Concert Preparations and New Year Notes!

We have been practicing our songs a lot this week in preparation for our sing next Tuesday at 5:30pm.We even watched a video of last year's class at their holiday sing. Seeing the stage got us really excited!!! We have included an RSVP form in the red folder this week. Please let us know if your family will be coming and how many people, so that we have enough chairs set up. Also, please do not arrive more than 5 minutes early...the kids are waaaaay too excited to sit and wait for any length of time. Remember: The concert location is St. Joseph Church. lower, level.

There are still some mittens on our wishing tree. Please see our wishlist in the left sidebar if you would like to contribute a gift to our class. Thank you so much to those who have already brought in gifts...the kids can't wait to open them next week!

Our last day of class before break is Tuesday. We hope you have a safe and happy holiday vacation and look forward to seeing you in 2012!

FYI- We will not have a newsletter next week so below are some things you need to know for January:

• Our first day of class in 2012 is Monday, January 2nd
• Your child may bring one gift that he/she received over break to show the class. Please be sure that it is labeled in some way (i.e.-masking tape with name, ribbon with name, pinned on name). We will likely receive some of the same gifts as friends and we don't want any mix-ups!
• Remember to pack all outdoor gear and shoes for inside too...and an extra set of clothing in case we get wet.
• Instead of the Color/Shape Bag, we will have a Letter Bag, each week has a new letter as noted on the calendar. Please help your child gather items that start with the week's letter.
• January's Show & Tell Theme is: Something I Did and/or Received Over Winter Break

St. Nick was Here! We have an Elf!!!

We made stockings on Monday and St. Nick left candy canes in them on Monday night! 

St. Nick left candy canes in our stockings!

He also left us our very own Elf on the Shelf...if you haven't read the book, the story says that the elf watches us and each night magically goes to the North Pole to report what he has seen to Santa. See our "Elf Watch" section in the right sidebar.

We received an Elf on the Shelf from St. Nick!

We made a wreath for St. Lucia on Tuesday by tearing paper. This makes us use the muscles in our hands in a new way and gets us ready for writing words! Can you make a paper tearing project at home? Paper mache maybe??

Wednesday we worked on letter Y for our JOY projects. We made a reindeer with a bright red nose like Rudolph. We also glued all the projects from the week together to spell out JOY.

Can you see the J-O-Y?

On Thursday we made a gift for parents! SHHHHH! We can't tell you what it is but you will love it!!! We also had the option to paint a triangle tree during playtime.

Don't forget about our Holiday Sing on Tuesday, December 20th at 5:30pm at St. Joseph's Church, lower level.

Music to Our Ears

Our week seemed to fly by! On Monday we re-read the Abiyoyo story and made our own ukelele. 

Tuesday was our trip to Hann's Christmas Tree Farm. It was VERY cold for our morning class, but warmed a bit for the afternoon class. We saw Mr. Hann's "babies" (trees planted this year) and learned that trees that are ready to be cut for Christmas are about 8-years-old. We also saw how they make wreaths out of evergreen branches.You can visit Hann's Tree Farm on Facebook to see details on how Christmas trees are grown. See all the photos on our gallery page!

AM Class

PM Class

Wednesday we watercolor painted to classical music. It was very relaxing! These beautiful pieces of work are now decorating our classroom.

On Thursday we made love trees...you will have to wait to see these adorable creations until closer to Christmas...

Please be sure to send all outside winter gear now that it is getting colder outside. We do go out everyday (unless it is raining). Also, a complete change of clothes should be in your child's backpack in case he/she spills or has a bathroom accident. Thanks!

Also, for those parents who drop their kids off at school, we are going to start enforcing the district policy that states that children may not be dropped off more than 5 minutes prior to class. So if you arrive before 7:55am/11:55am, please know that you will need to wait outside or in your vehicle until the doors are unlocked prior to class. Thanks for your help in starting our day smoothly!!!

Thankful Potluck

We had sooooo much fun at our potluck last week. Thank you to everyone who contributed to it's success. Be sure to go to the photo gallery page to see all the fun! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!

Just a reminder that our trip to the Christmas Tree Farm is on Tuesday. (remember when you signed the permission slip, we noted that the date had to be changed to the 29th instead of the 30th as originally scheduled). Please be sure to dress your child in layers and send all outside gear...winter coat, snow pants, hat, mittens, boots...it is supposed to be very cold and windy. We will have Tree Farm photos posted at the end of the week as well!

