Its been too long

Sorry that I have not been posting as often lately. I apologize for not keeping this updated.

We are so thankful that Ms. Patel helped make our thankful board! The kids each took turns on the different days sharing the things they were thankful for. It was an awesome project, and I think the kids really enjoyed it. Thanks Ms. Patel!

We have early release on Wednesday. Do not forget about the changes in times for the schedule.

Please make sure to check your email for messages from Kerry about our upcoming winter party.

What?

It is already November?! The past 10 weeks have gone by so fast. October just flew by! Does it feel that way to yall?

Pumpkin Patch!

We had such a great time at the pumpkin patch. I really enjoyed seeing the kids having so much fun being apart of the field trip. My favorite was packing everyone in the back of the trailer for the hayride. We all got to know each other pretty well since each other's personal space was invaded. But thats what I love about field trips; getting to hang out with parents and sharing the fun experiences with the kids.

Thank yall for such a great time.  I hope yall got a chance to take a look at the pictures.

Thankful for...

What are you thankful for? I am thankful for my job, my husband, having a place to live, never being hungry. There are so many things we should be thankful for but never stop to think about. We need to stop and count our blessings.

This is a project one of my friends told me about that I would like to do with our kids. Its a Thankful Board. I want to send home notecards for yall to fill out with your kids and talk about things yall are thankful for. Anyone want to help me start this?

Parent Night

Hey Families!

We had a good turn out at Serrano's on Thursday night. It was really great to hang out with some wonderful parents! I know that many of you have bus schedules and could not make it, but I look forward to many more hang outs!

We emptied the jewel jar Friday afternoon! They love it when they get to do the "jewel jar dance." We took a video of the kids dancing and getting their prizes. I hope to post it, or pass it along to yall at some point.

Have yall been receiving picture emails of the kids with our photo account? I have been taking pictures throughout the week at school, and a parent has been uploading and passing them along to yall through emails. Please let me know if you are not getting them!

Monday is a student holiday and parent conference day. Please look at the email I sent yesterday to see where we will be meeting.

Do not forget about the field trip we are taking soon. We are going to Elgin Pumpkin Patch/Christmas Tree Farm. Please send in your child's permission slips. The next 2 weeks we will be talking about our trip!

Photos on Website

I plan to get photos going on the website soon! 

I will send yall an email that contains the password and login. Please make sure to hold on to this and do not pass it out to other people. It is only to be used by parents. 

If you are happy and you know it...

We had a good turn out on Friday for Grandparents Day! Thank you all who came to hang out with us at lunch. It was wonderful to meet all the family members that love on our kids! I hope to get pictures posted soon :) 


Our kids are starting to get into the groove of things. Sitting at lunch table and eating, checking their schedule, following directions, participating in PE. This is going to be a great year! 


Tomorrow is early release day. Transportation will follow this schedule as well. Here is the schedule:
Morning kids: 7:45-9:45 (no lunch) 
Afternoon kids: 9:45-11:45 (we will go to lunch) 


Please remember to send in pictures of family! I cannot wait to see picture at talk about them next week.  

Box Tops

Please send in your box tops! We are collecting them to raise money for our school. Each cent counts.Please write your child's anme on it as you turn them in-this will help make collection process easier for the volunteers. Our goals is to raise $9,000! Please help us readch that goal by bringing in the Box Tops and Labels. 

We are only collecting Box Top for education, Labels for Education, Tyson Project A+ and MY coke Rewards. 

The deadline for the first contest is Friday, Oct 21. Stay tuned for a list of prizes for Top Class in each grade and Top 10 students in the school.  

Here are some examples of box tops.

Jewel Jar!

The kids have been working hard on following directions and making good choices. Each time one of the teachers sees that child is doing something great they will hand them a jewel and praise them for doing a good thing. The students them go place the jewel in the jar and continue with their day. When the jewel jar is completely full we stop, sing, dance, and pass out prizes to everyone. Today we got to do that with our kids. WAHOO! So please look in your child's backpack for a prize that they picked today for the prize box!



the jewel jar

the jewels

our prize box

Monthly Parent Get Together

Last year we tried to all meet in May to celebrate a great year. But last minute planning and scheduling conflicts interfered and we were never able to go out together. I was really sad that it did not work out :( 

But now I am determined to be a better event planner and make this a priority for our class parents.

I want to have a monthly parent night. No kids. No agenda. We all need time to have fun together outside of school to hang out and relax. I would love to create this kind of atmosphere for yall. 

So I created a poll on the right hand side of the blog. PLEASE vote on a day that works best for your schedule. We would only meet once a month. For example, the 1st Thursday of every month. The last Tuesday of every month. Whatever works for yall. We could do Chewy's one month and Starbucks the next. What ideas do yall have? 

SO LETS GET PLANNING!

Week 1= Success!

Beverly, Tammy, and I talked about how smoothly this week has gone. We discussed how lucky we are to have such wonderful kids. Each day, the children did better at checking their schedules and following the routine of the classroom. We also had fun outside pretending to be running away from a bear( I hope to post pictures soon as soon as I find a site that has good privacy so that only those I give access to-parents- can see the pictures). We are also extremely blessed to be surrounded by great families. We truly are thankful for each one of yall and the support yall have shown just in this first week. We are really looking forward to this year and all the progress that will be made. 2011-2012 school year is going to be great for the PPCD/TWC classroom! 

My goal of the website

The main purpose of this blog is to be able to fully communicate with parents and/or guardians of the students in my classroom. I spend a lot of time writing in the students' daily journals and 75% of the time I never get a response. My time is very valuable to all of the students in my classroom and I believe this will be the perfect solution of making sure that I am maximizing all of my time with the students. Here are my goals for this blog:

1. be an effective communicator about events going on in the classroom, school, and district
2. keep the parents up to date on daily activities and themes for the week
3. create a community of people who provide input to the classroom by blogging 

I love the idea of posting majority of all information (photos-after I have the signed consent, forms, calendar, important information, etc. ) on the blog with one click. This will minimize the time I spend in the classroom writing in journals. Most parents in the school that I teach at have (I-Pads,I-Phones, or a Smartphone, etc. ) and have access to their technology devices all day. I believe that with this population this will be the most effective way of communicating with the parents, and getting a response from them.

I can't wait to get parent input about the extent of communication offered through this BLOG!!!