Happy end of October PreKPals-

Can you even believe that October is over this week? I have NO idea where the time went! We have a lot to do this week!

First up is our trip to the Barnyard on TUESDAY! Pack your child’s lunch and drink and send it to school with them (even if you are going on the trip with us!) We need to count all lunches and make sure everyone is going to have a lunch to eat BEFORE we leave. I will have a cooler with snacks and drinks for the afternoon so you will not have to worry about that. Wear sturdy shoes and a jacket. We will be leaving between 8:30-9:00. I am going to ask that any parent riding the bus or following us to the Barnyard wait in your CAR or in the front LOBBY (Not the office) of the school. We need to get everyone settled and go over rules, etc in the classroom. When it is time to leave we will come through the front lobby so you will be sure to see us. RQES first grade is also going on the trip, so there will be a lot of people to carpool with if you’d like.

We will come back to RQES around 1-1:30. If you want your child to stay with you at the Barnyard or if you want them to go home with you FROM the barnyard, you will have to find me or Ms. Lee and sign them out on our clipboard. You may NOT take another child home with you unless that child’s parent is also riding in the car with you. We are soooo excited about our first ever fieldtrip!!

Our Three Billy Goats Gruff play has been rescheduled. The play will be at 9:30 am on November 1 in the Multipurpose Room. That will be a good morning-after-Halloween activity.

Speaking of after Halloween activities…..Please do not send candy for snack! We appreciate your help with this! (Children who bring candy for snack will be given 16 oz Mountain Dew’s and a litter of Jack Russell puppies to bring home…….LOL!)

Dates!

October 30: Thanksgiving lunch RSVP due! We have to turn in a count to Ms. Brown in the cafeteria. Please get yours in on Monday!

October 31: Barnyard Fieldtrip 8:30-1:30 Meet us at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard for a day of fun! We are sooo excited about our very first fieldtrip. DO NOT WEAR YOUR COSTUME. COSTUME DAY IS CANCELLED!

November 1: Turn in your child’s permission slip to read with Libby the rescued Golden Retriever. Libby is a fluffy cloud of a dog who has been to RQES and other schools many times. Her handler is retired RQES teacher, Mary Calhoun. She will be talking to us about Metro Animal Shelter and how to take care of animals. Libby loves to have a little friend sit near her and share a book, that’s why the program is called Libby Listens! So much fun!

November 1: Stellaluna Bat STEM challenge with Mrs. Suttles 5th grade Science Classes.

November 1: Three Billy Goats Gruff at RQES

November 2: “Libby Listens” comes to PreK

November 3: Special visitors to observe in PreK

November 3: Mystery Reader!!

November 7: Book Fair in the RQES Library 8:30-9:00. We would appreciate any and all help as the PreKPals shop at their first ever book fair. If you cannot come shop with your child, please send their book fair money in an envelope labeled with their name, Book Fair, and the amount you are sending.

November 7: PTA/Veteran’s Day Program at 6:00 pm. We are asking all students to wear red/white/blue to school and to the program that night. The Book Fair will also be open before the PTA program.

November 10: No School

November 15: PreK Thanksgiving Feast 9:45-10:30 RQES cafeteria!

November 16: 10th Annual Turkey Bowl Pep Rally and Football game (Rock Quarry 4/5th Graders vs. Verner 4/5th Graders under the lights at Northridge! All proceeds are split between the 2 PE departments. This will be one of the highlights of the fall and you won’t want to miss it! Look for shirt and shaker order forms coming home soon.

November 20-25: Fall Break

Have a spooktacular week! Alicia

 

Hey PreKPals-

A lot of changes and updates this week, so pay close attention so you don’t get lost.

We will work on our letter B alphabet poster this week. In science we are going to learn all about bats and the differences between bats and birds! We are going to make sock bats, too! Please send in lots of plastic grocery sacks from your recycling! We will need them to stuff our bats.

