Hey PreKPals and Families-

Last week was just. The. Best. Week. Ever!!! We heard that over and over from the PreKPals. Thank you so much to all of you who came to the kindergarten breakfast, to the PreK Celebration and to the Spring Fling portion of our day on Friday! I know we had a lot of photo posts on Friday, but we wanted to let you see Field Day because it was so much fun! Special thanks to our amazing PTA and all of the workers and volunteers who made it all happen. We are so lucky at RQES, because our school community really wants every child to be included. That’s why they do the INVEST fundraiser at the beginning of the school year. Your donations paid for all of the snacks, water, materials needed for games, and all of the bouncy houses. We appreciate all of you so much! Thank you for helping us have such a great year!

This week, we will have a full day on Monday and Tuesday, and early dismissal on Wednesday and Thursday. Dismissal is 11:10 on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is the first day of summer vacation for the PreKPals (teachers still have to work) and that is the first day we will officially say that they have turned into KinderFriends! We are going to be so sad to see them go! If you know that your child will stop coming to school before the last day, please let us know as soon as you can. We do still have things to send to them and we want to make sure everyone gets all their things.

We hope you loved the portfolios!! They are a labor of love but our amazing Mrs. Dunn has a system and she is always on top of it! When you remove the Night Before Kindergarten book, that will give you a sleeve to put your certificates in. Did you love their awards? We worked hard to match everyone’s award to their gifts and personalities!! It was so fun! We loved the way they cheered for each other as the awards were given. PreK is the very best!!

On Monday, we are making our handprint ceiling tile with everyone’s handprint so that we will be able to remember them for years to come. They love coming back as a big kid and looking up to see their name and their handprint on the ceiling. I’ll send a photo when we are finished.

I will keep this dojo active until this time next year. You will not get the weekly blog posts because I have already made a new dojo for next years class. However, you can still access the dojo to capture pictures and if you need me to send an announcement about a party or some other event, I am happy to do that for you.

This week, your child will need his backpack everyday. We WILL EAT LUNCH EVERY DAY. If you normally send a lunch from home, please continue to do that. If your child normally has a lunch box and doesn’t bring one, we will provide a school lunch. It’s a state law. I have to serve lunch for the day to count as a full day.

Find your 4 snacks, water bottle WITH A VALVE (NO OPEN POUR BOTTLES), Robot Binder, nap mat and backpack. Please remember that PreKPals only need to bring water in their water bottles. No juice, tea, sodas, milk or other beverages.

We will send napmats home on Tuesday afternoon, and all their extra clothes will come home on Thursday.

We have loved every minute of PreK with your children. Thank you for sharing them with us! We wish you the very best safest summer, and we will see you in August! Please come by to see us and tell us all about who your new Kinder teacher will be!

We love you all! You were the very best part of all our days! Keep reading, keep learning, keep counting, keep singing and keep being awesome!

Alicia and Whitney

Dates:

25-26: Half Day Dismissal (PreKPals will be dismissed at 11:10 at the PreK doors)

26: Last Day of PreK

NEW Links:

PreK Celebration Songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCrs4YINVtA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4fI7Ik2rwY

Here’s the link in case you want to have caterpillars at home.

Butterfly Garden With Live Cup of Caterpillars ® – Insect Lore

PreK Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1NIMKDO4OUN7A?ref_=wl_share

Let’s Learn to TIE OUR SHOES!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5ItoIJ4sg

PreK Jacket flip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73qom9IueV8

PLEASE send jackets that button or zip to school. NOT over the head sweatshirts (Unless your child can take it off and put it on INDEPENDENTLY! It takes a LOT of time for 2 teachers to get 18 wiggly students in and out and in and out of sweatshirts.) The PreK Jacket Flip only works with jackets that are open front.

