Mrs. Carothers & Mrs. Strehli's Class

of our school year!  I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown.  We have a very busy next 2 weeks at St. Matthew’s.  This Friday, May 11 we have our Mother’s Day Tea at 9:15.  The last day of school is Friday, May 18.  Our End-of-the-year party is from 11:30-1:00.

The end of the year is quickly sneaking up on us!  Here is a list of important dates to put on your calendar.

Friday, April 20:  Class Pictures

Friday, April 27:  Parent/Teacher Conferences (no school, childcare only during conference time with Mrs. Strehli).

Friday, May 11:  Mother’s Day Tea 9:15-10:00

Monday, May 14:  The 3 Ring Circus will visit us at St. Matthew’s

Friday, May 18:  Last Day of School and End of School Party

I will continue to send out information about each event. 

Please sign up for conferences starting on Wednesday, April 18.  Conference times will be on Friday, April 27 starting at 8:30 until 1:30.

I am happy and available to meet on another day if April 27 does not work.  Please send me an email on what are some good days and times and we will find a better day and time to meet.

La Noche is this Friday evening.  If you have not bought your tickets, it is not too late, see Debbie or Pattie in the front office.  This is a wonderful St. Matthew’s event that really celebrates our school and community.   I look forward to seeing everyone Friday night. 

Check out the new pictures I have posted in the photo albums.  I also added Colt and Sutton to the “Birthday Blessings” album.  As each child celebrates their birthday they will be added to the album.

We have been having a great time learning about Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales.  We have talked about rhyming words in the Nursery Rhymes.  Some of the classes favorites are:  Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty and Hickory Dickory Dock. 

The Fairy Tale costumes have been very popular.  The kings, queens and princess costumes are a hit.  We have been performing the “The Three Little Pigs” play.   Everyone in the class has had a chance to play either a pig or the wolf while acting out play.  The children have experienced being an actor in the play and sitting in the audience of the play.  The kids just loved preforming!

Donuts for Dads was a big success.  A huge thank you to Laura Tran for coming in early and setting up the food and coffee for the Dads.  She also stayed to help clean up!!!! 

Cinderella was a fun surprise for the whole class.  She was magical and we were lucky she came from her palace to visit us at St. Matthew’s.

Next Monday, February 13, is Red Day for our class.  Please have your child dress in red.  We will pass out fun “I love you”  cards and treats for Valentine’s Day.  You are welcome to send a Valentine or treat to each friend in the class.  During circle time we will pass out our Valenitnes.  If you do send something for the class, please just write who it is from and not who it is for.  This way the children can pass out their cards to each child without having to read each child’s name.

Lastly, Laura Kane has been in the class taking pictures for our class book.  I sent an email asking every family to email a bio on their child.  Please make sure this is complete by Friday, February 10.  I am available to help or answer any questions.  Thank you all for always going the extra mile!

I am very excited to see all the kids tomorrow.  After a wonderful holiday break, I am sure everyone is ready to see their friends.  We have a busy month planned for our class.  Please check out the class calendar and class lesson plans on the upper tabs to see what is going on in our classroom.

This month we have 2 birthdays to celebrate, Colt and Sutton, on the  same day, January 4.  The boys will be “counting” their coins and receiving their birthday blessing this week (January 11) during our Chapel time.  Parents are also welcome to join us on Wednesday mornings for Chapel.

We will talking about Winter during the next 2 weeks. 

We will start “show-and-tell” on Fridays.  This is very fun for the kids and we will have “show-and-tell” during circle time.  The kids many bring in one item to share.  If they forget to bring something into school they may tell a story or pick something in the classroom to share. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

It is starting to feel like Christmas at St. Matthew’s!  Our class Christmas Pageant will be on Friday, December 16 at 9:15.  We will be joining Mrs. Stonjik’s class in the Chapel.  We ask that the parents drop the kids off at the classroom promptly at 9:00.   Mrs. Strehli and I will get the kids dressed in the classroom.  The parents and grandparents will immediately go to the Chapel and sit in our regular chapel seats in the front.  We will begin at 9:15.

This is a wonderful pageant and we invite all family members to come and watch (grandparents and siblings are welcomed!). 

I will continue to keep everyone updated.

Our class Christmas Party will begin at 10:15. 

There will be a NOON RELEASE ON DECEMBER 16.

The holiday break is December 16-January 9.

The annual Thanksgiving Feast will be held on Monday, November 21st at 12:15 in the youth room. Parents are invited to attend. We will dismiss from the classroom at 1:00.

We had a very fun and busy month of October!  The Fire Unit started off with a big bang…the fire truck came to visit us!  Please check out all the great pictures of the fireman teaching us about fire safety and all the kids were able to go inside the fire truck.  Here are the highlights of fire safety tips we learned in the classroom:

1)  call 911 for emergencies

2)  Stop/drop and roll 3)  stay low and go 4) fire is always an adult tool and 5)  What do you do during a fire alarm at school.

Our next unit was Fall Fun.  We made great bats that have been hanging from the ceiling in our classroom.  And we learned all kinds of neat facts about bats.  We also made some really cool spider art and learned about spiders.  You can ask your child how many legs does a spider have or which animal is nocturnal! 

We did some experimenting with a pumpkin.  We cut a pumpkin open during circle time.  We made some predictions about the inside of the pumpkin, what it would look like, what it would feel like and what it would smell like.   The whole class had a chance to stick their hand inside and smell the pumpkin.  I took home the pumpkin seeds and baked them for the kids to taste!  It was a fun treat for all. 

A few reminders, our Thanksgiving Feast is on Monday, November 21.  We will sing songs with Mrs. Stojanik’s class and then both classes will feast.  Parents are welcomed to come!!!!!!

We had a great few weeks studying the farm unit.   We started the Farm unit with  Farmer Fry coming to St. Matthew’s with baby farm animals.  This was a big hit with the class.  We learned about “root” vegetables and used potatoes, carrots, parsley, radish and corn to make art prints in class.  The kids each planted seeds in their own cups and have been taking care of them.   We are waiting for our plants to grow.  You can see in the pictures the children watering and using the magnifying glass to watch the seeds slowly pop through the dirt.  We created our own “farms” displayed in the hall.  During circle time, we graphed our favorite farm animals and began to patterning using farm animals.

We began this unit learning about the color red and number 2. This week we will continue learning the color red and the number 2. 

This week we will learn all about Fire and the important safety rules.

The Austin Fire Department will be visiting us at school tomorrow with their fire truck!  Everyone will have a turn to sit in the truck.