Just a quick reminder that Bag Books and Reading Logs are due tomorrow (Wednesday) this week due to the holiday!

In addition to the newspapers, we would also LOVE to have some volunteers who are willing to (quite literally) get their hands dirty and help us to make our paper mache globes! 

We need to do 2 layers of paper on the balloons, and then after the weekend, we will need to paint them.  If you can come in to lend a gooey hand, we will take all the help we can get!

Thursday, November 20th - 1:50 to 2:30

Friday, November 21st - 1:00 to 1:50

Monday, November 24th - 1:40 to 2:20

Just send in a note or send me an email if you can join us!

Don't throw away or recycle your Sunday paper just yet!

We will be making paper mache globes in class later this week, so send in any newspapers you have so we can shred them up for materials!

We can also use any round balloons you might have - the rounder the better!

Thank you! 

Nici

     I can hardly believe that it’s going to be November next week already!  We wrapped up the month with some Halloween fun today!  The kids got to go to the School Store and spend some of their hard-earned cash!  I heard that they did a great job and that they all followed the rules about using walking feet in the hallway on the way to and from the store.  Everyone chose at least one thing to buy and they were very excited to report out about what they had bought when they returned!  Some even were marveling at the bargains they got!   A big THANK YOU to Leah Rachin, Jen Pinette, Laura Desmarais, Elizabeth Sullo and Karin Gibson for helping out in the store today!   I hope you all had a good time with the kids because I know they sure enjoyed it!  Thank you all for your kind donations for the store as well.  Anytime you find something that might be good for the store, you can send it in.  We take donations all year long!  The next store will be November 21^st.

     Next week we will wrap up with A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams.

In this book about a girl named Rosa, her mother and her grandmother, we touched on fire safety, saving money for an important purchase, and how a community can come together.  The activity that the kids have seemed to enjoy the most so far is designing their “Chair For Me”!  They have great imaginations! 

     We have put away our Life cycles for a while, but they will be back throughout the year!  We are starting to learn about Motion next week.  In math, one of the most challenging things that some of the kids are learning about is telling time on an analog clock.  They do a great job from the hour to the half hour, but it’s difficult for most to tell time after the half hour, especially in our digital world today!  Any help you can provide them in this area would be great!

     So, we’ve have a great month!  Thank you all again for all your donations and support!

 Happy Halloween!

Nici

·        Cardboard tubes from toilet paper or paper towel rolls

·        Different types of fabrics or materials such as felt, rubber, etc. to try and slide objects across (learning about friction or the lack of it!)

·        Paper cups

·        Twine

·        Straws

·        Paper plates

·        Paper cups

·        Tennis balls

·        Other types of round balls – ping-pong, playground, baseballs, etc.

Thank you in advance for all you do to support the students in their quest for knowledge!   

Reminder

This is just a friendly reminder to parents for the procedure we need to follow for writing dismissal notes for your children.   All notes need to have the following information:

Riding a different bus                  

1)     Your child’s name                                   

2)     The name of the child they will be riding with or person who will be meeting your child at the bus stop.                                               

3)     Your child’s teacher’s name                  

4)   If possible, the bus number and/or address of the destination             

Pick up

1)    Your child’s name

2)    The name of the person who will be picking your child up               

3)    Your child’s teacher’s name

4)     Where your child will be picked up (at the regular pick up, at Healthy Kids, from Stretch Beyond, etc.)

It is our duty to be sure and keep your children safe and get them off to the places that they need to go. 

Thank you so much!

On Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 7 PM, at the Kennebunk Elementary School Cafeteria, there will be a Public Hearing.  

For further information go to www.msad71.net. 

Wanted: Maine Postcards!

I hate to ask for even more from you as I know that a lot of flyers have gone home asking for donations of different things, but this was an opportunity for the kids that I just didn’t want to pass up.

We have been invited to take part in a nationwide postcard swap.  I have a list with  at least one class to send a postcard to in each of the 50 states and we will do the same.  Then we can find out a bit more about the different places in the US and make our own map to put out in the hallway.

I am asking for each child to bring in 3 stamped postcards that are from our great state of Maine.  We will decide what to write on them here at school and will start mailing them out as soon as possible.  We have already received 4 postcards from Virginia, Maryland, Utah, and New Mexico!

Thank you so much!  I think it’s going to be really fun!

-Nici

I am wondering if any of the parents of this year’s class were trained in either Junior Great Books or Sunshine Math instruction.  If so, I’d love to know so that we might be able to continue these programs this year.

If you are already trained or if you are interested in learning more about these programs, please let me know and I will look into getting more information and try to implement them.

Please make sure your child wears comfortable shoes for walking.  We kindly request that sandals and Crocs style shoes stay home tomorrow - it may be a bit wet, and those shoes and socks will get soggy by the end of the walk! 

