I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving break. The children were happy to be back and see their friends on Monday. We are learning about Hanukkah this week. Then in the next couple of weeks we will learn about Christmas customs in other countries. If your family celebrates another holiday that you would like to share with our class, please let us know.

We are celebrating many children's half-birthdays in the next three months. This gives children with a summer birthday their own special day.

Please remember with the colder weather to send appropriate outerwear. We will go outside if temperatures cooperate. DHS guidlines are that the temperature with wind chill should be 15 degrees. Make sure to send hats and mittens every day. When we have snow, the children will need snowpants and boots. Another suggestion is to put an extra pair of socks in your child's backpack in case their socks get wet.

Book orders are due Friday, December 3rd. Books always make a nice holiday gift.

We have been learning about Native Americans. Each child has chosen a name which we will use on their headband. Ask your child to share their name with you.

We will have our Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday morning. Your child should have a note in their backpack today that tells you what we would like you to send for the feast.

Please remember to send warm coats, hats and mittens. We try to go outside whenever we can, so make sure your child is dressed appropriately. Please make sure that your child's things are labeled. We sometimes have duplicates or very similar items and the child does not recognize his own. It helps us if your child puts his hat and mittens in his coat sleeve when he arrives in the morning. When it snows, they will need snowpants and boots.

We are learning about Native or First Americans this week. We showed the children some pictographs that Native Americans used to tell stories and decorate. The children will pick out names for their headbands and decorate teepees.

It was fun to see everyone at open house last week. We hope you enjoyed the work the your child shared with you.

Picture retakes will be next Wednesday. Look for notes about our feast at the end of next week.

We had a wild Friday with a birthday and Halloween party. The children always get very excited about Halloween.

Conference forms were sent home last week. If you have any questions, be sure to ask.

This week we started our North America unit. We will learn a little about animals such as buffalo, turkeys and bears. We will also learn about Native or First Americans. It will wind up the week of Thanksgiving with pilgrims and our Thanksgiving feast. You will receive a note the week before Thanksgiving that will ask you to send a specific item for our feast.

Thursday night is open house. The time for our classroom is 5:30-6:30. We hope you all can make it. Your child will be able to share some of the activities he or she works on in the classroom. Be sure to check our turkeys on the wall and see the one your child made.

We have been learning about our skeleton this week. Ask your child if they can show you where the largest bone (the femur) is. We have also discussed how our skeleton gives us a shape and we would be like a lump of clay without it. Our skeleton is many different bones so that we can move.

Our Halloween party will be on Friday. No costumes please.

We hope to see you at open house next Thursday. This is a time for your child to show you the activities he likes to do at school.

We had a great trip to the pumpkin farm last Friday. The weather was perfect and the children enjoyed the wagon ride to the field to pick pumpkins. They spent a lot of time in the play area and had fun feeding the goats. Thank you to all the parents who accompanied us.

This week we have learned about bats. We found that the smallest bats are the size of a bee and the biggest, the flying fox, is the size of a cat. Bats are nocturnal and are mammals. Yesterday, Bob the bat visited (Mrs. Sheldon's puppet) and told the children that he eats lots of mosquitoes in Mrs. Sheldon's back yard.

We will learn about spiders and skeletons also. Our Halloween party will be Friday, October 29th.

We finished our apple unit last week. On Friday, we made our own crockpot applesauce. Most of the children thought it was delicious.

This week we are learning about trees and leaves. The children may bring leaves and seeds in from home. We learned that deciduous trees loose their leaves and coniferous trees do not. We talked about the parts of a tree snf how a tree grows. We will find out why leaves change color.

Next week will be busy. There is no school on Monday. Wednesday is picture day. Friday is our field trip to Howell's pumpkin farm. Permission slips will go out at the end of the week.

A reminder: Book orders are due on Friday. You can choose to order online or by sending a check made out to Scholastic with the order form.

We finished our unit on insects last week. We have 3 butterflies and one more about to emerge from the chrysalis. This has been very exciting for the children.

We are learning about apples this week. On Monday, we did a taste test with different types of apples. Yesterday we tasted apple butter and today apple juice. On Friday we will make applesauce.

Next week we will start a unit on trees and leaves.

We have scheduled our field trip to Howell's for Friday, October 15th. We need several drivers because of the new regulations. The trip includes a wagon ride to the field to pick out a small pumpkin. It has always been a favorite field trip so we would appreciate any parents that can drive and go along.

We are finishing up our unit on insects this week. Over the weekend, our five caterpillars formed their chrysalis and we are waiting on butterflies. The children come in and check the butterfly cage every morning.

Next week we will begin our apple unit. We will learn the parts of apples and about different types of apples. It will even involve some taste testing. At the end of the week we will make homemade applesauce.

We do not have a volunteer for homeroom parent yet. If you are interested, please let the office or one of the teachers know.

We are having a fun time learning about different insects. We have learned that most insects have wings and the parts of the insect's body. We studied ladybugs, ants, grasshoppers and will learn about bees and some others. We have some painted lady caterpillars that we will watch as they change into butterflies and learn about the life cycle of the butterfly.

After we complete our unit on insects, we will have a short unit on apples.

The children are getting used to our classroom routine and making new friends. Everyone seems to come in with a smile each morning.

We would like to take a field trip in October. We have gone to the Howell Tree Farm in the past. This year the regulations for drivers have changed due to new Department of Human Services rules. A driver may only drive their own child unless they have a criminal background check. We will only be able to go if we have parents willing to have background checks or at least drive their own child. If you have questions, please talk to me. The paperwork would have to be done as soon as possible.

We had a great first week of school. Just a few tears, but most of the time a very busy and happy class. We'll see how this week goes as we adjust to our regular schedule.

I am sending book order home this week. The books are priced well and we earn points to use for classroom items. Please take a few minutes to look at the selections.

