Open House!

The Open House came and went...can you believe that a new school year is almost here?! Thanks so much for coming! I love meeting new students and seeing their excitement! I am really looking forward to a wonderful year! Can't wait to see you on the big day! (September 2nd for my Tues/Thurs group and September 3rd for my Mon/Wed group!)

***If you were unable to attend the Open House and have any unanswered questions, please feel free to get a hold of me! Otherwise, I will send any missed information home with your child on the first day of school. Also, pre-school registration packets have all been sent out. If you have not received yours, please let me know so I can get you one!***

The Jar is FULL!

A couple years ago, I started the "good choices jar" in my classroom. It is the same idea as a sticker chart, but the children get to put a token in the jar when they are caught doing something wonderful, instead of a sticker on a chart. The tokens are given to the students to reward them for all of the great choices they make...from sharing, to using their manners and everything in between. This is the second time this year that the jar is completely full of their awesomeness! And, when the jar is full, they receive a party! This time it was a Popsicle party!

ZOO DAY!

If you haven't been to Babby Farms yet, (babbyfarms.net), hurry! What a great place to explore with the kiddos! There are so many different animals for them to learn about and see! We fed the miniature ponies, pet the kangaroos, ran with the goats, held the ferrets, (Jordan's favorite...haha), and even saw a Zedonk! Thanks for braving the zoo in the rainstorm! SO much fun!

Summer Birthdays!

Happy Birthday, (This Summer), to Kadence, Jordan, Noah, & Camryn!!

Box Tops!

We have been collecting, and collecting, and COLLECTING!!!
Drum roll.....
165 Box Tops were collected by the students to earn money for NEW LIBRARY BOOKS!
Great work, kiddos!!

Butterfly Life Cycle Theme

Our New Friends 

Look who came to visit us,
They don't make a noise, or even fuss!
They crawl, climb, and eat,
And they have a lot of feet!
They won't stay long,
So soon they will be gone.
Our little caterpillars can't stay,
Because when they're butterflies, they fly away!

*Fellow teachers: I wrote this little poem to go with the introduction of our Butterfly Life Cycle Theme. I read it to the students before I brought out the caterpillars I ordered from insectlore.com. Feel  free to use it!:)*

The Caterpillar stage

The Chrysalis stage

Darn it!! My broken phone has all the wonderful pictures of the students saying good-bye to the butterflies as we released them. What a neat experience!!

Gotta Go, Gotta Go! Is a super cute book by Sam Swope, and it goes perfectly with the Butterfly Life Cycle Theme!

The magic of Easter

*I was waiting to publish this post because the pictures that go with it are on my broken phone. I was really hoping to salvage at least some of the pictures...but no such luck.:(

We've all seen the ADORABLE idea and super cute Easter/Spring tradition. of planting jellybeans with your kiddos, which then "grow" into lollipops. I really wanted to try it out with my class this year, but wanted to incorporate the story of Easter and Christ's resurrection with it.

This is what I came up with:

A Magical Easter
Easter is  special, yes it's true!
Jesus died and then rose, just like new!
We are all saved by God's grace,
And one day soon, we will look upon His face.
I am here to remind you,
Of His light and truth.
Plant these magic jelly beans,
Red, yellow, purple and green.
And when your lollipops grow,
You will surely know,
Jesus loves us, Everyone,
And He is God's only begotten Son.

Love,
The Easter Bunny

The children found this poem, attached to a baggie of jellybeans, on the table when they came in from recess. We went outside and 'planted' the jellybeans and then during art time, the Easter Bunny, (Thank-you, Erin!!), put lollipops in their place. I hope you all had a beautiful Easter!

Eat Your Veggies...

but not these ones! Mushrooms, onions, and carrots...oh my! The kids had waaaay too much fun painting with their food today! "V" is for VEGETABLE!

Earth Day!

