Happy Thanksgiving

A few reminders for next week:

• Library on Monday.  Please return books.
• We have Mass on Wednesday, December 2 at 8 am in the chapel.  If your child arrives after 8:00 please bring him/her to the classroom since latecomers disrupt the service.  
• I was wrong about our last batch of McKenna Sandwiches.  We have the Wednesday we come back.  If you don't mind bringing in more sandwiches on Wednesday, December 2, I'm sure that the homeless would be happy to have them.  
• We have our field trip to the Smithsonian Discovery Theater on Thursday, December 3.  Look for an email with more details next week.

Thanks to the grandparents and special friends who came to school today.  This week was a focus on Thanksgiving.  We read "Stone Soup," "Balloons Over Broadway," and books about the lives of pilgrim children and used our imagination to pretend we were living like pilgrims.

"Sewing our clothes" (tying practice)

"Picking berries" (sorting)

"Putting on our stockings and garters."

From the grandparents show

Happy Thanksgiving!

Week of November 16

We had a great time on our field trip today.  Here are some pictures.  The overwhelming opinion was that the cider we made was delicious.  Thank you for sending in car seats.  Thanks also to Kate Baker, Juila Torrey, and John Carroll-Gavula for driving.  

In reading, we studied the letters R and E.  We also added they, look, and for to our sight word list.  We read and watched a video about the Mayflower to start our Thanksgiving study.  Each child has a Mayflower book that we will send home next week.  

In math, we kept working on numbers larger than 20 and estimation.

Also, we celebrated Maren's birthday on Monday.  She made egg-free chocolate chip cookies to share.  

Next week:

• We will be mostly reviewing skills, but learning about the pilgrims. 
• Library is on Monday.  Please return books.
• Wednesday is a noon dismissal day.  I know several students have grandparents coming, but have not received a list from development.  Please let me know if you expect any special friends on Wednesday or if you will be out next week.
• No show and tell.

Have a great weekend!

Kate

November 13 News

Reminders...

•  Please remember that report cards are only distributed per semester in kindergarten.  The first one will be coming home in January. 

• We have the lead in McKenna sandwiches on Wednesday.  Please send in all the extra sandwiches you can. 

• If you have any grandparents or special friends to invite to Grandparents' Day, November 25, please return the address form so that invitations can be mailed. 

Next Week...

• Library books are due on Monday.
• Show and tell next week is something that starts with R.   
• The Uniform Exchange will be set up in the upper school next week.  
• We have our field trip to Locust Grove Nature Center on Friday.  Look for an email with more details next week.  No lunch is necessary.  We plan on being back in time for pizza lunch.  We plan on leaving at 9:15/9:30 and being back at school by 11:30.  

This week we had a lot of special guests.

• On Monday, Julia Torrey and Shannon Dunn came in to help us plant window boxes of herbs and onions.  Keep an eye out for the cup with the bulb coming home this afternoon. 
• On Thursday we had Ms. Kitty and Ms. Kathy come in to talk to us about Haiti.

  

  Passing around artifacts from Haiti

• On Friday, Bruno's mom came in to lead GRACE art.  We learned about public art, mosaics in particular.  You can see our finished mosaic hanging outside our classroom. 
  
  
  
  

We celebrated Dave's birthday with ice cream.  Happy Birthday Dave!

We studied vowels.  Here is the song we have listened to several times to help us remember the vowels.  We studied O and G. We talked about gratitude and made 2 cards for people we are thankful to know.

a wonderful thank you card

We also studied numbers on a hundred chart.  We looked for patterns and tried to find numbers on the chart.     

Have a great weekend!!!

Week of November 2

Hi Parents,

This is a day early because I will be out on Friday for a funeral.  I have given Ms. Kelly a list of carpool changes tomorrow.  If there are any other last minute changes, please email us both (kdelayen@htsdc.org and pkelly@htsdc.org).

On Tuesday conference reminders came home.  If there is a conflict, please email me.

You also received two permission slips for field trips coming up.  We have been given a last-minute slot at the Locust Grove Nature Center to end our apple investigation.  It appears that we have enough drivers, however, if you are interested please let me know!!!  We have other field trips which will need drivers and drivers fall through from time to time.  We will also be learning about the solstice and seasons.  To enhance that we will be going to the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater to learn about light and how different cultures celebrate it.  Please return those permission slips as soon as possible.  

Library will return to its normal time on Monday.  Please send books back on Monday.  Speaking of Monday...class picture time!  We will be taking a class picture at 9:40.  We will also be planting on Monday so if you plan on dressing your child in fancy clothes for the picture, sending in a change of clothes would be a good idea.

Please make sure that you have a change of clothes in your child's locker.  Accidents still happen in kindergarten.  The weather is changing so if you have summer clothing, you may want to add long pants/long sleeves to it.
 
I forgot to mention that last week, because of Halloween, we watched a Veggie Tales clip about being scared.  The gist was that God is always with us and bigger than any monster.  We also sampled pumpkin bread and pumpkin puree in science.  Both were surprise hits.  Kids were asking me to send you recipes.  It's all Libby's.  I added a few chocolate chips to the bread.  In any case, if you want to make it at home, you know how now.     

Next week we will be studying vowels.  I would like to send home homework for vowels we have learned and then continue as we learn more.  The goal is to make a class book for each vowel.  I will start with A on Monday.  Please check folders each night. 

After School is collecting candy for our troops overseas.  We will be collecting candy until Friday, November 13.

This week we learned about syllables.  It's fun to clap words at home for extra practice.  We learned about Y and S.  We read Mr. Bow Tie in preparation for our walk for the homeless.  The kids decorated signs and wrote their own with sight words we already know.  We also started studying big numbers (30-100).  This can be hard for some kids.  If you notice your child struggling with numbers, please practice counting to 30 at home.  We began counting by 10s and will continue working with these numbers next week.  Estimating was also introduced.  We use the word "about" and just  estimate to "about 10," "about 50," "about 100."
 

Today was Bruno's birthday.  If you see him tomorrow, wish him a happy birthday!  Thanks for sharing the strawberries and whipped cream.  Yum!