Learn to cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT3PCQTBdeM

A great resource for letters and sounds is the Letter Factory by Leap Pad. You can find them all on YouTube or in DVD’s. All of the Leap Pad videos are great and the songs stick in your head! Here’s a link for you to use at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ID9ucqKtsE&list=PLC5F928D32C3E270D&index=2

 

Hey PreKPals and Families-

Sorry to be late with the blog! We’ve had a full weekend of cutting limbs from trees around our house and when you live in the middle of a forest, it takes quite a bit of time! This week we will be focusing on getting ready to go to kindergarten! We took a tour of all 5 kindergarten rooms on Thursday of last week. We found lots of things that are the same as in our PreK room! That made everyone feel better! You will get to tour at least one kindergarten room on Thursday with your PreKPal at the Kindergarten breakfast! Then we cannot wait to see you Thursday for our PreKPals Celebration! This is going to be a busy week!

There is no dress requirement for the PreK Celebration or Kindergarten Breakfast. They can just wear whatever cute outfit you’d like for them to wear.

If you did not turn in your child’s permission slip for Spring Fling on Friday, May 20^th, please do so tomorrow!

Find your 5 snacks, water bottle WITH A VALVE (NO OPEN POUR BOTTLES), Robot Binder, nap mat and backpack. Please remember that PreKPals only need to bring water in their water bottles. No juice, tea, sodas, milk or other beverages.

NEW Updated Dates:

May

19: Kindergarten Breakfast & PreK Celebration (We do not graduate at RQES, but we do have a celebration! We have it on the same day as kinder b’fast so that parents only have to take off one day of work and can attend both events!) The Breakfast will be in the morning around 9 am and the PreK Celebration will be at 12:30 or 1:00. I will have to check the times.

20: Spring Fling

25-26: Half Day Dismissal (PreKPals will be dismissed at 11:15 at the PreK doors)

26: Last Day of PreK

NEW Links:

PreK Celebration Songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCrs4YINVtA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4fI7Ik2rwY

Here’s the link in case you want to have caterpillars at home.

Butterfly Garden With Live Cup of Caterpillars ® – Insect Lore

PreK Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1NIMKDO4OUN7A?ref_=wl_share

Let’s Learn to TIE OUR SHOES!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5ItoIJ4sg

PreK Jacket flip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73qom9IueV8

PLEASE send jackets that button or zip to school. NOT over the head sweatshirts (Unless your child can take it off and put it on INDEPENDENTLY! It takes a LOT of time for 2 teachers to get 18 wiggly students in and out and in and out of sweatshirts.) The PreK Jacket Flip only works with jackets that are open front.

Learn to cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT3PCQTBdeM

A great resource for letters and sounds is the Letter Factory by Leap Pad. You can find them all on YouTube or in DVD’s. All of the Leap Pad videos are great and the songs stick in your head! Here’s a link for you to use at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ID9ucqKtsE&list=PLC5F928D32C3E270D&index=2

Have a great week! Alicia

 

Mrs. Dunn and I want to thank you all so much for making us feel so appreciated last week! We have loved every thoughtful note, every gift card, every snack and candy treat, the jewelry, the beautiful flowers and yummy smelling candles (some with funny notes!) and the mugs and water bottles are all so thoughtful!! We have enough drinks to last the rest of the school year! We appreciate each of you so much! Our favorite thing was reading the letters the children wrote about us! We have laughed and laughed at some of the replies! Your children are our gifts everyday!! Thank you so much! We feel so loved!

Today, I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite poems about being a Mom. I did not write it, but I have lived every word. For those of us to whom becoming a Mommy did not come as easily or as expected, Mother’s Day is an especially precious day. And for those still waiting to be a Mommy for the first time, or for the second time, Mother’s Day can be very painful.  Thank you so much for sharing your children with us. We love all of them dearly. We hate that our time together is coming to an end so soon.

Enjoy.

Before I was a Mom
Before I was a Mom –
I slept as late as I wanted and never worried about how late I got into bed. I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.
Before I was a Mom –
I cleaned my house each day. I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom –
I had never been puked on – Pooped on – Spit on – Chewed on, or Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and My thoughts. I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom –
I never held down a screaming child so that doctors could do tests…or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom –
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put it down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life
so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom –
I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important.
Before I was a Mom –
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known The warmth, The joy, The love, The heartache, The wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day, friends. Alicia and Whitney

Hey PreKPals and Families-

Can you believe it is already MAY? Time is going to start moving super fast!  Hang on!

