Wet Wednesday!

Spring Soiree

Spring Soiree- April 16th 5-9:30 Jefford's Hall, Roswell    

 $35 per person- make the checks payable to RNEEF 

From Martha Powell

Spring Cleaning? Don’t forget our Children’s Used Book Sale coming in May. Save those gently used books for us! We have limited storage… we can accept some books now but if you have room to keep them that would help us out.  We also will need volunteers! Sale Dates:  May 17 – 19. Thank you.

Working Hard

Even though spring break is right around the corner we are still working super hard. 

On Monday we talked about brushing our teeth.  The kids took eggs that had been soaked in Diet Coke and took toothbrushes to try to make them clean.  It was much harder to clean it off then we thought it would be.  We followed that up with talking about the importance of eating healthy food and visiting the dentist.  Also the students colored coffee filters with washable markers.  Then they put a hole int he center of the coffee filter and put a paper towel in it.  Then they set the paper towel in a cup of water.  The water traveled up the paper towel.  The students watched the marks they had made erase!

On Tuesday we had show and tell.  Each student loved holding up their show and tell item in the puppet house.  Thanks for filling out the forms!  It helps us know what questions to ask and prompts to give to get the information.  Then we also made paper Corduroys with movable arms and legs.  Ms. Brooke's goal was to focus on sequencing and following directions.  Also special thanks to Alex S's dad for coming into to read to us.

On Wednesday we practiced our scissor skills and made a button collage.  Students were given different shape construction paper buttons to cut out.  We then discussed colors and shapes.

Coming into Read

I have had several parents ask to come into read so I am going to offer these dates and times for parents to come into read.  Please only sign up for one at this time so everyone has a chance.

Monday, April 25 at 9:00am

Monday, May 2 at 9:00am

Wednesday, May 4 at 9:00am

Monday, May 9 at 9:00am

Wednesday, May 11 at 9:00am

Monday, May 16 at 9:00am

Wednesday, May 18 at 9:00am

Monday, May 23 at 9:00am

Wednesday, May 25 at 9:00am

Final Production

Today was our final production of the Exceptional Children's Week Show and your kids were fabulous.  They were old hands (and hams) at performing.  Teachers and students laughed, cried, and cheered at how incredible they were.  Our kiddos certainly make an impact on this world

Today

Today we worked on coloring and turn taking.  Turn taking is an important skill for all children (and adults!) to know.  You can practice this at home with your student.  You can take turns playing with a toy, take turns washing hands, run relay races, play a board game, etc.  These social interactions are not only fun, but they build important skills.

Reminders

1.  If you have pledged any money to Boosterthon please make sure to turn it in ASAP!

2.  Tuesday is our Teddy Bear Day!  Have your child bring their favorite teddy bear.

3.  Make sure to send in a note/e-mail when your child has been out telling why.

4.  Spring Break is April 4-8

A normal day....

A Normal Day

                 It was nice to have a "normal" day today.  The students were very attentive and enjoyed being back on schedule.  Today we talked about how some people live in houses, some people live in apartments, some people live in condos, etc.  Then we discussed what you would find in some of these places (beds, bathrooms, tables, etc).  Students then took a picture of a house and glued magazine pictures of furniture they wanted to put in their house.  The goal with this project was to work on glueing and to build vocabulary.  The students did a nice job.

                Also we read a story told call Where's my Teddy? by Jez Alborough.  It is a story about a boy who loses his teddy bear and a bear who loses his teddy bear.  This is a great story to talk about big and little and to point out rhyming words.  Before the story began, the kids used the play money to buy teddy bears from me so that they could hold a teddy bear.  This is address the concept of using money to buy things.

               Mrs. Marjorie, our art teacher, came back after being out for foot surgery.  We started on a very exciting flower project that we will hopefully finish next week.

               In the afternoon, we painted with our fingers and played the mail box game.  Students are given envelopes with shapes on them.  They count the number of shapes and then put the envelope in the mailbox that has the same number on it.  For instance if a student counts 4 stars the envelope goes in the mailbox with the four on it.  If a student counts two circles it goes in the mailbox with the two on it.

Teddy Bear Show and Tell

Don't forget next Tuesday is Teddy Bear Show and Tell.  Have your student bring his/her favorite teddy bear to show to his/her friends!

