Monica Ros School

Red Room News

February 15, 2008

We have had a festive and wonderful week and to top that off we welcomed a new friend to the Red Room this week.  Help me in welcoming Robbie W and his parents Valarie and Robert.  It has been a true pleasure to include Robbie in our class.  Robbie is a child with autism and he has been accompanied by another new friend, his shadow teacher Lauren F.  Robbie and Lauren have both settled into our routines at school and we look forward to sharing more time with them.  There certainly is a lot about autism that we don’t know and many myths as well.  Attached is some information we hope you might find useful when explaining autism to your child.  As members of our community it is important for us and our children to learn to understand and accept the differences in all of us. 

Last week we celebrated the beginning of Chinese New Year.  Families like to welcome the New Year with a clean slate.  Houses are cleaned from top to bottom to remove all traces of the old year and its misfortunes, and to bring good luck for the coming year.  Special attention is paid to the Kitchen God and alters were set up in the home to celebrate passed family members.  Our focus has taken us to make beautiful watercolor lanterns as well as creating good luck fish prints with a real fish.  We are writing Chinese symbols with our unique Zen Boards and we have learned how to say Hello in Chinese Ni-Hao.  Friday we wrapped up our celebration with an authentic Chinese snack and a lantern celebration.  If that isn’t enough celebrating, this week we have three parents to thank for providing us with the loveliest Valentine’s celebration, Wendy_Thurston, Denise_Hansen and Sarah_DelVecchio.  Thank you so much for the fun and yummy party.  We would also like to thank Elizabeth_Moore for providing us with the most beautiful flower arrangement to grace our table.

Yesterday we saw the 3^rd graders musical play American Tales and Heroes about American Tall Tells and Legends.  We feel most fortunate to have such strong connections with the upper grades.  Their ability to role model for us in such positive ways makes the school year so meaningful.  Our second grader buddies are another example of this experience.  We will meet with them today and over the course of the next three months we will seek their help in writing our year end play.  Are your calendars marked?  Our play is scheduled for Friday, May 23^rd at 11am.

 Attention Auction Shoppers, our classroom has elected to present an Arts and Crafts basket at the silent auction.  We need your favorite arts and crafts materials and kits to complete this wonderful basket.  Please bring in your items by Monday, March 3rd!!!  Thank you for helping to support the school in our biggest “fun-raising” event.  You’re going to love our live auction items as well.  Thank you to Elizabeth_Moore and Heidi_Bradbury who are helping us as we create a lovely acrylic garden scene on an 18” x 24” canvas.  Your support means so much to us and the school.  We hope you have your calendars marked for Saturday, March 8^th. As we celebrate you and have a great adult evening as well.  Remember to invite your friends.  Tickets are available in the office. 

Fondly, Kathy_Smith

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.         Dr. Seuss 

Green Room News                                                                   February – March 2008

Love is in the air in the Green Room!  How do you fill a bucket with love?  We have a few ideas thanks to Logan and his Mom, Nathalie, who brought in a wonderful book about kind behavior and “filling a bucket with love”.  We have learned that kind actions and words can help to build others’ self-esteem and our own. 

Arts Month was busy and full of creativity.  We hope you all had a chance to see your child’s art work in Meyer Hall last week.  Each child worked very hard on their art pieces.  Their projects will be sent home this week.

 February activities

Hearts, hearts, and more hearts!  The classroom is bursting with love and friendship!  Every project is followed with “my mommy is going to love this.”  We will be having our class Valentine party at 11:45 Thurs. Feb 14^th. (Sign-ups are on the bulletin board in the classroom.)  Everyone is invited, if you are a MWF student, please come and join us at 11:45 to enjoy the festivities.  We distribute cards by walking around a circle of classmates and handing them to each other.   Please have your child sign the card (a helping hand is fine). Please DO NOT write the recipient’s name on individual valentines. If there are names written on the cards, the children can’t deliver the cards independently or focus on the exchange.  The teachers’ attention is also taken away from the group to help the deliverer read names.  So, please no names!  Only your child’s name signed on the card. This makes the giving so much easier for everyone. Thank you!

