Wednesday

     What a special day today is. Our friend Jahanvi turned 4 years old today! We celebrated by singing to her and enjoying yummy cupcakes from Bubblecake Bake Shop. Jahanvi also brought in party favor bags for all of her classmates. We send out a huge thank you to Jahanvi's family for doing this special activity with us!

     We also listened to stories this morning read by Pattie. Since our class is so well behaved and polite to our guests, Pattie read four different books to us! She read Meet the Barkers: Morgan and Moffat go to School by Tomie DePaola, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow, Mama, Do you Love me? by Barbara Joosse and Barbara Lavallee, and Let's Make Noise around the House by Lisa Rojany Buccieri. Later this morning we went to Music with Kim for our early learner music class.

Also,

     Don't forget about our Preschool & Kindergarten Information Session This Thursday at 7:00pm!
This event is open to the general public, but we encourage current CS parents with rising preschool and kindergarten students to attend the session and learn more about our incredible early learner and lower elementary programs. If you want to take advantage of our free childcare during the session, please call the school office. Don’t forget to remind your friends, neighbors, and co-workers to attend! If you have questions about this event, please contact Victoria (victoria@communityschool.net or 563-5036).

Monday

This morning after music class, we read The Peace Book by Todd Parr. 

We then talked about what peace means to us and discussed our own personal peace. After talking about it, we did a journal page to express our thoughts. The children did a wonderful job with these! They all put a lot of thought into their pictures and the words they wanted me to write. 

Since mid-January, we've had last names added to our attendance mittens. The helper for the day gets to pick out the mittens and read their classmates' names. Many of the children are doing a fantastic job remembering their friends' whole names. Every once in a while, quiz them by asking "What is [Alessandra's] last name again?"  and see if they can answer you. This way they will hear the information and be able to retain it and also recognize it on the attendance mittens(if they aren't already).

Today is National Be Humble Day, so be humble! :)

Just a Quick Note

I forgot to let parents know I will not be at school tomorrow, Thursday, but I will return Friday. Lynn will be my substitute.

Thanks and see you all on Friday!

Friday

What a busy morning we had! We immediately started our morning with our morning meeting. We then passed out valentines as a class. It is so wonderful to watch the children's faces light up as they look at their friends' names and can recognize them. Many of them are doing that for the whole class now. It really threw them for a loop when they came across a valentine with my name on it! Thank you to everyone for thinking of me, it was very sweet to say the least! We then had fruit break followed by muffins brought in by Gracie. They were delicious! Thanks again to the Comptons for bringing those in. 
We then had Spanish class with Elena and our Seminar buddies. The children were so excited to see Elena and their buddies again - it's been a while since we've had a regular Friday! 
Soon afterwards we began our Valentine's Day party. Our group started out in Tulie's room, where they finished their project from yesterday (painting their hands) and made a valentine hug for you. They then traveled to Ruth Ann's room where they made a heart magnet and an alien heart. Lastly, they traveled back to our room where we made heart sandwiches and decorated sugar cookies made by Ruth Ann with icing and sprinkles. We finished up just in time to play in the snow for recess. The children seemed to be very excited and had a great time. 


As long as there is snow on the ground, continue to send snow bibs and boots with your children to school. They are having a blast playing outside in the snow!


Please take time to read about the Marginal Arts Festival in both Quick Notes and the flyer sent home today. It began yesterday and runs through the Fat Tuesday celebration at the Jefferson Center next Tuesday.


A couple of weeks ago, we were filmed by PBS for a program on parenting and choosing the right preschool/school for your family. The early learner classes at our school were featured. Please check out the link below to see the footage! Once on this page, scroll down to the "pre-school" video - 4th one down the page. The first part of this clip is an interview with Kim Gregory, my professor and department head at Virginia Western. The second part is a video on our school and preschool program. 


Blue Ridge PBS - Positive Parenting



Have a great weekend and remember there is no school on Monday. We are closed for President's Day.

Monday

We had such a small group today! We started off the morning with only four of our friends. Although we were small, we were very welcoming to our new friend, Gracie, who joined our class today. We had a busy morning full of play-doh, art creations, and dramatic play time in the kitchen. Our music class was postponed to Thursday. We will still have our three music classes this week, just on Thursday instead of today. 


I realize our class list has changed a bit in the past couple of weeks. Our class list is now as follows:


Anna Grace
Charlie
Ashlynn
Gracie
Alessandra
Jahanvi
Tallulah


Please be sure to make valentines with your child this week! Our party is Friday and valentines must be brought in by then. Please see me or write me if you have any questions.

Thursday

I'm sorry parents, but I only have time for a quick post today! Thanks to everyone for your well wishes. I am feeling MUCH better and am so happy to be back with all of your sweet, sweet children. We celebrated Alessandra's 4th birthday this morning. Thank you Jeff and Michelle for bringing in a sweet treat for us to enjoy. We also had a mini lesson on China from Andy's mom, Fei. She taught us how to say China and Beijing in Chinese and how to write both words. She also showed us a children's book from China. The children loved the beautifully illustrated animals in the book. Today was Andy's last day with us. Thank you to those of you who brought in valentines for him. If you didn't and your child would still like to make him one, please feel free to do so and I can mail them to Andy. Thank you!

We will have a new student starting on Monday. Gracie, our visitor from last Friday, will be joining our class. Please add her to your class roster and be sure to include her while making valentines! :)

I hope everyone has a safe, snow filled weekend. See you next week!