Teddy Bears, Traditions, & Our Potluck

Don't forget! No school on Tuesday and class on Friday!!!!

This week we worked on a number of bear projects, including paper plate  bears that is decorating our classroom. On Tuesday, we made a gummy bear puppet using bingo daubers! They were really fun to use!!! We learned about our colors and positional words on Wednesday when we made a teddy bear book.

We also had a great time at our teddy bear pajama party where we read stories to our bears, made them some porridge, painted a bear  portrait  and made our bears a bracelet. We also made another page for our person book. It was a beary fun day!

Morning Pajama Party

Afternoon Pajama Party

 Show & Tell - Family Traditions

The theme for Show and Tell in November & December is Family Traditions. We would like your child to bring something related to one of your family traditions. This can be an item or photo, and relate to any family tradition you have, not just December traditions...July 4th, annual reunions, any tradition your family may have. If an explanation of the item/photo is necessary, please write that out and send it for the teacher to read to the class.

Thanksgiving Potluck

If you haven't turned in the yellow participation form from last week, please do so on Monday so that we can finalize the food contribution and helper schedule. Thanks!

Beary Busy Week!

This week we worked on a number of bear projects that you will get to see at conferences. We showed how we can sort sizes, make patterns, and order sequences. We are very excited for you to see all our hard work!

These are math skills you can work on at home as well. For example, you can have your child size dishes, pattern blocks or cars, and figure out steps for brushing teeth, getting dressed, etc.

Buckle Bear came to visit us on Thursday and taught us all about the safest way to ride! An information packet is in your child’s red folder.

Buckle Bear Visited Us Today!

Please note that if your child has had a fever, vomited or had diarrhea the night before or the morning before class, please, please, please do NOT send them to school. They are still carrying the infection even if they are “feeling better”. Your child must be symptom free (no fever, no vomiting, no diarrhea), WITHOUT medication for 24 hours before they can return to school. 

While it might be an inconvenience for you, we cannot stress enough how critical it is for you to adhere to this school district policy. The health of all thirty-nine 4K kids, plus teachers, plus the pre-schoolers & daycare children that also attend here, is jeopardized when you send your child to school while they are still carrying infection.

If your child is staying home due to illness, please be sure to call us at 884-6162 anytime day or night.  We MUST hear from you or we will have to call you to find out where your child is...it’s the law. Also, let the bus company know if your child is a bus rider.

Please also encourage your child to use proper hand washing techniques, which means using both soap & warm water and washing for the length of time it takes to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

We need help with the potluck on November 22. Please see the yellow sheet in your child's red folder.

Don't forget that next Thursday is Teddy Bear & Pajama Day!!!

Costume Party Fun

Our costume parties on Monday were a lot of fun! Be sure to check our our Photo Gallery Page to see everyone's cute costumes.

We got to play fun Halloween themed games!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed a fruit pizza snack with festive tableware.

AM 4K Class

PM 4K Class

Mario & Luigi

Cold Weather, Pajama Day, and Thankful Potluck

We had so much fun during our Spooky Week! On  Monday, we paint stamped ghosts with our FEET!!!

On Tuesday we mixed red and yellow paint for our orange jack-o-lanterns. We made ourselves into Wild Things on Wednesday and on Thursday we reenacted The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.

Cold Weather
Wisconsin has crazy weather in the fall...some days are very cold and others are quite warm. And sometimes it is really cold in the morning and really warm by afternoon. So please dress your child in layers so that he/she can easily adjust to the changing temperatures. As it gets consistently colder, please send your child with a hat, warm jacket and mittens/gloves.

We do go outside nearly everyday. Sometimes it is too wet to play outside, but not still raining, we may take a walk around the school neighborhood. Please note that we will not be sending home a permission slip for these instances.

Please be sure all your child’s clothing is labeled, as we are not going to be familiar with his/her new coats, warm clothes, etc. Plus hats & gloves are often the same as our friends’.

Teddy Bear & Pajama Day

On Thursday, November 10th we will wear our clean pajamas to school! Please also have your child bring his/her favorite teddy bear (or other stuffed animal) for a day filled with special activities with our fluffy friends.

Thankful Potluck

On Tuesday, November 22nd, we are having a “Thankful” Potluck. We will be using the banquet area next door at Trinity Lutheran Church. The potluck times will be 8:45-10:00am & 12:45-2:00pm. Guests are encouraged & welcome!

