This month's newsletter topics

May – Show and Tell – Garden and Insects – Community Helpers and Safety –  Graduation and Carnival

May

Wow! Is it really the last month of school? Our students have grown up so much this year and our kindergartners are ready for their next adventure! We have 20 children graduating this month! All of our returning students will enjoy being the big kids next year, and will help welcome many younger siblings and new families to Hands On!
We have lots of fun things planned for May. Lots of gardening projects, watching our butterflies take flight, two more Northwest Children’s Theater classes and for those taking Miss Rachael’s dance class there will be a recital. We are excited about a visit from the firefighters as well as The Obo Addy Project.  We also have our own carnival and graduation party Friday, May 25th.
All the kids love having special events and guests.   Everyone is welcome to join us for the Obo Addy Project, the firefighters visit and our carnival. Station 9 will bring their truck and give us a lesson in fire safety. And Obo Addy project will visit and teach us about African drumming.  Look for sign-up sheets on the door to help at these fun events. As with all of our events, everyone is welcome, siblings too.  If your child doesn’t attend school on the day of the visit feel free to join us and plan to stay with your child during the visit.
If you have a job, volunteer, or another skill that helps our community, we would love to have you as a special guest in our class. Please let us know if you would like to visit our class and tell us how you help our community.
 

Themes this Month

• Show and Tell
• Garden and Insects
• Community Helpers and Safety
• Carnival and Graduation

Show and Tell

For the kids in our class that love to bring things to school and tell their friends all about them, this is their special time!  Everyone can bring 1 item to school each day from May 1-May 11th.  We will have show and tell everyday!  Please don’t bring in anything too special or small that may get broken or lost.

Our Caterpillars

Our caterpillars arrived and our students have enjoyed observing them, watching them grow and are excited to see them turn into butterflies.  We will release a few of them over the week so each class has the opportunity to see them fly away. We love watching the kids realize that they are real and really growing, they have so much fun learning about them.  Ask your child to tell you the difference between a moth and a butterfly.

Sunflowers

Our class planted sunflower seeds and we have also been taking care of them by watering them every day and watching them grow.  Some children started seeds in dirt and others in a plastic bag with no dirt but some water on a paper towel.  We taped those to the windows and amazingly both sprouted!  We will send some home and save some to plant at school.  We have been getting our garden beds ready and enjoy the sunshine in the garden area.  The kids made hopscotch, collected flowers and learned about our rain barrels that we use t water our garden.

 

Circle Time

In circle time we have played many games, including alphabet and number bingo, to help us review all of our letters and numbers.  In the pre-kindergarten group we have introduced about 10 sight words and it is really fun for the kids to recognize them and put together small sentences.  All of the students worked on group poems and their own poem about themselves.  Some children even included self portraits.  All of them are hanging up at school, they are so fun to read.   When we work on the “I am from” poems each child has a turn to tell about their favorite foods, places to go, special stuffed animal, what they are good at doing and what makes them special.
 

Visiting Artist

We are half way through our 4 week Northwest Children’s Theater class.  It is fun to have Lorelai join us each week and lead the group in activities before readying us a story that we get to then act out.  On the last class, Wednesday May 9th, families may join us at 12:15 to see what we have been up to in our class.

For music class Chuck Cheesman joined us again and we welcomed two new musicians into our classroom in April.    The kids had fun singing and dancing to bluegrass with Zak Borden and learning about music while singing and playing ukulele with Bronwyn from Keys of Life Music.  In May we are excited to welcome the Obo Addy Project to our school.  When we(the teachers) were in school we were lucky enough to have Obo Addy himself visit and play African drums for our class.  So I am excited to share this experience and legacy with our class.   You can learn more about all of the artist on their websites: http://zakborden.com/,  http://www.keystolifemusic.com/, http://oboaddylegacyproject.org/, http://www.dancingwithnoshoeson.com/

Thank You and Goodbye

It was so wonderful to have teacher Desiree join us for the last year.  We are all very excited for her new adventures in the Netherlands and for her baby on the way.  We will miss Desiree but had fun celebrating her good bye party in class.
Thank you to everyone that helped out with our playground clean up.  We love our new sand and our cedar chips really freshen up the playground!  In a few weeks we will be ordering yearbooks, every child that attended Hands On during the school year will be included in the yearbook.  Our yearbook is our only fundraiser and we use the funds for the playground.  You do not have to purchase a yearbook.  This year we are hoping to raise money for a new outdoor playhouse and play kitchen.  More info on yearbooks coming soon.

Dates to Remember

May 1- 11
Show and Tell Week – Children may bring one item each day to show friends and share with the class during circle time. 
Monday, May 14 at 11:45 am – Obo Addy Project -Upstairs in Parish Hall
Tuesday, May 1- Northwest Children’s Theater
Wednesday, May 9-Northwest Children’s Theater -Parents are invited to join us at 12:15 to see what your kids have been learning in this class.
TBA-Firefighters will visit.
Friday, May 25 -11:30 AM Dismissal- Last day of school, graduation and carnival upstairs in Parish Hall.
11:30 If your child attends Friday, please pick your child up form the classroom then join us upstairs.
11:30 Carnival
12:00 Graduation
12:30 Picnic on the playground
All Hands On students and families are invited to the carnival.
We will have games & prizes, and a graduation ceremony. Plan on bringing a picnic lunch or eating after the carnival. Please sign up to help work a game station. A sign-up sheet will be on our classroom door.
11:30– School ends* and carnival games begin
12:00 -Graduation ceremony
12:30-Picnic outside and playground play.
*All children must be picked up from the classrooms at 11:30, and then go upstairs with their families.