Holiday Fun

Wow! Can you believe that we are on winter break already?! We spent the majority of the week working on our concert songs. We hope you enjoyed the show. The kids did great!!!

We really enjoyed our holiday party/book exchange on Thursday despite most of us having a late night and being super tired.  The morning class even invited the preschool friends over for added holiday fun! We played so fun online games on the Smartboard. You may get requests to find them on your computer so here's the links we used.

• Snowglobe Shaker
• Decorate a Christmas Tree
• Musical Reindeer Noses
• Christmas Symmetry Matching Game

I'm sure you can tell which one was their favorite when you try them :)

Check our the photos of the book exchange below.

AM Book Exchange

PM Book Exchange

And thank you to everyone that sent in gifts for our classroom! We have already accumulated several more letters to Santa using the new paper & envelopes. We are also able to get the special document projector for the new year! Thank you!!!

Special thanks for the gifts sent for us teachers...they were not necessary but we sure do appreciate you thinking of us!!

We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday and that you get some time to just relax too!! We'll see you on TUESDAY, January 5th. We have class Tuesday through Friday that week.  And don't forget:

Shhhh...Top Secret Week

While we would love to give you a peek at what we did this week because it's been so awesome...we can't. Don't worry though, all things will be revealed at our Holiday Sing. 

The sing is on Wednesday, December 16th at 5:30pm. 

At St. Joseph's Church (aka the circle church)

in the lower-level, stage area. 

Doors will open at 5:15pm

Please don't plan on arriving any earlier than that as we will still be setting up and it's too long for students and their siblings to wait patiently for the show to begin. We are super excited to sing all our holiday songs for you! We will even play instruments!!! 

Also, don't forget that Book Exchange books are due on Monday. If you are unable to provide a book, please let us know.

If you are interested in getting a gift for our class, there are still some "mittens" with wishlist items on our wishing tree and you can see our list the left <----

Have a great weekend!

Music & Trees

Tuesday we created our December Person Book page. The increase in the amount of details on the self-portraits from September until now is amazing!

We practiced patterning with bells as we made instruments for our holiday sing on Wednesday. We are getting soooo excited to get up on that stage and perform for you! We have been working very hard to learn our songs for the program. We will be making adorable stage decorations next week. You are going to love them!

Please remember that the sing is NOT held here at Creative Arts because our facility does not have enough room. The show will be held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, located at 590 S. St. Joseph Circle. The stage area is in the lower level of the church.

PM Class

We had a great time at Hann’s Christmas Tree Farm on Thursday!  We got to see trees of all different sizes. Some were cut down already, and many were waiting for families to come choose them and cut them down. We took a wagon ride out into the fields to see the trees. We also saw stumps from evergreen trees that were previously cut down. We learned that trees that our about our height are also about the same age as us. And the trees that are ready to be cut down to be used as Christmas trees are 8-10 years old. We saw how they make wreaths from evergreen boughs too.  Thank you to the chaperons who joined us and to those who generously volunteered but were not selected to come. You can see more photos on the the photo gallery page.

Snow Much Fun!

We LOVED playing in all the snow this week. Thank you to everyone who sent ALL their child's winter gear and dry shoes for the classroom. Please continue sending a winter coat, snowpants, boots, hat, mittens and shoes EVERY day until further notice (late spring). Thanks for your help!!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! We will see you on Tuesday, December 1st.

Abracadabra!

We learned about an African Folk Tale called Abiyoyo. It is about magic, music, and understanding.

 

Mrs. Fox even performed some fun magic tricks this week!! Monday we watercolored a picture of Abiyoyo.  

On Tuesday we made a giant face by squirting paint from little droppers and then folding the paper in half  to make a symmetrical design.

We counted out strings for our ukuleles on Wednesday.

We wrapped up the week by making our very own magic wands.


Remember, we only have two days of school next week! &  We will NOT be sending home red folders or a newsletter next week.

A Beary Short Week

On Monday we created the head of our jointed bear. We worked on the rest of the bear’s body on Tuesday. We used our fine motor skills to place brads into each joint and open the wings of the brads. It was another great opportunity to strengthen our hands for writing and cutting.

 

 

 

 

 

We worked on position words in a bear book on Wednesday. It also helped us learn about colors and shapes. Enjoy our extra day off and have a great weekend !!!!

Math, Math & More Math

We worked really hard this week on sizing, patterning and sequencing. All of these were based on the Goldilocks & the Three Bears Story. 

Bear Sizing

These projects will be available at conference time for you to see your child's work. Speaking of which, conferences are next week already! You can click on the menu bar above to view the schedule if you have forgotten your date/time.

How about the weather this week?!? We had so much playing outside with no gear to bundle up in!

Enjoying the nice weather!!!

Don't forget, that we only have a three day week next week!! Woohoo!

Spooky Fun

We made lots of spooky projects this week including a ghost made with mini-marshmallows. We also
practiced our cutting skills to make adorable mummies.

