Monday, September 28, 2009

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.


Thursday, September 24, 2009

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!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

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

Monday, September 14, 2009

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