Read also yesterday's blog post

Hi Parents-

Please go ahead and read yesterday's blog post as well as today because I'm not 100% sure that you received the e-mail letting you know it had been updated.

Today we continued to talk about Kwanzaa and the winter holidays.  In the morning we decorate paper corn to show celebration of the harvest.  In the afternoon we worked on patterning by using pictures of red and green candles.

Along with talking about the holidays we have talked about how people mailing greeting cards.  Please send in one self addressed stamped envelope so your child can mail a greeting card home to you!  Please make sure you act very surprised and happy when you receive it in the mail.

In addition we still continue to work very hard on our winter show.  If anyone has any costumes of Woodland creatures please send them in ASAP!  I want to make sure each child has a costume and I need to get a final head count.

Also one more reminder.  It is cold!  So please LABEL all hats, gloves, mittens, snow boots, and coats with your child's name!  I have a hard time remembering who wore what hat from the morning to the afternoon.

Have a good day!

Thankful times!

Dear Parents,

We are quickly re-adjusting being back to school after being off for Thanksgiving Break.  We are starting our discussion on holidays.  There are a lot of great books for Kwanzaa, Hanukah, and Christmas for us to read.  We have been reading Messy Bessey's Holidays by Pat McKissack.  In this story Messey Bessy is making cookies for all the different holidays to share.  We have also read Li'l Rabbit's Kwanzaa by Donna L. Washington.

We have been doing different activities to learn about Kwanzaa.  On Monday we made red, green,and black candles out of construction paper and toilet paper rolls.  Additionally on Tuesday we colored in a worksheet using different colors for different symbols.  As usual there is so much for us to learn and enjoy.

I had a great long weekend and I hope you did as well.  I also want to take this moment to say THANK YOU to you my parents!  You have been very generous with your donations of your time and supplying materials to the classroom.  Also I appreciate how you follow through at home with our academic skills and behaviors.  Thank you for being you!

Our Busy Schedule!

Friday, December 2 Costumes are due!  If you are a part of the costume committee and have said you could send in particular costumes please send them in that day.

 

Wednesday, December 15 Gingerbread House items due   

Friday, December 16 at 9:00am- Winter Show and Party!  Please come!   Winter Show is in the cafeteria at 9:00am with our winter party following afterwards in my classroom.  Please come and enjoy the fun!

Monday, December 19- Gingerbread House Day! 

 

Wednesday, December 21- Polar Express/Pajamas Day  Send your student in their pajamas!  No slippers because we will still be going outside to play.

 

Thursday, December 22- Show and Tell

 

Friday, December 22 through January 4- No School for students (January 4th is a teacher workday)  Enjoy your winter break.  I will be in and out of town and most likely not checking e-mails until January 4th.  However, I anticipate 2012 will be as fabulous as 2011!

Clarifying Dates

Hi Parents-

I have gone through and tried to add additional information in with these dates to add some clarity!  Let me know if things are confusing!

Important Dates:

Monday, November 21 from 9:05-9:25 Browse Book fair I could use some help with parents coming in to help us write down wish lists or if you want to go ahead and come in and buy.  Otherwise I will send your child's wish list home.  You can choose to send in a list of the books your child wants with money or you can choose not to buy.

Tuesday, November 22nd- Grandparent's Tea I don't remember the times for these; however, the grandparents can come and take the children upstairs for a snack and browse the book fair.  Please send in a note if a grandparent is coming so I can be prepared.

Tuesday, November 22nd- Show and Tell

Wednesday, November 23- No School

Thursday, November 24- Thanksgiving

Friday, November 25- No School

Monday, November 28- First Day back after Thanksgiving

Friday, December 2 Costumes are due!  If you are a part of the costume committee and have said you could send in particular costumes please send them in that day.

