Dental health

This week was dental health week.  We started our week off by counting teeth and putting the correctly numbered toothbrush on the mouths.  We are doing better at recognizing those numbers, but please keep working on this at home.

On Tuesday we set up our science experiment.  We took three eggs and placed them in milk, soda, and water.   Egg shells are very similar to our teeth so we wanted to see what those drinks would do do our teeth.

We let the eggs sit in the liquids until Thursday, and this what we saw when we were done!  We concluded that milk and water are better drinks for us to drink.  We didnt want to scare the kids into never drinking soda or their parents teeth going to fall out if they saw them drinking soda so we also discussed not drinking it very much and if we do, how we can take care of our teeth. The students remembered the nurse said (she came in on Wednesday) that if they brush their teeth it gets rid of the sugar bugs.  

We got out a paint brush because our toothbrush was missing and used some real toothpaste and brushed our egg.  It took the brown off!  That means brushing our teeth really does make them clean and take the sugar bugs away!

Students also got to make their own mouths by dipping marshmallows into glue and sticking them onto the black circles in their mouths.  This worked on direction following (they had to dip, wait for all the drips to be done, and then stick in the circle for each tooth) and fine motor skills.  When they were done, they had to count how many teeth were in the mouth.

We also went on a magazine search this week.  Students had a happy tooth and a sad tooth and they had to go through magazines and cut out 2 things that fit onto each tooth.  This worked on their cutting ,their sorting, their direction following, and on the content.  We really learned a lot about teeth!

The letter of the week was Qq. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter Qq with  quilt pieces.  On Thursday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, Q is for Queen.

Upcoming Events:

• Book Order due March 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.
• Half Day Wednesday March 11 for students who stay all day.  I will send an email finding out how students get home the week of.
• Reading with the Stars, Thursday March 12 5:30-6:30.  More information and an RSVP (electronically) will come out next week.
• Spring Break runs March 30-April 5.  
• Classes Resume Monday April 6.  St. Edward school does not resume on Monday like the district.  We will be in session, but the only ones in the building.  There will be no Extended day with Mrs. Zajicek or After School Care with Mrs. Schmitz offered.  Students ALL must be picked up by 11.

Important Notes:

•  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
• Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
• Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
• Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
• Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays.

Next Week:
Theme: Dr. Suess
Letter of the Week: Vv
Snack: Manteufel

President's Day & Patriotic

Intention forms came home today.  Please send the intention forms back as it helps the District plan for staffing.  They need 100% response so PLEASE return asap (due March 14).  We will continue to email and ask until we get all forms in. Thank you.


This week we talked about Presidents and America.  We started the week by reviewing information on what a president does, and showed three presidential images: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama.  We talked about a couple short facts about each.  We talked about our flag (the colors that were missing on them when we showed our project template) and the Bald Eagle.


Students made an Eagle with their hands and wrote either USA which we talked about being short for United States of America or America. This helped them talk about our symbol as well as how to write some letters (and name them).

Students made an American flag by first patterning red white red white.  They then glued on the blue square and had 5 starter dots drawn from top to bottom.  They then used a Qtip and did 10 dots acorss from each starter dot to make 50.

Students also counted pennies-they have Abraham Lincoln on them and they are brown. They are worth 1 cent.  We then counted how many cents we had.  We practiced the counting as well as writing the numbers.

As a part of morning work, students cut apart a puzzle of George Washington.  They then glued it back together in number order. This worked on our cutting, gluing, fine motor skills, counting, and number recognition.

The letter of the week was Kk. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter Kk with  K'nex.  On Thursday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, K is for Kite.

Upcoming Events:

• Book Order due Feb 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.
• Sledding at Jennerjohn Park.  More information came out this week.  There is also a digital image on the blog (previous post)  Open to all 4k Sites in the district. Friday February 27, 2015.

Important Notes:

• Please check the updated Wish List (top tabs says "Wish List").  We have more than enough of some and could still use others. As the email stated, this is by no means a requirement, but I know some people want to send things and these are the things we could use. 
• Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
• Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
• Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
• Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
• Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays.

Next Week:
Theme: Teeth.Dental Health
Letter of the Week: Qq
Snack: Heinz Family

Sledding at Jennerjohn Park

I had mentioned sledding at Jennerjohn park having a slip coming soon. Here is a digital copy as well. Copies will be coming home tomorrow. 

Valentine's Day

Hello Parents
I first want to apologize that this is coming out on a Monday.  I had a sick little one Thursday and Friday and then the weekend got away from me.  I do have the blog pretty much written as we go through the week so I could simply send this morning.  Sorry again!


 I wanted to start this week's letter to show you again how our room works.  Although you see many sheets come home I want you to see all the learning that happens at school while your child is playing in the centers.  This playing reinforces the concepts taught at circle time, at small group time, and even what is on those sheets that come home.  If you have any questions about our day, please let me know!

Students are putting magnets up in our writing center and singing our letter song as they do it.  They are also matching capital to lower case. They are also helping each other when one does not know the letter they come up to.  The coolest part: they were not doing the letters in alphabetical order which tells me they genuinely know the letters!

When we have extra papers, we put them in the art center to be used however the students would like to. This student chose to do her color by number (correctly) and then cut it out!  Great job working those fine motor skills and recognizing numbers and colors!

Students are in the technology center (left) working on mouse skills as well as a variety of math games on the computer.  This mat game is working on directional words.  Students in the listening center (right) pick a book, find its cd in the back, put it in the discman and listen to the books on CD.  Students then are responsible for putting CDs away. This helps them learn many skills on top of how a book words, appreciating books, and hearing the actual books.

