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!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. Easter Sunday!

I just answered the phone to hear my three year old grandson's voice scream:  "Christ is risen!"  He is risen, indeed!  May each of you celebrate His rising!

This week we will enjoy a second study of /s/.  It will include seed equations in math, safety lessons for spring (now that we can be outside again!).  And many activities centered around the deep, blue sea!

That means Friday will be swim suit day!  Come ready for a virtual swim in our virtual deep, blue sea!  I will be the life guard, little ones come in swim attire!

Kids, did your parents guess what your Easter Lily was made from!?

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 13 April 2014

Palm Sunday marks Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to begin his last week on earth.  It was a joyous day for many, but it became a week of dismay, rejection, betrayal, suffering, and death for Jesus.  We will learn about these days this week, with the joyous big picture of Resurrection that followed.  We celebrated Palm Sunday early on Friday.

As part of Holy Week, we will begin each day with a chapel gathering.  On Tuesday we will be going to big kid chapel which begins at 8:30.

This week's activities and lessons will have egg, cross, and jelly bean themes.  Our big word of the week (besides Resurrection!) will be  oviparous.

On Thursday's Easter celebration we will enjoy scrambled eggs ( from those we blew out).  We will also prepare Ressurection rolls- look for the recipe.

Friday I shared with the little ones, some upcoming events.  They MAY have gotten confused on the dates!  The events are SWIM SUIT DAY (Friday, April 25) and PET DAY (Friday, May 9).  More info to follow after Easter!

May each of you have a most blessed holiday!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 6 April. 2014

We will begin this week with more changes!  Before spring break we said good-bye to Mrs. Dorsey.  Now we will say hello to Ms. Johnson as she returns each morning (8:30-9:30) to kindergarten to help teach SLANT reading ( as Mrs. Dorsey had in her absence).  Mrs. Hammer will remain our morning aide, but will not be working with us in the afternoons; Ms. Johnson will be back each afternoon.

We march on with /s/ this week as we open our store!  I did not even send the note to save empty food, cosmetic, soap containers, but did talk to the little ones about the grand opening, and we already have 8 full grocery bags of containers!  Good work, little ones, about spreading the news!  So, continue saving emptied containers to help stock our shelves.  The store will be open for the next two weeks (three weeks if interest continues).

As part of the store study, we will work with stocking, sorting items; pricing, shopping (yes, I do print our own money!); learn how to write checks and find out a bit how credit cards work (at least we will all have one!).

Senses study will also fill our week, a signs of spring walk, plus further study of syllables and compound words.

We should keep busy!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 30 March 2014

I hope each of you enjoyed a refreshing spring break,even if it did feel more like a winter recess!

We say good-bye to Mrs. Dorsey who so generously gave of her time to assist in working with our  reading program.  I honored Mrs. Dorsey's request to "not make a big deal" of her leaving, although we did make a huge card for her!  Next week we will welcome Ms. Johnson back to kindergarten!  She has completed her student teaching in 1st grade and her subbing in 2nd grade for Mrs. Sorg.  Now she will be with us for the remainder of the year!

And now we concentrate on /r/.  In science we will make rainbows,even one in a glass vace (it is actually a lesson on liquid densities); we will perform a rust experiment, make raisins dance, and set off a balloon rocket.  We will write a rainbow!  Come see it on the wall, then it will make sense!  Rhyming and writing restaurant menus will be further writing activities-apart from our daily reading and writing.

I will also be sending a new scribing schedule this week that will take us to the end of the year.  My, how time flies when you are having fun!!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 16 March 2014

We enter the Land of the Leprechauns this week!  So let's all wear GREEN tomorrow, even if we aren't all Irish!!  Many of our math activities this week will have a Leprechaun theme, be it reasoning, ordering, or by the study of quarters ( 1/4 ).  The Trinity will be explored as St. Patrick found hope in the shamrocks of Ireland during his captivity there.

Other studies will contain the study of area and patterning in creating quilt ideas.  

Our Invention Fair was a great success, and the little ones were excellent authorities as they explained their invention models to our guests!

It was great fun entertaining our Grandparent/friends also.  The kindergarteners were quite surprised by some of the answers to their many interview questions - especially learning that grandparents survived Kindergarten without having snacks!  Forms of discipline filled them with awe - if not a bit of fear!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 9 March 2014

What a fun surprise last Friday!  We enjoyed the biggest birthday cake I have ever had!  Reading the hopes and wishes of the little ones brought tears to my eyes from several comments, along with many smiles!!!  Kids do say the greatest things!!  Thank you for helping make my birthday celebration one I will never forget!

The igloo is complete!   The count: 279!  It will stay in the classroom for "use" until the first day of spring when it will "melt" and the be recycled.

