Happy end of the year!

Correction- The end of the year water day will be on the last day of school. Thursday June 9^th…( not June 7^th as I had stated in the last note home). Sorry for the confusion.  Now to further confuse you we have added a special water day for the early learner this Friday. We wanted to make the day special because we will not be going to the Arts Festival on Friday. Please send a towel, water shoes, and a bathing suit on Friday.  This water day is in addition to the one on the 9^th. 

Thursday May 26^th- Art Festival, Remember the location is Mill Mountain Theater .  Please bring your child to school at normal time .The bus will leave at 9: 00. Please  email me at bethr@communityschool.net  (or send a note) if you want your child sit with you after their performance.  If I don’t hear from you, your child will sit with me for the rest of the performances of “Jungle Book” and “Mulan”. If you are taking your child home, please let a staff member know. Pattie will be at the entrance of the theater with a check off list. Please let someone know. I go into a panic if I lose track of a child. The art show will begin at 9:00 . The drama show will begin at 10:30. Your child will be the first one on. 
     To make costuming easier, please ask your child to dress in shorts and either a tight-fitting t-shirt or a tank top on the day of the performance.  Your child will have to go up and down the stage steps, so please no flip-flops.  We want to make sure everyone is safe.

GENERAL  NEWS

We will have our pizza on Thursday(tomorrow) this week because we are going to lunch at El Rodeo today.

Reminder we will be going to see Junie B. Jones on Monday May 23, please let me know if you can drive.

Due to the death of a dear friend I will be out of school this Friday to attend her funeral.

Literacy and Math:

This week we will finish-up our unit on Three Billy Goats Gruff. The children have made beautiful story boards to illustrate the story with the help of their buddies. We will share them with you at conference. They are amazing I can’t wait for you to see them. Today we completed a story map for Three Billy Goats Gruff. We also made a great Billy Goat salad. It was so good. Thank you James for bring your miniature goats in to share. Dino and Rosie were so fun to play with outside. Thank you so much Bella (James’ sister) for letting your pet, Rosie, come.

To go along with the theme of goats we read, Gregory, the Terrible Eater. Gregory is a goat who hates to eat food that is good for him. With this book we learned about “junk food” and healthy food. This week and next week we will continue to learn about food and nutrition.

May 12th

Thank you everyone for all of your help with the Strawberry Festival. Working together as a community is what we are all about.

Dates to remember:

1.    El Rodeo- Wednesday, May 18^th- Please send in $7.00 for your child by Friday May 13^th. This includes lunch, drink, dessert, tip, and tax. All parents, grandparents, and/or friends are welcome to come to lunch. Please let me know if you will be attending. You can meet Elena and your child at El Rodeo at 11:15. Lunch will end at 12:45 (Plantation Road Location).

2.    Dress rehearsal for Arts Festival will be Tuesday, May 24^th. Please make sure you child is in school. Also please make sure your child is not late. We will be leaving by bus at 9:00 sharp to be transported to Mill Mountain Theater. You do not need to transport your child. Please bring them to school.

3.     Arts Festival- Our Class performance will take place on Thursday, May 26^th. WE WILL TRANSPORT YOUR CHILD. PLEASE HAVE YOUR CHILD HERE BY 8:45. Dismissal will be the normal campus dismissal at 3:15. There will be no after school on Thursday.  If you leave with your child after the performance, you need to check your child out with me.

4.    Friday, May 27^th- Please bring your child to school at the normal time. We will have a normal school day. Dismissal will be at 3:15 and there will be no after school.

5.    Monday, May 23rd – We will be going to see “Junie B. Jones” at the Roanoke Performing Arts Center—I need parents to please drive. Please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks!

6.    Wed. June 1^st – We will be going to see “Give a Mouse a Cookie.”  Look for details to come.

7.    June 7^th – Our class will be having a water day to celebrate the end of the school year. Please send your child with their bathing suit, water shoes, and a towel. Pray for Sunshine.

8.    June 8^th – conference day. Please let me know if you need to reschedule.

9.    Thursday June 9^th- Last day of school-noon dismissal and no after school. Watch future Quick Notes for more details.

Wow….. so much is going on. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I have been unclear about anything. This time of the year life is so crazy.

 It has been my pleasure to be your child’s teacher this year. This has been a wonderful group of children.