We need volunteers to:

• Help Set Up
• Bring Potluck Items—turkey slices, buns, cheese, sausage, fruit, juice, or milk.
• Clean Up

Please call, e-mail bethfox71@yahoo.com, stop in, or send a note with your child to let us know what you are able to help with. Thank you!

Apple, Pumpkins, and brrrrrr....Cold!

We had so much fun learning about apples and pumpkins this week! We learned that pumpkins start as seeds and then grow into sprouts. The sprouts turn into vines and on the vines, grow
flowers. These flowers develop into little green pumpkins. Then the green pumpkins grow into the big pumpkins we can carve into jack-o-lanterns.

We even got to explore “the guts” of a pumpkin in class!

Our field trip to Hermanson's Pumpkin Patch was a blast! It was the first time on a school bus for many of our friends. At the farm we saw lots of animals and took a hayride through the pumpkin patch and saw pumpkins that were orange, white, yellow, striped, bumpy and more. Check out our photos on the photo gallery page!!!

Our costume party will be held on Monday, October 31st. Please keep the following details in mind when helping your child select a costume.

We do not permit:

• masks for safety reasons
• make-up
• guns/swords
• please also refrain from anything overly scary ;)

Finally, your child must still be able to get in & out of his/her costume easily on their own to use the bathroom.

Thank you for packing appropriate outerwear for your child each day! It is Wisconsin, one day can be sunny and 70 degrees, while the next is 45 degrees and windy. Layers are best so don't forget jackets, hats and mittens, just in case we need them. 

If you would like your child's information included in our class contact list, please be sure to return the info form by Monday, October 31st.

Unwanted photos and payments are now due!

Hurry, Hurry Drive the Firetruck

Wow! We learned so much about fire safety this week! We learned when to call 9-1-1. We practiced what to do if our clothes ever catch fire: Stop, Drop & Roll while covering our faces. We also found out how important it is not to hide from firefighters and to crawl below the smoke. Be sure to check out our newsletter for home fire safety tips, including making a meeting spot for your family.

We made lots of fun fire related projects this week too including a firetruck, a dalmatian, a fire hat and an edible firetruck.

The firefighters brought a fire engine to our school on Thursday. We even got to sit in it! Be sure to view our Gallery page for the slideshow of the visit.

Reminder that tomorrow is the mini-homecoming parade. If your family would like to sit with our group, see the newsletter for our location.

You will also notice on the newsletter that your child's conference date/time and student spotlight week are listed for you.

If you haven't yet returned the permission slip and payment for Thursday's field trip to the pumpkin farm, please do so by Monday. Also, unwanted pictures and payments are due Monday as well.

Open House, Conferences, Student Spotlight & More

First of all, thank you for your patience with our blog post...we ran out of time on Thursday since we were so busy preparing for the open house. Thank you to everyone who came to visit our classroom on Thursday night. We had an amazing turn out!! For those of you that could not make it, we had a number of sign-up sheets that we need your responses for.

The first item is fall conferences. Click here to see what dates/times are still available or to see what time you signed up for.

Next is our Student Spotlight week schedule. Click here for a description of the Student Spotlight Week Activities. And HERE to sign up for a week to feature your child.

Finally, if you would like to bring a fresh fruit or veggie snack during the month of November, please see our snack calendar here.

Please e-mail Mrs. Fox with your preferred sign-up dates/times, etc. Or send a note to school with your child.

Just a reminder that the school district policy is that children may not be dropped off more than 5 minutes prior to the start of class. Please be mindful of waiting until 7:55am or 11:55am to bring your child into school, even if the bus students arrive earlier. Staffing & prep time is an issue when too many children arrive prior to the actual start of class. Please also remember to sign your child in and out each day.

The firemen and firetruck will be here on Thursday! We are learning all sorts of fire safety throughout the week and look forward to telling the firemen all that we learned.

The purple newsletter in last week's folder had the permission slip for the pumpkin farm on it. Please return this along with payment ASAP. If you need another permission slip, please click on the Newsletter link on the left of this screen and print another.

Have a great week!

Month in Review

Wow!  We have completed one month of school already!  We have learned sooo much about each other and our class.

•     Names of friends
•     Routine of the day
•     How to say goodbye to families for class time and hello to our classmates
•     Songs
•     Clean up after ourselves

This week we talked about friendships. We made a quilt for our classroom that shows  ways to be a good friend. We used the watercolor paints for the first time to paint the world for our project on Tuesday. On Wednesday we learned the sign language for please and thank you. Be sure to have your child show you if they haven't already. We have a few photos posted on the Photo Gallery page too, you can get to it by clicking the link in the left navigation bar.