We always celebrate Earth Day by making a special poster for New Plymouth Elementary School's hallway! Many of the kiddos have older siblings who attend, so it's always fun for them to see their art work hanging up where their big brothers/sisters go to school! We also took a short walk around the church building and picked up trash while we talked about how important it is to take care of our planet!:)

"U" is for...UMBRELLA

Last year we tye-dyed underwear for the letter "u" craft, but this year, since we've tye-dyed already, I wanted to do something fun and interactive outside with umbrellas. Luckily, the weather was perfect for an outdoor activity! I wasn't sure if silly string stains or not, so thank you for dressing your child appropriately..I always worry about their cute little clothes getting ruined!:)

Here are the students playing my version of umbrella tag:

Each student had their own can of MAGIC RAIN, (aka silly string), and they 'tagged' their friends holding the "U"mbrella with it! So fun! My new favorite "U" activity! 

*SIDE NOTE: Please pray that the remnants of the silly string leftover after my raking, and re-raking and raking again, disintegrate before the Easter play! Otherwise, it's going to look like a party outside Jesus' tomb!;)

KINDERGARTEN ROUND-UP

If your child will be FIVE before September 1st, and you live in the New Plymouth school district, you don't want to miss KINDERGARTEN ROUND-UP! The administrators will give you the ins and outs of kindergarten and will answer any questions you might have. Please bring a current copy of your child's immunization records, and his/her birth certificate.

April 22nd at 9am and again at 7pm 

April Fool's Day!

I couldn't resist...I HAD to play a tiny April Fool's Day trick on my class today.  I promised the kiddos brownies if they completed all of their homework over Spring Break, and every one of them did! (Good job, parents!) So, I made some brownies and brought some milk, but first, I passed out "brown 'E's" and their reaction was so darn funny! I wish I had gotten it on video, but I did take a couple pictures!

Nobody said a word as I passed out the letter E colored in brown...they all just looked at one another. Then finally Layden said, "ummm, you can't eat these Miss Emilee." I told them all they were brown "E"s just like I promised and their faces were just priceless.
Then when I started laughing, Noah said, "This is ONLY funny if we get the REAL brownies too, Miss Emilee!"

My husband thinks I'm mean, but I promise, they all laughed! ;)

Homework!

Hopefully you all found the homework packet in your child's folder over Spring Break! If it is completed and turned in on Tuesday, the students will receive a new pencil and a treat!

The Letter "T!"

We had a very important visitor from Trademark Dental come and speak to our classroom about "T"eeth! Thank-you, Miss Jane! We learned a lot about the correct way to brush and care for our teeth! She even read us a cute story about Timmy the tooth. AND, she gave us each a new toothbrush, toothpaste and a toy! That was a very special treat!

We also had some Tye-Dye fun! Here are my happy little hippies in the finished product!

"S" is for...

Super, Stylin,' Sunglasses...thanks for modeling your show&tell, girls!!

And Seeds! We read "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle, and then planted our very own flower seeds. Jett reported last week that his seed is growing tall!

APRIL/MAY SNACK CHART!

April:

1 Miss Emilee
3 Josie/Ellie
8 Jordan
10 Noah
15 Camryn
17 Layden
22 Granger
24 Kadence
29 Jett

May:

1 Wade
6 Kennedy
8 Weston
13 Bodee
15 Josie/Ellie
20 Jordan
22 Noah
27 Camryn
29 Miss Emilee

Learning the alphabet "ROCKS!"

This week we wrapped up our letter "R" activities, and we are sooo ready for "S" and 'S'PRING!

Here are a few of the girls trying "rock" candy!

A March Newsletter will go home next week. The snack chart for this next month is posted below! :)

February News!

February
4/6 Intro to "O"
11/13 Intro to "P" (Don't forget to send your child to school in his/her pajamas for out Valentine Pizza Party on the 13th! ***please check your child's folder for info***)
18/20 Intro to "Q"
25/27 Intro to "R"

Reminders:
*The snack chart for Feb./March is listed below!
*Show and Tell is on Thursdays!
*The BOOKS TO GO TOTE is in the hallway and is a super easy way to get some reading in with your little one!

Also, our Grandparents Day celebration was SO fun! Thanks to all the grandparents who were able to  come out! We were short on the 'Hand Print' poem that went home with their craft projects, so I will send extras home with the kiddos!