This week is at last the week for our Invention Fair!!  Several models have already been brought to school.  They will be on display Wednesday for Grandparents Day.  The kindergartners will be at their "posts" from 9:30-10:00 on Wednesday.

When we return to the classroom Wednesday, we have prepared interview questions for grandparents.

FRIDAY will be pajama day!  Come in PJs!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 3 March 2013

Oh, how we welcome the month of SPRING!  I was beginning to think it had been forgotten!

/o/ is filled with so many fun studies: organs of the body, Oobleck - watch for the recipe, Oceans in a bottle....   We will continue to study numeral order beyond 50 and the study of nouns.

Wednesday begins the season of Lent, and we will experience the imposition of ashes in our chapel service.

The igloo will be completed this week!  We only need 7 more jugs and the tunnel is finished!   Thanks to all who helped!

I am off to meetings.  Enjoy the day off!  Oh, and you 3 families basking in the sun in Florida- remember your homework, and BRING back warmth,!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 23 Feb. 2014

 What a wonderful evening Saturday night's Graceful Evening was!  It is a favorite event of mine: a time for Grace  School families combining with Grace Church families for a common purpose!  Nearly half do the SK parents attended!  What a representation we had!

This week will be filled with more mapping of neighborhoods; studying and observing nests and some mysterious objects woven onto real nests, proving that birds are very creative!  We will review the difference between numerals and number, study what a noun is, and learn the meanings of our names.  Look for "Meanings of Names" coming home this week.  The research was fun, and each child's name is so descrtive of him/her!

Please return your child' s re-enrollment form this week!  

O

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 16 February 2014

 Our short week will begin with a study of why we had no school on Monday.  

Wednesday we celebrate 100 days of school - on day #102!  That means everyone is to bring 100 pieces of something eatable (ie: raisins, cereal, bite sized crackers, etc.) - anything your little one can eat 100 of!  Our study will become a giant subtraction activity!  

Thursday and Friday will be spent experimenting with magnetism and map reading, and more money work.

The  "stained glass window" made for the Graceful Evening event is complete and beautiful!!  Thank you to Jean and Jay Carino for all their work!!!

Ellie again!

The third time is a charm, so they say!

The February Parent Conferences are optional for the early childhood classes.  I will be scheduling several meetings with parents, but you may also request a conference time if you desire one.

Ellie's Newsletter: 2

With the days we missed due to cold weather, our 100th day of school lands on Valentine's Day!  With the remembrance of presidents the following Tuesday, I proclaim a celebration of 102 days of school on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

For this celebration, please count out 100 bite sized snack items with your little one, and send them to school on the 19th.

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 11 February 2014

We enter a week of LOVE with random acts of kindness.  Stay alert; I hope the little ones remember their "homework" with random acts!   We will be practicing at school!

Friday we will bring our Valentine wishes to share.  We still need lots of empty tissue boxes or shoe boxes for this project.  Please send them by Wednesday.

I hope you are having fun planning invention models or illustrations!  They will be displayed for all to see on Grandparents Day March 12.

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. Ground hogs day or Super Bowl Sunday!

Since THE GAME is in full swing, you may not read this too soon, but it includes yet another message for saving something!  Please save empty tissue boxes and/or shoe boxes.  And we are in need of them by next week Wednesday!  (Good ideas come slowly to me now days...!  Or else I am like the dear ground hog who, on seeing his shadow, runs and hides a few more weeks!)

Let's hope we are on a 5 day school run this week!   It really is hard to push 5 days into 3!  This week we will master coin counting (or at least get a good introduction!).  We will begin with counting and grouping pennies, add nickels, then dimes, and include quarters.  We'll play a home buying game adding five dollars and ten dollars (inexpensive houses!).

Science will include experimenting with miscible and immiscible liquids and masses.  Ask about what miscible means (after Wednesday).

We will additionally study measurement -  some of us might even be "perfect squares!"  And we will begin a study of mapping skills.

After Valentine's Day, we will have More /m/  as we will include experimentation with magnets, more mapping, magnification, M and M Math, and a study of mold (the you will be asked to send in a piece of any kind of bread for our mold study).

Speaking of Valentine's Day - yes, we will celebrate by exchanging Valentine wishes.  Remembering there are 21 children in the class, it is not necessary to personally address Valentines with names, although please DO have your little one sign his/her wishes.  The children do like to know which message is from whom.

One last note:  Beginning tomorrow, we are fortunate to have an OPRF Senior student aiding in our classroom.  Miss Melina is also a former Grace kindergartner who is now interested in pursuing a career in Early Childhood Education.  It will be fun having Melina return, and to be extra hands in the classroom.

Friday color wear

Tomorrow's color to wear for Lutheran School's Week is Indego (blue jean blue!)

