Kindergarten Has Come and Gone

Amazingly enough, we are in our final days of your child's first full year of elementary school! Congratulations...you made it!

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you and your child this year. We have had lots of fun and grown so much together...the children teach me just about as much as I teach them! It's amazing what you can learn from a child...

Thank you for all your support this year. We made a great team.

Below you will find an attached slideshow highlighting many events from this school year. (It's a LONG one, but you can press the arrow button to move through the pictures faster if you wish.) If you see pictures of your child that you like, don't worry...I am sending home a complete DVD of ALL the pics I took this year. You can download/print what you choose.

Savor the younger years...they go by too quickly.

Enjoy your summer!

Fondly,
Kate C.

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Ives Park and Fun Day

It was a beautiful week last week with lots of fun here at LAE! On Wednesday, the Kindergarten took their annual trip to Ives Park where we enjoyed a picnic lunch, rounding out our walk downtown with a trip to Scoop's Downtown! Thanks, Mrs. Sheehan, for our YUMMY treats!

On Friday, we had our Kindergarten Fun Day! Thank you to all our volunteers! Our day was a success largely due to you! The games were fun and the BBQ was delicious...topped off with cotton candy! Yuuuummmmmmy!

As we wrap up our school year, please remember...

"Let them be little,
'Cause they're only that way for a while.
Give 'em hope, give them praise,
Give them love every day.
Let 'em cry, let 'em giggle,
Let 'em sleep in the middle,
Oh, but let them be little."

- Billy Dean

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Kindergarten Visitation

Today was a wonderful day in Room 108! As much as I missed seeing my Kindergarteners today, I was overjoyed to meet my new friends coming to Kindergarten next year! We had lots of fun getting to know each other, playing on the playground with Mr. Jenne, making a sunflower project and eating in the cafeteria like the 'big kids'.

Thank you for sharing your child with me today. We had a day full of fun! I can't wait to see you all at Lawrence Avenue Elementary in September! Enjoy your summer...play hard and be safe!

Don't forget to plant those sunflower seeds!

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My How Time Flies!!

It is amazing to me that we are already into the second week of June! It also amazes me how far your children have come since September. (I was reminded of that today as I visited with some of the in coming Kindergarteners for next year.) Your children are now reading, writing complete sentences (don't worry, phonetic spelling right now is alright) with capital letters and periods, solving simple addition problems, dressing themselves and even tying their own shoes! Congratulations on a job well done!!

Our classroom has been busy as usual. Last week, we were fortunate enough to have Aaron's parents, Annetia and Kevin, visit us in class to discuss their role in the Air Force and the importance of Memorial Day! Aaron's brother, Aiden, was a special visitor as well. I would like to thank Aaron and his family for their willingness to share their experiences with us, making the celebration of Memorial Day more relevant to our class. We appreciate all you do to make our country the best place on Earth to live!

We also got to enjoy a special performance by magician Rick Smith Jr. (http://ricksmithjr.com/)! He was awesome and had the attention of EVERY student at LAE for almost an hour straight! Check out his website! He really is amazing!

Don't forget about our trips next week to Ives Park (Wednesday) as well as our Fun Day (Friday)!

As always, thank you for sharing your child with me and for all your support throughout the year.

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My apologies for not posting sooner than this. It has been a very busy Spring here at Lawrence Avenue. Since my last post, we have had Spring Break, Passover, Easter and Tas Cru in the house!

It seems as though many of you had exciting adventures over Spring Break! Whether you stayed in the North Country or traveled south, the children came back to school excited to share their adventures. My family traveled to South Carolina for the very first time during Spring Break. Although I was dreading the long car ride, I found it was more enjoyable than I had anticipated. Not only did I get to spend some quality, up close and personal time with my family, I was also able to reconnect with two of my former teachers who have retired to the area I visited. Mr. and Mrs. "H" had such a profound effect on me while I was in school! I only hope I can touch the lives of my students as they have touched mine! (They were my 5th and 6th grade teachers!...see pic.)