 
We discovered a spooky web that showed up after we painted on our paper and we wrapped up the week with our costume party! It was so much fun!! We made witches brew for our project.

 

We took turns adding ingredients. We had Bat Bones (pretzels), Skeleton Glue (marshmallows), Pumpkin Drool (Cheetos), Ghost Droppings (popcorn), Spider Webs (chex cereal), Jack O'Lantern Eyes (Doritos), Chicken Toenails (candy corn), Bat Poo Poo (chocolate chips), Ants (raisins), Beetles (M&M's), Snake Eyes (red hot candies), Zombie Knuckles (peanuts).

Sophia D's Monster Cookies & Class Witches Brew

Here's how awesome our classes looked in costume. 

AM Class

PM Class

You can see more photos of our fun day on the photo gallery page. 

A Short, Fun Week

Our fieldtrip was a blast! It was the first time on a school bus for many of our friends. At the farm we saw animals including goats, fish, donkeys, llamas, alpacas, a calf, a pig, a sheep, bunnies, and cats with kittens. We took a hayride through the pumpkin patch and saw pumpkins that were orange, white, yellow, striped, bumpy and more! There was a spooky barn maze too. When we clapped really loud we made ghosts fly, cats meow, and witches cackle. Check out the Gallery Page for more pictures of the fun.

AM Class

PM Class

Thank you to all the chaperons who joined us, your help was very much appreciated!!!!!

Our next trip will be to a Christmas Tree Farm around the first week of December. Watch future newsletters for the details!

Now is the time to check your child’s backpack to be sure his/her extra clothes are appropriate for fall weather.

Pumpkin Harvest Week

We had so much fun learning about 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. Did you read the book your child made?

Tuesday we read a book called “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin”. It told the story of a square pumpkin that saved the day. We then created our own unique pumpkins of any shape, size, color, and pattern. A colorful pumpkin patch is now decorating our classroom.

We made a quilt of pumpkin squares that are now decorating our hallway.

AM Class Quilt

PM Class Quilt

Thursday we created a diagram of pumpkin parts and labeled them. We even cut open a real pumpkin to see what’s inside and had the opportunity to help scoop out the pulp and seeds during playtime.

We are really looking forward to our trip to Hermanson's Pumpkin Patch next week!

Fire Safety Week

Monday some of the Edgerton Firefighters came to visit us. The firefighters talked to us about fire safety and we watched some fire safety videos. You can see photos on our gallery page.

AM Class

PM Class

Here are some fire safety items we talked about:

• Are your smoke detectors working? —check monthly!
• What is an emergency? When to dial 9-1-1
• Don’t run! STOP, DROP, AND ROLL!
• Have fire extinguishers available
• Crawl on the ground, smoke rises
• GET OUT & STAY OUT!!
• Have a meeting place outside where you can meet safely. Practice your plan.
• NEVER play with fire, matches, or lighters
• NEVER EVER, hide from fire fighters! YELL, I AM HERE! I AM HERE!

Tuesday we created a firetruck out of various shapes and these are now decorating our classroom.

We made ourselves some firefighter hats on Wednesday and Thursday we colored a Dalmatian.

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We have a number of children who are unable to put their own coats on. Please work with your child at home so that he/she knows how to fix sleeves if they are inside out and how to put the jacket onto their body unassisted. Once these steps are mastered, please work on zipping. 

It won’t be long until we are adding snowpants, boots, hats and mittens to the mix so let’s get the jacket process perfected ASAP! :) Another great thing to practice is how to pack items into a backpack and zipping it up. Thanks for your help in making this process easier so we can get outside faster!!!

Open House Tonight!!

Did you notice that we didn't post about our projects last week?
It's because we are hoping that you will be coming to our open house tonight to see all our hard work! Monday, October 5th from 5:30-6:30pm

Super Friendship Week

Monday we made a friendship chain. It took lots of fine motor skills to color in the small letters and cut on the lines! This chain is hung up in our classroom.

We learned a new song called “Mat Man” on Tuesday. It helps us to remember all the body parts when we are drawing a picture of a person. Ask your child to sing the song to you.

Wednesday we decorated our handprints using bingo daubers.  The daubers are always a favorite in our classroom and offer a fun, different way to paint. These handprints are now decorating the bulletin board in our classroom.

We wrapped up the week with our Super Hero Dress Up Day and it was...Super!

AM Superheroes

PM Superheroes

You can see more pictures on our photo gallery page.  We talked about how each one of us are super, that we all have different talents, and together we make up a super class!

Another Week Down!

On Tuesday, we assembled a Chester the Raccoon puppet after hearing another Kissing Hand story.

 

We glued the handprint tree trunk of our family tree and  added leaves on Wednesday.
Thursday we put our family photo on our family tree.

These creations are now decorating our classroom.  Your original photos are in your child’s red folder this week.

Don't forget that there is no 4K on Monday but we HAVE class on Friday!