Hello friends! Sorry this blog post is way late! This weekend I was with family celebrating my cousin’s graduation from Marine bootcamp, and then tonight, I was all involved in purchasing the perfect Homecoming (HOCO as it’s called by all of the teens….) attire for my son Grayson, who will be 17 years old tomorrow!! Momma’s – I am telling you, don’t blink! Because if you do you will miss it and these 4 year old babies will be 17 in a heartbeat!

This week in PreK we are celebrating all things apple!! Tomorrow is not only Grayson’s birthday, but it is the birthday of John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed! The first graders will be having their annual Johnny Appleseed parade tomorrow and we will get to watch and clap! This is a precious tradition and was one of my very favorites when I was a teacher in First Grade. Not to be outdone, the PreKPals will be making applesauce tomorrow! We are going to go to the courtyard and “pick” our apples, then we will wash and chop them (using plastic knives)and put them in our crockpot to cook all day! We will enjoy this tasty treat in the afternoon!

On Wednesday-Friday of this week, Ms. Lee will be back and I will be in Birmingham, training for GOLD, which is the program we use to document all of the wonderful things your children are doing in PreK. For the rest of this week, please contact the office if you need me. I am not sure I will be able to communicate changes in dismissal quickly enough since I will not be in the building. You can call Mrs. Gray and she will get the messages to Ms. Lee.

I hate that I am going to miss PJ day for Childhood Cancer. The assembly is going to be an awesome one! Here’s an excerpt from the flier you will be getting tomorrow about the event. “The month of September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and it’s time for us to “whip childhood cancer.” To show our hope for a cure and raise awareness of this unwanted disease, we are having our “Pajamas for a Cure” day on Friday, September 29. Students are asked to bring a $1 or more to wear their pajamas to school. We are not simply wearing our pajamas to school just to be out of the ordinary, but to honor all the children that would love to be at school and NOT in their pajamas.” Ms. Lee and Mrs. Holt (my substitute and retired RQES 2nd grade teacher) will collect all of the money sent to school for this worthy cause.

Book orders should be here soon. Your Tshirt Projects are coming home tomorrow. I had to remake them……because I spilled tea in my bag and ruined them all! Sorry for the delay.

I am sure there is more I need to tell you, but I am already past my time for posting this! Email with any questions! Have a wonderful week! Alicia

Happy Sunday PreKPals!

We have a very busy week ahead of us this week!

On Monday, we will go to the library for the very first time!! We are excited to learn about the library with Mrs. Pilsch and one day soon, we will get to check out our very own library books!

On Tuesday, we will have our health screenings (Our three new friends will find permission slips in their Bear Binders on Monday. Please return them on Tuesday.)

On Wednesday, Mrs. Rogers will be back for Guidance.

On Thursday, Dr. Bannerman will be back for music.

Friday will be another science experiment day! Whew! Are you tired yet?

The PreKPals love to learn!! We are having a great time together and everyone is enjoying learning the routines. They come in and automatically begin doing their morning chores before choosing a table or floor task to work on together. :

Last week, we added the jobs of Librarian (2) to our list of important jobs. The librarians help keep the Book Nook neat and read for the next pair of friends to be ready to read. The PreKPals are really enjoying the fall themed books in the Book Nook this month.

They LOVED the farm center we added last week, along with our red barn, the mini pumpkins, “hay” bales, mini pine cones and “apples” were a big hit! This week, to go with the book we will be using in math, Ten Apples Up on Top, we are adding an Apple center where they can sort mini “apples” (dyed and scented chickpeas) by color, they can pour them, scoop them and see how many other ways they can have fun with them.

We will be adding more apple themed books and activities to our All Things Fall unit over the next two weeks. On September 26th (Johnny Appleseed’s birthday) the first graders will be having their Johnny Appleseed Parade! We will have fun watching that RQ tradition in the afternoon. We are going to do some apple science and even some apple cooking in the next two weeks.

On September 29th we will have a pajama day fundraiser for curing childhood cancer. One of our teachers, Lisa Hollingsworth, has a 2nd grade daughter, Ava Kate who is battling childhood cancer for the 3rd time in her 8 years. Look for more information coming home soon about the pajama day. (Please note that tennis shoes/PE shoes MUST be worn with the pajamas on pajama day!)

I also want to encourage all little girls to wear shorties, hidees or bloomers under their dresses. This is actually a RQES PE requirement and was listed on the PE sheet you signed at the beginning of the year. Our children sit criss cross in the floor/ground both indoors and out, they climb, race and swing. The shorties help with modesty and cleanliness. Our PE coaches are both daddies and appreciate your help in keeping everyone’s bottoms covered.

Look for a new book order coming home this week. (Ordering books is always optional!) and our family home (paper t-shirt) project is coming home on Wednesday with instructions. We can’t wait to make our paper people!

Have a great week! Alicia

Hello PreKPals-

I hope you enjoyed your surprise extended weekend! I know it’s hard for some when school dismisses unexpectedly, but for everyone in a school setting, it is much better when it happens before the children ever actually get to school. Unexpected early dismissal days are difficult when we are trying to alert everyone and get everyone home safely. All of our school children have to be safely accounted for before school personnel can begin to gather our own personal children and get them home safely. (Early dismissal/unexpected dismissal shows why it is important for everyone to sign up for class dojo. Please do that this week, if you haven’t already!) We do appreciate all that Tuscaloosa City Schools does to keep everyone safe.

