Welcome May! Welcome flowers! April is ending but not without our social skills growing, amazing fine motor growth, gross motor skills learned and practiced (we’ve strengthened our muscles, got our hearts pumping faster and working our brains through our brain gym exercises). We’ve learned many facts about birds, and we’ve made many new bird friends because of bird feeder; golden finch, cardinals, robins to name a few. Miss Alissa did some science projects with us, making corn kernels dance with baking soda and vinegar, and making a water absorbing cloud out of cotton balls.

Our themes for May will be deserts, (the environment, wildlife, how things grow). We will explore through circle discussions, activities, art and books. We will also be discussing theater and preparing for our Sound of Music production. Our dramatic play area will turn into a puppet theater.

We will continue to develop and review our letter recognition, pencil grip, fine motor and to identify, spell and write our names, work on numbers, and letter sounds. We will develop these skills using our HWT (Handwriting Without Tears) program, small group, transitions, music and art.

As the end of the year draws near, if you would like to offer your time to read to the class, cook, sing or dance (they’ve already shown us how you dance – “Dance like your mother/father”), please just talk to one of the teachers and we will schedule it in. It will be a great opportunity for the children to “show off” their parent and you a chance to see how much they have grown as a group. We are so proud of them.

Have they been singing the songs from the “Sound of Music” at home? Just wait until this month!!!

IMPORTANT MAY DATES
VIP FOR MAY:
May 4th: Will Dillon
May 11th: Thomas Corbett
Charlie Forger
May 18th: Annie Straut
May 26th: Michelle Rubiez

GRANDPARENTS DAY :
May 20th: 10-11 am 2-3 pm
May 21st: 10-11am 2-3 pm

We welcome all grandparents or a family member to participate in our classrooms on these two days and time frame. The teachers will have some great art projects and a typical “choice time” for our grandparents to particiapte in.

The times listed above are for the morning class and afternoon class.

Teacher Birthday: Miss Nicole May 10th
Miss Alissa May 31 st

RHS Closed on Monday May 25 for Memorial Day

Enjoy the sunshine!
Miss Liz, Miss Nicole, Miss Alissa and Miss Shealene

Welcome April!!  Welcome birds, flowers, ants, buds on trees…. and yes April showers.  Goodbye March, goodbye amazing art show, we’ll remember you always..  Goodbye post office dramatic play, we had fun “mailing” letters, writing envelopes, putting on stamps…   Miss Nicole’s charting of the weather proved that March did come in like a lion and out like a lamb.  Thank you Big Ryan for all the big, amazing belly laughs!

This month we will be learning all about birds.  Our dramatic play area is now home to a tree that our friends have built, we believe that it is so beautiful that birds will come and nest in it soon.  We will be putting a bird feeder outside of one of the windows to see and learn about the birds that will visit it.  Stories, artwork, and discussions will help us learn more.

We have completed our letters of the week, but will continue to review and reinforce letter identification and letter sounds.  We have begun learning about numbers, and have a number of the week.  We will learn how to identify, write and spell it, as well as, grouping things in the number of the week.

The classroom is alive with the Sound of Music, we love hearing our friends put their voices together so beautifully.  They can’t believe they will be on a big stage putting on a show for their families in June, exciting!!

Fifi, our fish and Cookie the guinea pig have been joined by our new classroom friends, Freddy and Frankie Frog and Sally snail. Miss Shealene has scheduled their feeding dates on the Exploring Living things wall.

We love having our parent readers come into the classroom, it always feels like a rock star has just entered the room. Look for the sign-up sheet outside the classroom door.

As always, we love sharing our days with your children, we would never laugh so much or get as many hugs if it weren’t for them. Find enjoyment in the April showers, as with life, the gray moments are always followed by bright, beautiful ones, just like the May flowers.

Miss Liz, Miss Nicole, Miss Alissa and Miss Shealene

Below is a list of our VIP April List and April Closings:

Vip: Olivia March 30- April 3rd
Vip: Samantha B April 6th - April 10th
Vip: Samantha H April 13th - April 17th
Vip: Tommy April 27 - May 1st

RHS CLOSED April 10th and April 20th

 APRIL NEWS FROM THE PRE-KINDERGARTEN & KINDERGARTEN CLASS

Happy April!!!!  Hopefully we will have some April showers to help our flowers bloom.  March was a very busy month in the Upstairs Class.  The children enjoyed graphing the lion and lamb days of school, and some days it was both which was always fun.  During March, we also did a lot of experiment with wind – we made different types of paper airplanes to fly on the playground and graphed the results, we did blow art through a straw as well as bubble art on the wall.  The children really enjoyed all of these activities, the blow art was tricky for some, and it was definitely not easy to get the paint to move across the paper.

Our Art Show was a huge success!!!!  The children enjoyed exploring all the different art techniques during the month.  It is amazing how each child created the “same” piece in their own unique, special way.  The best part was the excitement on their faces as they toured the “gallery” with their family and showed off all of the incredible art they personally created.  Please be sure to check out the Art Show Gallery on our website.

It was very nice to have Big Ryan visit us again – he is definitely a fan favorite of all the children!!  The children were very excited to see their favorite puppets Edgar & Uncle Charlie as well as many other puppets.  It is so great to see all the children just belly laughing and enjoying his stories so much – he certainly has amazing storytelling skills!  They also enjoyed his music and movement songs – they really liked Alligator, Alligator where are you, deep in the water where we can’t see you!

April we will be focusing on pond life – a perfect theme to accompany our new class pets – 2 African Dwarf Water frogs named Mosi and Arusha and a snail named Doto.  The children have really enjoyed watching and observing them in their little eco-aquarium.  We have a boy and a girl frog – please ask your child to tell you how we knew they were different.  During the month, we will be doing all types of projects and activities that revolve around life in the pond, as well as talking about Passover and Easter.

Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22^nd – we will be talking about ways to help the earth with the children.   The children are very good each day about washing and recycling all of their recyclables from their lunch.  We are so proud of how each child takes pride in recycling at the school.

Ms. Jill has had a great transition into the Upstairs Classroom.  The children really enjoy her presence in the classroom, she has brought along many new ideas and different ways to teach which is terrific.  We look forward to having Ms. Jill with us for the remainder of the school year!!

April Reminders

School will be CLOSED – Friday, April 10^th & Monday, April 20^th

Please let the teachers know if your child will be out of school during April Vacation Week.

April  VIPS  Week of :

April 6^th – Robert & Drew

April 13^th – CJ & Preston

April 20^th – Connor

April 27^th - Holly

Looking forward to a month of smiles and learning,

Ms. Stacey, Ms. Rachel, Miss Jenny, Miss Maura, Ms. Jill & Zippy