Welcome to the new school year!

Ryder

Dear Elm Park Parents,

We've had a great first week and a half of school.  The children have started to get into a schedule and are learning the rules and routines, they are already making friends, and they have learned a lot already!

I will use the blog this year to give weekly updates, post pictures, and keep in contact.  Please check here weekly and feel free to give the blog address to friends and family so they can check on the progress of our children too.

Our Class Llama

Britney

The first week we assessed the children.  We were looking for letter recognition, counting, fine motor skills, attention span length, and getting to learn the children's personalities.  We read "Llama Llama Misses Mamma" and completed activities counting and drawing with our class Llama.  We also met our class bear Brownie.  Brownie spends each week with a different child.  When it is your child's turn with Brownie, he/she gets to take him everywhere and write about their experiences.

Himani

Abby

During the month of September we will focus on the theme of "my amazing body", the numbers 1 & 2, the letters C, A, & P, the colors pink and brown, and the shape of a circle.  This week we worked on identifying our names, discussing different parts of the body and what they do, identifying and sorting circles (pink and brown), we made a body out of snack food, wrote in our journals, and created skeletons (among many other art projects).   

Sydney

Makena

With the four year olds, we practiced writing the letter A and the number 1.  All the children began learning/reinforcing the letter sounds A through G.  We practiced finding and circling the letter A and the number 1. 

Britney

Rowan

Ryder

The children are doing great and are adjusting well.  Thank you for all helping contribute to a smooth beginning.  I can tell we are going to have a spectacular year.

Ms. Jen

(PS- Sorry I missed getting Grady in a picture!!  I took most of these the first day.)

Pictures

Our Tuesday/Thursday girls love to build puzzles!

Jensen, Kaitlin, Jacqueline, and Britney

Nathan, Jensen, Ryder, Britney, Kaitlin, and Forest make jellyfish.

Jacqueline and Kaitlin build a tower.

Kaitlin, Ryder, and Nathan fingerpainting letters with shaving cream.  FUN!

Jacqueline and Jensen fingerpainting.

Jacqueline and Britney love to build.

Weekly Updates - May 27th

This week in class the children learned quite a bit about bees.  They learned all about what the bees do, how the hive works, and interesting facts about bees.  Be sure to ask them to share with you!  The also learned the waggle dance (the way in which bees communicated with each other) and today they did an exercise learning about pheromones (they had to 'find' their hive by matching their smell to others with the same smell). Wednesday we discussed the process of making honey and the children tasted honey.  We played a bee game today where they tried not to disrupt the bees in the hive, and counted the bees that they did disrupt.

We reviewed the letter g this week, writing the letter g, finding it, brainstorming g words, etc.  We have gone back and are reviewing the zoo-phonics sounds, to reinforce letter sounds.  We also wrote numbers and identified groups of items up to 10.  The kids participated in a frog race, rolling the dice and jumping that number.

We practiced "America the Beautiful" and talked a little more about the U.S. flag.  The Tue/Thur kids completed a listening activity and completed free paint art.  They also identified bugs (in a rice sensory bucket) and counted them.

The eagles read "What Lives Here", they brought the books home to read to you.  Nathan practiced reading "Kids Like" and "Come See My Bug".  The children all made butterflies with wings from their traced feet.  These will come home in the next week or so.

Reminders-

There will be no school Monday in observance of Memorial Day.

We will be having a pot luck end-of-the-year celebration on Thursday, June 9th at 11:00 AM.  Sign-ups for food are in the classroom by the attendance sheet.

Our promotion ceremony will be on June 12 at 10:00 AM.  ALL children will be acknowledged for their growth and successes this year.  Please arrive at 9:45 so I can have the children ready to sing at the opening.  This is a dressy event so please have the little ones dressed nicely.  I'm guessing it will last about 30 minutes or so, and afterwards, you are free to go or welcome to stay for the Sunday service.

I think that's all,

Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms. Jen

Weekly Updates 5/20

This week in class the children learned about insects, symbols of America, the letter f, and AP words (cap, lap, map, nap, etc). 

The children learned the characteristics of insects.  They made an ant on a leaf, a caterpillar, and an insect chart- where they had to categorize creatures as insects or not insects.  They completed a ladybug math sheet where the counted spots, matched the numbers and practiced writing numbers 1-5.  The kids practiced writing the letter f several times this week.  They thought of f words, found f words in a sentence, and practiced the sounds of all the letters of the alphabet. 

The hawks practiced subitizing with dice and corresponding actions and the eagles learned AP sight words and "read" their books (What Lives Here?)

Tuesday/Thursday kids completed a listening activity, practiced the letter f, and made boats.

Two reminders... graduation / promotion will be on Sunday, June 12th at 10 AM.  I really want to recognize all of the children and their growth this year, so I hope you all can make it.  I anticipate that the event will last around 30 minutes, then you may leave or stay for Resurrection Community Church's regular Sunday service.  Also, please note that the last day of school is Thursday, June 9th.

I've only had one family interested in our summer program.  Unless we have 4-5 children, we will cancel the program.  I assume that we will not have the program at this point, but I will let you know if something changes.

Have a super weekend!!
Ms. Jen

5/13

Updates for the rest of the week...

The children continued to practice the letter E, identify Es in a sentence, brainstorm E words, and write the letter.  The eagles matched letters and continued to read their books (which were sent home today- please read with them).  The Tue/Thur kids continued to work on their listening activity.  This has really strengthened their abilities to listen and follow directions.

Today we freed our butterflies.  It was great to watch them fly off, the kids loved it.  We cut, colored, and glued flags from other countries, started a soccer unit (practicing dribbling), and we measured liquids with measuring cups.  The kids got to "fish" in a water sensory bin during outside play time.  The children are also learning "America The Beautiful", which we practiced today.

5/10

I took this picture on my trip home from Catalina on Sunday.  We are studying flags in class though, so please bring in any country flags that you have at home so we can take a look at them!

Today in class the children measured again (this is pretty popular in class!), completed a listening activity, identified numbers, matched quantities to numbers, and painted.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all our moms out there!  I hope you all had a restful weekend and were treated like queens.

Just so you know, we have all four butterflies now!  The last one emerged today and we fed and observed them all.  They will be released on Friday.  We learned about the United States flag today and began learning "America The Beautiful".  The students also enjoyed measuring today.  They measured books, toys, each other, etc.  We practiced the letter E today as well.