Christmas Pageant

The MWF 3's (our class and Mrs. Bonura's class) (mini) Pageant will be on Wednesday, December 16 at 9:30. We will be getting the kids dressed at 9:00. We will go to the Sanctuary, dressed-up in costumes, and act out the Christmas story and sing songs as the story is read aloud. The children will be dressed as the different characters in the nativity. There will be several Mary's, several Joseph's and so on. Parents and siblings are invited to this production. After the Pageant our Christmas party will begin in the classroom. We are planning to start the Christmas party at 10:00. A snack will be served to all the children provided by the Mom's who are organizing the party. The children will get to decorate a cookie and hear a story. We are going to try and go outside at 10:35 for some outdoor play. Finally, at 11:00 we are all going to watch the Big Pageant in the Sanctuary. If you have any questions regarding our very busy day, please email me or just ask at the door. The Mom's who are organizing this wonderful day are Julie Williford, Marcia Gadbois, and Margaret Madureira.

This Friday, December 11 our class will be performing as a dress rehearsal to the seniors at 11:30.

Just a reminder that on Monday, December 14, Noon dismissal and Wednesday, December 16, Noon dismissal. For those parents who feel going to the 11:00 Christmas Pageant is too much may leave after our Christmas party.

Our new shape is triangle, our number is five and our color is green. We are talking about opposites and positional phrases (up/down, in/out, next to, back/front).

I sent home a fun "green" gel packet that we made in class last week mixing yellow and blue to create green. We showed the kids how to use their fingers to trace shapes as this will help them with their fine-motor skills. Please let me know if you have any questions about this fun project.

Thanksgiving

I just want to thank all of the families in our class for your children. I feel so blessed this year to teach and spend time with each child in the class. I feel blessed to work with the staff and head-of-school at St. Matthew's. I am very thankful to have met all of the wonderful parents and siblings in our class!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast this year. A heart-felt thanks to all who helped arrange and set-up this event. An extra thanks to Connor's parents, David and Marcia and Faith's parents, Jackie and Eric, for their time. We had a successful food drive this year to benefit Hands for Hope. Now, we have the good fortune to turn our focus towards the Christmas holidays. Please take a look at our November photo album. You will see your children making their Thanksgiving turkeys and pictures of the Feast.

It is also important for me to give an extra mention of gratitude to Mrs. Mcgee. She took time to come and lead our class and Mrs. Bonura's class with the songs that we performed during the Thanksgiving Feast.

I will be sending home a December calendar on Wednesday (December....really?). We will have a short month due to the holidays and we will be very busy at St. Matthew's. As always, I am available by email if needed. Please check the blog as I will keep everyone posted on all the activities we are participating in this month.

Hands For Hope

This year St. Matthew's will be participating in HANDS FOR HOPE Thanksgiving Basket Event through El Buen Samaritano. We will collecting food items to create Thanksgiving dinner for families in need. Each class at St. Matthew's is responsible to bring an item to create the baskets for Thanksgiving dinner. We are asking each family in each class to bring the same item.

Our class' item is boxed mashed potatoes and packets of gravy. There will be collection boxes at school from Thursday, November 12 until Tuesday, November 17.

This is a wonderful opportunity to have the children experience giving to others. I will be talking to the kiddos about this in class. Thank you all for your support!

Scholastic Book Orders

Hi Parents,
I signed up with Scholastic Book Club so our class can order books online for discounted prices. I know with the holidays and birthdays coming up a lot of parents enjoy buying books. Scholastic has great prices so feel free to go online and see what is available.

Website: http://pcool.scholastic.com/parentordering/login.jsp
Our class user name is: MsCarothersClass
The password is: cluborders

You do not need to set up your own user name and password. Please use the one provided above. If you have any questions please email me or ask during the week. Under links of interest on the blog is Scholastic book order link and that will give you access to the website to view and order books for future use.

Also, a reminder there is no school on Friday. Have a wonderful weekend and I will see everyone on Monday.