Mrs. Williams came in to our classroom and shared another Sammy Spider adventure with us. This time, the Shapiro's were preparing their house for Passover and unknowingly destroy the Sammy the Spider's web. Though Sammy becomes fascinated by his mother's explanations of the holiday traditions, he is repeatedly told, "Spiders don't celebrate Passover. Spiders spin webs." Following instructions, Sammy completes a new web?and participates in the Shapiro family observance after all. Using cut-paper artwork made festive with cheery patterns, Kahn depicts a contemporary human family and a mother-son spider duo reminiscent of Eric Carle's creations, complete with a review of basic shapes. We also got to taste unleavened bread dipped in chocolate. Thank you, Mrs. Williams.

Next, our 4th grade friends visited us donning their Easter Bonnets. Each student designed his/her own bonnet to mirror individual interests, etc. We really enjoyed their visit!

Finally, on Monday, April 25th, Dr. Rick Bates, professor of Literacy at SUNY Potsdam (aka Tas Cru, who participates in the North Country's Blues for Books campaign) visited our classroom and performed several of his blues songs based loosely on Eric Carle's books. The children thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Bates' visit, as did I! I ran into Rick in Saratoga Springs last month while attending the NYSRA Reading Conference. Rick was my sponsor teacher many moons ago when I was his student teach at SUNY Potsdam's Campus School. Thank you, Rick!

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Beach Party!!

As you can probably imagine, we had lots of fun today at school during our Beach Party! The music was jumpin' and the food was fine and plentiful! The children were ready to get to the beach as soon as they walked in this morning. (Some were actually a little disappointed when they found out we were only using our imaginations :o) )

We also started making our personal ocean murals after reading some more of Graeme Base's The Sign of the Seahorse. Although some of the vocabulary is a bit challenging, the words rhyme and they like that. Ask your child about Pearl, Corporal Bert, Finneus, the Grouper fish and his Shark henchmen. We have spoken about how the Grouper is a bully and a bucket dipper. We have also been talking about pollution and littering as we read the book.

More ocean tales next week!

Enjoy the pictures and your time with your family this weekend.

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Shamrocks and Shaving Cream

As I was frantically preparing final touches on my lesson plans last Thursday morning (which included adhering rubber bands to those cute little St. Paddy's Day visors your children brought home last week) I heard faint sounds of Irish music coming from somewhere. In an instant, the glorious music of my ancestors was right outside the door. As I peered outside, there, right before my eyes, was a leprechaun (Mr. Jenne is such a great sport!) posing with the Foisy Family and Company for a picture. Thank you to the Foisy's and Clan for the festive Irish tunes they provided the children and adults at Lawrence Ave. last Thursday! What a magical treat!

I think we had some Leprechauns visit our room too...our toilet water was GREEN! And look at the pictures my hidden camera caught before I got so school...

Later on that day, our Kindergarteners enjoyed their Shamrock Slurpies (lemon-lime soda with a scoop of sherbet) in the KIVA. I wish I was there to take pictures to share!

I am sure you are wondering where shaving cream fits in here. Well, today was quite fun in our classroom. Not only did we get to enjoy the 3rd graders perform their annual (which is an interpretation of Rudyard Kipling's The Elephant's Child, but we got to get "down and dirty" as well. I think it's safe to say we all had fun playing in shaving cream at our tables. Each child received his/her own dollop of cream to spread around the table in front of them.

Now, mind you, this was my first "solo" attempt at the shaving cream activity. When I was a very rookie teacher, I was a teaching assistant in a kindergarten classroom where the teacher did this activity. Let's just say I think I gave my students too much of the white stuff today! They did a great job writing their names, letters, sight words, etc. in the shaving cream. Some of them decided their chairs needed a little cleaning too.

And where are the pics, you ask? I left my camera on my counter at home! I promise to get pictures next time. Because there WILL be a next time. Talk about engaging every student...they didn't want to stop!

Enjoy the day! And thank you for sharing your child with me!