This Week!

We have a short, but fun-filled week ahead! Please take note of the following:

     - Wednesday, June 1st - We will be tie-dying our shirts. Please have your child wear old clothing!
     - Thursday, June 2nd - Field trip to Roanoke Childrens' Theatre for performance of If you Give a Mouse A Cooke. We are leaving campus at 9am and will be back by 11am. This will not change half-day students' schedules.
     - Friday, June 3rd - We are having a Wings 'n Things party! Any and every thing with wings will be celebrated. Sprinklers will be out again, so please send your child with a bathing suit, towel, and change of clothes. Please remember to apply sunscreen to your child prior to arriving at school. I will apply sunscreen to those with permission slips and sunscreen. Please, no flip flops! Shoes that can be safely worn in water and dry easily should be worn.

Next week will also be full of fun. Please be on the look out for information next week regarding next week's events.

Water Day

It's been a crazy week and the children were AWESOME today at Arts Festival! We are having a last minute water day tomorrow, for the Early Learners and Beth's class will be the only ones on campus.
Please have your child wear their bathing suit or clothing that will dry quickly once wet TOMORROW, MAY 27. Also, if possible, sandals (not flip flops!) that can be safely worn if wet would be great as well! 
We'll have some fun water activities out for the children. We will do the water play mid morning and this will not change half-day student dismissal. Please keep in mind, I can only apply sunscreen to children I have a permission slip from. If your child didn't turn in the bright orange permission slip, or if you're unsure, please apply sunscreen to them prior to coming to school.


Thanks so much!

Tuesday

     Well, we had our dress rehearsal this morning and the children were awesome! I can't wait for you all to see the show on Thursday. We will be first up at 10:30am. Please let me know if you have any questions about when, where, how, etc. After the children perform, they will come off stage and sit in the front rows of the theatre to watch their buddies in Katie, Keri, Betsy, and Kim's classes perform Jungle Book and the middle school students performance of Mulan. If you would like to pick your child up and take them with you, please, please, please, make sure you find me and tell me you have them. This way, everyone is accounted for and I dont' have to put Mill Mountain Theatre on lock down until I locate your child! If you already know you will be picking your child up early (at the theatre) please let me know ahead of time. After all of the performances, those of us left will return to Community School for the rest of our school day. Friday, we will have a normal school day on Community School's campus. Dismissal will be the same, but after school care will not be provided.
     If at all possible, please stay for all performances. This helps model to your child the importance of being an audience member and how much you value not only their performance, but the entire school's. Not to mention, the entire school has been buzzing about Arts Festival and the children are very excited!

Schedule:

• Thursday, May 26 - Bring child to CS by 8:45am. If you can't get your child here by 8:45am, they will miss the bus to go downtown. You will then be asked to bring your child downtown to the Mill Mountain Theatre.
• Our performance is at 10:30am at Mill Mountain Theatre. We will return to CS early afternoon and will dismiss from CS at 3:10pm.
• Parking:
  Center in the Square’s parking garage and other public parking lots in downtown Roanoke.
  Please be prepared to pay for parking. (I would suggest meeting at CS and carpooling!)
• Friday, May 26 - Bring your child to CS. We have a regular school day. Dismissal at CS at 3:10pm.
• NO AFTER SCHOOL CARE.
• Monday, May 30 - NO SCHOOL!

Wednesday

     We've had an awful lot of learning going on lately! Between rehearsals for Arts Festival, we've worked with watercolors quite a bit and buddied up with Tulie's and Beth's classes for some science fun. Last Friday, we gathered with Tulie's and Beth's groups for Fun Friday work. We read another version of The Enormous Turnip called The Enormous Carrot. The children learned to assemble the pages of their own carrot books by putting the pages in order by page number. Once the books are all assembled, they will get a chance to color the illustrations. 

     We also have a few different experiments going on. We placed white carnations in a variety of vases, each with a different color of water. For some of the flowers, we even split the stem and put one half of the stem in one color of water while the other half of the stem is in a different color. The children wanted a rainbow colored carnation, so in one of the vases they suggested that we put some of each of the food colorings (pink, purple, green, and blue). Even though the water turned brown, some people are still certain that we will end up with rainbowed flowers. At this point, none of the flowers have changed but the ones in vases with blue food coloring. 

     Our final Fun Friday project involved russet potatoes, thumb tacks, googly eyes, soil, grass seed, and a variety of other crafting "treasures/junk". The children had so much fun creating potato creatures. We will let the soil soak up some of the potatoes' water and sprout the seeds. We are hoping that in a couple of weeks our potato creatures will have a nice head of "hair"!

     This morning, we had buddy time with Katie's class. The kids made spring scenes out of all different types of dried pasta. What's preschool without pasta glued to something?! They were very creative and I can't wait for you all to see them. Later, we read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes with Tulie's class. After the story, the children made flowers using tissue paper, construction paper, paper plates, and lots and lots of glue.

     Later this week, the children will have another taste test but this time with flowers we eat. The children will decide if they like broccoli or cauliflower the best and make a graph with Tulie's and Beth's groups. We'll continue our work on our The Enormous Carrot books. 

     Now that Strawberry Festival has passed, I may have time for another blog post or two. ;)

     We have been super productive for the past couple weeks. We've explored color with watercolors, worked more with ordering, and made replicas of plants using a bean seed, straw, dirt, string, stamps, and pipe cleaners. We've also started looking at graphs and created one by trying different types of root vegetables. We tried a piece of carrot, turnip, and radish. We then picked our favorite and put a picture of it on a graph. Out of our 27 voters, 22 liked the carrot the best. Second place went to the turnip and one person liked radishes the best.

     A couple of weeks ago we began working on our project for Arts Festival. The invitations that came home are for you to pass along to grandparents, caregivers, or any special friend that your child may want at their performance. Please let me know if you need additional invitations and make sure your guests RSVP. There is contact information on the back of the invitation. Arts Festival consists of a play and an art show. The performance and art show is at Mill Mountain Theatre at Center in the Square downtown Roanoke.

• Rehearsals have begun and will continue for the next couple of weeks. Please make sure your child is at school and is on time. If you know in advance a day your child will be out, please let me know. Also, if your child is unexpectedly absent, please call the school so we know your child will not be here. 563-5036
• Tuesday, May 24^th, we will have a dress rehearsal at MMT. We are using school busses for transportation and your children will be buckled in a five-point harness, just like on our bus. We will leave campus in the morning (time TBA) and will be back by 1pm. Half day students need to be picked up at CS at 1pm. If this will be difficult, please let me know and we can work something out.

• I've gotten a couple white shirts for tie-dying. Don't forget to send one in for your child!

     As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I know Arts Festival is another new event for most families – please let me know if you have a concern!