Thank you for all of the wonderful gifts and kind words that you shared with me! The greatest blessing is having your child in class and partnering with you in helping your child grow this year!
12/22
I had a whole update for you yesterday and it disappeared. Can't say that has ever happened before. I have yet to figure out what I did to make that happen!
The concert went great! Thank you for keeping your child out late and participating last night.
Yesterday we had our final Advent prayer service. At the conclusion, we prayed over a blanket that the Luke's class made for him and as we dismissed, each child had the chance to hold a piece of the blanket and say their own prayer for Luke. Now he can wrap himself in our prayers!
We read an Ojibwe tale called
The Legend of the Lady Slipper and continued coloring the pages for our book on Native Americans long ago.
Tomorrow your child should come dressed IN UNIFORM even though we are doing our play in the afternoon.
CHOIR HAS BEEN CANCELED FOR TOMORROW!!
Donna Mae's father died last night-the children have been encouraged to make a card for her. If you have time, perhaps that could be done tonight at home and brought in tomorrow?
We had a very special mystery today-Will's Great Aunt Patty from the southern part of Australia!! Wow! She and some other visitors talked to us about Australia, sang some Australian songs, showed pictures of animals and birds from Australia and read us the story
Koala Lou by Australian author (and one of my literary heroes!!) Mem Fox.
12/19-Sat.
I think I forgot to send a newsflash yesterday, so please read the 12/18 entry as well-thanks!
Please remember that Monday is an out of uniform day. Try to wear a red or green top with any kind of bottoms.
If your child has slippers, please send them on Monday. We will keep them in our lockers until it is time for the dress rehearsal at 12:15. We'll keep them at school for the 6:30 concert and send them home after the concert.
Your child should come to our classroom at 6:20 Monday evening-please no earlier. I will also be getting children ready for the concert and do not plan to be at school much earlier than 6:20. Thank you!
Have a great weekend!
12/18
The calendar page has been updated with our Mass dates. They are April 21 and May 12. We will be doing our Masses with the other kindergarten class.
We enjoyed a visit with our Shining Star's family who also brought us a yummy treat of doughnuts for our snack-thanks Cole!
Mrs. Leaver came to our classroom this morning to read
The Polar Express. She also brought hot chocolate, candy canes and a special bell for each child. Thank you!!!
What a fun morning we had!
We made a large reindeer project that helped us work on our fine motor skills, listening to directions and tracing. Thank you Mrs. Leaver for coming back to help us with it!!
12/17
Happy 6th birthday, Aidan!! His mom helped us celebrate by bringing in fruit to make fruit kabobs. What a fun birthday treat! Your child was allowed to bring home his/her toothpick umbrella on the condition that it would NOT be used as a weapon!
We have been busy in our room doing a lot of this and that. We have many "loose ends" to tie up before break and have also been trying to catch up on some of the things that didn't get done in the past few weeks.
Today we read
The Legend of Minnesota which is an Oibwe tale that explains how Minnesota came to be called Minnesota. Ask you child if s/he remembers why. This book is available from the Scott County Library system. The art work is beautiful!
PLEASE,
PLEASE, PLEASE make sure your child's snowpants are labeled. They pretty much all look the same and it is very difficult to find the rightful owners when there are mix ups if there no names in them. Thank you for your help!
12/15
We had high school visitors today. They helped each child write a letter to Santa. They are trying to raise money for the Make a Wish foundation through this letter writing. Macy's will donate $1 to Make a Wish for every letter "mailed" at Macy's. You will get a copy of your child's letter so you can read what s/he had to say.
We read
The Legend of the Candy Cane and then made paper candy canes. I hope to send them home tomorrow.
IF your child has a pair of slippers, please send them with him/her on Monday morning. The kindergarten and first grade will be wearing them for the concert.
We saw the Performing Art class play in the afternoon.
Please return your child's report card and envelope by the end of the week. All of the "extra" papers can stay at home. Thank you for your help!
We are also in need of some help for our Christmas Nativity play. We are looking to borrow one set of white angel wings. If we can't find those, we are looking for a pair of girl's white tights (maybe a pair that needs to be thrown b/c of a hole in a knee) to repair our current wings.
Next Monday (December 21) will be an out of uniform day. The children are requested to wear red and/or green if possible.
We will also have our dress rehearsal for the Christmas concert on the 21st at 12:15. The concert is in the evening at 6:30. Please have your child, dressed in his/her Christmas best, in the classroom at 6:20. You may up your child in the classroom after the concert is over.
