June 8, 2009

Reminders

The Bakerwoods field trip is still on for this Wednesday, June 10^th. We will arrive there for 9:00 and return around 12:30. We are planning to have snack there, depending on the weather. If the weather is not accommodating, we will leave earlier and eat in the classroom.

Field Day

We will have Pre-K and K Activity Day on Thursday, June 11^th. The rain date is Friday, June 12^th. If both days get rained out we will move the Activity Day to Monday, June 15^th. Hopefully we will not need either rain date! 

Needs

We did not get any ties for a project we were going to do, so we will not do that project. Please do not send in ties if you were planning to. 

Kindergarten Goodbye

Wednesday, June 17^th at 2:00 pm.

Please let me know if you will be attending and if you are willing to bring something for the ice cream sundaes. Thus far we have people bringing:

1 vanilla ice cream

1 chocolate ice cream

whipped cream

We still need more ice cream and toppings.

Thank You!

This week the children will be working on the slideshow for our Kindergarten Goodbye. They will create a plan as to what they need to do, take digital photos and record their voices to each slide. I hope you like it!

Last Day

June 19^th from 8:30am -12:15pm

 Wow, only 9 more days of school!

June 1, 2009

Reminders

The Bakerwoods field trip is on June 10^th. We are planning to arrive there at 9:00. Please plan on meeting us there if you are chaperoning. We can accommodate all interested parents who want to chaperone this trip. Please keep in mind that by signing up to chaperone, you are agreeing to supervise a group of children and you should be willing to guide/assist this group throughout the entire trip. Thank you 

Field Day

We will have Pre-K and K Activity Day on June 11^th. Thanks for volunteering! You will be assigned to an activity when you arrive. It would be helpful if you could arrive a few minutes early to receive directions/advice about the activity before the children arrive at each station.  

Kindergarten Goodbye

Please let me know if you will be attending and if you are willing to bring something for the ice cream sundaes.

NAEYC Accreditation

The results from the family surveys will be reviewed by the prek and k teaches, reported back to families and then used to better our programs. Please return the surveys as soon as possible so they can be compiled and the results can be provided to you in a timely manner.       

Step-Up Day

This week the kindergarten students will meet and visit with their first grade teachers. The visit is about 20 minutes long. We do this in hopes to alleviate any anxiety the children may have about going to first grade. The children get to see who else will be in their class next year and they will hopefully have a calmer feeling about going to a new classroom. This visit is for the kindergarten students only. Sorry parents, you’ll have to wait until open house in the fall. Your child’s teacher will be listed on his/her report card.

Last Day

June 19^th from 8:30am -12:15pm

May 26, 2009

Chick Update

No chicks yet. They are due to hatch today!

Outside Activity Day Reminder

We will have Pre-K and K Activity Day on June 11^th.  The AM session will be 9:00-11:00, and the PM session will be 12:45-2:45. Our class is in the AM session. Thank you to everyone who is helping out that day!

Volunteers

Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered in the classroom and on trips! You have been a great help. We will not need volunteers for the month of June. I will be doing assessments with small groups of children and individually. The children will be practicing skills taught through out the year, beginning to pack up the classroom and adding a few more pages to their Kindergarten Keepsake books. Thank you AGAIN for all your help.

Science

The tadpoles are doing well. No frogs yet, but the children anxiously check for legs on a daily basis. We hope we will have frogs before the end of the year!

Field Trip

Our field trip to Bakerwoods is on June 10th. We are going in the AM at 8:45.

Last Day

June 19th with school hours from 8:30-12:15.

Class Picnic

The children and I would like to invite parents and siblings to a “Goodbye Kindergarten” gathering on Wednesday, June 17th at 2:00pm. It will begin in our classroom with a slideshow and proceed outside for ice cream sundaes.

Please contact me if you would like to send in something for the sundaes.

Next Five Words

does, food, grow, live, many 

May 18, 2009

Science

The chick eggs have been in the incubator for two weeks. The children are writing in their journals each time they candle the eggs. They are talking about how the chick is changing inside the egg.

