May/June News

Calais May 2013

It is hard to believe the school year is coming to an end in one month. I have really enjoyed all the students and families. We have had fun learning and it will be hard to say goodbye to the children moving on to other classes.

We will learn about different types of farms, farm animals and then farm tools and machines. We will do experiments with eggs and milk, and explore wool and feathers.  We will also act out the story of The Little Red Hen. Some of the other books we will use are And the Cow Said Moo; The Cow that went Oink; Cock-a-doodle Hoooooo!; Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type; Let’s Go Visiting.

The weather is finally starting to turn around. Please make sure your child is prepared to be outside. For protection from the sun, sunscreen should be put on before coming to school and your child might want a hat and/or sunglasses. Please no flip flops or crocs. They are not safe for climbing outdoor structures or for running. When the heat is turned off, our room is cool even when it is hot outside. Please send a sweater in your child’s backpack.   

There are some important dates:

May 8,9 – Show and Tell.

May 22 – Kindergarten Parent Information Night 6-7 PM

May 22 – All Library books need to be returned

May 27 – No School – Memorial Day

June 6 – Preschool Picnic/Potluck 5:30 in the gym. Details will be sent home soon.

June 12 –Anticipated Last Day of Preschool for M/W group.

June14– Anticipated Last day of Preschool for T/TH/F group.

Thank you for all your support this year!

Beth Downing 

Calais April 2013

April 1-5 Sugaring

Books: Spring is Here, Spring Changes, Bear Party, Ice Cream Bear, Ira Sleeps Over

Activities: Games about trees and sap, cooking with maple syrup, story writing, teddy bear party (Wed), pj party (Fri)

April 9-18 Seeds and Plants

Books: The Tiny Seed, The Carrot Seed, Flower Garden, One Little Seed, Plantpet, Barney Bipple’s Magic Dandelions

Activities: Planting seeds, plant experiments (What does a plant need to grow? What will grow? Parts of a plant discovery)

Dates to remember:

Wed. 4/3 Teddy bear party – Bring a teddy bear to school

Fri. 4/5 PJ party – Wear pj’s to school. Have other clothes available too

Mon. 4/8 No school – Conferences

Wed. 4/10 and Th. 4/11 – Book orders due

April 22-26 Spring Break

Dissecting owl pellets 1/31/13

Thursday we read White Owl, Barn Owl by Nicola Davies. Then we dissected owl pellets. Owls eat their food, such as a mouse, whole and then spit out the bones and fur in a pellet.

 We used toothpicks to pick out bones and used magnifying glasses to see the small bones easier.

The pellets looked like hard poop.The children found skulls, leg bones, teeth, foot bones, toes, ribs, fur and feathers.

Winter Fun

January newsletter

January 2013

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday. Thank you to all the parents who came to see the children perform songs and their play. The children worked very hard to learn the songs and were very excited to show you what they had been working on at school.

We will begin the new year with a theme about winter. We will learn how snow is formed and then melt snow to see what is in it. We will use snow and ice in our sensory table and for other experiments. We will use books by Jan Brett during our winter theme since many of her books take place in winter. We will also read different versions of her book The Mitten and learn about the winter behaviors of the animals in the books.

We will continue letter recognition using the Handwriting Without Tears program. We are only using capital letter for writing but the children will see how there are different ways to write letters. Capital letters are easier to write, they are all the same height and they all start at the same place (the TOP). The words we will use for describing the letters are big line, little line, big curve and little curve.

If your child is staying for aftercare, they should bring an extra pair of socks and mittens for the afternoon. Also don’t forget shoes.

Dates to remember:

1/9 (Wed) and 1/10 (Thurs) - Show and Tell, Book orders

1/21 No School - Martin Luther King Day

1/22 No School- Teacher Inservice

2/13(Wed) and 2/14 (Thurs) -  Valentine’s Day party – We will exchange valentines with classmates. Please do not bring candy. We will have some fun activities during the day and have a special snack. If you are interested in bringing a special snack, please let me know. Please do not have you child write their friends’ names on Valentine cards, just sign your child’s own name. This helps us cut down on the time it takes to pass out cards. M/W class has 8 children, T/Th/F has 13 children.

2/23-3/5 – Winter Break. School resumes on Wednesday, 3/6.