These students are practicing reading the alphabet chart (that is used district wide) They practice saying the letter names and sound and then something that makes that sound.  They take turns "quizzing" each other and they help each other out when they are stuck!  

As a part of our Valentine theme this week, we made our valentine's day bucket names.  We worked on spelling our names out loud (to tell the letter names) then counted how many letters that was.  We then had that many lines drawn on our papers and we write one letter on each one.  The really helped us with counting, one to one correspondence, letter names and fine motor skills.  Who know a valentine bucket could be so educational!

Students also made their Parent Valentines. They did the gluing (and direction following) and practiced writing "love, ___"  I hope you had a good Valentine's day knowing Thumbody loves you!

Our Valentine's day celebration went well with dropping off valentines in buckets and having fun doing valentine activities!


The letter of the week was Ff. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter Ff with  Feathers.  On Wednesday (to make room for our valentines celebration on Thursday) our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, F is for Flamingo.

Upcoming Events:

• Conferences  Conferences for HASD families and students who only stay in the AM will be Monday February 16 3:00-5:45.  Families that stay with Mrs. Zajicek will be Thursday Feb 19 3:00-5:45.  
• Swim Night at the YMCA-Look for RSVP that came home.  Family night of no charge swimming at the Fox West YMCA.  Open to all 4k sites in the district. Saturday February 21, 2015.  Please bring the RSVP to me so I can send in a count and make sure to bring the back page with you when you go.
• Sledding at Jennerjon Park.  More information came out this week.  There is also a digital image on the blog (last post)  Open to all 4k Sites in the district. Friday February 27, 2015.  
• Book Order due Feb 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.

Important Notes:

•  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
• Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
• Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
• Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
• Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays. 

Next Week:
Theme: President's Day
Letter of the Week: Kk
Snack: Dunkleberger

Groundhog & Shadows

We started off the week talking about it being Groundhog's day. We talked about its a fun game to see if the groundhog sees his shadow and if he does it is 6 more weeks of winter and if he does not sprint is on its way. Students did a early reader that is repetitious in words about groundhogs day.  These books came home.  

We then made a prediction on what we thought he saw.  We then looked it up and found out that he did see his shadow and we have more winter.  We used big words like prediction (guess) and then tested our results.

We then played around with tracing shadows of things Mrs. Gloudemans put on her desk or taped to the window.  If the white light was around it, then we layed down our chalk and rubbed it to show light.  

On Wednesday, we started the day off by cutting out two shapes at the same time.  We learned that shadows are going to look exactly the same as the first thing because shadows are blocked light.  

During our circle time, we talked about how a shadow is made when light cannot get through.  If you cant see through me light cant get through me.  We tried this out with a couple objects in our room.  It is always looked the same but black.  Then we got the idea to try out our drop bucket.  Since we could see through it some people thought the light could get through it too.  We made another prediction. Students helped me write our prediction by helping me with the initial sound in the words.  We then did a scientific test.

We discovered that it left a little shadow, but lights still got through some parts.  Both groups were right!

.  For an art project, students tracked the shadow of their capital letter in their name.  First, they had to find their capital letter from the foam letters on the floor under our tree house.




Next. they had to trace their letter Mrs. Drummond was holding onto their black paper with a white piece of chalk.

Another project we did was match the groundhogs to their shadows.  we talked about how if the groundhog is wearing glasses that wont show in a shadow because they light cant get through their heads.  They have to look what the light would go around.  Students did very well with this match. They like that they could lift the flaps and see their shadows as well.

The letter of the week was Bb. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter Bb with  blowing blue bubbles.  On Thursday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, B is for Bumblebee.

Upcoming Events:

• Reading with the Stars Letters and RSVP came home electronically.  Please let us know if electronically does not work for your family.  Reading with the Stars is Monday February 9, 2015 5:30-6:30 in our room.  It is Valentine's themed, but not a "program" like our December one.
• VALENTINES DAY
• Valentine buckets: for your child's valentine buckets we would like you to please send a cleaned out gallon jug (for milk or OJ). We will decorate these and have a nice handled container.
• Valentine distribution: our school takes an "all or nothing" policy with valentines. You can bring valentines for 1) the whole school 2) the whole class 3) nobody. This way there is no picking or choosing or hurt feelings.  **for the 4k program, we recommend you let YOUR CHILD sign their name on their valentines, but then leave the "TO" blank.  This way, your child gets practice writing their name but can simply go down the line of valentine buckets distribute valentines.** We have 19 students in our class.
• Valentine Party: we will be having valentine themed centers on Thursday February 12. Centers will include: art, valentine distribution, valentine game, and free choice.

• Conferences Watch for sign up to come in email.  Conferences for HASD families and students who only stay in the AM will be Monday February 16 3:00-5:45.  Families that stay with Mrs. Zajicek will be Thursday Feb 19 3:00-5:45
• Swim Night at the YMCA-Look for RSVP that came home yesterday (Thursday).  Family night of no charge swimming at the Fox West YMCA.  Open to all 4k sites in the district. Saturday February 21, 2015.  Please bring the RSVP to me so I can send in a count and make sure to bring the back page with you when you go.
• Sledding at Jennerjon Park.  More information coming soon.  Open to all 4k Sites in the district. Friday February 27, 2015

Important Notes:

•  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
• Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
• Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
• Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
• Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays. 
• Book Order due Feb 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.
• Please Pass this on to anyone and everyone you know with 4 year olds!  Click HERE for the full document

Next Week:
Theme: Valentine's Day
Letter of the Week: Ff
Snack: Sonetti