It is so hard to believe it is the end of April. This year is going by so fast. Spring is here and warmer weather. You are welcome to send in sunscreen for your child with a written note to give me permission to help your child put it on. I recommend your child wear shoes that protect their feet. It is real easy to stub your toe or cut your foot in the “little woods” on the play ground.

In Literacy – We are reading Three Billy Goats Gruff; it is a classic tale of three hungry goats and a mean troll. The goats – a little one, middle size one, and a big one – want to cross a bridge and get to a meadow of sweet grass. Under the bridge lives a troll who eats anyone who tries to cross. The little goat ventures out first. When the troll threatens to eat him, the little goat convinces him to wait for his bigger brother. The middle size goat crosses next and persuades the troll to wait for the third goat. Finally, the third and largest goat confronts the troll and throws him off the bridge. The troll is never seen again, and the three goats live together in peace.

Center one- the children will make-up different endings to the story. For example let’s suppose that the troll had gotten safely out of the river. What do you think the troll is doing now?  The children will also think and write about the lesson the troll may have learned from the goats. We had a very interesting class discussion with many options expressed as to what may have happened. One child thought he now lived in a cave. Of course we had children who thought he was swallowed by a shark and living in the shark’s belly. The lessons learned were discussed also.  Some children thought, “you should always share things with others” or “maybe if you are not nice you will get into trouble.”

Center two – We are making Br books. The children are cutting word cards out that begin with the blend br. From the word cards they will make-up sentences using the words on the cards. They will then staple them together to make a book.

Center three – We are making a sequence book called A Sprouting Bean. The children are also introduced to vocabulary works related to planting. For example did you know the first root of a plant is called the radicle. Ask your child what emerge means?

In Science – We read several versions of Jack and the Bean Stock, and planted our own bean plants. It has been so much fun watching them grow. Ask your child to tell you the different ways seed travel. We will also be studying the different parts of the plant in the next week.

In Math – We read the story Inch Worm.  With this story the children will use different forms of measurement to record the length of objects. The children will also explore their environment and measure and compare different objects. The children also continue to work on addition and subtraction problems.

General News:

Please sign-up for Strawberry Festival if you have not already. Look on Quick Notes for the sign-up sheet.

On Friday May 6^th – the children will be served strawberry short cakes at school on Friday.

Field trip - Monday May 23—more information to come. We are going to see Junie B. Jones (which I have just finished reading to them).

Arts Festival- Check Quick Notes

On a personal note I will be out of school Friday May 6^th and Monday May 9^th- My Dad has recently passed away and I will be attending a Memorial Service for him in Florida. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Buddy Time with Upper Elementary

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! We had a fun day celebrating .The mischievous leprechauns even snuck into our classroom and made a big mess. They left behind gold coins, scraps of silver and gold paper, and glitter. They children picked-up after the leprechauns and made pictures with the goodies that were left behind.

Math: we are using addition mats to add with. They are doing a wonderful job. Practicing the addition facts from 1-10 would be a great activity to do at home. We also graphed lucky charms for St. Patrick’s Day.

Literacy: We had our play this week which was fabulous……I was amazed at how well the children memorized their parts. It was so fun. They were so proud of themselves. We also had the opportunity to watch the other class’s plays. Thanks Julie! I appreciate all the work you did to provide the children with this experience. In class we also made bunuelos to go along with the theme from their play. I am sending the recipe home in their folders.

General information:

1. Please remember to send fruit break with your child everyday. They need the fuel to get through the day.

2. We are almost out of glue sticks. Donations are welcome.

3. Conferences are April 7^th if you need to reschedule your conference time please let me know. I am here most morning and I am also available some days after school.

4. Vacation is March 28^th-April 1^st.

5. Strawberry festival is coming up! Check Quick Notes for more information.

Field trip: Tomorrow we as going to the SPCA please fill out the permission form we have stapled to your childs’ folder. They MUST have the form completed in order to attend. Please send the form to school with your child tomorrow. Thank you!

Our classroom is overloaded with cat and dog food! Thank you.  The animals at the SPCA will appreciate your generosity.  Our class also made homemade dog treats and cat nip toys for the animals.

Literacy:  This week we finish-up our Dr. Seuss unit. The kids had a blast dressing up on Friday as what they wanted to be when they grew-up. We have lots of aspiring rock stars, a doctor, football player, Patriot football coach (Go Pats!) a wizard, surfer, and a scientist. On Friday we also read Green Eggs and Ham, and cooked up some green eggs with ham to eat. I was so surprised at how many kids asked for seconds. Green eggs were a big hit. We also wrote about the way we would choose to eat our green eggs and ham…..some choose to eat theirs in a tree….on a boat…in a house. Lots of creative places to eat our green eggs!