We are looking forward to having a lot more fun in the month of October. We will be learning about fall, pumpkins & apples. The fire crew will be bringing a fire truck to school for us to look at and even sit in on Thursday October, 13th as we wrap up our fire safety unit. We will take our first class trip on a bus to Hermanson's Pumpkin Patch on Thursday, October 20th. And, of course, we will enjoy our costume party on October 31st. More details on all these fun-filled events will be in future newsletters & blog posts so stay tuned!

We have added a theme for our October Show & Tell...collections. When it is your child’s turn for Show & Tell, please help him/her bring in items from a collection he/she has. Such as cars, dolls, shells, rocks, Beanie Babies, Bakugans, Squinkies, coins, stamps, Star Wars figures, etc. Or if he/she has a precious/fragile collection (figurines, etc) please send a photograph of the collection instead.

Don't forget about our Open House 

next Thursday from 5:00-6:30! 

All family members are welcome to come visit.

Also, please subscribe to our blog using the box on the right and our blog updates will be delivered to your e-mail inbox as soon as the news is posted.

Oceans of Fun

Wow! Has this week ever gone fast?! We enjoyed the holiday weekend and it sounds like many of our friends did too. This week we are talking about oceans. We even have a beach set up in our classroom! 

 On Tuesday we made our graduation self-portraits that will be on display during our graduation ceremony. 

Wednesday we read a book called The Rainbow Fish and made our own fish by painting bubble wrap & pressing our papers onto it. Then we added a shiny scale just like in the book.

On Thursday we made our final page for our person book. They just need to be bound and will be given out at graduation.

We will continue to focus on Oceans and Beaches next week, along with our end-of-the-year wrap-up & graduation preparations. 

Remember that our graduation ceremony is on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm at St. Joseph's Church. We will be in the lower-level where the stage area is located (same spot as our Christmas concert). Please do not arrive more that 10 min. in advance...it's just too long for our young friends and their younger siblings to sit and wait...trust us...your graduation experience will be much more enjoyable! We will have seating for everyone so no need to worry about that.

Ponds, Meadows & More

This week we learned about animals that live in ponds and meadows. On Monday we watercolor painted a pond. Watercoloring is a soothing activity for kids this age, so if you are looking for a quiet, creative outlet when your little one is getting rambunctious, you might want to pull out the watercolor paints.  

 

Tuesday was our final trip up to Community Elementary for Star Literacy testing. Once again, we had model students who walked quietly through the halls so as not to disturb the big kids. We are so proud!! 

We made an accordion book about frogs on Wednesday. Be sure to ask your child to explain the life cycle of a frog to you.

Thursday we used our fine motor skills to tear paper to make a turtle. There were a lot of steps to this project, including cutting, tearing and gluing.

Remember there is NO SCHOOL on Monday due to the Memorial Day Holiday. We will see you on Tuesday for the start of Ocean Week.

Also, we have a number of things due on Tuesday, including any payment for or unwanted spring/graduation pictures and contact list update forms. We also need the graduation "count" sheets that were included in your child's red folder this week.

A Camping We Will Go!

We really enjoyed our camping unit this week! We had a real tent in our classroom, along with camp chairs and a campfire tripod complete with s'mores!

Speaking of s'mores we made some to decorate our classroom.

We also made our own fishing poles complete with a nice catch. We have a "pond" in our dramatic play area where we can practice our casting & reeling.

What a catch!

We wrapped up our week with our visit to 5K and a tour of Community Elementary School. We saw a 5K classroom,  the office area, art room, music room. lunch room, gym and playground.

Visiting the Music Room

Zoo Photos Finally Posted

AM Class Photos


PM Class Photos

Fractured Fairy Tales

This week we talked about fairy tales and heard some different versions of the stories. It was fun to talk about what was the same as what we are used to and what was different in each of the new story versions.

On Monday, we read the Three Billy Goats Gruff and we made a goat paper bag puppet. We also read Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook, where the storybook characters came to life!

Tuesday we read Cinderella and then a funny, opposite version called Big Foot Cinderrrrrella. We got to choose which shoe we wanted to make...a glass slipper or a bark clog. We used colored pencils and added stickers or popsicles sticks to our shoes.

Wednesday was a great weather day and we hope you got to enjoy it on your day off!

Little Red Riding Hood was our focus on Thursday. We enjoyed the Little Critter version of Little Red Riding Hood, followed by a darker, Chinese version of the story called LonPoPo. We used markers to color a character from the Red Riding Hood Story and got the choice of making it into a headband or mask to reenact the story.

