Celebrating Reading

What an exciting week this will be! The children loved dressing up as a favorite book character and sharing their book with the class. It was great fun to see all the other kindergarten classes and well as the rest of the lower school at Town Meeting this morning dresses up in costumes, too. What a terrific variety of favorite books were represented. Ms. Dias-LaRoy was Charlotte the spider from Charlotte's Web, Mrs. Smay came as Raggedy Ann, and Mrs. Minke was Miss Bindergarten.

Tomorrow we will meet Mr. Frank Remkiewicz , who illustrated all the popular "Froggy" books. We have 15 books from this series in our classroom library.

Wednesday is "Drop Everything and Read" Day. Starting at 8:15 until 8:50, we will join the rest of the lower school outdoors to read, read, read. Students are invited to bring towels to sit on while they enjoy reading in the fresh air. Parents are encouraged to join us to listen to the children read.

Thursday our class will join Mrs. Cameron's second grade class for Buddy Reading. We will also be joined by a few local community authors who will share with us their love of books.

Friday is of course the "Oldie Goldie Book Sale". Our class will be shopping from 12:50 - 1:10 pm. One or two dollars will be plenty to spend and we invite parents to join us for this special event.

Celebrating Reading

Families

Family and its many components is our topic for socials studies learning. We will be drawing and writing to answer "who" is in our family, "what" our family likes to do together, and "where" our family likes to go. Talking with your children and helping them think of the memories your family has created will surely make for wonderful writings and illustrations.
February ends with the beginning of Reading Week. On Monday the 28th, children are invited to dress as their favorite book character and share their books in class. Tuesday's highlight is visiting illustrator, Frank Remkiewicz, whose work includes The Froggy Books. We will drop everything and read on Wednesday. Bring a towel in case the lawn is damp. Thursday we'll be buddy reading and visits from community authors. Don't miss Friday's Oldie Goldie Book Sale. Clear off those shelves and bring in titles you and your family wish to donate.

Science Matters!

Every Thursday afternoon each kindergarten class meets in our common area for 40 minutes for science related activities. These topics have ranged from learning about our five senses and how they help us find out about the world; to an extensive study of animal groups, how they move, where they live, and what they need to live; and to different kinds of weather and the four seasons. Now our focus will be on healthy foods and the various food groups. We will talk about how different foods help us grow and stay healthy.

We will also find out about taking care of our teeth and how that helps us stay healthy, too. On March 1 at noon our class will go to Dr. Levitt and Dr. Dan's dental office to learn about the important job of the dentist. Please let me know if you would like to go with us on this field trip.

Has your child been talking with you about how our loft was changed to the dentist office? Upstairs is the examining room and downstairs is the secretary's desk and the waiting room. Our dentist office has been very popular with both the boys and the girls as they dramatize the different roles of the secretary, dentist, nurse, and the patients. Now you know why your child has been comes home wearing stickers from the dentist office.

I would be very helpful if the parents talk with their children about having a healthy life style and what that means.

This Wednesday, February 16th students will participate in the "Science Matters Teach-In" from 1:00 - 2:30 pm. The kindergarten class will be learning the principles of insulation and how things stay hot or cold. Activities include working with Jello and Baked Alaska. The children will rotate from station to station and using the scientific method, form a hypothesis and record data through their observations. All this will be set-up and run by our wonderful parents! It should be great fun and educational, too! We can't wait!

Reading 100 Books?

My class accepted the challenge of reading 100 books in one hour last Thursday on Day 100. At 10:00 we started reading books to both Mrs. Kiernan and me. We were quickly joined by Bronwyn's, Cate's, and Wiley's mothers. Soon Dr. Bianco, Mrs. Weinman and Mrs. Smay arrived to help us meet the 100 book challenge. Readers were zooming all over the classroom reading to the different adults. As each book was read, it was collected and added to the finished pile. By 11:00 all the read books were stacked up and then counted into pile of ten books each.

The class then counted the piles by tens until we reached the grand total of 170 books read! With much cheering, we celebrated our exciting accomplishment. This meant that each child read about 9 to 10 books each during the hour. We had a lot of fun and each child was proud to be able to show off their terrific reading skills.

Great Job, Class!

IMPORTANT ONLINE RE-ENROLLMENT INFORMATION:
We are excited to announce that we are moving to an online re-enrollment process! This will allow you to complete your enrollment contract online, as well as make payments online. We believe that this will save you time and effort.

You will no longer need to complete lengthy paperwork, as student information will be pre-populated on each student's individual enrollment form. Once the enrollment contract is submitted online, you will be able to print a copy of the contract for your records.

In addition, we are pleased to offer you an easy, secure online payment system to make electronic payments of tuition deposits, tuition refund plan payments, tuition, and donation payments. This convenient alternative for families will allow you to make electronic payments by e-check or credit card (Master Card, American Express or Discover only).

A convenience fee of 2.75% will be charged if you use a credit card; however, there is no fee for using e-check, which is a direct debit to your bank account. You will be receiving further information the week of February 16.