The newly renovated Science Museum is wonderful and the children seemed to have had a great time.  I can't wait for the exotic butterflies to arrive in July.  A summer tour may be needed!

See everyone tomorrow at conferences.

Tomorrow is our Science Museum field trip.  We have parent drivers so I need everyone's booster seat left here at morning drop off.  PLEASE LABEL your child's seat.  We will leave around 9:00 so please have your child here on time.

Water Day was great fun!  Karen joined us and the children quickly discovered she loves the water as much as them.  You may notice she is as wet and bubbly as the children.  She is a great sport and so much fun to be around!

Monday we will walk to Hollins  to rehearse for Celebration Night (Thursday).  Please put your child in comfortable walking shoes.

Tuesday is our field trip to the Science Museum.  We depart at 9:00 and return by noon.

Wednesday is Conference Day.

Thursday is our last day and our school wide Water Day.  We have early dismissal and Celebration at the Hollins' Chapel at 6:00.  Please excuse my tears!

Friday is the first day of Summer vacation so.... sleep late and enjoy your children.

It's too hot!!!  Of course we must have a water day tomorrow to cool ourselves off!  Please send your child in a bathing suit or clothes that can get wet.  Also send a set of dry clothes for later.  They will have their water fun at 10:30 - 11:45 if you have a chance to drop by and see the fun.

Yesterday was a fabulous day at the Farm Museum!  We got to see how farm life was lived in the early 1800's, churn butter and make corn bread.  Each child also learned several children's games from the period and came home with a corn dart.  Ask your child how to play. Pictures will soon be posted.

We came back just in time to enter the Enchanted Forest.  Fairy tale characters were throughout the little Woods to tell their tales to our little friends.  Talk about stories coming to life!

Tomorrow is our Farm History Museum trip.  Children need to bring paper bag lunches and wear comfortable shoes.  It's going to get warm so please dress your children for the weather,  I will have extra water for them to drink but they should bring a drink for lunch and fruit break.

We are using parent/teacher drivers and need a several booster seats.  Please bring booster seats instead of car seats and put your child's name on them.  i need Oliver, Django, Dawson, Rylan and Sylvana to leave their booster seats at drop off in the morning.

Dress rehearsal went smoothly today and we even had time to watch the "Kitty Kat Kapers".  It's gonna be a great show!

Please keep all backpacks at home tomorrow and send your child's snack in a disposable container.  We'll leave the campus a little after 9:00 to view the Art Show and then don our costumes.  If you sit on the left side of the theater you''ll have the best view of our class (and Ayla, Logan and Abbie)

Once your child has performed we will sit in the front left seats to watch the other performances.  If you wish to leave early please retrieve your child from me so I know they are safe in your hands. If you cannot come to the performances, please pick up your child at the theater by 1:00.

We had our Friday Rock Unit yesterday (funny, it didn't confuse the children) and spent our time sorting.  First the children sorted the rocks into groups of large and small.  About halfway through they began to notice rocks that seemed small at first looked large as smaller rocks were picked up and vice versa.  After basic sorting, the children then re-sorted between big and small until they were satisfied. Next they moved on to color groupings and noticed Karen had used the colors of the rainbow for sorting categories.  Much to their delight they realized their "gold" could be placed at the end like a leprechauns pot of gold!

Today was our first rehearsal and I was very pleased with our class.  They went right to their places on stage and with very little reminding, they stood up and sang out.  we have several future stars on our hands.

The El Rodeo picnic had perfect weather which naturally led to play after eating.  Who can make children go inside when the warm sun calls them out?

Tomorrow will be a much warmer day.  The Early Learners are planning to take Fruit Break with us to Hollins tomorrow.  We will stop by the creek to munch our goodies and enjoy Mother Nature.  If a few feet were to get wet, I wouldn't be surprised.

We spent most of the morning outside planting zinnias, watering our other plants and making rainbows.  Sometimes children get a little wet when teachers make rainbows but don't seem to mind in the 80 degree heat!

