Fury Visitors

     This morning, after morning meeting, we were surprised to see two baby goats on campus. After the Discovery Ducks looked in to it, they discovered the goats were actually here with James. James is a student in Beth's class and his parents came in this morning and brought two baby goats for show-and-share. His mom, dad, and little sister told us their names (Rosie and Diny), what they eat (everything!), and that they love to be petted and played with. Well, the children really took that to heart and made sure to show both goats some lovin' and chased them practically all over campus. I had a chance to snap a few pictures. Hopefully the slideshow will be on the side of the blog soon. I've uploaded them, but I have to wait for Blogger to do it's thing!
     After the excitement of the goats, we came back in the room to wash our hands and eat fruit break. Afterwards we had Spanish with Elena. Every year, towards the end of the school year, the children get to eat lunch with Elena from El Rodeo. They practice ordering their food in Spanish and get the opportunity to do so when ordering their lunch. To make things easier on the children, we have it picnic-style here at school. The children order their food with Elena and she goes to El Rodeo, picks it up, and brings it to us. We will be having it next Thursday, May 5th with all Early Learner Classes. Since we have half day students, lunch will be at 11:45am. Please bring a lunch (maybe carryout from your favorite Mexican place?) and join us! Each child will get a taco, a quesadilla, chilps, and salsa. A drink is not included, so please pack a drink for your child.
     Later this morning, we worked more with plants. We teamed up with Beth's class and Tulie's class and studied more about the parts of a plant. We made replicas of a plant complete with real soil.
    
     We still have many shifts to fill for Strawberry Festival. Please remember that each parent is asked to give 12 hours of service for the festival. Please fill out THIS FORM to sign up for a shift (or two or three). If you are working at the festival on Friday afternoon, the After School Program will provide care (at no charge!) until 7:00 PM instead of the usual 6:00. The free care and extended hour are only available for Friday afternoon festival workers. To make life easier for the parents who are working that late shift, we will be feeding dinner (pizza and fruit!) to the students who stay for that extra hour. It should be lots of fun (for parents and kids!). Tulie will be the staff member doing ASP Friday, so if your child stays they will be with a familiar adult. 

Tuesday

     We have been busy little ducks lately. Yesterday, we had literacy workshop after morning meeting. We had 3 different centers open. In one center, the children had to work on writing their name. When gathering conference papers, I discovered so many children have really been working hard and have dramatically improved their fine motor control. Another center had the cubes with the letters to their names in it and they had to put them in order to correctly spell their name. This center doesn't take as long as it once did either. Many children will start with their first letter on the right and work to the left instead of the usual left to right order. This is very common for children this age, so don't worry if you see this happening at home. Eventually, it will click and suddenly everything will go in the right order. Lastly, the children glued popcorn seeds on letters of their name. This was much more challenging for the children, for they are used to gluing much larger items.
     In buddies yesterday, we worked on a special secret project. They'll be coming home in a couple of weeks, promise!
     This morning the children had their first "rehearsal" for their Arts Festival performance. They'll continue to rehearse for the next few weeks, so please make sure your children are here as much as possible on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thanks so much.
     The seeds we put in baggies in the window have all sprouted roots and some stems and leaves. Tomorrow with Beth and Tulie's classes we'll transfer them to a peat pot so they can continue growing. They seem to really be loving this unit thus far.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR YOUR STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL SHIFTS! Several of you are not signed up yet. The festival is only 10 days away and shifts are filling up. Never been to the festival? Not sure what to sign up for? Shoot your questions my way! I'm the Volunteer Coordinator and will be happy to answer any uncertainties you have. :) SIGN UP NOW!

Wednesday

     We've been crazy busy learning about plants lately! Dawson brought in an egg that has seeds and soil inside. We cracked the top open and watered the soil. We have it sitting in a bowl by our window so it can (hopefully) get plenty of sun and grow. The children had fun predicting what type of plant will grow. Some guessed grass, others a sunflower or a cucumber. Henry thinks it will be an oak tree. We'll have to keep it watered and see what happens! Thank you to Dawson for bringing it in for us to experiment.
     Speaking of eggs, we traveled down to Beth's class this morning and dyed eggs. She had too many eggs so she invited us to join. They will come home today. If your child is picked up after the 3:30pm bell, look for it in their lunch box! Otherwise, I'll hand them out as children leave. They turned out beautiful and oh so colorful.
     Also this morning, we worked on a ladybug book where the children had to put dots on the ladybug. Each page had a number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and they had to put the correct number of dots on.
     Later this morning, we had our unit study with Tulie's class and Beth's class. We're learning about how seeds travel. We talked about how Tallulah can walk to a nearby restaurant for dinner and Henry rides in a car to get home. Dawson also reminded us he rode in a plane to Colorado a couple months ago. We then talked about ways that seeds can travel. Ask your child if they remember any ways we talked about (animals, people, water, wind). We then went out and found dandelions (like that was hard, right!?). The children picked them and blew the seeds away. Pictures are coming soon. My computer has been sick today. I also took a lot of pictures of the children on the playground today. Be sure to check them out!