The guidance department is having the annual Red Ribbon Week and every day this week is a dress up day! Don’t forget that you can get parent involvement hours for dressing your munchkin up on dress up days! Here’s the schedule:

Monday: Kickoff Red Ribbon Week! (wear red)

Tuesday: Give drugs the boot! (wear boots)

Wednesday: Follow your dreams & stay drug free! (wear PJ’s)

Thursday: Out class drugs! (wear nice clothes for class pic day)

Friday: “Team up” against drugs! (wear favorite team attire)

The Barnyard called on Friday right in the middle of RockFest to reschedule our fieldtrip. We will now go on (Tuesday) October 31. RQES First Grade is going that day as well, so we will have lots of friendly faces for company.

We appreciate how many of you came to help for RockFest! Wasn’t it so much fun?! We had a blast and learned sooo much! Ms. Lee and I were so proud of the PreKPals and their behavior! They really enjoyed hanging out and learning with Kindergarten! We have such an awesome school and amazing parent involvement!

We had our first Mystery Reader on Friday! It was Mrs. Jockisch! Look for the Sign Up Genius link soon to sign up to be a Mystery Reader! The MR will send 3 clues to help us guess who the MR is. We are working on our deductive reasoning, so please do not tell the children when you are scheduled to be the MR! We had 2 PreKPals figure out the clues and they uncovered the Mystery Reader’s identity! It is sooo much fun! We can’t wait for you to come read with us! We also had some readers from The UofA on Friday! So much great literacy going on! Speaking of reading…..Don’t forget about this ReadBAMARead promotion that can earn RQES $5000 in free books!

Our Three Billy Goats Gruff play is being rescheduled. We had some scheduling conflicts last week. I should have the new date for the play by tomorrow afternoon.

 

Here are a few NEW dates for your calendar:

October 26: Class Group Pictures and Remakes. If you want your child to have their picture re-made or if your child was absent (these go in the yearbook), please send a note. Everyone will have their photo made for the group picture that goes in the yearbook. In this photo, some students stand and some sit, so be photo ready from top to bottom!

October 26: Spirit Night at Northport Chick Fil A. 3:30-8:00

October 27: CHOM on Wheels comes to RQES for “Going Batty”

October 30: Stellaluna Bat STEM challenge with Mrs. Suttles 5th grade Science Classes.

October 31: October 23- Barnyard Fieldtrip 8:30-1:30 Meet us at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard for a day of fun! We are sooo excited about our very first fieldtrip. DO NOT WEAR YOUR COSTUME. COSTUME DAY IS CANCELLED!

November 7: Book Fair in the RQES Library 8:30-9:00. We would appreciate any and all help as the PreKPals shop at their first ever book fair.

November 7: PTA/Veteran’s Day Program at 6:00 pm. We are asking all students to wear red/white/blue to school and to the program that night.

November 10: No School

November 16: 10th Annual Turkey Bowl Pep Rally and Football game (Rock Quarry 4/5th Graders vs. Verner 4/5th Graders under the lights at Northridge! All proceeds are split between the 2 PE departments. This will be one of the highlights of the fall and you won’t want to miss it! Look for shirt and shaker order forms coming home soon.

November 20-25: Fall Break

Have a fantastic week! Alicia

Hey PreKPals-

This week is going to be soooooo busy!! So much learning going on…..are you ready? Here we go!

We will work on our letter O alphabet poster this week and we will wear ORANGE to halt bullying on Tuesday! (I do not have orange in my closet…..so I will wear coral and we will pretend it is orange.) On Tuesday, we will OPEN wide for our dental screening and have our teeth looked at! On Wednesday, we will have a Bama Caravan performance of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, where the goats will go OVER the Troll’s bridge! We will explore OUTDOORS in science this week with RockFest! The theme is “Growing Learners at The Rock” and we will do all sorts of cool things OUTDOORS on Thursday! On Friday, we will have our 50th Day of school! We will be having some fun with Hula Hoops and a sock hop in PE.  Guess what letter Hula Hoops look like? That’s right! They look like big letter O’s!! Have your mommy or daddy sign the ORANGE permission slip and you can have a small “coke” (caffeine free) float on Friday at PE.