Math: In the first center, we made counting strips by twos. In the second center, we used addition mats and

wrote addition problems and solved the equation.  In the third center, the children read addition story problems and illustrated them to find the correct answer.

Dates to remember:

Friday, March 11: SPCA, remember to send the permission form back.

Thursday, March 17: Saint Patrick’s Day. Wear green.

Wednesday, March 23: Boat Regatta. After spending some time learning about wind energy (all of the huffing and puffing from that big bad wolf!), we will make sail boats. Weather permitting we will walk to Hollins on the 23^rd to sail our boats in Carvin’s Creek. Please send rubber boots or some other water shoes (tevas, keen, beach shoes…..anything secure and easy to walk in).

March 28^th-April 1^st :  Spring Break

April 7^th:  Conferences

Please remember to check Quick Notes and sign-up for strawberry festival.  We need paper towels and plastic spoons. Any donation is appreciated! Thank you.

Please look in your child’s folder for an invitation to the Elementary Tea.

Success!

The 100th day of school was a success! We did lots of counting. We even predicted what we might look like and be doing when we are 100 years old. We still have lot of pennies to count for the Children’s Network Charity. Please feel free to send in pennies until next Wednesday.

Our trip to the nursing home was wonderful the children did a wonderful job singing. They also made beautiful cards to hand out to the audience. I was so proud of them. Thank you Kim for organizing the trip, the kids really enjoyed the experience.

A reminder: Tomorrow February 25, we are going to see Seussical. The show is at The Roanoke Performing Arts Center. Please have your child to school on time. You will also need to leave your car seats at morning drop off, labeled with your child’s name.

Please remember to look at the note I sent home yesterday. Next week we will be Celebrating Dr. Seuss. Each day we will do something fun!



Please look for a note coming home today from the lower elementary teachers. They are inviting your child to meet with an older child to learn about next year. Please fill out the form and send it back with your child.

I am also sending home your Child’s script for their play in March. Look in quick notes for performance times. Julie has stressed to me that the children do not need to memorize the script word for word. They just need to become familiar with their part.

Please remember to look at Quick notes. Strawberry Festival volunteers are needed for Baking Day(March 18). Check Quick Notes for details on signing up.

February 4, 2011

Conferences were wonderful! Thanks for taking the time to come and see your child’s work. The children love to show off all they’ve learned.
Math: We are making number books focusing on numbers 10-20. We are practicing making our numbers correctly as well as how to spell correctly. Try practicing these skills at home.
We also colored little kittens with mittens and used them to construct a number line to help us understand how to count by two’s the kids are really getting good at this skill.
Next week we will begin to read the story Caps for Sale (see below for synopsis of story). We will make patterns with hats, count monkeys in the trees, and learn a little about money. If you have any extra hats you would like to donate to the class it would be appreciated. We are going to set up a hat store.
Literacy The children have continued to work in their small reading and phonics groups. This week we worked on the word family ot and at The class brainstormed and came up with lots of word for each family.
Next week we will begin reading Caps for Sale by Esphyre Stobodkina. The story is about a peddler who sells caps by stacking the caps high atop his head. He walks down the street, calling out “Caps for Sale!” One day he awakens from his nap to discover his caps are gone. He looks up to find a tree full of monkeys with each monkey wearing a cap. The children will write about what they would sell if they were peddlers, construct a story map, make a monkey and write about what they liked best about the story. We will also learn a little about monkeys and apes.
We will determine whether we think it would be hard to be a peddler who balances so many caps on your head. The kids will give it a try. First we will begin with two hats and then we will add a third. We will walk from one side of the room to the other without dropping a hat (this should be interesting!). It will be fun to find out just how many hats the kids can balance.
We will also discuss different kind of hats people wear for jobs in our community.

Big Buddies: This week it was so beautiful out we went outside and played with our buddies. We all had spring fever for one short afternoon.
Little Buddies: We read Frankin’s Valentine Day and made our Valentine bags for our party. We also made “Cool Cats” from heart shapes to decorate our classroom.

