Tis the Season!

We've been busy at school celebrating the holidays! I've been so proud of all of our students. They have displayed wonderful behavior and have been fully included in all that is going on.

The trip to the Nutcracker was a tremendous success. I was fascinated with how interested the students were. They all set appropriately and attentively for the performance and we very excited to find their very own nutcracker upon our return. :)

Old Frost for the second grade was fun and exciting. Some of them sang, some of them swayed along and smiled, but they all enjoyed it. I was very proud of them all!

Chorale visit, again lots of smiles and enjoyment.

Carol on the round, a wonderful celebration of holiday music. The students stood up and sat down when they were supposed to and sang and participated in all of the movements.

I hope your family has a wonderful holiday together! Enjoy the moments!

Special Art

Did you know that we go to a 'special' art class twice a month? On Fridays we have been so lucky to be going to see Mrs. Fish just as our small group. Mrs. Potts class (3rd and 4th grade) and my class (K-2) get to go in and do some really neat projects. We've made quilts, beautiful red, white and blue paintings and most recently our wonderful ornaments. Thank you Mrs. Fish!!

We're up and running!

Today was the first day of kindergarten, so no we are going full throttle. We have a wonderful group this year and we are off to a great start.

**Our annual fishing trip with Mr. B will be on Tuesday September 14. We will be leaving around 9:30 and returning around 1:30.**

I'm going to try posting more pictures this year. However, not including anyone's faces...so we'll see how that goes.

One piece of our classroom is the use of technology to engage the students. Here is a picture of one example. This is 'The Phonics Dance' powerpoint that I have created so that we can do the chant everyday with the use of visuals. It is projected onto the white board and the audio runs over the classroom speakers. Once they get it down we'll be dancing our way through the alphabet.

Summer is coming to an end....sadly enough. :)

The Gueth kids...Emarie and Preston :)

I hope you have had a fun summer. I've spent my time camping, and going to dance class, music class, and library story time. I'm looking forward to coming back though.

Hopefully you have received your 'back 2 school' letter from me, or will soon. Please note about the supply money. $30 sent to me. If you have any questions let me know. I'm attaching the letter to this blog as well.

Happy Mother's Day!

Given a step by step how to draw flowers this is what they came up with, INDEPENDENTLY!

Our trip to the zoo!

The kids loved the zoo! Thank you all so much for letting them come on the trip.
We had absolutely NO behavior problems. It was a wonderful day. The highlights were the aquarium, elephants, and the penguins. In the manatee exhibit there are 4 baby manatees that are worth the drive to see. The zoo has also opened the polar bear exhibit this week. I can't wait to see that. Here are some pictures from our trip.

One of the baby manatees.

Apparently, he's the king of the zoo. :)

The flamingos were very active that day.

Snow, snow, go away!

A snow day here and there is always a pleasant surprise, but this is getting a bit extreme. It looks like our 'normal' routine will have to wait until March to resume.

With all of the snow days and long weekends, it's important to keep your student's routine consistent. Bedtime, wake time, etc all should remain somewhat the same. This makes their transitions back to school much better. Keep a close watch of their diets and activity, as well as necessary medications, etc. All of these factors make them feel much better and function much better at home and at school.

Thank you for your help in this matter! I hope you are all enjoying the snow as much as you can. It's always nice to get notes of what the students do at home, in the snow, etc.. We often ask them questions and that helps a lot!

February, all ready!?!

Soon and very soon all of your IEPs will be due. Three of which we already have in process.... keep your eyes on your home to school logs for reminders of due dates, and meeting date conversation. If I have met with you for an IEP I do not need to see you at conferences.

Third and fourth graders are currently involved in wrapping up alternate assessments. This is a way for them to be assessed by the state in lieu of taking the sit down pencil and paper test. Alternate assessments are made up of more hands on student specific tasks monitored and made by myself. Each year when the assessment page states alternate assessment this is what it is referring to.

Coughing, sneezing, yucks...

Each year at this time I send a reminder about illnesses at school. Please bare in mind how dependent your student is on the staff when you are deciding whether or not to send them to school. We work very hard trying to teach them to get a tissue independently when needed and use it correctly. Also, covering mouths and washing hands. Many of the students are very resistant to a lot of this which tells us that aren't expected to do it as often at home. Please help us in these matters to keep all of the students and staff healthy.
Remember school policy is to keep students home 24 hrs AFTER the break of a fever.

Because we have seen a lot of the coughs and sneezes, we're once again running low on tissues, clorox wipes, wet wipes, etc. Please donate what you can.