We will continue to focus on life cycles, but move on to learn about the developmental stages of a frog. The classroom aquarium has tadpoles and the salamander eggs. During this unit the children will see the development of a frog first hand. We will use life cycle stamps and books to understand the continuation of the life cycle.

Books We Will Be Reading

Frogs

How to Hide a Meadow Frog

All Eyes on the Pond

Froggy’s Day with Dad

The Frog Alphabet Book

From Tadpole to Frog

Growing Frogs

PLEASE SEND BACK YOUR VOLUNTEER SLIPS FOR FIELD DAY

We need to know how many volunteers we have for field day so we can set up the appropriate number of stations. Thank you to all of you who have already sent in your slips!

Field Trip

We are fitting in one more field trip this year. There is a wonderful place in Ashford called Bakerwoods. We are planning a trip for June 10^th. The children will have a hands on experience at Bakerwoods. They will enjoy the scenery, visit with the animals, and walk the eye spy trail! The Bakerwoods website has lots to view if you’d like to take a look. http://visitbakerwoodsfarm.com

Next Five Words

time, was, don’t, her, line

May 11, 2009

Science

The children are very excited about the chick eggs! This week we will candle some of the eggs and the children will write in their journals about the development they see. Candling an egg is done by shining a bright light through the egg in a dark room. By doing this we can see how the chick is developing. I have talked to the children about the possibility that not all of the eggs will hatch.

Black Hawk Helicopter

On Monday, May 18, 2009, our students and staff will be given the rare opportunity of witnessing the landing of a Black Hawk helicopter and a close up walk-about. Four children from each class will get a chance to go inside the helicopter! The children’s names will be drawn from paw power tickets.

Next Five Words

some, day, eat, first, said

Theme

We will all focus on understanding living and non-living things and the life cycle of plants. The dramatic play area will continue to be a Garden Center. Each child is keeping a plant journal that will be sent home when the plant comes home. When writing in the journal the children will be thinking about what is happening to the seed as well as writing about what they are observing.

Language Arts

As we read stories this week, the children will focus on recognizing the characters. During writing time the children will be asked to make up characters and write/draw about them. This can be difficult, as the children are used to writing about themselves. At home practice will be helpful! 

Activity Day

We have had many volunteers sign up for Activity Day! More volunteers are still needed. Please sign up to help out if you can.

May 4, 2009

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 10^th

Weekly Theme

This week we will focus on Mother’s Day. We will be making a special keepsake, a card and a class book. Some of the great stories we will be reading are Are You My Mother? , Is Your Mama a Lama, Over in the Meadow and My Mom’s Great.

Activity Day

Information about Activity Day is attached to the newsletter this week. If you would like to volunteer, please fill out the form and send it back to school as soon as possible. Thank you!

P.E. Days

Please help your child remember to wear sneakers twice a week for P.E. class. Now that the weather is nice, we will be using the nature trail and I try to go for nature walks on P.E. days, because I know the children will be wearing sneakers.

Next Five Words

Much, thank, how, make, of

 Science

The focus for the next few weeks will be on Life Science; how we can describe the living things around us. The students will describe and observe similarities and differences in shape and behavior of animals. To give the children hands on experience with this, we will hatch chicks in an incubator in the classroom. It takes 21 days for the chicks to hatch so we won’t see any chicks for a few weeks!

Math

The students will use picture cards to identify animals, sort the animals by hatching or not, use a calendar to record how many days it takes for the chicks to hatch and draw number stories about the eggs/chicks.  

Language Arts

Your child will be listening to stories about animals that hatch from eggs, retelling and sequencing stories, keeping a chick journal to record the development inside the eggs, match rhyming pictures and practice ending sounds.

April 27, 2009

I hope everyone had a nice vacation! Please have your child bring in his/her vacation journal by Wednesday so all of the children will have a share to share his/her journal!