November News

Mrs. Carothers and Mrs. Cully's class had a great Orange Day this year! The whole class went out to the Memory Garden and picked a pumpkin. We were so lucky that exactly 13 pumpkins grew overnight. The class did a great job painting their pumpkins and these will be on display during our Thanksgiving Feast and then ready to go home for each family's Thanksgiving dinner. We have had a lot of fun learning about bats, spiders and fire safety. We talked about squares, diamonds, red, black and orange!

Now we are ready to begin our November calendar. I cannot believe how quickly this year is going. This month our Fall Fun Unit continues with apples and harvest. Beginning November 9th we will move into our We Are Thankful Unit. I am sending home the calendar for more detail.

I passed out the Scholastic book order form last week. Please turn in the orders before November 23, 2009. You can also order online: www.scholastic.com under Juli Carothers at St. Matthew's Day School.

Here are some important dates to remember:

* November 2-5: Book Fair. New exciting news regarding this years book fair:
1) A "Muffins for Moms" event is on Wednesday and Thursday after drop-off and 2) a stunt for Francie to perform if we meet our sales goal of $5500 !

* November 5-7: SAES Conference in Houston. School will close at noon on Thursday, November 5 and no school on Friday, November 6. (I will be attending this conference and I am very excited!)

* November 9: Golf Tournament at Lost Creek.

* November 12: Parent Council meeting at 9:10.

* November 24: Noon release Thanksgiving Holiday.

* November 25-27: Thanksgiving Holidays.

* November 30: School Resumes.

Orange Day!

Friday is Orange Day at St. Matthew's for our class. Please have your child wear orange to school and send an orange snack. During school we will make an orange art project.

I will be posted a bunch of pictures this weekend. Stay tuned.....

This Week.....

On Wednesday, October 28, our class will be the Chapel Helpers! Mrs. Dugat will lead us through learning about Joshua and Battle of Jericho. All families are invited to come and watch. Please drop the kiddos off at the Chapel and then bring their belongings to the classroom.

Other news this week:

* "Love & Logic" Brown Bag lunch is this Wednesday!
Baby sitting is available

*Friday is Orange Day!
Dress your child in orange (if they want to)
No costumes or masks
Bring an orange snack

Reminder

No school this Friday due to Parent/Teacher Conferences! I am looking forward to meeting with everyone on Friday.

"P" is for Pumpkin!

The Annual Fall Fest was a big success. A big thank you to all the parents, volunteers, committees and classrooms who worked so hard this year. Mrs. Thurman, Mrs. Noack and Mrs. McDonald put in so much extra time they deserve a big thank you from our class.

We have been very busy in our classroom. After we finished learning about Fire safety, we jumped right into Fall Fun. On Friday we went into Mrs. Bonura's class to learn about pumpkins! We talked about Pumpkin Pulp and "P" is for pumpkin before we cut into the class pumpkin and all had a turn to check in out. Please look at the "P" pumpkin photo album to see for yourself.

This week we have school on Monday and Wednesday. Friday is parent/teacher conferences. The schedule is posted on the door to our classroom. We will be running on a very tight schedule. Please try to come on time and remember we have approximately 20 minutes to talk. If anyone feels they need more time, I can schedule an additional afterschool conference.

Here are some notes and reminders:

1) Please don’t forget to send in your Box Tops. The class that summits the most box tops by Oct 23rd will receive a pizza Party. The money St Matthews earns from the box tops will go to our teachers’ continuous education fund. What a great way to give back to our teachers! Visit http://www.boxtops4education.com/ to earn more points for our school.

2) Book Fair: Erin Brook and Heather Hardeman presented information about our Book Fair. It will happen November 2nd thru 5th. Teacher wish lists for their classrooms will be posted at the Book Fair. This book fair will raise money to purchase books for our new library!

3) Parent Education Seminars: Danette Koebele will be sending out information soon about our next seminar. She hopes to have an Introduction to Love and Logic session at the end of the month.

4) Mentoring: St. Matthew’s has started a new program for new families to St. Matthew’s. If there are any new parents that would like to have mentor family, please get in contact with Missy Ward.