Art Auction

Art Auction, a must go!!!  Socialize with your children’s friends parents. At the auction you have the opportunity to eat, drink, and purchase beautiful items, gift certificates, and vacations.  This is a fun evening to support your child’s school.  Remember we are a non-profit school and all purchases are tax-deductible!!    Three of our parents are collaborating to make our classroom project which will be sold at the auction!

Each class puts together a collection or basket to add to the silent auction.  The Green Room Class theme this year is BEACH.  Please bring in ANY item that is related to a day at the beach.  Ex.: Towel, beach balls, sunscreen, hibachi, etc. etc.

Poetry Night- February 12^th 7 pm

Kindergarten and Grade School)

Valentine’s Day Party Feb. 14^th 11:45 – 12:45

(Send your child’s regular lunch.)

President’s week vacation – Feb. 18-22.

School resumes Feb. 25^th.

Art Auction March 8^th 5:30 – 9:00

(Parent only event)

March 17^th - 21st Parents – Teacher Conference Week

11:45 dismissal all week.

Sincerely,

 Mrs. Weston                                              

Mrs. Winbury

February 4, 2008

Dear Parents,

What a wonderful Arts Month we had! The children delved into sculpture, painting, and construction.  Weren’t the skyscrapers and all the artwork impressive? The dust has settled a bit and we are back to our daily routine, although this month promises to be a busy, fun-filled one. Here is just a general overview of the subject areas we’ll be focusing on in the coming weeks.

Language Arts: We continue to meet in reading groups three times a week and in grammar we are using antonyms/synonyms, adjectives/nouns, going on dictionary word finds (a second grade favorite) and mastering “friendly letter” writing.  We are reviewing our poems in class and will become poets ourselves as we continue writing our own poetry.

Math: We have officially started our 2-digit addition unit and will be starting our 2-digit subtraction unit in the next week or two.  As always, we encourage you to practice and review number facts to make 2 and 3-digit operations painless. We are enjoying more rotations in math this month, from Money/Time Bingo, to “Rolling Dice” for 2-digit math and Marcy Cook.

Science: On Thursday, February 7, Dr. Finch will be visiting our classroom at 1:45 to share her veterinary knowledge with us as we wrap up our unit on animals.  This week the children will give their animal reports.  A schedule will be sent home on Tuesday.  Thank you all for helping with this project. The props, posters and dioramas are terrific.  The final reports should be very interesting.  The work the students have completed for the animal unit will be sent home at the end of the week.  On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday we will have worm observations in class.

Social Studies: We will begin our unit on Native Americans next week.

Important Dates to remember: 

Tuesday – Feb. 12 @ 7pm: Poetry Night

Thursday – Feb. 14 @ 11am Special Persons Day. The Second graders have each chosen a “special person” in their life to invite to school on Valentine’s Day.  They will be reading a letter to their special person in class.  (Invitations will be coming home this week).

Feb. 18 – Feb. 22: President’s Vacation

Thursday – Feb. 28^: SB Botanical Gardens Field Trip

Tuesday – March 5: 2^nd Grade Play/Musical of “Lifecycles”

Saturday – March 8: Art Auction (Our themed class basket is the “Smart Family.” Please help us to make this basket a success by bringing in anything that might make a family smarter! Some suggestions: maps, games, globes, etc.) A box will be in the classroom for collecting all items until Feb. 28^th. Thank you in advance for your help!

April 28 – May 1: Standardized Testing

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Warmly,

Mrs. Roe

Mrs. Ockerman

January 23, 2008

Hard to believe we are almost entering the last week of January.  We have been busy at work this month with many varied art experiences.  Today we discussed friendship and the act of complimenting each other.  We introduced our “Friend of the Week” program and Noelle was the first friend selected.  The children share their observations of each other noting their special interests and talents.  These comments are illustrated in a poster and book that will go home with the each week’s student. 