Theme

We will continue to learn about our community, ways to get around and about maps. We have a big map of Ashford in our classroom that we will use to find everyone’s road. This week we will also make books called All Around Ashford. Inside the books the children will write about their houses, where they live and draw a map of the classroom! 

Classroom Wants

I would like to make a “new center” to encourage children who are ready to practice first and second grade sight words. To do this I need some new “fun” magnadoodles. If anyone would like to purchase one or give a donation, so I can purchase some, it would be greatly appreciated. Both Walmart and Target sell them in many different shapes and sizes. Thank You for helping!!! 

Family Reading Night

Mark your calendars for the Family Reading Night on Wednesday, April 29, from 6:00-7:45. Students in preschool to second grade are welcome.

o  Surprise storytellers: come see who will be reading to you!

o  Kids wear their pajamas or comfy cozy attire.

o  Enjoy free refreshments.

o  Free book related crafts.

o  Visit with our town librarian and sign up for your own library card.

Next Five Words

soon, late, oh, yes, find

Recyclables

I could use about 24 empty orange juice containers from the frozen food section and if anyone has any. THANKS!

 

April 13, 2009

Theme

We will continue with the On the Go theme this week. The children will be creating transportation pictures using KidPix in the computer lab, writing a sentence about their picture, recording their sentences onto the slides and then making a slideshow with all of the slides! We hope to share our slideshow with other classes when it is complete.

Vacation Homework

Please have your child read every day during the week of vacation. It would also be good practice for your child to keep a journal of what he/she is doing during vacation. Encourage your child to draw a picture and write a sentence or two about what he/she does each day.  This would be a great sharing activity after vacation if everyone keeps a journal!   

Dramatic Play

I would like to change the play area into a gardening center in May. If anyone s interested in donating items, we could use: child size aprons, child size tools, shovels, hoes, gloves, soil, seeds, containers for planting and anything else you think would be fun! 

Activity Day

Each year the preschoolers and kindergarteners have a day of fun and games at the end of the year. Thursday, June 11^th is the date for this year. This day can only take place if we have lots of volunteers to help us with the games and activities. So please check your calendars and let me know if you will be able to volunteer. I will send home more information about the activities for the day in May.

 

9:00-11:00              12:45-2:45

Mrs. Bibeault’s K          Mrs. Lusa’s Pre-K

Mrs. Lusa’s Pre-K          Mrs. Dingler’s K

Mrs. Longo’s Pre-K        Mrs. Longo’s K

 

More in Math

Throughout the school year we have talked about clocks and time. This week we will put an emphasis on telling time using digital and face clocks. While using plastic clocks, wipe off clocks and making paper plate clocks, the children will gain a better understanding of time.

Classroom Needs

Lysol wipes

Next 5 Words

too, get, hold, home, so

April 6, 2009

Theme
On the Go is the theme for the next few weeks. This week the children will be reading and talking about the different kinds of vehicles that people use to go places. Students will learn songs “Riding in My Car”, “The Wheels on the Bus” and “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.” Students will draw pictures of vehicles and share the information they already know. We will discuss how people traveled in the past and explore the fact that long ago there were no cars, planes or trains. Some stories that will be read are: I Wish I Were a Pilot by Stella Blackstone and The Kite Festival by Leyla Torres.

Homework
Have your child make a list (write and draw) of all the vehicles your family has traveled in and then have your child try and think of more!

Math
The children have been “playing” with coins and will continue to play games and identify a penny, nickel, dime and quarter.

Report Cards
Please call me or send in a note if you have any questions about your child’s report card.

Volunteers
Thank you to everyone who volunteers in the classroom. I really appreciate your time and effort and I know the children love having their families come in to help!!!

Donations
Thank you so much for everything that has been sent in!

Robust Vocabulary
Each week the students are introduced to new vocabulary words through stories. Please help you child practice these vocabulary words at home.
Dare, gleaming, splendid, cautiously, disaster, festival, adventure, explore, tame, amazed, completely, and jolt.

Book Orders
Please return the Book Order by Thursday, April 9th.

No School
Friday, April 10th is Good Friday