One week from Monday (Oct. 23) we will go to the Barnyard for our first ever fieldtrip!! Look for a letter coming home on Friday detailing all of the things we will do! We are so excited about this fun opportunity.

Mystery Reader coming soon!!! Gardening at RQES- coming soon!!! CHOM on wheels at RQES- coming soon!! A new book order- coming soon! (I have to write all of this down because the fun and learning never ends!)

 

Don’t forget about this ReadBAMARead promotion that can earn RQES $5000 in free books! That’s a LOT of ZEROS! Here’s some news from the library! ReadBAMARead, the West Alabama childhood literacy initiative, unveiled its “I Read Because…” competition this fall, which will give Tuscaloosa area elementary schools the chance to win $5,000 in new library books.

Schools have the opportunity to enter the competition starting Oct. 5 and the contest will run through Oct. 31. To enter the competition, members of the school’s community, students, parents, teachers, staff and alumni, will need to tell us why reading is important to them through any and all forms of media. People are encouraged to post on their personal social media pages, tagging ReadBAMARead in their posts and incorporating the hashtag #IReadBecause.

Ten schools will be selected as finalists on Nov. 1, to campaign for votes from the public. The school with the most entries by Nov. 30, will be awarded the $5,000 for library books at Alabama Gymnastics’Crimson and White Preview Night for gymnastics on Dec. 8.

Votes will be counted in a variety of ways. There will be cards placed at schools and public places that individuals may fill out to count as a vote. The card must include the entrant’s name, email, and the school they wish to support and why they read. By placing the card into the basket it will then count as one vote. Individuals may also post pictures via social media (Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter) of the card to receive an additional vote for each post. In order for a social media vote to count the account must be following ReadBAMARead on the outlet they use and include the hashtag #IReadBecause.

Any social media post meeting these two requirements will be counted as a vote, even if a picture of the formal voting card is not included. During the month of November the @ReadBAMARead Twitter account will post a separate graphic for each school participating in the competition. Additionally, each retweet the post receives will count as a vote. Similarly, an individual picture will be posted for each school on the @ReadBAMARead Instagram account. Each like the picture receives the school will gain an additional vote.

There will also be an individual prize for the person who contributes the most votes across the board. The prize will be four tickets to a University of Alabama gymnastics meet and a lunch with Coach Dana Duckworth.

Here are a few dates for your calendar:

October 16: Picture orders and money due!

October 17: Dental Screenings & Wear Orange to halt bullying!

October 18: Three Billy Goats Gruff at RQES!

October 19: RockFest: (our day long science day) Students will move through different stations set up and run by parent volunteers and community members. This year’s theme is “Growing Learners at The Rock”. We will not have our regular schedule on this day and lunch will be picnic style either in our classroom or on the grounds (but will likely not be during our 10 am lunch time).

October 20: Sock hop in PE to celebrate the 50th day of school! Dress in your 50’s day attire and be ready to have some fun and a tiny “coke” (decaffeinated ) float. (Permission slips will be required to have the “coke” float treat, so be looking for those and return them asap.)

October 23- Barnyard Fieldtrip 8:30-1:30 Meet us at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard for a day of fun! We are sooo excited about our very first fieldtrip.

October 26: Class Group Pictures and Remakes. If you want your child to have their picture re-made or if your child was absent (these go in the yearbook), please send a note. Everyone will have their photo made for the group picture that goes in the yearbook. In this photo, some students stand and some sit, so be photo ready from top to bottom!

October 31: Wear your costume or Halloween/Fall shirts/outfits to school! {No masks or props (guns/swords/brooms/etc)} and the costume MUST allow the child to take care of potty breaks WITHOUT assistance, and without getting undressed. Regular shoes must be worn to school with the costume for PE.

