Shortened Week

Hello Parents

This week we have only one day and that day is very short. Normally we have a holiday party on our last day. We will have a special day but we did not call it a party since our time together is short. We will be having a special snack. Waffles with strawberries,whipped cream and some chocolate milk to drink. Santa is scheduled to visit the children on that day. We will be sending home the gifts that the children have made for you in the past few weeks. They are all very excited to bring these home to you.

We will have another pajama day for the children in January when things are at lull and we need something to look forward too. The winter may be long so we will need some excitement to keep us going.

I hope that you and all of your family have a wonderful holiday and relaxing new year.


Nancy

The Holidays are Here

We have changed most of the materials in the classroom. The children were so interested in the new work on the shelves. The art area has exciting new glueing works. There are gingerbread men to decorate and snow flakes to cover in glitter. There are poinsettia's to sort and santa's to pour. We have woven holiday items all over the classroom. The children are really becoming interested in counting. New have numbers on a tray and then items for them to place next to the correct number. The kids are really working together to finish this work.

We have a countdown to our vacation calendar each day a couple of children will mark down how many days do school we have left. The are very excited by this task. We are going to have a party the last day of school. So they are counting down to a party.

I am looking forward to having some of you help create our holiday gift.

Have a good week.

Nancy

Colder Weather Is Here

The children really enjoy going outside. In the past week we had so much rain that we had to find some large motor activities inside. We used the hallway to push each other on scooters. This took a lot of coordination by both children. The person sitting needed to cross their legs ( criss cross applesauce), and hold on to the sides. The person pushing needed to get comfortable and then steer the scooter. Once everyone had a turn we headed into our classroom to work an obsticle course. The children finished it off by crawling in the tunnel. Everyone seemed to like that.

We did make it outside one day. Many of the kids were cold. Hats and mittens are suggested. Some children run and climb outside, while others sit on the swings. This plays a part in how cold the kids are. We encourage them to run by chasing myself or Ms. Diane. We will be going outside unless it is raining or less then 20 degrees outside. So please dress your child appropriately.

With thanksgiving coming along we are working on turkeys. We are also beginning to show the children how to punch a picture out as oppose to cutting. In the 3-6 room they will use the punching technique instead of cutting. We will also start having the children serve themselves snack soon. Everyone is coming together so well that I am sure we will continue to see more independent children emerge.

Have a great week!

A Full Month Complete

Hello Everyone!

I really can't believe how much your children have grown over the past month and a half. The tears are few and far between. Running in to see their friends is very common. Almost everyone is able to wash their hands with out much help. We recently had a student observing our class and she was very impressed by the way the children cleared their plates when they were done with snack.

We are working on counting the children every morning. The children walk around and count each child. We then talk about how many children we have and if we are missing anyone who is missing.

We have washed the pumpkin and then used our hammering skills to put golf tees into our pumpkin. The children really enjoyed celebrating the holiday with us. The talked about their costumes and going trick or treating.

Talk of the pilgrims will be next. We re trying to introduce some of the facts that the children will be learning about next year.

We will continue to work on the letters of the alphabet, numbers and colors as this year goes on.

Summer Camp

Hi All

The first week of summer camp went well.  The first day was a little rocky everyone meeting all the new kids from the other classes.  The second day was wonderful the sun shining and water works galore outside.   Even the storm didn't stop us from having fun.  We blew bubbles indoor which was quite a treat for most kids.  We have a art project a week.  Last week most kids made their camp t-shirts.  Next week we are making frames for fathers day or a frame for a special person in your childs life.  Please send a picture of your child with their special person and we will send it home on Thursday.   In the following weeks we will be making drums so I am hearing that coffee cans are hard to come by so any can that can be made into a drum would be appreciated.  We will also be making butterfly wings (sheets), masks and binoculars. 

It is nice to see the kids meeting the children they may be in class with next year.  The class size is bigger then they are used to.  So your child may be a bit over whelmed at the the end of the day.  This too will prepare them for the class size of next year.  I am always so proud of how the children adapt to a new situation.

Have a great weekend see you Tuesday. 

If you aren't able to make it to school feel free to email me nangiblin@yahoo.com as the ladies in the office are in and out this summer and the phone doesn't always get answered. 

Thanks

Nancy

The Party is Almost Over

I remember the first time I met each of your children this year. They each have made me so proud of how much they have accomplished this year. All of the children can put on their own shoes. Many of them may not show you that they are capable of this but they are. Potty training is underway for most. If you are still working on potty training summer is a great time to work on it. Spending time outside in underwear allows you child to feel th wetness without making a mes in the house. I can remember training my daughter June. I just finished my toddler Montessori training and learned that the sensitive period for potty training was 18 months. June was 26 months. I figured I was in trouble and that I was going to have a tough time. June was not very interested in th toilet. I bought some training underpants, some had plastic on the outside. (Target). We spent many days outside and were making progress. Then I decided to go on a road trip. Out came the diapers. Then I remembered that this would only send me back to square one. So I put the potty seat in the car and hit the road. I pulled over a couple of times and then June was on a roll and out of diapers.