Here is a sample of some of our "N" work last week:

NOODLE NAMES

Snack Chart:

Snack Chart:
FEBRUARY
4th Wade
6th Kennedy
11th Bodee
13th Pizza Party
18th Josie/Ellie
20th Jordan
25th Noah
27th Camryn

MARCH
4th Layden
6th Granger
11th Kadence
13th Jett
18th Wade
20th Kennedy
25th SPRING
27th BREAK

L&M

Lollipops & Mustaches, my friends!

It is close to the halfway mark in the school year, and we have been spending a lot of time reviewing with flashcards, practicing our letter sounds, and spelling our names!!

Each letter has a song, action,(this plays a big part in helping them remember what sounds each letter makes), and word to go with it...please encourage your child to sing to you and teach you what he/she knows! It is great practice for them:)
A...apple  Ex: "A" says...A, a, a, aaaapple (with the motion of taking a bite out of an apple)
B.....bible (bbbbbible with the motion of the children putting their hands together like a book)
C....cat
D....duck
E...elephant
F...fish
G...gorilla
H...house
I...itchy
J....jump
K....kangaroo

And new this month:
L....lollipop (with the motion of licking a lollipop)
M....mustache

I love to introduce our new letters with a "hands on" teaching aide when possible.
We made lollipops in the kitchen for the letter "L." The students arranged candies on a baking tray and then I stuck them in the oven and they melted together to form 'lollipops' while we read LLAMA, LLAMA RED PAJAMA. (Anna Dewdney) We added the sticks and let them cool for a special treat!
Here is Layden with his lollipop:

Who doesn't love a little MUSTACHE fun?!
These were sent home as a little reminder that "M" says 'mmmmmustache!'

(Thanks for posing, Decker!)

We also read "The Mitten"

and made these cute little mittens....The kiddos kept calling them gloves though, so hopefully they understood the correlation between our letter of the week and their 'gloves!' ha!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a fabulous vacation!! I can hardly believe another year has come and gone! December was FULL of excitement, and to be honest, it's kind of a blur! We learned a couple new letters, had some fun visits from our friendly classroom Elf, enjoyed some birthday treats, (Happy BIRTHDAY Kennedy and Bodee!), and we even celebrated Christmas like Rockstars, performing our holiday program!
And now, we are back to the grind! The snack chart for the month is listed in a previous post! Here is this month's schedule:
Week #2 Intro to "L"
Week #3 Intro to "M"
Week #4 Intro to "N"
Week #5 Review
*****OUR GRANDPARENT'S DAY CELEBRATION WILL BE HELD ON JANUARY 30th at 10am!!!***** All Grandparents are invited! The children will sing 2 short songs, make a craft with his/her grandparent, and then have a special treat before saying good-bye! (More info will be sent home next week in your child's folder.)

Seriously. What is cuter than their tiny hand prints?! I hope you loved your ornaments...the boys and girls were SO excited to give them to you!

We practiced some hand-eye coordination with our upside-down candy canes for the letter "J!"

 Look at this handsome guy! We were Kings For A Day for the letter "K!"

 Our classroom elf was a busy little thing! He brought us treats, and even some special bells from the North Pole to help us remember the true meaning and magic of Christmas while we watched Polar Express!

Miss Jan from the public library came to visit us again, and this time she brought Fred The Dog! The kids were thrilled! We always love our time with Miss Jan! She tells the BEST stories!

Here are some happy kids as they open their presents from the gift exchange!

Show and tell always makes me giggle...the stories these kids tell and the fun things they bring from home are always good discussion topics! ha! Here are Granger and Layden with their Jokers, (who doesn't love Batman?!), and Jett, smiling proudly with his handful of "J"ewels!! Great job, boys!

Thankful. Grateful. Blessed.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to teach your little turkeys, and so very grateful for those sweet smiles that brighten my days! Today we discussed what being grateful means, and made our 'Thankful Turkeys' while we counted our blessings.
Have a happy, happy, happy THANKSGIVING!

Cornucopias, (bugles), and trail mix with little love notes went home with your child today!