5) Golf Tournament: Our golf tournament will happen Monday, November 9th at Lost Creek Country Club. Tee-off will happen at noon. We are definitely in need of golfers and sponsors. It will be $125 to golf per person, which includes a goody bag and pizza lunch. It costs $500 to sponsor a hole for this tournament. Please see Paul Huggins at Fall Festival (he will have a table) if you have any questions about this event. The funds from this program will go toward our financial aid program.

6) Our Next Parent Council Meeting will be November 12th. Everyone is invited to attend!

Fall Fest This Friday!!!

Hello All,

Fall Fest Is Here! This Friday, October 9 from 5:30-8:00 pm. Tickets are on sale now at the school and will also be available at the event. Purchase your tickets for the festival booths, raffle, dinner and drinks. Please bring your family, friends and neighbors and have a GREAT TIME.

This week will be very exciting at St. Matthew's. We have already had the fire truck come for a visit on Monday, which was a BIG hit! All the 3 year old classes went outside to meet the firemen and see the truck. After 5 minutes, the firemen received a call and had to leave, but luckily they returned 20 minutes later and the kids were able to hear the firemen talk about fire safety. The best part was when each of the children were able to get in the firetruck and have a first-hand experience.

We will be very busy learning about fire safety the rest of this week. We made "smoke art" on Monday and the art is up now for viewing in the hallway. We are going to learn how "fire eats air" in a science experiment tomorrow. Everyone will get a chance to create their own fire truck with mixed-media art.

Next week we will be moving into Fall Fun. I cannot believe how quickly this year is already flying by. We have conferences coming up and I have posted a sign-up sheet on the classroom door. Please let me know by email or quickly at the door if you need to arrange for another time or day.

Reminder: Picture orders are due this Friday!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the Fall Fest. I will be there with my whole family!

Fire Safety:

*If there is a fire, do not hide! "Stay low and go".

*Call 9-1-1 if there is fire or emergency!

*Do not be afraid of the firemen. There are there to help. The firemen put on there protective clothes to show the children what they will look like if they come to a fire.

*If your clothes catch on fire: "Stop, Drop and Roll".

*Please check your smoke detectors at home at least once a month.

Farm Day, Class News and a note from our Director, Ms. Thurman....

Farm Day was a big success!!!!!! I was so sad to miss the animals today, but my youngest was not feeling well. She is doing well and I cannot wait to get back to the class on Wednesday. Ms. Culley, the seasoned expert, reported fun news to me about the farm animals. A big thanks to Tina Couch, Calia's mom, for sending me these great pictures to post on our class blog.

This is our last week with farm animals. We will be finishing up our pig art on Wednesday and on Friday the kids will get to experiment with veggie art. We will create art using the veggies the farm animals love to eat. We will continue to explore farms using stories, art and playing matching and memory games. On Wednesday our class will be celebrating our first birthday party as Connor is turning four! We will get to watch him in Chapel with his coins and celebrate with him all day.

Ms. Thurman has sent out an email to all the families. I am including a copy of her email on the blog to help us all keep our wonderful school running safely and smoothly!

Dear Parents,

Thanks to all of you who made it to the Ice Cream Social on Sunday. What a fun event it was! I enjoyed meeting and visiting with you and am so grateful to our wonderful Board of Trustees for hosting such a fun party! I look forward to many more fun times together at St. Matthew's!We are beginning another wonderful week of learning and discovery. Today, I met Barker Dog with some Pre-K friends and we learned all about the letter "M". Then it was off to pet the farm animals with the 3's! It was so fun to see them holding, feeding and petting the pigs, goats, bunnies - even a cow and a donkey! I got to peek in on some parachute fun in Fun 'n Fitness. After a delicious lunch prepared by you wonderful parent volunteers, we had a fun, productive faculty meeting. Whew! What a busy day! I can't wait until tomorrow.

I did want to remind you all of a few things to help keep our school running smoothly and keep us all safe and happy:

1. Please do not park in the Mesa lot. This lot is for faculty. If you are getting out of your car to walk your child in in the mornings, you need to park in the Steck lot. Mesa is for drive through drop off only. If you arrive after 9:05, you must get out and walk your child in. The morning carpool teachers will have gone inside and you must sign your child in.

