great audience as we watched the other classes perform. After Name Skits, we washed up for fruit break and had Music class with Kim. Kim reported that we all had our singing voices on and did a great job in class. As I was approaching the Music room, I could hear the children singing “The Pizza Song”. If your child has not yet serenaded you with this fabulous song, you must ask them to sing it for you. It has a very funny surprise ending. After Music class I read the children some stories from A Treasury For Four-Year-Olds. We then had recess followed by lunch and quiet rest.

Note: I've stuck a playdough recipe in each child's folder with a note for which month you're to bring it in. Not many parents signed up at Gatherings last week, so I just plugged volunteers where I needed them. Please let me know if there is a conflict with your given month. Playdough is to be sent in at the beginning of your assigned month for the children to play with all month long! Don't be scared to get creative with your dough. This is a wonderful activity you can do with your child at home!

Friday

Happy Friday! The rain sure did put a bummer on our name skits this morning, but we managed to pull of a pretty successful and happy day. We had a quick morning meeting followed by our fruit break. We have fruit break a little early on Fridays because of Spanish. We then went to Spanish class to meet our seminar buddies. We will have Spanish class with the seminar class every Friday. The seminar students will help Elena teach our class Spanish. A lot of children at this age tend to be afraid of the "big kids" - hopefully having buddies with both Betsy's class and seminar will help them with this.

We finished up an art project we started earlier this week. It has to do with our class name. Our masterpieces are hanging up on our closet doors inside the classroom for display. Be sure to check them out when you stop by. We then spent some time in the classroom using different manipulatives. "Playing" in our classroom really helps the children learn social skills and vocabulary. They also must work together when there are only a few different things available to play with. This means there may be two or three children using the same toys if I only have two centers open. The children must talk to each other and figure out what sharing is really all about.

On Fridays, the children can eat lunch in a different classroom. The children can go to another room and other children can come in to our room and eat. Today was a mixture of both. Several of the middle and upper elementary children came in to our room and most children with siblings at Community School in our class went to eat with their sibling.

After lunch, we listened to classic nursery rhymes on CD as we had quiet rest. Most children were sleeping in 5 minutes! They're worn out from all of their hard work and play at school. Have a great weekend and I'll see you all on Monday morning! :)

REMINDERS:

• Class name skits have been postponed to MONDAY, 9/21 @ 9:30am. Please come join us!
• Sleep items are being sent home today! Please return them on Monday.

Thursday

Today we got to spend time with our Buddies from Betsy's class(8-10 year-olds) for the first time. Each child was paired with one or two children from Betsy's class. The children in Betsy's class read to their Buddy in our class. They had a great time and made some new friends! We will continue this every Thursday.

We also took some time this morning to practice for their name skit. Name skits are tomorrow(Friday, 9/18) morning @ 10:30am on the blacktop right outside our classroom. All parents are welcome to come! We will perform first and it will take less than 5 minutes. If you can sneak away from work long enough, please do! Our class name goes together with Tulie's and Ruth Ann's, but that is the only hint you're getting other than wooden shoe. Can't figure it out? Come tomorrow to find out!

Your children may seem extra tired or cranky by the end of this week. This is completely normal and expected for children this age while adjusting to such a different routine. Their sleeping patterns will adjust soon! Many of them are napping long and hard during quiet rest. This must be the result of a busy, fun day.

Wednesday

First of all, thank you to everyone who came out for Gatherings last night! I hope you found it helpful and informational. Please let me know if any questions arise. If you were unable to attend last night, I need volunteers to make play-dough for several different months. I have copies of three different recipes so you can make it at home(much cheaper), or it can be store bought. I need volunteers for the following months : November, December, January, February, March, April, and May. 1 volunteer per month is needed. This is a one-time sign up, bringing the play-dough in at the beginning of the month you sign up for. Please let me know what month works for you, first come first serve!

The past couple days have been busy ones for sure! It seems like on Tuesdays I hardly get to see the children. We worked in literacy centers in the morning until time for drama, spanish, and music. We had just enough time to look at some books before time to go outside for recess.

Today, we started our morning with our morning meeting and calendar routine. During this routine, we talk about the weather, the season, the month, the days of the week, and practice counting by counting to today's date. We also do attendance to help the children recognize their own name as well as their friends'. Lastly, we go over our schedule for the day. We then worked in different centers while I finished up some assessments. The children are very excited to show me what they know. The children rotated through a building center, a sensory center, and a puzzle center while I worked one-on-one with the child being assessed.

