Dear Parents,                                                                                                     November 13, 2009

We have had a very exciting week! American Stage presented a play for us, Grade 3 presented a Reader’s Theater for us, and we had a visit from Mrs. Donna Rayburn, the author of I Accidentally!

We also learned about landforms in our country, the water cycle and did experiments to better understand precipitation, condensation, and evaporation! Wow…I never learned all that when I was in kindergarten!! Hopefully your child will be able to explain it all to you!!!

We have also been busy learning what our country was like when the pilgrims arrived and how the Native American’s helped them establish their settlement. We’ve begun discussing what life was like in the Colonial Days, especially for children at that time in preparation for our trip to Heritage Park where they will experience a school day in a one-room school house, make butter for snack, and see what our country looked like in that time through period buildings. The kindergartners will share their experience with their 8^th grade reading partners who, when they were in kindergarten also went on this field trip!

Reminder:

Wednesday, November 18^th: Heritage Park Field Trip

• Lunches must be in a PAPER BAG—no containers, please. Please follow the guidelines sent home earlier.
• No snack needs to be sent in on Wednesday; we will be making our own snack!
• Colonial style clothing is to be worn to school that day…similar to “pilgrims”

Thursday, November 19^th: Thanksgiving Dinner

• Thanks to parents who donated food for us to cook our dinner your child will NOT be charged for a lunch.
• Lunch will take place in Diffley Hall at approximately 11:40. The kindergartners will be joined by their 6^th grade reading partners
• You are certainly welcome to come to our “feast” however, since we do not know how many parents of kindergartners/sixth graders plan to stop by, we will not be able to offer you “dinner”!

Friday, November 20^th: No School

• There is no school on Friday, November 20^th due to school wide conferences.
• Reminder that all the kindergarten conferences have already been held so unless you have heard from me already, there will be no conferences on Thursday, November 19^th or Friday, November 20^th.
• There will be no Weekly Newsletter or Parent Letter next week!

Monday, November 23-Friday, November 27^th

• Thanksgiving Vacation

Monday, November 30 & Tuesday, December 1^st

• FYI…I will not be at school. I have been asked to present at the State Kindergarten Conference in Orlando on these days. Please email Tina at tdfink@aol.com if you have any time certain information on these two days. I have not told the children I will not be here on these days.

Sunday, November 29^th the season of Advent begins!

A big thank you to Chris Satchwell, our room mother for all she has done to coordinate drivers, car seats, utensils, food, helpers for the dinner, and all that has gone into making our field trip to Heritage Park and cooking our Thanksgiving dinner possible!!! Also thanks to Mrs. K (our library/media specialist and 6^th grade room mother) for her help with gathering parents, utensils, etc for the 6^th graders!

Thank you also to all those who sent in food for the parish Thanksgiving Food Drive!

I’m out of space!!!   Have a great weekend!   God Bless,  Pam Ferguson