Friday we wrapped up our week of silly fairy tales with Big Bad Wolf is Good and Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book. Mrs. Crandall's family loves the Big Bad Book and other books by Lauren Child...check them out at the library! We worked on another page for our person book and finished up our Mother's Day projects.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms! We hope you are treated like royalty this weekend!!

Gardening

We began our gardening week by decorating flower pots. On Tuesday we had our spring pictures taken, along with our graduation pictures. We also created a rainbow of flowers to decorate our classroom.

Wednesday was our trip to Edgerton Floral and Garden Center. We learned a lot about how they grow flowers and vegetables. We also got see some unique plants like the Candy Corn plant, Lemonade plant, Chocolate Mint plant, and Spider Web plant. Be sure to ask your child about these fun plants!

Information bout our zoo trip on May 11th/12th was included in this week's red folder. Be sure to return the permission slip ASAP. Note: There is no bus transportation to and from school that day.

Don't forget that we do NOT have school next Wednesday but we do HAVE class on FRIDAY!!!

Happy Easter!

We had an Easter/Spring Theme this week. On Monday, we dyed hard-boiled eggs. We had to write on one with a crayon to see how the wax resisted the dye. On the other we had to dye the egg in one color then dip half of it in another color to see what color the double-dipped side changed to.

Tuesday we made cute little chicks hatching from eggs. We got to use the bingo daubers again!!! This project features our handprints too, since we know things like this are always a parent favorite :)

Wednesday we worked really hard on our cutting skills when we cut out all the oval to make a bunny rabbit. Then we had to using delicate, pinching fingers to pull and stretch cottoballs to put fur on our bunnies. It was hard work!

Basket weaving was on Thursday and was another challenging project. It takes a lot of patience to weave!

We hope you have a wonderful Easter and look forward to hearing all about the weekend when we return on Monday!

Don't forget that next Tuesday, April 26th is our picture day. If you want a spring picture taken of your child, please be sure to return the pose selection form that was in the red folder last week. All children will have a graduation portrait taken, but you are not obligated to purchase any (the kids will all be dressed in caps and gowns for the group photo, so we take individual photos while we are at it).

Next, Wednesday is our trip to Edgerton Floral &  Garden Center. We do have room for adult chaperones. You may join us on the bus or meet us there. Due to the narrow passageways in the greenhouse, along with the large number of children going through, please do not plan on bringing small children and/or strollers that may prevent us from moving quickly through the center and hearing all the gardening information they share with us. Thanks!

Spring Has Sprung!

Before we show you all that we have done this week, we want to remind you of the Children's Fair being held on Saturday from 9:30-11:30am. The location has changed to the Elementary School Gym. Please enter through Door H (the door behind the school near the gym area).

There will be many activities, visits from special characters, and informational booths. There are several make and takes and promotional items that have been donated by many generous area businesses. If you want to participate in the bike rodeo, don’t forget your bike & helmet!

Now on to our week...on Monday we drew pictures in our "Person Book". Only two more illustrations to go and then the books will be bound for you to enjoy an entire school year's worth of progress.

Our dramatic play area is set up with a spring flower garden and we have our baby picture match up game featuring flowers as well.

Dramatic Play Center with a Spring Theme

 

 

 

Matching the Baby Flowers to the Big Kid Stems

On Tuesday we made kites using contact, tissue, and crepe paper. They are decorating our windows as sun catchers.

Wednesday's project was scheduled to be umbrellas, but we decided to multi-task and use the umbrellas to decorate our class bulletin board. You may have noticed that we did not send home a project at the beginning of the month due to spring break. We will be needing your participation once again in May but we hope you enjoyed the break this month.

It's raining, it's pouring, our 4K skills are soaring!!!!

Morning Class Close-up #1

Morning Class Close-up #2

Afternoon Class Close-up #1

Afternoon Class Close-up #2

Thursday we talked about robins and made our own robin in a nest with eggs. We used a lot of skills including, cutting, folding, gluing, coloring, writing and the most fun of all...we rolled marbles covered in paint to decorate our robin's eggs!!! What fun!

Rolling a marble around to decorate the eggs.

A view of a finished project

We had a great week and especially liked the warmer days. It looks like we may be in for more cold weather though so please keep on sending appropriate outerwear for the changing weather. Thank you and have a great weekend!!!

Are they  future engineers? They regularly construct things here at the Lego table.