Dates to remember:
1. Valentine party February 14th. You are welcome to start sending your Valentines in next week. It will give your child time sort them into the right bag right bags. Please keep your Valentines non-edible (no candy or baked goods, please).
2. February 11th is the 100th day of school. Please have your child bring in 100 of something. (example: 100 small matchboxes cars or 100 marbles) whatever you can find in your house.
3. Seussical date is Friday ,February 25th
4. Don’t forget to read Quick Notes published every Tuesday on the Community School website.



Please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy your weekend!

Snow Days and Piggies

Friday, January 21, 2011

Happy Friday! NO SNOW TODAY, YEA! I am so tired of the cold weather……I am ready for the January cold to be over. Speaking of cold weather, a reminder, we go out on cold days. Please remember to dress your child for the weather. Also, I am sending home their extra clothing for you to exchange. So many children have grown out of their extra clothing.

Show and Share is always Friday Morning.

This morning we had the opportunity to walk over to Hollins and watch the play “The Little Mermaid”. The performance was awesome and The Cool Cats were a great audience. I was very proud of them.

Please don’t forget next Friday is conference day. Let me know if you need to change your time. The times are listed in Quick Notes.

Morning Meeting: We are continuing to work on our calendar notebooks. They are really improving at recording the day and month of they year. Please continue to practice the days of the week and the months of the year. Keeping a calendar at home helps children to understand the importance of using a calendar. Learning to spell the days and the months is a good skill to work on. Try using note cards with the months written on them. Mix them up and have your child put them in the right order.

Literacy: We have completed our class study on The Snowy Day. We are now studying the story “The Three Little Pigs”. It is amazing how many different versions there are of this story. So far we have read three different versions. Next week we will compare and contrast the stories using a Venn diagram.

This week I also started our phonics reading groups. I meet with each group about twice a week and individuals once a week. The kids love having their own book to work with.

Math: “The Three Little Kittens” have lost their mittens. This unit works with number operations, patterns, algebra, and problem solving. To reinforce some of the skills, we are working on counting by one’s to 100,by two’s to 24, by three’s to 36, fours to 48 and five’s to 100.

Buddies: Last week we traced our feet and decorated them with encouraging words. We are hoping to send some cheer and support to the troops overseas.
This week we read books written by Denise Fleming. We made birthday cards for her. Our hope is that we will receive a letter back from her. Among her many books are, In the Small, Small Pond and In the Tall, Tall, Grass. We will let you know if we hear back from her.

Little Buddies: We built homes for our three pigs. It was fun exploring with different materials and building our homes for the three little pigs. We also painted our own little pigs.

Future date to remember: On February 25th we will be attending the musical “Seussical”. It will be at the Roanoke Performing Arts Center. I will need one parent driver so please let me know soon if you are available.
Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation. Getting back into a schedule is always difficult. The children seem very happy to be back at school.

We started the New Year with new calendar notebooks. Each morning we use our personal notebooks to record the day of the week and the number of the day. We also practice how to write and spell the number of the day. We sing a song every morning that helps the children learn how to spell the number words one-ten. We also practice counting by one’s to 100, by two’s to 24, by three’s to 36, four’s to 48 and five’s to100. These are great skills to practice in the car.
In Literacy: We read “The Snowy Day”. The story is about a little boy, Peter, who awakens one morning and finds snow has fallen during the night. His adventures in the snow include making tracks with his boots, climbing Snow Mountains, and having snow “plop” on his head. The story led to a class discussion on weather
and different activities we might do depending on the type on weather. As a follow-up to the discussion children then created their own individual charts to tell what they like to do on different kinds of days; rainy days, sunny days, and snowy days. I am really amazed at how well the children could express themselves. They thought of so many fun things to do!
Next week we will begin our small book groups! Each child will be reading their own book and completing activities for the book they are studying. I am looking forward to sharing this with you at conference time.
In Math: We have had so much fun with the nursery rhyme “One Two Buckle my Shoe”. We are making patterns, spelling number words, reinforcing number recognition, sorting by attributes, and making up addition and subtraction problems. Next week we will begin working on fact families.
Buddies: The kids were so excited to meet with their older buddies after the holiday break. With our buddies we worked on vocabulary words that described the cold climate of Antarctica.
With our little buddies (Tulie’s) class we had our holiday party we missed because of snow day. It was so much fun. Next week we will begin a unit on “The Three Little Pigs”. We are going to introduce the children to different versions of the story.