Party

Hi

Don't forget on Friday your child will not need a lunch just a SNACK. If you know your child will not eat pizza then you may send in an alternate lunch. Friday is also 1:45 dismissal with free daycare until 3:00.

I'm looking for large brown grocery bags. If you have any to spare can you send them in?  Thanks

December!

Thanks so much for being patient with my blogging absence. Walker had what's called "walking" pneumonia last week. He's doing much better now and I hope to finish off December with a bang.
So we've added two new words to our snap word wall (the & and). When we get back from Christmas vacation we will begin out writing program. The children should be able to read and write the following words to help them when starting writing sentences (a, I, like, see, my, have, the, and). We are still work on letter sound recognition as well as recognizing the lowercase letters of the alphabet. Don't forget if your child hasn't mastered the letter-sounds yet a great DVD to invest in is the Leap Frog: Letter Factory .
Also, in January when we come back from vacation there will be NO more rest time. I will be sending all the bedding home on Thursday.
Over Christmas break please have your child practice the snap words, writing upper and lower case letters and writing their name with only one capital at the beginning. They can even draw a picture and start labeling the parts of the picture. For example, lets say they draw a house and a garden. They can label house with maybe just an H if that's the only sound they can recognize or maybe a HS. They can label the flower with and F or FR. It's just the beginning of this wonderful process called writing!

Thanks so much,  Mrs. Ellis

Busy Week!

Okay get ready for a busy week:

Monday conferences
8:15 Audrey
3:15 Cydnee
3:30 Maria
3:45 Katherine
4:00 Hans
5:00 Christine
5:15 Natalia
5:30 Payton

Tuesday
8:15 Matthew
5:15 Christian
5:30 Ryan

Wednesday
8:15 Savanna
......phew!

Thursday - 11:00 Thanksgiving lunch- We don't need any help with the lunch but you can stop by and say hi and take a picture if you'd like!!

Friday - Noon Dismissal

Have an amazing week off! I will be at a teaching conference Monday and Tuesday of that week and then enjoying a long five day weekend at home with the family!

Happy Thanksgiving, Mrs. Ellis

Hello!

Thanks to each one of you for signing up for the Thanksgiving lunch. I will send a reminder home tomorrow of what you signed up for so you can pick it up over the weekend! We had a great week discussing the first Thanksgiving and creating fun turkey crafts. We added the word "have" to our snap word wall today. We started our Handwriting Without Tears workbooks after nap today. The children seemed to enjoy working in them. Next week we will bring out the Magnetic boars that go with the writing program. Don't forget there's no school on Friday!

Have a great night!

Good Morning!

Well it took 5 hours but we made it to Big Bear! There's a least 8 inches of snow and it's beautiful outside. We had a fun week beginning our Thanksgiving unit. We read stories about the first Thanksgiving and talked about the relationship between the pilgrims and Native Americans. Next week we will make some fun turkey crafts and work on our "Turkey Happy" book. We have five words on our word wall now (I, a, my, see, & like). This week we will add the word "have". I'm really trying to encourage the students to write their name with ONE capital letter! Sit with them this coming week and have them write their name 3 times with a capital only at the beginning. You may want to write their name on a piece of card stock and keep it handy for them to copy.

Monday, your conference time will be sent out connected to the front page of the monthly FLS newsletter. Please let me know ASAP if the time I assigned you does not work.

I hope you have a great weekend,
Mrs. Ellis....check the wish list I made some changes!

Halloween

We've had so much fun the last few weeks talking about all things Halloween! We continue everyday to reinforce letter recognition, phonics, handwriting, number recognition and counting. We have five snap words up now: see, like, my, I & a. You probably saw our calendar pages come home last week.The children work on their calendar page as I go through calendar activities on the bulletin board. They seem to enjoy having their own "calendar". Next week we will begin talking about Fall and Thanksgiving. Check back soon!!

Mrs. Ellis

pumpkins!

We finally got to our pumpkin observations today. The kids had a great time discovering if their pumpkin would sink or float. It doesn't matter how big the pumpkin....it still floats! We also decorated hot air balloons for a poster we're making for red ribbon week. Our motto is "Rise above and leave drugs behind". It will be on our door next Friday for a "Say NO to drugs" poster contest. We will work on our owls tomorrow and read about the characteristics of the owl. We continue working everyday on number and letter recognition as well as letter sounds. Please help your child practice their name with first letter capital and the rest lowercase!
So far I have 3 parents to help on October 31st with our craft party. One more volunteer would be great! Thanks-

Mrs. Ellis

We had to change our pumpkin observations to Tuesday due to a broken scale! Look for updates soon...