Canvas Piece

Please don't forget to turn in your canvas piece!  We need it ASAP for the soiree!

Boosterthon Pledges

If you pledged any money for Boosterthon it is due by Friday, March 25!  Please make sure to send it in or pay online.

Spring Break

Spring Break is April 4-8!  We will start fresh on April 11.

What a great day!

Exceptional Children's Week Show

We have one show down and one more to go on Thursday.  Thank you to everyone who was able to come to the show today.  Your children as usual were Broadway Stars who stole the hearts of their audience.  Also special thanks to the Chick-Fil-A on Hwy for donating food for the reception, Emily Foster and her mom for baking the delicious cupcakes, Amanda Zito for picking up the food, Norman Cherry and Lisa Glass for putting the cafeteria together, David Symons our awesome music director, and so many more!  Your kiddos are awesome!

Canvas Piece

Please be decorating your child's piece of canvas and return it by Friday!  It is supposed to show your child's creative side.  This piece will be auctioned off at the RNE Foundation Soiree on April 16!





Some Extra Thoughts and Reminders

Coloring and Drawing at home

                Sitting down and coloring with your child is a great way to work on strengthening your child's hand muscles.  When a child uses a crayon you as the parent know whether to tell them to push harder or push not as hard when coloring.  Choose simple pictures to color with your child.  Try to put a hot glue border or tape pipe cleaners or glue beans or use wiki sticks to line the border around the main picture before you start coloring.  This helps teach your student about boundaries and will later help then we they are forming their letters.  Also try to save and use your broken crayons because this encourages a correct tripod grasp (tell them to use their go fingers).  Also encourage your student to use different colors when they color.  By doing this you can also work on color identification.
                Working on drawing pictures is another great way to help work on strengthening your child's hand muscles.  When children enter kindergarten they start off writing by drawing pictures and telling their teacher about what they drew.  Our students need help developing those drawing skills.  Almost any picture you want to draw can be broken down into basic shapes.  When Susan first told me this I was a little overwhelmed, but she was right!  I tested out my theory with my four year old nephew.  He asked me to draw him a dragon.  I took out the blue crayon and started thinking about my basic shapes.  I drew a big oval for the body and a little oval for the head.  I then connected them together with a rectangle.  I drew circles for eyes and gave it a frown with lots of fire coming out of his mouth.  Then I gave it a triangle tail with little triangles on it.  After that he got triangle wings.  I drew two vertical lines to be his legs.  I was pretty impressed because generally I am not an artist, but Susan's idea of using basic shapes was very helpful.  Of course Lennon looked at the picture and exclaimed "Aunt Laney I said a RED dragon."  Oops.you win some and you lose some..especially when trying to please a four year old.  =)

Canvas Puzzle Piece

              In your child's back pack you found a piece of canvas shaped like a puzzle piece.  This puzzle piece will be used to create a piece of artwork that will be auctioned off at the Roswell North Soiree.  Please complete this puzzle piece by Friday, March 25 and return it to Mrs. Massey.

Exceptional Children's Week 

                Next week is Exceptional Children's Week where we will get to celebrate and honor our exceptional children.  Ways you can get involved:

                  1.  Make a Yes I Can Poster of your child to display around the school.  These posters are to show things that your child is able to do: swim, dance, smile, laugh, etc.

                  2.  Attend the Exceptional Children's Week Show on Tuesday, March 22 at 8:30am.  There will be a short reception following the show.  

Reminders: 

- Send in a rain coat as part of your child's costume for the show.  Have them wear jeans and a solid colored shirt.

-  Make sure your account is up to date for lunch money

- Make sure all your children's things are labeled!  Our little class is growing and it is hard to keep everything straight.

-Spring Break is April 4-9.  Please enjoy your time with your special child.

-  I am not allowed to put sunscreen on your child.  If you want your child to wear sunscreen please apply it before they come to school. 

Boosterthon was fabulous!

