Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 24 Nov. 2013

It was wonderful meeting with each of you last week.  It seems hard to believe that it was already  conference time!

This week - all two days of it - will be busy as usual!   Thanks to the timely return of hand prints, our Thanksgiving gifts are well under way, and should be ready just in time!  Our Halloween pumpkin has been cut, seeded, cooked, and the puréeing will be finished tomorrow, in time for our pumpkin pie making.  Look for the recipe on Tuesday.

Our Thanksgiving actors are ready to perform!  We hope many of you will be able to attend our "performance" Tuesday, 10:00 in the Seminar room - just down the hall from our classroom.  WARNING:  it is a short production!  Do not be late!

SAVE THE DATE:  Dec. 19, Thursday,  Pre-k, jk, SK Christmas pageant, 10:30 am, Fellowship Hall.

May you each have a most blessed Thanksgiving holiday!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 17 Nov. 2013

Our theme this week will be one of thanksgiving.  We will study the history of the first Thanksgiving, and of the hardships overcome for the Pilgrims of long ago.

Many of our projects will deal with turkey's: book making, "turkey dice roll" ( adding ), reviewing right and left,  word scrambles, and more!

Our SURPRISE project will be a work done at home, and then returned!  This will make more sense when you see the bag of construction paper coming home Monday.  Please trace a hand print for each member of your family,cut them out, and return them in the ziplock bag BY THURSDAY THIS WEEK. Your little one has told me each member of his/her family's favorite color, thus the selection of paper in your bag.  I am excited to see the final result!

For our Thanksgiving celebration next week Tuesday (Nov 26), we will be performing an ever popular Kindergarten version of the First Thanksgiving.  The production will take place at 10:00 am, just prior to our class party.  We hope you will be able to view our play.  Please do not arrive late!  The play moves quickly!

Friday you should have found a conference schedule in your child's bag.  If not, please let me know!

Ellie's Weekly newsletter 10 Nov. 2013

I begin with the FOOT homework.  Friday we learned the history of why the foot ruler is called a foot ruler. So the homework was to find out how many SK dads have a 1 foot ruler sized foot!  Return the papers after the measuring!  It will be fun to chart the results.

This week we will complete our good foods study.  I hope this has spurred an interest in eating healthy foods.   It certainly has become a hot topic at snack and lunch times.  The little ones are becoming quite proficient in categorizing their foods into the carbohydrate, protein, vitamin, and calcium food groups.  Be sure to ask what these different foods do for the body.  We will be making placemats as reminders!

This week will also include reminder lessons on germs:  what they do, how to prevent them, and how to help prevent their spreading.  Maybe we can have fewer flu symptoms this year.

A chemical garden will be one major science "experience" this week.  Hailey loved our dry ice "experiences" last week!  I personally think the word fits much better than experiment!

On  Wednesday the faculty will schedule parent teacher conference times.  Please return your preference sheets prior to Wednesday afternoon.

Friday evening Gage Carl Beveridge entered the world, weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. (it is good he arrived early!). Grandma and Grandpa Schnack cannot wait to meet him!!!!!   Gage entered the world the same day  my uncle departed from this earth.  The Lord gives and receives!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 2 Nov. 2013

Halloween is past, but the memory of the incredible costumes will long remain!  There were angels, princesses and a king, super heroes and a robot, an octopus and a horse, and lots of giggles and "boos!"  It was a fun day of "pretending" to be something/someone else.

Now we are back to normal with the theme /f/ - for frogs, fish, friends and family.

We will learn what fire needs to burn (and why we do not play with fire!).  Kitchen chemistry will produce "fizzies" to observe the reaction of vinegar and lemon juice when added to baking soda. 

We'll write and illustrate rhyming words with the story "Farmer in the Dell," and will study foods and the importance of eating a balanced diet.  You should be hearing words like "carbohydrate, calcium, protein, and vitamins."  Hopefully you will also hear why we need each of these foods in our daily diets.

In math, we'll concentrate on counting by fives, seeing the pattern made when counting by five.  We'll also discover why the foot ruler got its name. (Be ready to be "tested,"  dads!) 

The construction of a  family flag will end our week.

Fossils will be an important free choice activity!  Mrs. Hammer has been hard at work creating fossils to be chiseled apart to find the contents!

View a few of our Halloween photos!