Creatures of the night

Hi parents-

We will be starting a unit on owls, spiders and bats! On Monday we will do our pumpkin observations. We will see how much they weigh and how many cubes high they are. We will predict if they will sink or float when we drop them in water and count how many creases each pumpkin has. On Tuesday we will open up a pumpkin and talk about it's Guts!! We will continue talking about the life cycle of the pumpkin as we begin our spooky animal unit. We will add a new word to our word wall this week... "my". We are working hard on learning all of our capital & lowercase letters, numbers and sounds. I'm changing the routine a bit and we will be doing our morning message and calendar right when school begins so don't be late! Thank you everyone for bringing in pumpkins we have such a great variety of shapes and colors.

Mrs. Ellis

Fire Station

Good Morning!
The fire station needed to re-schedule our field trip to Wednesday, October 12th! Thanks

activities

We learned the poem 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate and then made our own!

We had fun watching glue, water and borax turn in to GAK!

GAK muffins are the best...



We used eye droppers to add water colors to this old lace table cloth!



The kids had a great time creating secondary colors.

Rainy Day

Today was very busy inside! We worked on printing our letters and talked about our new snap word..."like".
Each child filled in a the sentence I like...., with their own words. We worked on matching spider web shapes and finished off the last bit of our beginning of the year assessments. Check out the new tab on the BLOG called special events. I'll be sending home a hard copy tomorrow. Our fire station field trip is rescheduled for Tuesday, October 11th. The forecast is for sun!!

Thanks!

Random Information

Hi DK Parents-

I just wanted to cover a couple of things. Tomorrow we will still be walking to the fire station if there's NO rain. If it's raining we will re-schedule. We will play it by ear.

Don't forget on Wednesday all library books are due back to school. If your child doesn't bring their book back then they may not check out a new book.

Monday and Thursday are P.E. days. Please send your child to school in shoes appropriate for physical activity! They should be wearing sneakers or shoes with rubber soles that they can run, skip, jump and play in while on the black top or grass.

Each month there's a special "dress-up" day. This Friday is "cowboy (girl)" dress-up and at the end of October there's another day which is "super-hero" dress-up. Please note that students DO NOT dress-up on Halloween like they did in the EEC. Your child does not have to dress-up on these days but it's encouraged and fun!!

One more thing....please send a pumpkin (any size, shape or color) to school by next Monday. We will be conducting some pumpkin experiments next week.

Fire Safety

We've been talking about fire safety this week in preparation for our upcoming field trip! We've talked about Stop, Drop and Roll and the emergency number 911. The kids are very excited to walk to the station next week. I think they have had the most fun this week in the dramatic play center playing "fire fighters". They are even using an old cardboard tube as a hose. We continue each day to work on printing our numbers, letters and practicing our first sight word "See". Tomorrow I will introduce the word "I" and "like". Today I'm sending home a page of poems you can use to help your child remember how to write their numbers.
In religion we are reading about Noah's Ark. The kids made a great sun and rainbow craft to go with the story. On Friday my sons school is closed so I will be taking the day off. Ms. Barbara will be working all day!
Thanks, Mrs. Ellis

Our sun and rainbows

torn paper apple trees

fire trucks

ryhming word wall you'll be hearing about a lot!

more rhyming...

rhyming...

Apples

Hello-

Picture day went very well! The children looked so fancy and showed off their best smiles! Today the kiddos worked on finishing their "Apple Happy" books. When it comes home see if they can read it to you. We made apples and labeled its parts. We worked on ripped paper apple trees to strengthen our little fingers to help us become better writers. We have been practicing writing our names with a capital only on the first letter. I can't believe how fast they are mastering this! Try practicing at home. One letter that is SO tricky is lower case "a" The rhyme I have taught them to say when making an "a" is ....magic "c" then helicopter up and slide down. Always make an "a" by making a "c" first.  We call "c" the magic letter because you can make an "a", "o", "g" & "q" all by starting with a "c"
Tomorrow we will be looking at all the apples that have come in. We will categorize, graph and finally taste the apples. It's been a fast and busy week. Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Ellis

Important Reminders

Hi-
Tuesday- Book orders due online or back to me
Thursday- Picture Day
Friday- Bring in an apple and turn in family trees

Thanks!!