The children moving on to 3-6 classrooms or most other schools are expected to be potty trained. So if your child is spending the summer in camp with Ms Debi and I we would love to help you with this process.

Thank you for sharing your children with us. We have enjoyed getting to know them. I hope to be able to watch them grow up over the next few years here. If your child is moving on I hope that you will bring them back to visit us.

I hope to see you Wednesday at the ice-cream social.

Time For The Big Work to Begin

I hope that those of you that were able to tend the auction had fun and picked up some good items. I hope that you were able to take a look at the photo books that I made for each class. They were fun to make although it was difficult to choose which pictures to use. We have several camera hogs and an equal amount of camera shy children. I tried very hard to catch everyone smiling.

We are down to the last two months of school. We are continuing to work on toilet training with the children. We are also asking the children to complete a "big"work before building with blocks,playing babies, or painting. A big work is something like using he spindles for counting and corresponding the spindles to the number, letter recognition, putting objects in size order and pouring works. This is what the older children do and we are trying to prepare them for next year. We are also trying to have the children line up before we go downstairs or in from the playground. While these are small things, they are requiring self control of the children.

We will be doing more activities outside as the weather breaks. The playground equipment will be scrubbed down. We will be clearing a path so our hikes will have a very clear path. We may even do some outdoor gardening. We will be adding a lady bug garden to our classroom in the near future.

Up and Over

Just when we are all hoping that we will be packing the coats up we are teaching the kids the up and over technique to put their coats on. We have been trying this out on the line one child at a time. The kids cheer each other on. It is fun to see how proud they are as they put on their own coat. We will continue doing this until everyone is able to put their own coat on.

We are continuing to work on potty training. Debi and I are taking small groups to the bathroom during our day. Many of the children are at least trying out the toilet and at least that is progress. We will also begin talking about brushing our teeth. One of our students fathers is a dentist and will be sending toothbrushes for everyone. Last year the kids really liked brushing their teeth in the small sink in front of the mirror. I expect the kids this year will enjoy this too.



Don't forget that our auction is March 18th. We hope to you there!

Packing Snow!

We really enjoyed the warm up on the weather. We ran I. The snow and threw snow balls at Ms. Debi. The kids really had fun going down the slide and landing in the soft snow. Spending time in the fresh air and a bit of sunshine made focusing on work easier. We intoduced the color green to the groups. The kids are enjoying working with verde.

We will begin to encourage the children to make their own play dough this week. We will have a bowl set out for the kids ro use to combine all of the ingredients in themselves to make the dough. There are always kids who make play dough every day and others who never touch it. it I'll be interesting to see if anyone surprises us.

Our auction is less a month away! We hope to see you to bid on our class project and a day of baking for your child and four friends with Ms. Debi and me!!!

Don't forget registration fornnext year is soon. To ensure your childs spot get here early on registration day! Thisnisnalso when you sign up for summer camp we hope to have a great group of children this summer!

Valentines Party

Wow were the kids wound up this week. The cold weather needs to end or we are going to loose our noodles. The kids went directly to the back door to go outside e everyday. I hope that the weather warms up and we can get back to our routine. The energy level in our classroom was higher then normal.

We started taking the children to the bathroom to check things out. A few of the children sat on the toilet and a few even used it. Please try to remember to dress your child so using the toilet is easy. I am sure that we both would love for your child to be potty trained before the end of the school year.

The kids really seemed to enjoy the party. We started the day with some dancing and singing and then everyone made a pizza. While the pizzas were baking the kids explored some of the new work that we put out. When the pizza was ready we passed out the shakes and turned on Clifford's Valentine for the kids to watch for a bit. We invited the older siblings to join us for a snack. The kids really seemed to enjoy having the older kids in our classroom. We finished our day with a book. The kids really loved carrying their shoe boxes filled with goodies. A good time was had by all.

Snow day

Wow it was kind of like a spring break. It seems like it has been a long time since we were at school. If you were "snack" person last week and did not bring the English muffins, pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese please bring it this weeks as it is for our party on Thursday this week we we ill be making pizza.

If you can please use a brown paper bag to cover a shoe box so your child can make a valentine mail box for our party.

We are working on our auction item. We are making a book featuring your children that will be up for bidding on March 18th. Ms Debi and I will be taking lots of pictures to ensure everyone has a cameo in our book.

I hope that you were able to enjoy the snow with your children. We will be breaking out the sled this week if it is warm enough out side. I hope that the playground is passable at this point.

We are looking forward to our party this week. Pajama's are encouraged but not required on Thursday.

Nancy