Along these lines we have introduced a program called “Second Step”.  It is a curriculum presented in sequence as each unit builds upon skills presented in the previous lessons.  The first unit involved the concept of empathy.  Empathy is an important ingredient in developing pro-social behaviors and being able to solve interpersonal problems successfully.  We begin by giving children a selection of dolls which they use to identify their own feelings and extend this awareness to the feelings of others.  Developing the ability to perceive, predict, and identify with another’s feelings helps children to choose appropriate behaviors and help them develop and maintain friendships.  These lessons involve the use of pictures, posters, puppets, songs, and poems.  Your children can recite “eyes watching, mouths quiet, ears listening, and body still”. 

Thursday, January 31, 2008 is Founder’s Day. We are planning on sharing the little poem “When Clouds Meet” in the school-wide assembly.  Don’t forget to drop by Meyer Hall for the Arts Month exhibit.  Our work will be on display next week, until Friday afternoon at which time it will be taken down.      

Founder’s Day is a fitting end to the month’s activities.  We hope you all take the opportunity to enjoy not only our exhibit in Meyer Hall, but those of the entire school.  Art’s month is meant to be a showcase of the wonderful opportunities in the arts that our children are afforded and one of the traditions that sets Monica Ros apart.  Mrs. Ros felt so strongly about exposing children to creative arts, music, and theater and we still hold true to those ideals today.  We are honored to pay tribute to Mrs. Ros in such a fine way.    Should Mrs. Ros ever pause to look down, she would be proud to have established this lovely place where children still begin their school careers with such a rich and full experience.  We celebrate what would have been her 107^th birthday; she was born 1-30-1901. 

In language arts we began work on our alphabet books.  Even though we started with A we are concentrating on consonant sounds.  They are much easier to detect as beginning, middle, or ending sounds in a word.  Our daily chapter read is getting exciting.  We are traveling with Jack and Annie through the Amazon rainforest.  We have encountered millions of ants, snakes, crocodiles, and a prankster monkey.  We can’t wait to see what happens next.  The Magic Tree House series provides the perfect platform for a little research into these compelling topics.  We have gone back in time and visited the Dinosaurs.  We are saving our visit with the pirates until the years end, June is the time for pirates in the Red Room!

In math we are working on recognizing and writing numbers 0-5.  As we play games like number bingo, dice games, and 5 little pumpkins (or valentines!), we observe, manipulate and chant the numbers, thereby making our work more meaningful and memorable. 

A look forward to February:

The children are blossoming into great writers as they “write” letters to their friends and family and mail them in our classroom mailboxes.  We will be learning our addresses, the role of the mail carrier and learning to identify objects found in a post office.  This practice of writing to each other is further spirited by the upcoming Valentine’s Day Holiday. 

With a classroom focus on the garden and insects we will begin our work on an acrylic on canvas painting of garden life.  We look forward to creating this enchanted masterpiece as a group and plan to showcase this work in the Art Auction.  Be sure to keep that bidder number handy at the auction, the concept of this painting is simply charming. 

Points to Ponder:  “what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” unknown   Fondly, Kathy_Smith

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our best wishes for a very Happy New Year, and we are pleased to welcome your children back to the classroom-we have missed them!

January plans to be an interesting and invigorating month for the children. Our winter classroom theme is the investigation of the life cycles of many penguin species.  We will explore where they live and how they survive the harshness of their environment.  Some of the books we will be reading are The Penguins, by the Cousteau Society,

Mrs. Fiore and Mrs. Krout

November 26, 2007

Dear Blue Roomer,

We have homework!

This week we are studying maps and learning to make and read them. Please draw a map of your bedroom. You can draw the shape of your bedroom, draw in the windows and doors and then add your furniture and anything else you think is important. Please bring your bedroom map back to school anytime this week. It is okay if your parents help you.

Camping and stars make us think of camping out. We thought it would be fun to “camp out” during the school day on Thursday and Friday this week. That means you get to wear your pajamas to school those days. Don’t forget!

Love, Mrs. Klimbal and Mrs. Luboff

P.S. Dear Parents, We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We are enjoying your children so much we thought we would write our “newsletter” to them this week. Today we had so much fun going on a “Treasure Hunt” using a map of the school to find our snack! Ask your child about it. Hope you have fun helping them draw their map.

School Resumes after “President’s Day” Vacation

Monday, February 25, 2008