Pictures!

LISTENING CENTER

                                                              

LIBRARY

                                                                    

WELCOME...MRS. ELLIS GETTING CRAFTY!

                                                  

RAINBOW INITIALS...PRACTICING CUTTING SKILLS

                                            

FRUIT LOOP NAMES

                                                        

RAINBOW RICE SENSORY FUN

                                                       

BROWN BEAR POEM..PRACTICING "SEE"

                                                    


DISCIPLINE SYSTEM

                                                      

RAINBOW WRITING NAMES

THE KIDS LOVE THE WRITING CENTER

Snap Words

We learned our first snap word today.....see! We read a poem with the word "see" in it and sang a song about how to spell it. Tomorrow we will do some more acitivities involving "see"! I suggest you write it on a card and put it on your child's wall by their bed. Have them read it and spell it before they go to sleep. You can also look for it in books when you read before bedtime! Off and on you'll see me post pictures of work we are doing in class. This is so you can see what's up and I can share ideas with other teachers. Tomorrow is Friday....on Friday's we always have a fun popcorn snack, sometimes a lollipop and watch an educational movie. Some of the class favorites are Magic School Bus, Word World, Leap Frog, Peep and the Big World etc.

Today we finished the color books we've been working on. The kids worked REALLY hard and did a great job. I introduced the discipline system that we'll be using in DK which I'll briefly go over at Back to School night. The children went to their second music class with Ms. Semko which they seem to really enjoy. They used rhythm sticks and listened to beats! We went over our first bible lesson, the story of creation, and sequenced the seven days of God's creativity!! Back to School night is tomorrow at 7 pm, see ya there!!

Mrs. Ellis

First Week of School

We made it through our first week of DK! I've mostly been focusing on classroom procedures, rules and learning the schedule of the day. Next week I will begin introducing the curriculum, as well as begin a unit on rainbows. During this unit I will also access the children to find out their levels and what I need to focus on with each child. I have made some slight changes to the daily schedule and have posted it on the bulletin by the front door and on the BLOG. There's also a new section about specials. I have added and deleted some items from the wish list section also, so take a look.
On Wednesday there will be 1:45 dismissal for DK-4th grade Back to School Night. Everyone first meets in the church and is then excused to the classrooms after a short introduction from the principal and PTF. I hope to see you in the class to go over a few quick items and answer any questions (I promise it's painless).


Mrs. Ellis

First Day of School

Hi Parents-
The first day is already past us! It's always a little hard the first day especially with all school chapel right of the bat. The students are like deer in headlights! It only gets easier from here. I have invited you all to a class shutterfly site. I will be using that site instead of the BLOG to post pictures for security and privacy reasons. I will only post pictures to the site of things and projects we are doing not children. I will post on the BLOG when I have added pictures to the Shutterfly account. Let me know if you have trouble logging on. Friday is school spirit day so buy and wear an FLS shirt or the color teal!


Thanks, Mrs. Ellis

First Day of School Information

JUST A FEW REMINDERS:

• don't forget a lunch for the first day of school
• don't forget a small snack for the first day of school (string cheese, apple, crackers, etc.)
• label everything with your child's name (lunch box, backpack, etc.)
• please pick your child up on time school gets out at 3:00 (parking is tough, give yourself time) I suggest parking on Carson St.

ALLERGIES:


I have one student this year with a life threatening allergy to PEANUTS and another with an allergy to nuts in general. Though the day school at First Lutheran is not peanut free like the EEC, I would like to make my room peanut free. So please NO SNACKS THAT CONTAIN PEANUTS!


As for lunch, if you pack something with peanuts in your child's lunch (peanut butter and jelly) please indicate so by putting a piece of paper in the lunch box with a big "P" on it. We will watch for this paper and make sure that your child sits away from the allergy table and washes their hands thoroughly after lunch. Myself, as well as the parents who children are allergic to nuts, really appreciate your understanding and cooperation with this serious matter. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.


Thanks so much! Mrs. Ellis

Visitation Day

Thanks to those who came to visitation and brought the school supplies. It was so nice to see the children and get to meet some of you! Looking forward to next Wednesday and a year of learning and fun! Don't forget on the first day of school we have all school chapel. Children will come in, put away backpacks and lunches, take a quick picture with mom and day, give hugs & kisses and say goodbye. We will head over to the church about 8:40.


Don't forget to check the BLOG everyday if you can!


Mrs. Ellis