             Boosterthon Update

Today was the Boosterthon Fun Run.  Each child was given a shirt to mark their laps off on and a bandana (so Mrs. Massey could easily spot you).  The weather was absolutely beautiful!  It wasn't too hot or cold, but we did get VERY sweaty running all our laps.  Each child or a pair of children was paired with an adult as we ran (safety is always our number one concern).  Your children ran their hearts out!  They were very tired, but also very proud once they finished.  Thank you to my extra volunteers: Susan Folger (my mom), Stephen Mathews (PE teacher), Martha Powell (media specialist), and Danielle Dodge (PE assistant).  They helped gurantee a high success rate.  Also thank you to all my parents who came and watched (many of you also got roped into running and I thank you for that as well).  Also thank you for the donations.  The school will raise close to $40,000 if all the money pledged is turned in.  That is exciting!  Some of this money will also come directly back to our classroom!

Leperchaun

            After our run we came back to our classroom and there was a HUGE surprise!  A leprechaun (Ollie's mom Leah) had made a mess of our classroom!  There were green shamrocks, green flowers, green confetti, gold coins, etc EVERYWHERE!  The leprechaun even turned our water green!  But the very generous leprechaun also left us green cupcakes with green icing.  This made your very tired kids smile even bigger!

Exceptional Children's Week Show

              Don't forget next week is our show!  Tuesday we will perform for Exceptional Children's Week at 8:30am in the cafeteria.  Following the show there will be a reception downstairs in Ms. Foster's room.  Please make sure your child is dressed in jeans and solid colored t-shirt.  Also please send your child in with a raincoat.  Make sure to bring your camera because as usual this show is spectacular.

Exceptional Children's Week Poster

             Also you will be finding a flyer to make a poster for your child to \help decorate the school for Exceptional Children's Week.  The posters are about things your child can do!  It can have pictures or words of things they are good at or that they really like.  Please have these to school by Monday, March 21.

Canvas

             The Roswell North Foundation is having a Soiree on April 16.  At the soiree art work will be auctioned off.  Leah (our room mom) has cut up a large piece of canvas into puzzle pieced shapes pieces.  On your child's piece have your student paint, draw, cut out pictures of things about them.  Personally I always love handprints, feet, and fingerprints- but be creative.  She will take all of our canvases and put them together for a giant masterpiece.  It will then be auctioned off at the soiree.

Leaders Launch!

The Boosterthon Guys have visited our classroom for the past two days and the kids have loved it!  Some of you may have seen the packets and may wonder....what is Boosterthon?

Well, Boosterthon is an awesome fundraiser.  (www.boosterthon.com)  They raise funds by having people pledge money for laps the children will run/dance/walk.  Each child will get a t-shirt and be able to participate in the run because it will be on Thursday, March 17 at 9:30am.  The laps they run will be marked on the back of their t-shirt.  (www.boosterthonoverview.com) But not only does Boosterthon work to excite the kids about raising money, but they also teach character development.  This year's theme is Leader's Launch. (www.funrun.com).  There are videos to help encourage the different character traits.  The Boosterthon guys come in and talk about the importance of being a good leader.  Their natural enthusiasm and passion excites the kids.  You can hear more how Boosterthon has personally affected our school (www.boosterthoninfo.com/RoswellNorth).  Learn more about the things Boosterthon does during the summertime.  (www.boosterserviceproject.com)   If you have a chance please check it out.  Remember part of the proceeds goes directly back to our classroom!

We have started our Corduroy Theme.  The kids love the story.  We have been looking at pretend bears and real bears.  Also today we pretended to buy teddy bears of our own.  (A great way to incorporate counting and understanding currency)  We have also been discussing community helpers.  The kids love playing in the dramatic play area which right now has pretend tools, a McDonald's Drive Through, and a cash register.  This time in dramatic play allows them to help develop language and social skills.

Check Backpacks and Check the Blog

Make sure to check your child's backpack and communication log each day.  There is a lot coming home right now and I would hate for anyone to miss anything.  Currently we will receive or already have received a cd with songs for the upcoming show.  All of the children will be performing Halo, Umbrella, and Over the Rainbow.  The students staying all day will also be performing to the Time Warp.

Make sure your calendars are marked for March 22 at 8:30am for our show and reception!

Also Boosterthon is around the corner!  Our run in March 17 at 9:30am.  I hope you all plan to come cheer us on!  Boosterthon is fund raising effort that incorporates character development.  This year's theme is Leader Launch where we are promoting positive leaders.