We then had fruit break and celebrated Ashlynn's birthday. Thanks again for bringing in the yummy mini cupcakes and juice! After fruit break, we went to "the castle" (the big white house) and up to the 3rd floor for our early learner music class. Ask your child to sing "the pizza song" to you. It is a very funny song that has a surprise ending. We then came back to our room and worked on some yoga moves. Today was the first day I have introduced it, and a few were reluctant to try right away. Charlie told them how fun it was and showed us three different poses. He showed us "Happy Baby", "One-legged downward dog", and "The flip". I'm also new to yoga and am not quite sure if "the flip" was a yoga pose or a cool trick, but all of the children joined in and had a great time. Recess and lunch followed.

*Please remember on pizza and Lunch-A-Month days to still pack your child a fruit break. On pizza days they will need a fruit break and a drink. Drinks are provided with Lunch-A-Month.

Monday

What an awesome morning we had! We started our day with our Hollins University student employee, Jessica. Jessica will be helping out in our room on Monday mornings. She also works in our After School Program on campus. We read a poem (I can't tell you which one yet, its a surprise!) that we will tell you more about on Friday morning during our class name skits. Jessica then helped us with an art activity that went along with our poem. We then had music class with Kim. The children are telling me they listened to some music from China, but I haven't confirmed it quite yet - be sure to ask your child what they did with Kim today.

When we came back from music, we observed our plants in our "greenhouse". We have a mini "greenhouse" set up in our room with six different plants on it. We looked at them all and talked about what made them different and how they were alike. Then we drew our own pictures of the plants. We finished up a bit sooner than expected so I read "Henny-Penny" out of our book A Treasury for Four-Year-Olds. The children love the illustrations in this book. They were an awesome audience for me while reading.

We had another fire drill today- this time at the end of recess! We were all already outside so the children had to scramble and find me to line up. They did a great job! :)

Several of you have already been emailing me with your thoughts and questions. This is wonderful - don't hesitate to email me!

Friday

Today we welcomed Anna Grace to our classroom. The children were so kind and friendly to her. I explained to them how proud I was of them.

During our morning meeting, we each get a chance to share something with the class. We also do our "circle time" activities during this time. We go over the month, days of the week, weather, season, and do our attendance. They're really catching on to it! We then spent some time using different manipulatives in the room while I assessed children one at a time. I will continue to do these next week. I assess them to see what they know and what they don't so I can set goals for each child academically.

We had Spanish class this morning with Elena. The children are already learning their colors in Spanish! I was impressed when they came back and told me some of the colors they have learned. Ask your child how to say "red" in Spanish (rojo, pronounced ro-ho) and "blue" (azul).

When we came back, we had a special presentation by the Seminarians. The Seminar class is the oldest of our middle school. They put on a puppet show for the early learners to teach them about our playground rules and playground safety. Our class was a fantastic audience! Ask your child what sticks are for (sticks are for building) and what they should do if someone gets hurt (go get a teacher).

We then read out of a collection of stories called "A Treasury for Four Year Olds". This book contains beautiful illustrations for fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Today I read "Three Billy Goats Gruff", "The Fast and Flashy Fish", and "Ug-Ug-Ugly".

Everyone fell asleep very quickly today during quiet rest! It has been a long week for many of them and I'm sure they'll need lots of rest this weekend. See you all on Monday! :)

Thursday

What a fantastic start to our school year! We've had a busy past couple of days, but we have learned so many new things. We have spent a lot of time exploring our classroom and the things in it. We have already met our specials teachers and had all three of those classes. We had drama, music, and spanish on Tuesday. Yesterday, we had a joint music class with Ruth Ann and Tulie's classes. Kim, the music teacher, wanted to give it a try and they did great! We will continue to have this combined music class each week.

Today was special. Today is Mia's third birthday! We celebrated by having a sweet treat after fruit break. Special thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Camp for bringing in cupcakes, juice, and balloons for Mia's birthday! Everyone had a great time. We also had the excitement this morning of our first fire drill. Our class did wonderful. We will continue to have these once a week for the month of September.

Thank you to everyone who has brought in supplies. We will use them all up for sure! A couple children still do not have a crib sheet to sleep on. Please bring them in as soon as possible. On that note, all of your child's sleeping items will be sent home tomorrow, Friday, to be washed. Please send them back Monday. :)