This week we will be starting our unit on Fall. This unit will last quite a while and will encompass all that the new season entails. Fall is my very favorite and there is a lot to do in this study. This week, we will begin by learning just what this season is all about. We will learn the scientific reason that leaves fall from the trees. We are going to use our scientist eyes and go on a nature walk around the RQ Nature Trail to observe changes in our environment. We will gather some interesting items for our science center on our nature walk. Our Book Nook books are all fall themed, and our sand and water table is full of lots of fall leaves, pumpkins and mini gourds for sorting and playing. We have a brown carpet in front of the sand and water table and for the first time ever, we will let children put the leaves on the carpet and rake them up! (Normally, we have a strict “keep the items in the sand and water table” rule, so this will be fun!)

Since the weather is getting cooler, please consider sending a jacket to school that your child can leave in his/her cubby. Often the air in our room does things that we cannot control, so a jacket that can stay at school is a good bet. Please make sure jackets zip or button all the way down and can be taken on and off easily. With 18 four year olds, constantly taking jackets on and off, on and off, Ms. Lee and I are completely outnumbered when we have to peel them out of sweatshirts (over and over) and redress them (when their undershirt comes off!)

Important items for this week!

September 12: Duty-free lunch in PreK, K, 2nd, 4th (If you are a parent coming for duty free lunch, please wait for us on the red benches across from the MP room. We will come to the restrooms around 9:50 and then to the cafeteria at 10:00. Either Ms. Lee or I will stay with the class for lunch, and then that person will have duty free lunch during rest time later in the day. Two certified staff members have to be with PreK students at all times.)

September 12: RQES Spirit Night at Urban Cookhouse (Just tell them you are with RQES, and a portion of the proceeds will come to RQES. I believe the event begins at 4:30 and goes to closing.)

September 13: Duty-free lunch in 1st, 3rd, 5th

September 14: SCHOOL PICTURE DAY

September 15: Last day to join RQES PTA in order support school for membership award

September 15: Book Orders due!

Have a great week! We are loving our PreKPals! Alicia

Happy First Week in September!

We have a lot of fun things planned this week! First off, we will have 3 new friends added to our class bringing our total to 18. Our class roll will not change again unless someone moves because 18 is the maximum number of PreKPals. Our friend, Hammadi, has moved to another class and we will welcome Ava Thakor and boy/girl twins, Sam and Abby York. Welcome everyone!!

Tuesday is a big day in PreK Land! Those of you who will be riding home on the bus can do so for the very first time WITH A NOTE. As with all dismissal changes, I will need it in WRITING that your child will be riding the bus in the afternoon. (Morning changes don’t need to be reported, since it doesn’t matter to me how they get here….only that they do!) You may send one note that says “Susie is riding home on bus 16-32 until further notice” then when Susie needs to go to carpool or extended day, you can send a note letting me know that change. I have to be very vigilant in this, as it is a tremendous responsibility to get 18 four year olds home correctly and safely. Another change is that Ms. Lee and I will be dividing and conquering for dismissal. One of us will be with bus riders and the other with car riders, so you might not see both of us at the same time. Please direct any questions about buses, departure times, arrival times, route changes, siblings, etc to the transportation department. I know a lot about a lot of things, but I don’t have any control, nor do I know any insider information about buses. So sorry! It is going to be a grand adventure for sure – and I know at least one little fella who is sad that I didn’t give him a “bus in-ba-tation” so he could ride the bus!

Rock Quarry Elementary PTA Open House will be Thursday night at 6 pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

This week we will be focusing on colors and shapes. We will do our school tour (that didn’t happen last week because we practiced for an intruder drill) to learn about important places and people in our building. We will have a fun “walking colors” science experiment and we will learn the order of the colors in a rainbow by making a Roy G. Biv person. We might even make magic playdoh! We will take a shape walk around our classroom and then around our school and use our camera to document what we find and will put those pictures into our first class book.

Look for your first family project coming home later in the week! We are going to ask you to decorate some scrapbook paper with pictures of your families to make our family tree. We will display the pages on our wall in the classroom.

Tshirt orders are due this week! Get those in if you haven’t already. Scholastic Book Orders are due September 15. You may order online, or send a check made payable to Scholastic for the total of all orders. If you are sending a check, make sure to put your child’s name on all forms.

When placing money in the Bear Binder pocket, please write your child’s name and what the money is for on a post it note, envelope or ziplock baggie. When we are collecting money for hurricane relief, and you may also be sending in money for lunch or extended day, it is hard for me to know what the money is for if it isn’t labeled. I check 18 binders in about 3-5 minutes so labeling helps tremendously! (I have accidentally applied book order money to a lunch account before…..so…….)

I hope you have all connected through Class Dojo! The directions for all the ways to get in touch with me came home last week. Class Dojo is the way I will communicate immediate and important school communications. Please join today!

I only sent the mats home for those who indicated weekly preferences via our RQ PreKPals Facebook  page (ask to join today!). Initially I was going to have this be an all-in kind of thing but I think I can remember who wants them home weekly. That being said, all mats will come home this Friday. If your preference changes (or if your child gets sick) the mat will automatically come home. We may have other polls on the Facebook page from time to time!

I hope you have all had a great Labor Day weekend! I took several long naps on the beach and I’m updating the blog in the typical traffic as Mr. Brad navigates us home (it’s good to have a driver!)

Some Dates from the PTA blog-

September 7: RQES Open House, 6 pm

September 8: Final Day for RQES T-shirt orders

Have an awesome week! Alicia