Happy Happy Monday! This week we will be continuing with our animal habitats study by visiting the Arctic and the Antarctic. We touched on some of this during our winter study but we have so much more to learn! This week we will have science on Thursday because we are working with the other PreK classes to complete our experiment. Next week, we will finish up our animal habitats study with the rainforest and then we will begin our Kindergarten Readiness unit! Can you believe we only have 20 school days left? I am not quite sure where this year has gone!

This week we have library, and music on Tuesday and Guidance on Wednesday and then we will have a make-up music class on Friday.

In literacy, we will be reviewing all of the letters and in math we will be working reviewing on all of the numbers! In Heggerty Phonics, we are doing Rain, Rain Go Away. We are sending a copy home for you to enjoy with your child.

Mr. Brad (my husband) is working on fixing our light table! The parts should be here Monday so maybe we will have it back this week! I wrote a grant for it in 2019 and unfortunately it had a one-year warranty. ☹ So maddening for something that cost so much! But the good news is that the parts were less than $20 – so we have our fingers crossed!! The PreKPals have really been missing it.

Mrs. Dunn sent the lunch menu last week. Check dojo to review!

Our caterpillars are all in their chrysalis now! I checked on them today and they are still hanging around! We are loving waiting on our wings!!

Find your 5 snacks, jacket, Library Book, water bottle WITH A VALVE (NO OPEN POUR BOTTLES), Robot Binder, nap mat and backpack. Please remember that PreKPals only need to bring water in their water bottles. No juice, tea, sodas, milk or other beverages.

Don’t forget that you will NOT need to register your child for kindergarten. Your PreKPal is already in the TCS system so they will roll over into the kinder registration automatically. You received instructions on how and when to update your information last week. It doesn’t take too long to do, so go ahead and get it done to ensure that your child is in the system with all of the needed updates.

NEW Updated Dates:

May

6: PreK Derby Days:  A fun day of Pool noodle “horse” races at recess. The girls will have lovely flower hats and the boys will have derby hats! Just a fun little PreK tradition!

*******************9: GRAY DAY!! Mrs. Gray is retiring at the end of the year and everyone is going to show our appreciation by wearing gray on Monday, May 9^th.

19: Kindergarten Breakfast & PreK Celebration (We do not graduate at RQES, but we do have a celebration! We have it on the same day as kinder b’fast so that parents only have to take off one day of work and can attend both events!) The Breakfast will be in the morning around 9 am and the PreK Celebration will be at 12:30 or 1:00. I will have to check the times.

25-26: Half Day Dismissal (PreKPals will be dismissed at 11:15 at the PreK doors)

26: Last Day of PreK

NEW Links:

Here’s the link in case you want to have caterpillars at home.

Butterfly Garden With Live Cup of Caterpillars ® – Insect Lore

PreK Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1NIMKDO4OUN7A?ref_=wl_share

PreK Celebration Song: https://youtu.be/iCrs4YINVtA

Let’s Learn to TIE OUR SHOES!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5ItoIJ4sg

PreK Jacket flip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73qom9IueV8

PLEASE send jackets that button or zip to school. NOT over the head sweatshirts (Unless your child can take it off and put it on INDEPENDENTLY! It takes a LOT of time for 2 teachers to get 18 wiggly students in and out and in and out of sweatshirts.) The PreK Jacket Flip only works with jackets that are open front.

Learn to cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT3PCQTBdeM

A great resource for letters and sounds is the Letter Factory by Leap Pad. You can find them all on YouTube or in DVD’s. All of the Leap Pad videos are great and the songs stick in your head! Here’s a link for you to use at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ID9ucqKtsE&list=PLC5F928D32C3E270D&index=2

Have a great week! Alicia