It is almost "back to school time"!

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer that was with fun, adventure and family time! I am looking forward to seeing our classroom and all of the wonderful children who will fill it each day! Our school building was closed during the summer for a technology upgrade, so it will be exciting to see all of new changes. Some of the new technology that we will have in our classrooms will not arrive until later this fall.
I wanted to give you a "heads up" for our Curriculum Night - ours will be held on Tuesday September 9 at 5:30. I hope that many of you will be able to come!
Your children will only need a few things in terms of school supplies - a plastic pencil/crayon box, some pencils and a box of crayons, and some glue sticks. We also appreciate boxes of Kleenex and canisters of disinfecting wipes (we wipe down the tables daily). We will provide folders for work for the daily notes and notebooks for various things we will be working on.
We will have a mid morning snack break -he/she may either bring in a snack, or we will pick up a school breakfast in a bag if he/she receives a free or reduced hot lunch.
I hope you enjoy these last few days of summer. I am excited to work with your children his year, and I am looking forward to seeing you all soon for Curriculum Night!

Good-bye for the summer!

We had a fun week in Room 113! On Monday, we had a camping theme day. We made dream catchers, sat around a campfire and prepared a S'mores snack to eat.

On Tuesday we became pirates! We think we look pretty cool in our pirate bandannas and eye patches! We had a lot of fun "walking the plank" and using a hook to pick up jewels.

Wednesday is our last half day of school. Dismissal is at 12:17. I will send home a paper copy of your child's report card in their folder, along with quarterly reports.  I want to wish all of you a wonderful, fun filled summer! It has been such a busy year for our class, and all of the children have grown and made progress. I have truly enjoyed being your child's teacher this year - I have appreciated your trust and support very much!

Ladybugs and Field Day Fun!

On Thursday we noticed that our ladybugs were all out of their pupas - we decided it was a good day to let them go. Good-bye ladybugs!

We had a lot of fun on Field Day. Here are some of the things we did outside...

Inside we did some fun things too...we made sculptures with toothpicks and marshmallows.

Goodbye butterflies...

We took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and set our butterflies free on the playground!

Butterflies!

Towards the end of the day on Friday we watched our first butterfly come out of her chrysalis! It was very exciting! We saw her curl and uncurl her proboscis, and sure enough, it was forked! We had learned that a butterfly must curl and uncurl her forked tongue in order to weave it into the tongue she will use to sip nectar. On Monday morning we were excited to find 3 butterflies flying in their cage! We put sliced oranges and watermelon in for them to "sip".

We also have noticed that our ladybug larva are much larger. We have seen them eat and we can see that they have molted. We expect to see the pupa stage soon!

A new favorite activity in our room has been to work on group puzzle builds -we had a blast last Friday morning working with our friends!

FIELD DAY is scheduled for Friday May 30. We will be in and out throughout the day -usually we do a few events outside, and then we come in and cool down and do a fun indoor activity before heading back outside. You may want to put sunscreen on your child before sending him to school. Children should wear comfortable shorts/T-shirts/running shoes for the playground. (No special color is necessary since we are a multi-age class.)

Bug update!

Our chrysalids are inside our big netted cage, and we are waiting for them to open up so we can meet our butterflies! We will take pictures as soon as the butterflies emerge.
We also have some ladybug larva - we know that these larva will also change into pupa before they become ladybugs.

The larva are very small and don't look like ladybugs at all!

We are reading from "Charlotte's Web" every day and stretching our imaginations and our attention spans. We also are reading many books about insects - some are fictional stories, and many are science based not-fiction books. You might consider taking your child to the library this summer - there are many books there that they would enjoy checking out. I am amazed at how much information our students get from the books we read out loud. 

This is a very busy time of the year and it is often challenging for our students. They may be tired from playing outside (which is a good thing!), some may be irritated by the warmer weather, and some may be just plain ready for summer to begin! We try to keep our schedule fluid and flexible this time of year. We have gone outside to play for quick little 10 minutes breaks on sunny mornings, which has been helpful for many of the children. As parents and teachers, we need to remember that this time of year is a period of transition for our students, and it is sometimes accompanied by a regression in behavior or school work. This is usually temporary, and it is not unusual at all. We need to continue to work together, make sure the kids get a good breakfast and dinner and plenty of sleep, and keep in mind all of the progress your children have made this year. 

Metamorphosis...

After watching our caterpillars eat, grow and molt, we saw them climb to the top of their container. First they hung in the shape of a J, then they molted one last time. Our caterpillars are now Chrysalids! We moved them into a larger habitat so that they will have more room...now we are waiting for them to become butterflies!

We welcomed a new student to our classroom -we are happy he is here with us!
We had a team puzzle build today - it was so much fun! Groups of children had to work together to assemble puzzles - great cooperation and friendly turn taking!

We have been reading a chapter book, "Charlotte's Web" and enjoying it very much. We learn how to really stretch our attention spans and use our imaginations to create pictures in our heads when we listen to a book like this. This book also helps us expand our vocabulary and understand the different character traits of Wilber, Templeton, Charlotte, Fern, Avery and all the others. 
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of our moms, grandmas and caretakers! Enjoy your special day!