We will be learning about insects. If you find any insects your child would like to share, please send them. I will be ordering some caterpillars so we can see how they become butterflies.

I hope to see you at parent orientation Tuesday night.

Welcome to our classroom blog. I will try to make a post every Wednesday and tell you some things that are happening in our room. We currently have 18 children in our class. I am ready to start the new school year.

I can hardly believe that this is the last week of school. It has gone by very quickly. We have enjoyed your children this year. We will miss the children that are moving on to other schools and classes. We are happy that half the class will be returning to us for another year. Thank you for everything you have done to help us.

We are looking forward to the picnic on Friday. We hope to see you there!

We finished our bird unit last week. The children enjoyed learning about the birds. We had two ducklings hatch. The children named them Quackers and Fluffy. We have enjoyed watching them grow and they do grow fast.

Next week will be busy. Our music concert is Wednesday, May 12th at 2:00. We will be going for a fun morning at Peony Park on Friday, May 14th. We plan to leave school at 9:30 and get back about 12:00.

This week we are learning about South America and the Amazon rain forest.

We are starting our bird unit this week. We found out that all birds have a beak, wings and feathers. Not all birds can fly! Mrs. Sheldon talked about robins and woodpeckers. We have a robin's nest in the room to look at.

We are anxiously waiting for ducklings to hatch next week. We have seven eggs.

We are planning a morning at Peony Park in West Des Moines for our spring field trip. We plan to spend the morning with a snack and lunch. Heather Schebel will coordinate lunch for the children. If you would like to drive, please let us know.

Reminder--No School Friday, April 23rd.

The children have enjoyed learning about Australian animals. We are now learning a little about coral reefs and ocean life. We have some shells out to match and today we will learn about sea turtles.

We will be having an end of the year music concert on Wednesday, May 12th at 2:00. The children will sing some songs with Mrs. Ward.

We are learning about Australia now. We found out that Australia is the smallest continent and the largest island. Yesterday we learned that there are 42 kinds of kangaroos. We also learned a new word--marsupial. Australia has many marsupials while North America only has one, the opossum.

We are enjoying the nice weather. Be sure your child dresses appropriately because we will go outside unless it is raining.

We have been busy in the ten days we've been back since spring break. The children have learned about the sun, moon, earth and other planets. Your child should remember that the sun is a star. We have learned that Saturn is mostly helium and could float if there was a body of water big enough for it. Jupiter is the biggest planet and Mercury is the smallest.

We will be dying eggs at school tomorrow. Please send four hard-boiled eggs in an egg carton with your child.

We have seven duck eggs in our incubator. We put them in on Monday and they take approximately 28 days to hatch. We will be looking for duckling around April 26th.

We have been learning a little about Africa and a lot about African animals. We have learned about lions, gorillas, giraffes and ostriches. We learned some sign language when we talked about gorillas. We read a book about Koko, a gorilla in a zoo who communicated with the staff through sign language. Ask your child if they remember the sign for ball and cat. We will learn about a few more this week.

After break, we will study the solar system and space. The children get excited about this unit.

Thank you for attending conferences. We hope you have a relaxing break!

We have been busy the last couple weeks. The children enjoyed making our 100 day snack mix. The next day we shared valentines. Two parties in two days!

The Peace Festival was a lot of fun. The children did a nice job singing their peace songs with Mrs. Ward. There was delicious food to try.

Yesterday, our class was able to join the 5-7 class in the afternoon for a special presentation. A lady from SOAR which rescues birds brought a bald eagle to show the children. It was during nap time so unfortunately the nappers were not able to join us. The children were amazed by the size of the eagle. The lady shared a lot of interesting information.

We look forward to visiting with all of you at conferences!

We learned about many woodland animals last week. The children enjoyed the puppets that Mrs. Sheldon brought along to tell about the animals.

We are touching on Asia. We learned that Asia is the biggest continent with the most people. We also learned about pandas and tigers.

We will learn about the heart and Valentine's Day this week. Our valentine party will be on Friday. We are also planning a 100 day party on Thursday. Each child should bring 100 of a food item that we can make into a snack mix. A note was sent home today.

Another note that was sent today is about conferences. The sign up list is posted in the hallway outside our room. Please take the time to sign up. We would like to speak to all parents.

We wrapped our unit on Antarctica. The children especially enjoyed learning about penguins. There are 17 kinds of penguins. The largest is the emperor which is 4 feet tall and the smallest is the fairy which is 1 foot.

This week we are learning about woodland animals. Yesterday we had a story about Little Red the fox. Today the children heard about deer. Tomorrow we will do skunks.

The peace festival is February 18th.

Finally the weather has warmed up enough to play outside! We have been out in the snow every day this week and the children have been very excited. It also gives them a chance to burn off some energy. Thank you for sending their snow gear each day. Just a reminder that it helps to have an extra set of socks in the backpack.

We began learning about Antarctica this week Yesterday we learned that Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest and windiest continent. We also found out that in the winter it can be
-100 degrees Farenheit or colder. That means if you dumped a cup of boiling water, it would freeze before hitting the ground. We also learn about penguins.

The children were very happy to see each other on Monday. We also welcomed a new student to our class--Luke Xu. We started the week learning about snow. We found out that snowflakes have six sides and no two are alike. We also learned that snow can be good and bad. Ask your child about some of the good things about snow.

We also have been learning some snowman rhymes and songs. I will share a couple with you.

I'm a little snowman short and fat
Here are my buttons, here is my hat
When the sun comes out I cannot play
Slowly I just melt away (Tune: I'm a little teapot)


There was a chubby snowman who had a carrot nose
Along came a bunny and what do you suppose
That hungry little bunny ate that snowman's nose
Nibble, nibble, crunch!