Last Week of School.....What's happening??!!!

Monday:   Practice for celebrations at Hollins

Wednesday:  NO SCHOOL end of Year Conferences

Thursday:  Whole school water day 9:30 - 12:00

12:00 Dismissal

5:00 Picnic at Hollins

6:00 CELEBRATIONS at Hollins

Please let me know if you are not going to attend celebrations.

Water Days!!!!

Preschool Water Day

Friday, June 1st

10:30 - 11:45

Please apply sunscreen before arrival.

Bring a bathing suit and towel to school.  We will change here.

We are also making tie-dye shirts and enjoying fresh smoothies!

Whole School Water Day

Thursday, June 7th 

9:30 - Noon 

Please apply sunscreen at home.

Wear Bathing suit to school

and bring a towel.

EARLY DISMISSAL 

@ 12:00

HAPPY SUMMER!!!!!

Go Dog Go!    

 We enjoyed a wonderful show at the Taubman Roanoke Children's Theater.  


We thought it was funny and silly.  Especially the yellow dog who didn't get a tree and the roller skate and chair that moved on the stage by themselves.  In the end we decided we liked it all the best and we can't think of one part we liked best.

End of year Fiesta!

We are ordering food from El Rodeo on Friday, May 11.  Please send $5 to cover the food costs by Tuesday, May 8.

Middle Schoolers used our faces for practice for the Strawberry Festival.

 

This week we are taking a field trip to the United Methodist Home to do a music program with Kim Mucha. 

We have also been preparing for the Arts Festival in May.  This is a very busy, exciting time of year.  There has been much buzz about upcoming changes next year.

We have just started a Spring unit of study on plants and insects through the works of author, Eric Carle.  We have been collecting and studying bugs on the playground.  We have just freceived a shipment of Painted Lady butterfly larva which we will observe as it goes through metamorphasis.  

I am looking forward to my first Strawberry Festival!  I have enjoyed it as a patron every year.  This year I am excited to be a part of such a wonderful Roanoke tradition.  I hope to see you all there!!

Update on Reading Across America.


The Wise Owls are well on the way from Springfield, MA to California. 
We have made it all the way to Kalamazoo, MI, a total of 750 miles!  That is with the help of all the other Boxwoods classes.  
Our class goal is 250 books this month and we have already read 180 books!!!

Egg Drop

 We dropped the egg from the second floor of the Big House.

The wise owls successfully protected their egg with floam inside a styrofoam cup!

Hoot of a good time!!
The wise owls enjoyed playing our new board game, Hoot Owl Hoot.  The object is to work together to get all the owls into the nest before the sun rises.  We hooted and howled with laughter playing this together.


Reading Across America
Our class has read a total of 85 books in the first week of our trip.  Our goal is to read 250 books this month.  We are well on the way to meeting that goal.  All of the Boxwoods classes combined have read 350 miles, which put us in Buffalo, NY.  We left Springfield, MA (Dr. Suess' birthplace) on March 2nd.  We are hoping to get to San Francisco, CA.  In music class we are learning patriotic songs about the United States to inspire our journey.  Please help us reach our goal by keeping your child's reading log and sending it to me every Friday. We have a classroom graph of every book recorded in the log for each student.

Mardi Gras King and his Queen

Drama Performance

Wise Owls , with drama teacher Louise, take a final bow
after their performance of Alexander's Outting.

Mardi Gras Update


Today we ate traditional kingcake to determine the king of the Krewe of Toot Toot.  Harris found the baby in his cake and was crowned King Rex.  Hayden was chosen to be the Queen.  We are asking the children to try to dress in Green, gold or purple for our parade on Tuesday.  The floats are ready and excitement is at a peak!!!!

Laissez bon temps rouler!!
The wise owls are preparing for Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday)!  There was great excitement today as we read books and listened to music about the holiday.  I began my teaching career in Louisiana, and thought the early learners would enjoy this tradition.  Tomorrow we will prepare our costumes to hide the identity of the members of our Krewe.  Friday we will prepare the floats for the parade on Tuesday.  We have invited all the classes on campus to line the parade route at recess on Fat Tuesday for the first annual Mardi Gras Parade.

Valentines Day 
We are celebrating Valentines Day with all the Early Learners on Monday, February 13th.  In the past we have asked children to make valentines, which means 23 cards.  I will send a list with names next week.  
100th Day of School
The 100th day of school happens to fall on February 14th.  Please send a small ziplock bag with 100 small, inedible items such as paper clips, buttons, beans, pennies, stickers etc.  We will use the items that day for counting, sorting and exploring.

Mark Your Calendar!  Wise Owl drama performance : February 7th at 10:15 am.

Chinese New Year celebration

It was a positively, perfect week of studying penguins and the letter P.  We snacked on popcorn and pancakes.  We compared our height to the height of two species of penguins, the Great Emperor Penguin and the Fairy Penguin.  We read fiction and non-fiction books about penguins.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided we need another week or penguin adventures.  Next week we will continue our studies by doing more penguin activities and combining this with a study of weather and snow.  Maybe the weather will cooperate.  

It's so good to be back at school with all the wise owls in the nest.  This week we are learning all penguins and the letter P.  Today we made pink and purple polka dot P's.  We also read about Pip the penguin.   The owls are excited about the snow that will be in the media table tomorrow.  We discussed how Santa is at the North Pole, but the penguins live at the South Pole.  We also played a penguin math game.