Amy H. Monthly Letter

 

May 2008

Dear Room One Families,

We are heading quickly into summer with a number of changes on the horizon. Next week we will already be saying goodbye to our three student teachers, Daniella, Gena, and Emily. We have had a wonderful, enriched year and semester working with them, and are sad to see them go. Yesterday (Thursday), we began discussing saying this goodbye with the children. We made a calendar with them, and posted it on the shelf in the area where we have circle time. This calendar has photos of each teacher who is leaving and how many days left they have in school with us as well as which day we say goodbye on. There are pictures of the teachers who are staying and one new teacher, Daliza who will be joining us every day as of Tuesday May 13th. Daliza was previously one of our liberty interns in the Family Center for many years and we are so pleased she will be working with us again. There will be a few other new faces joining room One as subs. Demetria Chappo, a friend of Amy's will be subbing on occasion and has previously visited the classroom. May 12th and 13th Amy will be out of town once again for a brief visit to California for a job interview.

While Amy and Dawn are busy making plans for what will happen next in their careers both remain focused and excited about the rest of the time together in Room One.

Some of our future plans include continued planting. This time we will plant in pots, in the windowsill. Our growing grass project has been a huge success. Each child helped plant a seed, and the watering has gone so well that the grass needed a break for a bit. The grass has grown so long that late in the afternoon Room One friends have cut the grass and fed it to the hamster in Room Three, who has been reported to be getting a little bit overweight due to the new diet.

Practicing using spray bottles has strengthened fine motor coordination and skill. Taking care of the plants has encouraged some interesting conversation, such as how to treat the grass. Pushing playdough and chalk into the grass, doesn't help it grow, but watering and sunlight do.

The writing shelf continues to be utilized on a daily basis, while children get their own paper and writing tools during free play. In the coming weeks we will be discussing what it means to be big and little in Room One. We will make a chart to measure the children, and see how much they grow between now and July. We will be using materials of different sizes for comparison (such as big and little balls, or paintbrushes), and we will talk in circle time about things one does when they are little, and when they get bigger. As many of the Room One children continue to master toileting this will be a fantastic time to focus on this topic.

As the weather improves we will be spending more and more of our time outdoors on large group outings exploring the neighborhood and getting very wet and messy on the roof and also in the parks. Please make sure to bring in swim clothes for these days, an extra towel and apply sunscreen to your child before school. We will reapply sunscreen throughout the day. While we are still experiencing spring showers, please bring rain gear for your kids so we can take walks outside and jump in puddles together.

We look forward to the next three months!
Room One Team