Ellie's Last Weekly Newsletter. 1June 2014

Where has the year gone?!  Where have 42 years gone?!

We are down to the last few days.  But we will not stop learning!  There is one more vowel packet to complete and "looking back" writings.

  

We also will open the time capsul we tucked away the first week of school.  It will be fun to compare drawings and signatures from the beginning of the year.  You will see them at our end of the year celebration on Thursday.  Be sure to take them home!

Tuesday is the trip to my house.  Pray for no rain!!  My phone tells me we are safe so far!  Thursday will be best with no rain, too!  After our song celebration at 10:00 and receipt of promotion papers, we will hike across the street to play at Priory Park.  PLEASE let me know if you will not be able to be present at the park. I do not want to leave anyone on their own!  We will have Lunch Bunch on Thursday.

The closing service of the 2013-2014 school year will begin at 8:45 Friday with dismissal at 10:00.  Attendance is not necessary for any of the kindergartners, but they are welcome to sit with me at the service if they come.

Thank you for making my final year of teaching a fantastic one!!  See you in church, around town, or out walking!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 26 May 2014

What a glorious weekend!  Having both my kids home at the same time was a dream come true!  The meeting of the cousins resulted in instant sharing - Parker (3) shared his pjs with Avery (2) because none of her family's luggage made it out of Arizona....  Gage (6 months) tried to share his pacifier with Graham (3 months).  Or was it the other way around?!

Sunday's celebration was an amazing event, never to be forgotten!  Thank you to each of you who were able to attend.  I hope you had fun!

This will be a big week with first grade visits and parent conferences.  You should have received your conference time via school bags.  Please let me know if your fell out!

Here are the names of our summer birthday celebrants: Meredith and Audrey in June, Elissa! Noah, and Mia in July,  and Jordan in August.  We will celebrate on June 3rd at my house.

Remember the date - June 5.  The day of our end of the year celebration: songs in Fellowship Hall and snacks and family play at Priory Park.   10:00 - 11:30

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 18May 2014

I'm sorry this is later than usual.  I have just been busy this weekend preparing for my kids to arrive in a couple days!!!  This is an exciting event: my daughter and son haven't been home together since my son got married 6 years ago!  My grandchildren will meet each other for the first time!  ( too bad I can't retire more often!)

On to this week:  tomorrow is our trip to Dominican Univ. to see Charlotte's Web.  The bus leaves school at 9:00.  The parents who signed on to join us are most welcome to ride the bus (car parking would be a nightmare!)

Wednesday is the second annual walk-a-thon.  This year the kindergartners will walk 2 laps around the "block."  That means we will walk around the Concordia campus 2 times.  After last year's walk, the little ones complained that they wanted to walk more than once.  So we will give it a try!

The rest of the week, we continue our vowel team writing, and will add water experiments of several varieties, track the weather ( pray for a dry week for a change!)' and write word webs.  To name a few.

Here again are the names of those visiting first grade next week (27  &  28).  Those visiting on Tuesday are:Noah, Andrew, Remke, Lincoln, Julia, Audrey, Madison, Elissa, Ryan, Amee, Hailey, Keira, and Jordan.  After their visit, I will pick them up from the first grade room and return them to SK for the rest of the afternoon.  Those visiting on Wednesday are. Blythe, Alec, Simon, Fynn, Jocelyn, Mia, Meredith, Louisa.  you may meet them outside the first grade classroom (2 floors above our classroom) at 12:30. Each group will begin their visit at 11:00 on their assigned day.

Enjoy the week!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. #2. 11 May 2014

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope each mom is celebrating a relaxing, invigorating day!

My first newsletter included future dates, but didn't mention this week's plans.

The activity we need ingredients for includes the makings of Stone Soup.  Please contribute the following vegetables for our soup.  We need them by Thursday.  