2. All children need to wear rubber soled tennis shoes to school. This is a safety issue and is a requirement by our licensing agency. No crocs or flip-flops, please.

3. When you come to school, come to the office, sign in, and get a visitor's badge. Again, this is a safety issue. We want to know who is here on our campus. You do not need to do this for pick-up and drop off, but any other time you are here, please wear a visitor's badge.

4. Swine flu notes: Please let us know if your child has H1N1 or flu like symptoms. The teachers will let you know if a child in your class is home with the flu, but we can only do this if we know. If your child has the flu, we recommend you keep your child home for at least 5-7 days from the onset of symptoms. St. Matthew's has two "high risk" groups in our community - children under 5 and pregnant women - and we want to be mindful of that. If you have a sick sibling, please do not bring that child in at St. Matthew's. We understand you cannot leave that child home alone. Please call the office or your child's teacher and we will be happy to escort your St. Matthew's student to and from your car. Again, the cases we have seen have been mild. We want to keep it that way!

Thanks so much for all you do to support our wonderful school. I'll see you at Fall Fest!!

Faithfully,Francie Thurman

Fall Fest is coming up quick! If anyone has any questions or would like to volunteer, please let me know and I can point you in the right direction. There is a sign-up sheet on our classroom door.

Farm Day rescheduled!

Parents,

Due to weather, the farm animals will be coming on Monday. We have had a fun week learning about farm animals. I will be sure to post pictures of the kids with the animals on Monday afternoon. Stay tuned.....

Mrs. Carothers

PS If you have not had a chance, please view the most recent pictures under Links of Interest!

Upcoming news

We are beginning our Farm Unit this week. The farm animals will be visiting St. Matthew's next Friday, September 25. This will be a lot of fun for our friends since they will get to pet rabbits and pigs, see a cow and maybe a miniature horse!

Faith Price joined our class last week! She fits right in with all the kids and it feels like she has been with us the whole year! Welcome to her parents Eric and Jackie.

Here are a list of some dates to remember:

09/25/09 Farm Animal Visit
09/27/09 Ice Cream Social
10/05/09 Fire Truck Visit
10/09/09 Fall Fest

I hope everyone enjoys the blog. I will continue to post all important information regarding our class and St. Matthew's. I am so excited to be able to have the families of all these wonderful kids "peek in" our classroom. I also like the idea of not using so much paper. By providing the links to all the important information for our class, everyone will have access without having to pile up the papers. However, this may not be the best for every family so please feel free to let me know and I will pass out the information in hard copy.

Please view all the photos under Links of Interest.

All About Me!!!!

We ended our All About Me last Friday. It was great for Ms. Culley and I to get to know the kids through this unit and for the kids to get to know eachother! Everyone drew a picture of their face as displayed in this picture. Last week we learned all about the five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting.



We made our own shakers in class. During circle time we each had a shaker instrument and talked about all the sounds we can make using them. The kids loved this so much we decided to make our own. I will sending them home this week with the kids.

We did our first experiment in class using our sense of touch. The kids were able to see all the objects before I put them in the magic box. Then they picked two cards picturing the item they needed to find inside the box. The fun part was I blindfolded each child and they really had to concentrate and feel each object in order to pick the one they were searching for. It was hard but everyone had success with finding the correct objects. The kids were really able to experience using their hands to touch and not their eyes to see in order to find the object.

View photos of all the kids......http://picasaweb.google.com/julicarothers/5SensesTouch?feat=directlink

Welcome!

Welcome to our class blog. I will be posting reminders, class news, pictures and units of study so please be sure to check once-a-week for updates.

These are the upcoming events:

9/16: Chapel at 9:05 AND class pictures.
9/17: Parent Council meeting at 9:10
9/22: Safeguarding The Children 9:15-10:45
9/25: Safeguarding The Children 9:15-10:45
9/27: Ice Cream Party 4:00
9/28: Staff/Teacher Lunch