Ellie' s Weekly Newsletter. 26 Jan. 2014

This week is Lutheran Schools' Week! How convenient for it to occure the week we are emphasizing /l/!   

Each day this week has a different theme.  Monday's attire is to be "dressing for my dream job."  Tuesday is PJ day!  Wednesday: red and white day (school colors).  Thursday is crazy hat or tie dye day.  And Friday is class color day.   Look for the note telling what color the SKs have chosen for our color.  Each day there is a competition for which class has the most children "in costume."    Let's see if we can win!

So it is this week, that we will study living vs. non-living things;  listing the needs of living things.  Math will concentrate on the concept of Larger than, more vs. less, and learning to begin with the larger numeral when mentally adding two numerals. ( I think I was taught that in fourth grade!).   Love will also be big in our study!

I realize we sent home notes requesting snow pants, but since this whole week will have temperatures too cold for outdoor play, you need not send them this week - unless you want your little one to wear them too and from school to the car!  That might not be too bad an idea Monday and Tuesday!   Will this cold and snow ever end!?!?

I hope you had fun learning about your child's invention idea!  It was fun collecting ideas!   Never before has there been such a variety of ideas!

Keep the milk/water/juice jugs coming!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 19 January 2014

You should have received your child's Invention Idea in his/her school bag on Friday.  The next assignment is to have FUN creating a model or drawing a picture of the invention.  This year's class is most unique in that we only had 2 robotic inventions!   We have quite a variety of ideas - just like the personalities of our little ones!  Our Invention Fair will take place on Grandparents Day in March, so you will have plenty of time for construction.  We have emphasized with the little ones that their models will not "work."  We have even used the word "prototype!"  

Please, please, please label snow pants!  To me, all black snow pants look the same, and it seems to be that way with the little ones, too!  Once they are taken from the "bags," they hit the floor and all look alike!

Since we are on the subject of cold weather wear - if you would like to have a pair of slip-on slippers or shoes stay at school when boots are removed, feel free to do just that.  Slippers should have a sole to them and not be slippery.  We still need gym shoes for PE class on Wednesdays.

This week much of our math activity will have a keys theme.  With keys we will skip count, order, solve subtraction problems, review addresses.

Kazoos are also on our list of things to make, so please save empty TP and Paper towel tubes!

The week will begin with activities centered around life during Martin Luther King, Jr.'s lifetime.

Thank you for saving milk/water/juice gallon jugs!  We have received 75, and have a nice start!  Keep drinking!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 12 January 2014

It sounded like a good idea at the time - how hard can it be to chisel through 3 inches of ice at the end of a driveway that has been driven over by a truck all week?  Conclusion - I'd much rather be teaching your little ones!

It never ceases to amaze me, how after introducing a discussion explaining what an invention is and how inventions help us, that immediately little minds are at work, creating their own invention ideas!  This week we should be sending home Invention Ideas papers, explaining in some detail the invention your little one wants to "Invent."  Our Invention Fair, happening in March on Grandparents' Day, will display these Invention Models and Illustrations.  This annual event has become quite a popular one!  It is hoped that it does not become a stressful experience, but a fun time for parents and little ones to brainstorm and create simple models.  We emphasize that invention idea models do NOT work, they are prototypes!

This week we will also be creating paper insects.  But we will make them fly!   it will be magnetic!

Measuring objects using inch measurement, using the "ing" ending, and writing with invisible ink are a few other topics for the week.

Have you heard about our new LOFT?!  It is the result of an Eagle Scout project, thanks to Carter Knupp (a once upon a time ago Kindergartener!)

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter. 6 January 2014

This is the first time I've written our new year!  May it be a happy one for all!

We will not be meeting tomorrow, but I wish for everyone to enjoy a warm day off!  

I also thank each of you for the outpouring of  generosity at Christmas!  Your monetary gift paid for my plane ticket to visit my daughter and her family!!  Thank you for making my visit FREE!  I spent my every thought on getting to know my grandsons!  Bythe way,they are positively perfect!

This week we will celebrate Ephiphany a day late, but we can always remember the arrival of the three kings!

We will also concentrate on inventions.  Those of you new to Grace May not be familiar with the Sr. Kindergarten Invention Fair.  It has become an annual event, amazing all who view our Invention Ideas. This week we will investigate what inventions have changed our lives, have made our work and play easier, more interesting, or more convenient.  You will be receiving your little one's Invention Idea later this week.  At a future date, we will display our ideas in model or illustrated form.  Right now, just enjoy hearing about you child's creative idea!

Another "annual" happening is our igloo- quite appropriate for this season!  I hope you have saved gallon milk/water jugs!  We will need over 300 of them to complete our construction!

Until we gather, stay warm!