Wednesday, December 15 Gingerbread House items due  I will be sending out a list of items I would appreciate if you would donate to help the students make their gingerbread houses the next week.  If you are unable to donate your item please just let me know

 

Friday, December 16 at 9:00am- Winter Show and Party!  Please come!   Winter Show is in the cafeteria at 9:00am with our winter party following afterwards in my classroom.  Please come and enjoy the fun!

Monday, December 19- Gingerbread House Day!  We are building gingerbread houses this day.  I would love a couple of parent volunteers to come help us; however, this is a no sibling event.  As you all know I love for brothers and sisters to come and support your student, but this is a very hands on event and I need all hands on deck.  Thanks for understanding and respecting this.

Wednesday, December 21- Polar Express/Pajamas Day  Send your student in their pajamas!  No slippers because we will still be going outside to play.

Thursday, December 22- Show and Tell

Friday, December 22 through January 4- No School for students (January 4th is a teacher workday)  Enjoy your winter break.  I will be in and out of town and most likely not checking e-mails until January 4th.  However, I anticipate 2012 will be as fabulous as 2011!

A busy week

It always amazes me how much happens in a week!  We have started reading Wendi Silvano's Turkey Trouble.  In the story the turkey disguises himself as different farm creatures to avoid having the farmer eat him.  Don't forget to disguise the turkey that has been sent home for your homework!  You don't want your turkey to be eaten!  Our Thanksgiving talk has continued as we made paper cornucopias filled with magazine pictures of different foods.

Winter Show practice is also going well.  Those who come to our Thanksgiving snack will receive a sneak peak of some of the wonderful music!  So please do not be late!  If you are interested in helping out for the winter show, but did not sign up please also let me know.

The book fair is coming.  Our browsing day is Monday, Nov. 21 from 9:05-9:25.  I will be taking the kids up to pick out a couple of books to add to their wishlist.  If you would like to join us to help students write on their wish list please let me know.  Wishlists will be sent home and you can choose if you would like to purchase the books or not. If you choose to purchase some of the books please send in money or a check and please specifically write which books you want your child to buy.

Important Dates:

Monday, November 14- Please return your disguised turkeys!

Friday, November 18 at 9:00am- Please join us for our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Monday, November 21 from 9:05-9:25 Browse Book fair

Tuesday, November 22nd- Grandparent's Tea

Tuesday, November 22nd- Show and Tell

Wednesday, November 23- No School

Thursday, November 24- Thanksgiving

Friday, November 25- No School

Friday, December 16 at 9:00am- Winter Holiday Show and Party!  Please come!

Wednesday, December 21- Polar Express/Pajamas Day

Friday, December 22 through January 4- No School for students (January 4th is a teacher workday)

Another Day

Don't forget tomorrow is picture retake day!  If you want your child to have their pictures redone please send either money or their old picture packs.

 

Today we did our speech rotations.  Students go to two stations on Tuesday and the other two stations on Thursday.  Mrs. Massey and Ms. Brooke work differently with each group depending on goals and objectives being targeted that day.  Ms. Nancy is working on a postional turkey book with the students and Mr. Mike worked on creating a scarecrow also using positional words.

 

Practice for our winter show is going great!  Can't wait for you to see it!

 

 

Important Dates:

Wednesday, November 9- Picture retakes!

Friday, November 18 at 9:00am- Please join us for our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 22nd- Grandparent's Tea

Tuesday, November 22nd- Show and Tell

Wednesday, November 23- No School

Thursday, November 24- Thanksgiving

Friday, November 25- No School

Friday, December 16 at 9:00am- Winter Holiday Show and Party!  Please come!

Wednesday, December 21- Polar Express/Pajamas Day

Friday, December 22 through January 4- No School for students (January 4th is a teacher workday)

A great day!

We had another great day in PSE.  This morning continued talking about Thanksgiving and fall.  At Ms. Nancy's station students did leaf rubbings with the magic crayons.  At Mrs. Massey's station students practiced cutting on lines to get to the pilgrim, Indian, and turkeys.  Also we have been practicing for the Winter Show and your children will be huge stars!

