Looking for a new pet?

We have a family in Rainbow Valley who has 2 male Guinea Pigs


Snickers & Oreo are their names. They are 4 months old.
Cage, water bottle, and tunnel included.   This family needs to find homes for these two friends.  If you are interested in these two furry friends please let me know via E-mail as soon as possible. :)
Thanks!

AM Class Summer Tree

Today the morning class was able to go outside and illustrate their summer time tree.  I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do!

A Bestfriend

One of our own Kindergarten Friends adopted a family member from K-9 New Life.  This is truly a success story for Lucy! She is so lucky to be part of such a wonderful, loving, and caring family.
Please keep K-9 New Life in mind when looking to add a new family member to your family.  

Science, Social Studies, and Math

We have been learning about maps and directions in social studies.
In sciece we are continuing our unit on life cycles.  The children activated their schema for butterflies.  Wow! Did they already have a great deal of prior knowledge. This was great to know because I was able to share lessons with them that were "kicked up a notch."
Ask your child to tell you about the butterflies life cycle.  Also, ask them for examples of other living things life cycles.  This year we have talked about humans, trees, plants.

Let me tell you about my map...

Active listeners

Wow! Look at our maps!

I even labeled mine.

Here is what I know about butterflies.

The life cycle begins.

First, I am an egg, second I am a caterpillar, third I am a pupa, fourth I hatch and become a butterfly (WITH SYMMETRY!)

Field Day Is Fast Approaching!

Field Day will be held on June 10th.  We are really excited about this event!
Please make sure your child has sunscreen on prior to arriving to school. No one on John B. Dey staff is permitted to apply sunscreen on any student. 


Students will not be permitted to leave their class group under any circumstances. Every child MUST STAY WITH OUR CLASS.
 If you are planning on signing your child out early please provide a note on June 9th stating the time that you will be signing your child out on June 10th. 
Due to June 10th being such a busy, fun day we cannot accept notes on that day. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation with this matter. 
It is important that everyone is safe and that every child is accounted for. :) 
 Please keep in mind your child may want to leave with you if you come to Field Day. 


More information about Field Day will be posted on our blog during the next few weeks. 

Donations and Information

Many of you have asked about solider Mandy.  First, yes, the kids can continue to write to her over the summer.  :) GREAT writing practice! Just send me a note, and I will write down the address and send it home with your child.  Second, sure, you can send in money to help with shipping costs. Just put it in an envelope with your child's name on it.   We were able to take all of the wonderful donations and combine them into 3 large boxes.  I am amazed at your thoughtfulness. :) Wow!!!!  Rainbow Valley is simply the BEST.  

Learning about maps and directions

We have started our unit in Social Studies all about maps and directions.
Please ask your child to share with you what he or she has learned.  Talking about directions and using maps are great things to be practicing at home. 



Giving directions



Which way is south?

Can you follow my directions?

MISSING HOMEWORK

I am so sorry that word study homework did not go home today.
It will go home tomorrow.  We apologize for this mistake. 

K-9 New Life

Today our wonderful friend Kathy from K-9 New Life visited our room and picked up the wonderful dontations that our friends in Rainbow Valley am and pm classes collected.  She was so thankful and she said that the dogs are thankful too.
Please keep k-9 New Life in mind if you are looking for a new family member.

Learning About Life Cycles and Non-Fiction

Please ask you child about what he or she learned about non-fiction today.
We explored what BOLD FACE PRINT is and why it is important in a non-fiction book.

Locating bold print in non-fiction books

Mesurement Science Lab

Today we enjoyed learning about measurement and the various tools we use to measure.
Thank you to all of the science lab volunteers! You make learning fun!

Fabulous Friday

We continued our learning about Life Cycles of plants in science.  We learned more about the parts of the plant and their jobs.  The children build their schema based on what they learned. 
In social studies we have begun our unit on Our Country.  Your child will be coming home today with a special book I hope you will encourage them to read to you.
Today Mrs. Stinard and I were again surprise with a lovely lunch, more gifts, and for my first Mother's Day the most wonderful baby gifts.  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! 

Happy Mother's Day to all of our Rainbow Valley Mom's

The children created a voice thread and a digital picture of each of their Moms.  Along with a special gift that will be coming home to you today.  We hope you enjoy!

Many thanks...

Wow!  What a week!  This week we were showered with the most beautiful cards written by our dear students and wonderful parents, served breakfast and coffee, yummy lunches, and snacks.  Then, the gift cards.  Amazing. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy more lunches, dinners, and shopping sprees thanks to all of you!  Your thoughtfulness and generosity is greatly appreciated.  We love our jobs. Why? Because we are truly blessed to be part of such a fantastic family of students and parents.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. It means the WORLD to us. Each of you make Rainbow Valley the greatest place to be. 
We also want to thank all of our Rainbow Valley friends for donating dog supplies and gift cards to K-9 New Life.  Those dogs are so blessed and will be well cared for thanks to you.  Remember if you are looking for a new family member to adopt please visit http://www.k9newlife.org/
There are so many wonderful dogs ready to be loved by you!  

Learning About Seeds and Plants

Today the children learned more about living things.  We planted grass seeds.  We created a science experiment where the children created a hypothesis: What will happen if we do not add water? Sunlight? Air? If we build buildings on our seeds? How does that impact our environment?
The children will observe the changes that occur over the next few weeks and will record their findings.

SPIRIT NIGHTS

Mark your calendars for John B. Dey SPIRIT NIGHTS!
We are so excited about our last three spirit nights for the school year. 
All of the money raised goes to LITERACY here at JBD!!  WOO! HOO! 
I hope to see many of my kindergarten friends at these nights.

Yotini May 19, 2011 (Thurs)


Chill June 3, 2011 (Friday

Atlanta Bread June 10, 2011 (Friday)

Life Cycles

Today the students began their unit on Life Cycles.  We discussed how they change over time.  (Something we learned about several months ago.)  We are going to be learning about living and non-living things, what living things need in order to grow and change. We will be observing many things such as plants and insects changing.
This is a great time to take your kindergartener on a walk and observe things in nature.