Ms. Susan's Friday Adventure

Today we went on a bear hunt.  Now mind you it wasn't any old ordinary bear hunt- it was Ms. Susan style.  First we started with patting our news and imitating bilateral arm movements while chanting we are going on a bear hunt.  Then we searched for the bear by climbing up a tall tree (we walked up a small set of stairs and looked out from the top).  No bear.  Next we had to cross a river.  The kids all voted they would rather ride in a boat than swim.  So in our boat (a container on top of a scooter board) we rowed and had a friend help pull us across the river.  No bear.  Next we came to some sticky mud!  The sticky mud was a series of three beans bags students had to walk from one to another without using their hands!  After working hard to walk across the bean bags they had to step up on a foam log.  Standing on top of the log they could not see the bear so they jumped down.  Next in our path was snow!  The bubble machine was snow that we had to try to catch using two hands.  But still no bear.  Then finally we came to a big, dark cave (also known as the breakfast table covered with sheets).  Students tiptoed to the cave and then crawled inside.  When the students sat quietly they could hear something snoring……IT”S A BEAR!!!  Students ran back to circle time and sat with great relief that the bear did not get us.  Of course we followed this activity with snack because we were all tired and starving.  Ask your students how they felt about the bear hunt.

Thoughts from Ms. Brooke

Happy Birthday to Dr. Suess!

This month’s vocabulary is:

Nouns:                                                                                 Verbs:

-          Farmer                                                 -  hide

-          Police Officer                                      -  wave

-          Mail Carrier                                         -  wipe

-          Fireman

-          Teacher

-          mall

-          giraffe

-          night

-          pencil

-          overalls

Encouraging Speech Sounds Through Reading: Speech therapists commonly use a strategy with children with articulatory and phonological disorders called “auditory bombardment”. This technique reapeatedly exposes the child to the correct production of mispronounced sounds. This increases the child’s ability to hear incorrect sounds in his/her own speech. Reading sound-filled books to your child, especially when they are young, increases sound production and the opportunity to hear early developing sounds pronounced correctly. Early developing sounds for ages 3-4 are p, b, t, d, m, n, w, h, k, and g. Often children will naturally omit these sounds from the ends of words or in the middle of multi-syllabic words. This is a common pattern in articulatory development. Just provide a good speech model by over emphasizing the target sound correctly. I will begin posting books packed full of early developing sounds with my post each month. The book I’d like to highlight this month is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. It contains the following early developing sounds and their occurrence in the book: p- 25, b-29, m-22, k- 50, g-8, t-59, d-40

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today was Dr. Seuss's birthday!  In honor of his birthday, we had cupcakes decorated as 1 fish 2 fish and Cheetos.  Also the Cat in the Hat (first grade teacher Laureen Wagner) came to visit.  Some of the kids were unsure and didn't want to give her a hug, but overall everyone wanted at least to give her a high 5.

Today for science we talked about how things sink and float.  We colored the water blue in a big jug.  Then students took turns putting miscellaneous items in the jug.  We then watched to see if they would sink or float.  Then students glued pictures on their page to show if the item sank or floated.  The kids giggled and laughed as they watched various items sink and float.

In the afternoon we used multi-colored goldfish and sorted them based on their color.  Then students counted how many of each color were in each column.  Then we talked about which ones had more and which ones had less.  As a special treat we each got to eat 10 goldfish afterwards.

Such a busy fun day!!

Terrific Tuesday

Today was a Ms. Brooke Day.  We worked on the letter H.  The Sesame Street website offers many cute videos about letter sounds and we saw some today.  Also we talked about shapes.  After driving our pretend cars around the room looking for shapes, we used triangles to make cat ear headbands to wear in honor of the Cat in the Hat.  Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss's Birthday so we celebrate in our favorite way...cupcakes!

Here is a notice from our media specialist Martha Powell

Children's Used Book Sale in May! Back by popular request! Please save those gently used children's books for our book sale to be held in May.  Books maybe be dropped off in the media center anytime - children's books only please. Looking for another place to donate other books? including old text books? Better World Books accepts all donations... drop off books at any Roswell Fire Station during March.

Picture Day is March 15!  Be on the look out for information.  Also during this time is when we will take our class photo.