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!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 27 Oct. 2013

Last week was "electrifying" - static electrifying, that is.  As you will see from a couple photos, we had balloons clinging to walls and clothing.  Our egg in a bottle failed to completely enter the bottle, but did make a popping sound as it was pulled from the bottle!  Large eggs must be a larger size this year!  Green eggs (aka deviled eggs) were a hit with no left overs.  Those who were leery, did try the egg whites though!

This week's activities will be filled with pumpkins and pretending mostly.  We will predict and hows and whys of spinning and flipping paper ghosts, though.  A spider book and a pumpkin book will include practice inventive spelling.  Pasta skeletons are an exercise in following detailed directions, and our jack-o-lanterns will NOT be scarey.  You will see for yourselves the reason why!

Thursday will be a day for pretending to be someone or something fun and different!  Your little one may come to school in Halloween attire (those staying in the afternoon, may want to bring a change of clothes to keep costumes semi-clean!).  We will parade throughout the school building, showing off our painted pumpkins and singing a jack-o-lantern song in Spanish.

Friday we celebrate the birthday of the Lutheran Church (aka Reformation).  We also will find out how the Lutheran Church got its name (thank you, Martin Luther!).

Have a fun and safe Hallow's Eve!  

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 20 Oct. 2013

Welcome to the world of /e/!  This week we'll have no cows or dinosaurs, but we will move to Egypt to study their hieroglyphic alphabet.  Look for paper Egyptian cartushes (sorry if that is misspelled!) coming home this week.  they will spell your child's name in hieroglyphics.

We'll also make our hair stand up by experimenting with static electricity.  We can even make water bend!  You will see a model drawing of your child's eye, and we'll learn what constitutes an emergency and what doesn't.  Then we'll practice dialing 911 (on broken phones).

Last week we created our own equations using dots on dominoes, this week we will continue creating equations using dice, as we become mathematical geniuses

We'll make books about favorite food choices (an intro to next week); and we'll find out who will eat green eggs (we'll hold the ham).  I think we only have one child who is allergic to eggs.  Right?  

In religion, we have arrived at Moses, and now begin his trials with Pharaoh, resulting in the 10 plagues.  This will be in book form also.

Another busy week!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 16 Oct. 2013

Sorry to be sending this late, but I was doing grandma duty on the long weekend, helping my grand-daughter celebrate her second birthday.  It was a perfectly glorious weekend! (Today is the official day!)

This week is dinosaur week.  We'll be identifying the difference between herbivores, carnivores, omnivores.  Thanks to my son's extensive dinosaur model collection, we have many samples. We even have a dinosaur bone at school, so a "field trip" will be happening tomorrow.

Math activities will center around the concept of "dozen."  Today we tally counted to 12, learning the concept of 5 and "some more" (6,7,8,9) and two 5s and "some more" beyond 10 to 12.

Birthdays have been high on our list of excitement this week.  Two more little ones are 5 and 1 more!  (see the photos!)

no new out breaks of "head bugs!"  Let's hope this is over!!

Ellie's Weekly Newsletter 6 Oct. 2013

Bones, bones, bones - that was the highlight of last week's free choice time.  The little ones are quite proficient in identifying the many horse bones: rib, leg, skull, vertebrae (otherwise known as airplanes!), jaw, knee; plus comparing their size to similar pig bones.

This week's free choice activity will be milking the classroom cow.  She doesn't have a name yet, but be sure to ask!

Science activity will include the study of caterpillars, becoming moths or butterflies - and finding out specific characteristics of each.  Plus we'll find out why Eric Carle is wrong in his book about the Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Several years ago the kindergartners did send him a letter asking why his caterpillar cocoon became a butterfly.  He did respond with his explanation, but I personally think he was just trying to cover his mistake!!

Additionally, we'll investigate crystals (salt, Epsom salts, sugar) - growing them, painting with them. Since it is fall now, we'll find out why leaves turn brown in the fall - no matter what color they have turned: red, yellow, orange.

Telling time with clocks (hour and half hour will be introduced), and addition "cross outs" are math subjects.

A compound words game will introduce how two small words can become one word with a completely different meaning.

Do you hear your little one "pounding and sounding" words?!  They are loving the segmentation of words and are doing a great job of spelling!