We have been working very hard on our Nativity play. This is a new experience for me as well!
We had a Christmas Concert rehearsal with the preschool and first graders yesterday morning.
A note came home yesterday that we have strep throat going around our room. There was one child whose note ended up on the floor instead of in the folder, so I wanted to make sure that you were aware. Please be watching for symptoms!
12/7
We had our 2nd all school Advent candle lighting prayer service this morning. Each class was invited to have one student bring up the class collection of "straw" and place it in the manger. Our good deeds, prayers and Advent activities are creating a soft bed for the baby Jesus. Thank you to all of the parents who are helping us by handing out "straw" at home. If you need more, just let me know!
The Home and School Association treated everyone to a red or green doughnut for snack time in honor of St. Nicholas day. Thank you!
"Svaty Mikulas" (Czech for St. Nicholas-I don't know how to type the accent marks) visited our classroom today and talked to the children about being good. Apparently, he felt that I was keeping the children in class 1 minutes too long each day and sent the devil to get me. I had to sing a line from "Jingle Bells" as my "penance". I guess every teacher in the school got the same treatment! When I had the children write in their journals about the visit, that was pretty much their focus! Each child received a small treat as well.
I have been asked to remind all parents that drop their children off in the morning to remember to pull ahead and have your child get out by him/herself. If you need to get out and open the door for your child and help him/her get out, please park in the lot and then walk your child across. Thank you for helping to make morning drop off as smooth as possible.
If your child does not know her lines well for the Christmas program, please continue to practice at home. Also, all of the children need to practice saying their lines in a very loud, "number 3" (outside) voice. We won't be using microphones (other than for the narrators). Thanks for your help!
Every child MUST have boots, hats, mittens/gloves and jackets tomorrow for recess. If there is any new snow or if it's colder than today, snowpants are also a MUST. Many children have simply not been dressed for the weather. I talked to them about this and it was also part of the end of the day announcements. Thank you for helping your child to be warm, dry and safe during recess.
12/3
We celebrated Laci's half birthday-thank you for the cupcakes! I made a mistake in assigning Laci a half birthday day-I'm not used to being in school in June! So, we will celebrate again in June. It was my fault, so it wasn't fair to take this day away from her. The kicker-the school did the same thing!! She was on the office birthday calendar for a half birthday and the kitchen's birthday cupcake calendar. So, at least I was in good company!!
Mrs. Bachman did a lesson with the children today on having disagreements and resolving them with eye-to-eyes. She did a packet with them on peace making skills and I-care rules. She really worked with the kids on understanding that they are responsible for their actions and words!
We began learning about St. Nicholas today and will continue on Monday. His feast day is on Sunday. There is a page from your child's religion book in his/her folder.
12/2
Last reminder that book orders are due tomorrow. This is our last order before Christmas. Here is the ordering information:
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
User Name: mrswetschka1st
Password: StWenc
We have started making Native American dream catchers with parent volunteers. Thank you Mrs. Reiland and Mrs. Pexa for getting us started. We had read the book
Dreamcatcher (about an Ojibwe baby) awhile ago.
We are making a book that will help us review the seasons and months of the year. It's taking a little longer than I anticipated, but I hope to send it home soon!
We had our first practice for our Nativity play. It went very well for our first time! There are some children that have not practiced their lines at all-please help her child practice until they know them quite well. Then just a practice from time to time will do! Mrs. Pavek helped children practice their lines this afternoon-thank you!
We started learning about magnets. If you have any magnets at home that your child can experiment with, I know they will enjoy it! Talk to him or her about what he/she notices!
12/1
Wow-December! I keep reminding myself to take deep breaths and that there are still almost 4 weeks until Christmas. I am teaching the children what Advent is really about-I think I need to listen to my lessons!
In your child's folder there is a red certificate for a free movie rental from Coborns. This is the final prize from Marathon. I was supposed to send it home on Wednesday after the wrap-up assembly and I totally spaced it off as my focus was on the Thanksgiving celebration. Sorry about that!
We are reading 2 books during our morning meeting time during these weeks of Advent. The first is called
My Very Own Christmas Prayer Book-An Alphabet of Prayers for All the Days of Advent. Today's prayer was on birthdays and got us thinking about the focus of Christmas being on Jesus' birthday. The second book is
Advent Story Book-24 Stories to Share Before Christmas. This book follows Benjamin Bear through Advent as each night he opens a window on his Advent calendar. Mother bear always has a story to share about the picture in the window that leads us on a journey to Bethlehem with another little bear. Today we learned about a special star that little bear feels compelled to follow.