December 10, 2009

Ray’s Ramblings
December 10, 2009

Dear Parents,

We are really enjoying our last days before Christmas Break! We are as busy as elves making things!

Christmas Program: Our Christmas program is next Thursday night. AM performs from 6:50 to 7:15 and PM performs from 7:35 to 8:00. Dress is casual but nice. We will be sitting on the floor criss-cross so dresses may not be appropriate. Use your discretion. If the dress covers the knees when sitting, ok. We are on the first row! If your child will NOT be at the performance, please send a note to let me know!

Gingerbread Houses: Many classes are decorating Gingerbread Houses. The class is very excited about doing this. I had originally planned for us to do this on Monday. However, I am required to give our mid-year math assessment on Monday. This gives us no time to decorate the houses. We have dress rehearsal for the program on Thursday at 10:00 and 2:00. We will be able to decorate the houses at 9:00 and at 1:00. I will need parents to help BEFORE Thursday! The graham crackers need to be hot glued onto the milk cartons PRIOR to Thursday. That way, the children can just decorate on Thursday. I need lots of volunteers. Please let me know if you are able to volunteer prior to Thursday OR on Thursday to help with the decorating.

I am officially “grounded” by Mr. Ray!!! I am overspending – on the Holiday family last week and purchasing all the craft supplies we are working on over the next week! I need your help providing the supplies for the houses. Here is a list of suggested decorating supplies:

Graham crackers (need lots!!! 6 squares per house for 48 houses!!!)
Vanilla cake frosting
M & Ms, red hots, peppermint candies, Gummi bears, small jelly beans, pretzel sticks, pretzel twists, pretzel squares (make great windows!!!), gum drops, Hershey kisses, skittles, mini marshmallows, etc. Anything else you can think of is great!

Christmas Party: The children have asked to have a pajama party on the last day. This is a great chance to show off our Christmas PJs!!! Our party will be on Friday, December 18 from 9:00 to 10:00 and from 1:00 to 2:00. At 10 and 2, we will go to the computer lab to hear the Polar Express.

All children need to send in a LARGE Christmas shopping bag to collect presents!

All children need to be sending in treats for each child in the class. You may send these in at any time if they are not perishable items.

Our Volunteers are having trouble getting to school during this holiday season. For this reason and since we need assistance with the Gingerbread Houses, we will NOT be checking out the independent books until after Christmas. After Christmas, I will be moving ALL children up a level in these books. Look for a possible challenge!!!

Assessments: It is now mid-year and we are going to be doing our mid-year assessments – (Math on Monday). After we return in January, we will be giving the Early Literacy Assessment again, and Dibels. Report cards will go home soon after we get back to work. At this point, ALL CHILDREN should be half-way through achieving goals in our kindergarten skills. The hope is that all letters and sounds are mastered by this report card and we can spend the rest of the year working on reading sight words, word families and kidwriting. Please don’t forget to work with your child over the Christmas Break!

Thank you to all the parents who helped me with the Holiday Family! This was a tremendous opportunity to help one of our own JELV families during this Holiday season!

I will have volunteer moms “spot call” to get treats for our party on Friday. We do not need much – just drinks and a treat, plates and napkins. The goodie bags will be the highlight!!! If you would like to get a gift for the classroom, we need more 8 packs of crayons and large glue sticks!!! We also need treasure box items!

Personal Update: My grandbaby is showing signs that she may be here very soon! I am excited and looking forward to possibly being a grandmother before Christmas!!! I will keep you posted!