What a wonderful first week we’ve had together! Your lovely children are quickly making friends with one another and classroom routines are being established. This week included French, PE, Art, and Music, and the class has had a great time in all of them.
Our caterpillars are growing daily. Each child has begun a life cycle poster. Today we documented the caterpillar stage by putting the caterpillars on our table to crawl around, while each child drew what they saw. We’ll do the same direct observation with the chrysalis and butterfly stages once they occur. This is a unit that the children love. Ask them to tell you all the parts of an butterfly (3 body parts, 2 antennae, 4 wings, 6 legs)!
Book orders will be coming home in the blue folders this week. Participation is optional, but every time you do purchase books, we earn bonus points for the classroom, which then translates into books for the class. The first order will be due in two weeks, Sept. 25,. Information on ordering is in the blue folder, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
A classroom request: whenever you finish a roll of paper towels and/or toilet paper, please send us those cardboard inserts. They spark a lot of imagination at the art table! I’m also always in need of plastic bags from the supermarket (these are not for projects, they get used to send things like book orders and wet clothes home.) Thanks!
A few highlights of this week:
Two children learned how to pump on the swings!
We visited Mrs. Kruse in the office and met our nurse (“Mrs. D”). We learned that although she has needles in her office, she will not be giving any of us shots – what a relief to several among us!
On Wednesday our 9th grade peer mentors came to the classroom. These four delightful students (two of whom were kindergarteners with me!) will come weekly for one period to read books to us, do special projects, and have lunch. This program was begun last year and was a great way to connect our youngest students with our oldest ones.
We met our fifth grade “Bigs” and had fun sitting with them at our first assembly today! The “Bigs and Littles” program is another way that we create connections between younger and older students.
The “favorite book from home” was lots of fun. The Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak and Hooray for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester were the class favorites – I had to read them two and three times!
For those that are celebrating Rosh Hashanah, I wish you L’Shana Tova, and I wish everyone a sweet and healthy new school year!
Andrea
PS I will post some photos on the blog soon. They are currently on my phone; will get them uploaded soon.