 We also did our yoga outside near the creek.  It was so peaceful.

Don't forget to send in El Rodeo money ($5) and tell us if you are coming to join us.

Rehearsals and rocks have been filling our days lately.  As the children tramp up to the Drama room to sing and move I am amazed at their great attitudes and desire to sing the songs one more time.  The have asked to listen to their rehearsal CD at rest time for the last week and each day they sing a little louder (and more in tune)  with clearer words.  I'm here to tell you this is gonna be wonderful!

Last Friday I seeded the sand box with bags of gemstones and rocks I bought from the Science Museum.  Karen and I took the children out and showed them how to "pan" for gems using sieves and water.  After the first beautiful rock was found, digging began in earnest and lasted until we literally ran out of time.  I have noticed a group of dedicated diggers continuing the dig and our rock container now has a large variety of beautiful stones to classify this week.

Next week we will begin an ocean unit.  We have been listening to a fun pirate song most of this year so when I mentioned ocean the children naturally wanted to include a little pirate fun. I recently purchased a mask making program so we opened it up to view possible pirate masks.  as the children oohed and aahed and laid claim to their favorite faces, Sam heard me mention the word stegosaurus.  He requested this be his mask.  I questioned whether he just wanted the dinosaur or if it would be a pirate of some kind.  Silly me, of course it would be a dinosaur pirate!  Yes, I remember now why I teach this age group.

We have 2 really fun field trips coming up and both will be with our buddies in Keri's room! First we will go to Blue Ridge Farm Museum, by Ferrum College, on May 29. We'll leave at 9:00 and return around 1:45. Fruit Break and lunch will be eaten there. We need a driver or 2 for this trip. Jacinda and Katie have offered and can carry 5 in each of their vehicles. Thanks to both for their help. 

Our next field trip is to the newly renovated Science Museum and Butterfly Garden. We are scheduled at the museum from 9:30-11:30 on Tuesday, June 4. After a guided tour we will have a live animal (probably reptile) demonstration and then tour the Butterfly Garden. There are currently only about 5 species of butterflies in the garden but the rest are supposed to arrive this week. We have received a group rate for our students and teachers. Parents wishing to accompany us can only receive this rate if you let me know by Monday, the 20th. I have to give the museum a week's notice for numbers. Parent who accompany us without advance notice will be charged the normal museum rate.

Our days lately have been filled with careful observations of our rocks and discovering new beautiful ones, planting vegetables and herbs, finishing our Art festival project, making words by adding a letter to short words like "am" and "at" (word families) and our newest obsession - making books.  In short, discovery is the driving force behind everything we have done lately.  Every year I am amazed when children this age take a sudden leap forward in their acquisition of knowledge and their desire for more.  It can  be a little hard to keep up with their questions but so far I am hanging on by my nails!

The trip to the nursing home last week was wonderful!  The children sang with confidence and gave their motions a little extra "umph".  The pictures haven't yet loaded on this blog site but are on the facebook page.  They are worth viewing just to see the expressions on our children's faces as they perform.

The Strawberry Festival starts Friday with berry cleaning and set up at the library on Thursday.  As every year, a substation will be set up at Hollins College. We will walk over on Friday with our big buddies for a strawberry shortcake treat.  Each child will receive 1/2 a shortcake order.  This is funded by parents, teachers or any interested adult who would like to treat the class.  This year I would like to treat this very sweet class as a thank you for their willingness to work together to become a loving family and community unit that we all can be proud to call ours.

Katlyn has informed us that many spots are still open for volunteer workers, especially in the food booth Saturday.  If you haven't already contacted her, I urge you to do so immediately.  If you can cover another shift, please consider doing it.  Although we teachers are not required to work the festival I cannot think of any teacher who doesn't give their time so we will be there working at your side and feeling your exhaustion!  I wouldn't trade it for anything because these are the experiences that form friendships for the adults in our school community.   It's a little sweat and a lots of laughs.

