Monica Ros School

Red Room News  - September 21, 2007

We have had an exciting week of color exploration.  We focused on Green as we completed our Big Green Monsters and acted out a new poem, “Five Little Speckled Frogs”.  We painted with unusual materials this week.  We used shaving cream and paint to make our green headbands.  We used colored glue to create “magic dots” of glue on a strip of paper.  In Spanish, we created our Rainbow Smoothies, or should I say, “zalamero de arco iris”, using fruits and juice inspired by the colors of the rainbow. Delicious!  We even squeezed our own orange juice.  Look for your Big Green Monster; it’s coming home today.

Our work this week also involved a lot of planting.  Heidi_Bradbury brought us a very large outdoor bird cage for Joey and enough food and toys to keep him occupied for quite some time.  Thank you Heidi! But that is not all; she also brought in numerous plants and shrubs to create this beautiful environment as well.  We scrubbed and cleaned the birdcage, planted flowers, and helped set up this wonderful outdoor space.  Change can be traumatic for birds so we have not introduced Rootbeer to the outside cage.  Joey appeared nervous at first, completely rejecting the cage the second day but now he can be heard whistling and squawking as far off as the parking lot.  Rootbeer is doing fine, by the way and has been seen napping when Joey is outside.  She seems full of energy and willing to eat. The blood clot on her beak actually seems to be drying up.  We spend our day caring for the birds and watching them care for each other.  It really is touching to watch Joey clean Rootbeer’s beak and head and, then, cuddle her with his head.  Yesterday, we gave Joey a shower with a spray bottle in his outside cage; he just loved it! It was exciting for the children to watch him spread his wings and all but ask for more. Heidi, thank you for helping to make this time exciting for all.   

Your child is bringing home his/her collage work today as well as the first still life project of the year.  We will continue to work at observation skills and recreating what we see.  The process of observation: examining details, reflecting on them, and duplicating them, is quite useful in many aspects of our school work and, quite frankly, our lives.

Tonight at 5:30, providing there is no rain, we will meet at Soule

Fondly, Mrs.Smith

News from the Red Room  - August 31, 2007 

We have enjoyed getting to know the nooks and crannies of our classroom and, of course, our new friends.  It is amazing how familiar we are with this room already.   We have been busy at small group time drawing our self-portraits and writing our names.  We even explored a sensory activity as we created the letters of our names in salt-trays.  The children seem to enjoy signing in each day when they arrive to class.  This activity will continue through the school year.   Please don’t feel the need to assist your child.  This activity will illustrate the growth in his/her writing ability over the course of the year. 

We have a busy this week with our first dictated story about friendships.  We started work on a book about the friends in our classroom and I will be asking the children biography-type questions. We will put it all together in a book to take home.    We have spent time introducing to your children the names of other children in the class.  By clapping out syllables and holding up name cards both with and without photographs, we learn quite a bit about a child’s awareness of phonemes and words in print.  It is wonderful to see the ability that already exists as they recognize their names and the names of the other children in print. 

We are exploring ways to attract and hold the attention of others in a pleasant way.  We are realizing that each one of us is an important member of our classroom.  We are working on establishing daily routines and on being members of a group.  Your children are so pleasant with each other and some true friendships have already formed.   Each Monday we participate in music and movement classes with Miss Lamar.  These weekly sessions prove to be very popular with the children.  Miss Lamar introduce cooperative dance as well as use music from the Parachute Express and other popular children’s musicians.  Next week we will have our first Spanish class with Senorita Carlson.  These bi-weekly classes will focus on common everyday words through song and game.   

Next week we will be making the transition from discussing friendships to a focus on colors and shapes.  Color is an important part of every child’s world.  We will focus on a different color each week, we begin Tuesday with the color RED, Thursday and Friday will be devoted to BLUE.  As an introduction to color, we created colorful windsocks on Wednesday. There are several activities you can do at home to foster the concepts of this unit.  Begin by looking for various colors and shapes around the house and pay special attention to them.  Encourage your child to select clothing that reflects the color of the week 

Have you noticed that your child has not been finishing his/her lunch?  The weather has been warm and we have noticed that children are not as hungry.  We provide a balanced snack at 10:30 each morning.  We provide milk and water as well and are making sure children are hydrated.  Lunches should be similar to a lunch your child has at home.  Just a few items, please don’t feel like you need to provide a four course meal.  Anytime you have a concern, we hope you will feel free to share it with us.   Please remember to send in an extra change of play clothes as our work is sometimes messy and we do need them.  This is in addition to the changes of clothes requested by the office in case of an earthquake/disaster.  

Attached is our first book order of the year.  Our class receives points toward classroom purchases for every book bought.  This is an opportunity to build your library at home while benefiting our classroom.  If you’d like to participate, please send your book order in by Friday, September 14.     Tuesday, September 11 we will be hosting an Open House for Parents.  This is a time for you to experience your child’s classroom and hear a little about what we have planned for him/her.  Please mark your calendars.  We look forward to seeing you at 6:00p.m.  (Reminder: this is a parents-only event; please plan to hire a babysitter).   Fondly,  Mrs. Smith

Dear Parents,

As the month draws to a close, I have so many of you to thank for your generous gifts of time and talent. Gratitude is sent to all parents who drove on the field trip to the Wachtell orchard. The following day the class and teachers enjoyed a delicious apple pie treat because Tami and Leila W. spent all evening in the kitchen preparing fresh pies.(This gift was from a lady who has three small children, teaches full time in the Green Room and is a Fiesta Chairman!) We say, ”Thank-you”, most sincerely. Behind the scenes the unsung parent heroes of the first grade are donating hours and hours of time to make our school a better place for all school students. Connie_Cline and Linda_LeBrock are hatching great plans for Fiesta. Joy_Golbere is lending her expertise as a past chairman. Dana_White and Jerry_Ellinghausen can be seen throughout the week digging, replanting and watering our green areas to improve green spaces for the children. Their commitment has made our campus —-so much nicer. Bill_Moses and Bill_Gilbreth have donated weekends of work to build
Sherwood Forest which generations of students will enjoy. Throughout that scorching heat, all weekend long, Bill_Gilbreth hammered and sawed …..and smiled. To all of you, please know that you are creating a happier world for the Monica Ros community. Next week in honor of Native American Day, Mr. Ben_Farrell, a member of the Cherokee Nation, will visit class to share his heritage with the children. Remember that beginning in October the class will dismiss at 2:45 p.m. (except on Wednesdays). A newsletter with October news and notes will come home once the month begins. It is a busy one! Thank you again for cooperation and generosity in all areas of school life.

With admiration, Mrs. K.

Join us for the Annual Family Picnic at Soule Park.

Kick your shoes off, bury your toes in the grass, let the children unwind, and enjoy old and new friends.  Bring your picnic dinner and blanket.

Date: Friday, September 21, 2007
5:30 p.m.
Soule Park
$4 parking fee!

   FIESTA!!!

3:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Family Photo Night

Open House for Parents:

6 p.m. Preschool

6:30 p.m. All-parents meeting

7:00 p.m. Kindergarten/Gradeschool