Earth Day, Recycling and Parents Day!

We celebrated Earth Day this week. The children each decorated a cloth napkin with paint and insect stamps last week during Exploring to use with their "trash-less" lunch. They brought plates and silverware from home, and thank you parents for sending lunches that were free of trash. We have been singing Jack Johnson's song, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" while listening carefully to the words!

The boys and girls even learned how to place their napkins in their laps, showing nice table manners! Some children are bringing their cloth napkin in their lunchbox each day.

We all had fun celebrating a special birthday this week with the whole family!

Speaking of recycling materials, building with many different types was quite an experience this week. The boys and girls used their creativity to construct with cereal boxes, fruit baskets, juice bottles, corks, jewel pieces and so much more!

Other friends were having fun with the rainbow blocks. After this master builder completed construction, he invited lots of people, dogs and cats to come and visit. He then placed his "people block" in front of his house to label his work!

Letters, letters, everywhere! Finding the letter cards to spell their name is so much fun. Then they follow the model on the card to form each letter using the wooden lines and curves.

At PE this week the boys and girls had fun playing games with the parachute!

One friendly frog was very happy to see our mystery reader this week. The children loved the story, "The Magic Hat," by Mem Fox.  This magic hat that appeared in the sky one day took us on quite a magical adventure!

We were busy bees this week making special gifts for a most important event, Parent Day!!  After drawing a portait of each parent, they made a card for them and signed their name.

The children also made handprint flowers and insects on banners.

After decorating their gift bag, they placed all of their special treasures in and added some tissue.

Then it was almost time for that most important day!

The children sang to their parents on stage after marching in singing one of their favorite songs, "We Are the Dinosaurs!"

Then the parents were invited to the classroom to hear about their wonderful children and see some happy memories of this year on a slideshow.

Next it was time for parents to open their gifts.

The children were tickled as they watched their parents read the cards they had written.

Then it was time for yummy cookies and punch!

                                                                    Sooooo much fun!!!

After having some fun on the playground, the children came inside for some Exploring activities. Some chose to paint spiders and caterpillars.

Others enjoyed listening to Mrs. Samuel read, "Mr. Seahorse," by Eric Carle.

Working with insects, trees and wood pieces was an "oh so fun" activity.

                 Using letter tiles and picture word cards to form words was quite popular.

             Thank you to all of our wonderful parents for all that you do. You are not only special, you are                
                                                                         the best!!!!!

Also,  a big thank you so much to Kevlar's grandmother for the delicious tomatoes that she brought for
us.

Books Read This Week:

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider, " by Iza Trapani
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar, " by Eric Carle
"Miss Spider's Tea Party, " by David Kirk
"A Frog in the Bog, " by Karma Wilson

Upcoming Dates:

Exploring - 5/3, 5/10, 5/17 and 5/24
5/27  - Memorial Day Holiday
5/29  - End of Year Party -  10:00
5/31 - Last Day of School