     Carrots: 2or a small Baggie of mini carrots - Amee, Blythe, Noah, Simon, Fynn

      Celery: 2stalks - Meredith, Jordan, Andrew, Remke, Julia

      Tomatoes: 1 or a few grape or cherry variety - Lincoln, Audrey, Keira, Ryan, Louisa

       Potatoes: 1medium size - Alec, Mia, Hailey, Elissa, Madison, Jocelyn

I will supply the rice and stones!

We will also have fun with vowel combinations and volcano construction.

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 10 May 2014

As the year rolls to an end, there are several important events coming up.  Get your calendars ready:

Monday, May 19 is our field trip to Dominican University to see  "Charlotte's Web."  When I received the ticket confirmation, I thought the date was "different" than the one we had registered for (May 16).  Evidently they booked us for the Monday performance and not Friday....  I hope this change does not cause conflict for the parents we paid to go.

May 25 Grace celebrates my retirement/graduation from kindergarten!

Tuesday and Wednesday, May 27 and 28 the kindergartens will visit first grade!  Half of the class will visit on Tuesday and half will visit Wednesday.  Tuesday visitors will be those children who stay for Lunch Bunch on Tuesdays.  The Wednesday visitors will be those who normally leave school at 11:30. The visit schedule will be 11:00 leave our room to go to first grade.  Have lunch and an introduction to first grade with first grade partners.  The visit will end at 1:30 when the kindergartners will be picked up from the first grade classroom to either return to the classroom (those who stay all day) or to be picked up by parents.

Tuesday, June 3 is the last annual trip to my house to celebrate summer birthdays and to prove to the little ones that. I do have a home!  We will leave school at 9:00 and will return to school by 11:30.  Those children who have summer birthdays may bring a snack to share for our celebration.  In case you want to coordinate with other "birthday children," I will send home the list of those who have summer birthdays in a future blog.

 Thursday, June 5 is our end of the year party.  We will meet in Fellowship Hall at 10:00 for celebration songs.  Pre K and JK will also be part of the program.  Following our songfest, SKs will remain in Fellowship Hall to receive promotion papers.  About 10:30, we will all move to Priory Park for family fun and fellowship until 11:30.  There will be afternoon session on the 5th.

Friday, June 6 is the closing service for the 2013-2014 school year, with dismissal at 10:00.  with our program on the 5th, attendance at the closing service is not mandatory.

AMEN!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 3 May 2014

How can it already be May??  But we have made it to the last few letter sounds of the alphabet!  This week we will concentrate on / u /,  or as we say in SLANT: /u/ as in umbrella.  Let's just hope we don't need to use those umbrellas everyday this week!

Actually, the five day forecast says Friday is a rain day, but it is also our PET DAY!  That means pets will be allowed, and welcomed to school on Friday.  Any leashed pets may visit school from 8:30-9:00 or 11:00-11:30.  If the weather brings no rain, we will meet pets in the playground at the 11:00 visiting time.  Small caged pets may stay at school all day, if their comfort allows that.  If you have no living, breathing pets at your house, please bring a non-breathing pet (aka, the stuffed kind!). ****Please let me know if your little one has pet allergies.

The week continues with other unique and unusual activities, medial u words will be studied: subtraction equations in math.

Moms, I hope you enjoy a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 27 April l 2014

I think my ears are still ringing from swim suit day!  It was an action packed morning, filled with surfing, shark sightings, and lots and lots of shell collecting!  We did accomplish several writing assignments and sea craft projects?

After last week, this one will be more "regular. "  Although we will be making tornados in bottles and elephant toothpaste.  I am not certain that elephants actually use this toothpaste, but it shows some pretty exciting "chemical" reactions!

Along with tornados and toothpastes, we will study multiplication equations ( we will call them "times"). We will study time and temperature, review telephone numbers, and learn all about our teeth.  Lately teeth have been a big topic in our class - many are being lost!  The tooth fairy has been working overtime!

Wednesday, we will also have an all school emergency lock down exercise.  That subject just may come up over supper!  Be assured, it is only practice!

It looks as if we will leave April full of showers.  Let's hope May brings warmer weather!!  My tulips don't know whether to stay closed or to actually open up!