Be sure to dress in layers and bring a raincoat if you have one!  We will be going unless the rain is pouring down! 

I hope everyone is excited!  See you tomorrow!

Our chaperones for the Walking Tour will be Jennifer Pinette, Mary Weisheit, Alison Stewart, Karin Gibson and Stacey Ames.

Our chaperones for the trip to the Kennebunk Public Safety departments will be Leah Rachin, Deb or Mark Welch-Thompson, Tammi Bittler, and Laura or Brian Desmarais.

We have had a slight change in the Walking Tour schedule.  The Kennebunk Savings Bank was unable to host our group this year, so we will be visiting the Kennebunk Free Library instead. 

Here is the schedule for October 2nd:

9:00             Bus #1 will pick up Milburn, Hanson & Roubo
                   Drop Milburn at Water Company then Hanson & Roubo at DQ

9:15–9:45     Hanson & Roubo @ DQ

9:55–10:25   Hanson & Roubo @ Wallingford Farm

10:35–11:05  Hanson & Roubo @ Water Co.

11:15–11:45  Hanson & Roubo @ Library

11:45             Bus #1 will pick up Hanson, Roubo & Washburn in the Library parking lot

You are welcome to meet us at Dairy Queen or ride the bus with us.  Either option is fine - we should have enough room on the buses.  Just remember that if you do meet us at DQ, you will have to walk back to your car from the Library as that is where our walking tour is ending. 

We will be doing the Public Safety trip a bit differently than other field trips as we have 4 places to visit and 3 classes attending.  Our class will be split up into 4 groups of 5 children.  Each chaperone will have that small group of 5 and will travel with the other groups of 5 from Mrs. Washburn's class and Mrs. Roper's class.  This means that for each group of 15 children, we should have 3 parent chaperones plus a teacher. 

Here is the schedule for the Public Safety trip on October 7th:

1135 – Bus to downtown from KES

1145 - Arrival

               Group 1 – Police

               Group 2 – Fire

               Group 3 – Ambulance

               Group 4 – Rescue back boarding demonstration

1205 –   Group 1 – Rescue back boarding demonstration

               Group 2 – Police

               Group 3 – Fire

               Group 4 – Ambulance

1225–   Group 1 – Ambulance

              Group 2 – Rescue back boarding demonstration

              Group 3 – Police

              Group 4 – Fire

1245 –   Group 1 – Fire

               Group 2 – Ambulance

               Group 3 – Rescue back boarding demonstration

               Group 4 – Police

105 –     Return to KES

I have not yet assigned the groups to the adults, but I will let you know before the 7th.  You are welcome to meet us at the Fire Department or ride the bus with us.  Either option is fine - we should have enough room on the buses.

Again, thank you all so much for coming along with us as we explore our Kennebunk community!

It is hard to believe that September is almost over already!  We have been busy in our classroom over the past couple of weeks.

We have had 2 "Stars of the Week" so far and I think that they have enjoyed themselves!  Thanks to Taylor N. and Owen W. for kicking off the Star Student weeks in style!   We don't have a Star of the Week during this last week of September, but next up is Samantha starting on October 6th!

We have been reading Frog and Toad Are Friends as a class and talking about character differences and friendship.  In the coming weeks we will begin doing rotating centers during our literacy time and then we will also begin Guided Reading groups.

We made class address/phone books that should have gone home today, but as I looked in the cubbies, I did see a couple that were left behind!  You can expect them on Monday!

We finished our first unit in the Everyday Math program and took the first assessment.  Home Link homework pages will now be coming home Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights.  Once the Early Release Wednesdays of October are through, the Home Links will come home on Wednesdays as well.

We have been learning about life cycles in science and we have learned about the differences in the life cycles of different organisms such as frogs, house flies, and humans!  We will be choosing a "Class Tree" next week to examine and watch the changes it goes through over the seasons.

In social studies, we have begun to talk about our community and the different things that every community has to provide.  We talked about the differences between providing a service and providing a good or product.  We had a visit from the Maintenance Department for MSAD 71 and they told us all about the service that they provide to our school community.  They had lots of tools to show us from mowers and tractors to painters and trimmers!

Next week will be our first Field Trip – the Walking Tour of Kennebunk.  We had a change of plans and instead of being able to visit the Kennebunk Savings Bank, we will instead be going to the Kennebunk Free Library.  I will email those of you who volunteered to chaperone and let you know the full itinerary.  Thank you so much for your help!

We are still currently in the lead for the Golden Sneaker award!  Keep sending in those old but useable sneakers to keep our numbers up!  Mrs. Poulin's class is planning a takeover!

It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Ice Cream Social!  I hope you all got your hot fudge before we ran out!

Happy weekend - Stay dry!

Nici

"Meadow Farms fund raising orders are due October 6th, not October 2nd.  Sorry for any inconvenience and Thank You for participating."