Contact Katlyn at:
http://strawberryfestcs.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow is our field trip to the Methodist nursing Home.  We will eat an early fruit break and then start loading onto the bus at 9:45.  Our entire class will ride the bus.  We will return by recess.

Beginning tomorrow our class will take a turn collecting eggs from the hen house.  Each child will get to bring home 1 egg from our fowl friends.  The eggs have a natural protective coating that will keep them fresh all day.  Once home, wash the egg with soap and water and then refrigerate until ready to cook.  I bet you will taste (and smell) a difference from the store bought eggs!

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I blogged!  We've got some catching up to do.

Let me start with our greenhouse.  The Lorax Project brought in a whopping $1800.36 along with donations of pots, flats and the promise of seeds.  Tanya and Ted are bringing us a potting table, Cindy and Clay are bringing adjustable shelves and the D'Ardennes are going to bring soil.   Brienne Nida helped Gene, my husband, Lynn and me set it up Saturday during a long but exciting 9 hours. I am still in a state of amazement that this has come together so well.   The children are really enjoy visiting the greenhouse and I have already been asked by one if he can spend the night in it.

Conference Day was a wonderful day for me and I hope for you.  This class makes my job (and conferences) easy by giving everything I throw at them their best effort and enthusiasm.  You could say they are the "dream team" of classes.

Our yoga/buddy time on Mondays has been a highlight for our class.  Kim and Betsy switch classes each quarter so we will be with new buddies for the remainder of the year.  We will also change our time to Fridays and hopefully have most of our yoga time outdoors.

Karen will be presenting a rock and mineral unit to our class starting this Friday.  She will do this each Friday making Fridays now a fabulous day!

We are now officially into Strawberry and Arts Festival mode.  This means many changes to our schedules,  finishing up craft and art projects, rehearsals, rehearsals and rehearsals.  We will also have children visiting our class, picnic lunches outside and some strawberry inspired fun.  Whew, it made tired just writing all that! In short, it's a crazy, fun time of year that produces incredible memories so please have your children here so they can be part of every minute!

To add to all of this we are also going to sing at the Methodist Nursing home next Wednesday (the 24th).  Our class will ride the school's bus and will leave here by 10:00.  We will sing for the residents, do a little visiting  and then enjoy a little fun in the gazebo and park in the front yard of the home.

We are currently studying rainbows and the color spectrum.  The children have expressed a desire for me to show them more about rain, storms and tornadoes.  I do have a bottle connector to make a tornado but need 2 2 liter bottles.  If anyone has some empties, we'd love to help you recycle.

Okay, I think we're caught up for now.  Don't forget to sign up for your Strawberry Festival volunteer hours.   You can sign up for berry cleaning now and for festival shifts soon.  It sounds like lots of work but I assure you it is tons of fun.  Sign up early to get the shift(s) you want.

Today we finished creating our creatures for the School Zoo tomorrow.  The names of the creatures are as creative as the creatures themselves.  Dr. Seuss would be proud!

 Sam's Show & Share today  was a toy aquarium with "growing" fish inside.  It just so happens I bought water absorbing beads while at conference so I pulled them out today.  We made predictions about the size they will grow, whether we would have to add water and what size  they will shrink to when we remove them from the water.  We can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Shaker eggs were made in Music today and were used in a listening game.  The children loved their eggs so much we just had to do an egg shaking song when they got back from music.

Since we were on an egg theme we played an Easter Bunny game today.  The children took turns being the Easter Bunny and hid jelly bean shaped eggs in the room.  The rest of us waited in the hallway until time to find the eggs.  I have a feeling we'll continue the game tomorrow.

All money is due tomorrow for the Lorax Project.  So far an amazing $1367.80 has been turned in for our greenhouse!  Wow!!  Our official order will go in tomorrow afternoon.