Friendships, Fantasy, Forest, and Fun!

Students from Mrs. Wrigley's class and our class continue to travel to Harrison Field each morning. It is amazing to see the natural relationships that are occurring, the conversations heard, and the empathy and love students are showing between each other. The children have been really connecting and developing friendships across the grades.

 

While in Harrison Field, students are using their imagination to create a miniature treehouse. The children worked in partners to use natural materials (and a little elmers) to begin constructing their fantasy treehouse.  INQUIRE with your child who their partner is and what materials they are using in their creation. Do they have a hammock? Swing? Insect drape? 

Thank You!

The pool party was a success!  Thanks to everybody for helping to contribute something to dinner and to the Tringes and Rickers for sharing their neighborhood with us.  I can't thank you enough for the generous gifts you presented - I spent more time looking through the book when I got home - I can't believe two years went by that quick.  I'm so thankful to be able to have this keepsake to remember the great memories with each of your children.  This book and your generous gift certificate were greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

Sandy's Last Visit :(

Sarah's grandparents made their last visit to our classroom last Thursday. Sandy has been visiting and reading us stories a few times a year since Kindergarten. On Thursday, Sandy and Bill both came to share some stories about whales and fairies. They were so impressed with the intelligence of our soon to be second graders! They graciously surprised us with dolphin cookies - mmm, were they delicious!

ECO fundraiser - THIS FRIDAY NIGHT

Students spent some time making welcome banners to decorate the North Branch Nature Center. They are helping to prepare for this Friday nights fundraising outing at Northbranch. We hope your family can attend and support this great event. Next year, we're hoping that 2nd graders will continue to have E.C.O. integrated in their curriculum as well.

Planting

Talk about cooperation!  Mrs. Wrigley's students and mine worked so hard and so cooperatively today to plant their sunflower seedlings together.  We were so impressed with the skiils they've developed and even more so with the extended friendships that have been formed between these two classes. The students are looking forward to seeing their sunflowers bloom so if you have a chance this summer, come visit them at Harrison Field. We ended our morning with some field games. Next week, we'll plan to travel back to observe our flowers and do some exploring in the woods here! Remember to help your child pack their sneakers!

Planting at Harrison Field

Our class sunflower seedlings are just reaching for the sunshine out our windows, their roots are searching for more room than we can offer in our planters... it's time to begin thinking about planting our K/1 Community Sunflower Garden at Harrison Field. This morning, and several mornings to come, we will work with Mrs. Wrigley's class to plant and care for our sunflower garden until the close of school.

Talk with your child about our plant science outing to the park this morning - Where is a good place to plant at Harrison Park and why? What will we need to do to help our seedlings survive and thrive? How will we take care of them over the summer? 

 

Students enjoyed a fun game of Fishy Fishy Cross my sea before heading back to school.  We will be traveling to Harrison Field routinely for the last week of school. Please be sure your child has appropriate shoes to wear that are good for running!  

2nd grade preparation

We have been spending 10 minutes each school day having conversations about what it will look like next year in 2nd grade.  Students are sharing their concerns and asking a ton of questions.  We are trying to 'throw away' any worries that come up and openly share our feelings. These conversations seem to be helping children understand more about the transition and help ease some of the end of the year anxiety they may be feeling. I would strongly suggest following up with these discussions at home to ensure your child is fully prepared. If you have any questions, please let me know. 

To help guide your conversations, here are some of the questions already asked:
            Will my teacher like me?
            Are the teachers nice?
            What happens if my teacher isn't nice?
            Who are the teachers? When will we find out?
            What happens if I don't know anybody in my new class?
            How many classmates will I have? (~20) What will that be like?
            What happens if nobody likes me?
            What happens if I'm the only small kid?
            What happens if you're taking an test and you don't know the answer?
            What happens if you are absent and a teacher reads a story that you don't know and then  
                    you have to do writing about it but you were out when it was read?

Also, INQUIRE with your child what they are sharing in their letter to their new teacher?  They were so focused while writing these letters today! 

           

Return Books, Please!

It's time to go through those bookshelves!  Have your child clean out their rooms, organize the shelves, and play detective to hunt all those books owned to the school.  Many classroom books are missing so I'd appreciate a bit more time hunting those down. As I said before in the email, our books are labeled with my name, 'Cody,' or just not labeled at all! If you're not sure whether it's ours or yours, please send it in and I'll let you know! Unfortunately, I don't have the kids check out books in an orderly way, so I can't tell you exactly what I'm missing. Thanks for your extra help.

Here is a note from Mrs. Frey, who is trying to find her missing books as well. Today was our last library day and students are no longer able to check out books. Please help out Mrs. Frey and all the other children who want to check out those books next year!

We would greatly appreciate If you could please encourage your students to return books to the library.  If they believe they have returned a book, please have them come talk to Audrey or me in the library and we'll get things straightened out.

Please note that if books are indeed lost, there are several options for students and their families:

Option #1:  Pay for replacement of book.
Option #2:  Replace book with same or similar book.  Used copies are fine as long as they're in fairly good shape.  (Rivendell??)
Option #3:  "Work off" cost of book by working in the library.  Arrangements to be made with Mrs. Frey.

Please let me know if you have questions or need further information,

Independent Projects

Many parents are inquiring, "What do I need to do at home to help my child with their independent project?"  Your child is immersing him/herself in their own learning/project time a few afternoons a week at school.  Your child is choosing what they want to learn, what they want to create, and how they want to spend their time. There are no guidelines as to what the learning will look like and be or any expectations as far as a final product. Your child might be spending their entire time curled up in our library immersed in a book, sewing a teddy bear, making diagrams of a bike and its gears, making a fairy house, or even interviewing various teachers around the school to find some answers to their wonders of college. Children are immersed in a variety of projects and are guiding their own learning.  INQUIRE with your child what they have been using this time for. Oh, and don't worry - you don't have to do anything at home with this project. Your child, however, might be so engrossed with the subject that they WANT to engage in this learning at home as well.  ENJOY! 

E.C.O. Service Learning

We "gave back" to Hubbard Park today. All first grade classes engaged in community service in Hubbard Park this morning. There were five different projects, and your child chose a project that appealed to them. Students planted and watered fruit trees (ok, because of the rain, this turned into creating animal homes for small animals), cleaned ditches, mulched trails, picked up trash and removed invasive  species such as burdock plants.  We were so excited to show Hubbard Park how thankful we are, and how much we care about this special part of our community. Despite the steady rain all morning, students worked hard to give back to this special space we use as our classroom. 

How does 1 adult round up 85 children and 20 adults?  Check it out here....

You're the best, Amy!

The trash group scrounging for garbage.... 

 

Pool Party Postponed

Due to the weather forecast, our pool party will be postponed until next Monday, June 11th. Same time, same place. If you can't contribute what you signed up for next week, please let me know so I can find you a substitute!

Poppy and Gagga

Andrew's parents visited our classroom today, sharing stories about their trip to Egypt. Poppy and Gagga read us a book written in Arabic and English. The book was read from back to front and right to left. We learned about how books are made in this country and also learned about some of the hats worn in Egypt.  INQUIRE with your child what the hats looked like and what they are called. As always, we love visitors and although we have only 2 weeks left, we welcome you to join us at anytime!  Let me know via email or phone!