REMINDER:

• I have only received 4 conference rescheduling forms back. PLEASE send them in as soon as possible.
• A few of you turned back in forms regarding application of sunscreen, but didn't send in sunscreen. The form you signed states "I have provided an original, labeled container of sunscreen to be used." I only have sunscreen for one student! ;) Please send some in if you'd like sunscreen actually applied to your child. Also, if you didn't send in this form, please know it is optional. You don't have to send it back.

A "new normal"

     Hello all, it's so great to be back at school. I have missed the children and my co-workers so much. For those of you who didn't know, my mother-in-law passed away this past Saturday. It's been a crazy past couple of days, but I'm ready to be back in the swing of things. I did receive many warm wishes, thoughts, and hugs from several of you and Stosh and I thank you sincerely. It means a lot to know we have such a large support group.
     Meanwhile, the children were saints. I had many good reports from my substitutes, Lynn and Sharon. The children also went on a field trip to the United Methodist Retirement Home. I will post Ruth Ann's blog entry describing the day:
"Who knew singing at a nursing home could be so much fun? The Roanoke City Fire Department started off the fun with rushing ahead of us to the United Methodist Retirement Home. Their blaring horn and flashing lights caught our attention as we pulled to the side of the road and allowed them to pass us. Imagine our surprise to find them parked at the Retirement home when we arrived! They were there only a short while until satisfied there was no fire to extinguish or lives to resuscitate. I thought perhaps the singing would be dull in comparison but our little entertainers put on quite a show once the group was ready to sing. Each song had motions and each face had a smile as they sang, twirled, touched toes and jumped. The patrons of the home seemed to enjoy it as much as the children. After their performance the children mingled, pressed the flesh and were their most adorable selves. Shyness is not an affliction for these children. We then moved to their immaculate lawn for fruit break. Snack time has never been so fast mostly because they were allowed to run and play after eating. Elaine Lavinder, the director and Logan's grandmother, remarked how the children enjoyed just running and playing, even without benefit of toys." Pictures taken of the day are posted to the right. :)

• I got lots of emails and questions about Strawberry Festival sign-ups while I was out. Please note that due to my absences, SF Sign ups will be available online beginning Monday, April 18th.
• Be on the look out! I am working on a form to send home to you to reschedule conferences. Please know that I am willing to come in at 7:30 and stay until 6pm if needed for a conference. If possible for you, I can also work them in during various enrichment classes and fruit break and regular recesses when I do not have duty.  I will ask that you sign up for 3 times that work for you, and I will confirm your finalized time.  I understand conferences are important and would like to have each one rescheduled. I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this has caused. 

Welcome Back!

     Welcome back, everyone! It was so wonderful to see everyone again and get those big, but little, hugs. We started off with our morning meeting lead by Lindsay and then quickly discovered the new things in the room. The Discovery Ducks spent the morning exploring a new (to us) doll house that was donated by another CS family. I had the privilege of going to a kids consignment sale over break and got some things for the room as well. The children quickly discovered trains, blocks, and magnetic blocks that I bought at the sale. Oh, the little things!
     We had buddies this morning with our friends in Betsy's class. We worked on beginning our "buddy quilt" where each buddy set decorated a square for our quilt that will later be assembled. Our schedule will be shifting a little bit for the rest of the school year. We're beginning a unit soon on plants with Tulie's class and Beth's class and will be meeting with them on Wednesdays and Fridays. The children were very quick to tell me that Betsy's buddies weren't to meet with us until Friday. We sure are creatures of habit.

     Spring pictures are being taken tomorrow, April 5th. Individual photos will not be taken, only a group photo of the class. We will take a "serious photo" and a "silly photo". Rain date is scheduled for April 6th.

     Conference Day is Thursday, April 7th. Please refer to quick notes for your scheduled time. Also on April 7th, be prepared to sign up for Strawberry Festival! Shift availabilities will be coming home tomorrow for you to review and plan ahead. Please don't wait around to sign up, shifts do fill up quickly.

     Re-Enrollment Forms were due to the office today. PLEASE send yours in as soon as possible if you haven't done so already.

     Also, Strawberry Festival T-Shirt forms are due to the office tomorrow.