November 10: No School

November 20-25: Fall Break

Have an amazing week! Alicia

Hello PreKPals-

This is going to be a short week for us. I hope you are enjoying this long weekend to do something fun with your friends and family! There will be no school on Monday or Tuesday of this week. Teachers will be in meetings and professional development on Tuesday and we will see everyone back on Wednesday of this week!

We will work on our letter P alphabet poster this week and we will explore pumpkins in science! We are going to work on positional words (over, under, between, etc) and counting pumpkins and spiders in math. It may be a short week, but it is going to be packed with fun and learning!

A parent asked me to clarify about the 12 volunteer hours that I keep mentioning for PreK. Each family is asked to volunteer 12 hours per year to the PreK program. Ms. Lee and I keep up with your hours. Hours are earned by completing forms, volunteering, doing family projects that come home, eating lunch with your child, attending PTA and other meetings, attending fieldtrips and conferences, etc.  There are plenty of opportunities to help at school and from home (with prepping projects for classroom use). Let me know if you’d like to help from home or would like more information.

I will be sending home a sign up for our first semester conferences very soon. We will begin conferences in November. It will take a few weeks for me to get everyone in because I do not have a planning time during the school day that can be used for conferences. Conferences will be from 7:25-7:50 am, or from 3:00-3:30 pm, or by phone if you prefer. I will try to accommodate everyone and will have a few later times (but I won’t know those until closer to conference time) I promise we will work it out so everyone who wants to attend can do so.

Here’s some news from the library! ReadBAMARead, the West Alabama childhood literacy initiative, unveiled its “I Read Because…” competition this fall, which will give Tuscaloosa area elementary schools the chance to win $5,000 in new library books.

Schools have the opportunity to enter the competition starting Oct. 5 and the contest will run through Oct. 31. To enter the competition, members of the school’s community, students, parents, teachers, staff and alumni, will need to tell us why reading is important to them through any and all forms of media. People are encouraged to post on their personal social media pages, tagging ReadBAMARead in their posts and incorporating the hashtag #IReadBecause.

Ten schools will be selected as finalists on Nov. 1, to campaign for votes from the public. The school with the most entries by Nov. 30, will be awarded the $5,000 for library books at Alabama Gymnastics’Crimson and White Preview Night for gymnastics on Dec. 8.

Votes will be counted in a variety of ways. There will be cards placed at schools and public places that individuals may fill out to count as a vote. The card must include the entrant’s name, email, and the school they wish to support and why they read. By placing the card into the basket it will then count as one vote. Individuals may also post pictures via social media (Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter) of the card to receive an additional vote for each post. In order for a social media vote to count the account must be following ReadBAMARead on the outlet they use and include the hashtag #IReadBecause.

Any social media post meeting these two requirements will be counted as a vote, even if a picture of the formal voting card is not included. During the month of November the @ReadBAMARead Twitter account will post a separate graphic for each school participating in the competition. Additionally, each retweet the post receives will count as a vote. Similarly, an individual picture will be posted for each school on the @ReadBAMARead Instagram account. Each like the picture receives the school will gain an additional vote.

There will also be an individual prize for the person who contributes the most votes across the board. The prize will be four tickets to a University of Alabama gymnastics meet and a lunch with Coach Dana Duckworth.

Here are a few dates for your calendar:

October 16: Picture orders and money due!

October 19: RockFest: (our day long science day) Students will move through different stations set up and run by parent volunteers and community members. This year’s theme is “Growing Learners at The Rock”. We will not have our regular schedule on this day and lunch will be picnic style either in our classroom or on the grounds (but will likely not be during our 10 am lunch time).

October 20: Sock hop in PE to celebrate the 50th day of school! Dress in your 50’s day attire and be ready to have some fun and a tiny “coke” (decaffeinated ) float. (Permission slips will be required to have the “coke” float treat, so be looking for those and return them asap.)

October 23- Barnyard Fieldtrip 8:30-2:00 Meet us at the Tuscaloosa Barnyard for a day of fun! We are sooo excited about our very first fieldtrip.