You probably noticed your child has homework in their backpack!  This is a fun project to do at home.  When you student brings it back to school we will be working on using descriptive words and comparisions between turkeys.

Important Dates to Remember:
Monday, Nov.14- Turkey Homework due
Friday, Nov. 18- Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast at 10:00am
Tuesday, Nov. 22- Grandparents Feast
Tuesday, Nov. 22- Show and Tell
Friday, Dec. 16- Winter Show at 9:00am followed by the Winter Party
Wednesday, Dec. 21- Polar Express/Pajamma Day
Thursday, Dec. 22- Show and Tell
Friday, Dec. 23- January 4 Winter Break

Fabulous Fridays!

Ms. Brooke's Thoughts

November’s vocabulary:

Turkey

Scarecrow

Apples

Corn

Sweaters

Squirrel

Haystack

Leaves

Pour

Sweep/Rake

With Thanksgiving upon us this is a great holiday to really work on requesting and building vocabulary with your child. This holiday brings about lots of natural communication opportunities and practice conversing with different people your child may not see on a regular basis. Begin now asking your child, “How are you?” and cue them to say an appropriate response of “good” or give them a picture of “happy” that they can hold or have near to show their friends and family in response to the question.

Take your child grocery shopping for the dishes. While this may be challenging try to make a learning activity out of it and that may help ease some of the stress just trying to get in and out of the store. Let the child hold the various fruits and vegetables so they can feel how heavy potatoes are, how cold cool whip is, or how bright orange carrots can be. You can talk about the items seen in cans are the same as the ones they see displayed in piles with the other fruits and vegetables. It is a perfect scenario to get lots of repetition of the items they will see prepared on your table or that they have seen in ads in the newspaper or tv. Publix certainly capitalizes on this time of year making me hungry every five minutes with their ads of all that home cooked goodness.

Take advantage of those days leading up to Thanksgiving to have your child in the kitchen with you watching or “helping” prepare those yummy dishes. Some great action/describing words to emphasize are:

Pour, Stir, Chop, Cut, Mix, careful, slow, hot, cold, boil, Wash, Clean, Wipe, Eat, Serve

Requesting is easily worked on during this time as well. Don’t let your child just point to the food that is making their mouths water. Utilize those vocabulary items you practiced at the grocery store and prep time prior to the meal, or take pictures or cut out of magazines all those delicious items you may have on your table for your child to be cued on what to request. Have them ask, “I want ___” or touch the picture of the item to request it.

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to practice our manners as well. Thanks is even in the name! Don’t let your child start shoveling that turkey or stuffing without saying or signing a strong thank you! Enjoy this time of fun and being with the ones you love.

A recap from this week.  Today (Friday) we painted pumpkins and talked about pumpkins and cornucopia.  Wednesday was our fall fun day with Ms. Susan.  First we walked around the school to specific destinations.  At those places (the library, fish tank, cafeteria, front office, and Lynn Coleman's office) we found different fall symbols.  Then we came down and did two different stations.  One was a tactile and texture station where we touched cooked cold spaghetti with eye balls, sticky hands, and stuffed animals.  At the other station we used tweezers to pick up little objects and practice sorting.  Then we made our ghost in the graveyard snack.  Chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream and graham crackers...Yum!

Also we have been reading various books about Thanksgiving.  The anchor text I wanted us to read has not arrived yet, but we have been reading Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving to prepare us for our special treat!

If your child is in diapers please send in an extra pack of wipes!

Important Dates:

Wednesday, November 9- Picture retakes!

Friday, November 18 at 9:00am- Please join us for our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 22nd- Grandparent's Tea

Wednesday, November 23- No School

Thursday, November 24- Thanksgiving

Friday, November 25- No School

Friday, December 16 at 9:00am- Winter Holiday Show and Party!  Please come!

Wednesday, December 21- Polar Express/Pajamas Day

Friday, December 22 through January 4- No School for students (January 4th is a teacher workday)