October 26: Class Group Pictures and Remakes. If you want your child to have their picture re-made or if your child was absent (these go in the yearbook), please send a note. Everyone will have their photo made for the group picture that goes in the yearbook. In this photo, some students stand and some sit, so be photo ready from top to bottom!

October 31: Wear your costume or Halloween/Fall shirts/outfits to school! {No masks or props (guns/swords/brooms/etc)} and the costume MUST allow the child to take care of potty breaks WITHOUT assistance, and without getting undressed. Regular shoes must be worn to school with the costume for PE.

November 10: No School

November 20-25: Fall Break

Have an awesome week! Alicia

Can you believe it is already October? I can’t! I have missed the PreKPals and Ms. Lee! This was a busy week and Ms. Lee and I haven’t seen one another in over a week! We will have a lot to catch up on tomorrow! While I was at my Professional Development, I had some time to plan for our new sensory items in the sand/water table. We are going to have some fun this week with popcorn kernels and scarecrows! We have some buttons, bandana pieces, mini scarecrows, crows, little hats, little pots, leaves, acorns and all kinds of fun things for sorting, scooping, and playing with. I can’t wait for the PreKPals to have fun with this bin!

The book order arrived from Scholastic and will come home tomorrow in backpacks. We will have a chance to order books again soon, and we will also have a Book Fair in the Library soon. There will be a sign up sheet for you to help check out children at the book fair. This is a great opportunity for you to earn some of your 12 required parent involvement hours.

T-shirts will be delivered this week so if you ordered one (or more) look for it in your child’s backpack!

The PTA will also be asking for help for RockFest. That’s another great way for you to get involved and gain some hours. RockFest is a Rock Quarry Tradition. It is a day long science event, organized by grade level and totally staffed by parents and community members. Teachers and students just rotate through the stations. There are currently two work days, October 5 & 12 from 8:30-2:00. You do NOT have to stay the whole time. Just make sure to sign in and out on the green PreK parent log sheet as well as the PTA log sheet. There are tasks of many levels, so feel free to come in and meet some other RQES parents. RockFest will be October 19.

We will also be celebrating our 50th day of school very soon! The children in PreK-2nd grade will dress in their 50’s day attire. Halloween is a great time to pick up some items for dress up, but please don’t think you have to purchase anything. A white tshirt, rolled jeans and white socks, ponytails, pearls, saddle oxfords and scarves are probably all found in your playroom. We will have a sock hop and hula hoop at PE, and we will have “coke” floats (a tiny bit of caffeine free soda and vanilla ice cream) as a treat. We will do lots of things with the number 50 on our 50th day, which is October 20 (I think! I will double check!)

This week we are continuing with our All Things Fall theme and we will begin creating our ABC posters. This week in literacy we will focus on the letter S when adding words to our poster. See how many words beginning with S that your PreKPal can think of! In Math, we are going to learn to spin and graph with apples! New centers this week will be more Write the Room, Label the Scarecrow, new fall books (I went shopping this weekend!), a super fun science experiment and much more! So many fun things to do!

Thanks to everyone who sent money in for the Curing Childhood Cancer donation. Our PreKPals collected $65! The grand total collected by RQES in a one week period (with some help from a sorority on campus) was $10,000!! We pray that this money is used to find a cure and that no child ever has to spend the days in their PJ’s due to sickness and bad health. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting this cause. Ava Kate thanks you, too! (Her picture is in my badge holder on the back of my ID badge. The students know who she is because they’ve seen her picture and I’ve told them that I put it there so I would see her and remember to pray for her health. Ava Kate has been at school some this year in 2nd grade, she’s shy, but I am going to see if she will come in and say Hi to the PrekPals so they will know just who they have helped!) Thanks again!

Coming soon- Mystery Reader sign ups!

I promised that I would link the www.gonoodle.com site for your munchkin to use at home! Here you go!

Have a happy week! It’s Fall Y’all! Alicia